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[00:00:00] What is going to actually produce an outsize impact? Where are you going to attract your perfect customer? What experience are you going to give them? How are you going to help them and how are you going to get them buying again?
[00:00:10] You can be simple there, especially if you're just starting out. And as you grow, you can start to get more complex, but you don't have to in the beginning. And the best place to get permission is not from somebody else. It's from
[00:00:22] [00:00:30] Hey, welcome to today's episode of Retail Initiative. Today I want to talk about where to focus when it comes to your site. Have you ever met those people that like will approach really [00:01:00] complicated subjects? And to a degree, like almost dumb it down. And they're like, the problem's, this, this one thing, like we have a global warming or whatever you want to call it.
[00:01:12] I don't really, this isn't political, that's not what I'm trying to say, but the problem is emissions. And if we can just take care of that, that's gonna solve it all. Or I joke, but like I will talk about education with my, like my father-in-law and every time he's like, the unions, the teacher unions, you just gotta get, and I'm like, whoa, whoa.
[00:01:29] Hey. Like [00:01:30] maybe, maybe that's a part of it, but could we agree that there's a lot that would go into fixing our education system? And this could be anything like this could be our fitness routine and the way that we approach that and we're like, if only I just had this, like, if this one thing is in line, that's what's going to bring about us a, the goal, the thing that we have in mind, whatever that is.
[00:01:57] And I think when it comes to our sites, A [00:02:00] lot of us do the same thing. We think if only this piece is in place, that's what's gonna do it. And sometimes that is the one missing piece. But how do we figure out what those are? And look, as the owner of an agency who sends sites out a lot, and I see the feedback that we get, I, I tend to be able to tell like, okay, this is the area that, that they focus.
[00:02:25] And sometimes it gets good things. It's not that any of these things [00:02:30] are bad in and of themselves, but it's something that we wanna look at holistically and say, okay, it's not just this one thing, this one, like natural inclination that I have. It's a bigger picture. It's things across the board, and what we have to do is have the wisdom to say, okay, it's not just the one that I have a natural inclination towards.
[00:02:51] It really is all of the these pieces and we need to look at it through each of those lens. So there are a few things that if [00:03:00] you have your site, And you're like, okay, how do I know if it measures up or you are working on one right now who, maybe you're a client of ours, I don't know. What should you be looking at when you're really measuring?
[00:03:11] Like, is this good? And, and not just is it good, but is it good for me? Is it good for my brand? Does it represent who we are? And so there's a few things I wanna walk you through to examine your site, your experience, and how it measures up. Um, so the first, number one, the vibe. I know this seems [00:03:30] simplistic, but I'll, if you walk into your storefront, there's a vibe, there's a feeling, there is, uh, an emotion that should be brought about.
[00:03:37] Uh, you walk into anthropology, you visit their site, you see their social media. They feel the same. Is there a consistent vibe? Do you understand what your vibe is? Uh, this one is a little elusive because it can be hard to capture perfectly. But is the vibe in your store like fun and vibrant? Or is it [00:04:00] peaceful and calming or what is that thing?
[00:04:04] And so first, like does your site generally bring forward the brand vibe second. The visuals are the visuals in line with your brand. And here there are two, two sides to it. Uh, and I wanna point out a mistake to make. One is like logos and funds, like are, is that consistent across the brand? That's the easy one.
[00:04:24] If you have decent branding in place, having that be cohesive across. [00:04:30] All your platforms, that one's easy. Logos and fonts easy. I do recommend get like some good pairing fonts, like give your logo font, but you're not gonna use that for product descriptions, but you want those to be cohesive with each other, and that's one of the things that agencies are really good at is helping you pair fonts well.
[00:04:48] But there's a ton of online resources about it. Um, but the next one is imagery. Is the quality of your imagery, does it fit your brand experience? Like this is really the negative of using vendor images. [00:05:00] Is a lot of times the, they don't represent who your customer is. They don't represent who your brand is.
[00:05:05] They represent who they are, and your unique experience is the way that you're able to tie together the relationship between your brand and your customer. So as the quality of your images on brand. But the, this is the mistake that gets made as we run to the other end. I can't tell you how many sites I see where people are like, my site's great.
