My Studio Spotlight May 2018 Edition

Today I’m taking you behind the scenes of my business in what I’m calling My Creative Studio Spotlight May 2018 edition.

When I think about the bloggers and online business owners I’ve learned the most from, they tend to be the ones that are most open and upfront about their industry.

I admire those that take an honest and authentic approach to business. It’s how I want to run my business. And so, here is my attempt at doing exactly that!

Welcome friend to the first of many spotlights on my design studio, Vanessa Bucceri Creative.

Studio Goals for May:

Business Launch

I really wanted my website to launch this spring. Originally, I had hoped for an April date but there were just too many details to take care of so I delayed by about a month.

I decided to do a proper business launch, opting to promote via Facebook & Instagram which are my social platforms of choice.

I spent a lot of time on my Instagram strategy, planning out my grid and writing captions that I was really proud of.

In the end, Instagram generated almost no website views for me. Possibly because the URL link was in my profile and not in the posts directly.

Facebook was by far the best source of website visitors. I posted 3 times to my personal account over 4 days. The first post was my coming soon page, the 2nd a call out to follow my Facebook page and the 3rd was a link to the live website on launch day.

High-Quality Website Content

I had a lot of goals around the launch of my website and business. However, the ultimate goal was to have a website that was more than just a place to market my services. I wanted it to be a resource to help other creatives in business.

With the launch, I knew if I built up some hype I could generate good traffic on launch day. I also knew if there wasn’t much on the website on launch day, most visitors wouldn’t stay for long and they wouldn’t necessarily come back again.

One final consideration was google and my website analytics. If I drove all this traffic to my website and none of the visitors stayed for more than a few seconds, I was worried this would have a negative impact on my rankings.

My solution to all of this was as follows:

Email Marketing

Freebies were an important part of my launch strategy. I’ve heard over and over again from online marketers the importance of building your own email list.

To capture emails from day one, I ensured I had a high-quality freebie to offer in exchange for this information. Also, I had email opt-in buttons on every page of my website.

One big mistake – I did forget to build a pop-up and therefore missed an opportunity to grow my email list.

As browsers joined my list, I wanted them to have a warm welcome into my creative studio so I prepared a series of 5 welcome emails and set them up to auto-deliver in MailChimp.

Legal Necessities

And the last goal, which wasn’t so much a goal but a necessary evil of doing online business was getting all the legal details in order.

Do you recall that influx of privacy policy emails to hit your inbox towards the end of May? Well, these were all in response to new privacy regulations in the European Union. While I am based in Canada and fall under Canadian law, the new EU privacy policies have implications for anyone with a website.

Websites have no borders and anyone in the world can land on your virtual soil so it was imperative I had a legit privacy policy in place prior to launch.

Website Stats for May:

Considering I launched the website on May 31st, these stats will just reflect the traffic & quality of visits on website launch day.

I’m really happy the average visitor spent close to 2 mins on my website. I’m also thrilled to see such a low bounce rate (% of users that left my website after just one-page view). This metric tells google that visitors are looking around and speaks to the quality of my content.

Of course, I know visitors on launch day were primarily friends and family and so I do expect bounce rate to go up and session duration to go down in June.

Books I’m Reading:

Yes – I’m a member of the Amazon Associates affiliate program. If you happen to make a purchase by clicking on any of my book recommendations, I do make a small commission at no additional cost to you. Thanks for your support!

Traction by Gabriel Weinberg

I think when you’re starting a new business, you assume you need to be everywhere and try to do everything you can to attract clients.

The first problem with this approach is that it’s a lot of work.

Secondly, if you are trying to do everything how can you optimize any strategy to its full potential? In fact, I’d argue how can you properly validate any means of acquiring customers with a lack of focus.

Traction outlines the 19 channels any business may use to acquire customers. In the book, the author breaks down each channel a chapter at a time and recommends to narrow your marketing efforts to 3 at most. From there you assess one at a time, testing & refining the channel until you’ve optimized it and gotten as much from it as you can before moving on to the next channel.

I’ve heard similar advice from Pat Flynn over at the SPI Blog.  He’s long been a proponent of trying one thing at a time, testing it and doing it well before moving on to the next.

So, I’m taking their advice and implementing this technique into my marketing strategy for the summer.

Miracle Morning by Hal Elrod

I love the theory behind the Miracle Morning. Your success in life is directly related to your level of personal development. Therefore, if you want to achieve greater success, you need to prioritize your self.

I’m determined to give the Miracle Morning routine a try in June and will report back how it went next month!

For more book recommendations, check out my Resources page.

Listening to:

Raw Milk Podcast with Beth Kirby

If you are one of Beth’s 785,000 followers you already know her Instagram is nothing short of spectacular! She’s all about the art of slow living but also very passionate about online business.

Her newly launched podcast is great for anyone interested in learning Instagram strategies to grow your business. I think she knows what she’s doing so go have a listen!

Dubsado’s Weekly Jams on Spotify

I just want to say I’m really so thrilled about my client management software, Dubsado. Not just because the software does so many amazing things but also because the people behind the business are pretty awesome too.

I’m thoroughly enjoying their weekly jams as part of my office routine.

Blog Posts Published in May:

Travel and Wellness Brand Identity | Unwind with Steph

How to use the KISS Principle on your Website

Is my Web Design really that important?

Should I actually bother with an Ideal Customer Profile?

Luxury Travel Branding and Website | Lotus Travel

Useful Tools for my First Year of Online Business

How to find Inspiration for your Personal Brand

How to Launch Your New Website with Ease & Authority

What’s Coming Up in June: