Not Enough Leads
Every business is different and as a result, every business requires a different number of clients to be successful. The local bakery has a low price point and high outgoings meaning they require more clients passing through their doors making purchases every day. It’s also important for the bakery to have a high number of repeat clients so they’re not having to start from scratch all the time.
A construction company, on the other hand, has a much higher price point with a longer lead to deliver the goods. While they don’t require as many clients, chances are their repeat clientele will be lower, and conversion rates from enquiries to purchase will be smaller, so their focus will be constantly generating and nurturing new leads.
Understanding what you’re selling and your clients purchase journey will help you figure out the number of clients your business needs at any one time.
Then you need to understand your conversion rate. How many people do you need to speak to and how many interactions with them do you need before you they make a purchase. This should have a huge impact on any marketing and communication strategy you put in place.
Finally, it’s good to crunch some numbers. What’s the lifetime value of a client vs the cost of acquiring that client? How long does it take you to hook them vs how long do they actually stay on the hook? Recognising these figures will help you to understand how many leads you actually need to keep sales flowing and to see growth in your business.
Hiding In Plain Sight
If you’re searching for your car keys the last place you would look is the fridge. Why? Because that’s just not where you expect to find those sorts of things. In the same way, if you’re not being found by your clients' chances are it’s because you’re hiding away in places your prospective customers just aren’t looking.
So how do you put yourself and your content in the places where your clients are going to find you?
It all starts with understanding who your 'ideal' client is, and not just the clients you’re currently working with.
Once you have identified your ideal people you want to create a detailed list of client characteristics and break these up into assumptions vs knowledge. How do your ideal clients find assistance, information, and experts when they have a problem? Where are they looking? And what types of information are they searching for?
The next step is for you to figure out how you can set yourself up as the authority in your space. The person that your ideal clients will turn to when looking for the answers to their problems.
Consumers are more savvy in how they spend their money than ever before. Information is readily available and they are tired of being 'sold' to.
Instead todays consumers are looking to build relationships with experts in their fields. In order to do that they first need to know, like, and respect a person behind the brand before they are willing to spend their hard earned cash with them.
Not Knowing What’s Working
Not having enough leads flowing into your business and struggling to be found by your ideal clients are pretty big issues, and we’re willing to bet they’re issues you’ve thrown a bit of cash at in the past hoping to see results.
Once upon a time a 'spray and pray' approach to marketing could generate results. In the days of digital marketing though with so many ways you can spend your cash (and lot's of it) you need to become very clear on your desired outcomes.
To do this you need to pinpoint the specific problems your clients are facing and strategise an entire plan to show your clients you not only understand what they are facing, but you have a unique solution to resolve their issues. Without this pre work it’s hard to know exactly what’s going to work and what won’t.
We hear clients talk about how much they dislike social media and will never get involved, or how they hate receiving emails every week.
Here's the truth... Digital marketing and your digital marketing strategy is not about you and what you like. It's about how your clients like to consume content, how frequently they like to be spoken to and where they like to receive their updates.
Understand that and you're well on your way to building a business with continuously flowing leads and happy clients.
Generating Leads
Although it might seem complicated, and yes it does require a bit of preplanning and work, the concept behind generating leads is a pretty simple one.
When you understand ‘who’ your clients are, ‘what’ their problems are and ‘how’ to solve them you can easily develop a strategy to get leads in a targeted and consistent way.
Of course, it helps to know how to find this information and to have an understanding of the online marketplace but that’s what we’re here for.
Build Authority and Get Found Online
Once you know who your clients are, what they’re looking for, and where they’re looking for it, you can get pretty specific with your digital marketing strategy. You’ll be able to create content (whatever form that might take) that is specifically targeted at your ideal client and post it in places where they’re most likely to find it.
And by producing good content that talks to and solves their problems and concerns you develop an authority in your client’s eyes which inevitably helps with the ‘know / like / trust’ equation we mentioned above.
Track and Measure Marketing
As Peter Drucker said: “If you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it.” And you can’t measure what you don’t track.
One of the big (and very handy) differences between traditional and digital marketing is the ability to track and measure everything online through digital platforms and tools.
Tools like Google Analytics, Google console, and Facebook pixels give you an abundance of information at your fingertips so you can track, measure, and improve your digital marketing. From there we can partner with smart automation to tie everything together and really drive results.
