Automating elements of your business so you only have to do them once is a GAME CHANGER! And it won't just help you in August either, once they are set up, they just keep on running.
But with less than 5 weeks until the school holidays, you need to focus on the automations that are going to make the biggest difference to you and your business - and that depends on your goal for the summer.
In this episode I talk through the key automations (and focus areas) for 3 of the most common summer business goals:
1) You want to maintain or drive sales
2) You want to build a warm audience for September
3) You want to stop your business for August
This is a really practical episode so grab a pen and paper and map out your key actions and think about how you can do them little by little over the next few weeks.
NB: the workshop mentioned in the episode has now happened. Join the email list to get updates on future workshops.
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Hello, and welcome to growing pains.
Speaker:The marketing podcast for parent and baby brands who want to grow and get
Speaker:more consistent sales, but without the overwhelm of feeling like you have
Speaker:to be online 24 7, I'm Sophie, your host, and a Facebook and Instagram ad
Speaker:strategist who specializes in parent and baby brands as well as a mom of two.
Speaker:Join me each week as I alongside some wonderful guests, she had practical
Speaker:tips and advice about how you can use and combine marketing strategies
Speaker:to get more impact for your effort.
Speaker:Hello.
Speaker:And welcome to this week's episode.
Speaker:This is the second in the get set for summit series.
Speaker:So if you haven't listened to the first episode, make sure
Speaker:you go back it's episode 17.
Speaker:And that one we're talking all about getting your head around how much
Speaker:time you're going to have, what your non-negotiable work stuff is, and
Speaker:really kind of identifying what a great summer would look like for you.
Speaker:When it comes to your personal life, as well as business as well.
Speaker:So go back and listen to that one.
Speaker:If you haven't already.
Speaker:There's also some free downloadables that go with that one?
Speaker:That there is a great workbook.
Speaker:To help you kind of get it all out on paper and really
Speaker:see what you're working with.
Speaker:And then there's also a summer holidays planner.
Speaker:Which has good overview of the whole six weeks and then a tab for each week.
Speaker:So you can literally plan out what you're doing and how much time
Speaker:you've got with, with the kids, how much time you've got for work.
Speaker:And also how much time you've got for yourself.
Speaker:So go back and listen to that.
Speaker:This episode is all about automating August.
Speaker:And the reason we're talking about automation is because if
Speaker:you can automate some key things, it will free up your time.
Speaker:It's a great foundation for when you come back in September.
Speaker:Cause once you've automated something, you don't have to automate it.
Speaker:And actually it's going to give you more time back.
Speaker:It's going to mean people can come into your world, join your
Speaker:email sequence and get nurtured.
Speaker:And get to know you without you doing a thing or being present,
Speaker:you can be doing whatever you want.
Speaker:But the kind of automations that you need to prioritize.
Speaker:Cause I'm really conscious.
Speaker:We're five weeks out at the point of recording this less
Speaker:than five weeks actually.
Speaker:You're already kind of trying to keep on top of staff, keep on top of
Speaker:life, keep on top of kids and work.
Speaker:You don't have a huge amount of time to suddenly create these.
Speaker:Huge automations, get new stuff in place.
Speaker:You really are just trying to get through it and get to the summer.
Speaker:So don't want to burden you with loads of stuff that you have to do.
Speaker:I want you to prioritize the things that are going to make the biggest difference.
Speaker:Now, really the stuff that's going to make.
Speaker:The biggest difference really depends on your goals.
Speaker:If you are really going to go for sales over summer that's gonna look
Speaker:very different to, if you want to warm leads up ready for September.
Speaker:And again, that's going to look really different if actually your goal is to stop
Speaker:your business for the whole of August.
Speaker:I'm not working at all.
Speaker:All at all.
Speaker:Three are totally possible.
Speaker:It's just a case of prioritizing the right things.
Speaker:So that's what we're talking about in this episode.
Speaker:What you need to do to either go for sales over summer.
Speaker:Warm up your audience for September or totally stop your business.
Speaker:So let's start with, you want to either maintain your sales over summer, keep
Speaker:the sales coming in, whatever it is.
Speaker:It's going to depend a little bit on what you offer.
Speaker:So whether it's service-based or e-com.
Speaker:If you're a summer product, fantastic.
Speaker:Should be definitely be going for sales.
Speaker:If you're something that's needed all year round.
