Category Archives: Marketing Strategy

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5 Effective Goal-Setting Tips for Small Business Owners To Save Time And Money

5 Effective Goal-Setting Tips for Small Business Owners To Save Time And Money written by John Jantsch read more at Duct Tape Marketing

There’s a constant, niggling question that haunts every small business owner: “Am I doing enough in my business?” This is often followed by: “Is my marketing strategy hitting the mark?” If you’ve found yourself pondering these questions, you’re not alone. The complexity of marketing today often leaves us wondering if we are doing too much or too little. It’s a balancing act, trying to keep pace with the evolving digital landscape without squandering precious resources.

As the founder of Duct Tape Marketing, I’ve watched the scene evolve, with businesses trying to navigate the maze that is modern marketing. Often, I find entrepreneurs trying to be everywhere at once, which, in my experience, leads to two things: wasted time and wasted resources. A scattergun approach might cover more ground, but it rarely hits the target.

The Realities of Entrepreneurial Marketing

There’s no sugarcoating it: today’s entrepreneurial world is complex, with an array of marketing channels at your disposal. Social media alone offers a plethora of platforms – Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Snapchat, TikTok… the list goes on. Add to this email marketing, SEO, content marketing, PPC advertising, influencer marketing, affiliate marketing – and you’re facing a veritable buffet of choices.

With so many options and so little time, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed. But rather than throwing your hands up in defeat or jumping haphazardly from one strategy to another, it’s critical to devise a marketing plan. A well-thought-out, strategic approach helps you focus on the strategies that work best for your business.

5 Effective Goal-Setting Tips

5 Effective Goal-Setting Tips for Small Business Owners to help them stop wasting time and start focusing on high-impact activities that drive business growth and enhance customer engagement.

To help you create a more efficient and effective marketing plan, here are five goal-setting tips to consider:

1. Focus on Key Marketing Strategies

Don’t fall into the trap of following every new marketing trend. Instead, focus on the key strategies that align with your business goals and customer needs.

2. Prioritize High-Payoff Tasks

All tasks are not created equal. Identify those that offer the highest payoff for your investment. This could be SEO optimization, targeted email campaigns, strategic partnerships, or another high-impact initiative.

3. Avoid Non-Productive Marketing Channels

It’s essential to know where your ideal customers spend their time. If they aren’t active on a certain platform, there’s no point in wasting resources there.

4. Allocate Time and Effort Wisely

After identifying the most effective channels, invest appropriate resources into making them work for you. This could mean hiring a social media manager or spending more time developing high-quality blog content.

5. Consistently Evaluate and Adjust

Lastly, remember that marketing strategies should be fluid, not static. Continually track and assess the performance of your marketing efforts and be ready to adjust your strategy when necessary.

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Why You Can’t (And Shouldn’t) Be Everywhere

As a small business owner, you might feel pressured to have a presence on every available marketing channel. Resist this urge. Instead, identify your ideal customers, find out where they hang out, and focus your resources there. By being strategic and selective, you can maximize your marketing impact and save valuable time and effort.

The Power of a Marketing Strategy

A well-crafted marketing strategy not only guides your efforts but also informs you of what not to do. It’s a map that helps you navigate the vast marketing landscape, avoiding unnecessary detours and dead ends. This strategy-centric approach allows you to build momentum by focusing on key areas and tracking your results, which is essential for growth.

If you’re feeling overwhelmed or stuck, it might be time to reevaluate your current marketing strategy and learn about the components to create a good one. Remember, it’s not about doing everything—it’s about doing the right things.

To aid you in your marketing journey, consider our Gap Analysis. This tool helps you uncover untapped potential and inefficiencies in your current marketing strategy, transforming chaos into clarity. It’s a powerful first step towards a more efficient and effective marketing approach.

Remember, in marketing and in business, focus is key. Instead of scattering your efforts across every platform and strategy, hone in on what truly works for your business. Stop wasting time and resources, start maximizing your marketing strategy today. Your future self will thank you.

