Chlo?'s 3 Things: Milestones / Delete / Value

Hello!

Happy Friday-of-Episode-500-Launch-Week!

Don't know what I'm going on about... catch up here:

• Hear Episode 500 here
• Download ebook here
• Win Prizes here

This week's 3 Things:

1. Milestones ?? picking the right (or wrong) ones
2. Delete ? the joy of deletion
3. Value ?? the weirdness of value mis-matches

So no... this is not really an Episode 500 launch re-cap (although there is a bit of that in all 3) the full recap will be in a few weeks once all the results are in - so stay tuned.

Let's get stuck in...

Thing 1: Milestones ?? picking the right (or wrong) ones

If...

we assume the LinkedIn algorithm and LinkedIn interactions accurately mirror what business people find interesting

then...

Celebrating milestones are B2B (and I'd argue B2C) marketing gold.

• Anniversaries - birthdays, founding date, events, podcasts, newsletters
• Big numbers - episode 500!
• Launches - tech, functionality, new job, services, book publications, newsletters

My milestone celebration post about Episode 500 is my most viewed post since May 21st, and it's only been live 4 days.

Which milestones to celebrate?

Even if you're only in year one of a job role or company - I reckon if you tried hard enough you could find a milestone to celebrate every single month - if not every single week.

But to celebrate a milestone effectively (to bring results over an above the ego-boosting comment and like frenzy) is too much work to deliver on every time - you'd never get anything done!!

Plus there's probably a law of diminishing returns.

So you've got to decide WHICH ones to celebrate.

Full discussion here

Just like Kunle, I've let several big milestones pass with barely a ripple this year, to concentrate on what I felt was the right one to go BIG on for us this year:

• My 20 years in eCommerce anniversary - just a LinkedIn post and a newsletter
• Episode 200 of the Keep Optimising Podcast - it fell in the middle of conference season, so no way we could do it justice
• My 1 year anniversary of taking over eCommerce Tech - 2 reasons for ignoring that one which both come down to bad timing... a. it was this week, and you can't do 2 big milestones at the same time, and b. we're going big on eCommerce Tech in a couple of months once I've finished the big website and content project we're working on
• Book publication anniversaries - book sales aren't a focus - I don't even track them anymore
• 1 year as a top LinkedIn Retail Voice

And I'm sure if I got the diaries out a I could find another 20!

But I don't need to - because I've picked the ones that I believe we can make deliver on our objectives.

Chloe's 4 Steps to Making Milestones Work For You

1. Identify the milestones you could use in the next 6-12 months also handy for if you need to leverage one fast because you suddenly need something!
2. Which one(s) fit with your objectives? eg we want to grow listeners to the eCommerce MasterPlan Podcast, so celebrating Episode 500 in a big way fits.
3. Do a rough plan including timings, key campaign ideas, costs, likely impact etc - does it stack up? How can you extend it?
4. Commit and make it work

Of course, number 3 is the killer step - can you actually stack up the campaign so that it really delivers on the objectives?

For Episode 500 our objectives are many:

• Core = grow audience
• Grow email list + FINALLY get "create EM lead magnet" task complete ?? it's only taken 9 years
• Grow eCommerce MasterPlan Podcast LinkedIn followers
• Make a lot of social media noise to grow brand awareness for long term positive impact
• Create something to build stronger relationships with sponsors and potential sponsors
• Some other internal upgrade processes

So we don't just have a podcast episode, we have an ebook and launch campaign too (see links at top of newsletter).

Our core campaign lasts 4 weeks - this has been week 1.

It all started with this post in March, and the ebook will be pushed for a few years to come (probably)

So we've turned a simple podcast episode release into a 6 month focused campaign, and content that will benefit us for a long time.

Which is easy for anyone to do with a little planning and focus, and that we 100% couldn't have delivered on without ignore other milestones.

?? Any tips or advice to add? Would love to know how you choose your milestones.

Thing 2: Delete ? the joy of deletion

You know that surge of happiness and contentment you get when you tackle the messy part of the house?

