Manor & Maker

Strategic Positioning Review

Sara & David:

Thank you guys so much for meeting with me the other week to discuss Manor & Makerand what it might mean to partner with Amplifyr to grow your business.

This Growth Alignment Overview is intended to:

  • Highlight your goals

  • Articulate pain points

  • Recommend potential next steps

As always, I’m here as a guide and resource for you as you navigate the next chapter of Manor & Maker. Never hesitate to reach out if you have any questions.

Section 1:

Growth Goals

🏅

  1. Increase Predictable Revenue Streams. Right now, there are some consistencies in how cashflow happens (Youtube sponsorships, Airbnb bookings, creative retreats [either by Manor & Maker or outside “influencers”]). The goal would be to increase all revenue, but especially focus on ones with greatest effort-to-success ratio.

  2. Improve Marketing ROI. One-off marketing excursions have over-promised and under-delivered on time and money spent. Goal is to find marketing opportunities that consistently deliver paying clients that far outweigh the money (or time) spent to acquire the business.

  3. Operate Manor & Maker Without Always Executing the Events. Either sell so many tickets with enough profit margin to justify hiring third-parties to help with execution of the event, or simply be the “venue” that other creative retreats rent out to host their event.

  4. Grow Social Media Following with Target Audience. Current follower counts feel like a great head start. The potential exists for a massive following which would, over the long-term, provide stability and predictable income.

Section 2:

Pain Points

🤒

  1. Current Audience Doesn’t Fully Align with Brand Goals. Overnight spike in Youtube subscribers came from a “Chateau-DIY” style channel which is not the type of audience that book retreats at Manor & Maker, nor that align with how this particular chateau should be perceived.

  2. Limited Visibility with Targeted, Paying Audience. For those people that actually do spend money on retreats at the Chateau, visibility isn’t as good as it could be. Some clients feel like this might be a “scam” until they complete the drive from the train station and see how beautiful the Chateau really is.

  3. Airbnb Rentals are Unpredictable & Don’t Align with Long-Term Goals. Blind approval for guests that may not socially gel with the atmosphere at the Chateau. The necessity of Airbnb highlights the need for growth in other key areas.

  4. Resources Limit Consistent Marketing Execution. Whether financial or timely, limited resources means marketing strategies ride on hopes for surprise successes as opposed to being built on predictable successful streams.

Section 3:

Pathways

✈️

Going forward, there are a few ways to chase these goals and tackle these pain points:

  1. Maintain Current Trajectory with Internal Effort. If goals aren’t fully committed to, if pain points aren’t all-encompassing, resources remain too scarce to invest, and/or the “logical next step” doesn’t seem to exist, there’s always the option to continue as-is until the right investment becomes clear.

  2. Get Ongoing Coaching & Strategic Support. A step-above DIY is the option to get some professional help (at a highly-strategic level) to continually set goals, monitor growth, amend trajectory, and ensure that effort is being maximized through the channels with the best ROI.

  3. Execute a Strategic Marketing Sprint. In place of (or in addition to) strategic coaching, partnering for a specific execution of a marketing function is another viable option. If we can narrow in on a single high-leverage activity, having a professional carry it out may be the unfair advantage being searched for.

  4. Establish a Fully-Outsourced Marketing Strategy. The farthest stage away from DIY is HIO: Hire It Out. If any business owner finds themselves too busy or under-qualified to execute on professional marketing strategies, of course there always exists the option to outsource the execution of that marketing altogether.

Section 4:

Recommendations

✅

Primary Recommendation:

  1. 4-6 Week Revenue Growth Blueprint. This is a detailed analysis of 4 key areas of business (Company, Competitors, Customers, Competitive Edge). This proprietary framework (found in my book xGrowth) provides the “north star” for all marketing endeavours over the next 6 - 24 months. If marketing were homebuilding, this would be your architecturally engineered drawings that tell you how to build the home of your dreams. If we never partnered again, I believe this document would be the most valuable thing I could provide you (that you could take to any marketing agency going forward as a framework for what you are trying to do and how you are trying to do it).

Secondary Recommendations:

  1. Focused Marketing Execution Sprint. Based on the recommended steps in the “Execution Recommendations” portion of the Revenue Growth Blueprint, select a high-leverage marketing tactic and outsource it for maximal execution.

  2. Ongoing Coaching & Strategic Support. Monthly coaching calls that check in on progress towards goals, that refine strategies that may be under-performing, and continually develop new ideas and approaches that bring the Chateau closer to all of its business goals.

David & Sara,

Thank you guys once more for taking the time to get to know more about Amplifyr and how I might be able to help you grow your business. I hope all of this has (at the very least) gotten your gears turning about all the possibilities that exist.

The great news about the challenges you face is that you are not dead in the water like some business owners find themselves. You have all the raw ingredients you need to fully flesh-out the dream you moved to France to achieve. Now it’s just a matter of putting those ingredients together in the right ways!

I look forward to hearing back from you guys about next steps. Don’t be shy with any questions.

Aidan