Hello Reader,

As we're solidly at the halfway point in the year, it's probably time to think about the end of the year.

I know, wild, right?

That's because one of the truths across industries is that the end of the year happens FAST—and folks who don't plan for the last few months end up being frustrated because their marketing isn't reaching the right people and they're lost in the shuffle.

That means that right now is the perfect time to get ready for the fall and winter seasons (or spring and summer for our friend in the southern hemisphere) to be drama-free and as easy as they can be.

I'm a gardener, so I like to think of this like I do planting seeds for plants like purple sprouting broccoli: I do it now so that I'll have beautiful vegetables in the dead of winter. That's basically marketing.

If you haven't been thinking that far ahead, I have three super easy steps you can take right now to tend your marketing garden for the future.

1. Review and revitalize a lead magnet that solves one clear and specific challenge for your best clients.

It's so, so easy to forget about our lead magnets used to get folks into our marketing ecosystems, but outdated ones can be a big problem. Also, updating your lead magnet is a marketing opportunity because you can announce it to your email list, write a blog post, share it on your social media, you get the drift.

Take a look at your existing lead magnets (or at least your best one) and ask yourself:

• Is this current information?
• Do I have new research or insights that need to be added?
• Are the services and links current?
• Is my brand up to date?

2. Create an evergreen email sequence of your “greatest hits.”

This is one of the best things I've ever done in my business, hands down. If you use your email list as a relationship builder and messaging tool, you most likely have the archives to do this. You new subscribers likely have missed some of your best emails, and you're doing them a favor by actually sending those emails to them! It's a win for everyone!

Here's the quick and easy way to build an evergreen sequence to further engage your audience:

• Look through your past emails and identify those which best align with your message.
• Tweak them to be evergreen, removing references to things like "last week," or current events.
• If you have a framework, organize them thematically to follow the rhythm of your framework. (There's no set number, I have 26 in my sequence, but you could have seven.)
• Use your email marketing system to add all new subscribers to this sequence, sending them out on a day you don't typically email your whole list.

3. Quality assure your brand across the internet to protect your brand integrity.

Most of us have more online visibility than we realize. Between social media accounts, directory profiles, and places like Google Business Profiles, our online footprints are enormous!

To do a quick Q/A of your brand across the internet, try this:

• Google yourself! Look for dead accounts and mentions you've forgotten about. Take note of anything that needs to be decommissioned. Don't forget personal accounts where you may have added your business information.
• Look at your Google Business Profile with a fine-toothed comb. Is info current, are your services update to date, do you need to add information or photos to your profile?
• Run a backlinks scan on your website and make sure that people who are linking to you have linked to current pages and that the information on those linked pages is accurate! Ahrefs has a free tool for this.​

These are just foundational steps, but 90% of the time people get busy and don't do the foundations, which makes deeper strategy and planning so much harder. We don't like playing on hard mode, so let's make marketing easier, okay?

Talk soon,

Sarah

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