Kristen 0:03
Okay TPT sellers ready to seek growth in your business. You’re in the right place. Welcome to The Savvy Teacher Seller. I’m Kristen Doyle, and I’m here to give you no fluff tools and strategies that will really make an impact on your sale. Let’s get started y’all.
Kristen 0:23
Hey, y’all, and welcome to this episode of The Savvy Teacher Seller. I’m your host, Kristen Doyle, and today’s episode is all about how you can increase sales of your products and your services without a single social media post.
Kristen 0:38
Social media can be great, but it can also be exhausting. And it’s definitely not the only way to drive traffic and make sales. In fact, there are some super effective strategies that you can use that don’t involve spending hours scrolling through feeds, or creating the perfect reel. So in this episode, we’re going to focus on three strategies to help you grow your sales without social media. And the tips I’m sharing today will not only help you get discovered, but it will also build stronger relationships with your audience and drive consistent traffic to your store. Let’s talk about getting you more sales without social media.
Kristen 1:16
First up, it should be no surprise that I want you to use product SEO to get more sales. SEO, or search engine optimization, is all about making sure your products are easily found by potential buyers when they’re searching for relevant keywords. This is important whether you’re on TPT, Etsy or any other marketplace platform, and it also applies if you’re selling products on your own website.
Kristen 1:43
First, let’s talk about keywords. Keywords are those terms and phrases that your potential customers are typing into the search bar. For TPT, my very, very favorite tool to help you find the right keywords is the YDP SEO tools from Your Data Playbook. They give us insights on specifically what teachers are searching for on TPT. So you can set your product titles and descriptions to match those searches. For broader searches on Google, especially if you have products on your own website, Ubersuggest is my favorite tool to identify those popular search terms.
Kristen 2:23
When it comes to product titles, m ake sure that they are clear and descriptive of the product. Include those most important keywords right at the beginning and use longer keyword phrases. For example, instead of just saying Math Worksheets, go for something a lot more specific, like fourth grade multiplication worksheets, fun activities for multiplication facts. That way you are being more descriptive and specific about what your product is, and not just using a generic term.
Kristen 2:54
Next up is your product description. This is where you can dive into all the details. Make sure you’re using natural language but also weaving in your keywords with out doing any keyword stuffing. Your description should read smoothly and naturally. Make sure that in the description you explain what’s included, how it benefits the buyer, and any unique features that make your product stand out. This is good for SEO, but it also is great for helping to persuade potential buyers to make a purchase.
Kristen 3:27
The second way that you can boost your sales without social media is to use long form content. Long form content is a fantastic way to boost your visibility, drive traffic, enhance your SEO and set you up as an expert that your audience trusts.
Kristen 3:47
First, let’s define what we mean by long form content. It refers to any piece of content that goes in depth on a topic and provides a significant amount of value to your audience. These are things typically that are teaching your audience something. This typically means it’s content that is longer and more detailed than a social media posts would be. Something like blog posts, podcast episodes, YouTube videos, those are great types of long form content. And that’s the three I’m going to talk to you about today.
Kristen 4:19
First up, let’s talk blogs. Writing detailed, valuable blog posts that are related to your products can really help because as you move up in search engine rankings, you will be able to get more traffic. And within your post, you should be naturally including those search keywords and linking to your relevant products. Now that doesn’t mean every post needs to be a hard sell on a product. You should have a good mix on your blog between educational posts that are really just there to help with a person who is reading them. And those might link over to some relevant products but in a more subtle way.
Kristen 5:01
You should also have some soft sell posts, where you are teaching directly about the concept that is in your product. And at the end you’re doing and hey, if you would like more help with this, you can go buy the product. And you can always do a hard sell posts where you write a post specifically about your products. Over time, and well written blog posts can rank really high in search results and start driving consistent traffic to your website and then over to your products.
Kristen 5:32
Next, let’s talk about podcasts. Podcasting is my favorite way of creating long form content. And if you’re listening to me right now, you probably already know that. Podcasts are a great way to reach a busy audience who might not have time to sit down and read blog posts. In your podcast episode, you can talk about topics related to your niche, you can interview experts, and you can share tips and tricks. Really, you can do almost all of the same things that you can do in a blog post as well.
Kristen 6:02
Make sure that you are talking in your podcast about your products or services and how they can help your listeners. And don’t forget to include show notes on your website that have links to your products and services. Because this is a great way to get your podcast listeners over to those products and it can also build SEO traffic to your podcast as well.
Kristen 6:26
Finally, let’s talk with videos. Creating long form YouTube videos or even long form videos that you might post on social media sites like Facebook are a great way to visually showcase information, show off your products and provide valuable content. For example, you could create a video tutorial on how to use a certain type of product. And in this video tutorial, you are showing off your product. Make sure that your video titles and descriptions are optimized with relevant keywords.
Kristen 6:59
YouTube is actually the second largest search engine after Google. So properly optimized videos can drive a lot of traffic to your products. And plus, you can link to your products in those video descriptions to encourage viewers to go check those out.
