Brandmerry Blog Archives
5 Tips for Creating Consistent Content Marketing as a Small Business Owner and Entrepreneur with No Team
The key to effective marketing is consistency. Whether you're trying to sell products online, offline, or through social media, you need to consistently promote yourself and your business.
If you're a small business owner or entrepreneur with no team, then hearing that consistency is king (ahem Queen) probably makes you want to throw your laptop.
I get it, I'm not the first person to remind you of this critical element of showing up, sharing your brand, and getting clients.
You've heard it before.
You need to create consistent content if you want to grow your business.
Maybe this year you've felt all the excitement about implementing a new content marketing strategy only to fall off the wagon and create inconsistent results…
Maybe the results were slower than you would have liked...
Maybe life got in the way, again!
It can be frustrating, to say the least.
But, the reality is that consistency doesn't just happen, by chance, it is made. It is developed over time, and yes there are systems, processes, and mindset shifts that need to happen in order for it to stick.
Content marketing is a great way to market your business. But it takes time and effort to produce quality content on a regular basis. So how do you make sure you don't lose momentum when you start producing content?
Lucky for you, I'm sharing 5 of my favorite ways to improve consistency in your marketing! Tune in now to episode 59.
Tune in now to hear:
Why deciding you are ready to be consistent, and proclaiming it to your biz bestie just isn't enough to stick with creating consistent content.
The #1 thing I suggest entrepreneurs do once they've determined how, when, and where they will show up.
How the "all or nothing mentality" is actually keeping you from making progress, measuring results, and what to do instead.
Tune in now on Spotify or Apple Podcasts to hear the full episode and all the tips.
LINKS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE
ClickUp: My favorite task management software, and content organizer. Try it for free!
Kajabi: An all-in-one platform for email marketing, payment processors, website, sales pages, membership platform, and more. Get a free 30-day trial!
P.S. Planning and creating your content doesn't have to be a constant struggle. There is a better way to research, plan, and create your content as an entrepreneur and it's all inside the Content Planning Blueprint!
The Content Planning Blueprint is perfect for online business owners who know the power of content creation but are tired of spending all of their time coming up with ideas, organizing their content, and wondering what will attract their dream clients.
In just a few hours, you'll have 90 days of content planned, a repeatable workflow to save you hours on creating and distributing your content every week, and content topics that will keep performing for your brand for years to come! Get your blueprint now >>
- FREE GIFTS YOU'LL LOVE -
DISCOVER YOUR BRAND STORY IN UNDER 5 MINUTES
LEARN HOW TO WRITE AN ‘ABOUT ME’ PAGE THAT CONVERTS
MAP OUT 30 DAYS OF CONTENT IN UNDER AN HOUR
- READ THE LATEST POSTS -
MEET MICHELLE
Hey there, I'm Michelle Knight and I an online branding and marketing consultant for female entrepreneurs.
I believe in the power of storytelling and using that superpower to brand and market yourself online...oh and to set yourself free.
I'm obsessed with living a life of freedom, so much so, that my family and I now travel full-time while running my business from the road.
This blog serves as a home base for all things branding, marketing, content creation and more.
How to Create a Sustainable Launch for Your Online Business
When it comes to building an online business there is no avoiding the term "launch!"
You've probably heard it at least 10 times today, am I right?
And when we think about launching, we typically associate it with working overtime, exhaustion and feeling burnt out. Well, I can tell you from experience it doesn't have to be this way. There is a sustainable way to launch!
Today, I'm joined by Alex Beadon of Together We Launch. I was fortunate to work with Alex inside of her program in 2021 and can tell you she is the real deal. What Alex teaches goes beyond just launching, but also into running a sustainable business.
How do we navigate real-life events while showing up publicly for our business?
What does building a brand mean when you're multi-passionate?
How does launching fit into a sustainable business model?
These questions and more are answered in today's podcast! Plus, she put together a Launch Checklist just for our listeners. Grab your free copy at https://launchwithalex.com/brandmerry
Tune in now to hear:
How Alex has shifted her business throughout the years and how always being open to pivoting has led her to her dream business today.
Alex and I talk intimately about navigating difficult personal decisions, like loss, while remaining public and transparent with our audiences.
Alex's top sustainable practices when it comes to launching your next service.
The importance of branding (we nerd out on this one together) and how it plays a role in the success of your business.
Tune in now on Spotify or Apple Podcasts to hear the full episode and all the tips.
