If I told you that there is a way that you could reduce the amount you’re spending on marketing and increase the number of customers you’re getting, what would you say?
You’d probably be sceptical and to be fair, you probably should be. After all, as business owners, we’re constantly being approached by ‘marketing experts’, or ‘business coaches’ that are trying to ram their services down our throats.
Our inbox is constantly filled with emails from ‘specialists’ in other countries offering us SEO (Search Engine Optimisation), web design, AdWords (pay-per-click, or SEM-search engine marketing), Social Media, etc.
99% of these emails come from an @hotmail, or an @gmail email address, which if you’re like me you don’t even read based off the fact they don’t even have a professional business email (that’s a subtle hint by the way).
As someone that works with trade based businesses from all over the world every day, there are some common trends that I regularly see when it comes to the ‘digital space’.
They’re not necessarily ‘bad’. However, there are things that can be done to earn better results and get you a better ‘bang-for-your-buck’.
The reality
The reality is, we don’t know what we don’t know.
As tradespeople, we know we’re good at our trade, however, when it comes to many areas of running a business, we’ve never been taught. The problem with studying a trade at college is that on completion, we’re given our license and wished all the best with little to no business skills.
I remember when I completed my plumbing apprenticeship many years ago, the ‘business module’ at TAFE (Australian college) comprised of how to write a business letter. It was pathetic.
Sure, we can swing a hammer with the best of them, but when it comes to lodging a tax return, or marketing our business correctly, we’re none the wiser.
In this post, I’m going to share with you a scenario that I see regularly among companies I work with and speak with from all around the world.
I run a company called Tradie Web Guys which offers websites and marketing for trade businesses and almost every day; companies call in telling us the same thing.
“We need more leads!”
It’s true that businesses need a fresh supply of new leads. However, you may not need as many as you think.
Here’s the problem.
Leads are not the bottleneck!
I want to share a paradigm with you that (I hope) will hit you right between the eyes.
Assuming you have a website of course (and if you don’t, get one), let’s say you’re currently getting 100 visitors to your website each week. These visitors may be coming from various sources such as SEO, word of mouth, paid traffic, letterbox drops, newspapers, social media, radio, tv, etc.
In the next section, I’m going to run through some figures to give you an idea of how the numbers might look. I’m using rounded figures to make it easier to understand, so try to follow along.
Let’s break it down.
If you have a website that is ‘converting’ at 4%.
That means that out of the 100 visitors you’re getting to your site, you’re only turning four of them into a lead. A lead, by the way, would be a visitor that contacts you through a phone call, or by filling in a webform.
Now let’s say that you are currently converting half (50%) of your leads into customers (which is high).
That means from 100 visitors, you’re getting four leads, which turn into two customers.
Let’s say that to get those 100 visitors to your website each month; it’s costing you $100. If you’re only getting two customers from that investment, each one is costing you $50.
You still with me?
“That’s great Matt, but I need more than two customers a week.” I hear you say.
Okay, well if you want more customers, you’ll need more leads and if you need more leads, you need more visitors, right?
Not necessarily…
The paradigm shift
Let’s explore two options.
Option one:
Say you want to double the number of customers you’re getting each week. So we’re upping it from two, to four.
Based on the above formula, this is what it would look like. You’ll need:
- 200 visitors
- Cost = $200/week
- Eight leads (of which half will become a customer)
- Eight times by 50% = Four customers
- Cost per customer is still $50
Option two:
- You improve your website conversions from 4%, to 8%.
- You still get 100 visitors which is still costing you $100/week.
- You now have eight leads.
- You’re converting half of them into customers which equals four customers.
- Cost per customer is now $25
What this shows us is that a simple shift from focussing on ‘getting more leads’, to ‘converting the leads I have’ can increase the amount of work you’re getting by 100%.
If you could effectively double, triple, or further increase the amount of work you’re getting by not increasing your marketing cost at all, what would that mean for you and your business?
What if you applied the same strategy and increased your budget, imagine then the potential results.
The point is, it’s not always what it seems.
Spending more money is not always the answer. Of course, if you go to a company that specialises in selling Google AdWords, they’re going to sell you Google AdWords. Your best interests are sadly not their priority. Their priority is how much money you’re going to spend.
That’s why it’s so important to understand what I like to call the ‘Digital Ecosystem’.
- How does my website affect my AdWords conversions?
- How does the content on my website affect the time my visitors stay on my site?
- How good am I at keeping my customers engaged and nurtured?
- What does a prospect do, when they see me drive past in my work truck?
We’ve barely scratched the surface of a far bigger topic. My hope is that this post got you thinking a little more about what you’re currently doing.
If you’d like to see how this might apply to your business directly, visit TradieWebGuys.com.au
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