We’re Getting Consistent Revenue Now. Episode 202

We’re Getting Consistent Revenue Now. Episode 202

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Consistent Revenue Now

Last summer I spoke with Danielle Beauregard, owner of Fusion By Design Collars, about how she transformed her business last year. During the conversation she said “We’re getting consistent revenue now,” and the confidence in her voice made me smile.

Danielle had participated in my Reliable Revenue program in January. It is an eight week course combined with coaching, designed to get store owners bringing in predictable, reliable revenue that they can count on every month.

We only run the program once a year, and every year more store owners walk away with consistent sales and a clear plan of how they’ll grow their sales in a way that feels like they’re in control.

We’re about to start Reliable Revenue for 2024. I know this program works, and I believe every store owner should get these strategies in place so they can get set up for reliable sales every day. I thought you might like to hear what happens in the 8 weeks we work together from a member’s perspective.

Keep reading or CLICK HERE to listen

Dog Collars. But Make Them Fabulous.

Danielle makes and sells dog collars and leashes in Ottawa, Ontario. But not just any collars. Her gem-encrusted, leather works of art fetch between $300 and $700 EACH. And customers love her products. So much, in fact, that she and her staff were recently able to move out of her home and into their own workshop.

As a member of the Inner Circle, Danielle knew that building an email list was important, but she had let that fall to the bottom of her neverending to-do list. As her business crept steadily past six figures, she had a sneaking suspicion that she was leaving money on the table by not sending emails. And that nagging feeling that all e-commerce store owners have that the rug could be yanked out from underneath us at any moment. If Facebook went down, if our accounts got hacked, how would we reach our customers? Would we even have a business anymore?

 

“You don’t own your website, you don’t own your e-commerce platform, you certainly don’t own your assets that are on Facebook or Instagram. And I was relying heavily, heavily on social media at the time to get the bulk of our revenue.”

 

So last January Danielle made the eight-week commitment to join Reliable Revenue and put the systems in place that would allow her to quit working so hard for each and every sale.

A year later she was a true believer in the power of consistent email marketing.

Reliable Revenue: A Transformational Marketing Strategy

Straight out of the gate, Danielle says the course helped her confidence because she gained insights into her metrics. Numbers that she had once thought meant she was failing, she learned were indicators of her strength as a product seller at her price point and niche.

But what she found most valuable was the accountability the community and coaches provided.

 

“…had it been a self-study type course where you just bought the course and were left to your own devices, it would probably still be sitting there unopened in all honesty.”

 

With the help of her class cohort and group mentors, Danielle was able to get the work down in a matter of hours each week. She would dedicate an hour each day, or a Monday morning, to putting the pieces in place. And when she got stuck, she was able to hire group coaches to quickly tackle anything that fell outside of her skill set.

I Wish I Had Done It Three Years Ago

Danielle’s hard work and consistency paid off. Big time. Results were incremental, but over time she has come to realize that the rumors are true – email converts better than any other source of website traffic. Seven times better, as a matter of fact. And now she’s sending regular email campaigns and enjoying the revenue that she knows she’ll generate with each and every one.

What surprised her most was that she doesn’t have to “hard sell” in those campaigns, either. By sending a mix of helpful, educational content, special offers, and regular events, Danielle knows that she’s providing value to her subscribers. And they reward her with purchases, in turn.

 

“So I now have my playbook, I know what events work, I know where most of my sales are coming from. We’re fairly consistent in our monthly revenue now.”

 

Danielle acknowledges that while her business was doing well, she was missing some critical infrastructure that would have made scaling her sales very difficult. In fact, she says that the systems she put in place during Reliable Revenue have completely changed her ad strategy. Rather than chasing after sales, Danielle now focuses on building her email list. Because she knows that once she pays for a customer to visit her site and subscribe, she can spend time educating and warming them up to an eventual purchase. It’s a kind of confidence that allows her to focus on what’s next, knowing that her marketing system is working behind the scenes, 24-7, to bring in sales she can count on.

Is Reliable Revenue Right For Your Business?

