Build Your Business With These 6 Simple Steps
by Ryan McMullen
Last month, I wrote about how your marketing people are wasting your dollars and I touched on the only six things you’d ever need to know to build a successful, scalable and, most importantly, predictable online marketing machine to drive your business. As I only introduced the concepts, I’ve gotten multiple requests to expand on them.
First, let me preface that this entire blueprint assumes that you have good products and services. I’ll save that very obvious explanation for another day. Assuming you’re providing great products or services, if you focus on the following six areas, you’ll never worry about not having enough business ever again.
1. Traffic – This is why most marketing salespeople are cold calling your business. They want to get more visitors to your website. Obviously, this is very important otherwise it wouldn’t be on the list, but it is also only part of the equation. Once somebody gets to your website are they contacting you? It’s great to get a lot of visitors to your website, but if it doesn’t result in any business, then who cares?
Traffic is where this whole thing starts and the rest builds upon it. Here’s the secret on how to get more traffic: Buy it.
2. Lead Capture – When you do get a visitor to your website, are you getting their contact information or are you just hoping that they will pick up the phone and call you? Sure, some people will pick up the phone, but most will not, so you need a system in place to “bribe” a prospect into giving you their information so you can follow up with them.
A great way to bribe your prospects is to offer them something free in exchange for their contact information. It could be a free report, eBook, gadget or consultation.
3. Lead Nurture – Now that your prospect has given you an email address, you begin to build the trust relationship not by spamming them, but by providing them with value that only an authority would give.
If your industry and competitors are notorious for doing unscrupulous things, show them how to avoid getting taken advantage of. You need to portray yourself as the trusted, go-to business in your space so that you are the ONLY option when it comes time to buy. Use an email auto responder service to automate this entire process.
4. Sales Conversions – What is your closing rate? Is it above 80%? It certainly should be. Do you have a sales process? You need to have a consistent process that takes place every single time somebody calls you, walks in your front door or emails you. Your staff needs to be reliable with the process and that means proper training so that you are able to measure and improve your process.
5. Customer Maximization – In my opinion, this is quickest, least expensive way to make a quick impact on your business. When we talk about maximizing the lifetime value of our customers, not only are we talking about upselling and cross-selling new products or services, but we can also leverage our existing customers to bring us new business. For that reason, you also need to have a customer referral program, re-activation program and testimonial program. Think about how much easier is it to sell to a referral.
6. Metrics – With technology these days, there is no excuse to not be measuring just about everything in your business. Nine out of ten new clients that I meet do not measure anything and it really makes me scratch my head. How do you know what is working?
You need to be using all of the free resources Google offers you to show you where you need to be spending your marketing dollars and where you need to avoid.
We’ve found with our clients as well as a number of my partners’ clients that focusing on just these six areas results in exponential growth. Its simplicity is what makes it so effective. You are now armed with a very easy blueprint to follow to ensure your business grows.
Ryan McMullen (ryan@stlouismarketinglab.com) is the owner of St. Louis Marketing Lab