It use to be that a small business, services professional like a dentist or accountant or a higher education institution could rent or buy a brick and mortar space, set up their shop, put a sign outside, and run some expensive advertising in the local paper or radio and all of a sudden customers would come calling or walking in. This use to be “how to open a business 101”.
How do you think that’s been working out?
In 2013, that “how to open a business 101” is almost non-existent to extinct. And the ones who still get away with that do so because they’ve been around 10-15+ years, beat most of their competition into submission, have that local store or name recognition and their customers automatically come back or aren’t searching for an alternative.
But when the economy nose-dived in 2008, many of those who were laid off or decide to get out before they were laid off, decided that it was time to open up their own supply shop, office, internet retail or make cup cakes. 50-80% of them closed. Why? They relied on the old model of “how to open a business 101” or called up their local SBDC, went to one workshop and now they were an expert. That certainly isn’t enough. And those failures led to many bankruptcies and banks eating the defaulted loans. It just didn’t help the overall national economy for the next 3 years.
And all the while, some of those businesses could have been saved if they had utilized the marketing strategy known as inbound marketing. Also, let’s be clear – marketing is not advertising, but advertising is one form of marketing. Inbound marketing doesn’t abandon advertising, but the costly media takes a back seat to a more direct and simple approach of utilizing effective means of communications – like your Facebook page, e-mail marketing of all previous customers and your website – to generate awareness to new customers, upsell and keep your business top of mind to previous customers, builds engagement and credibility with those same audiences, lowers your entire costs of relying on advertising and paid forms of communication, and allows you to make more sales – all boats rise in this scenario – you sell more, keep costs in line, make more money, can hire staff to generate more business, spend some dollars on marketing, build and maintain your customer base and you rely on us at Magnus to lead you to the promise land of inbound marketing.
Disclaimer: there are not many people in our area who understand nor are aware of how effective this strategy is. We like our ad sales people – don’t get me wrong they are our neighbors, softball buddies, church members and friends – but their one purpose is to sell more advertising and meet their sales quotas. You need an unbiased party, like Magnus, to objectively point you in the right direction for promoting your business.
Inbound marketing is the foundation and philosophy behind our Magnus Pyramid and the core strategy of using the digital platforms of your website, e-mail marketing and Facebook to capture potential customers and suck them into your direct marketing machine.
Website: we at Magnus work to capture a web visitor’s information with a landing page or contact form to have them submit their contact information. The key is to display an immediate incentive such as a promotional offer or marketing info piece such as an e-book, electronic brochure or flier. Now you have a customer’s name and email. If you have really good sales data, you can check to see how much business this person has done with you. If not enough, send them an e-mail marketing promotion with a discount or bundled offer. For example, if they bought Weed Eater string from you before, send them a discount for 10% off that same roll and include ancillary items such as noise reduction headphones, gloves, a switchblade – etc. Do some math and figure out a bundled price – sure you might lose $8 total bucks if you sold each item individually, but how much more value is there when that same person buys Weed Eater string from you for the next 10 years? And in a year or so when it might be time to buy a new Weed Eater, we want them to think of you as their #1 place to go to buy that new Weed Eater, and then a mower, and then a leaf blower…see where this is headed?
E-mail marketing: once the web visitor submits their contact information with their e-mail address, we immediately add them to your prospect and customer e-mail database to target them with your company’s specific products and offers. We use E-mail marketing to encourage first-time buyers and repeat customers to make a purchase – just like our Weed Eater example. We can also encourage those previous customers to write testimonials and opinions on your Website or even better, on your Facebook business page. New customers can see this communication exchange, witness your customer service first-hand, and gain trust that you care about honoring, promising and servicing what you offer.
Facebook: Facebook users talk, share, post, recommend, and promote everything already. Your Facebook page can be the catalyst to drive these conversations and recommendations to your Website, where then they not only see your offerings, company story and promotions, they see your e-mail sign up prominently on the top of every single web page.
If you want to learn more at no obligation, please email me or continue reading on to our Magnus Pyramid page