I’m sharing Danielle’s story with you because I know what it feels like when you’re working really hard, and getting inconsistent results. I remember feeling like I couldn’t really count on my income. Like I could only pay myself if my business was doing really, really well. And often I worried that was never going to happen.

What I know now is that the strategies I used when I was developing the Reliable Revenue system gave me the confidence to set up my pay on auto deposit. I stopped waiting till Friday to see if it was “safe” for me to pay myself.

And I really want that for you, too.

This year, before we start the Reliable Revenue 2024 course, I’ve decided to create a free mini course that will show you how Reliable Revenue works. The course is four short videos that will give you an idea of what the program is like, and what you will learn.

I want you to see what’s possible for you, and this mini course will show what you’ll need to do, not only to protect what you’ve built, but also how to grow your sales and be more profitable without spending a fortune on ads.

I encourage you to get these free lessons today. I promise you, you’ll learn strategies that will get you more sales, and make you a confident business owner.

“The Secret to Generating Reliable Revenue” is free for you

RELATED LINKS:

Learn more about Reliable Revenue: https://thesocialsalesgirls.com/reliable-revenue/

 

Get my new course,  Conversion School for Free!

Learn our step by step process to grow your sales, without spending a

fortune on risky ad strategies, or discounting your products

The strategy you’ll learn in Conversion School works for Ecommerce stores at all stages. 

You'll use your store’s data, so if you’re starting out, you’ll learn how to get consistent sales. 

Established Store Owners will learn how to achieve significant sales growth every month.

What To Do When You’re Short Of Cash, Episode 222

What To Do When You’re Short Of Cash, Episode 222

No time to listen now? We'll send it to your inbox. No time to listen now? We'll send it to your inbox. or scroll down to get the highlightsMastering Cash Flow for Six and Seven-Figure Ecommerce Stores Before we dive in,...

Make your business run without you. Here’s how. Episode 201

Make your business run without you. Here’s how. Episode 201

No time to listen now? We'll send it to your inbox.

No time to listen now? We'll send it to your inbox.

or scroll down to get the highlights

Make Sales In Your Jammies: Meet Sam

Have you ever dreamed of making money without getting out of bed? What if I told you that was absolutely possible? And I’m not even joking.

In 2022, I sat down with Sam Gilhooley, owner of Magnetics, and a student of our Reliable Revenue course who did exactly that (although not by choice). This is such an amazing story, because Sam, who sells magnetic therapy products for horses and dogs, had only recently implemented our Reliable Revenue marketing system when tragedy struck and landed her in bed for seventeen months.

Keep reading Sam’s story or CLICK HERE to listen

Magnetics’ Humble Beginnings

Sam started Magnetics in 2013, and despite working a full time job, had built a pretty solid business. Her products were a hit with customers, she had a lot of social proof in the form of shares and testimonials, and her social media engagement was impressive by any standards. But she was still working “in” her business, managing her own customer service and order fulfillment herself.

Trading The Tape Gun for Teamwork

Sam has always been more of a strategic thinker, and knew that she wanted to build a Brand, not work for a business. Even though she didn’t feel completely ready, she finally “put down the tape gun” as we say and found a fulfillment center to ship orders. And while Sam loves her customers, she knew that she was not the best one to be dealing with questions, returns, or lost packages. So she hired one of her customers to take over customer service and never looked back.

Once she had a little more time, Sam decided to enroll in Reliable Revenue [LINK], an 8-week course we offer to help ecommerce store owners implement a proven, repeatable marketing system so that they can get clarity and grow their sales. She had started out selling on 3 platforms – Amazon, eBay, and her own website. Reliable Revenue helped her let go of the other two platforms so that she could put all of her efforts into marketing and growing her web sales.

 

We sometimes joke that this system will have you making sales in your sleep…Sam had no idea how true this would be until tragedy struck, and it was her Reliable Revenue system that saved her bacon.

 

How Outsourcing + Automation Saved Sam’s Business

In the months before her illness, Sam followed the course to the letter, even though she was feeling hesitant to implement things like discount pop-ups and weekly emails to her subscribers. She started collecting email addresses, and implemented several email automations (like an Abandoned Cart Flow) that were set to run around the clock with no extra effort on her part. She was already beginning to see results when a scary incident at a trade event turned into six weeks of medical investigation that did nothing to explain Sam’s sudden vertigo, hearing loss, and neurological symptoms.