4 Goal-Setting Tips to Stop Entrepreneurial Overwhelm and Guide Growth

4 Goal-Setting Tips to Stop Entrepreneurial Overwhelm and Guide Growth written by John Jantsch read more at Duct Tape Marketing

Have you ever felt as though managing a business is a perpetual climb or that you are spinning too many plates, constantly working to keep all the various projects and responsibilities moving without letting anything fall apart.

If you find yourself nodding in agreement, know that you’re in good company. The path of an entrepreneur often resembles a never-ending checklist that can become burdensome. Managing customer expectations, staff, finances – it all adds up. So the question arises: How do we steer through this with success? It’s a challenge, but with the right strategies and a clear mindset it is certainly possible.

The overwhelm problem

Overwhelm is like a hidden enemy. It doesn’t just take away your calm and happiness; it stops you from moving forward. It can make you rush decisions, change paths, and lose faith in yourself. Without a clear plan, you can feel stuck, always reacting instead of acting. It’s like drowning in tasks with never enough time. But with the right approach, you can get through it.

The potential of a marketing strategy

Here is where the magic lies – a potent marketing strategy. This strategy does more than dictate your to-do list; it helps decide what not to be done. A strong marketing strategy permits you to establish weekly, monthly, or even quarterly priorities. It plots a route from your current position to your desired destination.

When unforeseen circumstances, customer complaints, or employee-related challenges arise, your marketing strategy will keep you grounded. Clear set priorities will keep you on track, preventing minor distractions or crises from knocking you off course. Here you can find out if your business needs a marketing strategy.

Are you overwhelmed with your marketing efforts?

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4 goal-setting tips to stop entrepreneurial overwhelm

1. Set SMART Goals

Make your goals Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound. For example, instead of vaguely aiming to “increase sales,” target a 15% rise in sales over the next quarter. This framework lends structure and clarity to your goals, steering clear of the overwhelm that can accompany vague and unachievable objectives.

2. Prioritize

Not all goals carry the same weight. Discern which ones will make the most significant impact on your business and channel your efforts in that direction. Keep the 80/20 rule at the forefront of your decision-making process.

3. Develop a Marketing Strategy

A well-crafted marketing strategy serves as your roadmap, helping you make sense of the chaos. It helps you to discern what needs to be done to move your business forward. It’s a decision-making tool, a constant guide, and a source of reassurance that your efforts are focused on the right places.

4. Break it Down

Large goals can be intimidating. Make them more manageable by breaking them down into smaller, actionable tasks. Say you want to expand your retail business into a new city; you can break this down into tasks like researching locations, securing financing, and hiring local staff. Each completed task becomes a milestone, making the goal feel more achievable and keeping overwhelm at a distance.

Growth without the overwhelm

By incorporating these four tips into your business routine, you can transform your approach to goal setting and dodge the business overwhelm. If you’re ready to make this shift, the Duct Tape Marketing Gap Analysis is a perfect guide. It helps you identify your priorities, highlight your growth drivers, and scale without multiplying your stress.

With the right plan, you can say goodbye to the confusion and mess that marketing overwhelm brings. It’s time to replace it with clear thinking, confidence, and growth. Let’s remove the chaos from your business and put in place a focused strategy that really works.

Four Actionable Goal-Setting Tips to Stop the Overwhelm and Guide Growth

Four Actionable Goal-Setting Tips to Stop the Overwhelm and Guide Growth written by John Jantsch read more at Duct Tape Marketing

Have you ever felt as though managing a business is a perpetual climb, constantly battling with overwhelm? If you answered yes, rest assured, you are not alone. The entrepreneurial journey often feels like juggling a sea of ever-increasing tasks – from managing customer expectations to dealing with staff, finances, and more. In the midst of these, business overwhelm can sneak up, affecting momentum, causing waste, and instilling confusion. So, how do we successfully navigate this?

