Coaching call: How can I design my offer suite to create more freedom in my business?

Today I am coaching Nicki Sciberras, CEO of Miss Marketing, an agency that provides sales and leads support using Facebook ads, Google ads, and SEO. Nicki is facing a very common struggle of keeping one foot in the freelance world whilst developing and growing a suite of offers. In this episode we drill down on her business goals and identify a strategy to attract high-value clients whilst allowing her the freedom to work less and focus on other projects in her business.

In this episode we chat about:
– How deep diving into your current business direction and re-evaluating your goals can offer a new perspective
– How creating boundaries and packaging up your offers can provide greater value to your clients and more structure in your business
– The fine art of investing in time assets whilst still servicing time debts
– Why wearing too many hats can be counterintuitive to your business goals and growth
– The importance of making decisions based on the business you want in the future and not the business you have right now.

Connect with Nicki at https://www.thedigitalexchange.co/

 

 

Today, I'm coaching one of my students, and clients, her name is Nicki and she is a marketer who is in a pretty common position that I've seen a lot of experts and talented people getting stuck in. You're working with a lot of clients and you've got this bigger vision for what your business is, what you want your business to be in the future, but you just don't have the time. 

And Nicki's been working 60-hour weeks and it's trying to get from where she is right now, to where she wants to be. And today I am helping her figure out what kind of offers in her business will help get her from where she is right now, working those massive hours, working with all of those clients through to running that business where she has the kind of freedom she's not working 60-hour weeks, as well as that financial freedom that she wants and the ability to work on different projects that she wants to work on.

So this was probably my favourite coaching call that I've done so far. And I think anybody who works with clients is going to and even if you don't work with clients you're going to get a lot out of today's episode so let's jump in.

Hello everyone! I'm really excited to be here as well. So thanks for having me, Steph. So my name is Nicki and I run a marketing agency, Miss Marketing, and we help online businesses get more leads and sales using Facebook Ads, Google Ads, and SEO.

So we primarily help e-commerce businesses because they need help all year round, but we also can help service-based and course creators as well with their ads based on launches and things like that. 

So I would like more help creating a strategy around my offer suite in order to achieve my business goals. At the moment, I'm offering a lot of services, but I would like to move those more into teaching.

Like I would like to be teaching more but then I guess I would like to maybe move it into $20,000 months and then obviously further into maybe the five million dollar mark like yourself.

What kind of life goals do you have?

Essentially, I am working a lot of hours at the moment because I'm trying to juggle creating programs and also doing the services as well. So I would like to be able to maybe work 30 to 40 hours a week max.

At the moment, it's probably around the 60 mark, maybe even more. So even 30 would be great because I do have a few other side projects that I'm working on that are unrelated to marketing. And I'd like to be able to share my time with those projects. 

Packaging up offers can provide great value

You have sent through a massive Google Doc with your existing offer suite and a lot of different offers in there. I mean, we probably don't have enough time to go through all of them, and it's a classic example of a pick-and-choose kind of offer suite where your clients are coming to you. We assume that they already know what they need, but do your clients already know what they need? 

Mostly, yes. People either want to do it themselves and they know that, or they want management. So, I would say people do know what they want. I do have a lot of services on offer, but in saying that, I would say that primarily people pick about five of those things. So they want full management or they buy one of the programs, or they want me, even if they're a service provider, they might just get me to set something up for them and get training.

But yeah, so yeah, so when we're looking at that client sort of stuff and looking at firstly streamlining that so you can free up your time so you can get the courses and all of that off the ground. I think the first place to probably look is, with those clients are they predominantly one-off, and like how much on average are they spending with you?

Because if we can switch from having lots of one-off clients and low lifetime values to fewer but fewer clients that are spending more, and you are working with them ongoing like you get better results for them, but it's also a much more streamlined process for you. So where is that at the moment? 

So I would say most of my clients primarily work with me ongoing. Most of my clients would be Facebook ads management clients, and they're e-commerce. So the only sporadic ones would be the course creators or service providers that you fill in the gaps with because they can only take on a certain amount of clients, or they only have launched during a certain period.

So primarily ongoing and that's for Facebook ads. And then SEO is just a one-off job but that is something that I can outsource because it does get expensive when you want to use software that speeds the process up. 

What services you are selling at the moment, which of your offers at the moment are not giving you a good return on your time or a good return on your energy? So when I say that, I mean which ones are taking a lot of your time and probably delivering as much revenue or they're taking a lot of your energy and you're not enjoying doing them anymore? 

I would say the SEO, only because Facebook ads are a lot easier to manage because you're managing the client ongoing. You get a lot more time to understand the brand and so basically you almost become a part of their marketing team because it's ongoing. I love doing Facebook ads and it's pretty simple. There are no costs really. 

