In this weekly newsletter, I have written about every aspect of building, growing and scaling a business. The most important part of accomplishing these three things is developing a solid foundation for your marketing.
Implementing a marketing system in your business to keep your pipeline filled with quality leads and having systems in place to convert those leads into paying customers and clients is essential to the survival of your business.
One of the most common mistakes business owners make is...
getting comfortable with their business when everything is going well. They feel they don’t need to market their business because the clients are lining up around the block to purchase their products and services.
Then something happens to derail that. Panic sets in and they realize they may need to start marketing their business. But here is the problem with this thinking. Marketing takes time.
It takes time to create a marketing system, and it takes time for it to take hold in the marketplace. So many business closures could have been avoided if they had the right marketing systems in place.
So, my goal this week is to give you a quick overview of marketing your business. Let's start with...
Your Target Market
You need to know demographics (age, gender, education, income, etc.) and psychographics (fears, beliefs, dreams, aspirations, etc.).
Then answer these five questions:
- Who do I NOT want to work with?
- Who do I want to work with?
- Do they have the money to pay me?
- What is the transformation they are seeking?
- How and where do I find them?
Take the time to answer these five questions and it will be much easier to do the next part of developing your marketing system…your perfect message.
Your Perfect Message
Crafting the perfect message is the next part of the process. Some people call this an elevator pitch or one-liner. Whatever you call it, take the time to craft a good one. It should state what you do, who you serve and the transformation they will experience as a result of purchasing your product or service.
Your Dream 100
Now it's time to start working on your Dream 100. This is something I learned in The Ultimate Sales Machine by Chet Holmes. Basically, you start with identifying your 100 ideal clients you want to work with and start getting in front of them and building relationships using various channels.
Email Marketing
Launch an email marketing campaign to keep in touch with your target market and start building your list. Your list is the most valuable asset in your business. Set up a signup form on your website so visitors can enter their contact information to join your list.
It doesn’t take a large list to make money from your list. All you need is a professional email service provider, such as Constant Contact, to get started. On average, for every dollar spent on email marketing, there is a $42 return on investment (ROI). You can find more information on email marketing by visiting my blog.
Your Website
The next step is to build a website. Generally, a one-page website works well for most businesses unless they have a lot of different products or services. I am a fan of the one-page website because most people are visiting your site on their mobile device. It makes for a much better user experience.
The main focus should be the content on your website. A good direct response copywriter can help you map out website content that sufficiently describes your product or service in a way that “sells without selling.”
It’s also important to have tracking in place to monitor your website traffic and let you know if there are any issues with your website.
You can build a nice-looking website that gets the job done without trying to win an award for design. Given the choice of having a website that wins a design award and having a website that makes money, I’ll take the money every time. But with a little work, you can have a great looking website that attracts your ideal client and converts leads to paying clients.
Sales Funnel
Once you have your website built, the next step is to set up your sales funnel. The purpose of the sales funnel is to automatically follow-up with any leads that fill out the signup form on your website and take them from becoming aware of your product or service to ultimately buying.
To set up a sales funnel, you will need a lead magnet. Your lead magnet is something of value (free report, checklist, video, free training, PDF) you can give anyone in exchange for entering their contact information in the signup form on your website. Once they enter their contact information, they can download your lead magnet.
You will also need to set up a series of automated emails for your sales funnel. Once they enter their information in the signup form on your website, they will automatically be sent a series of emails containing valuable information that will help them in their life or business.
These emails will contain helpful information for your target market...not a sales pitch in every email. They will be sent on a predetermined schedule. For example, the emails could be scheduled weekly or one email per day for five days.
Social Media
Social media has become an important part of any marketing campaign. Here is where many businesses miss the mark by chasing trends and trying to maintain too many social media platforms at once.
Find the platform that has your ideal client and focus on that one platform. If the target market for your business is other businesses, then LinkedIn will be a good choice. If you are a musician, probably videos on Instagram and YouTube will work well for you.
You can also use social media ads to drive traffic to your website. You can launch a Facebook Ad for around $5 per day and a LinkedIn Ad for around $10 per day.
Direct Mail
It's important to combine your online marketing efforts with an offline strategy. I am a huge fan of direct mail. One of the reasons so many businesses don’t do it is because they say it doesn’t work. They “tried it” once, and they didn’t get a response, so they didn’t send another direct mail piece.
Here are a few quick tips to make direct mail work for your business. Use a stamp (not bulk mail) and write great copy for your direct mail piece. Also, be consistent in your mailings. Send a sequence of direct mail pieces at predetermined times. It generally takes at least seven or more touches to get a response and make a sale.
Final Thoughts
All of the above is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to marketing your business, but you now have the basics. If you just implement what I have mentioned in this email, you will be so far ahead of your competition.
Marketing your business is simple...but it is not easy. It will take a lot of work on your part to implement everything. But with time, you will reap the rewards of a well designed marketing system.
Let me know how I can help. Click here to schedule a free 15-minute discovery call. You can also call or text 615-308-8078 or send an email to mike@mikecoleman.net.
Best,
Mike Coleman