The Overwhelm Conundrum

Overwhelm, a sneaky adversary, robs not only your peace and joy but also your ability to foster progress. The pressure can lead to hasty decisions, shifts in direction, and a general lack of confidence. In the absence of a clear plan or strategy, we find ourselves caught in a perpetual cycle of reaction, which can quickly lead to a sense of drowning in tasks with too little time to execute them.

Harness the Potential of a Marketing Strategy

Are you overwhelmed with your marketing efforts?

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Four Goal-Setting Tips to Combat Business Overwhelm

1. Set SMART Goals

Make your goals Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound. This framework lends structure and clarity to your goals, steering clear of the overwhelm that can accompany vague and unachievable objectives.

2. Prioritize

3. Develop a Marketing Strategy

4. Break it Down

Large goals can seem daunting. Make them more manageable by breaking them down into smaller, actionable tasks. Each completed task adds to a sense of progress, keeping the feeling of overwhelm at bay.

Forge Forward with Focus

By incorporating these four tips into your business routine, you can transform your approach to goal setting and dodge the business overwhelm. If you’re ready to make this shift, our Gap Analysis at Duct Tape Marketing can be your guiding compass. It helps you identify your priorities, highlight your growth drivers, and scale your dreams without multiplying your stress.

In conclusion, with a clear plan, you can bid adieu to marketing overwhelm and inefficiencies, and welcome clarity, confidence, and growth. Let’s take the chaos out of your business and replace it with a focused, effective strategy.

Charting Profits: How a Clear Vision can Amplify Your Marketing Results

Charting Profits: How a Clear Vision can Amplify Your Marketing Results written by John Jantsch read more at Duct Tape Marketing

A company’s vision is its roadmap for the future. It encompasses the organization’s long-term goals and aspirations and lays out its desired destination. Experience tells me that a successful vision is more than just an aspirational concept. It’s a practical, actionable plan that should guide every decision and action within your business, including your marketing strategy.

Understanding the Role of Vision in Marketing Strategy

In the realm of marketing, your vision takes on an especially significant role. It provides the framework within which your marketing strategy operates, informing decisions about audience targeting, channel selection, messaging, and more. If you’re a small business owner, it’s vital to grasp this connection and ensure your marketing strategy is steeply aligned with your overall business vision.

Charting Profitable Growth Goals

Armed with your vision, you can begin setting realistic and profitable growth goals. This requires translating your vision into tangible, measurable objectives. It’s not enough to say you want your business to grow. Make your goals SMART – Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound – to increase your chances of success.

Maximizing Impact with a Robust Business Vision

Your vision also defines the kind of impact you wish your business to have. What image do you want to project in the market? How would you like your customers to perceive your brand? The answers to these questions should be reflected in your vision. And this vision, in turn, should shape your marketing strategy, guiding you to attract the right customers and establish a strong brand identity.

Tips for Crafting an Effective Vision Statement

A vision statement encapsulates your aspirations and paints a picture of your company’s future. It’s more than just a series of words, it’s a communication tool that tells your employees, shareholders, and customers where your company is heading.

For crafting an effective vision statement, keep the following tips in mind:

Keep it succinct: The best vision statements are concise yet powerful.
Make it future-oriented: Your vision statement should look ahead, projecting where your company aspires to be.
Ensure it aligns with your values: A good vision statement is in sync with your company’s values and culture.
Make it inspirational: Your vision statement should inspire and motivate, both internally and externally.

Making Your Vision an Integral Part of Your Business

Your vision shouldn’t be a statement you craft and then forget. It must be a living, breathing part of your everyday business practices. From product development to customer service, every aspect of your business should be guided by your vision. The more consistently you align your operations with your vision, the more powerful your marketing strategy will be.

Is your vision driving your marketing efforts?

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Having a clear, well-articulated vision is not a luxury—it’s a necessity. It’s the compass that steers your marketing strategy, helping you navigate the challenges of the business landscape and stay on the path to success.

