Of course, tagging along is no way to run a successful business.  Regardless of how much I hate planning, I still force myself to go through the process each month.  It’s painful, and I kick and scream the whole way through it.  But it’s always rewarding.  It’s a similar process to working out or changing your diet to lose weight.  Not usually a fun experience, but if you stick with it and grind it out, you’ll reap the benefits.

So let’s talk about your marketing plan.  First, do you have one?  Second, when was the last time you looked at it?  Third, when was it last updated?

Hint: Your wife probably doesn’t know the answers either… :)

All joking aside, if you don’t have a marketing plan then you’re in some serious trouble.  Not too long ago, back when I would flip through my 5-pound YellowPages to order a pizza, there were only a handful of marketing options available for small business owners.  But those simpler days are over.

Now we have the world of online marketing and the number of marketing tactics seem to be growing by the minute.  There’s SEO, AdWords, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, blogging, email autoresponders, email broadcasts, SMS mobile messages, webcasts, YouTube, mobile apps, webinars, Pinterest, Yelp, Google+ Local, Bing Local, and the list goes on and on and on…

It’s literally a full time job to keep up with everything going on with internet marketing.  I know because that’s my job!

So that brings me to the first key point.  You need a marketing plan to know what to do in your current situation.  Where should you focus your time and attention right now?  Just because your friend Dennis the Dentist is investing in SEO doesn’t mean that’s the best strategy for your business.  Activity does not necessarily lead to more sales.  The right activity does.

OK, that’s all well and good, but maybe you already know some things are important to do in your business.  Take follow-up for example.  Everyone knows the importance of follow-up, yet a lot of businesses do not have an effective system in place to collect contact information from prospects and nurture them via follow-up.  So knowing what to do is only half the battle.

The other half is knowing how to do it.  Your marketing plan should not only tell you which tactics are important for you right now, but also how to implement them.  Some tasks in your plan should be completed in-house, while others should be outsourced to a service provider.

The beauty of your marketing plan is that it eliminates options.  Options are the enemy of effective marketing because whenever we’re faced with too many options it’s human nature to default to the status quo (aka do nothing). During any given day you may come across 3 to 5 different very cool marketing tactics.  Maybe you read about a business using display advertising effectively or you listen to a podcast and wonder if that’s a good opportunity for you.  The tactics themselves are probably effective given the right situation.  However, they may not be right for your business at this very moment.

So as we approach the midway point in 2013, I urge you to dust off the marketing plan you wrote 6 months ago.  You did write one, right? :) Next, assess your current situation and your goals for the next six months.  Finally, write down what you need to do, how to do it, and then stay focused on executing your plan!

Free Webinar: How to Create An Effective Marketing Plan

I’m hosting a free webinar on Thursday, May 30th, designed to help you create an effective online marketing plan… in just 60 minutes. Attendance is limited to 100, so I recommend you register right now before we fill up!

Click here to register for the webinar

When I started working with one of my private clients, they were selling a product online for just $27. That was their average customer value, $27.00. As you can imagine, it was extremely difficult, and turned out to be impossible, to profitably market this product online. We tried every possible traffic source and every trick to increase sales conversion rates. Nothing worked.

Until we shifted our focus to the real problem, which was the low customer value. Once we increased the average customer value to $50, and then to $70, and then to over $100, and eventually to over $150, we could easily find profitably traffic sources! That was the secret to growing their business unit from $0 to $4 million over four years.

Watch the video below to learn if customer value may be your biggest opportunity like it was for my client four years ago.

If you liked this video and you want to learn more about how I can personally help you improve your marketing results, then email moc.iorteertsniamnull@hguorhtkaerb. You’ll receive an email with details about our Marketing Breakthrough program so you can see if it’s a good fit for you.

 
When I ask business owners if they could waive a magic wand and solve their biggest problem with online marketing, then I typically get this answer – “More website traffic.”

