How Quarterly Focuses Turn Followers into Clients
Optimize your Marketing with the Know, Like, Trust Customer Journey
As much as I love year-long business goals, they can’t compete with the effective productivity and success you’ll see by tackling your brand and marketing goals using quarterly focuses organized by the Know, Like, Trust customer journey.
To dream big, see overall growth in your business and give you a data point to aim for as you track your monthly metrics, year-long goals are ideal and needed. But creating a work plan for a goal that's a year away can feel daunting and hard to reach.
That's why I love quarterly focuses. They are the best way for entrepreneurs and small businesses to tackle and accomplish their brand goals and turn followers into paying clients. So let's slow it down a bit, tap into what this time of year means, learn how you can set focuses that get results in three months instead of an entire year and share active ways you can make them happen this month!
Simplify Your To-Do List
Are you a solopreneur?
Take a second to think about all the things you have to do to run your business.
No, really. Take a minute.
I don't know about you, but every time I try to sit down and make a list of everything that needs to be done each day, it turns into pages and pages of tasks—and then I get overwhelmed, put the list down, and do something else (like re-watch the Harry Potter series for the tenth time).
And on top of all of that, you are supposed to make progress towards your larger year-end goals?
What if there was another way? What if there were only three things you had to focus on at any given time? What if those three things fed into each other in such a way that focusing on them meant never having to make another giant run-on "to do" list again?
There is! It's called Quarterly Focuses, and it's designed to help you keep your business running as smoothly as possible without driving yourself crazy.
What are Quarterly Focuses?
So let’s start off with some definitions. What does a “quarterly focus” actually mean?
Well, for me it means identifying three key areas that we want to focus on for the quarter. These areas can technically be anything that drives your business towards success… though of course, I want you to be more strategic than that!
Identifying these quarterly focuses allows you to work smarter and not harder in a manageable three-month timeframe. You’ll know exactly what you need to do and where you need to spend your energy in order to accomplish your goals.
This strategy is also clear and simple enough that it allows you as a business owner or as a team member within your organization to understand where your efforts should be concentrated.
And it gives you four big opportunities each year to really zone in on your overall goals. Instead of waiting until towards the end of the year to realize you have a lot of work to do to reach your year-end business, goals, this method ensures you are on top of them throughout the year.
Now, I know what you’re thinking: how do I choose those three areas? It's pretty simple, actually—you want your goals to mirror your customer’s journey.
Your Customer Journey
If you've been following me for a while now, you'll know that one of my favorite topics is the Customer Journey or the Know, Like Trust Path—a method for helping new customers move from first hearing about your business (know) all the way through forming an ongoing and paying relationship with you (trust).
You can divide your marketing goals for the next three months into three buckets that follow the journey: one for building awareness of your brand, one for engaging with your community and helping them get to know you better, and one for nurturing leads into paying clients.
By creating your quarterly focuses in these 3 areas, it ensures that you are optimizing each step of your customer journey for growth… which in the end will help you reach your year-long business goals.
Creating Your Quarterly Focuses
Creating your quarterly focuses is easy. At the beginning of each quarter, sit down with your metrics and assess what worked and what didn't in the last quarter. Where are there opportunities to improve this quarter?
Then, think about the big picture: where do you want to be by the end of the year? How will you get there? What do you need to focus on this quarter in order to make that happen?
Now, it’s time to go through each step in the path and choose which area should be your focus for the next quarter.
KNOW
First, you need people to be aware of your brand, know you exist, and then start following you. It’s about introducing your brand to your ideal audience and making that good first impression that will have them sign up for your mailing list, subscribe to your podcast, follow you on social media, etc.
For your focus in this step, I recommend choosing a traffic source to optimize each quarter.
There are 6 paths or traffic sources that lead to your brand. Below are the 6 sources and what you can do to increase traffic from it.
Direct Traffic - Network with others
Organic Traffic - Use SEO to drive traffic to your website
Social Media - Optimize your social media profiles
Paid Media - Run Facebook Ads to your lead magnet.
Earned Media - Guest on podcasts or submit an article for publication
Referral Traffic - Collaborate with others in your space
How are you introducing new people to your brand this quarter? Where are your leads coming from? What traffic source will you build out or optimize for this quarter?
LIKE
Like is when the magic starts to happen. You start building a real connection with them. They are engaging with you on social media, clicking on your emails, and sharing good things about your brand with their friends. It’s during this time that you start earning their trust.
Showing up for your community, creating compelling content, and making the case for why you can help your audience solve their pain points is key here.
How are you engaging with your community this quarter? How are you building relationships that could introduce you to a larger audience? What content are you sharing that will help convert your audience into paying clients? What areas need to be optimized?
TRUST
You know you’ve gotten hooked when you’ve become a trusted source and they’ve become a customer, client or evangelist of your brand.
This is all about bringing in the money. Do you need to better define your products and services? What improvements can be made to your sales strategies to convert your leads? How can you make the customer experience better so they renew their contract or refer their friends?
Time for Action
Now that you have your three focuses for the quarter, it’s time for action!
Take each one and choose a mini-goal for each focus. Where do you want to be with that focus by the end of the quarter? Outline the steps involved to reach that goal. What exactly needs to happen? What do you need to learn? What resources do you need to accomplish it?
Add those to your project management plan so that you stay on task.
Quarterly focuses aren't big, long-term goals for a reason. Instead, they're meant to help you stay efficient, organized, and work quickly towards your larger goals every day in a strategic way. Y Think of quarterly focuses as a tool that helps you dream big, but also break down those big goals into smaller, doable pieces—targeted with your ideal audience in mind…at every step in their journey.