While her illness remained a mystery, her doctor advised her to remain in bed. Even though Sam had outsourced a lot of tasks, she couldn’t have continued managing things if she wanted to, her symptoms were so severe.

Sam was terrified that Magnetics would sink in her absence, although she stuck with both her customer service employee and fulfillment center, and kept her social media ads running. What she couldn’t have foreseen was that those Reliable Revenue systems were already humming along in the background, keeping things running seamlessly even without her involvement. And so, miraculously, with little to no effort on her part, Magnetics didn’t just stay afloat…it GREW. By 55%, no less.

Her paid ads were sending traffic, her pop-up was popping, her list was growing, and her cash register kept chiming as if nothing had changed at all. And in the meantime, Sam was getting closer to understanding what had happened to her, and inching slowly towards recovery. Even without doing a thing, Sam was still earning a paycheck from her business.

Sam works around animals, so naturally she’s always getting bitten by something. But when she began to do some research, she realized that a strange-looking bug bite from years before could explain nearly all of her symptoms. She had Lyme Disease, and it had attacked her nervous system to the point of incapacitation.

Thankfully, she found a specialist who could help her, and slowly, but surely Sam’s brain began to come back online. She regained her ability to read, and finally started feeling like herself again. After seventeen months of bed rest, Sam had seen the capacity of her automated marketing system to make her business bulletproof…and she was now ready to take it to new heights.

From Bed Rest to Business Boss

In the years since her health crisis, Sam has relied on her favorite business principles of “simplicity, automation, cost management, outsourcing, and team building.” She re-enrolled in Reliable Revenue to implement even more automations to her system, and she is focused on optimizing her website and driving traffic by outsourcing as much as she can to apps or employees. She has also doubled down on email marketing and engaging her customers organically.

And now?

She’s proud to say that Magnetics’ revenue is well into the multi-six figures. All while leaving her time to take on a new project – helping others who suffer from Lyme disease. 

Real Talk: Why Your Business Needs a Reliable Revenue System

While I wouldn’t wish Sam’s misfortune on anyone, her story is truly a testament to the resilience automated systems and outsourcing can create for your business. She couldn’t have known at the time, but the work Sam put in during the months before her health crisis made all the difference when she needed them most. Even if you don’t plan to stay in bed for seventeen months, the Reliable Revenue system is something every single ecommerce store owner should be implementing. You can learn more about it here.

Sam was able to pay herself for 17 months while she was unable to work:

Basically, it was because she had done the work we teach in Reliable Revenue before she got sick.

We only offer this program once a year, and I truly believe that every store owner should do this work.

This year, before we start the Reliable Revenue 2024 course, I’ve decided to create a free mini course that will show you how Reliable Revenue works, and what it’s like as we work together to implement the lessons.

 The course is four short videos that will give you an idea of what the program is like, and what you will learn.

I want you to see what’s possible for you, and this mini course will show what you’ll need to do, not only to protect what you’ve built, but also how to grow your sales and be more profitable without spending a fortune on ads.

I encourage you to get these free lessons when they launch on February 11th. I promise you, you’ll learn strategies that will get you more sales, and make you a confident business owner.

“The Secret to Generating Reliable Revenue” is free for you, and will be delivered on Feb 11th!

RELATED LINKS:

See Sam’s website here: Magnetixtherapy.com

Connect with Sam about Lyme Disease: https://www.facebook.com/livingwithlyme.co.uk

Learn more about Reliable Revenue: https://thesocialsalesgirls.com/reliable-revenue

Get my new course,  Conversion School for Free!

Learn our step by step process to grow your sales, without spending a

fortune on risky ad strategies, or discounting your products

The strategy you’ll learn in Conversion School works for Ecommerce stores at all stages. 

You'll use your store’s data, so if you’re starting out, you’ll learn how to get consistent sales. 

Established Store Owners will learn how to achieve significant sales growth every month.

