All Posts by Christina Littrell-Williams

3 Marketing Strategies You Can Use to Grow Your Business

3 Marketing Strategies You Can Use to
Grow Your Business

As a small business owner, you know that growing your business can be tough. But it's not impossible! Several different marketing strategies can get your name out there so you can start seeing results. These three methods are highly effective in growing your small business...

1) Be sure you have a CRM system to communicate with your community/tribe/database. Staying in contact with your group and sharing relevant information builds relationships and trust.

2) Utilize social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter to reach new customers. Platforms like these offer great opportunities for not only communicating with your current following but reaching your potential clients/customers with building awareness, creating a following and posting promotions

3) Consider conducting offline marketing efforts as well, such as print advertisements, direct mail campaigns. When personalizing direct mail to a targeted audience you are showing the receiver you are vested in them. Again, this builds trust and strengthens relationships.

By reaching potential customers through a variety of channels, you can dramatically increase the probability they’ll do business with you. So don't wait—start implementing these strategies today and see the growth in your small business!

Making your small business thrive is no easy task. But with a little creativity and some outside-the-box thinking, you can certainly grow your company and attract more customers. So, avoid cookie cutter marketing plans for reaching your people. Customize a plan that represents your business and attract people that fit with that.

Not sure where to begin? You don’t have to figure this out alone!

Begin perfecting your marketing plan today! If you need help getting started or want to make sure you’re doing everything possible to reach your target market, be sure to schedule a Marketing and Client Care Analysis with a SFSB tactician. During your analysis, we will take a look at all the ways you are currently reaching clients as well as brainstorm new and innovative ideas that will set your business apart from the competition.

So, what are you waiting for? Contact us today to get started!

We LOVE questions so please feel free to use one of the two modes within this website to reach us!

1. There's a “questions” form right here, use it and send us a question. We will get back to you within 24 hours!

2. You can also use the button and set up a quick call with me. It's absolutely free. I'd love to talk with you if you have questions about anything.

Schedule your info call today!

Connect with us on Facebook as well:
https://www.facebook.com/sfsbagency

A full communicative report about your current marketing efforts.

Need Support? Take The Guessing, The Hoping, The Unknown Out Of Your Marketing!

Are All Of Your Marketing Efforts Working Together And Creating Your Intended Results?
Are You Doing All You Can To Nurture Your Current Client/Customer Base And Keep Them Looking To You For Products & Services?
Do You Know What Tools You Need And What You Don't Need For Your Marketing?

Get The Big Picture Of Your Current Business!

Register Today for Your Marketing & Client Care Analysis

SCHEDULE YOUR ANALYSIS

Message Marketing Text Messages

Message Marketing - Text Messages (SMS)

Welcome back to the #SFSB Podcast - Message Marketing Series. Today we will be discussing Text Message Marketing.

In the past two podcasts I have shared what Message Marketing is and shared tools along with best practices in detail for Email Message Marketing.

To recap, Message Marketing is marketing using any and all messaging tools available. The most familiar and used set of tools consists of:

Emailing
Social Media messaging
Text Messaging
Direct Mailing

In the next few podcasts, I will continue to break down these different tools and share “best practices” you should be using in your marketing efforts in order to achieve the best results.

In the last podcast I went into detail about Email Marketing, still the most effective marketing tool to date, and I listed best practices along with Spam triggers to avoid.

Today we are moving on to the next tool, Text Messages, or SMS - Short Message Service.

Text messaging became mainstream around 2002 though it actually started around 1992 with the very first text being sent. The popularity of texting grew with increased mobile phone sales and texting limitations lifted from the phone service providers. These messages are delivered instantly (for the most part), they have less to compete with in reaching your audience, and they are relatively easy to create and send.

There are roughly over 6 billion text messages sent every day throughout the world.

WOW! This number includes text messages sent by both adults and kids.

Most people own a mobile device that is on their person all waking hours. This makes it the most used implement around by far. In a report it is noted that out of those polled, 70% of customers say Text Messages (SMS) marketing is a good way to get their attention. Text message marketing works for both Business to Consumer and Business to Business marketing efforts. It is quick, easy for the consumer, and makes that needed connection.

The downfall to Text Message Marketing is the limited number of characters allowed in a single text. They are great to use for awareness of something you sent via email or to send a message about an offer expiring with a link they can click to take action. Text messages can be great reminders of an upcoming event people are registered for, and if you have an image that outlines your special offer you are not limited to characters. Fragrance.net, Harbor Freight and other companies use the image method with a link noted as the text. I recommend using the image method only if you have a well known brand and relationship with your audience.

Like email marketing, text message marketing has a list of best practices…

You MUST have permission.
Be courteous to your database and do not send TOO many messages.
Be consistent with the number of texts you send for a specific reason
Make sure you have a way to respond to any replies to your text messages and be responsive, even if you have a team member monitor this aspect.
Incorporate personalization in your messages (most services have merge fields).
You MUST add any disclaimers.
You MUST add directions about how people can opt out of receiving messages from you

I invite you to go over to StrategiesForSmallBusinesses.com and download the Branding and Purpose Checklist. This will help you work through the questions you need to answer and really helps you have a focused dive into all of your Branding.

If you have any questions, remember we're always here for you. Just utilize the question button on the website and will get back to you.

Thank you

if you want more from Strategies For Small Businesses, #SFSB, stay connected by subscribing to our list and connecting in Facebook https://www.facebook.com/sfsbagency

When assisting SFSB clients set up a Marketing Plan we work through marketing strategies that fit their business along with the personality of the business.

