How to get more customers with zero new dollars spent on advertising
There are generally two ways to increase the number of customers you have:
- By pouring more money into advertising and capturing more leads.
- By increasing the rate at which you convert your existing leads into customers.
They’re both totally viable options but the former requires additional expense, and the latter is all about improving on what you’re already doing. So if budget is part of your concern, then you’ll certainly want to focus on maximising your relationship with your existing leads. You’ve already done the hard work of capturing their information, so why squander that effort with a suboptimal funnel?
The way you do this is by building a process, one that guides your prospect from their very first interaction all the way until they become a customer. And there are plenty of tools that can help you do this in an automated fashion.
In a perfect world, leads would come through the door: they see an offer and then opt-in. Usually, this takes place online, like on your website or blog; but it could just as easily happen at a tradeshow or over the phone. Next, they’d get the offer delivered to them; they’d recognise the value you provide; and they they’d take the initiative to navigate back to your website and sign themselves up as customers.
But we don’t live in a perfect world. As much as we’d like it to, it rarely happens this way. Sometimes it takes a little more handholding. Sometimes they need some time to process, digest or do their research.
That’s why it’s critical that you have a system in place that holds their hand and nurtures them. Remember, you’ve already done the work of getting these people into your funnel; now, we’re just talking about optimising this experience.
Now, I know most small businesses understand the value of follow-up, and I’m sure there are people reading this who are saying “Get to the point…”. We’ve all heard the statistics that 80% of sales don’t happen till after the fifth touch point, but most companies only follow up once or twice.
So if everyone knows this, then why are so few people executing on it? In the three years that I worked at Infusionsoft, I was able to look under the hood of hundreds of small businesses; and the candid truth is that most businesses weren’t nurturing their leads at all, and very few were doing it well. If the concept is basic, then why is the execution so hard?
The answer is that not enough businesses focus on providing value. I mean it. Not too long ago I heard a decision maker at a large company say something to the effect of “We will hit our sales goals, and we will blow away our customers expectations.”
Something about this stood out to me — it felt wrong, and it took me a while to put my finger on it. She had positioned these two objectives as totally disconnected. How much better does it sound to say “We will hit our sales goals BECAUSE we blow away our customers expectations”?
Too many businesses build their nurture funnel with their own objectives in mind. When the relationship is self-serving, the customer can feel that and they’re going to grow defensive.
Honestly, one guy I worked with was sending a weekly email to his prospects that more or less said, “Are you ready to buy yet?” And then the next week, “Are you ready now?”
I was embarrassed for him. But when you show up to genuinely make the customer’s life better, you’re not only establishing trust, you’re also positioning yourself as an expert. Customers love to buy from experts they trust (go figure, right?).
The easiest way to make your customers believe you care about them is TO actually CARE about them.
There are plenty of solutions out there that can help build a nurture process. Infusionsoft is the tool that I use and recommend. You should find a marketing automation tool that suits your business needs, and build a nurture process that converts customers at a higher rate without spending an additional dollar on advertising.
How do I start? Glad you asked. Here are 11 questions you can ask to help design the perfect nurture process.
Good luck!