[00:05:24] And I'll look and I'm like, your images are great. Your sight on the other hand is not. [00:05:30] It looks good because you have good imagery. Good imagery can make up for bad design a ton when it comes to like, just does the site look okay? Uh, good imagery really can make it. But what it doesn't do is these other pieces, it doesn't necessarily bring about the, the brand vibe in the way that we want it.
[00:05:51] It doesn't bring in the visuals the way that we want. Maybe it does those things. Those are the kind of the easy ones, but it doesn't do the other elements. And so we, what we never [00:06:00] want to do is run to the extreme of either my images aren't important and so we're just gonna use vendor images, or, they are so important and as long as I'm getting my photo shoots and I have good creative.
[00:06:12] But check, box, check, like we're good to go. That's not the truth. It, it needs more than that. It needs this next piece. And that's a function in service. Think about the way that you serve your customer in store. What questions you ask, what questions they ask. How do different people shop? Some people come in looking for brands.
[00:06:29] [00:06:30] Some people come in looking for styles. Some people are looking for a very specific item, and some people aren't looking for anything. They're bored in store. They just walk around and they spend too much time at the front counter and online. They're just clicking around your site, they're on your couch, they're watching Ted Lasso, and they're bored.
[00:06:47] It's what people do. How does your site offer an experience to each of them? Now think about this through the lens of like how your navigation is laid out for each of those type of shoppers. How your featured collections [00:07:00] show up on your page to guide the customer through a journey regardless of which type of shopper they are.
[00:07:07] Searching for a specific product, searching for a solution to a problem, or generally browsing. So is that service element a part of our experience? It absolutely is, and a lot of times this is what's missing in those sites that I talk about that are, yes, the imagery is spot on, but the function is not there.[00:07:30]
[00:07:30] That I, that's what I see more than anything else. And so if you're like, oh my gosh, my images are incredible, but we haven't thought about our experience, this is what I'm talking about. And then the last one, and, and this is to kind of just bring it all together as quality. Does it come together in a cohesive, qu quality centric way?
[00:07:52] I don't, I didn't word that right. That was a weird way of wording it. But is there quality to it? Your store is likely thought through, you've. Put, and [00:08:00] you've invested in the way that it looks and it flows. But online, does it look right? Like are images the same, the right size is, are we using mobile hero images or, or desktop hero images?
[00:08:13] Those pieces, does it look high quality? Uh, really does it measure up to who your brand is? Um, because if it doesn't, all those other pieces, we kinda lose trust. Like someone lands on the site and it looks amateur. And so for cold traffic, for someone that's [00:08:30] never visited your storefront, it's really hard to win them over.
[00:08:33] So is that quality there? Um, so again, does it capture the vibe of your brand? Does it capture the vibe of your store? Um, are the visuals in line, logo fonts, are those cohesive? And then do our, does our imagery represent our customer and our brand and the relationship that exists between them? Without leaning into images as the only thing that we're doing great at experience wise.
[00:08:59] Um, [00:09:00] then function and service, is it set up in a way that can serve our online customers like we do in store? And then is it all, does it all come together in a beautiful way that elicits quality and it's not just thrown together, it, it really represents the best of our brand and who we want to be. Um, so this was a tactical one.
[00:09:20] This was one I wanted to kind of get in the weeds and. Give you some actionable advice. Um, a favor I'll ask is if you don't follow me on Instagram at retail, Josh, shoot me a dm. Let me know. [00:09:30] If you had a big takeaway from this episode, I would love to connect with you. Um, so thanks for listening. And last favor.
[00:09:35] If you're enjoying this podcast, leave a review that helps us reach new people and continue to expand the impact that we hope to make in the retail community. So I'm grateful for you listening, and I can't wait to see you next week.
[00:09:48] Hey, welcome back to the retail initiative podcast. I'm so excited that you're here. First off, I want to go and say, if my voice sounds a little bit different, I've been under the weather this week. I'm on the other end of it, but my [00:10:00] voice is not completely back to normal, but I'm so excited about this content.
