SDH 423: How to Clean Up Your Systems in Your Business with Amanda Boleyn

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Today’s podcast episode is a little bit of an impromptu one. I originally had another one already scheduled but because of the response I got on Instagram about wanting an episode on this topic, I decided to launch it today!

I’m walking you through my entire systems streamlining and overhauling process along with how you can organize yours from the start. This is something that I’ve wanted to do for several months and am so excited the time has come for me to dig in! There were so many times earlier this year that I wanted to streamline my systems, clean up redirects, and opt-ins but it wasn’t a priority because of other stuff that was taking place in the business. Now that we’re in the final 60 days of 2020, and things are slowing down for us, I thought this would be a perfect time!

In this episode I’m going to share:

What all my software and system clean up entails
Why I’m doing a systems and software clean up now
My overall approach to the cleanup
The dashboard I built
What’s still left to do
Best practices on how to stay organized from the start

My software and systems clean up consists of the following:

Site mapping and url redirects within my Squarespace site
Clean up of all opt-ins from the opt-in page, email sequences, and actual opt-in
Move any Leadpages to Podia to help consolidate software systems
Clean up and delete any unused or outdated ConvertKit opt-in forms
Clean up and delete any used Podia forms, courses, or downloads
Clean up our show notes and podcast episodes

Why a systems and software clean up now?

I know a lot more about websites and SEO now than I did when I first built our website. I knew I had left too many “dead bodies” lying around. Meaning, I knew that there were pages that either went to a 404, ones that were live and you could find but weren’t relevant anymore, call-to-actions for trainings that are no longer offered...it just was a bit of a hot mess.
We also went through a rebrand on our site and moved from www.shediditherwaypodcast.com to www.shediditherway.com so what a perfect time to make some intentional updates!

My approach to the clean up:

First, I recommend making a plan for how and when you’re going to do this clean up. Be as detailed as possible when planning. Also, ignore everything else in your life and business during that time. My inbox has been on ‘pause’ and all my notifications have been turned off.
I took an inventory of all my current systems. In Leadpages I think I had over 50 different Leadpages created; I put them all into a Google Doc on their own respective tabs. In Squarespace, I took note of both the URL mappings and all pages that have been created. Finally, Convertkit and Podia opt-ins, podcast episodes, and show notes.
Next, I created a “desired” url mapping list. For example, there were lots of pages around trainings/ challenges that we’ve done and work with me pages. Instead of having 10 random pages that have traffic going to them, I created one “work with me” page and went into my Squarespace account, and redirected all the random pages to that one “work with me” page. The main pages starting out that you’ll most likely have are your homepage, work with me page (offer/sales), and any CTA’s that you’ve created.
I went through the “Current URL Redirects” and made sure that all traffic was going where I wanted it to go and if not, noted where I wanted to point it instead. Once I finished that, I actually made the changes in Squarespace.
Once I identified the live call-to-actions that were out there, I then created a separate tab to track them. I was able to go into Canva and update the downloads.
Then I migrated everything from Leadpages to Podia. Instead of creating individual landing pages and call-to-actions, I put all my freebies and trainings into a vault and made one opt-in page on Podia with one email onboarding sequence. Because I did this, I went back to my URL redirects and made sure that all traffic was pointing to www.shediditherway.com/thevault. If you previously downloaded our Ultimate Leap Checklist and Starter Kit you would have gone to www.shediditherway.com/leap and you still can but now it forwards to www.shediditherway.com/thevault so I’m able to strategically capture that traffic, plus when you create an account on Podia you get access to ALL of the freebies, instead of just one.
At this point, I didn’t need any of my Leadpage anymore so I was able to deactivate my account - yah! One less software system - woot woot! Leadpages is great if you want to get fancy with your marketing automations, but based on where we’re heading with She Did It Her Way, my goal is to keep things as simple as possible.

I also made a copy of my dashboard that you can access by heading to www.shediditherway.com/thevault.

What’s still left at the time of this recording?

I still need to go back and clean up ConvertKit. Some of the landing pages and sequences I made are no longer relevant. I’m still keeping ConvertKit for now because migrating email marketing to Podia a) will take significant time and b) I want to properly assess if we’re ready. I love Podia but ConvertKit is a little more robust with email marketing. To be continued…
We’re doing a complete overhaul with our podcast episodes. We have over 400 of them and we’ll be going through each of them one by one; listening for time-sensitive information that is no longer relevant, updating call-to-actions, intros, and outros. I will be leaning on my team to help with this process because it would take a long time for me to do solo. Not only will we be updating the audio, but we’ll also be going into Simplecast and make sure we’re optimized from a searchability standpoint.
With that, we’ll also be combing through all our shownotes to make sure they are optimized and have the right call-to-action insert in the show notes as well. My goal is to complete all of this by the end of the year.

Best Practices:

Make an effort to track as much as you can from the beginning of your business journey. Download my dashboard and start tracking today. It will save you a ton of time along the way. Plus you’ll also know where traffic is being directed to and what people are clicking on.
If you’re starting out and want to keep things simple, I recommend using Podia. If you want to layer in email marketing tactics, sign up for ConvertKit as well, as their ystems can talk to one another.
While you’re doing the “clean up”, focus only on one part of it at a time. Don’t try to do two different types of tasks at the same time. For example, start with the download; take inventory of everything and get it in your dashboard before you start to make changes or clean up.
Make the clean up a part of your routine whether it is once a year, twice a year, or quarterly.

Again, if you want to snag my dashboard, you can sign up for our entire vault of resources by heading to www.shediditherway.com/thevault.

I hope you have an amazing week - until next time, keep doing it your way!

Insights:

“There were so many times earlier this year that I wanted to streamline my systems, clean up redirects, and opt-ins but it wasn’t a priority because of other stuff that was taking place in the business.”
“I know a lot more about websites and SEO now than I did when I first built our website.“
“Keep things as simple as possible.”
“Make an effort to track as much as you can from the beginning of your business journey.”
“Make the clean up a part of your routine whether it is once a year, twice a year, or quarterly.”