Hey there! Connor Gillivan here. Your friendly EcomBalance and AccountsBalance CMO and Founder.
This is a content series that we release each month sharing insights, updates, and metrics on how EcomBalance is growing. (We’ll start to include updates on AccountsBalance too now that it’s launched!)
We share the wins, the roadblocks, and the frustrations that we’re having as we scale EcomBalance towards our ultimate vision of helping 1,000+ companies within the first 3 years in business.
If you’re reading this series for the first time, EcomBalance officially launched in January of 2022 and we’ve been growing quickly.
If you’re interested, you can read about how we decided to start EcomBalance here: We interviewed 100+ business owners about bookkeeping and here’s what we found.
In this month’s September edition, we’ll cover the following…
(1) Launching AccountsBalance
(2) Releasing a new Sign Up process in our software
(3) SEO content marketing and its results so far
(4) A record month for landing new clients
(5) What our goals are for October and Q4
We view every month as another step towards our ultimate vision. We learn from the mishaps, celebrate the wins, and analyze the data so we know how we can keep growing in the future.
Thanks for being a part of what we’re building at EcomBalance. If there’s something else you’d like to see in these monthly updates, let us know and we’ll consider adding it.
Best,
Connor Gillivan
CMO, Co-founder
Overall Updates
The final month of Q3 in the books. We’re still amazed by how fast this year has flown by and everything that we’ve been able to achieve since we started the company.
We didn’t start marketing the business until Q2 of 2022 and since we started, it’s been a mini rocket ship taking off into orbit.
September brings with it more growth, the launch of AccountsBalance, a new Sign Up process, and much more.
Here are the key updates from September that are worth noting:
Update #1: We Launched a Sister Brand, AccountsBalance
After speaking with thousands of companies this year, we realized a major hole in the market…there isn’t a monthly bookkeeping service specialized for agencies, software companies, coaches/consultants, and other online businesses.
We kept hearing from partners, clients, and people visiting the site that they weren’t sure if we could handle companies outside of eCommerce and it led us to do more research and eventually launch AccountsBalance.
Read all about the launch of AccountsBalance here: AccountsBalance Launches for Agencies, SAAS, and Online Businesses.
We’re extremely excited about adding this new sister brand to our portfolio of companies. If you know anyone in the online space that is looking for monthly bookkeeping, keep AccountsBalance in mind and introduce them to us. We greatly appreciate your help!
Update #2: We Released a New Sign Up Process in our Software
That’s right! Our Sign Up and Pricing Quote process is now ALL inside our custom EcomBalance software.
Here’s what it looks like:
First, create an account. Easy!
Second, give us a little bit of info about your business.
Third, tell us about your bookkeeping so we can get you a custom pricing quote.
Fourth, send us View only access to your current books so we can delve in and understand how best to help you with your bookkeeping.
Fifth, wait just 1 business day and we’ll have a pricing quote sent over to you.
It takes only 3-5 minutes on average to complete then we have everything we need to get you a custom pricing quote.
Our goal is to make the sign up and pricing process as simple and stress free as possible for our customers. We’re excited about this new step in the right direction. Let us know your feedback!
Update #3: Our SEO Efforts Are Starting to Show Results
For the past 3 months, we’ve been publishing 20-30 new SEO keyword focused articles and pages to the EcomBalance website every month.
As you may know, SEO content marketing isn’t an overnight thing. It takes time and you have to be patient and consistent with your content production.
We understand that too. However, it’s always amazing to see results from your initial efforts. As you’ll see below:
- we’re starting to bring in 800+ new website visitors from search each month
- we’re seeing search traffic turn into qualified leads and clients
- we’re ranking in the top 50 results for 130+ keywords on Google
- we’re reaching 50,000+ people each month through search result impressions
- we’re ranking #1 and #2 for top keywords in the industry
This is only the start. We’re excited to continue to see our search results climb up, up, up in the coming 6-12 months and we’ll be continuing to increase our content production every quarter as well.
Update #4: We Landed 16 New Clients in September…A New Record
16?! Big props to Nathan Hirsch this past month for continuing to improve our Sales efforts and how we communicate with customers as they express interest in working with us.