Speaker:Absolutely.
Speaker:If your clients, maybe aren't working over summer, so maybe you are service based
Speaker:and a lot of your clients are parents.
Speaker:Who are not who have young children and aren't working over summer.
Speaker:I like me, maybe you actually.
Speaker:Maybe sales isn't quite right.
Speaker:And you're going to be looking to warm people up.
Speaker:So I'm going to jump into that next.
Speaker:So the fundamental funnel that I talk about all the time, where you've got
Speaker:your, if you think of like a V you've got your cold audience at the top,
Speaker:then you're warm, then you're hot.
Speaker:And then people that purchase from you.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:You're moving down the funnel.
Speaker:You still need to be moving people down the funnel.
Speaker:They need to come in at the top.
Speaker:You need to convert them by getting them to sign up to your social media
Speaker:or email list or go on your website.
Speaker:You need to convince them to buy, give them a reason to buy, and then
Speaker:they need to purchase from you.
Speaker:That funnel is still applicable, whether it's summer or not.
Speaker:What might be different is how you approach the funnel,
Speaker:how you normally would.
Speaker:It might be that your messaging is different.
Speaker:It might be that you do a special offer.
Speaker:It's maybe that you think about it in a slightly different way.
Speaker:Now in terms of automation, let's go through each of those stages
Speaker:and look at what you could do to kind of bring some automation in
Speaker:and not do everything so manually.
Speaker:So let's look at a cold audience.
Speaker:So bringing new people into your world.
Speaker:Now, this might be one that you dial down a bit over the summer and you might focus
Speaker:on getting sales from your audience.
Speaker:You've already built.
Speaker:And if you've been doing a lot of audience building already, you might find that
Speaker:that's absolutely fine that you've got plenty of leads in front of you.
Speaker:In your social media audience on your email list from people who
Speaker:visited your website, you might find those plenty of people there, and
Speaker:you don't actually need to bring lots of new people in over summer.
Speaker:But it's still worth having a think about.
Speaker:So how could you bring people into your world in a more automated way over summer?
Speaker:I mean the really obvious one is Facebook ads.
Speaker:Now Facebook ads over summer.
Speaker:I'm going to say a little bit hit or miss.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:Then they are driven by the weather and that, that is
Speaker:something you can't get around.
Speaker:The sunny of the weather, the less people are on their phones.
Speaker:The more they're out enjoying themselves.
Speaker:So it might be that you run ads for short periods of time.
Speaker:Maybe you run them through.
Speaker:For a couple of weeks and test them, maybe you only run them over the weekends.
Speaker:If you find your weekend sales are really good,
Speaker:you got to play around with it a little bit, but definitely think
Speaker:about ads, especially if users.
Speaker:Especially if you've used them before, if you haven't ever run ads before.
Speaker:Then I'm going to say now is not the right time to go through the whole
Speaker:setup process and start testing them.
Speaker:It's unlikely.
Speaker:You're just going to stumble across a meeting results and it's going to take
Speaker:up quite a lot of time and head space.
Speaker:In these next five weeks.
Speaker:So if you haven't ever danced before, don't worry about it.
Speaker:If you have, and you've got some ads that worked well last year
Speaker:and you can turn them back on.
Speaker:Fantastic.
Speaker:The next thing is referrals.
Speaker:Now this might not be the most obvious automation technique, but other people
Speaker:referring to you essentially means you don't have to do anything other than
Speaker:build that relationship with them.
Speaker:Again, if you've already got really strong referral system, if you've already got
Speaker:people that refer to you all the time,
Speaker:Just make sure all in the next few weeks you are touching base with
Speaker:them, making sure they know what's going on, making sure they know you're
Speaker:still looking for sales over summer.
Speaker:Like make sure that you are, they know what you offer.
Speaker:And just basically just building that relationship over the next
Speaker:few weeks, check in with them, make sure that they are good.
Speaker:The other one and this isn't automated, but I thought it was worth putting
Speaker:in is thinking about any instant collaborations you can do over summer.
Speaker:People are still on Instagram over the summer.
Speaker:It probably will feel like they're not, it will probably the, which will
Speaker:probably DEP him from also the normal.
Speaker:People will be using Instagram in a different way.
Speaker:They might not want the salesy post quite so much.
Speaker:They might not be looking to buy.
Speaker:But they will still be on Instagram.