And be sure to connect with Alex on Instagram @alexbeadon and on her website alexbeadon.com
P.S. Ready to get your brand seen and paid without the pressure of social media? I'm teaching my top strategies inside of my new free class, "How to Build a Brand That Gets Seen and Paid!" You're invited to tune in and learn my signature 3-part framework for a sustainable 6-figure brand. Sign up to watch for free at Brandmerry.com/class
- FREE GIFTS YOU'LL LOVE -
DISCOVER YOUR BRAND STORY IN UNDER 5 MINUTES
LEARN HOW TO WRITE AN ‘ABOUT ME’ PAGE THAT CONVERTS
MAP OUT 30 DAYS OF CONTENT IN UNDER AN HOUR
- READ THE LATEST POSTS -
MEET MICHELLE
Hey there, I'm Michelle Knight and I an online branding and marketing consultant for female entrepreneurs.
I believe in the power of storytelling and using that superpower to brand and market yourself online...oh and to set yourself free.
I'm obsessed with living a life of freedom, so much so, that my family and I now travel full-time while running my business from the road.
This blog serves as a home base for all things branding, marketing, content creation and more.
7 Tips to Master Your Pinterest Strategy for Business in 2022
BY MICHELLE KNIGHT
Today I am going to give you seven, yes seven, tips for optimizing your Pinterest growth. Pinterest is an amazing platform for entrepreneurs and today I'm going to teach you the correct strategy to use it in 2022.
When you are using organic strategies, it is incredibly, incredibly important that you are focused on platforms where your content is going to live longer.
What do I mean by this?
When you're posting on Instagram or you're posting on Facebook, typically your content will live anywhere between five to 24 hours. Now, obviously with the introduction of Instagram Reels, which Instagram really wants you to use, your content can live longer. However, it's still not performing for months and years like Pinterest does.
In fact, the reason Pinterest is such a powerful platform for entrepreneurs is that it can continuously drive traffic to your brand and to your website for years to come.
I have multiple blog posts that I shared on Pinterest in the beginning of my business that still drive thousands of views every single month to my website without ad spend. Now yes, I am also using ad spend because I've been using Pinterest since 2017. I jumped on that bandwagon early, and I know how to use the platform to its greatest potential, which is why I do incorporate ad spend in my strategy.
However, what I'm going to share with you today are seven ways that you can use Pinterest to your advantage in an organic fashion, meaning you do not have to invest any money into that platform.
I've already shared that utilizing a platform like Pinterest is incredibly important because of the longevity that it creates for your content. But let's also talk about something else we're super passionate about here at Brandmerry and that is SEO, search engine optimization.
We often think about SEO when it comes to Google. This is essentially how your content, your website, is categorized on the Google platform. When we, the consumer, go to Google and look for something in particular, we get results that are relevant to our search terms.
Well guess what? Pinterest is the exact same way. As an entrepreneur, as a marketer, you should immediately be going, “Oh, this makes sense,” because not only is your content living longer but you can also tell Pinterest how you want your content categorized so that when your ideal customer searches for particular keywords, that are relevant to your brand, your business will come up.
That means that the type of consumer, the type of ideal customer, the type of traffic that you're driving to your website has a higher purchase intent than a different platform like Facebook or Instagram.
Traditionally Facebook and Instagram were designed to keep users on the platform. Pinterest has always been designed to take users off of the platform. I hope you see how powerful this platform can be for your business.
This is something that we teach in depth. We have an entire course dedicated to Pinterest growth strategies inside of my program, Brandmerry Academy. But today, you're getting a sneak peek at exactly what we teach inside of that program.
And I swear, I'm getting to the seven steps, but there's one other thing that I need to mention. Just like all platforms, Pinterest has changed a lot over the years and there are a lot of users who are using the platform incorrectly. They're using outdated and old strategies that aren't working for them and can sometimes actually get them in trouble on the platform. Pinterest, just like many platforms, likes to change without letting anyone know.
Actually in 2021, we noticed a giant drop in my monthly views and through digging, through reaching out to my Pinterest contact, through reaching out to my Pinterest ads manager, we were able to quickly change our strategy and get up to date with the standards.
This is what we teach inside of the Academy and we're always updating our trainings to make sure we're delivering the very, very best strategy to our clients. What I'm sharing with you right now is how you can use Pinterest to gain consistent traffic and consistent sales to your business in 2022.
If you're interested in all the changes that we've seen happen on the platform, how I've adapted over the years since first getting on the platform in 2017, you can check out this recent podcast that I did all about Pinterest growth.
All right, without further ado, let's get into the seven in ways that you can optimize your growth on Pinterest.
OPTIMIZE PINTEREST GROWTH TIP #1: SET UP A BUSINESS ACCOUNT
When you are setting up your account, it's incredibly important to set up a business account. This is going to give you the information that you want on the back end, including analytics, so you can start to see what is working well for your platform, what is performing well, and what's driving the most traffic. You can tap into that information and really duplicate that for your brand and your business.
It's going to help you optimize your growth. But one thing that people often forget when they're creating their account, are their boards.
Now, your boards are incredibly important. This is not the time to create fluffy board names. You want to make sure that your boards are optimized for the search engine that Pinterest is.