10 Signs You Need A Marketing Strategy and How To Get Back On Track

10 Signs You Need A Marketing Strategy and How To Get Back On Track written by John Jantsch read more at Duct Tape Marketing

As a marketing consultant, I meet numerous business owners who are all set to take their companies to new heights. But, I’ve also noticed a consistent pattern of confusion about what a marketing strategy truly entails. It’s a detailed plan designed by businesses to promote their product or service through different channels and tactics, in order to accomplish their business goals and understand their customer needs.

But, today I’m not just going to define it for you. Instead, let’s uncover the 10 symptoms indicating your business might be operating without a solid marketing strategy.

If you find yourself nodding along to any of these symptoms, it’s high time to collaborate with a strategic professional.

This is where the AI Prompts for Building a Marketing Strategy toolkit comes in!

This toolkit can help you develop a complete marketing strategy to overcome these symptoms. It’s a step-by-step approach designed to boost your marketing efforts, enhance customer retention, increase online visibility, and improve ROI.

Your marketing strategy should be the backbone of your business – a roadmap leading you toward your growth goals. By identifying your ideal customers, creating consistent branding, and tracking your performance, you can start working smarter, not harder.

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1. Trying To Be All Things To All People

We’ve all been there. If I’m a dentist, anybody with teeth is my ideal client, right? But this approach, while maybe attracting clients, fails to identify your most profitable, ideal, and best customers. Without understanding this, how can you effectively attract more of them?

Instead focus on being the right thing to the right people.

The idea of being a universal solution might seem appealing initially, but the truth is, you can’t be all things to all people. In the world of business, it’s crucial to identify your specific target market – the people who will benefit the most from your product or service.

Who is your ideal client? What are their pain points? What can you offer them that your competitors can’t? By identifying and understanding your ideal client, you can tailor your marketing efforts to reach them more effectively instead of casting a wide net and hoping to catch something.

2. Lack Of Competitive Edge

Sound familiar? You’re a commodity. In your clients’ minds, every business that offers the same services is pretty much the same. If you’re just one of many, why should they choose you over ten others who look just like you?

Create one.

To prevent falling into the “commodity trap”, strive to create a unique value proposition. What makes you different? Why should clients pick you over competitors? Developing a distinct competitive edge doesn’t happen overnight, but it’s well worth the effort. It will allow you to stand out in your market, so you aren’t forced to compete solely on price.

3. Forced To Compete On Price

If your customers can’t distinguish how you’re different or unique, they’ll default to comparing prices. And as we all know, price is a terrible place to compete. There will always be someone willing to sell cheaper than you do.

Instead charge a premium.

If you’re struggling to differentiate your offering and find yourself competing primarily on price, you might need to reconsider your marketing strategy. The goal should be to provide such outstanding value that your customers are happy to pay a premium for your services.

Instead of lowering your prices to compete, consider how you can add more value. How can you make your customers’ lives easier, save them time, or help them achieve their goals? By focusing on value over price, you can charge a premium and boost your profitability.

4. Wasting Money And Resources

Without a clear strategy, you’re constantly testing the waters, never really sure what’s working. There’s a significant chance that most of your efforts aren’t producing the results you expect.

Make sure to resource allocation and track performance.

Where are your marketing dollars going? Are you spreading them too thin across too many platforms or channels without really knowing which one is driving results? A robust marketing strategy will include a clear plan for resource allocation backed by regular performance tracking. This approach ensures you’re investing your money and time in avenues that drive results and help you understand what works best for your business.

5. Inconsistent Branding

Branding isn’t just for large corporations or soap bars. It’s about how customers perceive your promise or your values. Inconsistent branding leads to confused customers; you either stand for nothing, or you represent confusion.

Be Consistent.

Inconsistent branding leads to confused customers, and confused customers seldom become loyal customers. Be clear about what your brand stands for, and make sure this message is consistent across all your marketing channels. This includes your website, social media platforms, email marketing, and even your offline marketing materials. Remember, the least expensive thing you can do is to get more business from existing customers.

