From That To This
This is what I would call a perfect example of direct response marketing for the 21st century
I thought I’d share with you a little more detail of a client of mine.
You might have read about him here before.
He is a good client.
He has specialist services.
His business has been open for over 20 years.
He is old school.
There was no strategy.
It was all about try something and hope it works.
It didn’t work and wasn’t working.
He wanted to get leads from the web rather than those hit and miss ways using magazine adverts.
When he came to us he had already been through a process of trying to get a website live. The website they had been in progress for a huge TWO-YEARS and was still not live.
So here is what happened and I want to share what took place so you really understand what’s involved in using the web whilst fusing it with old school marketing for results!
The first meeting we had it became clear very quickly they needed everything. They had great service and a great speciality but didn’t have any system in place for constant flow for their business.
I did what I did which is sit and listen.
Ask them what they wanted.
They wanted 30 leads from the web, as that would make them more than happy. This meant starting from zero.
Here’s the process.
Tools had to be created and put into place.
The tools are the pieces that are put into the line of the process that creates leads.
Target research
Mind research
Thought research
Sales path research
Conversation research
Modeling research
Positioning research
Perceptive research
Message to match
Core message
Lead message
Target messages for different targets
Triggers words
Buzzwords
Reaction phrases to call to action
Images are taken from mindset
Conversational copy
Headline creation
Reassuring copy
Web tools
Website
Leads page
Lead offer
Lead capture
Words for lead capture box
Offer for lead capture box
Design elements for conversion
Call-out design
Page after lead captures
Offer after lead capture
Follow-up system to convert unconverted leads
SEO
Traffic strategy
Brand strategy
Social media strategy
Mobile phone strategy
Landline strategy
Voice mail strategy
Banners horizontal
Banners square
Banners rotating
Banner placement
Banner email ads
1,2,3 click strategy from the website
Website colours
Website load time
Website optimization
Office training
Office reorganization
Phone scripts
Staff scripts
PDF and eBook creation
Copy of the website and documents
Support of all the above
Magazine advert
Targeted adverts
Testing on everything
Tracking on everything
Tweaking on everything
Monthly sales and results meetings
There is more.
The first meeting we had he arrived in his old BMW.
The 3rd meeting we had he arrived in his new red Ferrari.
The final meeting we had before hand over he left that meeting to go and pick up his new Rolls Royce.
We took his results online from zero to well over 300 leads every month. This didn’t include leads that came through the phone that was never tracked or measured.
Here’s what I do know.
He bought a new huge house.
He bought NEW Rolls Royce.
He bought another business.
He doubled his office space.
And, so much more than I can’t write here now due to my own time restraints.
All of the above took place over a 3-year plan.
Nothing happened by accident.
Nothing fell into anyone’s lap.
Nothing was pure luck of the draw.
If you take your business serious you’d better get in the business of serious marketing.
It was a 3-month plan
Then a 6-month plan
Then a 9-month plan
Then a 12-month plan and so on
Once the model was successfully working we simply scaled everything up and they got their results.
Yes, it wasn’t cheap if you want to know what their invoice was as a payment, yet it cost them nothing because what they paid was a tiny fraction in relation to the results each month.
Just out of interest from other clients.
I have a client that spends ONE MILLION EUROS every month on marketing. Can you image what the returns are?
I have another client that spends just £10,000 every month.
I actually have another client that spends around $5 per day on marketing their business.
All get results; all results are relative to their business.
So if you are taking your business serious you’d better start looking at the scientific process of marketing as a serious business.
YET
And this is the best YET you need to know.
Marketing that is well thought out, planned and built around scientific marketing principles should and will cost you nothing – not a single penny.
BUT
It’s rarely an instant fix – very rarely!
So are you making this mistake because it's probably one of the most common mistakes I see with businesspeople and it is this?
Do you invest a tonne into your office, your tech gear, your staff, your paintwork, and new sofas and just about everything else and then – hope and pray you’ll attract the right clients?
That’s a huge mistake.
And the reason I really wanted to share the solicitors story with you is to reveal just how much work, effort, time and blood, sweat and tears go into creating a successful campaign.
Finally, look at this.
£67,521 a year. With bonuses that can rise to £115,029. These are averages taken from Paysclae.com website
Do you know how many marketing directors or marketers are employed out there?
Do you know how nay of these guys that are paid to bring in a result continually fail to bring in a result?
I don’t know the numbers precisely but I can tell you I did work for a client that had a wages bill for his marketing team for just over £230,000 a year. They were making huge losses because the phone never rang.
In fact to be more precise they had around one call a day when I went to meet them or five leads a week.
The first campaign I ran for them gave them 17 calls in the first hour and I still charged them less than what they were paying the director of marketing never mind the rest of their team.
If you want to build a truly successful business you really need to build a solid foundation around systems, strategies and of course good service or product.
There can only be one way to measure the success of your team and it isn’t by their own qualifications or experience it has to be by results.
It takes time.
It takes investment.
It takes commitment.
Then and only then will you see results that your competition will die for.
I hope this has made you think about your business.
I hope this pushes you into some kind of action.
If you’d like to pull me in for the good advice you know exactly where I am.
Your mentor
Alan Forrest Smith