Tag Archive for: Marketing Strategy

5 Tips For Optimising Your Small Business Marketing Plan

Tips For Improving Your Small Business Marketing Plan - FlySocial Digital Brisbane Web DesignFlySocial Digital

Marketing is essential for any small business. It’s the lifeblood of your business. But with the ever-changing digital landscape, it can be quite a stressful task to tackle and result in overwhelm. The good news is, it doesn’t have to be difficult. In fact, with a little bit of planning and effort, you can have a small business marketing plan that will help your business grow for years to come.

1. Define Your Goals

When creating a small business marketing plan, it is important to first define your goals. What do you want to achieve with your marketing efforts? Do you want to grow your business, reach new customers, or increase brand awareness? Once you have a clear understanding of your goals, it is easier to develop strategies that will help you achieve them.

Many business owners assume that in order to grow their business, they need to get more customers. However, if your business already has an established customer base it may be faster and more cost-effective to re-market to your existing customers instead.

2. Create A Targeted Strategy

Once you know what you want to achieve with your marketing efforts, the next step is to create a targeted strategy.

Some questions you might want to ask yourself include:

  • What are the specific channels and methods that will work best for reaching your target audience?
  • Which platforms are most effective and provide the best return on investment?
  • Which types of media do your customers prefer?
  • What tools or software will you use to achieve your targeting goals?

Once you have a targeted strategy in place, it is important to allocate the right amount of resources to each channel you choose to utilise.

3. Plan For Maintenance And Adjustment

No matter how well you plan, your marketing efforts will not be perfect from start to finish. In fact, it is likely that your strategy will need a few adjustments once it’s launched. This means that you will need to have a plan in place for maintaining and adjusting your marketing efforts.

Some things you might want to consider include:

  • How often should you re-evaluate your target audience?
  • What are the best times of year for advertising?
  • How do you handle it when one of your channels no longer works for you?
  • Can your strategy be automated or does it require ongoing management?

Remember to work smarter, not harder. There are lots of marketing automation tools available that allow you to implement “set and forget strategies” to free you up from having to actively manage them.

4. Set Your Budget And Timeframe

One of the most important factors to consider when creating a small business marketing plan is setting a budget and timeframe. By knowing how much money you have to spend and how long it will take to achieve your goals, you can create a plan that is tailored specifically to your needs. Additionally, creating a timeline can help keep you on track and prevent unnecessary (and sometimes costly) delays.

For most small businesses, every dollar counts and it’s important not to spend unnecessary amounts on marketing activities that don’t deliver results.

5. Implement Your Marketing Plan

A well-executed marketing plan can help your small business achieve its goals faster and with less effort. It’s important, however, to understand how the different aspects of your strategy connect and how to make them work in alignment.

Looking at marketing holistically creates leverage, meaning you will achieve a much greater rate of success while spending less time and budget.

In my 90-Day Marketing Transformation, I work with Australian small business owners directly to implement a set of organic strategies that require very little or no maintenance and thus, make their marketing budget stretch a lot further.

In addition, I can help you automate time-consuming marketing activities, like social media content, lead generation and email marketing to free up valuable time and headspace, so you can focus on what you’re already great at – serving your customers.

Conclusion And a Faster Way To Implement Your Small Business Marketing Plan

By following these five steps and planning out your strategy in advance, rather than approaching your marketing ad-hoc, you will significantly reduce the time and money you spend on marketing activities.

If need help implementing a strategy that will help you attract more customers while saving you time, confusion and frustration, let’s have a chat. Book your free strategy call.

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How To Effectively Use QR Codes in Your Marketing

QR Code Marketing Strategies for Small Business - FlySocial Digital Brisbane Web DesignFlySocial Digital

QR codes have many different use cases and with a little creativity, the possibilities are endless. In this article, I share how to make the use of QR codes effective, things you’ll need to consider and common mistakes to avoid. 

Ready? Then let’s delve in!

QR codes are a great way to remove the boundary between print and online media. QR code is short for ‘quick respond code‘ and the reason they have gained in popularity in recent years is that it’s much easier and faster for someone to scan a code using their phone than it is to enter a long URL into the browser bar. 

Some time ago, you were required to have a special QR code reader app in order to scan one, but Apple, Google and Co have since integrated this functionality into their native camera apps, eliminating the hurdle of having to download a separate app.

5 Ways to use QR codes in your business and marketing activities

Here are a few ideas for how you can effectively use QR codes in your business.

1. Link to your menu or list of services

You can use QR codes to link directly to a menu or services page on your website. Many cafes and restaurants have adopted this technology, as it makes it a lot easier to update their menus on the fly without having to reprint them every time. Some even take it a step further and link to an online ordering platform, so customers can order directly through their phone.

2. Offer a free download, a free trial or a discount coupon

QR codes make a fantastic tool for lead generation. Whether you’re running a brick and mortar business with a shop front, a popup store or a market stall, you can use QR technology to link to a simple landing page where people can enter their details (usually their name and email) in return for a freebie. This is a great way to fast-track your lead generation – even on the go.

3. Use it to let your customers make a booking or schedule a meeting

Know those times you have to email back and forth multiple times just to find a suitable time to meet? This can easily be avoided with a simple scheduling tool like Calendly, for example. Once set up, you can have the QR code take your customers straight to the booking page. You can have the QR code printed on your business cards, brochures, even billboards.