More traffic means more exposure to your product or service, and that naturally leads to more sales. It’s completely logical and most marketing consultants, tools, and even the news is focused on where to get the best traffic to your website.

But that doesn’t mean traffic is your best opportunity to generate more sales and revenue. It’s possible you should instead work on increasing your website sales conversion rates.

In this video, I’ll walk you through a process I use with Private Clients to identify the biggest opportunity to boost revenue from your online marketing. And you’ll see if your time and resources would be better spent on improving your sales funnel versus investing in more traffic.

If you liked this video and you want to learn more about how I can personally help you improve your marketing results, then email moc.iorteertsniamnull@hguorhtkaerb. You’ll receive an email with details about our Marketing Breakthrough program so you can see if it’s a good fit for you.

 
The funny thing about studying online marketing is that the more you learn about all the different facets of marketing, the less you realize you really know. Online marketing is truly like peeling an onion. On the surface and to many people, online marketing is synonymous with SEO and SEM. So that’s where they focus.

But that’s like staring at just a single pixel in a 27 inch computer monitor. Not until you take a step back, will you see how all those other pixels on the screen align to form the full picture.

That’s why I created this video (and future videos I’ll be sharing with you over the next week).

I want you to take a step back and identify your biggest opportunities to increase revenue from your online marketing.

When you watch this video, you’ll learn when website traffic is your #1 priority versus all of your other options. This is the same process I use with my Private Clients to make sure they are laser-focused every month on where they’ll get the biggest bang for their buck.

If you liked this video and you want to learn more about how I can personally help you improve your marketing results, then email moc.iorteertsniamnull@hguorhtkaerb. You’ll receive an email with details about our Marketing Breakthrough program so you can see if it’s a good fit for you.

This is a critical component in every website because the vast majority of your visitors will not contact you or make a purchase right away.  Therefore, you must have a way to follow-up and the most effective way to get contact information is via a lead magnet.

When I first started doing these calls I would get really excited when the answer to my qusetion was yes.  I was pleasantly shocked because most businesses do NOT have a lead magnet.  I would then quickly move on to my next question in my auditing process and didn’t give it a second thought.

Eventually, I figured out I was making a mistake by not prying deeper to get more details.  I didn’t realize then that some folks believe ANY webform, located ANYWHERE on their website is a lead magnet.

Oh, how my heart sank every time the “lead magnet” turned out to be nothing more than a newsletter opt in box buried deep on the webpage.  After a few heartbreaks, I decided to clarify exactly what I mean when I ask, “Do you have a lead magnet?”

First of all, a lead magnet is not a newsletter subscription form on your website.  I strongly recommend every business use an email newsletter, but there is a big difference between a lead magnet and a newsletter sign up form.  Don’t fool yourself.  No one is really excited to subscribe to your email newsletter no matter how great it is.  It’s not sexy or compelling enough for most of your visitors.

So then, what is a lead magnet?  To answer that question, let’s take a look at the criteria I use to judge whether or not you have a lead magnet on your website:

Criteria #1: Compelling headline.  A lead magnet must have a sexy or compelling headline that is irresistible to your target prospects.

Criteria #2: Magnetically attracts your ideal prospect.  The compelling headline must call out directly to your ideal prospect and sometimes even repel unqualified folks.

Criteria #3: Pre-sells your product or service.  The information or tool you provide in exchange for contact information must pre-sell what you’re ultimately trying to sell.

Criteria #4: Includes a call-to-action.  The final element is your call to action to contact you or purchase your product or service.  Collecting contact information is great because now you can follow up, but the goal is to close the deal as soon as possible.  If you did a good job pre-selling, then the next logical step should be to make a purchase.  Clearly explain the next steps so your prospect can call you, come into your store or office, or order online.

If you don’t have all 4 criteria above, then you don’t have a lead magnet (yet).   For more information about how to create a lead magnet, read the How to Create a ‘Lead Magnet’ Marketing Action Guide in the Main Street Inner Circle members area.