What To Do When You’re Short Of Cash, Episode 222

What To Do When You’re Short Of Cash, Episode 222

No time to listen now? We'll send it to your inbox. No time to listen now? We'll send it to your inbox. or scroll down to get the highlightsMastering Cash Flow for Six and Seven-Figure Ecommerce Stores Before we dive in,...

Avoid the spam folder. Do this today. Episode 200

Avoid the spam folder. Do this today. Episode 200

No time to listen now? We'll send it to your inbox.

No time to listen now? We'll send it to your inbox.

or scroll down to get the highlights

SIX TIPS FOR STAYING OUT OF SPAM

On February 1st, 2024, the world is going to change for anyone who sends regular emails to their subscribers. And so today I’m sitting down with our resident Klaviyo and Shopify expert, Claudia Howard. She’s going to explain what’s changing, and walk us through what we’ll need to do to stay compliant.

Listen HERE or keep reading to find out how you can keep your campaigns out of your subscribers’ spam folders.

Understanding the New Requirements

You’ve probably noticed that your inbox is filling up faster and faster lately, and much of what you’re receiving is spam, or worse…malicious phishing emails. So in an attempt to reduce some of the chaos, Google and Yahoo are cracking down on abusive senders. This is actually GOOD for ecommerce marketers, because once the changes go into effect, our subscribers’ inboxes will be much less cluttered (and our emails more likely to be read).

BUT

Only if we take the following steps to verify our sending domains. It’s not hard, but grab a pen because you need to get this taken care of right away.

Who Needs to Comply and Why?

The new rules specify that any marketers sending 5k or more bulk emails a day must be compliant. But even if this isn’t you yet, this is the best practice to follow and will ensure that you don’t accidentally get yourself on the naughty list.

The Deal With Deliverability: What’s A Deliverability Score?

We often talk about email marketing as the one communication channel that you “own”. But did you know that email service providers like Gmail, Yahoo, Outlook, etc. have their own algorithms? Each sender is assigned a “deliverability score” based on your recipients’ behavior – how many unsubscribes are you getting, how many spam complaints? What are your click rates?

Obviously, you want your email subscribers to see your beautiful campaigns. But they definitely won’t if you end up in their spam folders! So here are our six recommendations to stay out of Spam folders and in Google and Klaviyo’s good graces.

 

6 Tips For Staying Out of Spam

1. Double-check that the “from” email address you’re using is your own domain. In other words, not “yourname@gmail dot com” but “hello@yourstorename dot com” or similar.

2. If it’s not, change it!

3. Set up your “dedicated sending domain” sometimes called your “branded sending domain”. It improves your branding in the “from” address in the inbox by removing the sent “via klaviyomail.com” disclaimer. This is setup by using the guide in your Klaviyo account to edit your DNS settings at your domain registrar.

4. Set up a DMARC authentication policy on your domain to keep spammers from “spoofing” you. This authenticates the email is coming from your domain. It enhances email security by preventing unauthorized use of your domain, reduces phishing and improves deliverability. Set this up by editing your DNS settings at your domain registrar. Here’s a link to a free DMARC record generator.

5. Make it easier to unsubscribe by adding an “unsubscribe” button to the bottom of all of your campaigns.

6. Keep spam complaints low – the acceptable threshold for inboxes is 3 per 1000. Use Klaviyo’s benchmark and deliverability reports to monitor your spam complaints and if they exceed the threshold take steps to reduce them. Steps include list cleaning and segmentation.

If any of the above tips has your head spinning, Claudia is an expert on Store Tasker, and for just $95 she’ll get your account set up and in ship shape. This is money so well spent, because once these changes go into effect on February 1st, you can really hurt your sales by failing to comply.

Claudia has already made a training for this and it’s in the Inner Circle classroom, but if you’re not a member yet, we’ve made it publicly available. Just go to www.thesocialsalesgirls.com/stayoutofspam enter your email address and we’ll send you the checklist.

AND…if you have any ecommerce store owner friends, please forward them this post! I really don’t want anyone losing sales just because they didn’t know about these new requirements, or how to comply with them.

Email is so important. In fact, we tell our members that at LEAST 30% of their revenue should be coming from email. So set aside some time, go through our tutorial, and we’ll get through this together!