4. Visit a specific page on your website

Sometimes, you may like to explain or showcase more than fits on a brochure or product fact sheet. Using a QR code, you can link directly to any page of your website, allowing people to discover more about your services or products. There’s so much more you can do on a webpage than you could ever do in print. For example, you can embed videos, use forms to collect feedback or other information, offer an interactive quiz, display helpful charts or animations, and so much more to help your customers connect.

5. Link to your social media accounts

QR codes are a quick and easy way to connect your audience with your social media accounts. Link directly to your Instagram, Facebook or LinkedIn account – or why not create a page that links to all of the above and more? 

BONUS TIP:

One of the fastest ways to grow your audience is using a giveaway or competition. Use a QR code to a dedicated landing page where people can enter to win. If you don’t know how to create a professional landing page or add pages to your website, this can be easily achieved with a free Google Form.

Common mistakes when using QR Codes

Now that you know how you can effectively use QR codes in your business, let’s look at some common mistakes we should avoid.

1. Using a low-quality image

When printing low-quality graphics, they can quickly look unclear and become unscannable. When creating your QR code, be sure to download it in high resolution (300dpi or more) to ensure it looks clear when printed.

2. Not testing your QR code before printing

It is advisable to print a sample of your brochure or business card to check if your QR code scans properly and actually takes people to the correct link. Especially when printing multiple marketing materials that use different codes, it’s easy to get mixed up. Test each one separately to make sure each code is in its rightful place.

3. Using QR codes on Facebook or in other mobile apps

The whole purpose of a QR code is to take people from one device onto their own smartphone. Posting a QR code on Facebook or Instagram makes little sense, as people are most likely be looking at it on their phone already. In this case, a simple clickable link will make much more sense. 

For some of my clients, I have embedded a QR code to schedule appointments on their contact page. However, it only shows when viewed on a desktop computer. When the page is opened on a mobile device, it changes to a button they can simply click.

Always ask yourself if it will be easier for people to scan a QR code or if a simple link may be a more elegant solution.

How do I create a QR code?

Creating your own unique QR code is easy and fast. There are a number of websites available that let you create QR codes for free. Some even let you customise your QR code by changing colours, embedding a logo and more.

Note: The important thing is that you download the generated code in high resolution (300dpi or more) to make sure it looks clear and scans correctly when printed.

Here are a few websites offering free online QR code generators:

https://www.qrcode-monkey.com

https://www.qr-code-generator.com

https://www.the-qrcode-generator.com

 

Have you used QR codes in your business before? If so, how?

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How To Do Marketing – 30 Ways To Grow Your Business

It’s a simple question: What is marketing?

The answer, however, isn’t always so obvious. Most business owners I speak to have a very different idea of what marketing really is. For some, it’s simply advertising (in print or online). For others, it’s ​​Social Media, PR or even just ‘word of mouth’.

Everyone’s got a different idea of what marketing means and how to best market their business. Here’s how I put it. 

“Marketing is everything you do to GAIN and RETAIN customers.”

So, when I think of marketing, I think of it as a lot more than just running ads or posting on your Facebook​ page. If you’ve watched some of my videos or visited my marketing blog before, you would have probably already heard me talk about the 3 pillars of business success. 

1. Attract
2. Convert
3. Deliver

In this blog post, I will give you a list of marketing strategies you can do within each of these pillars to grow your business, increase sales and leverage your time better.

Attraction – How to attract more potential customers

Attracting new customers is a crucial element of any business. It’s what fuels business growth and something that many business owners struggle with. Here are ten ways that will help you attract new potential customers continuously. You should be using a combination of these things in your business.

1. Have a great website

Seems obvious, right? The truth is though that many businesses don’t utilise their website enough. In most cases, it’s an online brochure that merely talks about them, when your website can be so much more (here are some examples). There are certain elements every business website needs in order to convert visitors into leads and actual buyers. You can find a checklist of these 17 crucial elements here.

2. Be on Social Media

Again, this seems like an obvious one, however, many business owners don’t explore social media to it’s full potential. When I say be on social, I don’t just mean go create an account for your business on Facebook and Instagram. You need to be active and use these platforms to drive potential customers away from social and back to your website (where you are not competing with cat videos).

The problem with social media is that, if done well, it can be incredibly time-consuming. The answer to this problem is automation. Luckily, these days we have the tools and technology to allow for a hands-off social media strategy that allows us to post as often as we choose to on autopilot. Here’s a complete guide to automating your social media posts so you never have to worry about what to post ever again.

Social media is an incredibly powerful tool when it comes to engaging with your customers. Don’t dismiss it and use it to your advantage.

3. Run print ads

Even though I’m a digital marketer, I still believe print ads have their place. But it depends on your business, the audience you are trying to attract and what print media you have available in your particular market. The key to making advertising work is to track your success. The key to making advertising work is to track your success. Yes, I just said that twice.

Don’t just have your logo and a little blurb printed in a generic magazine or newspaper. Make sure you have a clear call-to-action (CTA) for readers to follow. Coupons work great in most cases, as they will allow you to track the success of your ads and calculate the exact return on investment.

Know your numbers:

  • How much does the ad cost you?
  • How many leads (i.e. coupons) did you receive as a result?
  • How many of these leads actually purchased?
  • What was the total revenue generated from the ad?

Example:

Say you invest in an ad that costs you $300. Your ad results in 100 enquiries, meaning your cost per lead is $3. If out of these 100 enquiries, 3 people end up buying (3% conversion rate) with a value of $200 per transaction, you generated total sales of $600. That’s a 100% return on your investment.

