#1 Notion.so

To Organize.. well everything!

Notion is a database/notes/visual organizer business tool. What do I organize in notion? I organize client deliverables, brand assets, content calendars, my upcoming trips, and when I’m feeling fancy I take a few minute to inventory my closet so I can have a Cher moment (ClueLess Cher of course) to peruse my outfits and think of what I want to wear before the day starts! This is seriously my all-in-one, go-to business tool!

Try Notion Using my beginner template!

#2 Flick.teck

CREATE HASHTAG STRATEGY THAT WORKS

Take the hassle out of hashtags. This business tool helps you grow your account, business or influence by reaching new audiences on Instagram. Then once you’ve used your #’s see what’s working, improve your content strategy, and track 20+ key metrics across all areas of your Instagram account with real-time reporting tools. As a business tool, Flick will never recommend #’s that are banned which will help you get increased reach on your posts. You’ve worked hard on the content now use #’s to your advantage!

Try Flick Free for 7 days!

#3 Repurpose.io

CREATE ONCE THEN PUBLISH EVERYWHERE… AUTOMATICALLY!

Have you been looking for a business tool that takes the pain out of posting? Quickly build your omnipresence by repurposing your content directly from YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, Zoom, Google Drive, Dropbox, and Audio Podcast into unlimited pieces of content optimized for each platform.

Publish or schedule directly to YouTube, Facebook, TikTok, LinkedIn, Instagram, Pinterest, and Twitter and grow your audience across all channels.

Start repurposing your content for free!

#4 Honeybook

HONEYBOOK IS MY CMS (CLIENT MANAGEMENT SYSTEM)

 When it comes to business tools for client management, I prefer HoneyBook as it enables me to give my clients the best experience possible.

With this small business tool, I am able to create interactive experiences that make it easy for clients to select services, e-sign contracts, send payments, and more—all in one go.

Get 20% off honeybook!

#5 2023 lunar guided calendar

FOR GOOGLE CAL

If you’ve been in a strategy session with me you will remember me saying “hold up let me check the moon”. This is what i’m referring to! This is the 1st and only Digital lunar-guided business Calendar & Schedule designed to help soulful, creative, and multi-passionate entrepreneurs navigate their emotions, mindset, and energy with the changing moon phases, all by the touch of their fingertips.

Get the calendar

Check out all of our business tools here.

The post Top 5 Business Tools for Small Business appeared first on Kayla Winter.

What is a brand voice?

Your brand voice can be summed up as your brand’s personality. But what does this mean? Depending on your business, your brand personality may be synonymous with your own. However, while many people have a brand that is of themselves, it may not represent all parts of themselves, and the brand voice should personify the brand specifically. Think of it this way: Who do you want your brand to be?

Who you want your brand to be will also depend on your target audience. You have a choice here to be very general, but research shows that branding toward a specific demographic will raise traffic more consistently than generalized marketing. If your business is child care, your brand voice may be cheerful, but also sensible. On the other hand, if your business is in the entertainment industry, you may want your brand voice to feel exciting and urgent to your consumers.

Brand voice is different from brand tone for the simple fact that the brand tone changes according to circumstance, but brand voice stays constant. If you are celebrating a milestone, your brand tone may grow more excited, but your brand voice should still be apparent. The same goes for any unfortunate announcements or situations where you may need to use a more calm, consoling tone, your brand voice should be what lets the readers/viewers know that it is your brand speaking.

How do I know which style of brand voice is best for my business?

Let’s take what we’ve learned about brand voice and apply it to your business! The most valuable thing you can do when establishing a brand voice is to be authentic. This makes it a lot easier to build a sustainable customer base that keeps coming back for a service or product that they believe in.

If you think you haven’t yet developed a brand voice for your company, think again! If you have already been in operation, or you have a vision for your company, your brand voice is in there somewhere. The first step in establishing your brand voice would be to look at all parts of your business from your social media presence, to your website, to all of the customer-facing aspects that may be involved. What comes to mind? Look for feelings that come to mind when you review your business such as reliable, friendly, sassy, straightforward, whimsical, or no-nonsense. Pick 3-5 things, and those together are the start of your brand voice.

