I wrote last week about my review process and how it related to Nero’s Notes.

I’m working on identifying the key initiatives that we will implement this year to improve performance.

Top 3

1. Newsletter. In 2019, we sent far fewer e-mails to customers. To me, they felt toxic. Facebook and Google were being creepy, the GDPR had come in and Mailchimp and Shopify had fallen out. I think that it’s time to reinstate some communication. The exact nature of it, I’m not sure yet, but the focus will be on delivering value to subscribers without harvesting data.
2. Prioritise Content. Nero’s Notes is, at its core, about using and enjoying analogue tools. We curate analogue experiences. Amanda, Scrib and I write not just about new products, but about why and how we use them. I am keen to bring this more to the fore.
3. Affiliates. We have had some success with Affiliate marketing in 2019. I would like to build on that. Logistics are challenging, in terms of getting the right levels of stock in at the right time.

That’s it. Those are the three key initiatives.

Of course, there are all the usual challenges of running a business. Supply chain, cost control, pricing and margin and so on. We hope to get better at all of those too.

Funding

As indicated last week, the objective is to nudge the company into being cash generative this year. This will influence how I implement the three initiatives.

For example, the newsletter. One possibility is to outsource the production. There are people out there who specialise in newsletters and product promotions. I suspect they are pretty good at it too. However, there’s a cost. A cost that will slow return on investment. I also believe that part of our success is our tone, which is genuine and personal. Inevitably, that risks being diluted if someone else starts communicating on our behalf.

The same is true of content. It is tempting to identify a third party to implement a new theme on the Shopify platform and change how the site looks and behaves. Experience tells me that the cost of this would be significant and a certainty, where the return would be a variable and speculative. It turns out, that designing a web store with many products and variants is difficult.

I will focus on coordinating content and social media, making it easier for people to discover the excellent pieces that Amanda and Scrib contribute.

Affiliates should be simple. Plenty of people write nice things about us already. This is a way to measure that and reward the writer.

Budget

Next week – how I estimate the impact of the actions on the business, and decide how much investment I will make in each.