Get my new course,  Conversion School for Free!

Learn our step by step process to grow your sales, without spending a

fortune on risky ad strategies, or discounting your products

The strategy you’ll learn in Conversion School works for Ecommerce stores at all stages. 

You'll use your store’s data, so if you’re starting out, you’ll learn how to get consistent sales. 

Established Store Owners will learn how to achieve significant sales growth every month.

What To Do When You’re Short Of Cash, Episode 222

What To Do When You’re Short Of Cash, Episode 222

No time to listen now? We'll send it to your inbox. No time to listen now? We'll send it to your inbox. or scroll down to get the highlightsMastering Cash Flow for Six and Seven-Figure Ecommerce Stores Before we dive in,...

2024: How To Reach Your Big Goals This Year. Episode 197

2024: How To Reach Your Big Goals This Year. Episode 197

No time to listen now? We'll send it to your inbox.

No time to listen now? We'll send it to your inbox.

or scroll down to get the highlights

There’s nothing like a new year to revisit our goals, is there? If you’re like many of us, this time of year sparks a sense of renewal and the chance to revisit our “why.” And so we kicked off the year the way we always do in the Inner Circle, with our annual 30-day growth plan call. It’s a time for our members and ecommerce coaches to gather together on Zoom, in a quiet and focused way, to study our metrics and get clear about what we need to do next in our businesses.

What I love most about this call is witnessing our community unite, not just in pursuit of goals, but with shared accountability, support, and celebration. This practice is a cornerstone of staying on course and achieving our ambitions as ecommerce store owners.

In today’s episode, I’m excited to bring you a peek into this event. The approach might seem straightforward, yet it’s pivotal; without it, attaining your goals becomes a LOT harder and less clear.

I’ve also got a treat for you. It’s the exact tool we use during these working sessions, that you can apply to your own business strategies.

Watch the video as we delve into the habits that have been instrumental in our members’ success. In it you’ll learn:
👀 The REAL reason you’re not getting the sales you want
📊 How to harness your data (and stay healthy emotionally)
🎨 The art of aligning your focus with your objectives

Get my new course,  Conversion School for Free!

Learn our step by step process to grow your sales, without spending a

fortune on risky ad strategies, or discounting your products

The strategy you’ll learn in Conversion School works for Ecommerce stores at all stages. 

You'll use your store’s data, so if you’re starting out, you’ll learn how to get consistent sales. 

Established Store Owners will learn how to achieve significant sales growth every month.

What To Do When You’re Short Of Cash, Episode 222

What To Do When You’re Short Of Cash, Episode 222

No time to listen now? We'll send it to your inbox. No time to listen now? We'll send it to your inbox. or scroll down to get the highlightsMastering Cash Flow for Six and Seven-Figure Ecommerce Stores Before we dive in,...

6 actionable strategies that are working to get sales now. Episode 194

6 actionable strategies that are working to get sales now. Episode 194

No time to listen now? We'll send it to your inbox.

No time to listen now? We'll send it to your inbox.

or scroll down to get the highlights

6 Strategies To Get Your Sales Back on Track in 2024

2023 has been a tough year for many ecommerce store owners. If it felt like an uphill battle, you’re in good company. While it may be tempting to throw up your hands and blame the economy, there ARE things you can do to adapt and take control of your sales goals.

I was recently joined by Sarah Williams, the founder of Launch Your Box and owner of the successful subscription box Framed, to delve into 6 strategies that are working NOW. As fellow entrepreneurs and friends, Sarah and I share a passion for uncovering the inner workings of businesses and discovering what works.

Read on to get the details, or click here to listen to the episode

Sarah had a rough year 2023. Due to some health and personal challenges, Sarah lost her focus and saw sales take a nosedive in April. By June she realized her business was in trouble, and in July she decided to take the reins and right the ship. Here’s how she did it.