These numbers will, of course, vary depending on the type of business you’re in. In most cases, even if you just break even, it’s still worth advertising in the long run, as you will be building your list of potential buyers, which is the biggest asset in any business.

4. Run online ads (Google, Facebook, YouTube)

Even though online ads are very similar to print ads, I like to list them separately. The great thing about online ads is that you can be so much more specific with your targeting and only put your ad in front of people that are highly relevant. This will help you reduce ad costs and increase your conversion rates.

Say, you own a beauty salon in Sydney and decide to invest in a print ad in a local magazine. Now you are paying for the number of readers the magazine tells you they reach. However, out of everyone who reads it, only a very small fraction of readers will actually be based in your area. Out of the people in your area, only a fraction will actually be potential customers (not everyone needs a beautician). And out of those potential customers, only a fraction will actually notice your ad and even less will take you up on whatever offer you presented them with.

In comparison, a Facebook ad will allow you to run a much more targeted campaign. Going with the above example of a beauty business, you could choose to only put your ad in front of women between the ages of 30-50, who live in your local area and also have shown an interest in beauty businesses. Even though your audience is now much smaller, it is also a lot more targeted, meaning you will reduce your ad costs significantly and increase your conversion rates.

Again, print and online ads can both be great ways to attract new customers. The important thing is that you track your success and never invest in advertising that can’t be measured. Oh, and did I mention, never invest in advertising that can’t be measured? (you may want to write this one down)

5. Partner with other businesses

Business partnerships – also called joint ventures – are one of the fastest ways to grow your business and are heavily under-utilised. It’s important to understand though that not all business partnerships are worth your time. Try to only focus on businesses that will have a significant impact on your marketing.

I recently helped two of my clients join forces, who are based in the same city. One is a local café with a huge customer database of over 10,000 people; the other is a massage business that had only started out a year earlier. Most massage business owners would go around putting flyers in local cafes and other places, which is incredibly time-consuming and will get you little or no results.

But instead, we wanted to leverage the huge database of people the cafe already had, so we sat down with the owner and explained that we would like to send a complimentary $25 massage voucher to every single customer on their list. And to put the focus on them, we wanted to make it look like it’s coming from them as a gift to their customers. They look good for spoiling their customers and the owner of the massage place was putting her business right under the nose of 10,000 locals.

All we had to do was write one email that went out to 10,000 people. And to take things even further, we even made this email a part of the café’s automated email marketing. That means that the gift card did not only go out to everyone on the list at that time but every future customer will receive it, too!

As a business owner, make sure you value your time and only focus on marketing strategies that have the biggest impact on your bottom line. Business partnerships are one of the best forms of leveraging your time and resources.

6. Write a blog

Ok, this one probably sounds boring to most business owners and, at first, you may not see the value in doing it. Let me try to change the way you look at blogging.

As business owners, we have conversations with customers daily. They ask us questions about our products and services, they voice their worries, hopes and fears. They want to feel heard and we want to show them that we know our stuff. A blog allows you to do all of that at the same time and in a much more leveraged way.

Use short articles to answer your customers’ burning questions, help them to understand what you do and how it will help them in their own life or business. Even with just one good article, you can attract plenty of traffic by sharing it on social media, on other websites, in your email marketing, and even in your ads. Everywhere!

Your customers are already looking for the information they need online, so you might as well be the one giving it to them and position yourself as the expert in your industry.

I like to compare blogging to renting vs. owning real estate. You can pay for traffic each month (renting) or you can provide value on your website that people come back for (owning real estate). Every article you put on your website becomes a timeless asset you can use to generate traffic for years to come.

Tip: Hire a writer to help you come up with and write 12 quality articles to put on your website. Then share these articles on social media each month and link to them in your email marketing. You’ll see your traffic increase significantly (and improve your search engine rankings as a result)!

7. Optimise your website for search engines like Google & Bing (SEO)

Despite what many business owners think, SEO (search engine optimisation) is not dead. Search engines just have gotten a whole lot smarter!

SEO is no longer just about having a bunch of keywords on your website that your customers are searching for. These days, search engines like Google scan your website for a lot more, such as readability, quality of content, how long visitors spend on your site, which pages are shared frequently on social media, the list goes on.

So, how do you take care of all this yourself? Simple. Focus on quality content on your site that people actually want to read, watch and share. That’s why the previous point (blog posts) is so important. Engaging videos are also a great way to connect with your visitors and keep them on your site longer.

There are plenty of resources on how to do great SEO out there. If you have a WordPress website, be sure to install the Yoast SEO plugin to help you optimise each page and article for search engines.

8. Run a competition or giveaway

Giveaways are a great way to reach new potential customers, and they are a lot cheaper to run than other forms of marketing.

The idea of a giveaway is to ask people to enter their details for a chance to win a prize. This is a fast way to build a list. You want to make sure that the prize actually attracts potential customers and not those who are just in for the freebies and who were never going to buy from you.

I see many business owners make the mistake to give away an iPad or similar as a prize. That’s way too generic. Anyone who wants an iPad will enter, which is not what we want. You want to use your give-away specific to your product or service in order to attract the right kind of people.

If you are an accountant who focuses on Xero, for example, don’t give away a free Netflix subscription. Instead, consider the prize to be a free Xero Setup and Consultation to streamline your accounting (valued at $495). That way you are only attracting business owners who would actually be a good fit.