When it comes to SEO, I find that can be a little bit more draining and it's because I guess there are a lot more costs involved and then Google Ads and Facebook ads are quite similar, but Google Ads, I've been outsourcing a bit lately to another Australian partner who's actually a student of yours.

So with Facebook ads, obviously you've got two ways to scale that, right? You either bring in a team to run that or you charge more and work more, which isn't really sustainable if it's just you and I know you said you want to go to predominantly teaching, so is your longer-term vision to then not be doing any of that Facebook ads management?

I think for the clients that I have now, I'd be happy to continue doing it. And I think another thing for me is that a lot of my clients I've had since I started my business, so they've just kept going and we've been scaling their business and growing it.

And then I've kept them on a lot of the old pricing. So even though the pricing may have doubled since they've started, they're still on the old pricing, which is like blocking the spaces for the higher paying people, which I mean, it's a trade-off because I really enjoy working with them.

The fine art of investing in time assets whilst still servicing time debts

 

Do you think that you could pass on a price increase? It doesn't have to be to the full price increase, but like could you pass on a price increase to them and they would still want to stay with you, the majority of them? 

I think so. I don't know. I guess I'm so bad with that stuff. I always feel nervous about doing it, but it's probably something that I need to look at because there is quite a disparity between where some of the old clients are and where the new ones are coming in at.

And I think it's only fair. Everything is so expensive. Everybody's talking about the cost of living, inflation, and all of that. It's not like they're locked in and they are free to go and move somewhere else, in which case they can go to somebody else and then that opens up a spot for somebody at a new price point. 

But I think you'd be surprised. I think if they've been with you for so long and you've been working together really well, you're getting them results, I think that they would be more than happy. I know it's scary but the worst that can happen is they leave and they open up a spot for somebody else.

Or it frees up your time so that you can now spend that extra bit of time each month working on a program or a course that you want. It's eventually moving you closer to the vision. And I know it's hard because each client you lose is an income hit, but it's also a win back some time, which you can then invest into building something for the future.

Yeah, it's true, and I mean, it's not like I have a shortage of clients either, I guess I'm not so much worried about it. I'm worried about losing them personally probably, more than in terms of finances because I'm getting so many enquiries all the time, which is a good thing. But yeah, I totally understand where you're coming from and it makes total sense, and I'm sure they will understand because they increase their prices as well. 

I can see like your prices are quite low. I would be absolutely putting them up if I were you. 

Yeah, that was another thing I was thinking. I wonder if they are too low because a lot of the time you don't really know what other people in the industry are charging. I know what some people are charging based on the fact that I partner with them, so I try to keep in alignment with them but I think it's also about me.

I'm looking at maybe doing a rebrand, which will allow me to maybe charge a little bit more as well, just in the way that I get positioned myself in the marketplace. Because when people are first starting out, they don't have those types of budgets, but I find that most of my clients anyway, for e-commerce and more established businesses when it comes to service-based or course creators, it's not as bigger of a problem.

So obviously putting up prices is one thing, but also looking at how can we increase the lifetime value of each of those clients that you're working with, and that's lifetime value to your business. So that in terms of dollars, how much they spend with you, but also in terms of how much value you are helping them with because when I look at your list of offers here and I was like great. 

You can write an email campaign for them, but they're not getting a huge amount of value out of just one email campaign. They would be getting so much more value if they came to you for VIP or they came to you for an audit of everything and it's part of that email campaign. But I think there's a little bit too much pick and choose here. 

Particularly with Facebook ads and to be honest, most people would rather pick Facebook ads management or training Facebook or even just the one-off setup. So I think you're right, but most of the people that do Facebook ads generally want email campaigns that go out, say once a month or something anyway, or twice a month.

So, maybe then we come at it from a different approach where you have, say three packages, split your ideal, split into three client personas and maybe we've got the people who want to learn how to do Facebook ads themselves. Great. Here's the six-month Facebook ad training package, where every month for six months, they've got a call with you every two weeks or whatever you want that to look like.

Then maybe there's the middle package, which is just Facebook and it's you running their ads for them. And then maybe the top tier package is Facebook Ads Plus, or email campaign plus. You know, it's like the signature. Everything. So that everybody's only on those three packages, which means then you can create all these processes, you can streamline it so much more.

And that's going to reach my goal income, and I'm going to do it. This is how many hours it's going to take me each month. And then this is how many hours each month I'm going to spend working on the future parts of my business, the courses, the other bits and pieces. 

Okay. That sounds good. So, I was actually thinking about bringing in another thing with Facebook ads based on that aqua workshop I did of yours. So, this is just to throw something else in the mix, but essentially you get a lot of people starting out that want some kind of ongoing help.

