There are people whose sole focus is uncovering and watching important trends in business and I, for one, am grateful for their persistence.
In an excellent article I recently read by Ian Altman on Forbes, he outlines 10 trends that will drive success in 2017. Realistically, not all of them will be critical to your business or mine but they are worth looking at and considering what the impact might be on your business and business in general.
Congratulations, you sold another product! Now you just have to confirm the order with the buyer, find a box, pull the product off the shelf and add it to the box with the correct paperwork and packing material, print the address label and get it to the post office for shipping.
All done? Hmm, what about their access to the membership site and the online part of the product or bonuses? Then what about support followup or education on how to use your product?
Recently a small business owner came to us with a lead conversion problem. She gets a solid stream of warm leads opting in for her lead magnet (free trial) but very few convert to her paid product. In fact, a minority of them actually engage with the trial. Sound familiar?
She has followup failure. Not that she doesn’t followup, she does, but clearly what she’s doing for followup is not working.
The terms brand and identity are often used interchangeably which causes confusion when businesses are trying to create relationships with their customers.
Your brand is what people see - colors, logos, tagline, etc. Your identity is who you are, at the heart of your business.
Anyone who handles customer service in their business understands that feeling when the customer or prospect asks the same question again… and again. You paste a smile on your face and be careful what you type when you respond with the same answer again… and again.
In all fairness, sometimes it’s the same question but a different person asking it. But the frustration is the same when you have to answer the same question over and over.
Do you write? Words? Music?
Do you draw? Paint? Photograph?
Do you perform? Act? Sing? Dance? Record?
Are you protected?
It doesn’t matter if you are B2B or B2C, you are generating content even if it’s ad hoc emails you send to your list. Ideally, you are generating content to provide tons of value to your clients/customers and prospects. Need an expert in your corner?
I’ve been following the Content Marketing Institute emails and blog for a long time. The content they deliver is high value, high integrity, highly focused, and worth every minute you spend reading it.
There are many good reasons for having more than one Infusionsoft application in your business. We’ll talk about some of them.
I can hear you now, “I can barely maintain my one app!” I get it! We are always dealing with several apps at a time for our clients and sometimes it feels like there is always something to do or some tweak to make over here or over there.
One of our clients is a staunch supporter of marketing automation. They manage all their lead acquisition, followup, and client nurture using email automation. And they are consistent and successful with it. That’s all they need, right?
Wrong.
With the lack of any other frame of reference, your prospects will default to a price comparison. An apples to apples comparison. Once they say something like, “The XYZ company will do the same thing for $Y dollars less,” you have virtually lost the sale, because the talk is all about price. When you tell them all the reasons (and they may be good ones) why your pricing is as good if not a better deal, you sound to them like you are making excuses to try to recover the sale. It’s over!
API is another one of those TLAs (Three Letter Acronyms) that we have grown to hate and it does not stand for Apple Pie International. It actually stands for Application Program Interface and one pretty good definition is:
Application program interface (API) is a set of routines, protocols, and tools for building software applications. An API specifies how software components should interact.
Ok, so now you’ve got it right? No? The definition made it so much more clear, NOT.
If you’ve been in business for any length of time, you and your company have developed some specialized expertise in your chosen business area. Some of it is likely proprietary but much of it you have no problem sharing. Or at least you should have no problem sharing as it can be a great way to get new clients/customers/patients and keep existing ones.
An often overlooked way to share that information is through a membership website. Sure, you need to have some information on the public side of your website, but you can keep the real juicy gems for those who sign-up as members.
The answer is not obvious. A better question might be “Should I Change Hosting Providers?” The answer to that question is ‘maybe’.
You likely spent a chunk of change on your website and a reasonable amount more on other marketing driving prospects and clients to your website. In addition, you may have read my articles on why everyone needs a membership site and set one up on your site. Or maybe worst of all, you do eCommerce on your site and it’s not protected.
SBSM is an abbreviation for the Small Business Success Method. It was introduced by Clate Mask at Infusionsoft’s ICON16. It is a complete formula for success for your business, provided that you can follow it accurately, and that is the trick.
Here I just want to outline what it is and perhaps in a future article I’ll identify why you need discipline and determination to follow the method….trust me I know! I might even tell you how I know.
Want an idea to swipe for your February marketing? Check out the article in this issue entitled, “Skip the Chocolate?” for a couple of killer ideas on using Valentine’s Day in your marketing.
For more info on the two companies highlighted, check out Tommy John and Smiling Dog Pet Services blog. You can’t borrow their stuff word-for-word (aka plagiarize, aka copyright infringement) but you can use the general concept and translate it for your unrelated business.