If you know anything about my extracurricular activities, then you can see why this would be a match made in heaven.  Not only do I love running, but I just so happen to run in huarache sandals.  That’s as minimalist as you can get without running barefoot.  (By the way, I ran barefoot for a while until Erin threatened to leave me if I didn’t wear something on my feet… sandals were the compromise. )

So there I was, sitting in a French Bistro with the sun beaming outside the window, just as happy as can be talking about the two things I love almost as much as my family: online marketing and minimalist running. I figure I have to wait about 10 years in order to combine all three when Violet starts running. :)

During our conversation Tim asked about SEO and AdWords advertising.  He was curious to learn more and see which one was a better fit.

My answer? Hands down AdWords advertising is where he should focus his attention.  Of course, he shouldn’t ignore SEO completely, but that’s not the path to profitability and sustainability if you’re launching a new product or service.

I’ll also point out the fact that Tim did not even bring up social media.  If he had, then my answer does not change.  Social media is not your answer when you’re just starting out.

Tim’s #1 priority in the short term is to find his ideal selling strategy. In other words, he needs to figure out as quickly as possible the optimal price point, sales copy, website layout, cart abandonment follow-up sequences, upsells, retargeting sequences, referral programs, and iron out any kinks in the delivery and return processes.

So how the heck do you do all of that?

Well you start by driving a consistent, dependable stream of traffic to your website and then you systematically test all of the moving parts in your sales path.  That’s the basic process to find your ideal selling strategy.  It’s not rocket science, but it does take time, discipline, and the most important variable is traffic.  Without a consistent stream of high quality prospects, then you can’t test anything.

And neither SEO nor social media will reliably provide this type of traffic.  That’s why online search advertising like Google AdWords is the best place to start.  As long as your ideal customers are going to Google to find your product or service, then AdWords is the best option available.  Focus on optimizing your selling path and then when you’re ready to expand your marketing, invest more into other channels like SEO or social media.

Her reply caught me off guard because I didn’t realize there was such a misconception about Search vs. Display advertising.  She said, “We don’t have the budget for branding ad campaigns.  We need to focus on lead generation ads.”

I couldn’t agree more with focusing on lead generation vs. branding ads.  But that’s not what I suggested.  Display advertising is NOT just a channel for branding.  No more than TV, radio, billboards, or print ads are only for branding.  All can and should be used for direct response advertising.

I believe the misconception stems partly from to the pricing models.  With many display advertising networks, you’ll pay for impressions rather than clicks.  So unlike search advertising where you’re paying for an actual click (or visitor), you’ll pay for an ad impression (or ad view) on display networks.  That leads people to believe display ads are for brand impressions rather than traffic.

Makes sense until you realize you can easily convert ad impression costs into click costs.  Just divide your total cost by total clicks.  Bingo! Now you’re back to a cost per click model and you can analyze and optimize just like your search campaigns.

Let’s use one of my clients as an example.  And we’ll take this a step further and use YouTube video ads as the example.  I imagine there are plenty of folks who believe YouTube video ads are exclusively for branding on a big budget.  But that’s simply not true.

My client’s goal was to generate webinar subscribers.  This is a classic lead generation campaign where we measured conversions based on the number of actual webinar registrants.

Here are the numbers for the video ad:

• 8,200 = unique video views
• $0.24 = cost per view
• 970 = total clicks (or visitors)

Based on those numbers we can easily calculate our cost per click to be $2.03.  So we were able to generate relevant traffic for $2.03 per visitor.  110 people registered for the webinar so our cost per registrant was $17.89.  Not very good, but this was our first test and we have a lot of room to improve the sales funnel.  Plus, this particular client is selling products priced at $250,000 so 1 sale will easily make this campaign profitable.