The mistake I see many business owners make ist that they run the giveaway simply for the engagement. But engagement doesn’t equal sales. The whole purpose of a marketing activity like this, especially if you invest the time to set it up properly, is to build a list of qualified leads that you can reach out to afterwards. So don’t stop at the giveaway – think about the offer you can send to all those who entered but didn’t win. This is where you really turn your giveaway into profit.

9. Run a survey or quiz

A quiz or survey is another great way to build a list fast and gain valuable insights about the needs of our customers. You’ll want to come up with a set of questions that helps you improve your product or service and identify what may be missing.

If you don’t have an audience at the moment that you can send your survey too, consider partnering with a business that shares your target market and could also benefit from the data generated. You could incentives the survey, which may help to increase responses but could also result in lower quality leads and dishonest answers from people who just took the survey for the prize.

If you would like to learn more about how to use surveys effectively, I highly recommend reading the book ASK by Ryan Levesque. You can download a free copy here.

10. Send a press release to media outlets

A press release can get you lots of free publicity in major newspapers, magazines and news websites. Once you discover this magical strategy, you’ll never want to pay for print advertising again! How much would a full-page article in a major newspaper be worth to you? Exactly? And it’s so much more powerful and memorable than any ad you paid hundreds, maybe even thousands of dollars for.

The key is to have a good story that journalists can pick up and elaborate on. Before you write a press release about a new product you launched or a sale you have going, put yourself in the shoes of a journalist. What would their readers want to read about? Tell stories that are not directly about you, but in which you or your business play a role somehow.

Which story would you rather read?

  1. Local roofing company launches new website and is open for business
  2. Local roofer helps the homeless have a roof over their head for Christmas by handing out free tents

There is no way a journalist would pick up the first headline. Because, frankly, nobody cares. The second story is something they can actually work with. Be strategic about the story you want to tell. The first rule of writing a press release is to NEVER SELL your business or products. Focus on helping the journalists to find the story they are so desperately looking for to hit their quota of articles they need to write each week.

Download my free press release template here to have your press release written in no time.

Conversion – How to turn browsers into buyers

11. Create a lead magnet

If you want to accelerate your email list growth, a lead magnet is your friend. A lead magnet is anything you can offer your subscribers for free in return for signing up. This could be:

  • a discount or value voucher
  • an ebook 
  • a checklist
  • a template or time-saver
  • a helpful video
  • a free trial
  • or anything else of value to your audience.

The key is, it needs to be highly valuable to your ideal target audience and it needs to be free. It should be a first step people can take into the transformation your offer them. 

12. Use email automation to educate and engage with your audience

To this day, email marketing has remained one of the most profitable marketing activities out there. It’s a great way to keep in touch with your audience and create sales opportunities. But let’s be honest… who has time to sit down to send out weekly newsletters anymore? 

That’s where automated email sequences come in handy. Rather than growing your list to send out the occasional email blast, think of email marketing as taking your subscribers on a journey. From the day they join your list, you can map out an entire sequence of emails, each designed with a specific purpose in mind. 

You could include emails that ask questions to learn more about your customers’ needs, showcase your testimonials, answer frequently asked questions, invite them to leave a review, make them aware of other channels you’re on, like social media, and so much more.

This is one of the best ways to leverage your time and frequently engage with potential customers to connect, educate and move them closer to the sale.

13. Use a chatbot to help people find what they are looking for faster

Chatbots have become a lot more common in recent years and they’re a fantastic tool to help you streamline customer enquiries. You can program a chatbot to directly answer specific questions, such as pricing, location, or opening hours, or to direct people to relevant pages on your website for example. 

If someone starts a chat and asks if you have appointments available this week, you could direct them to your booking page where they can check availability and book themselves in, all without the need to interrupt your day.

You can think of a chatbot much like a phone options menu, where when you call are asked to press certain numbers for different types of enquiries. Except a bot allows us to design a much more natural conversation and flow.

Some chatbot software providers I have personally used and love are Chatfuel and ManyChat. Both integrate with social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram, but there are many other tools out there that let you integrate your bot directly with your website and other platforms. 

14. Create a strong offer people can’t refuse

Sometimes, the difference between failure and success in business is the way you structure your offer. Just like McDonald’s did when they went from selling individual items to selling packaged meals. The famous line “would you like fries with that” added billions to their bottom line. 

Could you add something to your offer for added value? 

15. Run retargeting ads

Running ads online is a great way to increase brand awareness and attract new customers. However, it can be difficult to convert an audience at the first point of contact. A retargeting campaign allows us to follow those around that have expressed interest in our business before. Retargeting ads are also a great way to reactivate past clients or target specific segments of your audience.

If you have a webinar funnel, for example, you could show ads only to those who have previously watched your webinar. If you run workshops, you could target only those who have attended a previous workshop of yours. With a little creativity, the possibilities with retargeting ads are endless.

16. Find a way to help more people (when you do that, you will naturally sell more)

Seems like an obvious one, but sometimes simply by shifting our mindset we can create opportunities on a whole new level. 

I like to do a little thought experiment and ask myself what I’d do if I had to help ten times more people than I currently am. 

Could you change your business model and shift from selling 1-to-1 to 1-to-many? Could you offer a DIY option to serve more people at the same time?

Thinking about 10Xing your business can bring up some important questions that will put your business on the path of growth:

  • Where would you find 10 times more customers?
  • Would you have to change your processes to accommodate that growth?
  • Would you have to hire new people to help you?
  • What impact would you have on the world by helping more people?
  • What impact would it have on your personal life?