1. Embrace the Basics

In times of uncertainty, it may be tempting to chase after the latest shiny new strategy. But Sarah attributes her success to simply getting back to basics. She focused on 3 things:

She doubled down on what she knew was already working, which for her was live selling, increasing her live online events from once to twice weekly. This significantly boosted her weekly sales.
She increased her email frequency, but focused on a single product in each campaign. Surprisingly, that one change boosted email revenue to 65% of her total sales.
She re-focused her energy on building her list, creating a new opt-in offer (a free phone wallpaper download) and running cold ads to it. This brought in over 6,000 new leads within a few months.

2. Social Media Refresh: Page Like Ads and Live Engagement

Sarah knew that her social media follower count had begun to stagnate, so she re-committed to growing her audience. Sarah initiated a Page Like ad (a type of engagement ad in Meta Ads Manager) to breathe new life into her Facebook and Instagram pages. Then in her live events, she took special care to engage with her new followers–personally welcoming them–which fostered a sense of connection that spilled over to her email campaigns. Since her social audience recognized and liked her, they were much more likely to open her emails.

3. Brand Video

Sarah shared the thing that her students have found is the #1 best growth strategy to use right now: video.

A 90-second “brand video,” highlighting your products and benefits, provides a cost-effective way to grab your ideal customers’ attention and quickly build a huge audience that you can re-target later. Use it in your organic posts, your ads, your e-mails, everywhere! It’s the best way to find and engage your perfect audience.

4. Lead-Gen Quizzes

Leverage all of that new traffic for even MORE list growth by adding a quiz on your site, which can generate and convert new leads at an impressive rate.  Using the App “Shop Quiz” or similar, you can create a short list of questions that lead to an opt-in form so participants can receive their results via email. You can boost your results by running ads straight to the quiz–bringing in $.30-$.50 high-quality leads who are pre-qualified and ready to buy.

5. Amp Up The Email Automation

Sarah emphasizes the importance of personalized experiences through email automations (targeted email flows that are triggered by user actions, such as quiz completions.) So for example, if you learned from your quiz that a customer is interested in skincare, you can send them an email flow featuring your skincare products. Likewise, you can create automations for customers who have bought a product that might be complementary to another. Send them an automation about the benefits of that next purchase, as those customers are likely to make a repeat purchase sooner than later. Don’t be afraid to think outside the box with your automations, use what you know about your customers and create automations to better serve them.

6. Consistency is Key

Regardless of the strategies you choose, Sarah reminds us that consistency is vital. Don’t try something once and give up when it doesn’t change the game–keep going. Your audience responds best when they know what to expect from you, so make a plan and stick to it. If it’s going live, do it on a regular basis. If it’s weekly campaigns, keep it up for several months before you measure your results.

If 2024 is your year to get your business back on track, remember–follow the data. Don’t go chasing after the new, shiny thing until you’ve looked at your numbers and identified what did and did not work. The FIRST step should be doubling down on what was successful, and THEN you can consider innovating based on those insights.

 

Related Links:

Check out Sarah’s Launch Your Box Podcast: https://www.launchyourboxwithsarah.com/blog/welcome-to-the-launch-your-box-podcast

Build A Massive Audience With A Brand Video: https://thesocialsalesgirls.com/build-a-massive-audience-with-a-brand-video-episode-162/

The Biggest Opportunity To Get More Sales: https://thesocialsalesgirls.com/the-biggest-opportunity-to-get-more-sales-episode-136/

The One Thing Even Smart Business Owners Continue To Get Wrong: https://thesocialsalesgirls.com/the-one-thing-even-smart-business-owners-continue-to-get-wrong-episode-174/

Get my new course,  Conversion School for Free!

Learn our step by step process to grow your sales, without spending a

fortune on risky ad strategies, or discounting your products

The strategy you’ll learn in Conversion School works for Ecommerce stores at all stages. 

You'll use your store’s data, so if you’re starting out, you’ll learn how to get consistent sales. 

Established Store Owners will learn how to achieve significant sales growth every month.

What To Do When You’re Short Of Cash, Episode 222

What To Do When You’re Short Of Cash, Episode 222

No time to listen now? We'll send it to your inbox. No time to listen now? We'll send it to your inbox. or scroll down to get the highlightsMastering Cash Flow for Six and Seven-Figure Ecommerce Stores Before we dive in,...