The spare room, the food cupboard, the hallway, under the bed...

Clearing out is such a satisfying task.

Plus it creates space for other ideas, happiness etc etc.

You can also do this in business - even digital business.

4 Things that have sparked this one this week

• A chat with Nick Brackenbury where we both raved about the joy of an empty computer desktop
• Deleting a whole section of the eCommerce Tech website - one down, several more to go...
• A LinkedIn discussion (probably with Roger Knight ... but I can't remember) about clearing out unnecessary files on websites and file storage systems
• The surge of joy I experienced yesterday when I stumbled upon a cache of several hundred newsletters I could delete from my email account

Why you should find things to delete

?? It feels so good!

?? It creates mental space (or physical space if you're clearing out your office cupboard) for new things Amie - if you're reading this I was thinking about wardrobes!!!

?? It's good for the planet - whether you're sending physical stuff to be re-used or recycled, or you're clearing digital stuff off the servers, it all reduces waste.

?? AND it might save you (or make you) money - less storage online or offline means lower rent to pay. You may find things you can sell or use to save you buying something else, AND I bet there's at least one software subscription you can downgrade or cancel...

Find something to delete - it will make you feel better.

?? Deleting can become addictive, and over-deleting can be very very annoying - so be careful!!

?? Time to confess - what do you get great joy from deleting?

Thing 3: Value ?? the weirdness of value mis-matches

OK... let's go a little strategic now.

Background aka where I'm coming from...

This summer one of my jobs is to check all the pricing of our advertising stuff. I'm not getting stuck into that until August - but it's on my mind... the subconscious is thinking about it.

And this week I've been working on a big 12 month sponsorship+influencer+thought-leadership package for a potential sponsor.

Which has got me down in the weeds of how we price things.

Our pricing strategy is... far too simplistic.

It's basically - set a price, and if it sells quickly... raise the price.

There's a little bit of competitor price matching/analysis - but not enough (cue the summer project), a little bit of value-based-pricing (at least in theory), and I do know how much I need to sell it at for a profit.

But it's basically - demand based pricing.

Email Value Mis-matches

Demand based pricing leads to some weird value mis-matches.

Let's take the example that has me most perplexed.

eCommerce MasterPlan Email Sends vs eCommerce Tech Email Sends

?? EM Email sends go to 5,500 people, and get about 1,500-2,000 opens and 30-80 clicks.

?? ET Email sends go to 12,000+ people, and get 4,000+ opens and 400-700 clicks.

?? EM we charge ￡650, and we've sold 20 this year

?? ET we charge ￡750, and we've sold 8 this year

??????

I know I'm not the greatest salesperson in the world - but that is WEIRD!

Based on value I should be able to sell the ET emails at twice or more the price of the EM ones - but instead, we're running discounts for first-time advertisers, and a 3 for 2 offer!

At this price, ET should be sold out until Christmas.

It's very weird.

Other Value Mis-Matches

It's not just when it comes to pricing that I see these.

Whilst it's too early to see the accurate impact of the Episode 500 activity - so far...

?? it has had a noticeable impact on LinkedIn (both me and the eCommerce MasterPlan Page)

?? it has had a noticeable impact on email sign up volume

?? it has had almost no impact on podcast listens...

Which is weird.

The effort value = this week 90% of our own marketing effort has been focused on the podcast episode.

The content value = the podcast episode is the most useful piece of content we've put out - far more useful than the ebook because it's a highly curated piece - I distilled 100s of tips down to just 20 for it.

But the results are coming in for the ebook...

Another value mis-match...

Yes, if the results continue to pan out that way over the next month... expect a very interesting Launch results recap in a few weeks time... so stay subscribed!!

Just goes to show - the market doesn't always value what you think they will... so how do you respond to that?

?? OK - let's be selfish... what would you do with that Email sales weirdness?

That's it for this week

I'd love to engage with you in the comments too, so please do add your thoughts below.

Have a great weekend everyone!