The other thing to consider is… who are you talking to? Your target audience should play another huge role in how you establish your brand voice. If your customers would respond positively to a joke or two, then humor should absolutely play a part in your overall brand voice. Alternatively, if your audience is looking to your brand for facts and information, you may want to leave the jokes out of it. Is this starting to make sense? I hope so!

How do I build a brand voice?

Now that you have established what you want your brand voice to sound like, how do you implement it into your brand across the board? It’s important to be consistent across all areas of your business because consistency builds trust and trust, my friends, converts to sales. Making sure your brand voice is consistent should be easy if you stick to the previously-mentioned authenticity, and now your business has its own personality!

The brand voice is the centerpiece of your marketing strategy, and everything else will be built around this. You will want to make sure that your brand voice is constant through all social media posts, emails, flyers, promotions, and website pages. Once the copy is in line with your brand voice, you may want to make sure that your brand colors are consistent with your brand voice as well. Colors play a big role in marketing strategy and picking colors that complement your brand voice is essential.

If you have a brand catchphrase or slogan, this should go hand-in-hand with your overall brand voice. The same is true for your business logo and your brand colors should be applied across the board. One tip for consistent branding is to wear your brand colors in any photos that you plan to use on social media or on your site, it makes everything so much more cohesive and visually appealing. In the marketing world, all of these parts come together to form your brand style guide.

Overall, your brand voice, aka the personality of your business, should be a voice that attracts your perfect clients and is easy for you to keep up with!

The post Finding your Brand Voice appeared first on Kayla Winter.

How do I write an About Me page for my website?

For most people, it can be difficult to write about themselves and who they are. It may help to frame things from a different perspective! Think about a time when you were looking for a product or service for yourself, and when reading about the company, you found something in their About Us Page that caused you to choose their specific company over the others. That company effectively used its About Page to market to you – their target audience! Interesting, right?

Now, how can YOU write an about page that works in the same way? A good start would be with the basics. Who are you? What is your role in the company? What are some things that you love about life? These may seem like elementary questions, but from the answers, you can craft an about page that tells readers exactly what they need to know about your business. Your about page can attract the perfect customers for you, and you can create lasting relationships.

You may find yourself wondering if you should omit or include information on your about page specifically to gain a broader audience, which sounds good at first. However, it’s crucial that any statements made on your about page are authentic to you and your brand. Duplicity wouldn’t be the right foot to set out on when trying to launch, grow, and scale your business. If there are any customers that read your about us page and decide that, based on that information, you are not a good fit, it will be for the best. Customers that love your brand because of who you are should be your target audience!

What should I write on my about page?

Most businesses started with a story, and a lot of those stories are the reason that these businesses function the way that they do. Plus, everyone loves a good backstory. So, how much of that should be included in your about page? There is a fine line between telling all of the important details and writing a short novel, so you want to make sure that most of the information you include is helpful or useful to your brand.

Keeping your about us page short enough to maintain the reader’s attention, while still providing insight into who you are can be a tricky balance. One thing to consider is how many people are on your team and what needs to be featured on your about us page. If there are more than two team members, it makes sense to keep the bios short and sweet. On the other hand, if you are the only one being featured on your about page, you have more freedom to include more information. You may also use this space to include personal photos that may not be part of your branding.

Your about page is also a great place to list any special certificates or credentials that you may have. Depending on your industry, your customers may want to see that you have the education and experience to back up the services that you are offering, and this allows them to see all the details in one place. You may also let your customers know what to expect when they book with or buy from you. This provides insight into your process and an opportunity to build trust when you deliver on these promises.

What to write about me examples?

Your type of business and target audience should be the final piece of the puzzle when determining what you write on your about page. If your business is more of a personal service such as private tutoring, you may want to include why you love doing what you do and what got you started. It may also help to be a bit more personal so that your customers get a good feel of the you behind what you do.

