Marketing is a two-faced joker.
As effective as the name sounds, it tends to be one of the most complex processes in business building.
And it’s even more complex for the professional who doesn’t know what he is doing.
It can also be deceptive to the professional who believes he knows what he is doing, when in the real sense, he’s clueless.
Marketing can give you the illusion that you’re on the right track and then laugh at you when you hit a brick wall because it clearly knows you’ve been dealt a deal of bad cards.
Everyone, even the most veteran marketer of all, has fallen for its tricks. Only some have mastered it.
For the few who haven’t, it’s because they have no idea what tricks to use to beat the joker to his game.
The simple trick is to…
Plug In To A Proven System That Works
Systems are everything.
Systems give you a bird eye view of what you’re looking to accomplish and helps you plan several steps ahead.
Makes sense right?
Yeah it does.
But what if you’re trying to generate leads to your service business, do you need a system for that?
You sure do. Here a 3 basic systems you should focus your strategies on during your initial process. I like to call them, the big L’s.
1. Lead Acquisition
This stage is what most people call traffic generation. But generating traffic is only a process- it is just one of the things you do.
This is the reason why many websites and online businesses fail. Once the website is complete, all the entrepreneur starts looking for is traffic. They probably believe that once they get it, all online problems are solved.
But the truth is traffic is just one of your many “headaches”. Why? Because in this first system, you also have to worry about conversion optimization.
According to Neil Patel’s “The Definitive Guide To Conversion Optimization”,
“When it comes to internet marketing, you can generate more revenue in one of two ways. You can drive additional traffic to your site in order to increase sales, or you can improve the effectiveness of your site to boost sales with the same amount of traffic you’re currently receiving. Conversion rate optimization (CRO) focuses on the latter.”
This is just a case of getting more out of the little you have. It’s about optimizing your resources which in this case is traffic.
While traffic helps you drive visitors to your website, conversion rate optimization helps you ensure that most of those visitors eventually become leads by either filling a form, subscribing to your newsletter, registering an account etc. This depends on the tactic you use.
2. Lead Nurturing
I believe the best answer to this is by showing that you love them back.
Danny Iny of Firepole marketing does this well through his audience based business he built over the years using content marketing. Not only this, but also the really personal emails he sends to his list. I’m subscribed to his blog, so I know.
A lot of the big internet marketing companies today were built on content marketing. This is why I’m an advocate of it and offer it as a service to those who need leads.
At this stage, what matters is getting your audience to see that you’re the real deal. This could be through email marketing – sending them daily emails like Ben Settle. Or you could do this via social media, if you realize that your audience is more comfortable there.
While the tactics are important, what you want to achieve (the question above) must never leave your mind. Once you have this in place, it then determines what tactic would best help you achieve the results you want.
3. Lead Conversion
The answer to that is you can’t. And this is because some of your leads may have no interest in whatever you’re selling. They’re probably just there to cheer you up and move on.
Following our conversion optimization tip, which is a tactic you’ll use here, you can only ensure that you convert as many leads as possible to clients. And you should never settle for less.
Now, what tactics and processes are involved here to ensure you get to convert the most leads? This is dependent on various factors. However, one that would get you results is good ol’ copywriting.
There are also others including running surveys or offering free services for a trial period. However, what is really important at this stage is knowing what level in the sales process your leads are.
Which of your leads have been nurtured enough to the extent that they can buy? Which of your leads are still sceptical? Which ones have the capacity to pay?
While sometimes you can’t really know these due to the kind and size of service business you run, figuring out how it works could be just what you need. Here’s an article on Hubspot that shows you How To Score Your Leads So Sales Works The Hottest Prospects.
In order to get the leads you want in your business, you’ll need to market your services. But before even embarking on marketing, you need to know the process flow, and then key in the tactics you’ll use so you don’t get messed up.
If your goal is to get clients online, focusing on these 3 big L’s would get you there. Focus on lead acquisition as a process and not traffic as a tactic. Nurture your audience by showing them that you love them, probably through your blog posts, guest posts, or email list. And once that’s done, go for the kill – make them clients.
Looks like a simple system, right? It is, but I never said it was easy. It’s the same system I’m following, and trust me, you have to be mentally prepared for it :).
Do you have systems in place to help you generate leads and convert them to clients? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
Original image credit: Flickr.com
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