Mrs G my Pilates Teacher contact has been generating some leads online for a couple of years. During that time she tells me she has tried everything, Facebook (likes and PPC) Google Adwords, Linkedin, Local newspapers, flyers, search engine marketing the whole works.
And despite these efforts it seems she still has not managed to generate the number of enquiries she needs, once we start talking we realise that she has not been entirely truthful with herself in that a lot of things she has been doing have been tried once or twice but no more. Nothing has been tested properly.
This testing lark is something you need to get a handle on. If your business is going to generate the right amount of business (that’s income for you) in order to secure your lifestyle.
I explain to Mrs G a couple of things and we sit down over a coffee and look at what is really going on.
Lead Generation – What Are Your Potential Customers Looking For?
Halfway through the first cup we start to look at some of the her website content, immediately there are some issues that need addressing.
- In our Pilates Studio we have…
- ******* Clinic has been specialising in rehabilitation Pilates for over 15 years.
- These are themed classes which take place at *****Clinic in the Pilates studio on the innovative Pilates equipment.
- Group matwork classes take place….
- Coming soon Garuda apparatus!
Nowhere does it mention
- less pain
- more flexibility
- better physical fitness
- multi disciplinary options where two or more treatments make a lot of sense (and all under one roof)
- a range of other services that could be included and combined
No mention of these problems, no mention of the time saved, all under one roof etc etc.
All of thesse are pretty major benefits to Pilates at this business and yet they are not mentioned.
Lead Generation – What Do You Do For Your Customers?
Where does it tell me that on your website, in your marketing? You assume that I understand exactly how your Pilates Studio will solve my TENA Lady moments or my bad back, or the poorly hamstring where I was hit hard by the Hove player in Sunday’s Third Team match.
Why is this information not the on main landing page or no more than one click away. People do lose interest the more distance they have to go into the site. It may well be that my Rugby injury page is three clicks away – many visitors won’t get that far.
Of course few of you will not want to discuss the TENA pant issue out of embarrassment, or the fact that it’s a touchy subject, or, or or. Fact is, this is a problem for millions up and down the country.
Pilates has a solution for the problem.
The link for the TENA pant article is below.
Lead Generation For Small Business
The web is an ideal and anonymous way of dealing with sensitive issues and providing important and information that is also confidential – it’s only them reading it. Importantly they are searching online for solutions to that problem.
As I pour the second coffee Mrs G looks pained, when we talk about conversion rates. She has no idea how many people visit the site, no idea what pages are visited, no idea what they do when they come, nor the sources of traffic. No idea is not a good figure in business.
No idea + No idea is not a business metric that can be banked, like ‘likes’ it has no value. You have to measure stuff, monitor results and then wash, rinse and repeat what works.
Lead Generation And Follow Up Are Important For Small Firms
Myself and Mrs G are now two coffees in and there’s a problem. My stomach is rumbling, part with excitement as I start to see and outline the opportunity for Mrs G…
…and part because I didn’t eat my breakfast.
The local cafe is preparing a couple of bacon butties and will soon be on it’s way with some nice things to eat, no need to even leave the office now.
I explain to Mrs G the statistics around marketing and especially website traffic.
Direct Mail responses from initial contact to firm lead are around 1.5%.
From direct traffic – those just visiting a website or those just passing your offer in a flyer or magazine are probably around the same at 1.5%.
Targeted direct response around 3% Facebook and Google Ads probably around the same at 3% (in my experience I have seen this as high as 10% with proper testing).
Increasing to around 5% using targeted PR (articles and interviews).
Moving on to joint ventures at around 7%.
By following up you can increase these numbers exponentially, the more you follow up the more you’ll sell, it follows my theory about sex on a first date. Mrs G cringes as I mention it. Call me today on 0774 007 6226 and we can see if sex on first date is something we should be doing.
The crème de la crème of leads in any market place is referrals; these convert at anything up to 90% (ninety percent), how many of you even bother?
These figures do differ from industry to industry however I have not seen marked differences between Accountants or Estate Agents.
I would guess somewhere between +/- 1%.
If we look at these numbers and know what the profit margins on a given product you’ll soon be able to work out how much you can afford to spend on marketing in order to get one enquiry. Sadly something many business owners don’t do.
Lead Generation Example.
You sell a Widget at £100 the cost of which is £50 factoring in £10 for stock handling and delivery your net cost is £60, so let’s put in place credit card processing fees and a number of admin expenses and you may find the total cost of getting a widget to your client is £65.
Normal margin on this is £20 (profit) leaving you £15 to spend on marketing or client acquisition.
You can afford to send 20 items of direct mail in order to sell one widget, pay for x number of clicks or run x minutes of TV advertising for every one hundred sales.
Key for you is know which model to choose and which option to run with. Problem for most of you is this…
When considering your lead generation you and I have no idea which method is going to work best. We know that they all work and in roughly similar percentages.
Selling to a customer once is expensive, the next sale you make to them does not have any marketing cost attached to it. Problem for you is how to do this?
Well automation is one key, having in place a series of tools to use email, social, sms, direct mail in order for you to be able to engage and then sell more.
Each one of these options allows you to make contact with your customers on an automated basis whenever you want, you can sell them more of Widget 1 or upsell Gold Widgets, Widget holders, offer same day delivery or a continuity programme where they get monthly widgets in the post.
You’ll have a database of leads that you can sell external products of behalf of other resellers or firms. You can take a slice of income from these.
Importantly as their needs change you’ll be in a position to be talking to them, finding out about other problems you can solve with another add on or cross sale. These are people that already know and trust you.
There is more chance they’ll buy again.
You may have heard the term Lifetime value before and it’s something many business development people talk about but few actually understand. Lifetime value can only be created with the supporting technology and systems. Small aside on that – it’s easier with the systems.
This is also very important and is a game changer.
Get in touch.
The sooner you get in touch with me, the sooner we can get these systems working in your business. Of course I am not offering you a magic bullet, but I am offering a guaranteed, sure fire way to grow your business. Safely and easily, but you do need to do the work.
Drop me an email below and I’ll get you some more information out via email and I’ll schedule a short follow up call.
[su_service title=”Please Keep Me Updated” icon=”icon: exclamation-triangle”]Don’t worry, I’ll happily send you some more information. But please take action – a world of unlimited leads is waiting for you. I don’t share your personal information, that’d be wrong. [newssubscribe list=”5″][/su_service]
Lead Generation for small firms made easy.
Contact me today in order to secure a meeting or to schedule a call.
Comments or questions are welcome.