Here are a few tactics that will support a good text message marketing plan:

Offer Incentives
Have CLEAR CTA’s (Calls to Action) in your message. Include links for the recipient to use or a phone number can be clicked on.
Keep your messages short and easy to read.
Have a sense of urgency in your message, giving it more of a purpose.

Though text message marketing is very successful as far as delivery and interaction, remember, you don’t want it to be your only marketing outlet.

Use this method alongside other tools like email message marketing and social media message marketing.

This is another place you do not want to be using your private phone to manually send out messages to your audience. You want to use a tool made for this! There are several on the market today and many of them integrate with your CRM/Email Marketing platform. Some of the text message marketing tools are: Twilio, Simple Text, PlusThis (used with Keap/Infusonsoft alongside Twilio), FixYourFunnel (used with Keap/Infusionsoft for texting). Each of the systems will provide you with a specific phone number to send and receive from, and they walk you through the setup and any integration you might need.

As always, we at SFSB are here to help! If you are not sure whether you should be using text message marketing, or wondering which platform you should choose, or what kind of strategy you should start to implement, we are here for you! Set up your complimentary “meet and greet” meeting here and we can support you!

If you need help choosing which platform would be a better fit for you, your needs, and your wanted growth, reach out to us and we can help you choose one in a complimentary “meet and greet”. You can get on our appointment calendar HERE.

We’d love to work with you in building your support team, whether it's SFSB or another company. We specialize in working as part of a team and building those relationships.

We look forward to hearing from you so you can work with an expert to help you grow your business!

To gain access to more free strategies for small businesses, or to stay connected, visit our website at StrategiesForSmallBusinesses.com. Connect with us on Facebook. https://web.facebook.com/sfsbagency

If you have any questions, need any support, or you need any ideas, feel free to reach out to us on the form provided HERE. We're here to support you.

2. You can also use the button and set up a quick call with me. It's absolutely free. I'd love to talk with you if you have questions about anything.

Schedule your info call today!

The biggest thing to make note of and always remember is this: don't hesitate to reach out when you need support! You don’t have to do it all alone, or become an expert on every working item, marketing plan, nurturing cycle, and tech piece in your business. Focus on your clients and get help with the rest!

Connect with us on Facebook as well:
https://www.facebook.com/sfsbagency

We are here to support you! Schedule below to have a Marketing & Client Care Analysis completed on your business. Receive a full detailed report with the findings in consistency across your marketing platforms. You will also receive several suggestions you can take action on to improve what you are doing now and increase engagement and revenue.

Register Today for Your Marketing & Client Care Analysis

SCHEDULE YOUR ANALYSIS

Is Your List Clean?

If you are in ANY type of business you should be building a list of prospects with contact information, i.e.: First Name, Email Address, Phone Number. These details are invaluable to your business and future growth. Here’s why….

When you are in business you need to maintain a steady flow of communication with your current customers/clients and past customers/clients, along with those who are “interested” in what you do or have to offer. The only way to keep that communication flowing is to have the minimum amount of contact information, and that is Name & Email. It would be GREAT if you gather phone numbers as well. In the long run, you should also collect mailing addresses, but starting with Name and Email is a perfect place to begin.

While building your list, be sure to collect “good information” from your leads along with obtaining their permission to add them to your list so they can receive future messages from you.

There are a couple of ways to do this.

Some business owners send a form giving them permission to contact people. There’s a checkbox at the bottom and they require the box to be checked before the form can be submitted. Others include a statement on their forms: “By submitting this form you are agreeing to receiving email messages from (company name/your name).” The checkbox is a better safety net BUT both are acceptable. In reality, whether or not clients/customers agreed to be on your list they could report you for spam at any given time.

While collecting information, if your email/crm system has the ability to send a “double opt-in” confirmation I suggest using it. Some systems allow you to send a double opt-in confirmation and still continue to email them even if your contact has not granted the double opt-in confirmation. Others require your leads to confirm their email addresses and do the double opt-in before you can email them.

What do you do with the list once you start building it?

You will want to communicate with your community/tribe/group consistently to build relationships and their trust in who you are and what you offer. As you communicate with people some will request to stop receiving your messages, unsubscribe, and some of their information will just all of a sudden become invalid.

SUGGEST: Consistent communication with your community/tribe/group builds relationships and also builds their trust in who you are and what you offer. You may find as you begin communicating with people, some may request to stop receiving your messages or unsubscribe. Sometimes information will just all of a sudden become invalid.

Because it is important your emails get to their intended recipients, make sure you keep your list “clean” and run a list hygiene check about every 91-180 days.

HOW DO YOU MAINTAIN YOUR EMAIL MARKETING LIST (CLEAN YOUR LIST)?

Sort your list segmenting into manageable groups - and take action based on what group they are in:
- Confirmed/Unconfirmed but have not engaged during the time period you are reporting for
- Opted-Out/Spam/Left Feedback
- Hard Bounce
- Soft Bounce

Send a re-engagement automation - for any people who haven't engaged, opened or clicked on your content in 3-6 months, send a message asking them if they are still interested in receiving your content. Depending on the system you use, this can be automated.
Opt-out any unengaged contacts - any people who haven't engaged with your emails in over 6 months likely won't. Mark them as opt-out in your lists so your deliverability rate increases to the customers who actually want to receive your content!
Watch for any emails that bounce.
- Opt-out any hard bounces on your list after you have reviewed the list. A lot of times they are bouncing due to a simple typo from the contact. If it isa simple typo issue, fix it. Some might be that the email address doesn't exist or is not functioning so remove it!
- Monitor soft bounces and mark them opt-out after 3-5 bounces - they are currently unreachable so no point in sending!

