the bossbabe podcast - 71. How Community Growth Impacts Your Revenue Growth

Episode Date: January 6, 2020

We’re back with another super-actionable mini-episode of the BossBabe Podcast with our Head of Marketing, Kay Snels, and Head of Community, Kayleigh Watson. With almost 2 million followers on Instag...ram, it’s fair to say that the BossBabe team knows a thing or two about building, nurturing, and leveraging community to impact revenue growth. Tune in as Kayleigh and Kay discuss the importance of intentional relationship building, how to cultivate a long-term strategy for growing and maintaining a community, using audience feedback to guide your content creation and product development, and so much more!  If you want to build an audience that is happy to throw their credit cards at you, you’re in luck! We’re spilling all the details and sharing actionable tips that you can implement instantly.  Sign up to BossBabe’s newsletter for ambitious women: bossbabe.com/allthenews Discover how to grow your audience on Instagram by 10,000 ideal clients in 30 days: bossbabe.com/growthatinsta

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Starting point is 00:00:00 Always ask an engaging question that entices a response. Cultivate that community and differentiate yourself from your competitors by building relationships. If you want to remain at the forefront of an ever-evolving communications landscape, you need to ensure that you're listening to community. Welcome to the Boss Babe podcast, a place where we share with you the real behind the scenes of building successful businesses, achieving peak performance, and learning how to balance it all. I'm Kaye Snells, head of marketing at Boss Babe, and your host for this week's mini episode. These mini episodes are designed with you in mind. Each episode, I invite a member of Team Boss Babe. We'll talk about one topic. It could be product, sales, marketing, community, leadership. Really, it could be
Starting point is 00:00:55 anything. So consider this your weekly mini training that's very actionable, and we'd love it if you could just implement it right away. So in today's episode, I'm interviewing Kaylee again. You might recognize her from The Society or IGA because she manages those communities and I'm just really excited to have her back on because last episode we talked about how to grow your community and this episode we're diving into how community growth directly correlates with your revenue growth. So if you're excited about that, screenshot this episode and tag at bossbabe.inc and hashtag the boss babe podcast. A boss babe is unapologetically ambitious and paves the way for herself and other women to rise, keep going and fighting on.
Starting point is 00:01:42 She is on a mission to be her best self in all areas. It's just believing in yourself. Confidently stepping outside her comfort zone to create her own vision of success. Before we kick off this episode, I want to share a free resource with you. The Boss Babe Business Plan. A free workbook that's packed with expert tips and tricks, plus our personal process for making business plans work for you. Whether you're wanting to start a new business, boost your sales, or you're prepping for a big launch, this guide will help you do it the Boss Babe way. Go to bossbabe.com slash bizplan to learn more. That's B-I-Z-P-L-A-N. All right, so welcome back, Kaylee.
Starting point is 00:02:22 Thank you, Kay. I'm so excited. So last time we chatted with you about all things, how to actually grow your community and engage with your community. And this time I wanted to dive one level deeper with you. So really at Boss Babe, we believe that if you grow your community with your ideal clients, you're going to find those people who are just throwing their credit cards at you. And community growth directly relates to revenue growth. So I wanted to chat about that with you a little bit today. So let's recap. What are some ways to grow your community? Amazing. So in order to grow your community, I feel that you should base this on
Starting point is 00:03:03 two pillars, right? And that is number one, your content. And this can come down to creating engaging Facebook posts within your community. It can be via emails. It can be having a membership site or providing value via video content or trainings, right? The community aspect is actually the connection. So it's the co-creating, encouraging collaborations, connections within your community, connecting with people on live calls or at offline events, or even in the comments, in your Instagram DMs, and in your Instagram stories as well. So I would say those are the two pillars that you should base your community growth on. And you come up with a long-term strategy based on that specific to what that looks like in your
Starting point is 00:03:51 business. Okay. Amazing. So imagine everyone listened to the last episode with you. The community is growing. People want to start thinking about like, okay, now what? Right. I have this community. So let's chat about DMs. For example, people start asking you questions in DMs. How do you usually engage in DMs? Like what types of conversations do you have there? Are they pretty long spread? Like, are they over multiple weeks or months? Is it pretty quick? I would love to hear how you've been doing that. That's a very good question, Kay. I would say that you really need to focus on intentional relationship building. It's not just about responding to one DM and that's that. You
