Throughout this year, there were months I didn’t hit 10k and there were months where I made significantly more. The difference in these months was usually my strategy and ability to diversify my income streams and lead generation strategies.  

Something I had to understand was that only being a service provider was limiting my earning potential. I knew this years ago, but I felt like I didn’t really have time to invest in merch or products like I wanted. So, I decided to do a few different things to supplement my service incomes.

16 New income streams I created:

• Mugs for Entrepreneurs 
• Published The Content Master Guide
• Published Creating an Environment For Conversions
• Created planners for business 
• Published Journals
• Created Courses
• Publishing marketing tool kits for small business 
• Hosted Workshops (like this Zapier Workshop in February 2022 + a workshop coming in June of 2022 with the Manitou Arts Center in Colorado) 
• Focused on making my custom print shop better (which is currently rebranding as PrintGami)
• Started asking for donations so I can grow and keep my content free (so, if you love this article, please donate so I can make more content like this).
• Writing several new books including: The Branding Buddy, Campaign Planning for Beginners, A marketing strategy guide & more.
• Being a business consultant as The Marketing Bully
• Bookings as a Graphic artist
• Structuring journals & planners for printing
• Wholesale mugs & journals via Printgami
• Content sponsorships

 Had I not diversified, I would’ve had to depend on service bookings all year, which just wasn’t sustainable. I had clients go out of business, run out of funding, flake on me for no reason, ignore my emails and text and more. If I didn’t diversify my income, I would’ve had a really horrible year. But because I thought ahead and invested when I had the money, my year turned out pretty good.

In the process, I learned that I had to diversify a few more things for this to work:

• The types of content I create + where I publish them
• How I get website traffic 
• The type of email content I create
• My content mediums

Before this realization, I blogged, used email marketing & every social platform besides twitter very inconsistently. Once I realized how big of a mistake this was, I started making more engaging and helpful content, which led to building trust with people significantly faster.

In the process, I put an emphasis on creating more valuable content using:

• The Talk To Tyllah Podcast
• Talk To Tyllah Blog
• The Marketing Bully you-tube
• A Free Marketing Discord Group
• Small Business Spotlight Newsletter 
• Creating New Freebies Regularly (like this Christmas marketing campaign- 7 Days Of Marketing, 72 hours of marketing, content utility, marketing budget, resource list, building brand authority) 
• Tea With Tyllah (personal blog)
• Weekly twitter spaces every Wednesday 

Since doing this, my web traffic, email subscribers and engagement grew significantly. Once I understood that it wasn’t enough to simply show up on twitter, I started seeing real growth. Now, to make it manageable, I do keep everything interrelated and I recycle all of my content to avoid burnout, but it works and my audience loves it. 

It’s been full of trial and error, however, I love the end result & I'm happy that my community is happy. Although just making better and more engaging content did help, I also had to diversify where my traffic was coming from. I tried everything to -  Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, quora, word of mouth, blogging, SEO, podcasting, email marketing, google ads, listing in directories, partnerships, pop up shops etc. 

 After every method, I decided these were my top 7:

• Twitter
• Blogging
• Email Marketing 
• Podcasting
• Youtube
• Google Ads
• SEO

 While I do eventually want to add more methods of driving traffic, I have to be realistic. As one person, I can only do so much efficiently while also still tending to every other part of business. I do plan to add a referral program in the next 6 months, however, that  very careful planning that I’m not going to rush into. I’ve learned overtime that the value lies in taking my time and planning, instead of rushing solely to get things done. 

This is a lot of work, I cannot lie about that. But truthfully I love creating content and I only spend 2 days a week creating content and 1 day editing and automating. I also create my content in advance, so when I do publish something, it was created 2 weeks ago.

 Side-note: I share 15 additional tips in the Content Marketing Tool Kit that will help you with marketing, planning, execution and email list growth.

 Learned 2 new skills every quarter

I am confident that this has been the biggest game changer for me these last 3 years. Not only has this helped me expand my knowledge, but it’s boosted my confidence astronomically.  

By committing to this, I’ve learned graphic design, blogging, inbound marketing, podcasting, public speaking, UX design, UX research, sales, automations, 3D printing, system development, negotiation, interviewing, and more. While some skills take significantly longer to learn than a few months, committing to learning something for 90 days can be a great way to introduce yourself to new methods, strategies and potential services to offer.

The new skills you commit to learning should challenge you. It’s great to expand on knowledge you already have, but it’s critical to step out of your comfort zone and truly challenge yourself creatively & professionally. 

