BZB201 Module 11: Email

Self Paced

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How about having a calendar that includes what content you're producing, what content you're promoting, what content is making you money, guest appearances, and all your social media needs . . . This is what we're creating with the Clusters Digital Marketing Calendar.

Each of the spreadsheets in the package manages one part of our marketing. Each of them serves to send information to our calendar. Each of them serves to organize our world so we can be marketing the right things at the right time. So we can make more money. And so we can be better stewards to our community.

It's important you read these steps. Because not everything is face value on the spreadsheets. Some cells are automatically filled when you write in others. Some are used to calculate totals in the monthly reporting doc. If you hqve questions, we'll have one video for each spreadsheet to show you how to use it and give examples.

Have fun!






This is where we start. Head to one of the Monthly Promotions Calendar tabs (October for example). In the top section relabel the types of social media posts you put out. When you do that the entire spreadsheet will update with the kinds of posts you've indicated AND when you're going to put out that kind of post. We want to do them 9 times / day so you're going to have to learn how to use Facebook's scheduler.

(If you're a deal blogger who puts out 70 posts/day, then use this matrix for just one post every three hours. We're trying to learn, not necessarily track every post.)

We've got 8 examples in there now. Think to what you post on Facebook. . . can you divide the types of things you post into 8 categories? These categories are designed to teach us what works on your page. So the types of categories isn't important. . . just make sure we can learn something. For example:

Inspirational * DIY * Post With URL in Comments * Image Only * Coupon * Video * Shared Video * Contest * Post about Someone Else in the Niche * Evergreen Content * Time Sensitive Content * Stock Product Image * Self Taken Product Image . . .

After each post each social update, make sure you fill in the reach, likes, comments, etc. . so we can start to track what really works. Ideally at the end of Month 1 we've learned something about the audience and ready to change the types of posts for Month 2. . .

We're going to take a few months to really ramp up your social media. So pick 8 this month. We're going to change this every month but we want to start learning what kinds of things our audience engages with. Not sure how long it will take but in 3 - 4 months you should really see much great reach and engagement. But stick to the program.

Why we do this Step . . The Strategy

So, this calendar is going to help us understand what works and what doesn't. In the next 11 steps we're going to help you figure out what you should be promoting. . . ie products, high paying pages, guest blog posts, Matrix content . . .

The best method by which we promote this content is what we're trying to figure out. Do we use quotes? graphics? Videos? Product Shots? Tutorials? You're going to be filling up your calendar with a ton of great stuff. Use the Monthly Promotions Calendar to help figure out what's working. Then take the "types" that are working from one month to the next and add new stuff until you get the perfect mix.


Next we work on building the Niche Universe. If we're going to start marketing, we better understand the landscape. On the "Niche Universe" Tab, find out who all the big players are in your niche. There are columns for all the major outlets online. Go there and see who they are. Someone in your audience will be familiar with everyone on the list. Many will have read their blogs, bought their books, taken their courses. This is the start of our Joint Venture list. Our Guest Blog Post List. Our Podcast guest list. This is also a great place to get ideas, see what others are doing, stay current with your niche.

Why we do this Step . . The Strategy

Along with the research that goes into finding these Influencers in our niche, we want to transfer the ones that will give us a guest blog/podcast/interview opportunity to the Pursue and Schedule Tab. That's where the power of this entire program lies. When you see post/products or ideas on their sites that you like, add them to the Idea Factory Tab. To the Monthly Promotions Calendars add any conferences or live events that they are speaking at that make sense for your audience. Include the website name, hashtag etc. . . The events that these influencers are speaking are possible events for you to speak at. Add to the Admin Tab the dates you'll need to apply to speak. The people who sponsor these events could also sponsor us, so add them to the Promotions Calendar. Make sure to send a Thank You Tweet prior to that event for supporting the community . . add that to the Monthly Promotions Calendar. Stay in the stream.
It's time to activate the Idea Factory. This is going to serve as our editorial calendar, but it's going to have more purpose. This is where the power of the digital product comes in. Now everyone on your team can, when they have an idea, add it to the list. Note down comments from blog posts and social media, answers to survey questions, concerns in Amazon reviews, products from other Influencers blogs (see the Niche Universe Tab). We want to find the nearest related keyword from your Keyword Theme Map and put it in the next column. We don't want to just have ideas, we want ideas that to generate traffic. Then there are columns for what category the topic would fit, the month that Google Trends say it would be popular, a link to the finished product and indication of whether you've written it or not.

