Weekly update after a slow business week and plans to turn things around!
Weekly update after a slow business week and plans to turn things around!
This week I've gotten shockingly little done. I mean, if you've been following along with everything else that I have going on this week, then it's not really gonna be shockingly little. It's gonna be pretty much what you would expect. So since the last time that we talked, I've uploaded that paid summer resource and I've started driving my Facebook ad traffic or at least half of my Facebook ad traffic to that summer opt-in and it's doing really well as far as collecting leads goes. As far as sales goes, not so much. I've sold it one time, so not as much as I was hoping for, and I think that I started running ads for that about a week ago. At this point, so just one sale. But I'm not surprised by that, just based on some of the things that we talked about last time with realizing that this niche because it's more saturated it's going to take a lot more warming up, and so I've kind of reflected on that a little bit this week and I have a couple of thoughts and a couple of ideas as to how to warm up these potential buyers a little bit more and turn them into buyers, and a couple of things that I'm going to try with that. But this week has just been so slammed between RTA opening up which, if you're listening to this and you're new in RTA, welcome, super excited to have you. Between opening RTA up, my business partner Brooklyn and I we decided to add another little venture onto some of the things that we already do, and it involves this new business venture for me, this new TPT store. So that's why I'm going to hold off on that and share that here in just a minute.
Speaker 0:But then, in addition to that, it's the end of the month and I have so many things in my business that are due on the first. One of the things that I've realized I've messed up in my business is that there are a lot of things that all happen on the first. So our TA members all meet on the first, which means that I have workbooks, I have everything that's needed for that strategy session. I have all of that stuff that's due on that day For our membership mine in Brooklyn's membership, the math membership. We also have all of our resources, the new resources that are created the month before they all go out to members on the first, and I also have payday on the first. So I've got to process payments for everyone that works for me, like I've got to process payments for contractors on the first. And there are other things it seems like that are also happening. Like right now we have RTA. It closes every time I do a launch for RTA, that launch closes on the first, just because I like for new members to have that deadline and make sure that they're in for that very first strategy session. So that's due on the first and I have everything kind of leading up to that. And it seems like there are other things oh, we're starting the new masterminds in RTA and all of that is happening not on the first but pretty soon. Things oh, we're starting the new masterminds in RTA, and all of that is happening not on the first but pretty soon after.
Speaker 0:So if you're building your business and you're branching out into other areas or that's something that's on your radar, be sure and kind of stagger when all of your due dates are because having them all on the same date, having them on a date that's really memorable, is sounds like a great idea until you're super slammed and then other areas of your business have to suffer, like this new store. I have a freebie that needs to go into like a summer sample of that summer pre-K curriculum. It needs to go into my TPT store so I can start collecting leads and everything from that freebie, and I still haven't even had time to put the freebie in my store. That is something that I'm hoping will help get new leads in that I'm not having to pay for and I'll kind of keep you guys updated on that. My goal for this coming week as I'm recording this it's on a Thursday, so it'll be next week after all of the craziness kind of settles down my goal is to put that free resource in my store Also.
Speaker 0:I've kind of run into this little hiccup and kind of this awkward phase when you're first starting your business where you wanna start collecting emails right away, but your free resource is also your lead magnet for your email list. So you can't really put a lead magnet like, hey, come, get this free resource in that free resource. It kind of doesn't really make sense and it's not really gonna work. So now that I have two free resource, it kind of doesn't really make sense and it's not really going to work. So now that I have two freebies, I'm going to be able to put the opposite freebie in each of the freebies, right. So in the dinosaur resource, the dinosaur freebie, I'll be able to advertise this summer freebie, the summer lead magnet, and in this summer freebie I'll be able to advertise the dinosaur lead magnet and, right now, that dinosaur freebie.
Speaker 0:It's been up for a little over three weeks, probably three and a half weeks at this point, because I think it was listed on the 4th of May and it's the 30th, so it has, like I think, 100 over 150 downloads. So the goal is, since it's getting some good traction, some good downloads right now, that hopefully I'll be able to convert a lot of those downloaders into leads and get some good leads from there. And what I'm going to do is I'm going to create a special tracking code inside of Kartra, which is my email marketing platform it's actually my all in one platform, but I do email marketing from there and I'll be able to create like a special tracking link to my landing page so that I can see how many people are coming from there. So I'm really excited to be able to see how much of my traffic to my landing page is coming from paid ads versus organic content. Another thing right now that I've done in my business is early this week we had the blog hop and I'm to see I'm not gonna say like great traffic, but I think we've had like 40 page views on that blog so far and I think everybody participating had like a pretty small audience. So I was pretty happy with that for a very first blog hop and, just honestly, it helps to get those backlinks out there, and so overall I was pretty pleased with that, even though it's still very small. I'm happy with that. But what I'm doing is I'm taking the opportunity to continue to kind of link back to that multiple times and pull from that content.