Speaker:So thinking about the kind of you know, could you do some kind of collaboration
Speaker:series every other week, maybe you go live with someone else if you've
Speaker:been meaning to do it, and you haven't quite got round to it summer could be
Speaker:a really good time for you to do that.
Speaker:Because getting in front of someone else's audience is a brilliant way of
Speaker:bringing new people into your world.
Speaker:And then you'll have the automation set up to convert them into your warm audience.
Speaker:So let's talk about the warm audience.
Speaker:What are we going to do to convert people that are already in our world
Speaker:to getting them to buy from us?
Speaker:Now your email list is going to be a really obvious one here,
Speaker:especially in terms of automation.
Speaker:The other one is your social media.
Speaker:And again, social media, we can schedule emails.
Speaker:We can schedule.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:You've got four and a half weeks.
Speaker:If you did an extra one to two social media posts over the
Speaker:next four and a half weeks.
Speaker:And an additional email.
Speaker:Over the next four weeks.
Speaker:You'd pretty much have all the content you would need to then
Speaker:shed you'll up for over the summer.
Speaker:You need to do a little bit more.
Speaker:So that's a great way of just adding in drip, by drip, by drip, rather
Speaker:than getting into the week before the summer holidays and thinking,
Speaker:oh my gosh, I have got to do.
Speaker:20 social media posts and six emails, and this is not going to happen.
Speaker:And I'm just losing the plot.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:So think about how you can use the next four weeks.
Speaker:Really well.
Speaker:So converting warm leads.
Speaker:Thinking about your social media posts and your email, what are you going to say?
Speaker:Do you have a, some offer?
Speaker:Like what, what is it they've already heard from you?
Speaker:And what could you say that slightly different?
Speaker:It might be a summer offer.
Speaker:It might be a new perspective on your product or service for the summer.
Speaker:It might be that you can give them a, something free with every offer.
Speaker:It might even be that you can get them to sign up to something and then
Speaker:actually deliver in September, whether that's a product or a service, it
Speaker:might be that you can say, Sign up over August and you'll get a discount.
Speaker:Or sign up now and you'll get X.
Speaker:Benefit or extra product.
Speaker:So whatever it is, like, how can you convince them?
Speaker:To take that next step.
Speaker:And then finally, you've got your hot leads and these are
Speaker:people who are interested.
Speaker:They're looking at the offer.
Speaker:They've got onto your website.
Speaker:They're almost almost ready to buy.
Speaker:You need to make sure that when you are scheduling your Instagram and
Speaker:your emails, that you including some call to action, direct sales messages.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:You can't expect to get sales over summer without doing some
Speaker:really direct sales messaging.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:So I'm talking about.
Speaker:Testimonials.
Speaker:And then with a call to action to buy, I'm talking about case
Speaker:studies I'm talking about answering frequently asked questions.
Speaker:I'm talking about literally laying out what you offer Claire is day and
Speaker:saying, if this looks good to you send me a message or if this is what you
Speaker:want, go onto my website to purchase.
Speaker:So, whatever it is, you're going to have to make some really clear sales calls.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:So quick summary for you.
Speaker:The or cold audience at the top of your funnel.
Speaker:Consider ads.
Speaker:If you already do them.
Speaker:Referrals.
Speaker:If you've already got those relationships and Instagram collaborations, if it's
Speaker:something you've been meaning to do, and you've got people that you could
Speaker:ask and you think would say yes.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:Those are the three things I think you can automate and start
Speaker:bringing new people into your world.
Speaker:Over summer without you having to do that much.
Speaker:If that all feels too much, you haven't done ads before you
Speaker:haven't got any referral partners.
Speaker:You don't want to do Instagram collaborations.
Speaker:Then really, you're going to have to focus on converting your
Speaker:warm and hot leads over summer.
Speaker:And that might mean that you're not getting as many sales as if you were
Speaker:bringing new people into your world.
Speaker:And you might just have to accept that and have a look at
Speaker:how you can then manage that.
Speaker:For warm leads.
Speaker:You're going to do think about offers.
Speaker:You're going to think about ways to get them to commit over summer.
Speaker:You're going to think about Jeweling emails and social media posts.
Speaker:You can schedule emails so that it's an automated sequence and they literally
Speaker:get sent one week after another, or you can schedule them each by week.
Speaker:So they go on the right time and day.
Speaker:Either way you can get them all set up, ready to go for the whole summer.