My hope is you can see with this example that display ads can be used for direct response campaigns.  Just because you’re paying per impression or per video view, that does not limit your options.  It just creates a little more work for you to calculate the cost per click and cost per conversion.

If you’ve read into search engine optimization (SEO) at all within the last two years then you have probably heard about guest posting or guest blogging in order to obtain links. Links pointing back to your site not only drive direct traffic from the hosting site, but Google (and other search engines) see these links as a signal that your site has content worth seeing and your pages are more likely to rank higher in the search engine result pages (SERP).

While guest blogging helps to increase your site’s traffic as well as search rankings, it also helps to promote yourself and your company’s brand to new potential clients that you might not have reached otherwise. Bellow I’ll detail how I went about getting a guest post here on Main Street ROI and my process for guest posting in general.

Finding Sites to Post On

The first two steps in guest posting is 1) finding sites that have shown that they’re open to outside contributions and, 2) making sure that they’ll allow outbound links within the article or author bio (where most “self-serving” links are found).

To find Main Street ROI, I ran the search query in Google – inurl:”guest post requirements” – which searches within a sites URL (not within the content) for the exact match of “guest post requirements.” I got lucky that Main Street ROI is in the online marketing niche, but if you want to take the luck out of it you could do a search like – inurl:”guest post requirements” + “online marketing” – which would help to focus in on a specific online marketing niche. There are a lot of search modifiers like inurl: – intitle: – or intext: that helps to find the keywords you’re searching for in different places on a site. For an expansive list of search modifiers and how to best use them, check out this great resource for guest posting opportunities.

Once you find a target site that you want to post on, it’s important to give it a “smell test.” Just like you sniff food you suspect went bad, the smell test is an important step in figuring out if the site you’re trying to post on is affiliated with spam or black hat SEO techniques. Being associated with these kinds of practices is never good since Google is cracking down on spam and you could see your rankings plummet if you engage in risky behavior.

Smell Test Basics

These are the basic steps in doing a quick smell test before you start outreaching to a site. Taking the time to discern the good from the bad can save you a lot of trouble in the long run.

• Read the Content: I always take time to scroll through the blog posts to see what kind of articles are being posted (this will also help me when I start writing) and to read a few of the articles. I check for proper grammar and natural language. If the content sounds like a hodgepodge of synonyms and poorly matched phrases it could be the product of spun content. Google’s web crawlers can tell this and you’re better off staying away from a site that features spun and/or duplicate content.

• Check Outbound Links: I always check other posts, especially guest posts, on the site and see where they’re linking to. If they’re linking to sites that are relevant and of high quality then I can be confident that the site is serious. But if they’re linking to low quality sites that deal in the three Ps (porn, pills, and poker) then you may want to stay away.

• Recent Posts: Sadly, there are many sites that have been left to their own devices and are no longer updated. They might be very relevant with great content and a solid linking history, but if they haven’t posted a new entry in the last six months (I’m pretty generous when it comes to time, three months might be a better rule of thumb) I won’t waste my time trying to outreach to a dead site.

Making Initial Contact

If the site passes your smell test then it is time to move on to contacting the blog owner. Every site is different, but if they have a guest posting or write for us page try to follow the guidelines as close as possible. In this case, I followed the application process. I was confident that my application and writing samples would be up to snuff which was why I was a bit put off when I didn’t hear back after about a month. Rather than resubmitting the application, I followed up using the contact page and explained that I hadn’t heard back after my application, and that I was eager be featured on Main Street ROI.

Not long after my follow up, I heard back from Pete who thanked me for my application and for following up. Since then I’ve had to follow up some more to keep the ball rolling, and had an article rejected (this is my second attempt). All in all, I started my initial application for a guest post here on February 5^th (it is now April 22^nd as I write this) which goes to show that guest posting for quality links can be a time intensive ordeal.