So I was thinking of doing something like office hours or something where they get Voxer access but the problem with Facebook ads is you can learn it, but until you start implementing it, the issues don't arise and you don’t know what the answers to the upcoming questions are. So I love that.

And maybe that becomes like the part of the bottom package. Maybe the bottom package is 12 months, or six months of one-on-one training and then ongoing access. And this might depend on how skilled your clients are already in Facebook ads, but if somebody signs up for say the Voxer access to you and they've never touched Facebook ads before, that's going to be somebody that's really difficult to work with.

It's going to take a lot of your time because they're going to need a lot more hand-holding. So if we can sort of front-end load the amount of work and maybe say they have to do a VIP day to start with, or maybe they have to do a one-on-one training or maybe you need to set it up and then it's ongoing, you know, they've got access to you for six months or 12 months or whatever you want that, or could even just be, cancel anytime or they can extend. 

Well, I have like a Facebook ad training to get leads and then one to get conversions, which is what you do 80 to 90% of the time you use Facebook ads anyway, so I could just like say you have to do that to start with.

I'd even mind doing it in a group space because I find that I am so time-poor that it might be good to just jump on it once every fortnight onto lab. So they have to do like, you know, the training before, but then yeah, they can come on at any time and do well, I mean, sorry, once every fortnight and do it like the office hours? 

Yeah, absolutely. Office hours or a group kind of program, I suppose, where it's like six months of they're going through it with a group and yeah, every two weeks they jump on a call and they share their screens with you and you can work through that with them. That's a great option as well. 

And I think that might be something to talk to your audience about and find out like obviously, the Voxer option would be more expensive because they have essentially unlimited access to you. You do put some boundaries around that, like, you know, you're not going to reply within you know, they can't expect a reply from you guaranteed within 24 hours, not on weekends, that kind of thing. But yeah, so that would be probably a higher ticket than say a group one.

Yeah, no, that makes sense. I think the reason I thought the group thing might be good too at the moment is that I'm so busy launching my SEO program. You know, to add a whole other program would be quite full on. So if I've already got some training there they can watch, and then I just have to jump on and give them feedback that's really easy for me and quick to do.

Yeah, absolutely. That's a great upsell then for your course.

So launching the SEO program, what's taking up a lot of time with that? Have you created it?

Yeah, so I created it last year, but what happened was, Google updated Google Analytics. So I had to basically learn the new Google Analytics and then rewrite that chapter. They also changed Google My Business to Google business profile. So then I had to update that. So just because I work with a lot of software between Facebook ads and Google Ads, there's always updates to be done. So you've got to learn the update and then you've got to write it. 

That's good. Hopefully, you know, depending on how it converts this time, hopefully you won't have to change too much next time round. And then it just becomes, you know, it's just the content and the lead-up and it's, you, you are good at running Facebook ads and you can already do that.

What other offers have you been thinking about adding? 

So, last year I added three offers, which were the SEO, the entire course. Then I added the like your keywords to customers, which is how to find your keywords. And then I added the Facebook conversions for leads and sales.

So I was quite tired from that. So this year, I don't think I can add any more offers unless it's some kind of Facebook group because I was just so burnt out from creating all of those because then you have to create all the back end of it as well. 

And I think in your case, you actually need to cut down on the things that you're offering and streamline those offers. I really like the idea of a Facebook course combining that with some kind of extra support. So if we do think about it as three personas, right? You've got the people who to learn how to do Facebook ads.

Well, I guess you've got four people who want to learn SEO, and people who want to learn Facebook ads. People who want you to run their Facebook ads for them. People who want you to do all of their marketing for them. 

Yeah. I even have clients, which I haven't put on here that I literally do all their marketing and they just send me stuff ad-hoc. So I'm kind of like their external marketing manager, but not like an employee. 

 

Why wearing too many hats can be counterintuitive to your business goals and growth

So how much time does that take you for those clients each month? 

Probably five to ten hours a week. 

So that's a lot. Do you think your prices for that reflect your value?

There are old clients and they're not anywhere near what the new ones are on. So, because they started with me when I first started, I've opted a little bit, but not nowhere near what I move to. 

You're in this interesting position where essentially to those old clients, you are a freelancer still, you know? Rather than putting your business owner hat on and saying, Hey, like I'm running a business I need to make sure that I'm getting a sufficient return on my time. And if I'm not, then actually I'm putting the prices up. 

Or you can go and work with somebody else and there are, like, there are other marketing freelancers they can go and work with. If you really enjoy particular clients, maybe that's a different story. If you really enjoy doing that ad hoc work. Maybe you do keep them on that older price, but certainly, I think from a business perspective, it's hard because we don't want to let go of those clients. But if that's an extra 10 hours a week that could be going into building your business, then something needs to change. 

