Has your business been stagnating or plateaued for a while now? Are you working with customers that don’t seem to appreciate your true value? Perhaps it’s time to re-evaluate how you attract and win more customers that you really want to work with…
To help you with that re-evaluation, I have created a series of short videos containing focus points and considerations that can be easily managed over just five days. This article is a summary of each video, just click the links in the subheadings to follow along on YouTube.
Are you ready to take the five-day challenge?
Day One: What’s your desired outcome?
On the first day of your challenge I want to ask you about your why.
What is your desired outcome from taking this challenge?
Do you want your audience to engage with you, do you want them to visit your website to complete a form, dial a number, download a lead magnet, or just make a purchase online?
And why do you want to win more customers?
This is a question that explores the deeper reason why you want these new customers, and the right type of customers. May I suggest you keep asking yourself ‘but why’ at least five times to get to that deeper reason you want more.
TIP: When I do this exercise with my clients it often comes back to something related to their Wheel of Life
So, for Day One you have two considerations:
What do you want, and why do you want it?
Day Two: What to do to win more customers
On Day One, we looked at your deeper reasons why you’re undertaking this challenge, so Day Two takes you through the ‘what’…
Let’s refer to your numbers for this part of the challenge.
What do you need to do?
Work out how many more customers you would like to win. Work out your current conversion rate, and therefore how many conversations you need to have. And of course, work out what your average order value is.
With those numbers you can work out what you’re willing to spend to find one new customer.
What are you willing to spend?
TIP: Think about the lifetime value of one new customer. What percentage of that value are you willing to give over to marketing and communications, process development and management and so on?
If you can’t put a figure on what to spend, try this exercise: If I have a £10 note in my pocket, how much are you willing to give me to obtain it? What if it was £50, £100 or £1,000?
What number of new customers do you need?
While we’re talking numbers, to find out how many new customers you need, try this:
- Work out your average earnings over the last six months
- Work out how much you would like to earn over the next six months
- What’s the difference in value?
- How many new customers does that break down to?
Day Three: How do I find these customers?
I suspect you’ve probably scrolled down to this section, so let’s get to it!
Define your ideal customer
You may have more than one type of ideal customer you’d like to work with, so create an ‘avatar’ or buyer persona for each one and establish a value proposition relevant to them.
TIP: If you already work with customers that are ideal for you, write out their personas and list the advantages, maybe include a pseudonym or create a face. That way when you write copy or go into a meeting to attract a customer like them, you’ll be able to speak naturally and with clarity and relevance.
Where do they hang out?
Knowing where to find your customers so you can deliver your relevant value proposition is key to being efficient in the acquisition of new customers. Use the right bait, and fish in the right pond!
Identify which digital channels they use, do they subscribe to newsletters or magazines? Do they go to corporate or charity events? Perhaps you could use some of what you’re willing to spend on a Google Ads or Facebook Ad campaign?
TIP: Define who is responsible for the management of an outreach marketing campaign like this. Too often accountability gets lost, and the campaign is deemed unsuccessful, when actually just a tweak may be all that’s needed to get it back on track and start showing a return on your investment.
Day Four: Marketing campaigns in sets of three
On Day Four I want to you to think about your campaigns. This means your communications, your positioning and your offers – Those things that pull your audience towards you with interest and generate lead opportunities.
Understand these three things for a successful marketing campaign:
- Your customers and what they really want
- Your competitors and what they do well (and not so well)
- Your own business and what you do/don’t do well.
And communicate this one thing:
- What you want your customers to do – how should they respond to your campaign? What is your ‘Call to Action’? Is it as we talked about on Day One, to download something, purchase something or to watch a video on Facebook?
TIP: Consider deploying the Facebook Pixel so you can remarket later. This is a type of cookie that means you can pop an ad on their browser in response to them having previously interacted with a piece of Facebook content.
The Stadium Concept
Imagine there are three types of customer that you want in your stadium – the place your customers buy from you…
- Regular customers, and ambassadors – they’re already regular visitors to your stadium, they know and love you, they recommend you
- Think, how can you encourage them to keep purchasing, and keep recommending you before they leave the stadium?
- Warm audience – these are outside the stadium, but they know you, have maybe heard a recommendation but maybe on the fence.
Think, how can you tempt them inside the stadium? That might take more added value in the form of sharing expertise, or maybe an introductory offer.
3. Cold audience – Also outside your stadium and doesn’t even know the stadium is there!
If an audience is not aware of you, then it stands to reason that an awareness campaign is needed. Sharing your brand; business or personal, and explaining your why, your vision, mission, values and purpose, and then using those things to demonstrate alignment or understanding of their problem, pain, want, need or desire.
Three points of consideration for a marketing campaign:
- How will your audience begin to love you
- How will your audience connect with your messaging, emotionally
- How will you build credibility and trust?
Your challenge for Day Four is to pick one audience and create a campaign identifying the overall strategy, the tactics of execution and a clear call to action.
Day Five: Converting leads into new customers
On this final day of the challenge, the question is, how do you convert a potential customer from interested to paying?
It would be remiss of me not to clarify something you most likely already know, the decision to purchase is an emotional one. It is made to avoid a pain or fear, to achieve a desire or to fuel a want or need. And I’m also very aware that you know the majority buy from people or brands that they know, like and trust.
TIP: A strategic partner can help boost the trust in your business, such as Amazon, as a relationship has likely already been established.
My four ‘P’s of conversion…
- A crystal clear proposition
Make your proposal simple and easy to digest. Yours may not be the only one they see that day. Fill it with benefits first, then add the features. Convey experience, expertise, authority and trust.
2. How is your offer positioned in the market?
Whether you’re a premium or a budget brand ensure the language and platforms you use align. Can you bundle services or products together for a package offering? Do you want to create a feeling of urgency
3. What is the prospect journey?
Consider the touch points of your customer journey so you can reflect on where the leaks might be losing you sales. Try using your sales process to improve your prospect journey.
4. Be proactive on your customers’ journey
Test and measure, plug the leaks before you get a flood and create a world-class experience that takes your prospect from the point of inquiry to the point where they want to part with their hard-earned cash.
Time to reflect
This has been a short challenge aimed at either changing your habits to execute more effective lead generation or to provide you with some considerations to help you consistently bring in those ideal new customers.
I hope the five days and each individual video (or collectively) have been really useful for you. Ultimately, it’s all about having a plan and if at the end of this challenge you want to talk more about a master plan for winning new customers and effecting long-term change in your business then schedule a call or a coffee because I’d love to tell you more about how I could help.