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We’re all in the thick of wondering what to do during quarantine. It feels inappropriate to be marketing services, especially when those services require face-to-face interaction.
It feels weird to talk about, well, anything not related to the Coronavirus and reminding people to socially distance themselves. In this bizarre time, I’ve decided to devote my energy to working on my business and thinking about efficiencies, gaps, and systems to make things simpler and easier in the long run.
These are the “back burner” things that were never a priority, but lived in my Asana task list for months and months. The “I’ll get to it someday,” even though I’m fairly certain if I would have addressed these areas sooner, things would have been smoother and more profitable. Alas, my Enneagram 7 tendencies get the best of me and I hang out in vision land and ideation. As I ground myself a little more, here are ten areas I’m tidying up + spending energy on.
If you’re a freelancer or digitally-based marketing company, I’d LOVE to hear any other suggestions or ideas!
1. Cleaning up Passwords
This seems insignificant, but I’m spending some time in LastPass (my absolute favorite way to save and organize passwords) getting things in the right folders and getting passwords saved in general. There are so many systems I use for myself and my clients and having those easily accessible means I’m not trying a dozen combos that “could” be right. Nor am I digging through my email trash looking for the last time someone sent me a password.
I invested in LastPass a couple years ago and haven’t looked back; from saving tax return information in a safe place to housing passwords for my entire life, I’ve been able to find a little more time to do the creative and strategic work I love doing!
2. Restructuring my Inquiry Forms + Onboarding Forms
I’ve used Dubsado since I started my business in 2018 and absolutely love their forms (and invoicing system). From contracts to lead forms to onboarding questionnaires, I’m tightening all of those up so they serve my clients better and my team. Over time, I’ve noticed the questions I wasn’t asking that would have helped both parties be successful.
I’ve also noticed how creating expectations before an inquiry call can set up potential clients for better success so they understand my offerings! Thinking, “how will this serve this person and my team better?,” is something I am constantly asking myself and NOW I am implementing it into more of my forms and processes.
3. Making Knowledge More Accessible
The whole reason I started a company for local marketing is to help our local business communities flourish! I care deeply for the individuals running local businesses and the overall health of small towns and big cities. When our business community is successful, there are so many ripple effects.
During this time of uncertainty, I wanted to be sure to make my knowledge even more accessible outside of offering 1:1 services! I created a funnel with ClickFunnels for both love local and Brand Launch digital products and run some social ads to them in hopes we can make a difference and arm more people with tools!
4. Updating the Blog & Website
Some things are just simply outdated. I’ve wanted to get a few opt-in forms on the site, publish a few blogs, and integrate some plugins! I purchased this course about a year ago (I love learning from experts!) and so I’m diving into a few of their strategies to increase web traffic and offer a better experience on my sites!
5. Cleaning up my Email Automations
Email marketing has been a huge way for me to generate new business. Making sure my forms are firing correctly and creating a few new automations based on customer or lead behavior can help support their journey with my brands and offers in a clearer way. I use ActiveCampaign and ConvertKit exclusively for both of my businesses and love them both!
6. Writing Nurture Emails
With email marketing, as new humans come into my funnels from a product purchase or because of a challenge or any other reason, my intention is to nurture them so they can see if we are a good fit to work together beyond our initial engagement.
7. Organizing my Pinterest Boards (Strategically)
As I grow my business beyond my local community, I’ve been working on creating Pinterest pins + content to reach more people. Pinterest is something I LOVED during our home renovation process, but I know it also has pretty significant benefits when it comes to web traffic and list building. So I’m slowly dipping my toes in that arena as everything above this number gets tightened up!
8. Cleaning up Google Drive
God bless Google Drive. Mine has always been oh ya know, somewhat organized but it definitely needs some TLC, so I’ve blocked off a couple blocks of time this month to get things in the right places. I’m a huge fan of creating a strong SOP so my team is equipped to succeed and so I can have a go-to document for processes, links, stats, etc.
9. Revisiting Atomic Habits and Recurring Tasks / Actions
I LOVED this book. But I read it when I got pregnant and turns out, it’s fairly challenging to create new habits when your body is going through a massive change. Now that I’m on the other side, I want to re-establish some of those habits and focus on some rewards to keep up good behavior. Not only with personal activities like exercise and eating clean, but when do I get my bookkeeping done? What day do I spend time writing note cards? What can I do for my own marketing every single day… and when? I’m not a huge “goal” person, but I do love rewards and little “treats” so I’ve set myself up with some things I’ve been really desiring (that also support local biz owners!) that are tied to new/consistent behavior/habits!
10. Spotlighting and Highlighting Local Brands and Strong Personal Brands
One of my favorite things to do in life is highlight others. It’s such an easy thing to do and takes so little time. I’ve always believed that when the tide rises, all ships sail. We don’t have to keep our voices and positive opinions to ourselves. We can all show up on social media and share who we support and how/why we do it. We can lift up causes, people, businesses, and experiences.
When you take time to do this, you naturally build credibility and have the opportunity to be seen as generous. Why not position yourself in this way? Imagine if someone made time to promote you and your work? Do the same and who knows what kind of traction you can get!
Ok, my friends. I hope this was helpful as you work on your digital business. I’d love to hear what you’re working on in your business so we can all keep working on building stronger brands that can withstand this interesting chapter of life.