That means your titles and your descriptions on your boards, including the types of pins that you're putting on those boards, are incredibly important. We recommend that business owners choose five core categories that are relevant to their brand, relevant to what they teach, or what they offer, and start there.
Optimize those and consistently add new boards. You can have as many boards as you want and that's one of the cool strategies that we teach inside of the Academy to really understand how to create boards as your brand and your presence on Pinterest expands.
OPTIMIZE PINTEREST GROWTH TIP #2: CREATE WEEKLY CONTENT
The second thing that is going to make your life on Pinterest a lot easier is weekly content. Now the idea and the purpose of Pinterest is of course, to drive traffic to your website. So having consistent content on your website is really going to make your life easier on Pinterest because it's going to give you things to share.
You can also share content from your YouTube. I share my YouTube videos on Pinterest. You can also share from your Instagram, from your TikTok, from any different platforms where you want to drive traffic.
However, at Brandmerry, we are big believers in the power of a website. We want to drive consistent traffic to your website, where you control the narrative, where you have your offers, your freebies, and information on how to get in touch with you, you're going to create more consistent traffic that'll equal leads and sales. Rather than maybe sending someone to Instagram where they can very easily get distracted.
It's highly recommended that you create weekly content that lives on your website and this is why inside of Brandmerry Academy, we're talking to our clients and teaching our clients how to use blogging to their advantage.
Whether your blogs are written or you're transcribing a YouTube video or you're putting your show notes from a podcast, you have a piece of content every single week that you've created that you can then share and optimize for Pinterest.
OPTIMIZE PINTEREST GROWTH TIP #3: CONSISTENT PINNING
The third thing that is incredibly important about Pinterest is consistent pinning. One of the mistakes that many entrepreneurs make is they pin their blog posts once, maybe every Thursday, and then they leave the platform.
They're not showing up on Pinterest, consistently creating fresh content. As a business account, which is what of course you're going to create on Pinterest when you get started, Pinterest wants you to create fresh content because you are the brands and the businesses that are pushing fresh content on the platform that consumers can re-pin and click through and interact.
So Pinterest relies on us business users to create fresh content. And that means that you need to be consistently creating content on the platform so that Pinterest likes you. Let's be honest. So that they want to push out your content and show it to the people who ultimately need it.
Having a consistent pinning strategy is incredibly important.
Now, as I shared in a recent podcast episode, this has changed. This has changed a lot. We used to pin 30 to 50 pins a day. I know, it's crazy. There was a lot of re-pinning happening back then.
Now, luckily you can get away with very few pins every single day. Established accounts can do anywhere between one to five pins a day and newer accounts, we recommend five to 10. Now this doesn't have to be every single day but you want to create a consistent strategy for you and your brand. Maybe to start, you're showing up three days a week and you're pinning five to 10 pins on those three days.
One of the things that I recommend my clients do is invest in a platform called Tailwind. Tailwind will allow you to pre schedule your content, put your board name in, put your title, description, all of that and actually see when your content is going to be going out on the platform.
This is something that we do at Brandmerry. We pre schedule an entire month's worth of content and we teach our clients how to do it as well inside of Brandmerry Academy. Now you can schedule directly on the Pinterest platform, which is a great option if you are pinching pennies in your business. But we find Tailwind to be the best for longterm Pinterest growth.
OPTIMIZE PINTEREST GROWTH TIP #4: CREATE FRESH PINS
Now, number four, kind of piggybacks off of what we just talked about and it's in regards to fresh pins. If you've been following Pinterest for any length of time, trying to tap into the strategy or just listening to what everyone's been saying about the platform, you know that at around 2020, 2021, everyone was freaking out about fresh pins.
What did it mean?
What did Pinterest really want?
And essentially what Pinterest wants is fresh content on their platform. It doesn't mean that you have to create a new blog post every single day and then create a new pin for that. What they want are fresh pins, fresh graphics, fresh titles, and fresh descriptions. They can link to the same blog post but on their platform, they want fresh content for their users.
Remember, we are a business account so we're the ones creating the content for the platform.
What does this mean for you? This means that re-pinning is basically not necessary anymore as an established brand and business owner. In fact, you don't want to just go on the platform and re-pin a bunch of other people's content. That's just making you a user of the platform. You need to be the one creating the content. So fresh content is incredibly important and that means fresh pins on the platform.
We recommend that if you have one blog post, you create multiple variations of different kinds of pins for that blog post. Maybe you have pin number one, which has a really big image in the background and some text over it. Pin number two is a solid background with some different text on it. Pin number three, it's got a picture of you and some different text. They're different variations going to the same blog post.
This is a pretty in depth strategy. You can get real fancy with it, which is something that we teach inside of Brandmerry Academy because we're all about saving time. As you're listening to this whole fresh pin concept, it seems like it might take a long time. If you want to streamline that, I highly recommend you check out Brandmerry Academy but a quick little way to do this for you and your brand is to create templates in Canva and then every time you create a new piece of content on your website, you just need to plug in information, change out colors and change out pictures as needed.