We’re now at 75 clients and we’re on pace to hit 100 clients by the end of 2022.
We couldn’t do it without all of your support. Thank you for reading these updates, our social posts, and thinking of us as you have friends that are looking for bookkeeping and accounting help. We plan to be here for 10+ years and we’re excited about the growth that is to still come. Cheers!
Team Growth
The EcomBalance team is really growing, both in size and in accountability and dedication to the company. In September, a big focus of ours was training our 3 Team Leaders to take more responsibility with their teams and clients. The three of them have stepped up big time and it’s helping the company to run more efficiently and our Financial Controller to have more time to build processes and trainings.
Here’s where our Org Chart stands today:
Between full time and contract team members, we are 23 strong. We’re excited to continue adding talented bookkeepers, marketers, and other team members over the next quarter as we continue to expand and grow.
Client Growth
We added 16 new clients in September 2022. We now have 80 total clients.
Here are stats on how those 16 clients came to be through our lead pipeline:
| # of Visitors to Sign Up Page | 388 |
| # of New Software Sign Ups | 100 |
| # of Pricing Forms Viewed | 102 |
| # of Pricing Forms Started | 56 |
| # of Pricing Forms Filled | 43 |
| Pricing Form Completion Rate | 76.80% – Record |
| # of New Clients Added | 16 – Record |
| Conversion Rate on Forms Filled | 37.21% – Record |
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Conversion Rate on Software Sign Up
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16.00% – Record |
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Conversion Rate on Sign Up Page Visitors
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4.12% – Record |
| Conversion Rate on Total Traffic | 0.79% – Record |
In September, we hit all time record highs across a number of categories. We credit it to improving our Sign Up process, getting our Pricing Quote timeframe down to 1 business day, and better communication in the sales process.
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Traffic Stats
Website traffic came close to hitting another all time high, but couldn’t surpass August traffic stats. The big win was in our Search traffic which hit its own all time high of 845 unique visitors from Google. Below are stats from our Google Analytics account for the month of September.
| Total Users | 2,023 |
| Pages/Session | 2.08 |
| Pageviews | 6,317 |
| Bounce Rate | 62.28% |
| Avg Session Duration | 1:59 |
| Direct | 736 (34.8%) |
| Search | 845 (39.4%) – Record |
| Social | 220 (10.3%) |
| Referral | 322 (15%) |
| 8 (0.4%) |
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SEO Stats
Our SEO stats saw another big jump in September. All of our key stats hit all time highs. Below is data pulled from Moz.com.
| Domain Rating | 27 – Record |
| Linking Domains | 159 – Record |
| Inbound Links | 609 – Record |
| Ranking Keywords | 132 – Record |
Our Search Performance stats continued to increase as well coming off all time highs from August. The data below is from Google Search Console and Ahrefs:
| Total clicks | 789 – Record |
| Total Impressions | 47,800 – Record |
| Average CTR | 1.70% |
| Average Position | 46.8 |
| Top Query 1 | ecombalance |
| Top Query 2 |
ecommerce bookkeeping
|
| Top Query 3 |
ecommerce bookkeeping services
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| Top Query 4 |
finance meeting agenda
|
| Top Query 5 |
ecommerce bookkeeper
|
| Ecommerce bookkeeping | #1 – First time at #1 |
|
Ecommerce bookkeeping services
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#2 |
| Ecommerce bookkeeper | #1 – maintained for 2 months |
| Ecommerce accounting services | #12 |
| Catch up bookkeeping | #19 |
| Shopify bookkeeping | #70 |
| Amazon bookkeeping | #35 |
| Amazon bookkeeper | #30 |
| Ecommerce accountant | Not ranking |
| Shopify accountant | Not ranking |
| Amazon accountant | Not ranking |
| Virtual bookkeeping services | Not ranking |
| Remote bookkeeping services | #13 |
| Online bookkeeping services | Not ranking |
|
Bookkeeping services for small business
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#68 |
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Content Marketing
September was the third month that we’re going all in on our content marketing efforts. As some of you may have seen in my LinkedIn and Facebook posts, we’re running a new SEO test I’m calling the Quality Quantity Effect.