6. Low Customer Retention

You’re losing customers as fast as you’re getting them. Remember, the most cost-effective marketing is getting more business from existing customers.

Enhance your customer retention.

It’s cheaper to keep an existing customer than to acquire a new one. By focusing on customer retention, you can increase your profitability. This might involve launching a loyalty program, consistently exceeding customer expectations. Here are some ways to make sure you’re always delivering an outstanding value to your customers.

7. Poor Online Presence

Today, every business is served by having a robust online presence. If your online presence is weak, it’s likely a symptom of a reactive and weak marketing approach.

Improve your online presence.

Today, an online presence is non-negotiable. But it’s not enough to just “be online”. You need to have a strategic approach to your online presence. This involves a well-designed, user-friendly website, an engaging social media presence, and maybe even a content marketing strategy that helps establish you as a leader in your field. You need a consistent online presence.

8. Untracked Performance

Do you have no clue what’s working and what’s not? Maybe business is fine, but you don’t know why or whether it will still be good tomorrow.

Set a tracking performance strategy.

A well-defined strategy allows you to set Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), like website traffic, leads, conversion rates, or customer retention rates. Tracking these KPIs provides invaluable insights into what’s working and what isn’t, enabling strategic adjustments.

Having a marketing strategy is about setting goals, tracking progress, and making necessary tweaks. Consistent performance monitoring assures your marketing efforts are steering your business in the right direction.

9. Missed Opportunities

Without a strategic focus on your ideal client, you miss the chance to serve them better. You also overlook the potential for partnerships and referrals.

Capitalize on opportunities.

Every customer interaction presents an opportunity. Are you making the most of these? Could you upsell or cross-sell? What about partnerships and referrals? Data tells that referrals have a 16% higher lifetime value rate, and a 37% higher retention rate than leads generated from other marketing channels. A marketing strategy helps you to spot and seize these opportunities.

10. Flat Sales And Profits

If your sales are flat, and your profits are flat or non-existent, you feel like you’re stuck in a rut.

Boost your sales and profits.

Lastly, if you find your sales and profits are flat, this is a sure sign you need to rethink your marketing strategy. Integrating sales with a well-executed marketing strategy can help you target your most profitable customers, differentiate your offering, and ultimately drive business growth.

Recognizing and admitting that you’re suffering from these symptoms is the first step towards a cure. The next step is taking action. And that’s where the AI Prompts for Building a Marketing Strategy toolkit can truly make a difference. Start creating your complete marketing strategy with this prompts and
see the difference a focused and efficient marketing strategy can make to your bottom line.

Are you ready to turn these symptoms into solutions?

Why It Is Essential to Put Strategy Before Tactics

Why It Is Essential to Put Strategy Before Tactics written by John Jantsch read more at Duct Tape Marketing

Marketing Podcast with John Jantsch About Strategy

Marketing strategy is one of my favorite topics, and it’s been a distinguishing mark over the years of Duct Tape Marketing because so many marketers want to talk about tactics. When I talk about marketing strategy, the first thing I talk about is what it is not, before what it is.

What marketing strategy is and is not

I think even Google gets confused. If you type, “what is marketing strategy” or “small business marketing strategy” into Google, you’re going to get a bunch of blog posts that list 15 marketing strategies for small businesses. Those 15 marketing strategies will all be nothing but tactics.

I believe that you must develop a strategy before you even think about the tactics. If you’ve read anything I’ve written, if you have listened to anything I talk about, then you know that I mention that this is the key element to make marketing effective.

You must have an approach that is focused on a very specific type of client, with a very specific need or problem, and a promise to solve that problem in a very specific way.

That’s marketing strategy, and that’s the part we have to figure out first before we ever go out there and start listing the things we’re going to do to create awareness and to convert those people that have a need into clients.

