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EP 80: Get Ruthed: How to Maximize Your Revenue in a Very Niched and Very Targeted Market with Cassidy Tuttle

Oct 21, 2019

EP 80: Get Ruthed: How to Maximize Your Revenue in a Very Niched and Very Targeted Market with Cassidy Tuttle

Cassidy Tuttle is the founder of Succulents and Sunshine. Her online business helps people to grow and propagate succulents. Her main revenue is currently split three ways with one-third coming from product sales, one-third coming from ad network revenue, and one-third coming from affiliates. Right now, a lot of her time is spent making videos, serving her customers, and coming up with new ideas.

She also has a full-time assistant who helps with email, research, and busy work. While her business is already doing pretty well, and her traffic is really good what she really needs help with is figuring out how to maximize her revenue and make more money. A problem that most online business owners can probably relate to.

Today’s episode is brought to you by Elite Blog Academy an online program that teaches you step-by-step how to build a profitable and sustainable online business. Whether you already have a business or you’re just thinking about starting one, EBA provides a comprehensive approach to refining your message, growing your audience, and generating sustainable revenue. If you want to learn more, join our free training just for podcast listeners.

Highlights

[04:30] Cassidy has been running Succulents and Sunshine since 2013. She began blogging, and then published her first ebook in 2014. In 2016, she launched an online course. They also hit $100,000 in revenue that year.
[05:53] Her biggest struggle is knowing how to sell and balance between free content and affiliate products.
[07:22] She has two conflicting avatars and it’s been a little tricky catering to both. Most of her traffic is a younger audience, but most of her sales come from the older audience.
[08:01] Her main course is Successfully Growing Succulents which sells for $127. They also have Successfully Propagating Succulents that they aren’t actively promoting.
[08:48] They are also testing out a membership site. To promote they are doing 30 days of videos and a giveaway everyday. They also have a PS about it in their emails.
[10:14] There is an even split between ads, affiliates, and their own products.
[11:02] Their better converting email sequence is making them lose subscribers. Her traffic is organic blog traffic from the top two or three posts.
[12:05] Cassidy has an assistant that is helping with the articles and content.
[13:54] A physical version would do well with an older audience.
[14:17] She has a published book with a publisher that doesn’t make her money.
[15:59] She gets about 300,000 visitors and 700,000 page views.
[16:33] They add about 300 new subscribers a day. She has a 2.5 to 3% onsite conversion rate.
[17:38] She has about 55,000 subscribers.
[17:57] They’ve been using the Jeff Walker approach.
[19:27] With new copy, sales went up, but so did unsubscribes.
[20:29] The course has a low conversion rate.
[22:33] Cassidy should increase onsite conversion and test her sales funnel.
[23:36] They’ve tried different eBook and bundle strategies.
[24:50] The cards are converting better. They are $13. Test different price points and page formats.
[26:21] Test the email funnel. Try an instant offer or a tripwire offer.
[27:11] The timing of the sequence needs to be right. It’s hard to find the balance between helping and selling.
[28:01] Another option is a longer six week email sequence with multiple offers. The goal is to make them raving fans or have them opt out.
[31:08] Cassidy’s avatars are millennials and the older crowd who buy her products. She has been gravitating more towards the older demographic.
[33:36] She could focus on the avatar that buys her products and test her pricing. She might be able to raise her prices.
[35:32] She likes how the membership will recreate recurring income. She is also looking into garden tours. Members can be featured in the tours.
[37:11] She needs to hone in on super fans and create premium prices.
[40:26] Her main problem is low conversion rates. She really needs to dial in her funnel.
[41:09] She promotes her course twice a year.
[42:00] Her course is always open. Ruth would challenge Cassidy on this. This becomes an event with the list. You ultimately sell more, even though it seems counter intuitive. The course that is occasionally open has a sense of urgency.
[45:09] Humans need that extra push to buy.
[47:00] It’s interesting that Cassidy has broad traffic in a niche.
[47:27] Her ad revenue is from succulent vendors and Amazon.
[49:42] A cool idea is to pair vendor plant packages that correspond to monthly courses.
[51:16] Her revenue should be 50 to 60% from her products.
[54:28] Conversion rates going down as traffic grows is actually pretty common. Cassidy needs to figure out how to increase sales to her own products to make more money.
[57:22] The action steps that Cassidy needs to take right now. Increase her onsite conversion rate. Test different tripwire options on her optin thank you page. Work on her email funnel. Selling more effectively to the 55000 people who are currently on her email list.