OPTIMIZE PINTEREST GROWTH TIP #5: SCHEDULE YOUR CONTENT
My fifth Pinterest growth tip for you is to schedule your content at the appropriate times. This is again why I love Tailwind because Tailwind will actually tell you when your followers or when your users are on Pinterest. Which means that those are the times when they recommend pushing out your content.
This has been incredibly helpful for us at Brandmerry, as we have struck back the number of pins we're doing every day. Some days I'm only doing one piece of content on Pinterest but if I'm just creating one pin and I'm putting it out on the platform, I want to make sure that it's going out at the appropriate time.
We have found that Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays are really, really effective days for us in terms of getting impressions and clicks and saves on our content. Using a tool like Tailwind can actually help you optimize your pinning strategy on the platform even more.
OPTIMIZE PINTEREST GROWTH TIP #6: USE IDEA PINS
Okay, I cannot do a Pinterest growth strategy video without talking about idea pins. Idea pins, which used to be story pins but quickly changed their name to idea pins on the platform, are essentially Pinterest's new big thing.
When idea pins were first launched, they were designed to live for 24 hours. They were little bubbles on our mobile devices. Anyone you followed, you could see their idea pins. But as Pinterest has been pushing more and more, idea pins have now become searchable and they have been what Pinterest is really wanting users to tap into.
Now, there are pros and cons to idea pins. One of the major cons is that at the time of this recording, you cannot click through on an idea pin. They're really there to create brand awareness, which isn't a bad thing, as you probably know, if you follow us here at Brandmerry.
Brand awareness is incredibly important. It's the first stage of a strong marketing strategy. But the negative is that what we love about Pinterest is the ability to click through, but you can’t do that yet with Idea pins.
Now, I think the ability to click through is definitely coming very, very soon but for now, what we have found works really well is to just put the link that we want to share in the note section of our idea pin and inform our audience that they can copy and paste and put that into their browser.
It's not perfect but you know what? It does work. And more than anything, we have noticed that idea pins drive a lot of traffic to our profile and they get way more views. In fact, if I post a video on Instagram Reels, I will repurpose it as an idea pin on Pinterest and I typically get two to three times the number of views on Pinterest that I do on Instagram. So this is just another way that you can use existing content to show up and create idea pins.
Creating an idea pin it's super easy. You just go to your mobile device and log into Pinterest or you can do it on desktop, choose create or the little plus sign on mobile, idea pin and create your idea pin. Integrating at least one idea pin a week in your strategy plays nice with Pinterest, increases brand awareness, and is really helpful for the growth of your account.
OPTIMIZE PINTEREST GROWTH TIP #7: REPIN WELL PERFORMING CONTENT
And that leads me to my seventh and final tip for your Pinterest growth strategy and that is to recreate content that's doing really well on the platform.
Remember all the way at the beginning when I talked about your business account and why it was so important? This is one of the reasons why it is so important. Every 30 days it is important to check your analytics and see what type of content is doing well. You can learn a lot by looking at your Pinterest analytics.
What type of pins do well?
What type of content does well?
What you're ultimately looking for are clicks to your website. If something is getting a lot of impressions but not a lot of clicks, that means that the type of content that you're creating is great but it's not enticing people enough to click through.
You could recreate those types of pins to have more call to actions on the graphic themselves. If something is not getting huge impressions but getting a lot of clicks, you might want to recreate that pin and test out some new keywords.
This is a great way to repurpose your existing content. As I mentioned, fresh pins are important and you can simply look at your analytics and create new pins for existing content. You can see why this is such a powerful platform. It's not 100% reliant on you constantly coming up with something new. You can use the data available to you to actually re engage your audience or test out new things to see if that will drive traffic to your website.
CONCLUSION
You can probably tell that I'm super obsessed with the Pinterest platform. We have seen just incredible growth in my business from harnessing this amazing free tool for entrepreneurs.
Now of course, Tailwind, which you can add on, has a fee and if you want to invest in ads, which I also highly recommend down the line, that is also going to be a fee. But if you are just getting started, you can start for free on this platform. And I am telling you, the sooner you start, the better. That is why most of the people who join us inside of Brandmerry Academy, love to start with the Pinterest module.
When you jump inside Brandmerry Academy, you're getting a plethora of content on copywriting, your website, branding, search engine optimization, blogging, video and of course, Pinterest. And many, many of our new members love to jump directly into this module because they have access to all of the courses at once. If you want to learn more about Brandmerry Academy, you can go to brandmerryacademy.com.
And if you want to learn more about my strategy when it comes to marketing, why I love evergreen content, and some of my top tips for you, you can watch my free class where I am teaching you my Build a Better Brand Method, which yes, includes how you share your brand with the world. You can go to brandmerry.com/class to learn more about our approach to marketing, how you can use it in your business and some more details on the academy to see if it's the right fit for you.