To get you thinking about these things, I can highly recommend the book “The 10X Rule” by Grant Cardone. It will open your mind up to new possibilities.

17. Run ‘limited time only’ offers

Creating offers that are only available for a limited time can be effective in creating a sense of urgency and temporarily increasing sales. If your business operates in retail or e-commerce, you could purchase a small batch of a new product and promote it as ‘limited time only’ to increase sales over a short period of time. 

It’s also a great way to test the market response to a new product before adding it to your regular offering. A café, for instance, could offer a new product for a limited time to measure its popularity and collect customer feedback. Then, if it performs well, make it part of their regular menu. 

18. Be easy to do business with (I had to add this one)

It always surprises me how difficult some businesses make it to do business with them. As business owners, we should be focused on reducing as much friction as possible. 

Make it easy for customers to pay using their preferred payment method. If it makes the decision for them easier, consider offering a payment plan or AfterPay. 

Make it easy for customers to get in contact with you using their preferred contact method – whether it’s by phone, text message, social media, email, or through a contact form on your website. 

Make the process easy and fun. You’ll be surprised how much impact ‘being easy’ can have on your bottom line. 

19. Get to know your customers better and understand exactly what they REALLY need, want, and do not want

Never assume that what you have to offer (no matter how awesome it is) is what your customers need and want right now. Listen to their needs. Every customer is different and comes to you for a different reason. 

Find out what their underlying motivation is for coming to you and try to meet their unique needs. Listening attentively can go a long way. And if you feel like your offer isn’t a good fit for you, don’t be afraid to let them know. The reality is, most people will respect you more for your honesty than for trying to make the sale at all costs.

Maybe they need something else first?

20. Make sure your website has all the right elements (just a page online won’t cut it)

Many business owners treat their website much like an online brochure. A little blurb about how long they’ve been in business, a contact page, some generic description about their products or services, and maybe a pricing page.

But your website can be so much more than that! Try looking at your website as your piece of real estate online. A well-designed website will:

  • Establish your business as an industry leader
  • Attract new potential customers
  • Capture leads 
  • Book appointments
  • Help sell your services or products
  • Showcase your competence 
  • Educate your audience and answer pre-sale questions
  • Act as a valuable resource 

 

Delivery – Ways to grow your business during and after the sale

21. Provide great customer service

This should be a given, however, it’s astonishing how many businesses neglect this part of their business. Providing excellent service is a great way to build repeat business and increase “word of mouth”. 

When you impress your customers, they are also much more likely to leave a positive review on Facebook or Google, which in turn will result in more organic traffic and a better reputation, helping you stand out from the competition. 

22. Ensure people only buy something they actually need

As a business owner, it’s tempting to try and sell your product or service to anyone coming your way. However, selling to the wrong person can impact your business negatively. Make sure you only sell to people who will genuinely benefit from your product or service.

Similar to the previous point, this will only strengthen relationships with your customers, increase trust, and result in more referrals.

While it may benefit you in the short term, selling to the wrong kind of customers may result in an increase in refunds, mediocre reviews and decreased customer loyalty. 

23. Offer good quality products and services (you want people to rave about it, not complain about it)

24. Overdeliver and exceed your customer’s expectations by offering something extra

25. Follow-up with your customers after the sale to see how they are going

26. Invite customers to leave positive reviews on Facebook, Google, TripAdvisor etc.

27. Add customer testimonials to your website

28. Send a thank-you note after the sale

29. Offer upsells and cross-sells

30. Consider offering a subscription/membership type product

 

This list is far from complete and you could certainly write a book about each point. But I hope that it will spark some ideas for what you can focus on in your business to grow and take it to the next level.

The biggest challenge most business owners face is finding the time to do marketing well. I can say from experience that this is only possible when automating the majority of your marketing processes. To help you do that, I have created a free step-by-step guide on how to completely automate your Social Media posts, as this is often one aspect my clients struggle with the most.

 

To your success,

 

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4 Steps To a Successful Marketing Strategy

Customer Journey: Attract, Convert, Close, Delight

Marketing is a bit of a mystery for many small business owners. After all, most of us didn’t go into business to market and sell, but to do whatever we are great at and love doing. 

But when we break it down, marketing really isn’t such an overly complicated thing. There are very specific steps you can follow to implement a successful marketing strategy in your business and set yourself up for success. More specifically, there are four pieces to the marketing puzzle.

The big marketing mistake

Most business owners make the mistake to try and “close” people before they are ready to buy. You can see this reflected in most advertising. Whether that’s on TV, on the radio, in magazines or online ads, the message is pretty much always “buy our product now!”.

But before someone is ready to do business with you, we should consider a couple of other steps and implement a system that helps us to turn strangers into visitors, visitors into leads and leads into customers.

Free Download: The 4 stages of a complete inbound marketing strategy

Inbound marketing strategy for small business - Small business marketing by David Lee-Schneider
Download 1-Page Marketing Cycle (PDF)

Let me explain each stage in a little more detail.

1. Attract

First of all, every business needs the ability to continuously attract new potential customers. No customer, no business. It’s pretty self-explanatory. We need to have visitors before we can have customers — whether that’s online or in-store.