Are your Apps giving you an ROI, here’s how to do a quick app audit. Episode 192

Are your Apps giving you an ROI, here’s how to do a quick app audit. Episode 192

No time to listen now? We'll send it to your inbox.

No time to listen now? We'll send it to your inbox.

or scroll down to get the highlights

Mastering Your E-commerce Apps: A Guide to Auditing, Updating, and Profiting

In this post we’re diving into the world of Shopify and e-commerce apps, and I’ve brought in our resident expert, Claudia Howard. She’s a Klaviyo pro and the best email strategist I know.

Apps can be a double-edged sword. We all love finding that shiny new tool, especially if it’s free. But before you know it, your store becomes a playground for apps, and you might not even be using half of them.

Read on to get the details, or click to listen to the episode

 

Why Auditing is Crucial

  • Cuts Unnecessary Costs
    You may be paying for apps you aren’t even using, and not even know it.
  • Improves Site Speed
    Leftover code from unused apps can slow down your site load time, driving away potential customers before they even have a chance to see what you sell.
  • Relevance Check
    Sometimes you have an app installed that’s no longer necessary. Since Shopify and other platforms are constantly being updated and improved, often the apps you needed a few months ago are now included in the price of your site.
  • Return on Investment (ROI) Evaluation
    Evaluating the cost vs. benefit is just good business. Taking the time to honestly assess how much (and what type of) value your apps are adding can give you clarity on what you really need and what you could do without.

5 Steps to App Audit

So, you’re sold on the idea of auditing your apps. But how do you actually go about it? Claudia breaks it down into five simple steps.

Step 1: Quick Review and Cleanup

  • Head to your Shopify admin and check the list of installed apps.
  • Ask yourself: Are these all active, and am I using them?
  • Uninstall any unused apps.
  • Email the developer to ensure all code is removed. App developers are required by law to remove old code upon request, so don’t be shy about messaging them to ask for a clean-up on the back end.

Step 2: Update Check

  • Review installed apps for available updates (some apps may notify you within their dashboard, but others you’ll need to check).
  • Keep the app code updated for bug fixes and added features.

Step 3: Feature Duplication Check

  • Assess if features you bought an app for are now available elsewhere (e.g., through Shopify or other services).
  • Look for duplications and streamline your toolkit.

Step 4: Revenue and Time Analysis

  • Conduct a cost-benefit analysis.
  • Consider if the app saves you time, enhances customer experience, or generates revenue.
  • Create a chart weighing the benefits against the app’s cost.

Step 5: Decision Time

  • Decide if the app is truly worth it for your store.
  • Factor in time saved, customer experience, and revenue generated.
  • Conduct a cost-benefit analysis using a simple spreadsheet.

Q&A: Addressing Common Concerns

Q: If an app is free and unused, why bother deleting it?
Some code can slow down your site, even if it’s free. Deleting it now and reinstalling later may get you an updated version.

Q: How do I know if new features are available if I ignore most of my emails?
App dashboards usually announce new features, so you can just visit the provider’s page to check for any new additions. Additionally, community forums (like our Inner Circle) are great for staying informed.

Your App Audit Journey

So there you have it—a practical guide to auditing, updating, and profiting from your e-commerce apps. Don’t let those apps run wild in your store; take control with a once to twice yearly audit.

Remember, it’s not about having the most apps; it’s about having the right ones that contribute to your success.

 

BONUS: The 5 Must-Have Apps for Profitable Stores

We often get asked about the best apps for e-commerce. Claudia and I compiled a list, but we didn’t stop there. We’ve created a free course that not only gives you the list but shows you how to make the most out of these apps.

In this course, you’ll get:

  • Training on each app.
  • Practical usage examples from successful Inner Circle members.
  • Step-by-step guidance on maximizing these apps for profit.

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What To Do When You’re Short Of Cash, Episode 222

What To Do When You’re Short Of Cash, Episode 222

No time to listen now? We'll send it to your inbox. No time to listen now? We'll send it to your inbox. or scroll down to get the highlightsMastering Cash Flow for Six and Seven-Figure Ecommerce Stores Before we dive in,...