Why we do this Step . . The Strategy

Now it is time to fit these ideas into the monthly Promotions Calendars. If you searched a topic and it is relevant for July, sort the spreadsheet by month and see what other July ideas you have. Figure out when you're going to get those written and how you are going to promote and add them to the July Promotions Calendar. Add blog posts to the section of the Monthly Promotions Calendar at the top of each week. There's a large, loose box for the ideas, what you're going to email out, what events you're helping promote, etc. .
This is basically for new traffic. Some of these ideas may be great supporting posts for keywords you're trying to rank for. When you put the idea into the calendar (for example July 13t), add to the June Tab that you're going to make a Coming Soon graphic featuring the things you know about July. Add this to the email list at the top of the June sheet as well so you're sure to tell your audience about it.
The Monthly Reporting tab has some auto-filled places and some manual. The top part is going to automatically pull from the Monthly Promotion Calendars (October for example). Those will be totals. On the bottom of each Monthly Promotions Calendar you'll find the breakdown of your social media engagement by type if you want more detail. Down the spreadsheet are categories for your social media followers, email open rates, etc. . . Add in your own measurements. Then you'll be able to calculate bench marks, growth rates, etc. . . And when a Sponsor comes looking for data, you'll have much more than just page views. You'll have a great deal of useful information.

Why we do this Step . . The Strategy

The real value in this monthly reporting tab is the digital part. Assign a VA the task of updating your email open rate each month and you'll have that info. It also makes for great information in strategy meetings. Beyond analytics, you can see what is growing and what isn't. I would suggest tracking your best YouTube videos. It's really hard to see over time how many views they have on any given day. We were recently astounded to see old videos of a client site were still getting 5,000 view / month)

This is the powerhouse of the pages. There are people all over the world who want what you have. They are congregating around other people in your niche. We want to get in front of those people. Those are the clusters we seek.

So on this sheet we pursue podcast guest opportunities, guest blog post opportunities, speaking engagements, webinar teaching opportunities. This is where we get to get in front of people who need what we have. We get incoming links, we get authority, we gain assets and products. Everything you need should be on that page to execute, follow-up, etc. Once we actually get a date for our guest appearance. . . we move it to the Monthly Promotions Tab.

Why we do this Step . . The Strategy

The first thing we want to look for are the hard coded events in our business. We want to move our opportunities to the Monthly Promotions Calendars. You want to have both pre-sell hype stuff and the post marketing stuff. That means building in those tweets, updates, hashtags and keywords that revolve. Also we need to determine what we're promoting in the guest appearances. Are there conferences somewhere in the world based on your niche? A Sewing Conference? Scuba Diving Summit? Home Show? We need to add these to the Promotions calendars. The Sponsors of these events are future sponsors for us. Then on the day of the event, add 'check Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat and Facebook' for commenting opportunities.

Why we do this Step . . The Strategy

To our Monthly Promotions Calendars, we need to add our Marketing Matrix responsibilities. Take a look at who you're helping promote for the month and schedule in the promotion. For the people promoting you in the Matrix, give them a copy of your Promotions Calendar for the month. Let them help promote your money pages, events, guest appearances, etc. . .
Another thing that we need to start doing is turning our normal blog content into products for sale. Our audience is hungry for more information and a different way to consume it. Many people turn their blogs into books, anthologies, courses, guides. . . For example, come up with an outline for a book and fill it in on the spreadsheet. If you actually have content to cover that line's subject, put the url in to that content. Otherwise, endeavor to write a blog post about each of those things, fill in the url of the completed work and get ready to write a book. Then when you've got the sheet filled up, hire a VA to go scrape the posts, compile them, edit them and put together your next book.

Why we do this Step . . The Strategy

Here's the key to getting this done. Use this page to cross reference content in your Sponsor Log and Idea Factory. See if you can kill two birds by answering a question and simultaneously working on your book. Head over to Quora and search for your book chapter topics. If you can answer questions over there, you'll expand your reach and work on getting the book done. Just put the url in to the finished answer. Consider writing these answers on LinkedIn Publishing if they don't fit your site. Write * Reach * Complete
This is the Tab where we track our keywords and audit our campaigns. What we really want to know is how well did we do after writing the content. For instance how well did we rank for our keywords during our holiday campaign? Copy and paste your Webmaster Tools keyword reports every 90 days (and after campaigns) so we can see how well we're doing for each of our intended keywords and we can put together a plan for the next season/time period.