[00:10:04] So when you're listening to this, it is going to be after my manifest workshop, which I do with my friend, Tara Austin at Ruthie grace, but I'm planning out my content right now. And. Oh my gosh, I go, it's, it's some awesome stuff. And I wanted to give you a peek behind the, behind some of the things that we're working on.
[00:10:23] Um, cause I think that if you can even just take away this, it can have a massive, massive impact on your business. [00:10:30] So our theme this year is focus. And that really came from this book called 10 X is easier than two X, which the idea of this book is like, if you want to have a two, what he calls a two X mindset, like a, let's just grow.
[00:10:45] We want 25 percent growth or whatever. He calls that a two X mindset. The activities that you're going to do to get there is. Is more of what you're currently doing, like to just grow some, you just do more. Um, [00:11:00] but if you ask the question, if we need to 10 X our business in the next three years. If you think about it, the things that you need to focus on and the things you don't need to focus on start to become a lot less nuanced, a lot more clear on like, where do you need to focus and to get there?
[00:11:17] That means that you have to shift where you're spending your energy personally. And so that's, that's what was this, like, that's the backdrop of this event is how do we focus on the things that move the needle? [00:11:30] And so there was a struggle as we were making this is it was like, Hey, you need to focus on what moves the needle.
[00:11:36] But then let's do a session on on operations on photography on reels on ads on like all these different things. And it was like, Hey, you need to focus. Now let's dig into a ton of tactical things. And that felt not focused. And that was where it clicked of. Focus is not a lack of hard work. Focus is not a lack of [00:12:00] complexity.
[00:12:01] Focus is in clarity. When you understand what your vision is, where you want to go, and what it's going to take to get there. If you have an operating system, if you have a way to move towards that in a clear way, that is what focus looks like. What it doesn't look like
[00:12:19] some people come into these things, um, Like wanting this magic bullet of like, I want Ruthie Grace's success without Ruthie Grace's work. I want [00:12:30] the outcome without the input and the reality is like those can't be disconnected. But what it doesn't have to mean is that you just do all the things. And so what's this balance between doing all the things?
[00:12:43] And that's part of what I'm going to be teaching. And I'll do episodes on this in the future is like when you're first starting. It's tempting to want to do all these, these things to generate traffic to your site. You want to optimize for Instagram, for Facebook, for ads, for Pinterest, [00:13:00] for Tik TOK, doing Facebook lives.
[00:13:01] Like you name it. We do all the things and we spread ourselves so thin when the reality is at first you can. Really choose like, where's my perfect customer and how can we just work in tag work so hard at getting in front of our perfect customer where they already are and perfect that maximize that before we're adding in these other traffic channels.
[00:13:25] But what we do is we dilute our effort by trying to do everything. [00:13:30] And so what the, one of the big things that I'm teaching is like, Hey, what's a framework to decide where to focus and how to do it. And so I want to walk you through that. So step one of this is setting a vision. And this is where so many of my things start, but it's so essential is like, what is your vision for your life and your business?
[00:13:52] When you think about it five years from now and you can close your eyes and picture it, like, what does it look like? What does it feel like? If you own a storefront, are you [00:14:00] handing a bag to someone? Like, what do they look like? What does the look on your face look like? Are you the one handing it to them?
[00:14:05] Like, what are these things? Where do you see yourself five years from now? And then we can start to reverse engineer what it's going to take to get there, but we set a clear goal for ourself. And gold does not just have to equal financial. It can equal the way you're spending your time, the way you are focused in certain areas.
[00:14:23] And you could say, these are the things of business I enjoy the most. And in a few years, all I'm doing is X, [00:14:30] Y, and Z. Because when I do those things, it produces an outsized impact than if anyone else does them. And so I want to focus there and nowhere, nowhere else. And that clear vision also gives us a bigger, why, why do we do this?
[00:14:45] Is it the way that we serve our customers? I love, I was talking to a woman this week that she serves a size inclusive, like plus size audience. And she's sharing with me her, why of the, she struggled for so many years to find cute clothes. [00:15:00] And, and so she just didn't feel great about herself. And then she, she learned how to buy and started this boutique.