All email platforms give instructions for keeping a clean list. Your email sending reputation helps or hurts them so they have a vested interest in your being successful!

If you are not sure how to perform a list hygiene check on your current list of contacts, please schedule a consultation with us. We are happy to go over steps you can take to help get it done.

If you are not collecting information on your visitors and customers in one organized usable manner, please set up a consultation with us. We would love to help you get started.

We LOVE questions so please feel free to use one of the two modes within this website to reach us!

1. There's a “questions” form right here, use it and send us a question. We will get back to you within 24 hours!

2. You can also use the button and set up a quick call with me. It's absolutely free. I'd love to talk with you if you have questions about anything.

Schedule your info call today!

Connect with us on Facebook as well:
https://www.facebook.com/sfsbagency

Need Support? Take The Guessing, The Hoping, The Unknown Out Of Your Marketing!

Are All Of Your Marketing Efforts Working Together And Creating Your Intended Results?
Are You Doing All You Can To Nurture Your Current Client/Customer Base And Keep Them Looking To You For Products & Services?
Do You Know What Tools You Need And What You Don't Need For Your Marketing?

Get The Big Picture Of Your Current Business!

Register Today for Your Marketing & Client Care Analysis

SCHEDULE YOUR ANALYSIS

Message Marketing Series Pt 2: Email Messaging

Message Marketing Series pt 2 - Email Mailing

Welcome back to the #SFSB Podcast and the Message Marketing Series.

In this episode Christina Littrell-Williams shares about one of the four most used platforms for Message Marketing. Email Marketing. Some people will say Email Marketing is no longer effective and that is WRONG! The fact it still is the most used platform out there for marketing and still retains a high ROI (Return on Investment)! She also shares some tips and best practices advice.

In the next few podcasts, I will be breaking down these different tools and sharing “best practices” you should be using in your marketing efforts in order to achieve your best results.

Probably the most familiar Message Marketing Tool is Email. In one way or another we have all been exposed to email marketing. Currently it has been recorded there are 4.26 billion email users around the world and increases are projected to continue each year. Email is consistently the most used “messaging tool” around.

Email is used by marketers for different reasons throughout their marketing funnels.

Generating Leads Primarily through JV relationships where you are introduced to a new group of prospects by someone you have a relationship with. Cold emailing is not recommended and can damage your email/business domain reputation.

Communicating with your current database (Sharing special offers)

Nurturing your current database (Sharing informative/useful content - no sales involved)

Commonly Asked Questions:

One of the most common questions I am asked is, “Is email still effective with all of the other current methods to reach my audience?”

The answer is YES! Research shows that email is still the most effective method to reach people. The ROI (Return on Investment) is highest with email and should most definitely be part of any and all Marketing Plans.

Remember the 80/20 rule with email; 80% content, 20% sales. If you are supplying your database with informative, usable content they are going to want to open your emails and see what you are sharing next.

As you increase your copy writing skills, there are really great ways to share content and then offer a tool at the end, if your reader would like to know more about what they can do and not have your reader feeling like all you care about is selling them something. Because you are teaching or sharing something really solid, readers can walk away with a golden nugget of knowledge.

When you are structuring any email marketing plan and content message, an important point to keep in mind is the average person receives over 100 emails per day. So you need to find ways to make your message stand out and your reader WANT to look for and open YOUR emails to see what you have to say.

Your messaging reputation is KEY here. By making sure you educate your audience about who you are, what they can expect to learn/hear from you, and how often they can expect to hear from you right at the start of joining your messaging community is the first step. Making sure your subject lines peak interest is key! And some email marketing platforms allow you to include a “subline” that will be seen as the summary caption in your reader’s inbox instead of the first line of the email content. It is another way to capture their attention, and as I shared earlier your actual email content is KEY.

Another question prospects ask is “How many emails should I be sending?” The answer differs based on a few metrics:

Your type of business
What can you be consistent with
What content you are sharing

The type of business - brick and mortar product offerings businesses and restaurants are usually based on “special offers” looking to drive traffic through their doors or increasing online orders, so these would be suggested monthly.

If you have any questions, remember we're always here for you. Just utilize the question button on the website and will get back to you.

Thank you

if you want more from Strategies For Small Businesses, #SFSB, stay connected by subscribing to our list and connecting in Facebook https://www.facebook.com/sfsbagency

For online marketers offering services/programs message marketing is increased because the main way to build relationships with your readers is your written shared word. So CONTENT emails should be no less than twice a month and then alternating one or two offer emails a month. As a marketer, you might be creating a BIG sales campaign where you are focusing on one specific special offer with a deadline to the sale, and at that point, no matter whether you’re a brick and mortar business or an online marketer, you will run a specific campaign/sales funnel focused on that specific sale. With these types of messaging you can send two to three a week counting down to your deadline. These types of sales should be spread out, for instance one per quarter, so you don’t exhaust your reader in sales-focused messages.

What to Avoid

When designing your email messages avoid SPAM triggers:

Within Your Written Content
With Your Subject Lines
With the Email Platform/Address You are Sending From

All email providers scan your emails to discern if they are spam or contain questionable content before they deliver the message to someone’s inbox. They will score each email based on their filters and you want to make sure your messages make the cut and get delivered!

Some spam triggers are over promises, manipulative verbiage, sounding needy or desperate, being too pushy, questionable statements, too many images because they cannot be “measured for content”, AVOID using the word FREE in your emails at all cost, and too heavy on exaggeration punctuation marks like exclamation marks.