P.S. Ready to get your brand seen and paid without the pressure of social media? I'm teaching my top strategies inside of my new free class, "How to Build a Brand That Gets Seen and Paid!" You're invited to tune in and learn my signature 3-part framework for a sustainable 6-figure brand. Sign up to watch for free at Brandmerry.com/class
- FREE GIFTS YOU'LL LOVE -
DISCOVER YOUR BRAND STORY IN UNDER 5 MINUTES
LEARN HOW TO WRITE AN ‘ABOUT ME’ PAGE THAT CONVERTS
MAP OUT 30 DAYS OF CONTENT IN UNDER AN HOUR
- READ THE LATEST POSTS -
MEET MICHELLE
Hey there, I'm Michelle Knight and I an online branding and marketing consultant for female entrepreneurs.
I believe in the power of storytelling and using that superpower to brand and market yourself online...oh and to set yourself free.
I'm obsessed with living a life of freedom, so much so, that my family and I now travel full-time while running my business from the road.
This blog serves as a home base for all things branding, marketing, content creation and more.
Quarterly Planning Tips for Entrepreneurs
BY MICHELLE KNIGHT
Last year, I released a video all about planning six months in business. If you haven't seen it, watch it here. But I understand that sometimes planning for six months can be a little overwhelming.
So today I want to talk about quarterly planning.
How can you plan 90 days at a time in your business so you're not only more productive and focused, but you actually enjoy your life?
Look, the reality is that you've got to have a plan in place or you're flying by the seat of your pants. When you're constantly flying by the seat of your pants, you're constantly feeling overwhelmed and we don't want that. And guess what? We don't need it.
So if you've always wanted to have a master plan, but you're not exactly sure how to do it, I am going to walk you through my quarterly planning process. I've been using this for years in my business. I teach my clients how to do it inside of my program Brandmerry Academy, as well as my high level clients.
I'm obsessed with planning and the reason that I love having a solid plan is it allows me to focus. I know what I'm working on. I know how to get to my end goal. Let's stop with the wishful thinking. Let's stop with the “I hope I get paid this month” and let's create a plan.
One of the reasons I love focusing on quarterly planning, 90 day planning, is that as a business owner, I am thinking about the quarters in my business.
Quarterly Planning Step 1: Break Down Your Yearly Goal into Each Quarter
So one of the first steps that I have for you is to take your year goal and break it down into each quarter. What I love about this process is it creates mile markers for me to my end goal.
So let's say that you want to create a six figure business this year. You would break that down either equally 25, 25, 25 and 25,000 every single quarter. Or if you know that your kids are going to be home during the summer and you're going to be a little less active, maybe you put a little bit more energy into the front end and the back end.
However you want to break up your end of the year goal, that's going to be the very first step in this process because as business owners our decisions that we make in our branding, in our marketing, and what we're promoting are ultimately leading to our revenue goal.
So reverse engineering is a fantastic way to make sure that you're constantly getting closer and hitting that end of the year goal in business.
Quarterly Planning Step 2: Put Important Dates on the Calendar
Now that you've taken the first step, you know what you want to create for the year in terms of revenue, and you've broken that down into each quarter, now we're going to focus on putting important dates on the calendar for the next 90 days.
So I get it. We were talking about the big picture before. You're focusing on the whole year and I promised you that we were going to talk about 90 days. Now we're talking about 90 days.
So whatever quarter you are currently in right now, we are getting ready to enter into Q2 of 2022, we're going to follow this process. So if you're getting ready to go through April, May and June for Q2, great, but this applies to no matter where you're at in your process or how you're going to be separating the quarters in your business.
The first thing that I love to do is write down major dates for the next 90 days. Now this includes any holidays, any breaks, any prior commitments that you already have and vacations. Yes, when we are planning your quarterly plan, I want you to choose one week every single quarter where you are going to step away from work. No creating, no working with clients, none of it and you're just going to play, rest and rejuvenate yourself because you need it.
So we've scheduled holidays. We've scheduled breaks. We've put our one week vacation in there.
Now, if there are any specific launches that you know you're going to do over the next 90 days, put those in your calendar as well. This could be a new book launch that you're going to be doing, a new course or a new product that you're going to be launching. It could be your signature product that you know you're going to launch in May. Whatever it is, get it on the calendar now.
Yes, as we're going through this process, I want you to specifically put this stuff in a calendar. Don't just write it down in a notebook and then forget the notebook later on. Put it in your calendar and bonus points if you can put it in your digital calendar, like your Google Calendar as well, so that when you are looking and someone's asking you, "Oh, are you free this day?" You can be like, "No, I'm not. I'm on my quarterly week of rest."
