Build a business that lights you up! Sound like something you’d like to do?
Providing coaching for online shop owners makes my heart happy! Well, that’s what I and my guest today, Laura Stevenson, have been able to do and I’m thrilled to pull back the curtain on a recent coaching call that I did with her.
Laura won this coaching call after having her idea picked in a “less is more” slogan challenge we had over in the private Facebook Group for our 0-$100K System students.
Hers was… Less Mess, More Yes!
Less of the things cluttering her brain and breaking her focus.
More yes to the things that make her thrive!
Can you get on board with this?!
Sign me up!
Alright, so let’s dive into this coaching session and give you some value and things that you can go apply to your business right now so you can start saying ‘yes’ to more things that make you thrive!
A Look into Coaching for Online Shop Owners
About Laura’s Online Store
Name: In Her Elements
Niche: Nature-inspired clothes, jewelry, and home decor
Ideal Audience: Women who love being outdoors and nature
Business Goals: Hit the #100GrandCan level, connect with customers more through outdoor experiences, and highlight local artisans.
Sell Stories, Not Products
Before the call, I did a quick deep-dive into Laura’s website and social media to wrap my head around, on a surface level, what she was doing well and what could use some improving.
The first thing I noticed is something I always see with newbies when doing coaching for online shop owners.
Some of what Laura was telling me were her goals didn’t align with what she was telling the world with her website.
You might think that you’re selling products, but the world of e-commerce is about selling stories! You can do this through how you write about the products and how you position the products in images. So, for Laura, she should move away from the “flat lays” used in her current product photography and more to lifestyle images so the products tell a story of what it’s like to experience them.
This concept might be tough to wrap your head around but once you get it, you’ll be off the races. Are you pictures telling a story or just displaying a product?
Coaching for Online Shop Owners Lesson 1: Share the story more.
Your products help paint the vision that your customer wants to experience. This is what they are buying, not the product itself.
Create Habits For Your Customers
There was a podcast I listened to called “The Making of Oprah” that caused me to have one of those coveted light bulb moments. You know, the one where your eyes get big, and your jaw drops a little. Yea, that kind of moment.
Here’s what it was – you’re going to love this…
Oprah said that when she created her OWN Network, she thought all her viewers would just come on over to the new network when she moved, but that didn’t happen. Of course, a lot of them did, but there was a big chunk of people that didn’t come because their habit was now broken.
They showed up every day at 4:00 pm because it was ingrained in their daily habits.
So, when I reflected back on my businesses, and it was plain as day that I had been creating habits in my customers as well – and it worked – even though I didn’t know I was doing it.
So, I challenged Laura, and I’m going to challenge you as well to sit back and take a look at your business and think of some ways you can create habits in your customers.
Coaching for Online Shop Owners Lesson 2: If you create habits in your customers, they will keep coming back.
Driving Traffic To Your Online Shop
The easiest and most efficient way for you to get traffic to your products is by using influencers to put your business “on a jet”. We did an episode on this, so if you haven’t listened to that one yet and you are looking to leverage influencers to grow your brand, head over there after you finish this up. For Laura, and probably for you as well, working with the right influencers is probably the fastest way to grow your business.
And when I tell you to work with influencers, don’t think of trying to convince someone with 750,000 followers to promote your products. I mean, if you can do it, more power to you but I’m talking about micro-influencers. It doesn’t even have to be people with 10,000 followers and the coveted “swipe-up” feature. We’ve seen students get amazing results with small influencers with just a few thousand followers.
It’s more about how engaged their audience is, not how big it is.
And as a shop owner, don’t forget about your other shop owners and how you can leverage each other’s audience. Some of our ladies in the Insiders have been doing this lately by interviewing each other on Facebook Lives. One week person A interviews person B then the next week they swap. Leveraging other shop owners' audiences is another great way to drive traffic to your online shop
Coaching for Online Shop Owners Lesson 3: When you are trying to get traffic for your site, start with influencers and remember – big isn’t always better.
I hope you got some value from what I covered on this coaching call with Laura!
If you want to know the rest of the lessons, tips, and tricks that I shared with Laura, including how to leverage freebies on your site and how to create a strong call-to-action on your homepage, then you need to hit that play button above or click here to listen on your favorite platform!
Please remember this – when I started my online journey I had nowhere near the knowledge that I have now, but what I did was take action. No one is an expert in the beginning so you’ve just got to start and–equally as important–keep moving forward.