In subject lines avoid all caps, too many exclamations, and avoid your subject line being unrelated to your content (this can upset some of your readers).

You want to make sure you are not using your personal inbox to send marketing emails or nurturing emails out to your audience - not only are your sending abilities limited to how many people you can put in the TO or BCC line, you are also limited to how many you can send per day/week/month.

Make sure you’re using a proper email address to send your marketing emails. Do not use a free email provider email addy like Gmail. If you are in business you should set up and use your company domain name. Best practices are to send from a custom domain. Invest in an email address that is directly related to your company.

Another thing to remember when marketing is not to use Support@ or some generic email address for your company because that, too, triggers spam and also disconnects the “human” connection with your reader. If you do not want to use your personal email address I suggest you create a second email address that is your first name and last name@. Any replies can go into a different inbox where you can check for direct responses from your readers or you can have a team member be responsible for monitoring that inbox.

So remember Email Marketing is the top marketing tool for results, so make sure you are using it. If you do not have an email marketing platform my first suggestion is you get one ASAP. There are several email marketing platforms out there, from Free platforms such as MailChimp, to paid platforms like Aweber, to full marketing systems such as Keap/Infusionsoft. There is a platform option for everyone. The key is choosing the right one.

We’d love to work with you in building your support team, whether it's SFSB or another company. We specialize in working as part of a team and building those relationships.

We look forward to hearing from you so you can work with an expert to help you grow your business!

If you have any questions, need any support, or you need any ideas, feel free to reach out to us on the form provided HERE. We're here to support you.

2. You can also use the button and set up a quick call with me. It's absolutely free. I'd love to talk with you if you have questions about anything.

Schedule your info call today!

Connect with us on Facebook as well:
https://www.facebook.com/sfsbagency

Register Today for Your Marketing & Client Care Analysis

SCHEDULE YOUR ANALYSIS

The 4 Platforms for Message Marketing Series

As small business owners we have a lot on our plates every day. We work daily to manage a little bit of the chaos going on but really, we're striving to serve our existing clients/customers along with attracting more of them. On top of that, we manage daily business tasks behind the scenes. Along with handling admin tasks, we meet face-to-face with prospects, work with clients/customers, network, and the list goes on.

On top of all those regular, everyday tasks, we must think about and build our marketing platforms.

In this series, we're going to discuss Message Marketing.

Message Marketing is exactly that: getting your message out through marketing efforts to attract new clients and encourage them to communicate, while keeping your existing clients interested in what you are doing and what you offer by building and maintaining relationships. In addition, you are working to reengage and rebuild relationships with those in your database who may no longer be actively engaging but are potential “return” clients.

Message Marketing is huge in this part of communicating with prospects as well as new and existing clients/customers.

There are four key Message Marketing platforms:

Email
Text messaging or SMS message marketing
Social media message marketing
Direct mail message marketing.

All of these are viable tools that will connect you with everyone you need to communicate with.

Look at each of these, not as individual methods to communicate, but as combined efforts. I wouldn't suggest or say, “Hey, you have to use this one and only this one”. You really want to use a combination of these different tools and platforms to create the biggest impact.

Over the next few weeks in this series, we're going to break down each of these different message marketing methods. I’m going to talk about them in detail. I will share some of the tools that will provide support for you, and even help you automate some of these processes.

It's really important to make sure that your messages are reaching people and that they are congruent. Be sure they all contain the same tone of voice and the same kind of messaging.

You don't want to be a marketer that confuses your prospects/customers/clients by changing the way you speak and the visuals you use. The tone of voice within your business \ should be consistent in your message marketing, no matter which platform you're using. And in addition, congruency and consistency are also important for your team. Your team should know each of these platforms, when to use them and how to use them. Most importantly, you should construct ways messages are put together and how they sound so there is a “personality” to your business. It's very, very important.

Think of it like this: when people meet you or come in contact with any of your messaging or service delivery methods, they should know what to expect no matter where that message comes from. Example, when you walk into a McDonald's or an In-N-Out Burger and order a burger at either of these places, you know what to expect every time, even if you're in a different location from where you normally go. They are consistent from the time you walk in, how you're treated, how things are priced, and with the end results—what you’re going to eat.

With your message marketing, instead of a hamburger, if you will, you're providing information and that information should be consistent. No matter if they are potential clients, prospects that you're already chatting with, your current clientele, or past clients within your nurturing cycle. No matter where they see a message from you, it should be consistent with who you are.

So, let's look further into these different platforms and their performance value in our next episodes.

If you have any questions, remember we're always here for you. Just utilize the question button on the website and will get back to you.

Thank you

if you want more from Strategies For Small Businesses, #SFSB, stay connected by subscribing to our list and connecting in Facebook https://www.facebook.com/sfsbagency

We’d love to work with you in building your support team, whether it's SFSB or another company. We specialize in working as part of a team and building those relationships.

We look forward to hearing from you so you can work with an expert to help you grow your business!

If you have any questions, need any support, or you need any ideas, feel free to reach out to us on the form provided HERE. We're here to support you.

2. You can also use the button and set up a quick call with me. It's absolutely free. I'd love to talk with you if you have questions about anything.

Schedule your info call today!