Ways to increase traffic and get more visitors

  • Have a great website
  • Share valuable and relevant information on your blog
  • Search Engine Optimisation to attract organic traffic
  • Engaging Social Media Content (with the goal to drive people back to your website/blog)
  • Paid advertising (i.e. Facebook ads, Google ads, print ads, TV ads, radio ads etc.) 
  • Joint Ventures (partnering with complementary businesses to help each other grow)

2. Convert

Secondly, we need to be able to somehow “capture” these potential customers, so that we can reach out to them again to build a relationship with them. This is where we talk about leads. People who have given us permission to contact them, but haven’t bought from us yet.

Ways to convert visitors into leads

  • Offer a free download (i.e. e-book, checklist, cheat sheet, discount voucher, video etc.)
  • Use optimised landing pages to increase your conversion rate 
  • Split-test your free offer to identify the most effective one
  • Re-targeting ads to past visitors

3. Close

Thirdly, and probably most importantly, we need to be able to turn these leads into actual customers. Because all the visitors and leads in the world won’t help if we can’t get them to buy our product or service. 

Ways to turn leads into customers

  • Use automated email sequences to nurture your leads and help them with their buying decision
  • Keep educating your leads to increase their understanding and awareness
  • Send out irresistible offers that will get people to take action
  • Use multiple channels to initiate a conversation with prospects
  • Re-targeting ads designed to move your leads closer to the purchase

Now, this is where most businesses stop. But there’s one more crucial step that makes your marketing strategy so much more effective.

4. Delight

Would your customers buy from you again? This is an important question that you should be able to confidently answer with a big fat “yes”. You want to wow your customers and aim to over-deliver, so that the great customer experience you deliver will be reflected in customer reviews, repeat business and word-of-mouth. 

Ways to turn customers into advocates

  • Deliver a great and consistent customer experience 
  • Aim to over-deliver and surprise your customers
  • Collect feedback to constantly improve your product or service
  • Invite those who gave great feedback to leave reviews on Google, Facebook or TripAdvisor
  • Showcase customer testimonials on your website and social media channels

This fourth step will close the cycle and, in turn, generate even more organic traffic, leads and customers, ultimately helping you to grow your business perpetually.

With these four elements in place, you will have built a strong marketing foundation that will allow you to take your business to new heights and maximise your return on every marketing activity in your business.

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4 Smart (Not So Obvious) Ways To Grow Your Business

In essence, there are only three ways to grow your business. Increase the number of customers, increase the purchase frequency, and increase your average transaction value. However, there are a number of not so obvious ways to increase sales and make your business more profitable. Here are four of them. Ready? Then let’s go!

1. Automate processes to increase efficiency and reduce cost

Today, there are thousands of tools out there to help you automate repetitive business processes. Simply automating a few things can help you significantly reduce wages and free up valuable time. When looking for ways to grow our business, we often overlook areas that don’t directly contribute to your profit. Here are a few things you can automate quickly and easily that could put money back in your pocket.

  • Social Media Posts
  • Invoicing
  • Email Marketing
  • Online Advertising
  • Lead Generation
  • Sales Processes & Follow Up
  • Internal Task Management
  • Review Management

Tools like Zapier and Integromat can help you connect various services and software to make processes even more efficient. 

Some examples:

  • When you have a new lead -> automatically add a contact to a list -> then send a follow-up sequence
  • After a customer makes a purchase for the second time -> send an invitation to review on Facebook
  • When a purchase is made on your website -> automatically create an invoice in Xero

2. Launch a re-targeting ad campaign

Many business owners already use ads to attract new customers and generate new business. However, if you only run direct ads, you are missing out on a huge chunk of potential customers by ignoring this simple strategy. Re-targeting ads are a powerful tool that allows you to show specific ads to people who have already interacted with your content in the past, adding continuity to your customer experience and significantly increasing the chances of turning them into customers.

Se if you can offer them something of value in relation to certain pages or blog posts they have visited on your website. 

Example: A yoga studio might show a re-targeting ad for a free yoga pass to people in their area who have read blog posts on the benefits of yoga on their website. When people see the ad, they can enter their email address to claim the free yoga pass and automatically be subscribed to an evergreen campaign. (See next point)

3. Stop focusing on one-off promotions and develop an “Evergreen” campaign instead

The majority of business owners think of marketing and promotions in terms of one-off activities. It might look something like this:

  • January -> Promotion #1
  • February -> Promotion #2
  • March -> Promotion #3

While this might work well, it also requires you to continuously come up with new promotions, which can be exhausting and feel like you’re always running behind.

Instead, create an “evergreen” funnel that sends new leads or customers a series of pre-designed offers from the moment they join your list. Then keep adding new offers to that sequence. Over time, this strategy allows you to develop a marketing machine that continuously produces sales without ever having to worry about what your next promotion is going to be. You just need to make sure that offers in that sequence are timeless and not seasonal.

All you need is a good email automation tool, like Mailchimp or ActiveCampaign, and there are many more options available. 

4. Make Partnerships “evergreen”, too

Partnerships and joint ventures with other businesses that complement yours is a powerful strategy. You might have already partnered with another business in the past to run a one-off campaign promoting your products or services. Maybe you’ve asked the other business to hand out vouchers to all their customers.

See if you can turn this strategy into an evergreen campaign, too, like in the previous example. Look for businesses that already have an evergreen funnel and see if they are happy to plug your offer right into it, while you can do the same for them. 

Example: One of my clients owns a massage clinic, while another owns a yoga studio. I got both of them to add an email to their existing evergreen sequences promoting the other business. Now, everyone who receives a massage at the massage clinic also receives a complimentary yoga gift card, and everyone who joins the yoga studio receives a discount voucher for a massage a month later.