Yeah, definitely. And I think that's the problem because I don't know, I really enjoy working with those clients because I do know their brand so much and then we've grown it together so much and they're really exciting brands, so I'm probably going to have to find a happy medium with those ones. And I mean, it's not always that amount of hours, but yeah, when you put it like that, I am starting to see how my hours are quickly adding up, particularly because I don't have a lot of support. I can outsource SEO and Google ads. I don't know whether to keep those or just focus on like teaching the others and only manage, like offering Facebook ads as a service. But I mean, it doesn't take much work if you outsource it, and all the people I outsource to are really reputable anyway. 

Another option we haven't even talked about is hiring a mini Nicki, hiring a junior marketer and training them, getting them to service or even giving your older clients who are on that lower price point, giving them an option saying, look, you can keep working with me.

I can keep doing your marketing and it's going to go up to this price. Or you can work with this mini Nikki who, yes, she's junior, I will still be doing final reviews of things, but she's going to be doing the bulk of your work and she'll be the person you're in contact with and giving them that option.

Yeah, they can stay at that price because I think obviously though you've been with those clients for so long and even like how well you know their brand, you are so much more able to deliver a lot of value. You are better able to deliver value now than you were when you first started working with them.

You've upskilled so much in the time you've been working with them. The value delivered now is a lot more than what you delivered back then. 

And I can do things at quite a rapid speed I guess because I know they're brand, but then also because I am quite fast and I've been in marketing for almost 20 years. So yeah. I mean, it's true and I have thought about getting a junior, but I think I just need someone for maybe a few hours every day or maybe 16 hours a week. Because I think it's scary taking on an employee only in the sense that I like to travel. And then also I used to manage staff as a marketing manager for a long time.

I know how it can be. And it's not that it's bad, it's just that yeah, you have someone else responsible too. But I definitely know that I need someone to do a lot of the little jobs that I just don't have time for like putting blogs on websites and just tedious. 

And it might be a marketing student at uni and they might they're a contractor, not an employee.

I definitely need some kind of help cause I am outsourcing things at the moment or partnering with other companies, but obviously, that becomes extremely expensive because you're almost paying them what they would be, the client would be paying them direct. 

 

The importance of making decisions based on the business you want in the future and not the business you have right now.

Let's wrap up with a bit of an exercise for you now. I want you to think about the business future, Nicki, not where you are right now, and think about what kind of offers you would sell. Tell me what are all of the offers that you sell five years from now?

I would say if they're still around, definitely Facebook ads. Like I'd like to have a signature Facebook ads program and just a signature SEO program and then potentially Facebook Ads management. But in five years' time, maybe not. I think that's quite far away. So I've already been in business for four years, so I would say just those two programs maybe. 

This is so hard to implement but actually, my friend Anita found a quote, and I don’t know where she found it, but she was saying you need to make decisions in your business based on the business you want in the future and the business you're trying to build, not the business you have right now.

So for everything that you're currently doing in your business, every time that you are taking on a piece of ad hoc work, every time that you are quoting a client thinking about, okay, is this aligned with that business that I want to build in the future? Is this moving me closer to that or is it moving me further away?

There's probably a lot of things moving me further away and I feel like I make a lot of decisions that benefit other people as opposed to myself, which isn't a good business hat sometimes, but it's just you become so close with people based on your relationship over four or five years.

And that's the hardest part about business, right? It's that balance between putting yourself first, and also wanting to keep all of your clients happy obviously, you're a very kind person and you probably need to be a little bit more brutal sometimes. 

I think that your biggest homework then is really looking at how can we streamline client offerings as they are now into bigger packages. Just so it's really streamlined and having those boundaries around, okay, this is how many clients I work with on this package, this is how many hours I spend on it. 

And you could say, look, I'm going to allocate five hours a week to ad hoc work, and my new rate for that is going to be this. I'm going to communicate that to my old clients if they want to pay that they can pay that. If not, that's okay. And there will be some people who don't and that's okay. They're probably very used to paying your old prices. They probably don't realize what the market rates are now. Everything's gone up a lot. 

Is there anything that comes up from that that you want to chat through? Anything you want help with based on that? 

I think the only other question I had was should I keep those outsourced? Do you think it's worth keeping, like outsourced services if they're still bringing you in an okay revenue?

Look at how much time it's taking you to deliver those. I would look at how much revenue am I bringing in. How much or how profitable is this? Revenue minus how much it costs you to outsource that divided by how much of your time is going into it. That's how I would look at that. 

 

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