Connect with us on Facebook as well:
https://www.facebook.com/sfsbagency

Register Today for Your Marketing & Client Care Analysis

SCHEDULE YOUR ANALYSIS

Customer Life Journey Stages 6 7 & 8

Customer Life Journey Final Stages 6, 7 and 8

This week we are continuing our conversation about the customer life journey and how that works in your business. In past podcasts, we've gone over basics of a customer life journey, life cycle funnel flow, and different aspects of each. Then we talked about the first three stages of the customer life journey, which are: 1) bringing awareness, 2) engaging and encouraging them to subscribe to be part of your list, and 3) inviting them to be part of your community.

We talked about conversion; making prospects customers by investing in one of your products or services and getting them excited about your brand, and also how that's going to reflect and build on your business.

—Pngtree—social media marketing concepts for_5488003

We're now into the final three stages. And the first, which is step six, is to turn new customers into multiple buyers, meaning they buy from you not just once, but multiple times. Remember, we've already converted them into a low-level product or program or service, and we've gotten them excited about your business and how you interact with them. Now, since you have already laid out what programs, products, and services you offer, they are at a point that you will go into more detail introducing other programs, products, and services that will enhance either what they've already purchased and move them up your ascension ladder, or it will benefit them in another area of their lives or businesses.

This may also be structured as a staircase based on price, beginning with low entry-level offerings; for instance, a $7 product. Then you introduce a higher-level offering, such as a $35, $40, or $50 product, and maybe then a $200 or $300 product and from there on up to a thousand, or multiple thousand dollar offering. However, your program ascension list looks, that's what you should have.

One big thing to remember is advertising, because you are building awareness. Look at social media advertising with Google or in your local paper, radio stations, TV, or those types of things. You will be offering different products and services, not just your low-level offerings, so at that point, anybody can begin their customer life journey. Once new customers come in, you want them to become multiple buyers and buy more from you.

One way to do that is to follow up with an email and ask buyers how it’s going:

“How is the (product or service)? Have you tried yet? If you have, I'd love to hear from you.”

Give them a link directly back to your social media and say, “We would love for you to give us a review.”

If you sell things on Amazon, you're going to be asking them to engage, and to go back and leave a review on Amazon. Amazon is really good about asking for reviews on your behalf as well, but these are testimonials. These are social proof that what you sell: your programs, products, and services, work for people. They indicate how people feel about their purchases. By asking buyers for their opinions you’ll be getting reliable information because it’s coming right from them. You're not paying them to give a review. This validates what you sell, what you do, and what you give, because people are sharing it back to you. You've asked their permission. “May I put this on my website?”

Make sure you're using some sort of sign-off because you want to make sure that legally you're in compliance. Video testimonials are awesome. So are written testimonials. Getting their picture or profile or them holding your program or product is awesome. So, ask them to spread the love, and that's really just sharing how they feel about your product, program, or service. If the review is bad, obviously you're not going to post it, but it still has value to you. Never be afraid to ask how your product or service worked for your buyers, and if it didn't work for them, asking them to share gives you feedback so you can adjust.

The positive reviews, pictures, and videos are all valuable assets to your business. Once you've gathered testimonials from new customers, you can make them a promoter. We’ll look at that in stage eight. You don't want to ask too early or before they know you well, but being a promoter might be as simple as making an affiliate post. Maybe you can reward them for them promoting something on your behalf. Maybe they have websites of their own, or maybe they are a social diva. Maybe they are out there, and have a big audience themselves and they would be willing to share your product and program. And if they do, you can give them a percentage of that sale back.

Asking customers or clients to promote your products or programs can be done through JV relationships. JV relationships are joint venture, and they're built with people who may not necessarily be your customers. That's a different kind of promotion. Again, this is stage eight of the customer journey and rewarding them should be something you should be thinking of. It's advertising dollars you don't have to spend, and people like to share. They like to spread the word. They like to brag about things that worked for them. And why not let them benefit for sharing that work for you?

—Pngtree—social media advertising illustration_5342489

So, now we've gone through all eight stages of the customer life cycle, and I hope this helped. We are here for you. There's a box below. Send us your questions. We're happy to support you and get back to you with the answers. Enjoy your visit. Thank you.

If you have any questions, remember we're always here for you. Just utilize the question button on the website and will get back to you.

Thank you

if you want more from Strategies For Small Businesses, #SFSB, stay connected by subscribing to our list and connecting in Facebook https://www.facebook.com/sfsbagency

We’d love to work with you in building your support team, whether it's SFSB or another company. We specialize in working as part of a team and building those relationships.

We look forward to hearing from you so you can work with an expert to help you grow your business!

If you have any questions, need any support, or you need any ideas, feel free to reach out to us on the form provided HERE. We're here to support you.

2. You can also use the button and set up a quick call with me. It's absolutely free. I'd love to talk with you if you have questions about anything.

Schedule your info call today!

Connect with us on Facebook as well:
https://www.facebook.com/sfsbagency

Register Today for Your Marketing & Client Care Analysis

SCHEDULE YOUR ANALYSIS

Customer Life Journey Stages 4 & 5

Customer Life Journey Stages 4 and 5

Customers, are you looking how to retain more and make more sales? Having a strong Customer Life Journey in place is a must.

A Customer Life Journey consists of 8 stages. We completed an overview on the customer life journey in a past Podcast.

In this Customer Life Journey Series we will be tracking all 8 stages in detail. In the last podcast, we covered Stages 1-3 in detail, in our last podcast.

1. Make them aware2. Engage with them to create a relationship3. Get them to Subscribe and join your community

Now we're going to go through stages four and five of the Customer Life Journey.

At this point, we will assume they're on your list. You have their contact information, whether you do online marketing and you have collected their contact info via a form or you're a brick and mortar and have their business card you have added them to your community.