There you have it. Four (not so obvious) ways to grow your business over the next few months. All four are “set and forget” strategies that you only have to set up once and will benefit from forever.

 

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3 Simple Metrics With The Power To Transform Your Business (And How To Track Them)

Today, it’s easier than ever to collect vast amounts of data in our business. There are many low-cost POS (point of sale) systems out there with some fantastic reporting features that you can take advantage of to help you grow your business and make better management decisions.

And if you think data and metrics are boring, I want to encourage you to reconsider. Because once we know what to look for, these numbers can become very exciting!

For small business owners, every dollar counts, which is why it’s so important to track our progress and keep an eye on various metrics. Of course, there are countless metrics we can measure, some more important than others depending on the type of business you are operating.

But let’s keep it simple for now with these three metrics that have the power to completely transform your business. If you know you could do better when it comes to numbers, they will provide a great starting point.

Average Transaction Value (ATV)

The average transaction value (ATV) is pretty self-explanatory. It gives you the average of how much your customers spent per transaction on average. Simply by focusing on increasing our ATV, we can change the entire course of our business. 

How to calculate Average Transaction Value

Simply divide your total sales on any given day by the total number of transactions on the same day.

Example:
$5000 turnover / 100 Transactions = $50 ATV

We can increase our ATV through:

  • Upsells (“Would you like to make that a large?”) and
  • Cross-sells (“Would you like a camera bag to protect your new camera?”

No matter what business you’re in, there is always something extra you can offer your customers. Let’s take the above example and assume we trade for 340 days per year. If we increased our ATV by just 5% (i.e. by $2.50), our daily turnover would go from $5000 to $5250.

Doesn’t sound like much, right? Well, by the end of 340 trading days, we would have increased our turnover by $85,000. Not a bad result with a few upsells. 

What upsells, cross-sells and package deals could you offer in your business?

Customer Lifetime Value (CLV)

The Customer Lifetime Value indicates how much the average customer is worth to our business over the course of their patronage. It’s a simple metric with big implications and one that’s often overlooked by small business owners.

Knowing the lifetime value of a customer is a crucial part of understanding how much is reasonable to spend on acquiring a new customer. Measuring CLV is also a good way to determine whether your business is taking full advantage of its customer relationships.

In many, if not most cases, it costs less money to increase revenue from existing customers than it does to acquire new ones. Still, most business owners are more focused on acquisition than retention.

How to calculate Customer Lifetime Value

CLV = Average Transaction Value * Customer Frequency * Average Customer Lifespan

Example:
$50 Average Transaction Value * 1 purchase per month * 12 months average retention = $600 CLV

Your CLV will determine how much we can afford to spend on acquiring a new customer and subsequently, which marketing channels make sense for our business.

How much is a customer worth to you? How much do they spend each time? How often do they visit? And how long do they stay your customer? Improving each of these 3 variables will have a huge impact on your bottom line.

Cost of Customer Acquisition (CAC)

What does it cost you to acquire a new customer? While the importance of knowing the cost of acquiring a new customer is obvious, surprisingly a lot of business owners don’t pay as much attention to this metric as you’d expect them to. Keeping customer acquisition costs top of mind can benefit your business in numerous ways.

For starters, many companies spend more than they estimate on customer acquisition, and in many cases, they continue to invest in marketing channels that make little sense given the lifetime value of their customers.

How to calculate Cost of Customer Acquisition

CAC = Total Ad Spend / Number of New Customers

Example:
$500 Facebook Ad Spend / 50 New Customers = $10

If our Customer Lifetime Value is $600, it makes sense to spend $10 to acquire a new customer. However, if our CLV would only be $20 we might need to look for a new strategy to acquire new customers or first focus on increasing your Average Transaction Value, Purchase Frequency and Retention Rate.

What metrics have you tracked that have helped you grow your business and make better decisions in your marketing?

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3 Great Examples of Small Business Websites Designed For BIG Impact

Website Design for Turtle Town Scuba - David Lee-Schneider Marketing

No matter the size of your business, I believe we can all agree that not having a website in this day and age is no longer an option. However, not all websites are created equal. A well-designed website will not only look great but should help you capture leads, increase sales and help leverage your time and other resources.

Many small business owners treat their website somewhat like an online brochure with a contact form attached. But it’s the ability to capture leads and predictably turn them into customers that sets a great website apart. And in order to achieve this, we require three things:

Great Content

The content on your website is a crucial element. Providing your visitors with engaging content that captivates, educates and encourages them to take action is a vital part of any good business website. Make the content about your readers, not your business and ensure the jargon and tone of voice you use are consistent and in line with your brand. The goal is not to brag about your business but to truly connect with potential buyers and understand their needs and wants.

Great Design

The “look and feel” of your website says a lot about your business and leaves a lasting impression. It’s also often the first contact your customers have with your business. A lack of consistency and poor layout will result in visitors leaving your website before you even had a chance to tell them what your business is all about. Great design means, your customers can easily navigate your website and find what they’re looking for without getting lost (or frustrated). Again, make sure the colours and fonts you use are in line with your branding. A well-designed website will help you build trust with potential customers and convert better as a result.