[00:15:06] And it started with her, like outfitting herself to feel beautiful. And now she gets to help people of all sizes feel beautiful. And that is a deeper why that drives what she does. So set a clear vision. This is where you want to go and why you're doing it. The number two is you need to give yourself permission.
[00:15:27] These are a lot of Asians, just to be clear, and [00:15:30] that wasn't on purpose, but I'm going to run with it because it's a little fun. So first is the vision. The second is permission and permission sometimes is to not do things. So right now the first place to get to get permission is the second best, but it still can work.
[00:15:48] And it's from somebody else. You can get permission from somebody else. So if you need it, I'm going to tell you right now you have permission to not do Facebook lives. You have permission to not be on Facebook. You have [00:16:00] permission to not be on Tik TOK, to not be on Instagram, whatever those things are that are not producing outsized results for you.
[00:16:07] You have permission to not do a few months ago. We are shifting some of our marketing. We brought on some really talented people internally that we're so excited about. Instagram. Wasn't producing a lot, but it was taking up a disproportionate amount of time. And we gave ourselves permission to not [00:16:30] focus on Instagram.
[00:16:30] So we post like once a week there. It's just not a priority right now. It probably will be down the road, but it just, it's just not a big deal now. Now I still do on retail, Josh, like that is a priority and it produces a lot for me and it's something that I personally enjoy. And so that's where this tension is.
[00:16:48] But right now you have permission to not do everything instead. What is going to actually produce an outsize impact? Where are you going to attract your attract your [00:17:00] perfect customer? What experience are you going to give them? How are you going to help them and how are you going to get them buying again?
[00:17:06] You can be simple there, especially if you're just starting out. And as you grow, you can start to get more complex, but you don't have to in the beginning. And the best place to get permission is not from somebody else. It's from yourself to say, Hey, I know that a lot of other people are having success on Facebook lives, but I don't have to do that.
[00:17:25] Like, that's just not for me. And that's perfectly okay. Sometimes I think we feel [00:17:30] pressured to go and do all these things, but we don't have to do them. It is okay to focus on the things that produce results for you right now, and that's just okay. The 2nd, the 3rd thing that you have to do. So you set a vision, you give yourself permission, then you make a decision.
[00:17:49] You make a decision to stick with it when Tony Robbins talks a lot about the fact that. That change happens in a moment. Now your [00:18:00] whole lifetime leads up to that moment, all the things you're learning, learning, but there is a moment where you make a decision and say, something has to change. I can't keep doing the way I was doing it before.
[00:18:10] Something needs to change. And we have to make a decision to say, this is what's going to work for my brand. And we are going to stick with it. Instagram is where my customers are finding me. So we're going to. Triple down on reels on post on ads on these things on that [00:18:30] platform, because that produces the best results from us and we are going to stick with it.
[00:18:33] And when the shiny new thing comes out, when we read a Facebook post of someone that made a million dollars in two days, we're not going to be tempted to chase that shiny thing. We've made the decision to focus on what's moving the needle. And then the last thing that you need is precision. This is precision to like actually focus in on your strategy to stay curious.
[00:18:59] Like, why is it, why [00:19:00] are things working? Why are things not working? What? Like if we posted a real and it crushed it, what could we learn from that? Like, could we take the audio and try a different style and take the style and try a different audio and see what things made that blow up? But we act with precision around the areas we made the decision.
[00:19:20] So my hope for you is that today you leave giving yourself permission to not do all the things and making the decision to stick with it. As you move towards that vision, [00:19:30] towards your goals, towards your greater why to not feel the pressure to do it all. So if this episode's helpful for you. Here's my ask one, shoot me a DM at retail Josh on Instagram.
[00:19:41] I'd love to hear from you too. If you could subscribe and leave a review, that is the biggest way that you could ever say thank you for content. It's just leave a review. Uh, it's helpful for me in knowing what to record and it helps us connect with other retailers. So I'm thankful that you're here. Can't wait to see you next week.