Speaker:And leave them to run.
Speaker:One thing I would be talking about as well, especially if your clients
Speaker:or customers are parents, is the fact on your social media over the
Speaker:next few weeks is the fact that you are still going to be open.
Speaker:You are still going to be your products or services are still going to be available.
Speaker:You'd really appreciate the support over.
Speaker:Summer.
Speaker:And that sort of thing you you want to make sure that they are really
Speaker:clear, they can still buy from you over summer of sales as your objective.
Speaker:You need to make sure that people know they can buy from you.
Speaker:So the next goal we're looking at is if you just want to
Speaker:warm people up for September.
Speaker:So you're not necessarily looking to take on any new clients.
Speaker:You're not looking for big sales.
Speaker:You're not looking to onboard anyone or do big orders or anything like that.
Speaker:You just want to warm everyone up for summer.
Speaker:It's a great goal.
Speaker:And I would really encourage you if you're not looking for sales over summer,
Speaker:rather than shutting down your business completely, or even intending to kind
Speaker:of do a bit of ad hoc stuff over summer.
Speaker:Don't just leave it till summer because it either won't get done or you'll just
Speaker:feel guilty the whole time and distracted.
Speaker:So even if you're not looking for sales, I think there's a really, really
Speaker:good goal to have to warm up your audience . Now for this, there are three
Speaker:things I think you need to think about.
Speaker:The first one really is.
Speaker:So the first one is your social media.
Speaker:The second one is emails.
Speaker:And the third one is your website.
Speaker:So social media.
Speaker:I have a think about how many posts and stories would feel good for you each week.
Speaker:Ava summer.
Speaker:Now you need to have a think about.
Speaker:And by kind of what feels good to you?
Speaker:Partly, I mean, how many posts do you want to create upfront?
Speaker:And partly, I mean, how many do you think it would take for your
Speaker:customers and clients to still kind of know you were there and around?
Speaker:I would suggest two posts would be a good thing to aim for.
Speaker:If you do three, you know, you go out for a really lovely day and you want to kind
Speaker:of post about it and Instagram ad hoc.
Speaker:Absolutely.
Speaker:But if you shared your in two posts for six weeks, Then, you know,
Speaker:that, that contents there, actually, if you don't want to think about
Speaker:Instagram for two weeks and you've got four posts scheduled to go out.
Speaker:You know, that's fine.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:In an ideal world, you'd want to be doing stories as well, and kind of
Speaker:engaging with your audience, keeping them warm, getting them on your email
Speaker:list, kind of sharing what you've been up to and that sort of thing.
Speaker:But in reality,
Speaker:If you wanted to take a couple of weeks off and you've already got
Speaker:those posts scheduled, that's fine.
Speaker:I'd definitely be thinking about those kinds of more engagement.
Speaker:Type tools like commenting on other people's posts, using
Speaker:stories, polls, that sort of thing.
Speaker:The last two weeks of summer holidays, when you really need to start to be like
Speaker:engaging people again and warming them up.
Speaker:But for the first three weeks or so, like two pastes a week.
Speaker:Absolutely fine.
Speaker:Loads of your audience.
Speaker:It probably going to be on holiday as well.
Speaker:Remember.
Speaker:So you don't want to be pushing out so much content.
Speaker:That that no one's really engaging with.
Speaker:So, as I said before, you've got four to five weeks until there's some holidays.
Speaker:If you create one to two extra posts a week, you can schedule in, even if
Speaker:you just schedule them in for the first three to four weeks, knowing that that
Speaker:over summer, you might have time to create a few more, like get that done
Speaker:and give yourself that breathing space.
Speaker:And also give yourself the opportunity to think strategically about what
Speaker:those pastes might be, you know, is it a great time to get some
Speaker:testimonials up on your grid?
Speaker:Is it a great time to kind of talk through a case study?
Speaker:Be strategic because I find that often when we do posts that are
Speaker:ad hoc and kind of on the fly.
Speaker:They're very rarely strategic.
Speaker:They're often like what we're thinking about right.
Speaker:In that moment or what we've done that day or the conversation we've just had
Speaker:with a client all very useful, but we need those underlying strategic ones as well.
Speaker:You know, answer a common question and FAQ.
Speaker:Sharer testimonial, or talk about your services and your products.
