Blazer (ThePreppyMAG Boutique)
Happy Monday! Is it just me or did that weekend go way, way, way too quick?! For some reason I’ve gotten into a really bad habit of sleeping these winter weekends away, which is partly great and partly stressful. Great because I start the week super well rested, but stressful because the weekends are usually the only time I have to focus on my blog/boutique side hustle.
Luckily, this week ends with a three-day-weekend, so hopefully I’ll have a bit more time to focus on the side hustle in the coming days. If you are a side hustler like me or even a straight-up entrepreneur you probably know the constant struggle to ‘find time’ to do more for your business. And recently, I’ve been ending every day asking myself, ‘Did you do everything you could possibly to do today to make your business succeed?’. Quite honestly, it is CRAZY stressful! There is always MORE you can do, so this question can be pretty daunting.
A big part of answering this question is investing in the tools your business needs to thrive. Since my blog and boutique are two side-hustles of mine, I try to strategically invest in tools, products, and experiences that allow me to do THE MOST for my business as efficiently (time + money) as possible. Below are three tools that I’m currently using to help my business THRIVE.
This tool is all about streamlining my email marketing for my blog and boutique to be quick and easy. Campaign Monitor allows you to create completely customizable emails (web and mobile optimized!) to send your subscribers and customers. Not only does Campaign Monitor help you create flawless emails, but you can also see a complete dashboard of analytics on your emails. Analytics include: Who is clicking? What they are clicking? Where they are clicking from? All of this data can be used to learn what resonates with your subscribers or customers so you can create even more impactful email marketing campaigns and get a higher return on your investment.
Once you’ve perfected your email marketing technique within Campaign Monitor, you can get really fancy and use their automation tools to create completely personalized emails that can drive HUGE results for your business. This means, if you’ve noticed in the past (through Campaign Monitor’s analytics tools) that a customer clicked through to a specific product page or landing page on your blog, you can send them a personalized email serving up more similar products or content that they may be interested in.
This is actually something I haven’t invested in yet, but know that I have to, AND soon! If you are unfamiliar with presets, they are basically Instagram filters that you can buy from editing apps or even photographers to ensure that every photo that you put out into the world feels consistent with your creative look & feel. This is how some of your favorite Instagram stars have consistently light & airy photos or that vintage grain. Instagram presets make your Instagram posts look flawless, but also cuts down a TON of time that you may be using to edit your photo to ensure it is Insta-Perfect. Seriously, sometimes it can take me up to an hour to edit a photo to perfection. At the very least, this is an investment I need to make so I can spend more time creating meaningful content for ya’ll instead of editing Instagram photos.
One of the most important things I do for my business is investing time in reading industry thought leadership. From reading inspiration on the Create & Cultivate website to listening to success stories from Create & Cultivate’s podcast, Work Party, I find this organization such an important resource in growing my business and most of the time it is 100% FREE. However, recently this company has made me feel EXTRA inspired so I invested in a ticket to their upcoming NYC conference this June. Hoping all of the inspiration that this organization gives me on a daily basis turns into even more inspiring and meaningful connections with other bloggers and entrepreneurs.
These are great tool tips. Personally, I love anything that can automate Instagram. Keeping up with a blog and social media is tough to coordinate.
Wow how informative. At one point I thought there was more info. To be honest this is the first blog I actually read entirely in a while.
Interesting article love this
Where were you 4 years ago? As new mom I was all over the place and it took quite sometime to master mommy-ism. This is great advice to all new moms.
These sound like great tools to have in a small business. I will take a look at campaign monitor another time.
Great useful tips. I’m not as far as you yet in blogging, but I hope to be implementing your advice soon!
These are all great tips, and I look forward to reading about the conference! I think it is important to always keep working on improving yourself! 🙂
I was just recently looking at Instagram presets. I might give them a try soon!
Great tools. I am a fan of Campaign Monitor and until now never heard of others using it. Thanks for sharing.
Instagram Presets have been a big thing I have used recently. It took me a long time to figure out what I wanted my “brand” to look like on IG … I think I’ve finally figured it out, but we’ll see 😉
These are really valuable tips! There are plenty there that i could put into action. Thank you for sharing!
Happy Monday Marie! Ahh cannot blame you I have been sleeping on the weekends since the winter started, I think the weather is the cause of it 🙂 I am sure it will change soon, nothing to stress about. Great tips for bloggers. I am not into email marketing just yet but I remember mail chip does the same after you send out your mails, it gives you a report about people response to your campaigns, which is similar to what you mentioned… Well good luck anyway, hope you will have a productive weekends.
Very informative. As I begin my journey myself, I will have to use these tips.
I have heard great things about the Create Cultivate conferences. I’d love to go to one sometime.
What an informative post! Great tools. Thank you so much for sharing.
Thanks for sharing this. This article is very helpful. Good that you wrote about these tips.
I keep hearing about Instagram presets but have yet to try them. I’ve seen others photos and they look amazing. It just seems like there’s not enough time in a day to figure out how to use all the things I’m learning about.
This blazer is so very pretty! I would love to have something like that in my wardrobe.
Wow what a great tips! I would totally save this post! sounds really helpful.