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Hey there - it's Brian 👋

Today we design your growth.

A few months ago, I worked with a friend of mine to launch a newsletter (in a way that aligns with his 3 other businesses).

We adjusted his marketing so he only does one thing and it gets him customers across all his offers.

So this issue is is for you if you’re looking to expand your business. New marketing channel? New customer type? New product/service?

In today's issue, you hear:
• How we aligned growth across businesses
• Get the tools to quickly see how customers flow through your business
• Get more customers to into your business

Let’s make your business an outlier: 👇

My friend wanted to launch his newsletter

A few months ago, a friend of mine was looking to launch his second newsletter.

He already has a few small businesses: ghostwriting agency, another newsletter business, and content agency. Roughly $400k revenue.

But he has a problem: the more he adds on, the less he can focus on getting customers for each.

And the thing is… you can design your marketing so you do work for one and the effects ripple across the others.

If you don’t, you’ll repeat work for each product/service. And you won’t get great flow of customers in any of your offers.

So I sat with him to figure out how we could set up the new business to align with his others (to avoid any re-work).

Here’s what we did.

🧔🏻‍♂️ Brian’s nerdy side rant:

Align things across your offers so you do one thing and it’s re-used in other places. The real word for it is called “synergy.”

But I hate the word “synergy.”

It’s painfully overused because people want to sound impressive. So the actual meaning gets diluted.

So yes. We’re talking about actual “synergies” today. And no, I won’t use that word again. I’ll keep saying “align” instead.

“Strategy” is another word that’s been so overused the meaning is diluted. But that’s a rant for another day.

So what did we do for his newsletter?

I’ll guide you quickly through the steps we did (at a high level), then dive deeper with specific examples using my own process.

Step 1: We mapped out his current business.

We drew where customers came from and how they flow through his business. Then highlighted areas of his business we couldn’t connect.

Step 2: We came up talked through his options.

For each area we couldn’t connect, we came up with a few different options to connect them.

Examples:
• Should we change the target customer to use the same marketing channel?
• Should we push customers to a central area (SMS, email, Instagram broadcast) and sell them from there?

Step 3: We came up with a plan for his new business.

We found a sub-group within his new creator niche that aligned more to his other businesses.

Now he didn’t have to create different content to attract customers to his new business.

Since I can’t show you what we did for his business, I’ll show you how I did the same process for mine: 👇

So how can you design how customers flow through your business (in the next 5 min)?

Copy the way I did it for my own business.

I drew a map to see how everything connects together.

It’s a simple map. Should take you 5 min.

But it’s a big “ah-hah'“ moment when you notice opportunities to align things.

To make this map yourself, go to Figma and use “FigJam.” (It’s much simpler than the standard Figma design file so start there.)

Just make boxes and connectors for each box. That’s it.

3 parts you need to include:

1) How do customers first hear about you?

Socials? Paid ads? SEO? Affiliates?

Make a separate box for each channel you want to use (on the far left).

Choosing the right channels is hard so here’s a case study on how I helped a SaaS company choose theirs.

2) How do you build trust with your customers?

Help customers understand why you’re better than their other options to solve their problem.

My entire business is based on building trust by giving as much as I possibly can.

There’s a lot of fake internet gurus so the best way to stand out is to show real value through lived experiences.

I use this newsletter or my lead magnet to let people know how I think/solve problems so they trust that I know what I’m talking about.

The more you give, the more people want to give back to you.

🧔🏻‍♂️ Brian’s nerdy side rant:
I’m simplifying a bit because you also build trust using content and weekly communication (emails).

3) How do you sell to your customers?

When it’s time to make an offer how do you do it? What follow ups happen if they don’t buy?

Build follow ups into your systems. People need to see your offer online (on average) 7 times before they buy.

🧔🏻‍♂️ Brian’s nerdy side rant:

Now, that’s the basics. But there’s a bunch of other parts to think through too (like how you hook them in, upsell, funnels, analytics to make sure you’re on track, systems to scale etc).

I put them in the vote section below at the end of the page so make sure you get to the end to vote on which part you want to learn next.

P.S. If you’re designing growth for your own business and want answers faster, feel free to grab some time with me for free. I’m happy to chat.

And that’s it!

See you next Thursday 👋

Brian
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🛠️ Outlier Resources

If you’re thinking about “synergies” (There. I said it.), you’ll want to cut repetitive work.

The best way is having a mindset shift from thinking of your offers as individual pieces, to now thinking of yourself as running a portfolio (even if you only have 2 products/services).

You’ll love this previous issue on how a portfolio mindset gets you to cut out repetitive work: 👇