So now you have your specific quarterly goal in terms of revenue, you have your very specific dates that are pretty much non-negotiable. The launches that you want to honor, your week of rest. Don't forget. It's important. You've got your breaks. You've got your holidays.
Quarterly Planning Step 3: Quarterly Focus
Now what we're going to do is look at that and say, “okay, what is my quarterly focus? What am I going to be focused on this quarter? Is it going to be a specific product or a service that I'm going to be launching? Am I going to be creating something? Am I focused on really growing my email list because I want to launch later in the year?” What is your focus going to be? Are you going to roll out a YouTube channel and you want to get those subscribers up?
Whatever that looks like for you, what are you going to focus on this quarter? Now I really like to do a quarterly focus because we're going to talk about in the next step how we break that down. But this is giving you a full 90 days to focus your energy on one core part of your business.
Now obviously there are ongoing things that you need to do. Take care of your clients, talk about your products and your services. You're going to be marketing, all of that but what are you focusing your other energy on in your business? Is there something you've been wanting to start, release? Something like that? What is that going to be?
So think about the full quarter focus. What are you going to be focused on for the next 90 days?
The next step is to then break that down monthly. So I'll give you an example.
Let's say that for the next quarter I am focused on my program Brandmerry Academy. So I know that I'm going to have a launch in January, which we did. Then in February, we're going to be focused on onboarding, releasing our new membership site, testing all of the things. Then in March, I'm going to be focused on elevating some of the programs. So adjusting some of the programs, adding some new content in there. But my focus is really on the Academy. Each month I've got a really clear task that I want to achieve by the end of the month.
What that allows me to do is consistently move forward to my goals. No matter what's happening with the day to day things, the admin, the finance, the clients, the fires that you have to put out, the social media marketing, all of those different things, I know that I'm on track to hit my one monthly focus, which is then going to allow me to hit my quarterly focus. Which is then going to allow me to hit my quarterly revenue goal.
Quarterly Planning Step 4: Get Specific About Monthly Dates
The next thing that you want to do is get really specific with your monthly dates. So we've done the week of rest. We focused on the holidays, breaks, and any big launches. Is there anything else that's going to be coming up for you in regards to those specific focuses?
Let's say you are planning on launching at the end of January. Are you going to do a free class? Are you going to do any sort of promotion? You're going to want to put those in your calendar now so that you can prepare and they're not just coming at you at the last minute. This is going to allow you to take those small steps to get to your goal rather than feeling overwhelmed at the last minute because it totally snuck up on you.
So now that you have your monthly focus, what I recommend doing is putting in any other micro dates that you have to actually achieve that focus that you've put out there intentionally.
Quarterly Planning Step 5: Start Writing Your To-Do List
There are a lot of monthly focuses. There are a lot of dates. There's a lot going on, but I swear, we're almost done. Now you're going to get really, really micro with it and start mapping out your to-do list.
This is not something that you have to do for the entire quarter. I personally like to do that, but you want to at least focus on the next 30 days. So we're using this example of launching. If I'm going to be launching my program Brandmerry Academy, these are the very specific dates that I'm going to honor. I'm going to be doing a masterclass. I'm going to be doing a wait list. I'm going to be releasing some YouTube videos, whatever it is, what are the steps that I need to take to get there?
I love a good brain dump. I have this theory. I tell all my friends, I tell my family, but when we keep everything in our head, we can feel really overwhelmed. We find that we never actually have breathing space outside of our business. We're constantly thinking about all the things that we need to do.
What I love to do is any time I'm in that head space, I will write down everything that's in my head. Every single thing that I can think of that is happening and clear the space. This allows me to enjoy, and play and step away, which ultimately will help me in my business.
So what I love to do when I've got a big goal is sit down. I sit down with my notebook and I write down every little thing that I can think of that's going to help me achieve that goal. It's going to create more space. It's going to reduce the overwhelm and guess what? It's going to actually allow you to get those things done because oftentimes when they're living up here and then other things from life are being thrown at you, we forget them. Then the launch is over and you're like, “oh, I totally meant to do that.” Write it down, make a massive to-do list. It doesn't have to be fancy, but get it out of here.
Quarterly Planning Step 6: Plan Out Your Content
The last thing that I do is I plan out my content. Yes, I love planning 90 days of content. I created an entire video teaching you my process, exactly how I do that. I highly recommend it for all entrepreneurs, but this is kind of the final step.
The reason for that is that we're now crystal clear on our goal. We know what we're focusing on for the quarter. We know what we're focusing on monthly. We've got our important dates in there. Not just launching, but also taking time and breaks to play and create balance.
Because content creation is such a vital part of getting your brand seen and paid, it's something that you want to map out in advance. Because if you're flying by the seat of your pants and saying, “oh my gosh, I’ve got to create a video this week. Oh my gosh, I have to show up and create a podcast.” It's going to create a lot of stress.