Kristen 7:14
Long form content, whether it’s blogs, podcasts or videos can help you not only rank better in search engines, but it also builds a loyal audience that trust your expertise.
Kristen 7:27
Last up, we are talking about one of the most powerful tools in your marketing arsenal that is your email list. Nurturing your email list is vital because this is the one place where you have direct access to your audience. And it’s a great way to build stronger relationships. And typically, emails result in higher conversion rates than social media posts.
Kristen 7:48
Let’s start with just the basics. Why is an email list important? Unlike social media followers, your email subscribers are a captive audience who have shown interest and what you have to offer. You’re not fighting against algorithms to reach them, they have given you permission to land right in their inbox on a regular basis. This makes email marketing a lot more effective for driving sales because it’s building a loyal customer base.
Kristen 8:14
So how do you build and grow your email list? The key here is offering them something valuable in exchange for their email. We call these lead magnets. Lead Magnets can be a freebie that like ebooks, templates, checklists, samples of a bigger product. It’s anything valuable that you give away to entice subscribers to give you their email address.
Kristen 8:38
Make sure that whatever you choose for your lead magnet, it is highly relevant to your products or services, and that it provides a really good value to the person downloading it. Oftentimes, the lead magnet is the first thing that someone really consumes that you have created. So you want to make sure that you’re not giving them the junk from your junk drawer. But you are giving them something high quality that reflects the products and services that you offer and the value that you can provide for them.
Kristen 9:10
Once you’ve created your lead magnets, make sure that you have opt in forms for them strategically placed on your website. These forms should be easy to find and easy to fill out. Don’t make them jump through lots of hoops or provide lots of extra information. In fact, unless you really need more information, I recommend you only collect their first name and their email address.
Kristen 9:32
Ideally, you should have a combination of popups embedded forms and landing pages for your lead magnet in different places on your website. Some places to consider are on your homepage, on your blog post pages or your podcast show notes pages, in the footer and I love a good exit intent pop up.
Kristen 9:53
Once you have subscribers, how do you nurture that email list? Because we can’t just assume that we will get amazing sales without doing some work on our email list. Regular newsletters are a great start Aim to send consistent updates on whatever schedule is going to work for you. Whether that’s weekly, bi weekly, monthly, consistency is important. And make sure that those emails you’re sending out are filled with valuable content, not just updates about your products. Share tips, success stories, use that long form content you’ve created to generate email content as well. And of course, you’ll also want to share timely resources, new products you’ve created, and definitely mention your services when that’s appropriate as well.
Kristen 10:42
Be consistent in the timing that you’re sending emails, but vary the content so that it’s not boring or easy to ignore. The goal is to keep your audience engaged and excited about what you have to offer. Personalization is a key part of keeping your audience engaged. When you address subscribers by name and tailor content to them, you typically are going to get higher open rates and better engagement.
Kristen 11:08
Finally, consider using automations within your email marketing platform. Set up automated email sequences to welcome new subscribers to your email list and introduce them to everything that you have to offer. You might also create automated sequences when you’re doing a product launch or for special promotions, or maybe even a general sequence for the whole year to keep sending out those offers to your audience across the year. This keeps your subscribers getting timely, relevant content in their inbox without you having to manually send every email.
Kristen 11:47
Let’s do a quick recap of what we covered today. We talked about three strategies to increase your sales without relying on social media. First, we talked about product SEO and the importance of optimizing your product titles and descriptions with relevant keywords using tools like the YDP SEO tools for TPT search, and Ubersuggests for Google SEO. Then we talked about creating long form content, whether it’s through blog posts, podcasts or videos, that detailed valuable content that you can use to get more SEO traffic to your website, establish yourself as an expert, and drive traffic to your products.
Kristen 12:30
Finally, we talked all about nurturing your email list. Building and growing your email list with lead magnets using strategically placed opt in forms and sending out regular emails and using automated sequences to help keep your audience engaged and excited about what you have to offer.
Kristen 12:48
Here are a couple of action steps to get you started. You might choose to pick one product from your store and optimize its title and description using one of the keyword tools we discussed. Or you could create a piece of long form content this week. Whether it’s a blog, a podcast, or a video that ties in to one of your products. Make sure when you do that you optimize it for SEO and include links to your product or service. Or if you want to focus on email, develop a new lead magnet this week and set up an opt in form on your website to start building your email list.
Kristen 13:27
I hope you are feeling inspired to start implementing these tips and that you found them helpful. Remember, you do not have to rely on social media to grow your business. There are plenty of other effective strategies out there, maybe even more effective. And these are just a few to get you started.
Kristen 13:44
Thank you so much for listening today. Make sure to follow the show so you get updates when new episodes are available. And while you’re on your app, take a minute to rate and review the show as well. Talk to you soon.
Kristen 13:59
I hope you enjoyed today’s episode. If you did, please share it with another teacher seller who would also find it helpful. For more resources on growing your TPT business, head to Kristindoyle.co/TPT. Talk to you soon.