Speaker:And then communicate with customers that you're not taking on any new clients,
Speaker:but if they want to join your email list, the you'll let them know when you're
Speaker:back from your holidays type thing.
Speaker:If you're an econ business, this is slightly different.
Speaker:And then you might not be going for sales.
Speaker:You might be happy just to let it take over over the summer holidays,
Speaker:but you do need to think about.
Speaker:Whether you're going to be posting things out when you're going to be doing that.
Speaker:You know, do you want to be doing that every couple of days?
Speaker:Are you going to be doing it once a week?
Speaker:are you going to get someone else to do it for you?
Speaker:I'm going to talk a little bit more about that in a minute when the people
Speaker:that want to stop completely, which is totally fine, but just start to
Speaker:think about how do you communicate that with customers, and that really
Speaker:is where your website comes into it.
Speaker:So when people are going onto your website, is there a bar at the top
Speaker:that tells them, you know, we're only posting things out every Monday or I
Speaker:won't be posting out from between these two dates, but, get your order in.
Speaker:And as soon as we're back in, okay.
Speaker:Posted.
Speaker:Just make sure you communicate with your customers.
Speaker:Exactly what you're doing and what's right for you.
Speaker:It's your business.
Speaker:You get to decide whether you're working on or what your rules are.
Speaker:It might be that some customers then don't buy from you, but ultimately it's your
Speaker:business and you decide what you're doing.
Speaker:So final thing to warm up your audience for September and things
Speaker:you can automate is your emails.
Speaker:I know that this won't surprise you because I harp on it all about the time.
Speaker:Someone joins your email list.
Speaker:Then you can warm them up and kind of help them understand
Speaker:your products and services.
Speaker:You can tell them about yourself.
Speaker:You can share testimonials with them.
Speaker:You can share great.
Speaker:Pull up blog posts with them.
Speaker:There's so much you can share in a welcome sequence.
Speaker:And I would really, really recommend that you go back and listen to.
Speaker:Episode 16.
Speaker:Which is the three money-making sequences.
Speaker:Every business should have.
Speaker:I've had so much positive feedback about the episode and it literally
Speaker:walks you through what you need to put in your welcome sequence and how to
Speaker:structure it and everything like that.
Speaker:So I'd really highly recommend that you go back and listen to that.
Speaker:If you do want to set up a welcome sequence.
Speaker:And at the bite be that if you're going to do your welcome sequence
Speaker:you might want to think about setting up a new lead magnet before summer,
Speaker:so it could be summer related.
Speaker:It could be anything really that you think your clients will be interested in, but
Speaker:if you want to get new people onto your list so that you can warm them up before
Speaker:September, make sure that in your social media posts, you're telling people about
Speaker:your lead magnet and reminding them.
Speaker:It's not enough to say at once.
Speaker:You need to be reminding them.
Speaker:Over the six weeks that it's there in your emails, you want to be sharing the new
Speaker:lead magnet with your email list already and asking them to forward it on to anyone
Speaker:that they think might be interested.
Speaker:And then just in terms of the email content, just think
Speaker:about again, being strategic.
Speaker:So telling them upfront when you're working, when you're not,
Speaker:when you'll be posting items when you're not, what do they have to
Speaker:look forward to when you come back?
Speaker:Like how can you help them after summer?
Speaker:Don't underestimate August In terms of embedding beliefs, sharing what you know,
Speaker:and making sure that people are ready to buy from you when September comes.
Speaker:So the key automations here.
Speaker:Our sheds.
Speaker:Jeweling a minimum number of social media posts, Ava summer, so that,
Speaker:you know, you've got a foundation of posts there and you can really switch
Speaker:off for a few weeks if you need to.
Speaker:The next one is your website.
Speaker:Make sure it's up to date.
Speaker:Make sure you've got like a banner across the top telling people
Speaker:what's going on over summer.
Speaker:And just go through it and check it all and make sure that it totally makes sense.
Speaker:For the messaging that you're putting on your social media and email.
Speaker:And then email, get that welcome sequence up and running.
Speaker:Make sure that if people are joining your email list, you are nurturing them
Speaker:over summer without having to do a thing.
Speaker:And finally, the last go we're going to talk about is if you want to stop complete
Speaker:name, Now, the first thing I would flag is do you want to stop completely or is
Speaker:the business going to stop completely?
Speaker:And that is what is really key in terms of the actions you're going to take.
Speaker:So if the whole business is going to stop.
