Here we are …. part 3 of 4 in our series on the Path to a Predictably Profitable business!
In this series, I’m sharing my favorite strategies to help you grow your business to a consistent $5K/month, $10K/month or just add another zero to your annual revenue!
If you’re just finding this series now, I highly recommend starting at the very beginning and catching up!
- What to focus on first for business success?
- The #1 mistake that business owners make that keeps them stuck
- Closing the leak in your strategy to get more clients
- My ‘go-to strategy’ for predictably profitable marketing
Have you ever found yourself just constantly hustling in your business? Perhaps you feel like you’re doing all the RIGHT things to bring clients into your business but you’re just not seeing a consistent flow of new prospects who are ready to work with you? You’re doing the posting on social media, the speaking, the networking ….. and still sales & cash flow seem to be very sporadic.
That’s what I call the Marketing Proficiency Effect – it’s the effect of your marketing on your business results (sales, cash flow). And if you’re like many of my clients (and I was there once myself) you’re experiencing the Roller Coaster, then today we’re going to talk about this significant leak that is happening in so many small businesses that prevent those dream clients from becoming paying clients.
The good news is once you understand what this leak is, it’s SIMPLE to fix.
Not long ago, I was assisting at a business workshop where people were mapping out their marketing strategy. As I looked around the room, I realized that so many people had a leaky business.
Their marketing plan was not working! They had all the elements of a marketing plan, but it wasn’t synchronized!
Everyone’s marketing plan was a smattering of tactics, but there was NO CLEAR strategy to ensure that all of the marketing efforts were leading potential clients to their paid offers.
The minute I shared with them a different way to approach their marketing strategy, light bulbs went off and people could see why all the work they had put into marketing their business wasn’t generating real results.
Unfortunately, when most people sit down and write out a marketing plan, they make a list of marketing to-dos. For example, they think they need to:
✓ have a newsletter
✓ blog
✓ host a podcast
✓ post on social media
They are thinking about a list of tactics!
But a marketing to-do list or list of tactics isn’t a strategy (Marketing Playbook) unless it all works together to turn your community into paid clients.
READY TO FIX THE LEAK IN YOUR PREDICTABLY PROFITABLE STRATEGY?
This is precisely what we teach in Marketing Roadmap Intensive and how I run my business every week using a 3-part marketing system based on your customer’s journey – captivate, cultivate and convert. If you’re missing even ONE of these – then your marketing won’t work!
PART 1 – CAPTIVATE
I see 2 common mindset misconceptions out there with respect to capturing/attracting clients!
1. If I put up a website, they will magically find it. Long gone are the days when you used to be able to hang out your shingle and traffic would magically flood in. The world just doesn’t work like that today.
2. If I just create an online program, people will magically buy it. While building an online program is an awesome idea these days, it could be a huge waste of time if you haven’t had a chance to validate and tweak it with several REAL clients!
So, while this step is about getting in front of new audiences, introducing yourself and your brand, and attracting them towards your business – it is your responsibility to get out there and be seen! You have to let people know who you are and what you do.
Captivate is also about capturing their attention and welcoming them into your business in order to start building a relationship with them.
NO business is successful without a database of potential clients.
So, we capture their attention; and capture their email address so that we can continue to build the relationship even though they might say NO to our first offer.
In my business, this looks like an email address. Once you land on my website, there are multiple opportunities to check out additional resources and training for free in exchange for your email address (and yes – you’ll hear from me each and every week with even more content.)
There was a time when my capture strategy might have been exchanging business cards and using a phone; or perhaps even a physical mailing address so I could mail out a free workbook.
CAPTURE IS ALL ABOUT GETTING CONTACT INFORMATION SO YOU CAN START THAT NEW RELATIONSHIP WITH A POTENTIAL CLIENT.
Capture is super important because 99% of people are not going to buy from you the first time they hear from you or land on your website. Think about the last time you were looking to hire a health coach …. Or web designer … or photographer… People land on your website to learn more and get information about how you work … but they’re not ready to make a buying decision right away.
This is where so many businesses go wrong.
They try to sell to you upfront instead of educating you, sharing more information about their process and showcasing some client success stories so you can make sure that the offer is the perfect next step for you.
ASK YOURSELF – How many new potential clients am I captivating in my business each week? What strategies are you using to ‘captivate’ your prospects?
If you’re not keeping track, it’s challenging to tell if your CAPTIVATE marketing strategies are actually working for you.
When you skip the Captivate stage – your business will hit a cash flow or client roller coaster.
If you aren’t getting enough clients in your business, check this leak!