However, if your business is more white-collar, you may want to stick to the basics of who you are, your role, your credentials, and what services you offer. This is not to say that readers don’t care about who you are, but if your backstory doesn’t play a part in why you do what you do, it may be better to leave it off.

For businesses like funeral homes, you may want to consider being brief, but showing compassion, so that people in search of your services feel comforted and welcome. If you are an event coordinator, you may want to tell about how organized you can be in and out of the workplace, so your readers rest assured in your ability to handle a lot of moving parts. These, of course, are just examples of the types of things you may want to include in your about page.

Generally, most about pages land somewhere in the middle, and I’ve created a template of questions that I ask my client when I’m putting together their about pages. I do not always use these answers verbatim, but more of a general outline for things to think about when telling your customers who you are. Here are the things that I ask:

1. How do you serve others?
   1. 1-3 sentences here.
      1. Example: I perform ___________ for ____________ and I provide _______________ services for ____________.
2. Why should they care?
   1. 1-3 sentences here. This should describe what benefit #1 has for them.
      1. Example: I can help you ____________ your ____________ with my ____________ in _________ days.
3. Who are YOU?
   1. 3-6 sentences here.
      1. Tell me how you relate to others.
      2. example: I find joy in ____________ and I will never say no to __________. I am my best self when ___________ and I make this a priority!
      3. For this, don’t be afraid to be unique or even not unique. This section helps people relate to the YOU behind what you do.

I hope this page helped you decide what you want your customers to know about you! Showing up as yourself is one of the best ways to reach your target audience. Visit KaylaWinter.me for more advice on how to launch, grow, and scale your business!

The post How to Write your About Page appeared first on Kayla Winter.

Short answer. Yes!

Email marketing is still one of the first things I ask potential clients about. Do you have an email list? Are you using it? Do you use segments or tags? I like to know if they know their open rate and more importantly their click-through rate. Why? Because all of their answers help me to make informed decisions about how to manage their email list moving forward and how much work I need to put into their list. 

Having a high open rate is amazing, but it is useless if you have a low click-through rate. Having thousands of subscribers is great but a list with no segments means you are not personalizing your content enough and you may have higher rates of unsubscribes, unengaged audiences, or worse SPAM complaints. But alas, I could talk about how to optimize your email list and get a better return on the time you spend writing emails but today’s blog post is about how to start an email list. 

How do I start building my email list?

The very first thing I advise new businesses is to start with an email list. To get started you need to sign up with an email service provider. There are many email service providers out there and I have used so many of them. There are only four that I recommend though, I will go into more detail about that in a little bit. Once you have created your account you can build your first opt-in form. The great thing about creating an opt-in form is that you can do this without having a website. Most email service providers also have landing pages you can customize to accept email subscriptions. 

How do I get people to opt-in to my email list?

This is a question I hear a lot, and it is a good one! You need to offer them something in return for their email address and it needs to be relevant to the types of emails they can expect from you. Here are a few examples that I personally offer:

1. Want to know what the Top 5 most profitable niche categories are? 
   1. This is a two-page PDF guide that is quick and easy to digest.
2. Maximize your efficiency while using Google Chrome
   1. This is a much longer PDF file that has 15 of my favorite Chrome extensions!

I help my clients to create profit and maximize efficiency so these emails are perfect for my target audience! You could also set up a welcome series containing tips, tricks, and guides and offer an email guide to your new subscribers. This will be a series of three to five emails that gives them new information automatically upon sign up, one email per day.

What kind of emails do I send and how often should I send them?

In the beginning, I would start small. Meaning one email every two weeks. Give yourself a few months to get used to it and then up your frequency to one email per week. I have some clients that email once per week and some that email twice a day every day. Both work. There is not a single answer that applies to all businesses in all verticals. You have to first get used to being consistent and second, begin to notice patterns. For example, when your email frequency changes from twice a month to four times a month are you getting a lot more unsubscribes? If the answer is no you should stick with the weekly frequency for a few months and then decide if you want to increase your frequency again. 