The hypothesis is that we will see a significant increase in organic traffic within 6-9 months if we consistently publish 30+ new pieces of content targeted at industry keywords that have low competition and high monthly search volumes…without focusing on building any backlinks.
In September, we stayed consistent with July and August publishing 20+ new articles on the EcomBalance Blog.
Here’s the content that we published this month:
| How to Create a High Converting Amazon A+ Content Page |
| Amazon Listing Optimization: How to Sell More on Amazon, More Profitably |
| 5 Benefits of Outsourced Bookkeeping Services for Amazon Sellers |
| How to Raise Your Value to a Brand Aggregator |
| Partner Spotlight: A Simple and Affordable Way to Get Insurance That Meets All of Your Needs with Amit Lichtman from Spott |
| Partner Spotlight: World-Class Supply Chain Management with Ephraim Ausch from Tactical Logistics |
| Partner Spotlight: Powerful Software to Help Amazon Sellers Save Time and Increase Profits with Colleen Quattlebaum from eComEngine |
| Partner Spotlight: Optimize Products and Listings Based on Real Amazon Shopper Feedback with Matt Kostan from ProductPinion |
| What’s the Difference Between a Bookkeeper and Accountant? |
| The 7 Best Amazon Accounting Services in 2022 |
| What is a Virtual Bookkeeper? Definition, Examples, & Costs |
| CFO vs Controller | 5 Key Differences You Should Know |
| How to Handle Shopify Sales Tax for your Online Store |
| What is a Balance Sheet? Definition, Examples, and How To |
| What Is Payroll? How It Works, Examples, Tips, and Top Services |
| A Definitive Guide on Amazon Accounting For Sellers |
| EcomBalance Monthly Update – August 2022 |
| AccountsBalance Announcement |
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Social Media Stats
Facebook and LinkedIn are our two main channels that we’re growing and utilizing to communicate with our audience. If you haven’t followed us yet, please give us a like and a follow!
Follow Us on LinkedIn & Like Us on Facebook
The following data is from Facebook and LinkedIn Analytics:
| Facebook – Total Page Likes | 400 |
| Facebook – New Page Likes | 16 |
| Facebook – Post Reach | 259 |
| Facebook – Post Engagement | 52 |
| LinkedIn – Impressions | 1700 |
| LinkedIn – Reactions | 25 |
| LinkedIn – Comments | 2 |
| LinkedIn – Shares | 9 |
| LinkedIn – Total Followers | 520 |
| LinkedIn – New Followers | 62 |
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Email Marketing Stats
Open rates continued to increase to another all time high…46.6% average open rate across 5 newsletters we sent in September. Thank you for reading our updates and caring about what we’re building at EcomBalance. We’ve got lots more in store for you in October! The following data is from ActiveCampaign:
| # of subscribers | 1,114 |
| # of new subscribers | 152 |
| avg open rate | 46.60% – Record |
| avg click rate | 2.91% |
| conversion rate on site traffic | 7.51% |
Want to be featured in one of our newsletters? Reach out to me at [email protected] and let’s have a chat! We feature one of our partners each week and are always looking to bring value-adding services and tools to our audience’s forefront.
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What’s Next?
It’s now Q4. That time of year when all eCommerce companies are ready to make 4x the amount they’ve made the other quarters of the year. For us at EcomBalance and now AccountsBalance, we’re more excited than ever and we have some major Goals for the next three months.
Here’s our Q4 Rocks:
- Hire a Bookkeeping Automation Consultant – Build internal Clean Up, Catch Up, Monthly Fulfillment processes so we get Catch Up and Clean Up down to 30-45 days to complete. Get Team Leads up to Shelia level for reviewing books.
- Add 25 new clients → Get to 100 total clients
- Build and launch EcomBalance Pricer in Software
- Increase website traffic to 3,000 unique visitors per month
Q4 is going to be a big one for us at EcomBalance and AccountsBalance. Thank you to all of our 80 clients that are working with us and to everyone that’s reading this for all of your support. I’ll continue to say it, it’s only Day 1.
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