Stage Four of the Customer Life Journey: Creating a Customer

What do you do at this point is important! It is time you start offering them what we call a low-level product, program, or service. This allows your new community member to be able to test the waters with you, see who you are and what it is like working with you.

You want to do this in a way where you are offering them a product/program/service that brings value to them, but it's not going to cost a lot. This will be a minimal investment on their part to invest with you to get started. Keep this in mind this offer isn't designed to make you a profit and make you a millionaire. The intention of this offer is to gain trust and build your “buyer list” because selling to people who have already purchased from you is much easier than acquiring someone new and then trying to sell something.

You want to avoid jumping in and offering your TOP cost program/product/service too soon because that can be a turn off and toxic to this budding relationship. You don’t want to turn off a potential customer because you pushed too fast.

Once you've made them a customer, stage five is probably one of the biggest stages.

Stage Five of the Customer Life Journey: Creating Excitement

Creating excitement about you, your business, and your brand.

You should have a follow-up set of messages created that support the purchase that was just made. This will create an experience of what it is like to walk with you hand in hand through something they purchased from you and how they can expect to be treated later when they do more business with you.

So if they bought your low level program/product or service, maybe it's between $7 and $20. You want to capture the moment they are excited about getting something “new” and provide exceptional support and engage with them. You want to work with those feelings and over-deliver. Maybe what you sold is about a gardening tool so in your first email you gift them a bonus download that wasn't even in the offer.

Hey, now that you bought this gardening set, here's the top three tips to have the best tomatoes in the world! Something like that can be an easy gift that will be over delivered to them and appreciated. As for this “report download” you just gave them, it does not need to be a newly written report, it can be an optin offer you have out for lead capture somewhere else or maybe it is a chapter out of an eBook or physical book you have written. The point is you can reuse content you have other places and still give a valued gift to your new customer.

Once your gift message is received your new customer will be saying, wow, look at this thing I got, I didn't even know about it. They now get to not only use your product but experience your expertise even more.

Let’s keep the excitement going and do a little bit of follow-up with your new customer. You should have a check-in email maybe 3 to 5 days after their purchase just checking in asking a few questions:

If they have had time to get to use their product/program or book their service and provide a link to access what they bought as a reminder how to get to it.
If they have any questions or comments, they can simply reply to this email.
(If you have a Facebook Group for your business) Ask them to give you a review in the group and provide the link.

Hey, if you love this product/program or service reply to this email and let me know. Feel free to include a picture of you and the product or working on the program, we love to hear back.

That's going to make them feel like you care, and you should care about what they're doing, but that also gives you testimonials that are true and authentic. They took the time to send this back to you and you are showing them that you care.

Your goal is to get feedback from them and to make it easy for them to provide that!

Your next email in your follow-up can be a quick check in and a small offer for the next logical purchase from what you have to offer that fits the direction they were heading in their initial purchase. You can say something like, Hey, you purchased ABC and I wanted to see how's it going with you? Did you know we also have this that is a complementary product/program or service that goes with what you already purchased. (Here you are going to want to list the benefits to this new program offer and what it will do for them and the discounted price for being a loyal customer) This is your first upsell email based on them becoming a customer of yours.

You can also put a direct mail follow-up for your customers. You can send them an actual Thank You Card. YES, a card, physically in the mail! You have received their address when they purchased it so you have all of the information you need. It is easy with tools like Mailbox Power. You can create a Thank You Card ahead of time and customize the message inside with merge codes and then when a sale is made most systems can integrate and pull that info in and trigger the card being sent for you! OR worst case scenario, you have to go enter their name and mailing address and link them to the appropriate Thank You card group and bam it is mailed out! Receiving a real card with a personalized note in it is awesome and can cost you as low as $1 plus postage. (or free 4X6 postcards! Just the cost of postage.)

If you only use email or text message marketing it is OK just get your Customer Journeys built out. Have the minimal in place and start! There will be time for editing, adjusting once you start seeing what is working and what might not be.

Sorry. I'm going to go on a tangent for a moment… I am going to insist on not using no-reply emails in your marketing platform. Be sure that you're sending it from an email address that is being monitored and can be followed up on, because if they take the time to ask you a question or reply back to you your exceptional customer experience needs to continue. You also want to make sure you are sending marketing emails out from YOU not Support@ or ClientCare@ email addresses – those are spam traps and will hamper your emails from being delivered. I usually suggest for clients to use a version of email address that is not their main personal email address so they can have the ability for a team member to check it and reply back or send it to you to get your actual response. So if your name is Susan Kay (just making this up), and your email is Susan@(company name) and that is the main email address you use to personally do business – go in and create SusanKay@(company name) email address that can be used for your marketing and eventually be checked by your support staff. This will help you identify Customer Emails first and foremost to get back to them asap.

In conclusion, your goals are to Engage and Excite in these stages of the customer journey.

If you have any questions, remember we're always here for you. Just utilize the question button on the website and will get back to you.

Thank you

if you want more from Strategies For Small Businesses, #SFSB, stay connected by subscribing to our list and connecting in Facebook https://www.facebook.com/sfsbagency

We’d love to work with you in building your support team, whether it's SFSB or another company. We specialize in working as part of a team and building those relationships.

We look forward to hearing from you so you can work with an expert to help you grow your business!

If you have any questions, need any support, or you need any ideas, feel free to reach out to us on the form provided HERE. We're here to support you.

2. You can also use the button and set up a quick call with me. It's absolutely free. I'd love to talk with you if you have questions about anything.

Schedule your info call today!

