Episode 258
Revenue or Reach: Choosing the Best Strategy for Your Business [Ep. 258]
Are you struggling to decide whether to need more reach or revenue within your business?
In today's episode I dive into the intricacies of increasing revenue versus growing brand awareness and visibility.
Action Steps from this episode:
- Define Your Goal: Clarify whether you want to increase revenue or reach. If it's revenue, focus your efforts deep into what's already working. If it's reach, expand your visibility by going wide.
- Streamline Your Efforts: Choose a few strategies or channels that are already showing results and double down on them to maximize ROI.
- Evaluate and Adjust: Regularly assess your strategies to see which approach is yielding the best results and be prepared to pivot as needed.
Mentions and Links:
Customizing Your Business Strategy [Ep. 255]
Work with Michelle:
If you're already doing $3-4K in monthly revenue, and you want help getting to the next level, DM me on IG with the word "private" and I'll share the details of my month-to-month, cancel anytime "back pocket" coaching offer
Keywords:
business strategy, going wide, going deep, revenue growth, brand awareness, market research, ROI, product diversification, marketing strategies, visibility reach
Transcript
Hey everybody.
Speaker A:Welcome back to the Real truth about Business.
Speaker A:Today's episode is all about going deep or going wide.
Speaker A:Increasing revenue or growing your brand awareness and visibility.
Speaker A:This is something that I love to have this conversation with clients.
Speaker A:And so I wanted to bring it to the podcast because I think it is really, really important.
Speaker A:And I think it is a really great question to ask yourself is what are you looking to achieve?
Speaker A:Right?
Speaker A:My favorite statements to clients is always, what is the goal?
Speaker A:Right?
Speaker A:What are we trying to achieve and accomplish in doing this said strategy or in doing this one thing?
Speaker A:And so recently I was having a conversation with a client about going deep versus wide.
Speaker A:Okay, so let's first talk about like going wide.
Speaker A:Think of this like casting a wide net.
Speaker A:You've heard that before, that, you've heard that statement before of casting a wide net.
Speaker A:And this to me is all about visibility, brand awareness, right?
Speaker A:You want to get seen everywhere, you want to have your name and you want to get your finger in all of these different little pots, right?
Speaker A:Because you're trying to create brand awareness and visibility.
Speaker A:And the client specifically that I was talking about is she's a product based business.
Speaker A:They are.
Speaker A:And they do a lot of markets, right?
Speaker A:A lot of local markets.
Speaker A:And so she was talking about, you know, adding on more markets, adding on more markets, adding on more markets.
Speaker A:This is, this is what she came to me with.
Speaker A:And I was like, like, well, what are we doing?
Speaker A:Like, why, what are you hoping to achieve by adding on more markets?
Speaker A:Are you looking to create, create more brand awareness?
Speaker A:Because you're new, you're a new small business in the local area, you have a product, you're trying to get this product into as many hands as possible.
Speaker A:Or are you trying to increase revenue?
Speaker A:Right?
Speaker A:And her answer to me was increase revenue.
Speaker A:So going wide was not really the right option.
Speaker A:Okay, but if you're, if you are in this stage of like, I just want to try things out, right?
Speaker A:So going wide might be like putting yourself on multiple different social media channels, right?
Speaker A:Being on all of them.
Speaker A:Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok, Twitter, right?
Speaker A:So like one of these things where you feel like people say, oh my gosh, I see you everywhere.
Speaker A:No matter where I go, I see you, right?
Speaker A:Like that's really casting a wide net.
Speaker A:It could be going on a visibility tour, it could be doing podcast interviews, it could be doing, doing guest expert speakers, speaking spots, right?
Speaker A:Where you're getting in and you're, you're putting your name in as in many places as you possibly can.
Speaker A:It also could be in your product and your services offering, right?
Speaker A:Like putting out a bunch of different services, casting it out wide, like, I've got a service for everybody.
Speaker A:And you kind of.
Speaker A:This is probably often referred to as like the throw spaghetti at the wall and see what sticks kind of theory is you're just, you're doing it all right?
Speaker A:You're trying it out.
Speaker A:You're casting this wide net and you're putting out a wide range of products or services.
Speaker A:You've got multiple different customer ideal clients for each one, right?
Speaker A:You, you can go wide.
Speaker A:I'm not saying you can't do this, but again, for me, the thing with going wide is that it usually is going to cost you money or time, right?
Speaker A:Think about that.
Speaker A:Is all, all of these things are time consuming.
