How to inflation-proof and recession-proof your business
Got a kinda interesting story for you today:
Business is down a bit for one of my clients. It ain’t down by a massive amount. And it’s up compared to the previous 20 or so years he’s been in business. But we had an amazing year last year when we more than tripled our revenue from 2020, and we’re falling a little short compared to this time last year.
There are a bunch of potential reasons — some of which are in our control, and some of which that ain’t.
I ain’t playing armchair philosopher today, so I won’t dive into all the potential reasons business is down here.
But I do know this:
One of the reasons is inflation. Our customers aren’t crazy wealthy, so they feel the “sting” of inflation more. And inflation is this weird thing that warps people’s spending habits in ways that don’t necessarily make sense.
(I ain’t playing armchair economist either…)
Onward.
Anywho:
Moral of the story is that business is down a little bit.
But here’s where thangs get interesting:
I was doing some work in our Google Analytics account and stumbled upon a weird flex:
What’s this weird flex?
Almost every marketing channel’s conversions in Google Analytics are down compared to last year.
Direct traffic conversions are down 18.20%.
Cost-per-click (CPC) Google Ads conversions are down 27.40% compared to last year.
Organic traffic from Google’s conversions are down 1.71%.
Organic DuckDuckGo conversions are down 17.15%. (DuckDuckGo still exists? Survey says: yes?)
Conversions from Facebook referrals (which I believe means Facebook Ads, but don’t quote me on that…) are down 67.02%. (I wonder how much the iOS14 update impacted this number…)
So on and so forth.
Point is this:
Nearly everything is down.
Now, you might’ve already caught on to what’s *not* down this year…
I mean, you’ve been reading my emails for damn near six months by the time you see this email.
(You are opening and reading my emails every day like a good student, aren’t you?!)
But I’ll still tease you like a schoolgirl and hype this up a tad bit more.
One last point before I reveal what’s *not* down:
We had a massive affiliate partner and influencer, who vibed with the business, our products, and my client’s expertise. And she had direct access to and “expert positioning” with a good 20k-50k of our ideal customers. But she unexpectedly passed away earlier this year, which caused a major ripple effect to our sales.
Okay, enough build up.
Wanna know what's *not* down?
Our conversions from email are not down. (Big surprise there, right? Considering I teach and preach email every single day.)
Not only are they *not* down, but our email conversions are up compared to last year.
And they ain’t up by a few measly percentage points.
They're converting 21.78% higher than last year — while damn near every other marketing channel’s conversion rate jumped off a cliff this year.
How tf did I do this?
Well, to be honest… I’m not exactly sure.
One reason is that consistency is the secret sauce to emails. Another reason is I’ve improved my copywriting by leaps and bounds. Another reason is we’ve launched new products that folks gobble down like hotcakes at IHOP on free pancake day.
(Quick side story: I had to Google IHOP to style it right. I originally wrote it like: “iHop” as if it was an Apple product… talk about powerful branding.)
I’ve also implemented post-purchase funnels for some of our hottest individual products, encouraging our customers to buy more. (lesson in there.) I rewrote our Welcome Series, which converts at a healthy—and almost unrealistic… if you believe Klaviyo’s article on Welcome Series benchmarks, where the highest “benchmark” is a measly 2% conversion rate…—10.84%. That automated Welcome Series made us an additional $30k since it went live two months and a few days ago.
Of course, our list has grown too. But not by a metric fvckton, which would be the bees knees and mouf too if we’re converting 10.84% of our leads into cold, hard cas–er, I mean customers.
Plus, I write emails in a way where once we forced non-customers to unsubscribe, and they begged to stay subscribed because they LOVE the emails that much.
And I can’t downplay my client’s role in this. He shows up as an expert every day for his customers, many of which who annoy him endlessly with stupid questions, which also helps.
I’m sure there are other things I’m forgetting.
But the most important reason?
Well, at least the most important reason for you and your business?
Email is the most intimate… impactful… and inflation- & recession-proof marketing channel you can wield.
Sending emails is dirt cheap compared to other marketing channels (even after factoring in my “outrageous” prices).
It’s more profitable on top of that. (Email has consistently generated the highest percentage of revenue—besides direct, which many folks use after reading my emails because they’re older and my client will place orders for them if they call… talk about old school direct response—since we partnered together at the end of 2019.)
And, at least in this case with this client, it’s the most inflation- and recession-proof marketing channel too. Of course, if we work together, your results may vary. Working with this client for 3 years has created revenue-generating opportunities we didn’t have when we started because, again, consistency is key with email.
So if you’re worried about inflation or a recession near you coming and wrecking your business, either now or in the future, here’s some counterintuitive advice:
Why’s that counterintuitive?
I’ll tell ya:
Because I ain’t cheap. And working with me means reaching deep into your wallet and ponying up for my “outrageous” fees. Plus, I can’t guarantee nada — every business, email list, and offer is different. Your results will vary. Mayhap higher, mayhap lower.
But I can tell ya this:
If, or dare I say… when, inflation eats every last dollar, and we’re cannonballed into the next great depression, you’ll remember this email and regret that you didn’t reply.
You can prevent this doomsday future from playing out though in the next few seconds (even if inflation devours our dollar even more and a full-blown depression hits us below the knees).
How?
By booking a call here.
I’ll leave the ball in your court.
The choice is yours.
But I’ll leave you with this:
Warren Buffet, that ancient, and uncomfortably wealthy dude, has a famous quote that goes something like this…
“Be fearful when everyone is greedy. And be greedy when everyone is fearful.”
Let’s be greedy together.
Book a call, and let’s get this mf ball rolling.
John