The types of emails you send to your audience will be based on the type of business that you are running. If you are selling physical products your emails will likely be featuring products and giving customers coupons that they only have access to through emails. If you are a content creator your emails would be directing your subscribers either to a single blog, video, podcast, or one email would point subscribers to several different pieces of content you have made, both old and new content can be used here. Again I have seen both work very well! 

Think of your entire email like one big call to action. What are you asking your subscriber to do? Are you updating them on your life and building connections, hoping that they click one of your links to drive traffic to a blog post, or selling them a product or service? Every email should have a purpose. I like to work with my clients to plan email content the same way we would plan blog, video, or podcast content.

The last tip I have for someone who is starting their first email list is to sit down once a month and schedule emails for the entire month. Just take this to-do item off your plate and be done with it.

If you want help with this part of the process I would be happy to talk to you about an email management service, just click here to schedule a discovery call with me and I will take this task off of your plate!

Flodesk vs. Klaviyo vs. Mail Chimp vs. ConvertKit

So the four email service providers I would recommend are Flodesk, ConvertKit, Mail Chimp, and Klaviyo. Yes, I have used each one extensively. And no, I do not have a favorite. Here’s the deal it really depends on the product or service my client creates as to which email service provider I would recommend. Here are a few pros and cons of each along with why I would recommend each.

Should I use Flodesk?

I would suggest you start an email list using Flodesk if you are a content creator who does not sell many of your own products. 

Things I like about Flodesk

• Price is set in stone. Does not change based on subscriber count.
• Very easy to use.
• Very simple to create a beautiful email.
• Very easy to create opt-in forms and automations.
• NEW feature checkout allows seamless checkout and segmentation from the cart.
• Women-owned business.

Things I dislike about Flodesk

• Reporting could be better
• The platform is a work in progress meaning updates are happening often, this is also something I like

Should I use ConvertKit?

I would suggest ConvertKit if you are a content creator and you want access to in-depth reporting, and basic testing features.

Thinks I like about ConvertKit

• Easy enough to navigate.
• Easy to use reporting.
• Easy to use opt-in form builder.
• Easy to add forms to websites.

Things I dislike about ConvertKit

• Their email designer is glitchy and sensitive for both email templates and email creation in general.
• Their opt-in forms are not easy to customize and do not scale well on mobile.
• Only a few design options as it related to email layouts.
• Price increases as you add more subscribers. 

Should I use Klaviyo?

I would suggest Klaviyo if you own an eCommerce store, sell courses, or you want to utilize complex reporting to inform decisions.

Things I like about Klaviyo

• Very easy to use form builder.
• Very easy to use drag and drop email design tool.
• Amazing automation capabilities. 
• Ability to perform complex tasks based on customer behavior.

Things I dislike about Klaviyo

• Overall dashboard and menus can be hard to navigate until you learn the platform.
• Only a few design options as it relates to fonts and layouts.
• Price increases as you add more subscribers.

Should I use Mail Chimp?

I would suggest Mail Chimp for a small eCommerce website or starter small businesses. I say this because the price is right, at free until you reach 2000 subscribers, and you can learn about your email sending preferences before investing in another email service provider. Years ago if you signed up for a free Mail Chimp account you had access to many features that paid accounts have but as Mail Chimp gains more and more customers those options are quickly fading. For example, you can no longer schedule emails or automate a welcome email on the free version of Mail Chimp. Let’s look at some pro’s and con’s.

Things I like about Mail Chimp

• Email design options are great.
• Easy for a beginner to learn how to send emails.
• Free for beginners.

Things I dislike about Mail Chimp

• When manipulating text the text box often glitches causing spacing and sizing issues.
• New free accounts have very limited options. Smart business decisions on their part but not great for new users.
• Reporting could be better. 
• Price increases as you add more subscribers.

Alright. I hope that answers your questions about starting an email list as a beginner. Please let me know in the comments below if you have any more questions! If you decide to create an account with Flodesk, don’t forget to use my affiliate link here to get 50% off your monthly rate for the first year! 

The post How to start an email list appeared first on Kayla Winter.