Building a strategic foundation

When I talk about marketing strategy, I break it down into a foundation that has several elements. It’s not just one thing. It’s a handful of things that have to go together to work in concert to make your marketing strategy effective.

Understand your ideal client

You have to figure out who your ideal client is and tailor everything you’re doing for that client as though you’re talking to them one to one. You have to have a core message that helps you differentiate and stand out from everybody else who says they do what you do.

Some people might call it a brand promise, but it has to be something that gets somebody’s attention.

Develop a core message

You’ll want to focus on developing a core message. Often when a business talks about their brand they’re talking about logo and identity elements.

Identity elements, colors, fonts, a look and feel that people expect, are the things that you do need to actually build. Once you have that core message, once you know who your ideal client is, you want to build supporting identity elements.

Create content

Content has grown beyond just being a tactic. Content really is air. It’s the thing that powers the entire customer journey. It’s the way for us to actually create the voice of our strategy.

Guide the customer journey

Part of your marketing strategy has to be an understanding of how you are going to guide the customer journey.

The way people buy today has changed so dramatically that we have to understand that it’s our job not to corral or create demand but to be around and organize the behavior that the buyer actually wants to participate in.

Those elements go together to create the foundation of any kind of marketing plan, and that’s what I mean by strategy. All of those elements working effectively, working together.

As you can see, I haven’t mentioned anything that would be considered a tactic. I haven’t talked about direct mail or advertising. Those are tactics that we are going to use to orchestrate or implement our strategy.

That’s how you have to think about it. Let’s break each of those elements down.

Your ideal client

Many business owners have been taught to think about this idea of a target market. So often where that target market or that targeting ends is who we think is likely to buy.

For a lot of people, that’s people who have money. If I’m a dentist, that’s people who have teeth. I mean, that’s where we stop.

What I want to suggest is that if we go much deeper than that, if we decide who has the right problem, meaning the problem we actually are very, very uniquely qualified to solve, who has the money? That’s a great qualifier, right?

We don’t want to be working with people that can’t afford what it is that we do. Who’s motivated to fix that problem?

Just because somebody has teeth, just because somebody has plumbing in their house or has a kitchen and we’re a kitchen remodeler, just because somebody has trees and we’re a tree service, doesn’t mean they’re motivated to take care of, fix, or upgrade those.

You have to understand who’s motivated, who has the problem that you’re suited to solve, and who has the budget.

If you’re wanting to understand the characteristics of your ideal client, the ones that you have attracted, that were very profitable, and that you had a great experience with, know that they’re referring you because they had a great experience.

Take your client list today and map out your most profitable clients, and you’ll find that there’s probably some business you’re working with that you probably shouldn’t be and that you have some clients that aren’t that profitable, (but hey, you took the work because they said they’d pay you). Typically, those don’t end up being very good deals.

If you start looking at the characteristics of your most profitable clients, and then if you can identify a few of those folks who are also referring you, that’s who your ideal client is.

The reason I say that is because they’re profitable because they probably had the right problem. They had a problem you could solve and they had a mentality or behavior that allowed you to do it in the most profitable way, and consequently, you like them and they like you.

They didn’t beat your people up. They paid you on time. They’re out there telling the world what a great experience they had.

You get to choose your clients, but not if you don’t understand who they are. Once you understand who they are, you can start disqualifying people.

Once you’ve been in business for a while you can tell pretty quickly and accurately whether or not it is a business that you want to work with or a business that would be a good fit for you.

You’ll get better at this, but if you don’t start defining it and outlining it now, you’re going to start taking those clients that aren’t good fits for you. All they’re going to do is drag you down and distract you.

In a worst-case scenario, they’re going to become a detractor out there telling people you don’t do a good job, but that’s because you weren’t a good fit.

You get to decide, you get to choose your clients, but only if you define who they are.

What problems are you solving

Nobody wants what you sell. They want their problem solved. Keep that in mind. Very few people want the things we sell, the services, and the solutions.