More Outreach Tips

Because it can take so long, many link builders like to use stock emails so they can submit posts quickly and efficiently, and many do not follow up if they don’t hear back. I urge you to go against this trend. Make each email original and write like a human being; stock emails come across as impersonal and can sound like a bad infomercial rather than a genuine attempt at communication. If you don’t hear back, follow up! I follow up at least three times before I call it quits, and even then I’m trying to get the editors’ attention in other ways by making good blog comments, tweeting their articles, circling them on Google Plus, and other means. Any way you can get your name popping up on the editor’s computer screen increases the chance that they’ll get back to your emails and guest post submissions. Even if the answer is no, getting a response is always better than never hearing back.

Writing the Article

While the article content is the most important aspects of getting a guest post, I’m not going to go on and on about how to write good content. Rather, here are a few tips to make sure you’re staying on track with a guest post.

• Write What You Know: I was recently reminded of this in my correspondence with Pete. The first article I submitted was on local SEO and utilizing Google Plus and it was rejected. While I know the basics behind both local SEO and Google Plus, I am not an expert on combining the two and this came across in the article. Pete let me down nicely, and gave me another shot at a subject I am much more comfortable with – guest blogging for back links. Writing about what you know ensures that your content will be strong and more likely to be accepted.

• Offer Something New: Do not offer up a topic to an editor that has already been covered on their site. Take the time to look through their recent entries, and even do a search on their site before coming up with an article pitch. If I’m pitching my idea to an editor rather than writing the article first, I’ll offer two or three unique ideas that are relevant to both of us and give them an option to choose from.

• Format Correctly: Every editor has their own guidelines on how you submit an article to them, but I always try to keep the article formatted as I imagine the finished product should look. For blog posts, this means breaking up the article into smaller paragraphs as often as you can and utilizing subheadings and bullet points to make the articles easy to scan by readers.

• Don’t Write a Sales Pitch: Typically, you do not want to focus your guest posts on your own products or services. This is nothing better than an advertisement and more often than not you’ll be rejected, or asked to pay in order to have the post go live. To avoid this, do not promote yourself and follow the guidelines for linking. If you have a concern about linking, just ask. It’s better to be upfront rather than trying to sneak something by an editor.

• Write Well: If you can’t write well, and you know it, don’t waste your time and the editors by trying. This may sound harsh, but the content simply needs to be strong. There are many a freelance writer willing and able to write strong content for you if you do not have the time or means to do so.

Believe what you will, but guest posting does work. I’ve seeing rankings for competitive keywords jump to page one after only a handful of high quality guest posts were published. Guest posting in the online marketing niche has also helped to build my name as a professional link builder which makes it easier to get posts on high quality sites such as this one. It may be time and energy intensive, but so is everything worth doing.

About The Author

Thomas McMahon is a writer and link builder for Page One Power, a link building company based out of Boise, Idaho.

Like everyone, I’m a creator of habit and I really do not like to learn a new way to do essentially the same thing.  Take Microsoft Office as an example.  Did they really need to overhaul their user interface so old shortcuts no longer work and it’s nearly impossible to find simple tools?  The answer is no, they did not…

OK, I’ll stop complaining.  My point is I completely understand the hesitation to install, learn, train, and fully utilize a new piece of software or tool in your business.  It is NEVER as easy as those slick salespeople make it out to be.  “Push button” must have a different meaning in sales versus implementation.

There is one glaring exception to my rule. I absolutely love marketing automation tools.  More specifically, I love Infusionsoft.  In the spirit of full disclosure, we use Infusionsoft at Main Street ROI and we have a referral partnership with them.  That means we earn a very small commission on any business we send their way. But that’s not why I’m writing this and it’s certainly not why I personally installed, set up, and trained several private clients on the Infusionsoft platform.

The reason is because it works.  It increases your sales by automating your follow-up and fulfillment processes.