Starting point is 00:04:34 really need to nurture that relationship within your DMs or in your Instagram comments that people become familiar with you. If someone responds to your story or to a poll that you put up on your story, DM them, ask them a question. So for example, something that we do at Boss Babe is, Boss Babe is of course known for our super sassy and incredibly inspiring quotes, right? So if someone shares one of our quotes to their Instagram stories, even if they haven't DM'd us, we will DM them and say, oh my gosh, thank you so much for sharing. And the tip that I would give you is to always ask an engaging question that entices a response. So for example, let's say someone shares one of the Boss Babe quotes to their Instagram stories. Instead of just DMing them saying, thank you for sharing, I will DM them and say, thank you so much
Starting point is 00:05:22 for sharing. If you were to write a quote for the Boss Babe Instagram, what would it be? Because then it almost expects a response, right? It's the same with the podcast. Let's say someone shares a screenshot of an epic episode that they listened to on their IG stories. I will then DM them and say, I'm so thrilled to hear that you loved that episode. What were your favorite takeaways? So in a nutshell, I do believe that it comes down to really nurturing that relationship, getting to know them. It's not just about hearting their message. If someone DMs you, it's actually about engaging in a conversation with them because in the long run, if they get to know your brand and you're building that brand awareness,
Starting point is 00:06:05 it's very likely that you'll be at the forefront of their mind. And in the long run, they will turn into a paying customer. I love that. Let's take a quick pause to talk about my new favorite all-in-one platform, Kajabi. You know, I've been singing their praises lately because they have helped our business run so much smoother and with way less complexity, which I love. Not to mention our team couldn't be happier because now everything is in one place so it makes collecting data, creating pages, collecting payment, all the things so much simpler. One of our mottos at Boss Babe is simplify to
Starting point is 00:06:37 amplify and Kajabi has really helped us do that this year. So of course I needed to share it here with you. It's the perfect time of year to do a bit of spring cleaning in your business, you know, get rid of the complexity and instead really focus on getting organized and making things as smooth as possible. I definitely recommend Kajabi to all of my clients and students. So if you're listening and haven't checked out Kajabi yet, now is the perfect time to do so because they are offering boss babe listeners a 30-day free trial go to kajabi.com slash boss babe to claim your 30-day free trial that's kajabi.com slash boss babe that's really interesting because i feel like a lot of companies decide to get social
Starting point is 00:07:18 media channels but there's not really a whole strategy behind them, right? Especially when it comes to building the community. So they will use it as a place to post content and post updates about their newest products or any company updates, but there's not really that back and forth engagement and there's not that 20 back and forth DMs between someone in the community and themselves. So how do you tackle that? What
Starting point is 00:07:47 are your tips? You're so right in saying that. And my tips would definitely be to cultivate that community and differentiate yourself from your competitors by building relationships. Because like you said, a lot of companies focus on their social media channels as marketing channels, and they are, they absolutely are. However, your products and services are going to be successful if you are providing a product and building a product that provides for your ideal client if you're not actually engaging with them and asking them for feedback, asking them those questions and really getting to understand them, understand what influences them and what they want to see. So I do feel that if you want to remain at the forefront of an ever-evolving communications landscape, you need to ensure that you're listening to community. Because by listening to your community,
Starting point is 00:08:50 you'll be able to create a product that sells. And by creating a product that sells, you'll be able to drive revenue growth. And in turn, you'll be able to create social proof, which will loop back around in growing your community and again, back to your revenue growth. That's really interesting. And I want to chat a little bit more about that because there are so many metrics flying around for what does success look like when it is building your community, maintaining your community and ultimately driving revenue. So what are some of the key metrics that you would say when it comes to really driving community and revenue growth? Amazing. So I would say that there are four key metrics
Starting point is 00:09:32 when it comes to driving community, right? That is number one, how many active members do you have within your community or your audience? Number two, what is your growth rate? Are you just staying stagnant week on week? Are you declining week on week? Or in the ideal world, you'll be growing massively every single week. So really analyzing that data and seeing if you are growing and if you're not, really implementing strategies as to how you can grow your community and your audience. Number three, I would say your churn rate. Definitely have a look at the data, always be results driven, analyze the data and see, are you churning a lot of your members? So it's one thing to bring them in the door, but are you actually retaining them? Are you keeping them?
