Why do some people make big progress fast while the rest of us take longer to find our path to success?

When Chontelle Fossey joined the Inner Circle, I kept my eye on her.

Chontelle owns The Lily Pot, a fast growing business in New Zealand where she sells and ships live house plants right from her home… that’s right, live!

Chontelle the perfect example of what’s possible when you focus on your goals, show up and actually ‘do the work’ to make them happen.

I first noticed Chontelle in our $15 Ads Made Easy week. Even though she worked in the opposite time zone, she was showing up and doing the work. I was intrigued, because she was getting good results from her ad tests even though she was selling live plants to a tiny audience.

When she joined the Inner Circle, I was watching.

In her first 5 months of being a member of the Inner Circle, Chontelle had a total transformation of her business and has even been able to pay herself  for 7 weeks in a row.

Chontelle’s generosity and passion for helping our other members to grow was infectious as she shared her progress in our Inner Circle Members group.

Not wanting others to struggle with the overwhelm, she regularly shares her wins and explains the methods behind how she achieves them. 

I was so impressed with Chontelle, I asked her to record a podcast with me so she could share the steps she took to reach her goals quickly. We recorded our episode a year ago. Since then, Chontelle has continued to make huge progress. She’s left her job to work full time on her business.
I know many of you are hoping to do the same. It’s possible for all of us.

You can listen to my episode with Chontelle here or read on to learn the 6 steps that brought her results faster.

“I’m quite a methodical person and that’s probably why I really connected with the inner Circle because everything was set out in short modules. I just worked through that, but I found it was through 6 clear steps that I took which made the biggest difference.”

Chontelle’s 3 steps to making big progress in your business:

1. Switch your email provider to Klaviyo and set up automations

Chontelle switched from a free version of Mailchimp to a paid Klaviyo plan to send her customer emails.
This can be scary for many business owners as they transition from a free plan to paid, but for Chontelle the choice was easy.
“I’m very much a person who likes to try it, analyze it, see if it works, and if it doesn’t, be done with it. My favorite quote is “if you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always got.”
After making the switch, Chontelle began automating her business by setting up a welcome series flow and creating a popup for her website.
Right off the bat Chontelle saw an increase in sales from her welcome series and was able to create more “set and forget” automations that created more sales, and saved her time.
“I’d seen pop ups and things on websites, but didn’t really understand the long game that they played and so understanding that and setting that up for my business really grew my email list.”

2. Know how to get consistent traffic to your website

Did you know that for every 100 people that visit your website, only 1-2 people will actually buy? And that’s only if you’re attracting the right audience!
This was a huge light bulb moment for Chontelle.
“My traffic wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t matching the sales that I wanted.”
She knew that in order to increase her sales, she needed to spend her time doing the work to drive consistent traffic to her website.
Chontelle took control.
She immersed herself in our Traffic Bootcamp modules and implemented the strategies.
She watched and analyzed her traffic, making sure that every action she took was to drive more traffic to her website. She stayed focused and based her decisions on the her traffic number each week.

3. Invest in paid ads

Chontelle is a strong believer in the power of organic traffic, but she also knew that in order to grow and scale her business, she would need to implement a paid ads strategy.
And it all started with Ads made easy.
“When I first started that I naturally saw an increase in sales. But what I loved about it was actually understanding how to.”
Because Chontelle understood how to make the ads work for her, she spent the time analyzing the data, then tweaking and modifying her ads to further drive traffic to her website.
“It was about spending the least amount I possibly could to get the most traffic from my ads to my site. Because if you’re going to spend money, you may as well have something that works for you.”
When she was ready to learn more, Chontelle took a step further by booking a call with an ecommerce coach from our Inner Circle program who specializes in the Facebook ads platform.

Here’s what she learned:

• Don’t reinvent the wheel.
  See what your competitors or big brands are doing with their ads by utilizing the Meta Ads Library. A resource that allows you to search all ads that are currently running across Meta platforms. Take inspiration that you can apply to your own ad copy or images.