Speaker A:So you're going to have and your ROI on a lot of this is going to be much longer term before you see a really good roi.
Speaker A:Because remember, you're putting all this time and energy into having to go wide and doing all the things and being in all the places.
Speaker A:And so your roi, what you're going to probably see before you net any return is going to be something.
Speaker A:It's going to be much longer term.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker A:And maybe it's your sales strategy again, could also, you could cast a wide net with that.
Speaker A:You could try webinars, you could do ads, you could try content marketing.
Speaker A:There's all different things.
Speaker A:This is where podcasts, you know, guesting, you could try multiple different freebies.
Speaker A:You know, going wide is really about diversity and reach.
Speaker A:Okay?
Speaker A:So you're diversifying your audiences, you're trying to gain reach.
Speaker A:And so, you know, let's talk about the pros and cons to, to that.
Speaker A:Like when is the right time to go wide and what are the pros to it, right?
Speaker A:So some of the pros to casting a wide net is that it could really diversify and vary your income streams.
Speaker A:So if you've got multiple different offers out there or multiple different ideal clients, if one particular ideal client or income stream tends, like, goes through a slower period, you might have another one that is picking up, right?
Speaker A:Or like during the times of COVID right?
Speaker A:For certain people, their business completely stopped because of COVID It had to, right?
Speaker A:So having a wide net in that situation is extremely beneficial because when one area is like not producing, you might have another area that really blows up.
Speaker A:It's a really great way to do some market research, right, and see and get some data.
Speaker A:You know, we were talking in the last episode about facts versus Emotion like this is gonna help you gather facts.
Speaker A:It's gonn help you gather information because you're going to see what works, kind of.
Speaker A:I've got a caveat to that.
Speaker A:Because when you go wide, and this is one of the cons, is that you are dipping your toes in so many things that you're not putting 100% effort into any of them.
Speaker A:So your research is going to be slightly tainted because your efforts are not 100%.
Speaker A:You can't, you can't put 100% into all the things when you're going wide, right?
Speaker A:So you're going to have a little bit of some skewed information.
Speaker A:However, it's still going to get you facts right.
Speaker A:It's going to tell you where your ideal client is hanging out.
Speaker A:If you're trying all the social media platforms, it's going to tell you where you enjoy hanging out, where you have the best conversations, where you're meeting the best people.
Speaker A:If you have multiple offers, you're going to hopefully see which offer people lean to versus the other.
Speaker A:Right?
Speaker A:So it is a really, really great way to do some market research.
Speaker A:And ultimately the biggest pro to that is it creates a lot of reach.
Speaker A:If you're getting your hands into a lot of different pots, then your reach, right, you are gaining extra visibility.
Speaker A:Now, is it the right visibility?
Speaker A:Who knows?
Speaker A:We don't know.
Speaker A:I mean, it could be.
Speaker A:It could be great visibility.
Speaker A:It could not be.
Speaker A:In the, the case with the client who had a couple of these markets and she was doing all of these markets, there were a couple markets that just really didn't sell well.
Speaker A:Her product didn't sell well in them.
Speaker A:So did she gain reach?
Speaker A:Maybe, but not if the clients aren't buying.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:Like if the people that are at those, at those markets per se, or like if you're going to do it online, let's say in guest expert spots, like if they're not your right fit client and they're not buying and they're not interested, what reach are you really gaining?
Speaker A:So you've got to really look at that too.
Speaker A:But again, it's all information.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker A:And that's where some of those cons, like the, the things that I would.
Speaker A:Why sometimes going wide is a little bit difficult is because it does require a lot of time and money.
Speaker A:Right?
Speaker A:Time and money and effort and sometimes a team.
Speaker A:So to manage multiple strategies, it's just not humanly possible to manage all of these strategies all the time.
Speaker A:And that was really what that client was coming up against, was like we are out of manpower.
Speaker A:We don't have any more time to actually be able to man all of these markets.
Speaker A:And so we're thinking about hiring.
Speaker A:We're think, which again is now, now increased expenses.
Speaker A:So even if it sounds like, wow, I'm going to increase all of this reach and we're going to make all this extra money.
Speaker A:Not if you've got expense that goes again, goes against it.
Speaker A:Right?
Speaker A:So again, what are the facts here?
Speaker A:Right?
Speaker A:And so it's also going to create slower results.
Speaker A:That's the thing.
Speaker A:It's harder to measure the results and they're going to be slower because your efforts are so diversified that it's going to take longer.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:When you put a hundred percent effort into something, you are going to see faster results.