The more that you can plan out your topics and know what you're going to be talking about each week, coincide those content topics with launches and important dates that you now see right in front of you, it's going to streamline this process.
So make sure you watch that video Planning Out 90 Days of Content where I break down my step by step process. But this is the final part in your quarterly business plan.
At this point, you will have a 90 day calendar with your vacation days. I'm just going to keep saying it over and over again. Your vacation days, your breaks, important things that are happening in your personal life, as well as your business. Any major launches that you have. Any courses that you're going to be putting out there, any events that you're going to be doing, it’s all on your calendar. You're going to have a massive to-do list, at least for the next 30 days, of things that you're going to be doing to achieve those goals, and you're going to have your content mapped out.
Getting It Scheduled
I'm going to really quickly just show you my 90 days. As I mentioned, we're entering the end of Q1 heading into Q2 and so this has got a lot of crosses in it. But do you see, this is what I'm talking about. I've got this very big plan here. We've got post-its for every YouTube video that I'm doing. We've got launches up there. We've got vacations on there. We've got the whole shebang. So do you see what I mean? You want to visually be able to see that.
I also have all that important stuff inside of my Google Calendar, because then if I'm out and about, and I'm talking to someone and they're like, "Are you available on this day?" I can make sure that I actually have the capacity to take that on. I'm not overbooking myself. I'm not stretching myself too thin.
I also really wanted to share with you a little acronym to help you remember how to best plan your quarter and how to best improve your productivity and improve your focus. These are kind of the five pieces that I really, really try to honor, no matter what I'm planning in my life. Whether it's quarterly, six months, or an entire year.
Quarterly Planning with STARS
It's the STARS acronym, because I want you to be a freaking star at planning and executing your plans. So I'm going to share that with you as a little reminder for us to close out this video.
The S stands for schedule it. I've said this a lot inside of this video and in all of my productivity and planning videos. But if it's not on the schedule, it's a lot easier to bump it down in your priority list. I'm a big fan of really honoring my priorities. That's why we follow the process that I just shared with you and saying, “what are the things I want to work on? What are the things I want to do? What is my vacation time?” Getting that on your schedule.
Then know that it's not really negotiable. If someone comes at you and says, "Hey, could you do this? Could you fit this in?" You can look at your schedule and you can say, "You know what? I don't have the capacity to take that on at this time. I have other priorities that I'm working towards."
The T is for take time out. You need to take breaks and as I mentioned inside of this video, I recommend that you schedule those breaks. At the bare minimum, please schedule one week off every single quarter where you can step away from your work as an entrepreneur. I also recommend that if you're feeling a little bit overwhelmed, maybe there's a little bit of weight on your shoulders and you're just noticing that it's time to hit the pause button, schedule yourself a Friday off.
As you begin to go full-time in your business, if you are working part-time or as you begin to have more control over your entire schedule, you can start to work in those weekly days off. I typically don’t do calls on Friday. I don’t schedule any appointments. So if I do feel inspired to work, I can, but I'm typically taking that day for self care.
The A is for adjust. You need to be flexible. I hear this a lot when entrepreneurs are like, "Well, I don't want to have a plan because then I'm afraid that if I get an idea, I won't honor it. Or if I have a plan and it'll be so rigid that I won't feel inspired."
I've actually found the opposite to be true. In fact, when I have a plan, I have more mental clarity and more space for inspiration. That's where this adjust comes in. If something comes up for you and you're feeling really called to experiment with it, if something's not working in your business and you've given it that full 30 days and you want to make some small adjustments, please do. This is all about creating that balance, that adaptability, and you need to be open to moving things around.
This is one of the reasons that I love to plan a full 90 days in my business, because for marketing specifically, you want to give it enough time, enough consistency to work well. But then as you start to move into that 90 day, you notice this is not working, you can adjust your game plan. Especially if you are doing this quarterly plan early in the year, you can make those adjustments as you then plan out the next quarter and the next quarter, which will ultimately help you reach your end goal, your revenue stream in business, in a way that feels really good to you.
The R is for reflect. Now you absolutely need to take time to pause at the end of every quarter, bare minimum, to reflect on what happened. One of the things that I love to do is actually reflect on how I'm feeling about the previous quarter.
So this isn't so much a planning part of the process, but it's going to help you plan for the next 90 days. Last week, I released a podcast episode on the Brandmerry podcast, where I shared how I audit my business every 90 days. While I am looking at things regarding data like email list growth, website traffic, sales, revenue, all of that, I'm also taking a large portion of my time to reflect on how I'm feeling. What has brought me joy in my business? What felt like a challenge or a struggle that I didn't really enjoy? What did I want to do and I didn't make time for? How am I feeling going into the next quarter?
This is how we built sustainable businesses because we're checking in with ourselves and we're making these aligned decisions.
