11/9/2012. Inbox Empire Explained. Growing Your Empire. Introduction and Overview

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1 Inbox Empire Explained Growing Your Empire Introduction and Overview 1

2 What We ll Be Covering: Key Metrics Testing Variables Managing Employees Positioning Yourself For The Payday A good entrepreneur, executive or business owner has the ability to face the facts ~ MaryEllen Tribby 2

3 Everything Counts! Every Every phone conversation Every missed deadline Every deadline made Every rude remark Everything you do! Inbox Empire Explained Growing Your Empire Key Metrics 3

4 Key Metrics Key Metrics are simply the numbers that help you determine the health of your business not only for today but for the week, month, quarter and year. Daily Key Metrics 1) Cash Report 2) On/Off Report 3) Marketing Report (By Campaign) 4

5 Cash Report: Main Elements Know you daily break-even Give yourself a salary Know all you fixed expenses Know you approximate variable expenses Cash Report: The Formula Your annual salary = $50,000 Annual fixed expenses = $6,000 (Autoresponder, hosting, utilities, rent, etc.) Annual variable expenses = $12,000 (marketing costs, freelancers, etc.) Total annual expenses = $68,000 5

6 Daily Cash Needs: Divide $68,000 by 365 (days in a year) You need to make $ A DAY Daily On/Off Report Date: May 1, 2011 List Size: 12,322 + New Ons: New Offs: 21 New Total: 12,526 6

7 Marketing Report: Elements 1. Campaign Name (Product + Offer) ex. SIP-SqueezePageSqueezePage or SIP-SalesPageSalesPage 2. Media and Segment ex. Newsmax-Progressive 3. Number of Recipients 4. Run Date 5. Channel (ex. Dedicated, Co-Reg, PPC, etc.) 6. CPM 7. Total Cost Marketing Report (cont.) 8. Total Opens ( only) 9. Clicks 10. Click-Through-Rate 11. Open Rate ( only) 12. Leads 13. Opt-In Rate 14. Total Sales (units) 15. Conversion Rate 7

8 Marketing Report (cont.) 16. Money Collected ( Banked ) 17. Net Sales ( Booked ) 18. ROI (%) Weekly Key Metrics 1) Month to Date Revenue 2) Marketing Calendar 3) Project Status Report 8

9 Month to Date Revenue Report Total Revenues-MTD (itemized by campaign) Subtract Variable Costs (ex. refunds, affiliate commissions, marketing costs, merchant fees, etc.) Subtract tfixed dcosts (Overhead) GOAL: Go positive by end of first week of each month! Marketing Calendar Prefer physical calendars (but an online calendar is good for virtual teams) Plan on rolling 4-week cycles (next 2 weeks set in stone, following 2 weeks more flexible) Meet on Thursday afternoon to discuss following week s calendar Use the first of the month for big house promotions and end of each month for affiliate promos/swaps IMPORTANT!! May need to adjust calendar based on MTD Revenue Report 9

10 Marketing Calendar Items: 1. House s (issues, promotions, etc.) 2. Media Buys 3. Affiliate Promotions Project Status Report Project Title (ex. 40 Days and 40 Nights ) Task (ex. Write lead magnet) Champion (ex. Craig) Original Due Date (ex. May 28, 2011) Status (ex. Completing research, on target, interviewing, waiting for feedback, writing body copy, completed, etc.) Revised Due Date (ex. N/A, June 15, 2011) IMPORTANT: Each TASK gets its own line item!! 10

11 Longer-Range Metrics MONTHLY: Profit & Loss Statement QUARTERLY: Employee Review YEARLY: Post-Mortem Profit and Loss Statement Scrutinize every single line at least once a month! Should use bookkeeping software (i.e. QuickBooks) starting Day 1!!! Hire an outsourced bookkeeper once you re making over $10,000 a month Bring accounting in-house when you hit $100,000 a month mark 11

12 Employee Evaluation Forms Filled out by the direct supervisors, and helps determine Do they know what they do? (What s their job description and has it changed?) Do they know their personal monthly/quarterly/yearly goals? (i.e. key metrics and major projects) Have they improved since the last review? Are they suited for the job they re in or is it time to make a change? (i.e. career development) Yearly Postmortem 1. Strategic Vision 2. Numbers 3. Products 4. People 5. Procedures 12

13 Inbox Empire Explained Growing Your Empire Testing and Tracking The Three Most Important Terms Control In direct response marketing, you need a "control" that you test against. A control is simply the ad or sales letter you are currently running, or your first one if you are just starting out. Test Sending out a small sample of promotional pieces in order to track results. Roll-out out Sending out larger sample size of promotions that out pull (have better results) previous promotions. 13

14 What Do You Test In Imag? Number of ads in Imag Placement of ads in Imag Partial or full deployment Text vs. banner ads What Do You Test For Marketing? Subject line * Headlines in copy Lists Offer 14

15 Inbox Empire Explained Growing Your Empire Building and Running a Team Flow Chart 15

16 Wake-up Call Because... All of a sudden... 16

17 Who To Hire (and When) Profit Center Manager (When: $10,000/mo) Bookkeeper (When $10,000/mo) 000/ Editorial Director (When: $15,000/mo) Customer Support (When: PCM can t keep up) Tech/Design (When: You re spending more on outsourcing than it would cost to bring in-house or you need SPEED!) Marketing Director (When $1M/yr) Operations Director (When $1M/yr) Graphic Design Technology Bookkeeping Copywriting Content Writing What To Outsource 17

18 Strategic vision NEVER Outsource!! Marketing strategy (hooks and offers) Media-buying (NO AGENCIES!!!) The checkbook!! Example Organizational Chart CEO Assistant Director of Product Dev. Director of Analytics Director of Operations Director of Legal l& Finance Director of Business Dev. Editorial Director Director of Marketing Programmer Assistant Office Mgr. Accounting Team Affiliate Mgr Managing Editor(s) Profit Center Manager(s) Designer Fulfillment Legal Team Assistant Content Providers Social Media Webmaster Customer Support SEM IT Media Buying In House Copy Team Public Relations 18

19 Inbox Empire Explained Growing Your Empire Positioning For a Payday 1. Investors Two Types of Buyers VC s M&A s Private Equity Firms Individual investors 2. Strategic Organizations in a related business 19

20 Maximizing the Sale 1) Increase EBITDA (Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortization) 2) Have systems in place (SOP s) 3) Have predictable, repeatable income (regular advertisers, subscriptions, webinars, events, etc.) Your Compensation (The BIG Three) 1. Multiple of EBITDA (2X 6X) 2. Consulting fee (i.e. salary) 3. Equity kicker (10 30%) 20