Build A Digital Marketing Foundation that GROWS Sales!
Show of hands – was increasing revenue or reaching a new audience one of your business goals for 2024? Whether your sales are flat or it's time to scale, chances are you want to increase revenue by helping more customers and making more sales.
But where do you begin your efforts to attract new customers?
A. Posting consistently on social media platforms
B. Running paid ads on social and Google
C. Focusing on your SEO to improve your ranking on the search engines
D. Offering referral incentives to past clients
E. All of the Above
Technically, ALL of these strategies will help increase awareness and potentially result in more sales (how good are you at converting?). Still, NONE of these sales tactics will work if your digital marketing foundation isn't in order.
What's A Digital Marketing Foundation?
All of the above strategies are great at getting eyes on your business. But where are those eyes going as soon as they learn about you?? Your website. Maybe your social media pages too (though which one?), but going to a website is the first thing most people do when looking for a service and are given the name of a business that can potentially solve their problem.
In fact, as much as 80% of buyers do research online before making a buying decision. So, if your website messaging isn't optimized, potential customers may bounce before they ever take the time to learn about YOU and how you can help them!
And if they DO like what they see on your website, what are you doing to capture their critical information – their email address – and then take them from a cold to a warm lead?
Let me introduce the digital marketing foundation:
1. Website – Where potential customers go to learn if you offer the solution to their problem
2. Lead Magnet – The information-packed document you will provide in exchange for their email address
3. Email Nurture Campaign – A series of five emails (minimum) you will send to introduce them to your business.
None of the above sales tactics – paid ads, SEO, referrals – will be effective if you don't have the foundation in place to:
Engage site visitors
Educate them about how to solve their biggest problem
Evolve them from a cold lead to a warm lead
Instead, you'll wind up wasting money on various tactics that won't be nearly as effective as they could be with the proper digital marketing foundation in place.
Simply put, don't pay good money to drive traffic to a crappy website that people will leave. And for those that DO hang around, you'll never know they were there because you never asked for their information. And if you don't get their information, how will you EVER turn them into a paying customer?
1. Website
Your website has ONE goal – to get site visitors to take action. It is NOT meant to tell them about everything you do and how you do it. That's too much information that will overwhelm them. And when people are overwhelmed, they do nothing.
If you're selling a product, the goal of your website is SHOP NOW, which is also your Call To Action (CTA). If you're a service-based business, then the goal of your website is to get them to BOOK A CALL or SCHEDULE A MEETING.
To get site visitors to take action, you need to:
1. Connect with them on their biggest problem
2. Use empathy to show you understand what they're going through
3. Position yourself as an expert who can solve their problem
4. Address what makes you different than your competitors – your unique value propositions
5. Use past customer reviews to demonstrate HOW you make people's lives better
Your website messaging needs to focus on your ideal customer and not you. They care about solving their problem, so your copy should talk about that. Ensure your website uses words like YOU and YOUR more than WE and OUR.
2. Lead Magnet
Did you know that 98% of site visitors don't buy the first time they visit your website? So, you need a plan to capture their email address to continue the conversation OUTSIDE of your website. Otherwise, you depend entirely on them returning to your site again if you hope to make a sale or drive the relationship forward.
A lead magnet is a content-rich document (usually a PDF) that provides valuable information that solves their biggest problem. It is NOT a sales brochure or a time to pitch your services. Our email addresses have become a commodity, so people need something valuable if they are going to share it with you. By truly understanding your ideal customer's biggest problems they struggle with, you now have a list of topics for your lead magnet.
Example:
Business – Financial Advisor
Ideal Client's Problem – Finding a financial advisor they trust
Lead Magnet Title – Top 5 Questions to Help Select a Trustworthy Financial Advisor
This is the time to offer truly valuable information. You want people who provide their email address in exchange for the document to feel it was very helpful when they're done reading it. When you offer valuable information, it does two things:
1. Positions you as an expert
2. Allows you to become their go-to resource in the future
2. Email Nurture Campaign
You can warm up your new lead now that you have their email address. Until now, they've been focused on their problem, but since they gave you their email address, they are ready to hear about you!
Once your lead magnet has been sent, you will follow up with an email sequence consisting of a minimum of five emails. Why five emails? Because it takes a minimum of five touches to make a sale.
While this is the time to introduce them to what you do and how you help your customers, it should be done in a specific format. We are fans of the StoryBrand format for an email campaign.
Email #1 – This is the email where you deliver your lead magnet. Keep it short and thank them.
Email #2 – Next, you want to discuss the problem your client experiences and how your services can solve it. Focus on the most common and significant problem.
Email #3 – Share a brief testimonial or success story. Social proofing is critical to convince would-be customers of the value you provide.
Email #4 – Address and overcome your potential client's most common objection. If it's price, discuss all you offer or how your experience/process/certifications make you superior.
Email #5 – Explain how your services differ from competitors. This should address one of your unique value propositions.
Email #6 – Ask for the sale.
Every email should ALWAYS include a call to action – what do you want them to do? Schedule a call? Buy now? Make an appointment? Always invite them to act.
There are so many great ways to create awareness for your business. But without your marketing foundation in place to engage, educate, and evolve would-be customers into paying customers, you risk wasting a lot of money and failing to achieve the growth you're after.