Infusionsoft is the best tool I’ve found (and believe me, I’ve searched far and wide) to automate your follow-up via email, phone, and direct mail.  It’s also great for segmenting your email database so you can send targeted email broadcasts to specific groups of people like customers of a certain product or service, lost proposals, old customers, prospects who requested a certain report, etc.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s not a “push button” solution.  It’s real work to set this up.  But once you do set it up, then the system does ALL the hard work for you, behind the scenes, with no additional work on your part.  Think of it like hiring a large team of sales and fulfillment folks who you don’t have to manage, you don’t pay commissions to, and you only have to train ONE time.

Here’s a very basic example of what you can do with a tool like Infusionsoft.

When you sign up for Main Street Inner Circle, then your account is automatically created on our website via a message from the Infusionsoft order form.  Plus, an email alert is sent to our member services manager, Andrea, to call and welcome you to our family.  Another message is sent to our printer to print, stuff, and mail the welcome package as quickly as possible.  And emails are automatically sent to provide more information and help you get the most out of your membership.

That’s just the tip of the iceberg.  If you’ve ever signed up for one of our webinars, then you are familiar with our SMS reminders that automatically go out to everyone who registered with a cell phone number.

I could go on and on, but you really need to see it for yourself.  If you want to learn more, then I recommend you click here to attend a free demo.

If you watch the interview, you’ll see the main point I kept making was the importance of focus.  With marketing and advertising you have two options.  You can:

1. focus on finding and testing strategies you can afford
2. focus on improving your lifetime customer value

Of course, these are not mutually exclusive activities, but your focus should really be on #2 above.  In this article, we’ll look at both options.

Focus On Marketing Strategies You Can Afford

This is typically where businesses spend their time and energy.  You take a look at an opportunity like online advertising and you run the numbers to see if it makes sense financially.  In other words, you figure out if you even have a chance to generate ROI.  Then you make a yes or no decision based on your existing customer value and existing conversion rates.

For example, if a new customer is worth $200 and it’s going to cost you $1,500 to  generate 200 website visitors, then you know you need a conversion rate greater than 3.8% to be profitable.  If your conversion rate on average is about 2%, then this is not an attractive option for you and you’ll most likely stop right there.

Can you see the flaw in this thinking?  It’s based on a fixed mindset.  You have accepted that your customer value and conversion rates will not, and can not change.  (If you’re not familiar with fixed vs. growth mindset and you’re a Main Street Inner Circle member, then go read my introduction to April’s newsletter.  If you’re not a member, then click here to join and gain access to our archives.)

This advertising option may not be attractive right at this very moment, but if you can find ways to increase your customer value and improve your conversion rates, then you can certainly make it profitable.   That brings us to the main point I made in my interview with Craig…

Focus on How To Increase Customer Value

I used the advertising example above because the costs are so obvious.  However, this lesson applies to ALL of your marketing – SEO, affiliate/JV partners, TV, radio, print, etc.  Every marketing activity has time, resources, and monetary costs associated with it and that’s typically how businesses calculate which ones they can afford.

I’m not saying you should ignore your current situation.  I’m recommending you don’t fall into the trap of thinking you can never advertise or use some tactic because the numbers don’t make sense right now.  Again, that’s a fixed mindset and successful businesses have a growth mindset.

If you can not afford a certain tactic, then your goal is to find a way to make the numbers work.  Most likely by increasing your customer value.

Here’s a quick example.  When I started working with one of my private clients they were selling a product for $27 with no back-end revenue model.  We had extremely limited marketing and advertising options.  We basically had both arms tied behind our backs…

But rather than focusing on ways to get cheap traffic and cheap sales, we instead focused our energy on building up that $27 value.  Through a whole lot of testing and optimization, we slowly increased the customer value from $27 up to over $150 in 4 years.  As we increased the value, we were able to expand our marketing options and the business growth snowballed as a result.

So if you’re not happy with your marketing and you’re frustrated with the high costs of advertising, then you now know what to do.  Quit whining and get to work increasing your customer value! :)