Speaker:Then I'm going to talk through in a minute.
Speaker:Exactly what I'd suggest you do to make sure that then in September,
Speaker:you're not going back to kind of starting from scratch and give
Speaker:yourself a bit of an uphill battle.
Speaker:If you're just going to stop over summer.
Speaker:And you want the business to continue.
Speaker:Then really you've got four weeks to make sure that you get people
Speaker:in place that you can delegate to, that you can outsource to.
Speaker:It might be someone that just packs up orders as they come in.
Speaker:So that you don't have to worry about it over summer.
Speaker:It might be someone who can shed jewel and keep an eye on your social
Speaker:media so that you can actually warm up your audience for September.
Speaker:It might be someone to write your emails.
Speaker:Everything I've been talking about.
Speaker:It might be someone to do your ads.
Speaker:There were so many things that you can outsource and delegate and
Speaker:yes, it takes budget to do that.
Speaker:But if you are investing in having a summer with your children or not working
Speaker:over summer, it might be the sales will be high enough to cover their costs.
Speaker:Or that you want to invest in that, and that's really important to
Speaker:you, and that is totally up to you.
Speaker:So, if you are going to stop the whole business these aren't so much automations,
Speaker:to be honest, these are more actions.
Speaker:I just think you need to take.
Speaker:So in terms of automations, these aren't necessarily quite the same.
Speaker:Just because I think there are some key things, actions that you need to take.
Speaker:The key automation I'd have, if you are going to stop is to make sure
Speaker:that your email list has a really great, welcome sequence on it.
Speaker:So even if people are joining your list and they're getting the welcome sequence,
Speaker:And you could also schedule some emails if you wanted to.
Speaker:So even if you're not going to be working at all, you could schedule a few emails.
Speaker:If you're not working at all and you totally want to switch off, I actually
Speaker:wouldn't schedule social media posts.
Speaker:You need to kind of be dipping in and out social media.
Speaker:Engaging with people, replying to comments, popping up stories to
Speaker:really warm your audience up, like putting social media posts out.
Speaker:If you are totally, you know what I'm talking about?
Speaker:Like deleted the app kind of thing.
Speaker:There's just no point.
Speaker:So I would let social media go.
Speaker:If you're going to stop the business for the month.
Speaker:I would, I would think about shooting some emails.
Speaker:I do think that would be a good way to keep your audience engaged
Speaker:and kind of doing what you're doing and actually have a look, a
Speaker:Brenae brown paste from it might've been last week or a few weeks ago.
Speaker:If you go onto our Instagram account.
Speaker:Her and her team are taking it's either three or four months off over summer.
Speaker:They are totally off social media.
Speaker:They're not sending any emails.
Speaker:All their projects are stopped and they're just kind of working
Speaker:internally on their business.
Speaker:And having some time to rest and that's totally fine.
Speaker:So my first point really is.
Speaker:Tell your customers that tell them that you've got young kids and
Speaker:you're having time off and you won't be available over summer.
Speaker:Like tell them what you're doing and why you're doing it.
Speaker:Like the amount of support Bernay brown had on that post was in sane.
Speaker:I saw it shared everywhere because actually it's quite inspirational.
Speaker:So know that it is our business.
Speaker:We can stop if we want to, and that you can come back after that.
Speaker:And it's not the end of the world.
Speaker:I mean saying that she obviously is.
Speaker:And she sells, as I said, I post she's put a huge amount of work.
Speaker:Into her business over the last few years.
Speaker:And she's in a really great place with it.
Speaker:And she feels like she's confident enough to come back to it.
Speaker:After their break just make sure that you are super clear with customers.
Speaker:I'd also use it to be honest as a bit of a push for more orders
Speaker:for built before the summer.
Speaker:So whether that's signing up clients so that they're, you're ready to start with
Speaker:them in September, whether that is if your e-comm like getting more orders in
Speaker:before you close the website on X date.
Speaker:Making sure that over the next few weeks you are.
Speaker:Putting that in your emails that you are putting on your social media, I mean,
Speaker:even like to the point of putting it in your email signature now, you know, just
Speaker:so you know, the website will be sharp from X date to X date, or I won't be
Speaker:taking on any new clients from X date.
Speaker:Make sure you set up an email out of office, and kind of direct people to.
Speaker:You know, blogs on the most common questions, you know,
Speaker:why do you get emails?