Speaker 0:So when I created my portion of the blog post so I'll kind of go over this again, I think I talked about it in the last episode but basically each one of us wrote a blog over a specific topic of summer activities and each one of us had like a different focus for our summer activities. And then I compiled a list that had a link to each one of our individual blog posts saying like here's the ultimate list for summer preschool activities, right? So when I was creating my blog post for that blog hop, I did five different summer activities and I made sure that not only did it have a link to join my email list and get a summer freebie, the free sample of my summer curriculum. But I also made sure that there was content in there that I could use to share on Instagram, share later on in my newsletter and kind of point back to it. That way I wasn't having to kind of like go back and reinvent the wheel. For example, I started a new segment this past Friday in my newsletter, so I'm sending out two emails a week, one on Monday and one on Friday. The Monday newsletter is basically this is what we're doing in preschool this week the Friday newsletter.
Speaker 0:After I talked to you guys last, I got to thinking I was like maybe one of the reasons why my audience is not engaging is because I'm not talking to my ideal customer, and my ideal customer is a busy mom who also homeschools their child. Whether that means that they're doing like pre K until they go into kindergarten and go into like a formal classroom setting, or they are planning to homeschool forever, who knows, it doesn't really matter and they are a very busy parent. So maybe they're like me and they're busy because they have other kids at home or they work from home, or maybe they're busy because they're involved in a bunch of different activities, but they're a busy parent, which means that they don't have a lot of time to sit and read things that are not going to immediately help them out. So if they're busy, what do they need help with? They need help with keeping their kids engaged, right. They need to keep their kids preoccupied, right my ideal customer is just like me and that they have moments during the day where they need their child to be playing independently so that they can get stuff done. I can help them with that. There's one thing I'm good at it's keeping my toddler busy with the exception of during this podcast, because you won't hear this because my lovely editor will edit it out but I have been interrupted twice during the recording of this podcast. So, with the exception of right now, for the most part I'm really good at keeping her engaged.
Speaker 0:I started a series for Fridays that's going to go out, that's going to speak directly to them, that's called I Just Need Five Minutes Friday, and it gives them quick, easy, entertaining and engaging activities that they can do with their child or that they can give to their child. That's going to give them a little bit of time and it's going to keep their child engaged in a way that's not only fun, but it's also going to help them with different skills, right? So? And it's not a sales email or anything like that, it's just a nurture email that's designed to really warm them up, link back to that blog post and or repurpose some of that content so that I could use some of those activities throughout the summer to either point them back to the blog post or, you know, especially since my list continues to grow, especially as I'm continuing to grow my list and I'm still in the early stages Like if I send something out right now and send them to the blog post now, not only are they probably going to forget about it in two months, but in two months my list is going to be like double the size, right? So over half my audience will not have seen that blog post. So I wanted to make sure that I was giving myself content that I could continue to use and repurpose throughout the year. Okay, so that's where I'm at.
Speaker 0:So let's talk about what we're planning on doing in the immediate future. So I said before that this next coming week my plan is to put in that second freebie and have each freebie kind of pointing to each other in terms of lead magnets and generating more leads through those free TPT downloads. I'm also hoping that free summer sample will bring more eyes to that paid resource through TPT. So that's my plan TPT-wise. I'm also going to start laying out the next product and doing the research for that to make sure that it's going to be something that will sell, because I have a couple of different ideas, a couple of different directions that I could take with planning out the next portion of the curriculum, but I do want to make sure it's going to be something that will sell and do my keyword research ahead of creating that product. So I'm going to start kind of laying that out and let my VA go ahead and get to work on that. I also have another resource that my VA finished. It kind of like works in tandem with one of the games that's in my store, and so I'm going to try to get that listed as well so that I can go ahead and have another paid product in my store.
Speaker 0:Okay, long-term, let's talk about the more exciting thing that I have going on and some of the plans that I'm making. So it's becoming really obvious to me at this point that email marketing. Yes, it's a long game. We always knew that it was a long game. That's not a surprise to me, but that it's going to be probably an even longer game than I was anticipating. So in light of that, I got to thinking does it really make sense for me to continue to spend $20 a day on Facebook ads, which is costing me, you know, like $600 a month, if I know that it's going to be a while before I really start to see that money come back? Do I know that it's going to pay off? Yes, eventually it's going to pay off, but for right now, I do want to make sure that I'm going to get my money back right. I'm not just like spending money, being like eventually this will work.