Speaker A:And because you're putting all of your time and attention into it.
Speaker A:Think about it.
Speaker A:If you.
Speaker A:We've all been there.
Speaker A:Whether I can't even like think of a task right now.
Speaker A:I'm just trying to think of something like when we were moving, we just recently moved, right.
Speaker A:I took an entire week off to unpack this house and get it settled because I want, I didn't want it to take months, right?
Speaker A:Where if I was booked solid with podcast interviews and book solid with client calls and attending a bunch of networking events and nannying a couple days a week, which, you know, I do like, if I were trying to do all of those things, like the unpacking would have gotten done in little pockets of time, 30 minutes here, 30 minutes there, we probably would still be inundated with boxes.
Speaker A:And so it's not that it wouldn't have happened.
Speaker A:It's not that I wouldn't have gotten the same result, but the result would have taken a much longer time because I didn't have the focus to actually work 100% on it.
Speaker A:Right?
Speaker A:So going wide, casting that wide net really can increase your visibility and reach.
Speaker A:However, your results are going to your ROI and your results are probably going to take longer for you to see versus going deep.
Speaker A:And this is what I call like focusing on what is already working.
Speaker A:So if I'm going to keep giving you the story and the case study with this client is she had two markets that like, no matter what, we're selling out every single, every single week.
Speaker A:Her product was selling out every week at every one of the.
Speaker A:At this market, right?
Speaker A:So granted, she had been there longer, but one of the suggestions was, well, why not, let's, why not just do more at the market that's already working?
Speaker A:Can you send more inventory there.
Speaker A:Can you diversify, can you add more products to this one market where you can sell more to increase revenue?
Speaker A:Right?
Speaker A:So going deep involves in is really focused on what I, you know, the focus visionary.
Speaker A:This is going deep is focusing on what's working, but it's a, concentrating on a few strategies, not all of them.
Speaker A:A few strategies, a few social media channels, a few marketing.
Speaker A:Marketing strategies, one or two offers, refining and optimizing them to get the most results and impact income, whatever that looks like for you, right?
Speaker A:Some examples of this might be like I just said, instead of going and adding more markets that were going to cost more money, let's just try to bring an increase revenue at the ones that we know.
Speaker A:These clients know us, like us, love us.
Speaker A:They buy us out every single week.
Speaker A:So we, what else can we give them?
Speaker A:Because when you have clients who know, like trust and love you, they're ready and waiting for your next offer.
Speaker A:So 90% of the time when you put something new in front of them, especially in this case, she does, she's a food man.
Speaker A:They manufacture like homemade sausages and meatballs and Italian meats and subs and sandwiches and stuff.
Speaker A:And so of course, if she brought a new product, her raving fan clients are going to be like, well, of course I got to try this because I love this product.
Speaker A:This product, this product.
Speaker A:We know this one's going to be as great, great as well.
Speaker A:Okay?
Speaker A:So it could be that you really focus in and you diversify your offers to a certain clientele, right?
Speaker A:So you've got your flagship offer, you've got your signature program, you've got your, your one main product and then you maybe offer little other offers, upsells, downsells, cross sells to your audience that already know.
Speaker A:I, I don't even want to say no.
Speaker A:Like trust.
Speaker A:It's like they love you.
Speaker A:These are your super fans, okay?
Speaker A:And so you could double down on your marketing.
Speaker A:If you know you are in seeing the most results from LinkedIn and you're engaging the most on LinkedIn, then forget TikTok, forget Instagram.
Speaker A:I mean, we've all heard this before, right?
Speaker A:With marketing that you can't be all in all the places.
Speaker A:So you're doubling down on a single platform, you're doubling down on a single offer, you're doubling down on a single sales strategy, right?
Speaker A:Like what sells the best?
Speaker A:Is it when you jump on calls with people?
Speaker A:Is it when you sell in the DMs?
Speaker A:Is it when you run a webinar or A lead, like a challenge, Like a live challenge?
Speaker A:Do you have a freebie that converts very, very well?
Speaker A:What are you doing that's converting?
Speaker A:And what are you going all in on?
Speaker A:Right?
Speaker A:So this is about going deep.
Speaker A:How can you do more?
Speaker A:What's that next step?
Speaker A:That's what I'm always asking clients.
Speaker A:What is the next step for your.
Speaker A:For your customers?
Speaker A:Right?
Speaker A:Because your customers are there.