They have problems they’re trying to solve and they see you and your products and services as the way to solve those problems to get to where they want to go.

You have to understand what problem you are solving. A lot of times it’s not the basic service that you provide. I like to talk about my friends at Jackson Tree all the time. They are a local tree service in the St. Louis area and they feel like their competitive advantage is that they are a locally owned business. They’ve been business for a long time.

There are people coming from the outside, big national chains coming into the city, and so they felt like their advantage is that they are that local business.

Well, when we looked at all of their client reviews and spoke with some of their clients, we kept hearing over and over again that what their clients loved is that they show up when they say they’re going to and they clean up the job site.

I know that sounds kind of simple and basic, but that’s the problem that their clients were having. Nobody else was doing that.

If you understand the problems you’re solving, that needs to be your message. That’s what you need to use to make the competition irrelevant or to at least change the context of how your market sees what you do.

You need to lead with that core message.

Reviews are a great way for you to learn what customers think about you. There is some real gold in the actual words that people are putting into Google reviews if you’re a local business because people are saying what value they get.

You can also pick up the phone and call clients (we do it all the time). We call our clients’ clients.

Quite often, by asking them questions about the experience they are having or have had, we can learn a lot about what should be that client’s core message or certainly the problem that they’re solving.

Your identity elements

I already touched briefly on identity elements, but the color, the fonts, the way your office looks, all of those things go into either supporting the brand promise or taking away from it.

I’m not saying that you have to spend thousands and thousands of dollars on getting designs to make everything look perfect, but it should support what your message is. It should support who you’re trying to talk to.

Hubspot has a great post highlighting some inspiring examples of small business branding and identity elements.

Content as the voice of strategy

Start thinking about content as the voice of strategy, so all the content that you produce, your web pages, blog posts, podcasts, press releases, this is all content. You want to think about the intention that you have for every piece of content, because content today is used to create awareness.

That’s sometimes how people find you. It’s certainly used to educate. It’s used to inform somebody how a product or service that they might acquire from you would work. It’s used quite often to nurture people.

People often tell me, “I started listening to your podcast and finally decided to buy from you or to become a member of the Duct Tape Marketing Consultant Network.”

Content has a nurturing component to it. In many cases, whether it’s an email or an ad or a page on your website, many times you need to produce content for when that person is ready to buy, that shows them how to buy.

Once you start producing great, useful content, use it as a referral tool.

Guiding the customer journey

marketing hourglass

Long ago, I developed the term “The Marketing Hourglass.” which involves taking people through seven stages of the customer journey: Know, like, trust, try, buy, repeat, and refer.

The idea behind that is that if somebody doesn’t know who we are, then we want to move them logically through these stages.

Very few people see an ad by a company they’ve never heard of and go, “Oh, okay, I’m going to go buy that product.” But they might go to the website and then see, “Gosh, there’s a checklist that I can download.”

This develops a level of awareness, but also some level of trust.

Over time, we communicate, continue to add value and continue to invite them back for more content or for more opportunities, before we ever really start promoting our products and services.

Once somebody has gone through those stages and they’ve educated themselves on what they do, we’ve developed a level of trust based on the way that we have marketed to them or based on the way that we have shared content and added value.

Now they want to buy.

That’s actually the stage in the customer journey where a lot of businesses drop the ball because a lot of people think marketing ends at somebody saying, “Yes, I want to but” but that is not the case.

That’s actually where some of the fun starts because you have an orientation and onboarding process, and you continue to market to them once they’ve purchased so that they might purchase more or again. You have a very intentional process where you can generate referrals.

All of these parts are linked to the journey that leads you to build campaigns, processes and touch points as part of your marketing strategy.

One of the greatest marketing strategies that any business can really employ is to make sure that they are creating such a great customer experience that people want to refer and talk about their business.

The greatest source of lead generation is a happy customer. This needs to be a part of your overall marketing plan.