As we discussed in part one of this series, we mapped several reasons why meaningful and profitable business growth is elusive for many businesses. Now, we will dive a little more deeply into the anatomy of a successful digital campaign.
Priority 1: Setting Worthwhile Goals
This might be the primary and most important component of a successful campaign.
We suggest that you start with the product or service that you feel has the highest chance of success, and one that can be scaled by the business without major adjustments to staff and existing systems.
Priority 2: Stay In The Game Long Enough
Successful marketing happens in focused campaigns executed in 90 days phases. Anyone who tells you they can produce meaningful results in less time is probably trying to sell you a magic pill “subscription,” to their do-it-all solution.
Be careful, your marketing and lead generation strategy is stitched very close to the heart of your critical business systems. It’s important that you choose a partner that is aligned with your values and your vision.
Welcome To The Age Of Story-Selling
People buy your stories and rapport, well before you ever see their money.
Gone are the days of “Look At Us” generic marketing campaigns. You’ve seen them, and if you aren’t sure what I am talking about go to any given website of any average business.
Average businesses fill their website with information about “the company.”
I hope you are okay with NOT being an average business.
Businesses that use the internet to excel fill their pages with useful and helpful content that helps their clients solve problems related to their product/service. This is a subtle shift that makes a huge difference. Before you get into a campaign with my team (or any team), it’s important that you remain flexible in how we position your content. If you want to copy your competitors and sound like everyone else, we are probably not the team for you.
As I mentioned earlier, most campaigns fail because brands don’t prepare adequately for the journey ahead. If you are going to sail across the ocean, you better have enough supplies for the entire trip. Running your marketing on hope, credit or anything else that resembles gambling is a bad idea. Your marketing should be run from a stable cash reserve that leaves room for your core business functions to continue in a healthy way.
Priority 3: Pricing For Success
I suggest you aim to promote a product or service that is on the higher end of your line up. If you stand to benefit $1,500 or more from a transaction, you stand to gain the most from a focused 90-day campaign.
The lower the sale price of your items, the more your strategy has to shift to a more involved complex marketing strategy. Often, it’s great to build a campaign around a seasonal promotion, or bundle of goods/services to get your price per transaction up as much as you can.
#3. Once we have that focal point that makes good business sense, we can usually get sales rolling in a couple of weeks after going live.
Priority 4: Be Wiling To Rethink What You Think you Know
In some cases, it’s best for entrepreneurs to go back to the drawing board for a quick thought exercise to ask some important “new economy” questions.
Many businesses and leaders that I speak with are operating on outdated business models that won’t lend themselves well to scaling using the power of the internet. So if you are reading this far, face the music, and address this now before you become extinct!
Most businesses that go out of business have a good product/service, they just fail to evolve their business model to keep up with the times.
Million Dollar New Economy Questions:
Always start with your core knowledge about what you do in your niche.
What is it that you know best (after years of doing it) about your industry or the market you serve?
Where are people overspending, getting tricked, or just being outright misinformed in your industry?
How does your product or service help them avoid said industry injustice? Another way to put it is, what is life like without your product or service?
Now, take that idea and consider applying it in whatever way is simplest for the consumer.
You can pay a consultant $10,000 to ask you these questions, or you can sit down with your core team and address these questions today.
In most cases, the customer just needs your best advice, organized into a simple message. If you do this with your campaign content, you will build loyalty and rapport on auto-pilot.
Bringing It All Together
Once the prospect understands how your knowledge can help them save time, money or aggravation, they will often attribute you with the sale. Sometimes this requires a shift in your sales process, or how your sales team thinks about making sales. People are less and less likely to sit on a traditional "closing call" with a "sales rep".
Priority 4: Think Outside The Box - Break Your Industry Norms
These days businesses are turning their knowledge into highly profitable online courses and Youtube Channels.
They are also partnering with people who already have a big audience. That way you can specialize at what you do best.
At the end of the day, you only need three things to succeed in today’s hyper-connected digital economy.
Product
Audience
Story
If you want to capitalize on the sales automation revolution, start with a clean slate, take what you know about your industry or niche, and apply that in the most simple and helpful way possible. This creates a feedback loop of value that will pay off in ways you can’t always anticipate.
Whatever you do, don’t wait.
The world is changing too quickly now, COVID has shifted consumer buying habits permanently and it has evolved the way we connect with our buying communities online forever.
We know there are people online with a problem you can help them solve.
Can they find you?
What is their experience when they do find you?