PART 2 – CULTIVATE
Cultivate is the type of marketing we usually think of first:
✓ Sending regular newsletters
✓ Writing blog posts
✓ Recording a podcast
✓ Creating a video
✓ Posting on social media
The goal of Cultivate/nurture marketing is to build that relationship with your community, but too often entrepreneurs fail to provide real value for their potential clients because they basically just blast pitch after pitch after pitch to their audience.
Cultivate marketing is about providing useful, valuable, inspiring content to build the relationship and help them decide if you are the right person to help them. Your content must be related to your Compelling Core Offer and your Expert Advantage.
Your content should be delivered based on your ‘content style’ and your ‘entrepreneurial archetype’. In my business I’m basically a teacher. Each and every week I teach my audience something to help them market and grow their business via free trainings in my Facebook Group or other live trainings.
There are so many ways you can create cultivate content that builds that “know-like-trust’ feeling.
The key with this, as I mentioned in #1 Mistake Holding Business Owners Back from Predictably Profitable Business , is that your ‘Cultivate’ must be consistent. You have to ensure that you’re showing up for your community each and every week with the same message!
ASK YOURSELF: What is the CULTIVATE strategy I am committed to being consistent with for the next 90-days? Do I have a different ‘cultivate’ strategy for those prospects who are in different stages of the customer journey with you?
If you aren’t getting enough clients in your business consistently, check this leak!
PART 3 – CONVERT
Once you’ve captivated a new potential client & brought them into your business, they’ve raised their hand by giving you their contact information, you’ve continued to build your relationship by giving them great valuable content…. It’s time to take the next step from potential client to paying client.
HOW?
By inviting them to do business with you.
This is so important. I often see entrepreneurs that are constantly busy with marketing and wondering why no one is signing up to become a paying client.
REMEMBER it’s not your potential client’s job to figure out how to work with you – it’s your job to ASK them to work with you!
You have to tell clients how they can work with you and what you have available for them to take the next step with you – you have to tell them how that works.
ASK YOURSELF: Do I have a real plan to invite/convert potential clients to become paying clients?
In my business, this looks like having 10 free strategy sessions this month in order to invite 3 new 1:1 coaching clients. I’ll fill those free sessions by announcing them to my email list and social media.
If you aren’t getting enough sales conversations in your agenda each week, check this leak!
BONUS STEPS
The truth is that marketing doesn’t actually stop with these 3-steps. There are 2 more steps – follow up and delight!
FOLLOW-UP is one marketing strategy that too many entrepreneurs totally forget. If someone says no to an invitation, they don’t follow up. They feel that ‘no’ means NO Forever. However, that’s not true. If a potential client says no to an offer to work with you – what will you do to continue to build the relationship with them until such a time that they might be ready?
The last strategy is DELIGHT – delighting your existing client base with an incredible experience so that they continue to work with you over and over again. This is a business game changer!
When your clients get amazing results …. You get rave reviews, referrals and repeat business (who doesn’t want that?).
ASK YOURSELF: Am I following-up? Am I delighting my clients?
BIG QUESTIONS
🔹 Is there a LEAK in your marketing strategy?
🔹 Are you missing a piece of the marketing puzzle along your customer’s journey with you?
🔹 Could you be improving your marketing in one particular area?
🔹 How might you improve your current marketing plan?
Thanks for reading about possible leaks in your marketing strategy. Now the question is – what will you do about it?
In my business, every 90-days, I check my marketing plan – you know that one I created at the beginning of the year! That’s what we do in CEO Planning Day coming up on December 15th!
But because my plan isn’t a tattoo – it’s not permanent – every 90-days or so, I double-check that I’m on track to get the results that I want in my business. And certainly, 2020 was a year for tweaking and changing my plan.
Every 90-days I check – I take time to REVIEW my business….
- Am I doubling down on what’s working?
- Am I deleting what didn’t work?
- Am I getting enough sales conversations booked in my calendar?
- Am I consistently putting out valuable content?
- Am I consistently getting in front of new audiences?
So, what does your 2021 Marketing Playbook look like?
- Are there leaks and you don’t know how to fix them?
- Do you have questions about how to captivate more prospects?
- Have you set aside a day to plan out your best-year-yet?
OR….
- Or do you just have a list of marketing to-dos for the coming year?
- Or will you be distracted by bright shiny objects and be unable to build momentum?
- Or will you just use the same old tactics that you used in 2020 and expect different results!
Business owners with a plan are 2x more likely to be successful!
You can do this!
Diana
You’re invited to CEO Planning Day! Be ready to blast off in January!!!
