“If you don’t have a functioning website or funnel to back up your advertising you are flushing your time and money down the drain!”
~ Debra Hilton
Waste Makes Me Angry!
I hate seeing business owners and marketing managers who are desperately searching for qualified customers wasting their time and money on random activities that provide sparse results instead of building solid funnels and systems that will grow in effectiveness over time.
I was talking to a business owner the other day who was about to launch a 3-month Facebook ad campaign that she prepared and ran in 2018. The ads apparently generated a lot of interest, but no clients because, “her website wasn’t working properly and no one contacted her.” She then went on to talk about some of her plans to grow the business as though she hadn’t just said something of critical importance!
Eventually, I brought her back to the comment she had dropped about her website and the backend of the funnel… and she said calmly, “I can’t focus on that now. I don’t want to waste the money I spent on getting my Facebook Ads designed.”
This kind of thinking is too common, and it is killing your business growth prospects and your comfort!
Magnetic Marketing Depends on a Solid Backend
Just in case you are wondering why I found that statement so upsetting there are three main reasons:
- I care about business growth: I truly believe that healthy businesses improve the overall economic prosperity and that this is a significant contributor to your health, happiness, and satisfaction. Therefore, any business that is not prospering and making great marketing decisions is not just a danger to itself, but to the community around it because understanding and executing a solid marketing plan is the foundation of every business.
- Why would you spend money to attract eyeballs, if you don’t have a clear plan for their next steps? If your website isn’t working then don’t waste money on advertising. Fix your website instead! Or even build a landing page with a call to action. Spending money on advertising without a specific way of monetising those eyeballs is a complete waste! …and no, just having a contact page on your website is not a way of earning money from people who respond.
- Your referral business is dependant on clarity and ease of response: many business owners tell me that most of their business comes from referrals. This is fantastic… but not usually as effective as people think. When we actually drill down and measure it turns out that they lose about 50% of the referrals they actually receive because even if a person hears about you through referral they still want to evaluate your product or services themselves. If your backend isn’t solid, you’ll have just as much difficulty converting referrals as you have attracting any other new customer.
Three Simple Magnetic Marketing Tools Every Business Needs
There are three mission-critical items you must have in place before you invest your resources in advertising and promotion: –
- An effective Lead Magnet so that people have a reason to respond. This might be a report, an ebook, a video or audio training, an infographic, a tool or calculator… The possibilities are limited only by your imagination. B. Don’t do what your competitors are all doing, find a way to add unique value.
- A Landing Page that persuades them to give you their contact details in exchange for the Lead Magnet. This should highlight the value of your lead magnet and make it an easy decision for readers to take action.
- An automated email service so that you can follow them up over time. No matter how fantastic your lead magnet is, if you don’t get their permission and details so that you can stay in contact, you will probably lose the sale. Very few prospects are ready to buy immediately and statistically, the business that stays in contact the longest is most likely to get the sale.
Until you have these three items sorted out any money you spend on advertising is wasted. The good news is that most of the simplest drag and drop websites can host a landing page, a lead magnet, and an email service so don’t make excuses for yourself: just do it… BEFORE you spend a cent on advertising.
Have you heard about Magnetic Marketing, the proven system for generating leads and sales? If not click here to learn more.
If you’re in Melbourne, why not visit our Magnetic Marketing Mastermind which meets monthly in Box Hill. To learn more and sign up for notifications visit https://memg.com.au