Last week, I shared 15 steps you can take to put some momentum behind your business growth.
This week, we’re going to continue building on that, so you have a month’s worth of steps you can take to give your business a boost.
Day 16: Publish an article or video.
Included in last week’s article were the steps you need to take to write and polish a long-form article. (Or, you could apply those same steps to creating a video.)
Whenever you create a piece of long-form content, the next step is to publish it somewhere.
If you have your own website, that’s the best place to publish it. If you have a Substack related to your writing business, that’s another good place. If you don’t have either of those, then publish it on LinkedIn.
Bonus Tip: Even if you do publish your article or video on your website or Substack, you can still publish it on LinkedIn. Just wait a week or two and make sure you note at the beginning or end of the article where it was originally published.
Day 17: Share your article/video with everyone you know.
Or, at least, everyone you know who would be interested.
Share your most interesting insight on LinkedIn and then share the link in the comments. Send a direct message with a link to the article to people in your network who you know might benefit.
If you’re on Notes (Substack), Threads, or another short-form social platform, share a link to your post two or three times over the next week, highlighting a different point each time.
You can also email any business friends you have who might benefit from reading the article.
The point is to get it out there in front of as many people as possible.
Day 18: Start building a prospect list.
Shifting gears just a little bit, your next step is to start building a list of prospects for your business.
You can use your favorite AI tool to make this a much easier, faster process. Just give the tool your criteria and then ask it to build you a list. I use ChatGPT for this. My criteria look like this:
- I want to find local companies — I’ll provide the industry focus for each batch.
- Include the website, mailing address, and the name of the owner or marketing director, whenever possible.
- Focus on companies that show signs of having a marketing budget.
- Include small- to medium-sized businesses — no mom-and-pop shops or large corporations.
- Focus on companies with an active (or recently active) blog, with an email sign-up form on their site, or that have recently done (or are planning to do) event marketing.
Then, I give ChatGPT an industry focus (use the work you did on Day 1 for this) and have it return 10 prospects in a table format. You can have it work in bigger batches, but I find I get higher-quality results (less erroneous information) if I assign it smaller batches.
You can adapt these criteria to what best fits you and then use them to start building your list. Aim for 25 prospects to start.
Day 19: Keep building your list.
Today, add 25 more prospects to your list.
Day 20: And again…
Add 25 more prospects today.
Day 21: Finish building your list.
Add an additional 25 prospects today, and you’ll have an even 100 potential clients to start emailing, connecting with on LinkedIn, or mailing.
Speaking of which…
Day 22: Write a short note.
Remember last week, when you thought about who you want to serve, what you want to offer them, and why it’s important to you?
Draw on that information to write a short pitch — one tailored to your industry, that’s focused on solving a problem your audience is aware of and eager to resolve, and that let’s your personality shine through.
Try to keep it brief… three paragraphs are plenty.
Once you’ve proofed and polished your note, your next step is to start sending it out to your prospect list.
Day 23: Send 25 messages.
Use the prospect list you built to send your freshly written pitch. You can send it as a DM to your LinkedIn connections. For everyone else, send it through email or via post.
Day 24: Send 25 more messages.
Keep your momentum going, and send your message to the next 25 prospects on your list.
Day 25: And again…
You know the drill. Send to your next 25 prospects.
Day 26: Finish your mailing and celebrate!
Send your message to your final 25 prospects.
And then, make a little time to celebrate. Few copywriters ever send out a mailing to 100 prospects in the course of the week. But you just did!
It matters because, with 100 mailings, you can get a feel for if your offer is going to work. Give it a few days and then tally up how many responses you got. You’re likely to get some who say they’re not interested — but they took the time to tell you, so make note of that. They might be good to follow up with every quarter or so.
Some will say they’re interested but the timing isn’t right. That’s good, too. Make a plan to keep in touch with them monthly for the next six months to see if any of them decide to work with you.
Finally, if one to three of the 100 request a meeting to talk about your offer, you know you’re on the right track… and it’s a good bet to keep sending that offer out.
Day 27: Have a conversation with someone in your audience.
What I’m suggesting isn’t a discovery call or a sales pitch, but an honest-to-goodness conversation to get to know someone in your network better.
Doing this gives you the chance to learn more about the industry you want to serve and to hear about pain points direct from your audience, which is invaluable.
It also gives you a chance to ask them for feedback on the offer you want to make to people like them.
And to get to know them as a person. You might make a new business friend, which is always fun, and can yield unexpected benefits down the line.
Speaking of new business friends…
Day 28: Find a local networking meeting to attend.
Spend a little time today researching what kinds of networking events are available in your area.
Chambers of Commerce often have events that are open to members and non-members. Local libraries also may host business-networking events.
Visit the BNI website to find out if there are any chapters that meet near you and make a plan to attend one to see what you think.
Facebook, Meetup, and Eventbrite are all good places to check for events happening in your city or region.
Find one that looks promising and put it on your calendar.
When you attend, just relax, and enjoy having conversations with the people around you. Make it a point to ask questions and listen closely to the answers. When someone asks what you do, fall back on your who/what/why from the first three days.
Don’t make the event about pitching your services. But, if you meet someone who seems like they would be a good fit or a good referral partner, suggest getting together for coffee.
Day 29: Pick a topic for a presentation.
You might be inspired to put on your own business-networking event. Start by picking something to talk about that would be attractive to your audience. Outline a 10- to 15-minute presentation.
And then, contact local restaurants about doing a lunch-and-learn. A lot of restaurants will give you a room for free, provided the majority of your attendees buy lunch. You make the presentation, do a little networking, build your authority, and maybe line up a few more of those business conversations.
Obviously, planning and doing the event will take more than an hour, but for today, just focus on choosing a topic and outlining your presentation.
Day 30: Create a video.
Once you’ve figured out your presentation and outline, choose one main point or takeaway and shoot a quick video talking about it. If doing video makes you nervous, consider this practice… you don’t have to post the video. Just do a short, vertical recording — it will help you get comfortable in front of the camera, which will open more ways to connect with your audience in the future.
There you have it… 15 more steps you can take — each one under an hour — to start growing your business. Between last week and this week, you have a step for every day of the coming month. Commit to doing them all, and then come and tell us in the comments what you learned and about what’s changed in your business.