Speaker 0:So, with my business partner and I, we do bundle sales during the summer. So we've decided to go ahead and tack on an early childhood bundle to our other bundle sales that we do. We've done ELAR, we've done math and both of those are really successful. So we decided let's go ahead and tack this on. We have a project manager this year who's helping us make all of that happen. We already have like deadlines, due dates. We've already got the new website going in. We've got all the stuff happening, so it really doesn't take us a whole lot more time to add in another subject or another niche. And so we decided to add in this new niche, because I will have a pretty sizable email list at that point and hopefully that will help me kind of recoup some of the sales. This will also be a way for me to collect leads from people who've purchased during those sales, and that will be pretty invaluable to me, even if I don't make a lot of money.
Speaker 0:Do I recommend that route for everyone? Like, absolutely not. Like I said, there's three of us doing it it's me, a business partner and a project manager. It's a massive task, but it's a really good idea to run an event of some kind. So, whether that's running a free workshop where you're able to get your face in front of your audience and really build that know, like and trust factor, or maybe it's partnering with four or five other people in your niche and running a free event, so let's say that you do like a collaborative workshop type of event where each one of you has a workshop that you guys are going to be doing like one night a week, so you could do it all in the same week, or you could split it up and say like every Saturday night or every Friday night or every Monday night this month, we're going to host a PD session for you, or we're going to host a workshop for you. We're each going to teach you something different and you guys can all share that. And you could go to say like, oh, we're going to go to Sarah's join Sarah's email list to get a link to her workshop. Join Jen's email list to get a link to her workshop. Join my email list to get a link to my workshop, and you're all kind of sharing. That way, you're all able to grow your list, but you're also able to put your face in front of the audience and build that know, like and trust factor, which is really invaluable.
Speaker 0:There are so many different ways that you can do that. You can get super creative. You can put everyone in a Facebook group. There are a lot of things that you can do. The next thing that I'm looking at doing and this one is going to be a little bit further out I've got to try to think about how I want to do it, but I am going to try to attempt it over the summer. But somehow or another I want to build a Facebook group and I want it to be a group where I'm able to share things with them and engage with them and talk to them and post like a little bit more often. I'm not ready to do it on Instagram, I'm just not ready. I'm on Instagram but I'm not really ready to be making all the reels and doing all the content, because it's a massive time suck for me right now. So I'm going to hold off on that.
Speaker 0:But I'm thinking putting them in a Facebook group and there be an incentive. I haven't decided what the incentive is going to be yet, but having there be a really big incentive to them sharing with their mom friends and like when their mom friend goes to join the Facebook group, there being a spot where they can say I was referred by this person and I can like draw names from that referral list and then hopefully that will get more like-minded moms, more people who are in my audience. But also like I feel like you're more likely to engage with a group when your friends are in there and share ideas and tag each other and interact and engage, and all of that when you know there are other people that are in there that you actually know in real life. So, yeah, I'm really excited about this. These are my ideas currently.
Speaker 0:The Facebook group thing is going to happen at some point this summer and and then the bundle sale is going to happen at the end of July, hoping to kind of recoup some of my Facebook ads spend there. And that's how I'm kind of justifying that and then everything. I'm just kind of keeping status quo. So I think since the last time we've talked, I think that I've only sold two more resources. So again, sales are not booming. I'm not like raking in all of this dough for this new store, but hopefully my goal is that after back to school starts and we're three to four months in, I'll have a different story to share. Another thing that's kind of interesting is you know we're coming up on the end of the month, so next month, next time I record, I'm hoping to share with you guys what my ranking is for TPT. You know the little ranking that they give you for how much I earned, because I'm kind of curious. I've only made like 30, almost $37 this month. So I'm kind of curious where that puts me in the percentile in terms of, like, how many people are bringing in less than $100 a month. Alright, you guys, that's it for this week and I will check back in with you guys next week, hopefully with some better updates In in the meantime.
Speaker 0:If you have, if you're listening and you have any tips, I will take them. Or if you have any questions and you're in RTA, you can ask inside of the RTA Facebook group. Just let me know. That's where the bulk of our listeners are coming from, and so if you have a question, please feel free to ask. If you're not in RTA and you have a question, or subscriber, shoot me a message on Instagram or ask inside of our large rebranded teacher Facebook group, or shoot me an email. I'd love to answer any questions that you guys have, and that's all for now. I'll see you guys next week.