Why we do this Step . . The Strategy

The Fourth thing we want to look at is our Keyword Tracker information. At the end of each campaign/season we should be going to the Promotion Calendars a year out and filling in what needs to be promoted. The Christmas Pages (for example) that got a lot of traffic last year should be scheduled early and often in the schedule. Then the pages that weren't on page one probably need new blog posts written linking them to the old. Make sure to schedule those in. That should be a good portion of the Blog Category part of your Promotion Calendar. Each year we should be writing posts that support our work the previous year and new posts to create new traffic.
Typically when we do an 80/20 review for clients it involves where the money comes from in total. Often times that means the money comes from selling coupon prints - not necessarily on one url but coupon prints in general. But in this case we want to track urls. Where are the highest traffic pages that account for 80% of our traffic? What are the pages that make 80% of our revenue? What are the pages that get the highest time-on-site? What pages are paying the highest for ads? Custom Sidebars are tracked here as well. Knowing which posts use the "recipe" sidebar means you know which posts get modified when you change the content of the sidebar. Also when you use the Sidebar Ladder Plugin (which you have access to in BC Prime) means you know which posts have that dynamic content. Calls-to-action are the last thing we track on here. Switching out the Calls-to action as time passes, holidays arrive and season change means we stay in revenue generation mode. We certainly don't want to drive traffic to Valentine posts in July. We love the idea of using redirects for calls-to-action. That means setting up a redirect on your blog with something like the Quick Redirects Plugin. You'd create yoursite.com/recipebook for example when your call to action is your recipe book. That link, when clicked, might go to your 101 Recipe book. That way when you create your 201 version, all you have to do is change the redirect in one place and every call-to-action leads to the new book. Great for things like YouTube Descriptions that are painful to edit.

Why we do this Step . . The Strategy

There is no better way to improve your income than to drive traffic to the pages that are making us money. But without the discipline of tracking that and promoting them, it's just a pipe dream. On your Monthly Promotional Calendars, we want to make sure this is one of the things you're promoting socially each day. Figure out how you can be promoting these pages. With the Promotional Calendar you'll figure out which types of marketing get the most engagement. Each week we have a minimum of 63 (7 days x 9 posts per day) posts in our Promotion Calendar. Where does the money come from? Make sure we're scheduling in the posts that are making us money according to our Affiliate Mgt Opps Tab and Onsite Ads Mgmt Tab. Also add to the calendar promotion of your products and services. Over time marry the type of promotion with the pages on this sheet. Don't forget to cross reference the Affiliate and Ads Tabs with this page.
The Sponsor Log is important for the normal reasons of keeping track of your obligations and your money. But that's just short term information. Kinda more "admin" in nature.

Why we do this Step . . The Strategy

What we really want you to do is to start thinking strategically about these posts. You get to pick the name, you get to do the keyword research. You get to link it to other articles. Build into your Promotion Calendar the date the post needs to be live and the post promotion. Also consider adding the post to the previous month's "Coming Soon" Graphic. So let's figure out what subject and title would really do the most benefit to your blog year after year after year. And what post would benefit most if it had a link from this page. Also keep track of the expiration date of your Sponsored Posts. Once your obligation is over, let's go back and freshen up the post, remove the Sponsored Post Disclaimer and get it back on Pinterest with new imagery. Treat Sponsored Posts like other strategic content . . . but get paid while you're doing it.
The Content Replay plugin is a great tool to increase your efficiency. When installed on your blog it gives you the opportunity to dictate when a blog post is published, then republished, then republished.

Why we do this Step . . The Strategy

From a trends / holidays and seasons standpoint, we want to make sure we're republishing our content each moment it is applicable. For instance, our holiday posts should be scheduled for this holiday season AND scheduled to republish next holiday season. You may have to make a duplicate Monthly Promotional Page for next year's December so you can put on the calendar when things are re-publishing AND add them to the previous month's "Coming Soon" Graphic. This time next year then, your overall content burden should be reduced giving you more time to create better content and promotion.

Why we do this Step . . The Strategy

Now's the time to use all this information to fuel your marketing plan. Head over to the Monthly Promotion Calendar you want to work on. First in the top right fill in the list of that's month's most pressing hashtags (hashtagscout.com), holidays, Google trend information and product launches you have planned. That gets the ball rolling. Then look at the next month's calendar and fill in the "Coming Soon" section at the top. We are going to turn these into emails and graphics to get in front of our audience. Then as you do the steps above you'll see the calendar fill up with new product launches, blog post publish dates, guest spots, pre and post promotion ideas, work promoting Matrix partners. The calendar should soon fill up with republish dates of successful posts from last year that need to see the light of day again, top money producing post ideas. The genius of the program is the Social Media Type Testing With all of these things we're promoting we want to know what form of promotion our audience engages with best. Stick to the types of promotion you came up with in Step 2. And at the end of the month you'll find out which promotion attempts worked best so you can change up the mix in the next month. Systems make things easier. Let's get some systems under our belts so we create leverage and can start working on other things in our business.

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