   

   

• Stop people from scrolling.
  Test images in your ads to see what stops people from scrolling and gets them to click through to your website. After you find the best scroll-stopping images, test copy that will grab their attention, and get them clicking.

   

   

• Setup controlled tests.
  “Test a couple of different ads to see what really connects and what you can get your biggest bang for buck.”
  Learn how to set up, test your ads, and read the results, so that you can truly know which ad will perform best for your customer and get you the best value for money.

• Track your key metrics… and not just your sales
  It’s common in our business to focus on one number and one number only… sales.
  Chontelle approaches things a little differently.
  Instead of dwelling on the number of sales on a low sales week, Chontelle makes sure she checks all of her key metrics to find the wins, and also identifies where she could “double down” and take action.
  “You have a strategy to go to these numbers and solve the problem. You have to look at it from a long term perspective and sales is only one measure. If your other steps are tracking in the right direction, the sales will eventually follow, and may be better by spending the time getting things right before those sales come.”
  Here are the key metrics Chontelle tracks every week:

   

  • Email signups
  • Email signup rate
  • Facebook followers
  • Website traffic
  • Average order value
  • Website conversion rate

• Prioritize sending weekly emails
  Before joining the Inner Circle, Chontelle’s email marketing strategy was almost non-existent.
  She would send an email one week, then forget for the following two weeks.
  It wasn’t a priority.
  “Now I consistently send two to three a week and it is like a cash machine. I send an email and the sales follow”
  Chontelle also attributes her success to using a mix of two different types of emails:

   

  • Nurture Emails
    Nurture emails give back to your customer by providing them with value.
    If you continually send out “salesy” emails and your customer is not looking to buy at that time, they will stop opening your emails. This can hurt your email open rates and you might find your emails going straight into your customers’ spam folder.
    Chontelle send emails that link to her blog posts emails with plant care tips that provide value to her customers. For example: “It’s Winter, where do you now place your plants in your house?”
  • Sales Emails
    Each week Chontelle focuses on a specific product, collection or offer and follows this Reliable Revenue sending strategy.

     

    • Send one email to your full list.
    • The second email will be retargeting those who didn’t open. Focus on a different time of day to try to capture those who didn’t see it the first time.
    • The third email will be retargeting anyone who either opened or clicked on the first email but who didn’t buy. This is where the sales happen.

• Show up live on Facebook
  In this busy world that we live in, it’s common for posts to go unseen and get lost in the feed.
  Chontelle decided that it wasn’t enough for her to just post photos of plants and memes. When analyzing her content, she realized that the photos that got the highest engagement were always the photos that she was in.
  She needed to show up and put a face to her business in order to connect with her customers.
  And so she began to go live on Facebook.
  “I did 2 lives last week and sold $700 in products from those lives and I literally sat there, did a live for 5 minutes, looked at my app to see how many people were going to my website and it was like a cash machine.”

  Chontelle’s tips for going live on Facebook:

  • Choose a set day and time each week to go live.
    By showing up consistently your audience is more likely to join.
    Use your analytics to find out when your audience is the most active and go live at that time. Chontelle found that 8pm on a Thursday worked best for her.
  • Show off your product.
    Customers love to see your products up close and personal. Often website images make it hard to see the size or color of a product, so lives can be a great way to give your audience a better look and more of a reason to buy.
  • Give them a reason to buy
    Share a sale or special offer with your live audience to create scarcity, urgency or exclusivity. Don’t forget to ask for the sale.

Chontelle came into 2022 with a fire in her belly and a desire to grow her business.

While working at her full time job, with limited time to spare, Chontelle was able to show up and focus on these few tasks that would truly move the needle in her business.

I hope that you can onboard some of these strategies in your own business to help you fast track your business growth.

To check out the amazing business Chontelle has created and for all your plant tips and tricks, be sure to follow The Lily Pot or visit https://thelilypot.co.nz/