You can learn new skills through multiple mediums including:

• Udemy
• Hub-spot academy
• EdEx
• Google resources 
• Facebook resources
• Buffer
• Skills-share
• Shopify academy
• seeking workshops by banks 
• certificates from universities
• Alison
• YouTube
• Adobe resources 
• Affinity designer website
• Lynda
• Reading 2 new books a quarter
• attending relevant seminars 
• listening to e-books while driving, working out and cooking
• finding 2-4 good podcast to listen to consistently 
• code academy 

You never know what doors these new skills can open. But one things for sure, being committed to becoming a life long learner does always lead to new opportunities.

 Keep in mind that learning these skills is only half of what needs to be done, because now you need to apply what you’ve learned. Create a portfolio to document your progress & journey, it’ll make it easier to also identify your professional gaps.

Some new skills / terms / methods you should consider learning:

• - Content marketing
• - Digital marketing 
• - Inbound marketing 
• - Content planning
• - Content mapping
• - Content Pillars
• - Content clusters
• - UX research
• - Cold pitching
• - Email pitching
• - Presentation development 
• - Pitch deck creation
• - Media kit development 
• - New product roll out
• - campaign planning
• - email Marketing 
• - audience sharing
• - virtual event coordination 
• - graphic design
• - Website management 
• - product sourcing
• - grant funding
• - grant writing

 There’s so much more than this to learn, but starting here can set you on the path for easy learning and forward mobility.

 Creating content that matters 

Creating content that matters starts with identifying what exactly your audience needs and desires. The goal here is to create content that’s addicting, binge worthy and shareable. So while your content should be informative and helpful, it should also be fun, insightful, and something your audience actually wants.

If you’re unsure of what they want, then start by asking them. Consider making surveys regularly, fun games that help you collect data and offer incentives to those participating. Take the time to review what your comped are doing, the content they’re creating, what platforms they’re using and the questions in their comment sections. Combined together, this information helps create a foundation for what your content should include, the best platforms to use and how to maximize content relevancy.

Next, you need to determine the best strategies for your brand. Which means that you must spend time specifically on marketing research and different implementation processes to figure out what works.

During this process, you’ll need to develop a content marketing strategy. Creating rand pieces of content inconsistently isn’t helpful to you, it never will be. You need to figure out how to show up everyday, what that looks like for you and what you can do to keep your content engaging snd cohesive.

Here’s how I create a content marketing strategy:

1. Identifying my goals with deadlines 
2. Researching strategies and case studies with success stories
3. Developing my strategy based on my research findings
4. Brainstorming content titles + platform matching
5. Creating the content
6. Lead capture + email marketing + automations 
7. Data tracking 

Side-note: I share 15 additional tips in the Content Marketing Tool Kit that will help you with marketing, planning, execution and email list growth.

Let’s briefly review each step, plus I’ll share some resources to help you dive deeper.

Resource directory 

Don’t try to reinvent the wheel. Instead, find more creative ways to make it spin.

Too often do I meet business owners who think they need to invent everything that goes into their business. They waste time trying to invent processes, systems, softwares and solutions when plenty of what they need already exist.

My only advice here is to write a list of all the issues you’re having and then research existing solutions for them one by one. It may take you a year to get solutions to everything, it may take you longer. But I guarantee it’ll still be faster than reinventing wheels that already exist.

I’m not going to drag this section out, but I will add that you should learn what systems and processes are, what exist, what you can use and what you still need. Take the guess work out, slow down and narrow down what’s really missing from your business.

 Creating a killer follow up strategy 

Always follow up, ALWAYS. 

If you aren't following up, you're blocking your own opportunities. I follow a very simple method for following up.

First, I set the expectations in the initial meeting for when they can expect to hear from me again via email. I follow through and contact them on the designated day. Most times, they do respond but if they don’t I follow up again in 3 business days. If I need to, I follow up again in a week and then again in a month.

After this, I take note of the lack of response to my emails and I’ll stop by their facility again to reconnect. I try to close this day or see what the hold up is from us doing business together.

I am not aggressive, I remain calm and kind always. But I am very proactive in letting them know I’d love to do business with them, the benefits for us both and the potential positive outcomes.

Everyone will not convert, but significantly more people will if you continue to follow up and stay diligent. I usually make 15% of my sales monthly by simply following up with leads and staying on top of their list so they never forget that I exist.

So, take some time this week to create a follow up strategy that works for your brand and clients. Be proactive, friendly and keep trying to close the sale because eventually you will.

 Side-note: I share 15 additional tips in the Content Marketing Tool Kit that will help you with marketing, planning, execution and email list growth.

Bonus Tips: 

1. Commit to cold pitching local business owners + community outreach.
2. Be willing to turn down opportunities that don’t directly align with my longterm goals.
3. Create samples to pass out and always carry 3-5 with you.
4. Develop 5 elevator pitches, one universal pitch won’t work on everyone you encounter.
5. Segment your email list, everyone on the list doesn’t need or want the same things.

Did you find this article useful? If so, comment and let me know. Share it on twitter to & tag me @MarketingBully_.