Speaker:Like how can you direct people?
Speaker:Like, if you're wondering this click here, if you need to talk about this, you can
Speaker:go to this person, start to think about like, who else could you refer people on
Speaker:to what resources can you send people to.
Speaker:So that when they kind of come to you, they're not hitting a dead end.
Speaker:There's at least some kind of kind of conversation with them,
Speaker:even if it's totally automated.
Speaker:And then the big decision that you really need to make, and this is
Speaker:predominantly for Econ businesses.
Speaker:Is, are you going to leave your website open for browsing so people can browse
Speaker:all your products, but they can't buy.
Speaker:Are you going to leave it totally open to buy, but it's really clear
Speaker:everywhere that the first date you'll be posting anything is X.
Speaker:Or are you just going to close the website completely and have a holding page?
Speaker:It says we're closed for summer.
Speaker:Come back in early September.
Speaker:And I I'd encourage you if you take that option, make sure that you can
Speaker:sign up to an email list on that page.
Speaker:So make sure you sign up to email lists and you'll be the first to know when we
Speaker:come back and you'll get access to our
Speaker:You know, September sale or whatever it is like maybe doing an
Speaker:incentive for people to come and shop with you again in September.
Speaker:There isn't a right answer to what you do with your website.
Speaker:It really is depending on whether you feel comfortable having the orders
Speaker:building up over summer and having to like ignore them and not send them out.
Speaker:Whether you feel like it's frustrating for people to go to a website that's
Speaker:open for browsing, but they can't buy, but at least they can see your products
Speaker:and see what you offer and maybe get themselves ready to buy in September.
Speaker:Or if you close it completely, obviously then you don't have to
Speaker:worry about any orders coming in or anything, but it does mean that no
Speaker:one can see your products or services.
Speaker:So have a think about that.
Speaker:And then really what I'd encourage you to do over the next few weeks is
Speaker:to prepare for your first week back.
Speaker:So as well as scheduling some emails over summer, think about what that
Speaker:first week back is going to look like.
Speaker:Are you going to have a social media post to like announce that
Speaker:your bag encouraged people to buy?
Speaker:Send emails out, you know, I'd be planning at least two or three emails in that first
Speaker:week, letting people know you're back.
Speaker:Maybe sharing, either sharing a sale or an offer.
Speaker:If you don't want to do that, you could share like your best sellers,
Speaker:making sure that people know that you're back and you're there.
Speaker:So really kind of planning that first week, because what you don't
Speaker:want to be is on the back foot.
Speaker:So those are my August automation tips for you, depending on what
Speaker:your goal is for the summer.
Speaker:I hope they have been really helpful.
Speaker:I am going to be sending some additional tips and advice to my
Speaker:email list over the next few days/
Speaker:if you're thinking, well, this all sounds really good, but I
Speaker:feel really quite overwhelmed.
Speaker:And I don't know that I can get it all done in time.
Speaker:Don't worry.
Speaker:I am going to be running a workshop.
Speaker:It's going to be a two hour workshop where we make a plan for you both
Speaker:what you need to do before the summer holidays start, and then what you're
Speaker:going to do during the summer holidays.
Speaker:You're going to know exactly what you're doing going into summer.
Speaker:You're going to feel really calm, confident in control and ready
Speaker:to enjoy summer with your kids.
Speaker:Knowing that your business is that it's going to keep going.
Speaker:And in September, when you turn your attention back to your business,
Speaker:It is going to be ready for you to start making real progress in it.
Speaker:So, if you want to know when that workshop's going to be make sure
Speaker:you go down to the show notes.
Speaker:And pop your name on the wait list.
Speaker:My I'm going to be announcing the date and time of that Berry Berry soon.
Speaker:And again, if you want to be, and again, my email list will
Speaker:be the first to know about it.
Speaker:So if you're not already on the email list, make sure you sign up.
Speaker:And I will make sure that I add the link to the main email
Speaker:list as well in the show notes.
Speaker:I hope this has been really helpful as always come over to Instagram
Speaker:and see me and let me know if you've got any questions or feedback
Speaker:and I will see you on Friday.
Speaker:Thank you so much for joining me this week before you go, make sure you subscribe
Speaker:to the podcast so you can receive new episodes, right when they're released.
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Speaker:Finding me.
Speaker:Thank you again for joining me, Sophie, in this episode of