I have to admit I've had a huge mindset shift since starting blogging and enrolling in Elite Blog Academy. I come from an academic background and always thought sales and marketing were a little shady. If someone needs something, they should figure that out on their own, without me having to convince them to buy it. Right?
What I've learned instead is that if you do it right, marketing and sales is actually more about helping people than it is about pushing them to do something they don't want to do. This appeals to my background in psychology, and it's an approach I am taking to my blog. Below I outline four ways that I'm applying this new way of thinking.
Pain Points
Hitting on people's pain points means identifying what problems they have and finding solutions for them. This is a strong selling tactic, but it's also one that sits well with me. If I can show people why my particular product will help them solve their problems, why wouldn't I do that? I'm actually helping my customers make decisions based on their needs rather than cornering them into buying something. And—with online and digital marketing, the choice is always theirs to click BUY NOW or not.
Actually Trying to Sell
Here's a funny story. I've had a couple of ebooks/workbooks for sale for many years. For a long time, I had them for sale on a platform where they were kind of hidden. I didn't promote them anywhere. I told nobody and did not point them to where they could purchase these books. It was like I didn't want to sell. I didn't want to push anyone. What was the point of that? Did I want to sell or not?
Making it Easy to Buy
Maybe it is because I am a parent now, but I see the value in making it easy for my customers to buy things. I used to think flashy "BUY NOW" buttons, countdown timers, and the like were cheesy sales tactics. I now see them as valuable tools to energize customers to make a decision and take action. And the reason I feel good about them taking action is because I believe my product will help them.
Connecting Through Email
I have learned that most sales are made through email, not through a website or social media. And so, this will be my focus going forward. But it's not enough to send one email and expect people to buy. There are psychological stages of deciding to buy something, and you need to help your customers through those stages. You can do that by sending several emails, to tell them of the product, let them know it's a time limited offer or of any special bonuses, answer any FAQ, and remind them when the offer is about to expire. This both creates urgency and helps people make decisions. It's being a problem-solver, not a salesperson.
Income Report for June
I was happy to have a record of my income for May, so I've decided to continue posting these reports as a way to keep track, stay accountable, and perhaps help someone else in their blogging journey. If I ever "make it," I'll have all this information logged and perhaps can put it to use on a separate website.
Here we go for June. I think I might add in some goals for July at the end too.
Again, if I've used a "~" sign it means I didn't check at the end of the month and it is approximate.
June STATS:
Pageviews: 6261
Sessions: 4667
Users: 4018
Mailing List Subscribers: ~481 (I ran some Facebook ads this month which accounts for the jump)
Pinterest Followers: ~386
Pinterest monthly viewers (added from last month): 302k
Facebook Followers: ~4861
Twitter Followers: ~3015
Instagram Followers: ~84 (I tried starting to post to Instagram. Clearly my strategy did not work as followers went down)
Posts published: 8
For example: How to Find the Best Social Anxiety Forum for You
(The following are according to SEMRUSH)
Organic search: 215
Backlinks: 281
Organic keywords: 536 (This almost doubled! Wow)
June INCOME:
Advertising (Media.net): $1.25 (down from last month)
Advertising (Infolinks): $0.29 (I actually took Infolinks off because I did not like the ads. I may add it back in)
Amazon: $2.94
Products: $17.42 (I now have two workbooks for sale that I have been selling as a tripwire on Teachable)
Total income: $21.90
Monthly expenses:
Email (Convertkit): $29
Tailwind: $14.99
Keysearch: $13.60
Active Rain: $39
Total expenses: $96.59
Net blog income: -$74.69 (This is more negative than last time)
So, my income rose from last month but so did my expenses.
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