The North 40 Performance project started as just a social media project and transformed into a full fledged website and online marketing overhaul. I was really excited to dig into this project because Doug and Shannon (the owners) already have a very well established business with a great customer base and an existing online presence. The challenge for me was to ensure I was truly helping them level up their online marketing. And I’m confident that we did just that!

You can check out her website here: https://north40horse.com/

1.

My first big takeaway from this project was not to make any assumptions.

There are so many ways to do business. Just because I use a certain program or technique doesn’t mean that others have ever even heard of it (and vice verse). In this case I was able to share a real great time saving software right off the hop; Canva. If you haven’t heard of Canva, its a magical program that makes creating graphics a breeze! I highly recommend it and I know Shannon would too now that she’s started using it!

To me Canva seems like just a part of daily life but it’s just those sort of little tricks that can really add efficiency and professionalism to the online component of your business. No shift is too small and every concern is worth chatting about. You just never know when there’s an amazing solution sitting in the mind of the person next to you. I certainly appreciated hearing from Shannon about how they share their supplements with equine and dog owners from coast to coast.

2.

Second takeaway: It’s incredibly important to determine your goals before implementing changes.

I already knew this but this project reinforced the concept for me.

Working with Shannon was so fun cause she’s laid back, willing to try new stuff and super forthcoming. I asked her tons of questions about her business and her business goals on numerous zoom calls. Out of these conversations we were able to determine that focusing on their distributors and ambassadors (which are all across Canada) was going to be a main goal.

When we first dived into the project I didn’t even realize they had distributors and wouldn’t have thought about how to include them on the website. But we were able to incorporate them in many new and useful ways because of our in depth conversations.

3.

Free useful software program? Sign me up!

Shannon and I discovered a great online tool I had never used before this project; Google Forms. Did you know that you can build free forms online with automatic responses through Google Forms? In the case of North 40 we set up 4 forms:

• application to become an ambassador,
• application to become a distributor,
• a feedback form for customers to fill out,
• and a form to collect info from current distributors.

These are so handy because you don’t have to type up the same info over and over again. Just send the link to the form. All the responses are organized into a table that you can just export and use however you want and you’ll never miss a question or make a typo. No shuffling through hundreds of emails to try to find an application.

This is a serious win and definitely something I will be using in the future. I’ve used other great form building programs but this one is a pretty good option especially considering that it’s free.

4.

Hello Google Search Console!

This is a fantastic tool that Google offers. Basically it’s like a cheat sheet into where your website is hanging out on Google. It tells you what pages on your site are working and which ones aren’t and what people are searching for to find you. A goldmine!

Search Console was especially handy on this project because we were switching their entire website from another platform onto Shopify. During the transfer obviously there were many broken links created and new url’s developed.

Inside Google Search Console you can request that Google index your site (basically this means Google reassess what your website looks like). You can also redirect old url’s to the new ones so that no one gets those nasty 404 error messages when they click on links in your website. Before this project I hadn’t really used Google Search Console a whole lot but I sure will now!

5.

Takeaway numero cinco.

Working with people with the same interests as you is just plain fun but it also makes the WORK easier. There were so many conversations that Shannon and I could just skip because I know horses, and I know horse people and I know what a good photo of a horse looks like. Those aren’t things that are easy to explain.

I even gave their supplements a try on my own horses. It’s so much easier to develop copy and write about a product you’ve actually used. Plus it helps you think of questions that other customers might have when after they try it. Win win win.

I’ve always known that I like talking to horse people but this is another reminder that working with equine business owners is THE BEST.

Last week Shannon messaged me “I think I might get addicted to checking my website analytics” That’s music to my online marketer ears. If your excited to check in on your website, and you know how to easily access to your stats and you can actually use those stats to help inform your business decisions then you know your really using your website well. I’m over here doing a happy little chair dance just thinking about this!

It’s one thing to build a pretty website… but it’s on a whole other level when you can make that website actually WORK for you. Helping business owners do that is what really fuels my fire!

I am truly blessed to have had the opportunity to work with Shannon in her business and on her website!

The North 40 Performance website is can be found here: https://north40horse.com/