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4-Steps Lead to Increased Productivity

Weekday Themes and Blocking Your Calendar

Productivity in your business can make a difference between "spinning plates" and "checking things off". Planned Focus time is a must.

It can be difficult to find the time to get everything done during the workweek. Between client meetings, conference calls, and project deadlines, it often feels like there's not enough hours in the day.

With a little bit of creativity and organization, you can make the most out of your weekday schedule and productivity will begin to flow. Try implementing one (or all!) of these tips to help streamline your workflow and increase your productivity.

I opened VA-a-GoGo, LLC in 2008. I was a solo-preneur and had to find ways to organize my work week to stay on track. I tried all kinds of task to-do programs both paper and digital version. Nothing seemed to keep me on track. Around mid-2009 I started to bring on team members to help support my growing client list. I had to find a way to keep us all focused and on track and it came to me, if I was not organized how will my team be?

I sat back and found a plan that worked for me, my team, and even some of my clients took on the week work plan!

I generated a weekday theme plan. A set of labels that would indicate what tasks for my own business I would focus on. The team would use these labels to then breakdown our client task work and BAM! A plan was in place.

To generate a weekday theme plan you just need to come up with daily themes that work for you! Here are some examples…

Motivate Monday (focus on motivation work)
Momentum Monday (focus on tasks that build momentum for the week)
Monetize Monday (focus on any revenue generating tasks: proposals, late payment follow-up, send invoices to be paid just to name a few)
Tackle It Tuesday (focus on tackling a bigger project that needs to be completed)
Take It Tuesday (focus on errands needing to be done for your business)
Work It Wednesday (focus on keeping head down working on a task or set of tasks until they are done)
With It Wednesday (focus on this being a meeting day of the week)
Thriving Thursday (focus on full throttle)
Finish It Friday (complete all open tasks started this week and wrap up all you planned to)

STEP ONE: Create your work weekday themes!

Now that you have your work weekday themes in place, it is time to make work blocks on your calendar. Organizing your day with everything noted on your calendar is a vital part of productivity! You need to put your everyday tasks and appointments on your calendar in order to KEEP order! No matter if it is personal or family related, if it takes you time to complete it mark that “busy” time on your calendar. I even have my Bible study times blocked on my calendar. You can include your bill pay dates on here as well in a time block, so you have scheduled time to go pay those. By having everything blocked on your calendar it allows you a visual of “open space” or lack of it!

STEP TWO: Create Personal & Family Blocks on your calendar!

Now that you have your calendar blocked with your personal and family tasks it is time to start to organize your To-Dos…

STEP THREE: Brain Dump your business task list

Grab a piece of paper and start a brain dump of all the tasks that you know need to be done for your business. If you successfully use a task tracker, pull the list from that. If you have a partner or team in your business have them review your list and add any missing items, they might come up with. All tasks should have DUE DATES associated with them. If they don’t have a due date give them one even if they are not crucial, they also need to be completed. By having due dates in place, it allows for a completion schedule for things hanging onto your list that you keep looking at keep moving and not finishing.

STEP FOUR: Organize your task list by due date and then by work weekday theme

Now that you have those together, it is time to plug in your business work blocks with tasks on your calendar. Generally, it is best to create a block of time for 3+ hours and then split that into needed tasks. By organizing the tasks/projects you have already committed to along with routine business tasks you will see if you are OVER committing yourself an not allowing for proper personal & family time. When you first do this, you might need to do some crunch days to get things done on time. BUT when move forward and you follow your calendar blocks of times moving forward when scheduling meetings, planning for errands, creating tasks that need to get done you will have full control over your work weeks and begin to feel less stressed over what needs to get done.

If you want to be productive, take the time to block out your calendar. Choose a day of the week and dedicate it entirely to working on one task or project. This way, you won’t be distracted by other things that come up during the week and can focus completely on what you need to get done. And don’t forget to take breaks! Productivity is all about finding a healthy balance between working hard and taking care of yourself. Have you tried this method for blocking your calendar? What worked well for you? Let us know in the comments below!

We LOVE questions so please feel free to use one of the two modes within this website to reach us!

1. There's a “questions” form right here, use it and send us a question. We will get back to you within 24 hours!

2. You can also use the button and set up a quick call with me. It's absolutely free. I'd love to talk with you if you have questions about anything.

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Are All Of Your Marketing Efforts Working Together And Creating Your Intended Results?
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Customer Life Journey First Three Stages

A Customer Life Journey consists of 8 stages. We completed an overview on the customer life journey in the last Podcast.

In this episode, I'd like to go into more detail on the first three stages of this journey with you and how you engage with your ideal customers and clients and bring them into this journey with you.

Your first stage in the Customer Life Journey is making them aware of who you are, what you do, where you're located, and how to engage with you. This can be done through advertising, blog posts, events that you might speak at or host, and of course, social media.

Stage One: Awareness

Your first goal is to make people, your ideal customers, and clients, aware that you're even out there. Once you do this and you set what I like to call the foundation, you get to move on to the next stage. Like anything you build in life you want to build it to last. This includes your business … so set the foundation first before you move on. Don’t get me wrong, through your entire “in business” time you will always be adding to this stage, but when you start building this part for your customer life journey, you want to have a process and plan in place.

Stage Two: Engagement

Once you have set up your Awareness stage and you begin to drive traffic to your site or business, you want to engage with those you have attracted. Engaging with them creates an emotional tie and the best way to do this is communicating with them.