Starting point is 00:10:21 And if you're having a very high churn rate, I would say that it's not necessarily a case of your marketing or your sales, but it's your retention. And I would definitely encourage you to brainstorm and really strategize around a long-term retention strategy because you want to keep those members. You want to be providing value for them. And lastly, I would say LTV. LTV is the way to measure the lifetime value of your clients. Love those four. And I know that we will have a whole other episode with Danielle on LTV coming soon. So if you're interested in that, definitely let us know and then we'll release it. So that's very interesting. And while you were talking,
Starting point is 00:11:01 I feel like I had so many thoughts because there's kind of your not external community, but your community, let's say on your social media platforms, like your Instagram community. And then if they join your internal community, there's a whole other community strategy there, right? So it's the whole acquisition community strategy and then it's the whole retention community strategy. So can you talk a little bit about either or both and how you tackle that? Absolutely. So with regards to your acquisition, that is really creating meaningful social interaction, intentional relationship building, that's connecting with members of your audience. For example, if they DM you on Instagram, if they respond to For example, if they DM you on Instagram, if they respond to your polls, if they comment on your pictures, or if they respond to emails,
Starting point is 00:11:56 anything like that. And that's about building the brand awareness, right? Then I would say your internal retention strategy is providing value for your clients once they're in your community. Okay, so they've signed up to your online program. For example, we have an absolutely incredible IGA community or they've joined as a part of your membership. So for example, we have the society. So your retention strategy should be around how are you going to provide value once they have bought into your company and they're a part of your tribe, how are you going to keep them there? And I know we've touched on this a little bit before, but it's super crucial to actually get feedback from your members as to what they want to see. So for example, in IGA, I know that our IGA members really want to be kept up to date
Starting point is 00:12:38 with all of the algorithm changes and all of the updates on Instagram. So we will create a lot of content around that. And Natalie will dive really deep into that on the live coaching calls as well. In the society, for example, our members absolutely love the success kits. So the success kit is where we have a guest expert come in every single month and do an absolutely amazing training. And this ranges on all different topics. So this can be SEO, this can be on Pinterest, this can be on marketing, it can be on finance, it can be on branding.
Starting point is 00:13:11 And I know that that is really valued within our society. So we will always make sure that we are providing really quality success kits. Another really valuable aspect of the society is, for example, the live coaching calls, because that gives our members a chance to all connect in real life. So it's about figuring out what are those retentive levers and how can you leverage that in providing more value for your customers? I think that is so key. And I think that is very helpful. And I think a lot of our examples have been on the service side
Starting point is 00:13:46 or on the membership side, but I think it really rings true for product-based businesses as well. Like really building a community around your product. I think one example for me that comes to mind is Away. It's luggage, but they have been able to really build that brand, have a whole community around it. So I feel like those tips are really, really helpful and directly show how growing your community can also grow your revenue. I want to thank you for sharing that. And then is there anything else that we should know as a final takeaway? Yes, absolutely. So I would say in conclusion, it all comes down to three things, right? Number one, it's about intentional relationship building.
Starting point is 00:14:26 Listen to your audience and know exactly who you're talking to and create content in a way that really resonates with them. Number two, provide value. And number three, have a long-term strategy when it comes to really driving your community and your revenue growth. Love that. Thank you so much for coming on again today and sharing not only how to grow your community, but also how to grow your revenue. Because I think that ultimately, that's what we're all looking for, right? Absolutely. So if you enjoyed this episode, feel free to tag at Kay Snells and at Kaylee Jade Watson. And we would love to hear what you enjoyed and what your takeaways were. So thank you so much,
Starting point is 00:15:05 Kaylee. Thank you, Kay. If you loved this episode, please subscribe, download a few other ones, and be sure to leave us a review. I want to hear what you enjoyed, what your main takeaways were, and I also really want to know which topics you'd like us to cover next. To thank you for leaving a review, we'll send you to Boss Babe 25, which includes D25 essential resources you need for personal and professional growth. It covers everything from our favorite rituals,
Starting point is 00:15:39 books and hacks. So if you want a copy, leave us a review, screenshot your review and email it to podcast at bossbabe.com we'll send you a copy over asap and since we love instagram you can go to the hashtag the boss babe podcast and ask your question on the most recent pictures that pop up we'd love reading through all the comments and use them as inspiration for next episodes so So yeah, thank you so much for listening and I'll see you next week.

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