A few months ago, I was at a conference and the keynote was delivered by one of my favourite entrepreneurs, Michele Romanow, the CEO of ClearCo and Dragon from Dragon’s Den.
She said a lot of things that resonated but the one thing she said that I’ll never forget is that entrepreneurs (side note: you’re an entrepreneur, make sure you’re thinking like one) should be making data-driven decisions. Let’s talk about this.
There are many days that I sit with entrepreneurs from all industries and we talk about what’s not working. I recently had a client who told me how yes, they remembered last week when I said that putting ad spend into the radio ad they’d been running for 8 weeks without a single sale was the most willful disregard for data I’d ever seen, but that they couldn’t stop themselves.
When they had stopped talking and took a breath I leaned in, looked them in the eye, and asked them point-blank…
“Why? Why on earth are you giving that radio station your hard-earned money?”
And their answers bounced between two very predictable places.
- Doesn’t everyone advertise on the radio? Isn’t that the pinnacle of advertising? (Oh yes, last week, in 2022, I had a client make this statement.)
- The sales rep said he’d give me some free air time and a great deal.
Let’s dive in, shall we?
My response is always – WHAT DOES THE DATA TELL YOU? (I’m copy-shouting. I know. But this is a point I’d love to be able to really impress upon you and if I was speaking live, my hands would be flailing around and there might be a hint of scary intensity in my eyes.)
Knowing where I’m going next, their response is usually, “Yes, but–“
Full stop. “WHAT DOES THE DATA TELL YOU?” (By this point I’m losing my patience and I’m afraid it’s written all over my face, but I’m on a mission.)
The data told this entrepreneur that because he had ZERO sales from an 8-week ad spend, that a) his people weren’t actually listening to the radio and b) he had a huge problem saying NO.
Your data isn’t lying. So why are you making excuses for it?
If you’re new here, you might not have heard of my ‘passionate’ stance on activities that have no contributions to my bottom line. Some might think it’s controversial, but again, I’d challenge you to examine the data. Activities like:
- Facebook Takeovers – when was the last time the data came back on a takeover that said you’re earning a decent ROI? Or if you host one, what’s your goal? Your strategy? Sure, they can work but remember the goal…growth and time spent that has a clear path to ROI.
- Newsletter Swaps – Can you guarantee the person on the other end has the same readers? That they’re doing your book justice? That their newsletter is just as jazzy as yours? No, you can’t. But you could be! Keep scrolling to find out how.
- Organic Facebook Content – this can go either way. If you’ve got good data, carry on. But if you’re drowning in silence you need to either build a strategy that is singularly focused on Facebook or let it fall to a low priority marketing level. You can no longer have your cake and eat it to with social media. You have to understand the algorithm, trust your insight data, and play within those boundaries or you’re just treading water. And remember, treading water isn’t a good use of your time.
- Your Facebook Ads are getting clicks but they’re not converting on your landing page. What’s the data telling you here? You have 500 clicks on an ad, but only 5 downloads. There’s something wrong with your cover or your blurb or the connection between the ad and the landing page. But what do we do? Blame Facebook ads, throw our hands up, and quit them? Nah. We need to examine the data and iterate each of those data points until something connects.
So, this may feel harsh. And yes, it kind of is. But here’s what I’m trying to impress upon you. The importance of running your writing business like a CEO in order to grow and thrive. Or if that doesn’t fit for you, like her or not, I always say to myself when faced with a decision to make, WWND? What Would Nora Do? Nora of the Nora Roberts fame LOL. There are many posts out there about her business structure and operating systems. I highly recommend you track one down and dive in.
I’d also check in with my gut and my mission statement and then TRUST BOTH OF THEM. They are giving you data as well.
Back to WWND? She’d look at the data and decide with her business mind. Saying yes to everyone and ignoring the data only keeps us inside an endless loop of frustration. And I don’t want that for you. I want you to thrive. To earn that income you’ve always wanted.
Make partnerships with authors that make sense and make these partnerships with a clear strategy and end goal in mind.
You want to join a charity anthology? I think that’s incredibly wonderful. However, who is making the decisions? What are the plans? How are you marketing the book? How can you control the outcome? Are the expectations reasonable and do they take you away from your projects that can move the needle? How much time and money will you need to contribute? Are your business values in line with the values of the creator of the project? Have you done one before and been miserable or the data you got back wasn’t showing any growth? Make CEO decisions about your partnerships and the projects you get involved with.
I’ll leave you with one final analogy because I love a good analogy.
Think of one of your favourite brands. I’ll use the example of a Canadian brand I love, Smash & Tess. Smash & Tess have a newsletter and you never see another romper company being given space inside the newsletter. It just would never even cross their mind. “Hey, buy our rompers but here’s a romper from Company X you might love too.” The client clicks that romper and never comes back to buy the Smash & Tess romper. Sale lost.
However, there are plenty of influencers out there who have Smash & Tess inside their newsletters. And retail partners who do as well. These are strategic brand partnerships that come with oodles of data and agreements.
And in turn, Smash & Tess will share that influencer’s post to their following and give them a commission for talking to their audience about why they love Smash & Tess rompers. It’s the reason I own a few of them. I was influenced.
But you don’t see them giving space inside their newsletter to other romper designers, because it doesn’t make sense. It’s confusing. The data coming back tells them so.
Pro tip: Data isn’t always coming at you in number form. It’s feedback. It’s reviews. It’s intuition.
What if you swapped newsletters with only authors you LOVE, have read, and without a doubt, you know their readers are your exact readers? Then a swap would start to make sense. What if before the swap you have a form to fill in to gather this kind of data. Data like how often do you email your list, how segmented is your list, who is your reader, what platform performs the best for them, would you be willing to commit to a contract? You give them all the social posts and the copy, and they use it in their newsletter and socials, on certain days, at certain times for a certain length of time. What if you send that swap to a segment of your list that asked for them. ONLY that segment. Terrifying? Perhaps. Clear marketing strategy? 100%.
Make sure you aren’t saying yes just because you can’t say no. Say yes because the DATA tells you this author is a potential long-term industry partner. You two can work together towards a common goal that can be mutually beneficial.
I’ll leave it there. It’s a heavy load to think about. And truly, whatever you decide it’s the right path for you. But start to make strategic decisions.
CEO decisions.
Because you ARE the CEO of your business! A business that can thrive just like any other business if we start to treat it like one.
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