Make a commitment within this engagement period that you will stick with and build this relationship. That's an important to make sure that you're building a relationship and engaging with them. Think of it like this: you don’t want to be trying to sell them something if when they have walked through your door, and you have not even said HELLO to them and acknowledged they are there. You want them to know they are welcome, valued, and important so that they want even more to be on a journey with you. They want to know more about you. They need to get to know you and your business more to build like and trust!

You want them to jump on this journey with you, and they will once you start to engage with them.

This could be accomplished through your blog posts, social media posting, or it could be through an event. You can combine these two stages together.

Stage Three: Subscribe—You want them to opt in.

You want to get prospects on your communication list so you can communicate with them beyond this initial engagement. You want to have something they want to get them to subscribe. This is usually referred to as the “ethical bribe”. At this point you're offering them something in exchange for their contact information. It could be a free consultation or a download of valued information. It could be, or it can be a type of discount for products or services.

If you’re a brick-and-mortar business, you can create an offer for them to give you their business card or email address and in exchange you’ll give you a 10% off coupon. There are many creative ways to create a valued exchange of information that will benefit both of you.

I recommend that you sit build the awareness stage, and never stop because you're constantly going to be filtering people in and out of your community.

These first three stages are your foundation and first floor! You'll continue to bring awareness to your business and engaging through the life of your business.

Clients will often struggle with the “engagement” stage. They don’t know what to say or feel like they will be bothering their customers and clients with conversation. Remember, the engagement stage is not for nonsense conversation but true engagement; continue to share valued information, take time to ask a question or two for you or your team to get to know THEM!

To recap, you want to bring awareness through all channels available to you. Start building relationships immediately, then offer those interested a way to opt into your communication list. Once you’ve gathered information you want to utilize it, but make sure it is not just for your benefit. You want to build a loyal, interactive, and super responsive list.

There is no greater turn off than starting to send people all these offers and try to sell all these products/services as you get their email or phone number. That's not what people are looking for. You gave them some information. Remember you gave them a free consultation, or a discount on something to come back and learn more. If it was an information guide, they're expecting to get more of that from you.

Work on the top three foundational pieces of your customer life journey and stick with it. If you need any help, let us know.

If you've already have these elements in place, remember to revisit those “messages” at a minimum annually to make sure they are still relevant to your business at that time and that your offers are still relevant. If you'd like someone to review and evaluate what you have, we are here to support you reach out to us!

If you have any questions or need any feedback on what you've been doing, I'm happy to speak with you. Give me a call or contact me. All the information is on this page.

If you have any questions, remember we're always here for you. Just utilize the question button on the website and will get back to you.

Thank you

if you want more from Strategies For Small Businesses, #SFSB, stay connected by subscribing to our list and connecting in Facebook https://www.facebook.com/sfsbagency

We’d love to work with you in building your support team, whether it's SFSB or another company. We specialize in working as part of a team and building those relationships.

We look forward to hearing from you so you can work with an expert to help you grow your business!

If you have any questions, need any support, or you need any ideas, feel free to reach out to us on the form provided HERE. We're here to support you.

2. You can also use the button and set up a quick call with me. It's absolutely free. I'd love to talk with you if you have questions about anything.

Schedule your info call today!

Connect with us on Facebook as well:
https://www.facebook.com/sfsbagency

Register Today for Your Marketing & Client Care Analysis

SCHEDULE YOUR ANALYSIS

10 Stages to Your Indoctrination Email/Message Series

Nurture Your Database, 10 Stages to Your Indoctrination Email/Message Series

Nurturing your community and having an indoctrination series in place is important!

It's no secret that a strong email list is key to the success of any small business.

But building that list can be a challenge. luckily, there are plenty of ways to nurture your database and grow your subscriber base. In this post, we'll outline ten stages for creating an effective indoctrination email series. By following these steps, you can create a campaign that will engage and convert subscribers into customers. So let's get started!

You should have 3-5 emails to cover 10 specific points that will introduce your new acquisition to your business and to you. This is a great way to also share your intentions and letting your new community member to know what to expect from you.

Your indoctrination email or message series should cover these 10 key points:

Say “Welcome” and “Thank you”
Set Expectations
Restate the Benefits
Encourage Whitelisting
Introduce the Brand/Team
Show Your “Best Of”
Bounce Them Around To Your Social Properties
Prescribe Next Steps
Open a Loop
Start a Conversation

So, how do you go about nurturing your database? The answer is to start building an indoctrination email or message series. This will be a series of educational messages that introduce recipients to your brand and what you stand for. They don’t need to be sales pitches, but should instead focus on providing value to subscribers. Once people are familiar with your company and what you have to offer, they may be more likely to buy from you. What type of indoctrination email series can you put together for your business?

indoctrination messages help communicate

We LOVE questions so please feel free to use one of the two modes within this website to reach us!

1. There's a “questions” form right here, use it and send us a question. We will get back to you within 24 hours!

2. You can also use the button and set up a quick call with me. It's absolutely free. I'd love to talk with you if you have questions about anything.

Schedule your info call today!

Connect with us on Facebook as well:
https://www.facebook.com/sfsbagency

Need Support? Take The Guessing, The Hoping, The Unknown Out Of Your Marketing!

Are All Of Your Marketing Efforts Working Together And Creating Your Intended Results?
Are You Doing All You Can To Nurture Your Current Client/Customer Base And Keep Them Looking To You For Products & Services?
Do You Know What Tools You Need And What You Don't Need For Your Marketing?

Get The Big Picture Of Your Current Business!

Register Today for Your Marketing & Client Care Analysis

SCHEDULE YOUR ANALYSIS

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