Finally, we end with our final S, stay focused. Stay on track. This is why I love a good solid plan because it gives me a clear direction on what I'm working towards. One of the things that I have really started to master in my business specifically is putting on my blinders and staying focused on what I ultimately want to achieve.
Sometimes this looks like unfollowing people on social media because they're giving me a lot of messages, or not opting into freebies, or master classes, or searching for outside support out of what I'm currently focused on.
A great example of this is when I am working on maybe evergreening a program, meaning I have my program Brandmerry Academy and I want to create a passive way for individuals to join my email list, to hear about the program, and ultimately join.
If I have a plan in place for how I want to execute that and I've thought about that and I've mapped it all out, there's a lot of information online of all the different ways that I could do that. But what I want to do first is honor my instincts, honor my intuition and kind of block out the noise. So I want to give myself those 90 days to focus on getting that up and running, then of course, analyze and reflect, and if I need additional support, I can seek it. But that's a great example of really staying focused. You've mapped out what you want, put your blinders on and stay really focused and try to block out all of the excess noise.
There you have it, quarterly planning. I hope that this was really helpful in breaking down the step-by-step, and giving you some bonus tips for actually sticking to it and achieving it. Again, I have an entire video on six months planning if you want to check that out as well. If you're an entrepreneur or content creator, I also have an amazing video on planning 90 days worth of content. I know we touched on that a little bit in the planning process, but I show you a full behind the scenes in this video.
P.S. Ready to get your brand seen and paid without the pressure of social media? I'm teaching my top strategies inside of my new free class, "How to Build a Brand That Gets Seen and Paid!" You're invited to tune in and learn my signature 3-part framework for a sustainable 6-figure brand. Sign up to watch for free at Brandmerry.com/class
- FREE GIFTS YOU'LL LOVE -
DISCOVER YOUR BRAND STORY IN UNDER 5 MINUTES
LEARN HOW TO WRITE AN ‘ABOUT ME’ PAGE THAT CONVERTS
MAP OUT 30 DAYS OF CONTENT IN UNDER AN HOUR
- READ THE LATEST POSTS -
MEET MICHELLE
Hey there, I'm Michelle Knight and I an online branding and marketing consultant for female entrepreneurs.
I believe in the power of storytelling and using that superpower to brand and market yourself online...oh and to set yourself free.
I'm obsessed with living a life of freedom, so much so, that my family and I now travel full-time while running my business from the road.
This blog serves as a home base for all things branding, marketing, content creation and more.
How to Find Clients on Social Media
BY MICHELLE KNIGHT
When I was starting my business, I often thought about how I could find clients online.
It was a topic of conversation in most of my programs, everyone was constantly thinking about where they could show up to get in front of their ideal customer and even educators were focused on helping YOU find clients.
As I grew my business and started distancing myself from social media marketing, I began to question the traditional ways of online marketing.
I was introduced to a new world of online marketing that didn’t require me to post daily on social media to get leads and sales.
That's right, social media marketing is not the best marketing strategy if you're looking for a consistent flow of leads and sales. Instead, I started to focus more on evergreen marketing strategies and the power of search engine platforms.
And suddenly my focus went from, “How do I find my clients online,” to “How do my clients find and pay me?”
In today’s episode, on the Brandmerry Podcast, I’m sharing my evolution with online marketing and introducing an important online marketing reframe.
Tune in, to episode 39, to learn:
How I changed my marketing focus from constantly chasing down my clients to setting my business up so that my clients could find and pay me on a regular basis.
An alternative to paid advertising, when first starting your marketing, that will save you time and money and increase your marketing ROI.
The top marketing strategies I recommend every entrepreneur have in place so their ideal customer can find their brand, no matter what stage of the buying process they may be at.
Tune in now on Spotify or Apple Podcasts to hear the full episode and all the tips.
P.S. Ready to get your brand seen and paid without the pressure of social media? I'm teaching my top strategies inside of my new free class, "How to Build a Brand That Gets Seen and Paid!" You're invited to tune in and learn my signature 3-part framework for a sustainable 6-figure brand. Sign up to watch for free at Brandmerry.com/class
- FREE GIFTS YOU'LL LOVE -
DISCOVER YOUR BRAND STORY IN UNDER 5 MINUTES
LEARN HOW TO WRITE AN ‘ABOUT ME’ PAGE THAT CONVERTS
MAP OUT 30 DAYS OF CONTENT IN UNDER AN HOUR
- READ THE LATEST POSTS -
MEET MICHELLE
Hey there, I'm Michelle Knight and I an online branding and marketing consultant for female entrepreneurs.
I believe in the power of storytelling and using that superpower to brand and market yourself online...oh and to set yourself free.
I'm obsessed with living a life of freedom, so much so, that my family and I now travel full-time while running my business from the road.
This blog serves as a home base for all things branding, marketing, content creation and more.