A Great Offer

This might be the most important part of any website that most business owners (and even web designers) often overlook. I’m not speaking about your actual product or service offering. What I mean is an offer targeted at your IDEAL CUSTOMERS with the aim to collect their contact details and/or other relevant data. In marketing, we refer to this as “Lead Magnet“. Not everyone who comes across your website for the first time is ready to buy from you. By giving them an opportunity to opt-in for a free download or trial of some sort you can reach out to them multiple times (using email marketing or retargeting ads, for instance) which will significantly increase your chances of making a sale further down the line.

The main goal of every good website should be to build your list.

3 Websites of Local Small Businesses Designed for Growth

Here are three small business websites I designed for local businesses where we have incorporated all three aspects mentioned above. They also make some great examples for when you are ready to give your business’ website a facelift or need help designing one from scratch.

1. Turtle Town Scuba

Turtle Town Scuba is a local scuba diving school in Bundaberg that has built its following using a great online strategy. The website is aesthetically pleasing and easy to navigate. The home page is laid out in a way that allows visitors to easily find what they’re looking for, see the range of diving courses, learn about the instructors and learn more about diving in the Bundaberg Region through featured blog posts. Without being intrusive, the $25 gift card offer makes it easy for new visitors to leave their details and stay connected to the business before leaving the website.

Visit Live Site

 

2. Bundaberg Health Foods

Website Design for Bundaberg Health Foods - David Lee-Schneider Marketing

The website of Bundaberg Health Foods conveys a clear message, both in terms of content and branding. Users can easily navigate through the different sections of the website, finding what they are looking for quickly and without getting lost or overwhelmed. The website is designed to be completely mobile friendly and displays beautifully across all devices and browsers. A  popup captures visitors’ attention and offers them a $10 health food voucher in return for their email address – a fast way to build a loyal following. As an e-commerce business with over 4000 products, we needed to find a way to make product management easy. We integrated with the in-store POS Vend, so that product descriptions and stock levels are always in sync.

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3. Holistic Therapies

Website Design for Holistic Therapies Bundaberg - David Lee-Schneider Marketing

One of the biggest mistakes most business owners make is that they ask for the sale too early. The website of Holistic Therapies is designed to educate visitors and offer locals a massage voucher as an incentive to trial the service. I have found that this strategy combined with a good follow-up email sequence can consistently deliver fantastic conversion rates and drive sales. The various articles on the blog assist in answering questions customers have and educate them about the many benefits of massage therapy.

Visit Live Site

 

If you would like help with the development and implementation of a sound marketing strategy for your business, let’s have a chat! Book a free strategy call to discuss your business and marketing goals.

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3 Things You Can Do Now To Get Your Marketing Right (And Your Time Back)

Unless you are drowning in new customers, getting your marketing right should always be a priority. As business owners, we face many challenges and have to be able to react and adapt to the constantly changing market, customer behaviour and other aspects of our particular industries.

Certain things, however, remain the same, like the importance of great customer service and building trust with your customers. In fact, they are becoming increasingly important in order to maintain a viable business. What has changed completely though is how we deliver customer experiences. Using clever software, it has become easier than ever before to design and deploy personalised customer experiences that build trust through consistent touchpoints. Moreover, it is now possible to automate your entire marketing strategy, from first contact with your brand to after-sale care. Thus, we have now reached a stage where we are able to develop digital marketing ecosystems that can deliver results 24/7.

A digital marketing ecosystem can help your business move from a reactive way of marketing (only marketing when business is down) to a proactive approach that is more predictable and fully automated. A well-designed marketing strategy produces a steady stream of qualified leads, builds trust through nurturing, helps to make sales and even provides guidance to your customers after they have made a purchase. By automating this entire cycle, we can move our focus towards delivering amazing customer experiences, identify exactly which strategies work and which don’t, and dedicate more of our time to producing amazing products and services.

Here are 3 things you can do now to take your marketing and business to the next level

The result of implementing these strategies is a healthier business, happier customers and more time for business owners to focus on what truly matters to them.

1. Map out your customer experience

What happens after a customer opts in for an offer? Design a series of emails that will guide your customer. Communicate the benefits of what you do in a non-salesy way. Try to connect on a deeper level, tell stories your customers relate to and encourage them to join the conversation. E-mail is a two-way medium. Recognise the fact that it’s not about your brand or product. It’s about your customers. Consider the emotional journey they go through, from not knowing you to increased brand awareness, over considering to buy to actually making the purchase. Help them with their decisions during each of these stages by delivering relevant content.

2. Automate, automate, automate

Use software, such as Ontraport, Infusionsoft or Mailchimp, to automate the delivery of your content. This set-and-forget approach will save you many hours of manual communication each week while creating consistency in the way you communicate with your customers. This, and the fact that you deliver relevant content at each stage of their emotional journey, results in increased trust levels and sales.

3. Consider ditching print advertising

The amount of money I see still being invested in print ads that don’t work is staggering. Moving your advertising budget to online ads (if done right) can result in higher returns and allows you to test and measure results faster and more efficiently. You can launch your ads the day you decide on a campaign and start seeing results in a matter of hours, not weeks. Print advertising certainly still has its place and might work well for certain industries. Just make sure that everything you spend money on can be measured and brings tangible results. If you don’t know your return on investment, it’s probably not a great strategy. Being able to measure the right metrics is key of a good marketing strategy.

Need help with your marketing? Let’s work together!

I help business owners develop and implement the right strategy for their business. In 3 months I will help you automate your marketing activities, including lead generation, social media content, email marketing and so much more – so you can focus on running your business.

Click here to learn more and book a free strategy call today.

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