Speaker A:And so when you go deep, one of the biggest pros is that you're going to have an increased roi, because your efforts, just like my moving example, the market example that I just gave you, your efforts are focused on one or two things.
Speaker A:You're putting 100% effort in.
Speaker A:You can get things done faster.
Speaker A:So your ROI is increased, your revenue increases, and you can get more for your money, your time, Right?
Speaker A:Because if you're doing the same thing over and over, it's washrooms, repeat, there's no trial and error, right?
Speaker A:So you've eliminated all of that, and so you're actually making more money.
Speaker A:So even though sometimes going wide seems like, oh, but I need to make a little bit of money on all the places.
Speaker A:No, let's just make a little bit of money in one place, right?
Speaker A:Like a little bit of money in a lot of ways in one place type of thing.
Speaker A:I hope you know what I mean when I say that.
Speaker A:Like, sometimes when I say things out loud, like, in my head, they sound like, yes, this makes sense.
Speaker A:Like, I can totally visualize what I'm saying.
Speaker A:But then I was just like, did that really make sense?
Speaker A:Anyway, I digress.
Speaker A:But going deep, let's.
Speaker A:Let's start over.
Speaker A:The pros and cons, right?
Speaker A:The pros is getting known to.
Speaker A:As an expert in authority, in your space, right?
Speaker A:When you're all over the place.
Speaker A:And actually, I have a.
Speaker A:Oh, I think I have a coaching episode coming out about this.
Speaker A:I'd have to.
Speaker A:I'd have to look, stay, like, on the lookout for it, because it's one of those where it was like, you're known for this.
Speaker A:You do this, and.
Speaker A:Oh, no, it was a client.
Speaker A:I'm sorry.
Speaker A:It was a client I was just having a conversation with.
Speaker A:She had, like, three different offers, three different ideal clients, and inside of each one of those ideal clients, they had, like, six other ideal clients.
Speaker A:And it was like, you can't do that, right?
Speaker A:You can't get known for anything when you're all over the place.
Speaker A:When you're trying to do all these things, it's very, very difficult.
Speaker A:And.
Speaker A:But when you go deep Right.
Speaker A:Again, we're talking about the pros.
Speaker A:This episode, I don't know why, is going all over the rails just because, like, I could talk about this for so long.
Speaker A:There's so many things I could say about this one, but it allows you to get known in your field, right?
Speaker A:What do you want to get known for?
Speaker A:What do you want to be the authority and what do you want to be known as an expert in?
Speaker A:Where do you want to stay?
Speaker A:Top of mind, okay?
Speaker A:When you go deep, that's what happens.
Speaker A:You get known in that area of expertise much faster because you're so concentrated, right?
Speaker A:Everything is so simplified.
Speaker A:Your efforts are so focused that it's the only thing people know of you.
Speaker A:All right?
Speaker A:Now, there's always cons to everything, too, right?
Speaker A:So there's limited reach with this, right?
Speaker A:Eventually, potentially, potentially, the well may run dry, right?
Speaker A:People in that market, for my one client may say, you know what?
Speaker A:We've already tried all these things.
Speaker A:We've already bought them.
Speaker A:Every single week, we're buying the same thing.
Speaker A:And so you could end up with some limited reach by not kind of expanding elsewhere.
Speaker A:And, you know, you could get to a point where, like, people are always looking for something new.
Speaker A:And that's the.
Speaker A:There's a lot to be said when you're constantly having to create something new, right?
Speaker A:The other thing is, like, we were talking about with COVID like, if you've got all your eggs in one basket and that basket, you know, flips over, what are you going to do, right?
Speaker A:So there's.
Speaker A:There's.
Speaker A:That side of it, too, is like, do I really want to go all in?
Speaker A:And this is where people really struggle with this is like, yeah, but what happens?
Speaker A:It's that, yeah, but the yeah, but, and the what ifs, what if?
Speaker A:Or yeah, but, right?
Speaker A:Like, it's really hard not to get wrapped up in that, especially when all of your efforts are so focused and concentrated.
Speaker A:And so, you know, the other thing is, is that things can maybe start to get stale when you go deep, right?
Speaker A:Your strategies can start to feel stale.
Speaker A:People can start.
Speaker A:You know, they might get sick of seeing it.
Speaker A:Although, again, if you're also.
Speaker A:This is where you kind of need both, right?
Speaker A:You've got to cast a wide net.
Speaker A:You've got to be kind of always increasing your visibility, bringing new leads in, but you've also got to know where your time is best spent and where can you double down to make the most roi.
Speaker A:So return on investment.
Speaker A:For those listening, maybe I've said that a million Times and you're all going, what is roi?
Speaker A:I think most people would know that, but let's just clarify it just in case, right?
Speaker A:So in general, there's pros and cons to both.
Speaker A:As with every strategy, this is what I say all the time.
Speaker A:Every single strategy works.
Speaker A:They're not all going to work for you and they're not all going to work at the right, you know, like at the same time.
Speaker A:So you've got to really look at, maybe you are in a season where you're going to go wide.
Speaker A:You know, this is one of the things that I do all the time in the Focus Visionary program and why I'm such a huge fan of these 60 day periods in doing things like this is because for 60 days you may say, you know what, I'm going to cast a wide net.
Speaker A:I'm going to try to get on as many podcasts as possible.
Speaker A:I'm going to spend, you know, 60 days and I'm going to try three different social media platforms, right?
Speaker A:You may spend 60 day period or 90 day period and you may go wide and you may see because you're in this stage of like needing to expand, needing to create reach, needing to get some market research.
Speaker A:So there could be a season in your business when that is extremely beneficial, right?
Speaker A:But then there may be another season when you're feeling like my time is limited, my efforts, I can't be all over the place, maybe you've got other things going on.
Speaker A:Again, I always say balance the grind versus the goal, right?
Speaker A:Like if the grind is grinding, life is life thing, then you may need to just go deep, right?
Speaker A:Let's focus on one thing right now and eliminate all the rest, which is always my, my recommendation.
Speaker A:But again, there are times when it is very, very beneficial to cast this wide net.
Speaker A:Okay?
Speaker A:So I want you to think about, right, what am I trying to achieve and what is the strategy that I need?
Speaker A:Do I need to go wide or do I need to go deep?
Speaker A:If you are looking to increase revenue then, or profit, right, or get new sales, go deep.
Speaker A:Go where things are already working, go where the people are already buying, go deep.
Speaker A:If you are looking to increase reach and you're trying to expand and you're trying to get into new audiences and you're trying to get seen and you're trying to just get extremely visible, then you go wide, right?
Speaker A:But those are usually the two differentiators.
Speaker A:If you're trying to really figure out what am I, what is, what is my best strategy here, ask yourself what are we trying to achieve?
Speaker A:Increase revenue or increase reach?
Speaker A:Revenue or reach?
Speaker A:If it's revenue, you're going deep.
Speaker A:If it's reach, you're going wide.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker A:And then from there pick the strategy that works for you.
Speaker A:Customize it.
Speaker A:Remember that episode I did on customizing your strategy?
Speaker A:Customize your strategy for yourself and your business.
Speaker A:Depending on what season you are in, there's always going to be seasons in your business.
Speaker A:And that's the beautiful thing about that.
Speaker A:If you need the episode on customizing your Strategy, it's episode 255.
Speaker A:It was just a couple episodes back, but anyway, hopefully this was helpful.
Speaker A:If my episode got a little too off the rails and you're still feeling a little confused, you know how to find me michelle@michelldenayo.com or if you want to reach out, we can jump on a call.
Speaker A:I'm always, always, always, always, always open to a call if you are interested.
Speaker A:The link is always in the show notes.
Speaker A:So anyways, have fun with this one.
Speaker A:Keep this on like this is one of those ones where I would say like put it on your bulletin board.
Speaker A:Wide equals reach.
Speaker A:Deep equals revenue.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker A:So it's that constant reminder.
Speaker A:What am I trying to do?
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker A:I love you.
Speaker A:I believe in you.
Speaker A:I'll talk to you soon.
Speaker A:Thanks so much for listening today, but remember now it's time to take action.
Speaker A:My goal is to get you results.
Speaker A:So what is one action you can commit to taking this week?
Speaker A:Feel free to share it with me in my DMs or tag me on your socials.
Speaker A:Not sure what action to take?
Speaker A:Grab the link in the show notes and schedule a strategic power hour.
Speaker A:We can talk through it together and get you a strategic plan of action in just 60 short minutes.
Speaker A:Oh, and one last favor.
Speaker A:As with every podcast, reviews and ratings are what help us continue to show up and grow.
Speaker A:So if you wouldn't mind, please take a quick minute to leave a five star review on Apple or Spotify and share this episode with a friend.
Speaker A:Thanks.
Speaker A:Talk soon.
