How To Ensure You Generate Enough Business For Your Website

Apart from pay per click advertising, search engine optimisation, exploiting social media such as LinkedIn YouTube Facebook etc. What else can you do to ensure you generate enough business for your Website?

Perhaps a better question is what should you do to generate enough business in total?

Smart online marketers; combine both online and offline marketing tactics and strategies to generate leads and sales for their businesses.

Then you are into a whole realm of different possibilities.

A great place to start is to work backwards from your annual sales objective.

How much turnover do you need at your average margin?

How much of your business is repeat business?

What is your average sales value?

How many customers stop using your services a year?

How many referrals do you generate?

These types of questions feed into your sales plan, which is concerned not only in answering them, but with the number of new leads required, to meet your annual objectives taking into account how many enquires you convert into sales; your closing percentage.

This could be via salespeople or on your website the same principles apply.

When you’ve figured all of this out, you will be in a position to know; how many leads a week, a month, a quarter you need to keep your business viable and hopefully growing.

When constructing your lead generation plan, some common situations to avoid include;

Having your ‘eggs in too few baskets,’ this is having too much business with too few customers or clients. The acid test here is; if you lost one or two of them what would happen to your business?

Not having enough lead generation methods in play - For example you rely on Pay Per Click and don’t do much else. More competitors enter the market, the price goes up of the Pay Per Click, followed by the quality and volume of leads go down. What would happen to your business, if this was your only lead generation strategy?

Spray and pray lead generation - Do a bit of everything and hope something sticks. This can be a very expensive way of marketing, it normally occurs when a business owner has not developed a marketing strategy, which should include a lead generation plan. All marketing can be and should be measured with returns on investment monitored.

Ineffective lead generation - This can occur when any of these situations are wrong; the message, (which could be the sales copy and the design) the offer, your USP (unique selling proposition), the correct medium, the target audience (The quality and responsiveness of the list).

Just one element being wrong can result in ineffective lead generation for example; if you have the best design, great product, a good offer and great sales copy, but you select a bad list, then it all starts to unwind.

Often when business owners suffer from ineffective lead generation, we hear comments such as ‘direct mail does not work, we’ve tried it,’ or ‘email marketing is a waste of time, it’s the spam filters,’ or ’nobody clicked through the website.’

There are plenty of examples of companies that use either of these mediums and make them work. Their lead generation efforts, using these methods are successful, because they have people that work for them, with the right skills.

I hope you’ve found this brief article thought provoking. If you’re not generating enough leads now to meet your sales plan, what’s been covered should help you pinpoint potential problem areas to avoid.

Beyond that, further help can be provide by our inbound marketing services at Integrated Marketing  who can help you put together strategies and provide agency services to work with you to generate more leads and sales. 

Should you wish to consider outsourcing parts of your lead generation strategies or explore how we can help you with practical ideas, call us during normal business hours on 01623 720022.

Take Care 




Regards 


Integrated Marketing  Copyright Mark Wheatley 2010 All Rights Reserved

If you don't tell them how will they know?

I was talking with a web business the other day that got some great products, web based applications.

Most of their business was gained via networking, and selling,  which is great, but they weren’t getting much business off the site.


The products were really useful, I cannot tell you too much, because I don’t wish to reveal the identity of the company. The problem was the sales copy on their website. For example, it was silent on the free offer that they were running and it did not tell the reader much at all.


These were a few pointers that I went through with them, about sales copy.


There should be a headline to draw the reader into the copy.


The copy should answer the question 'What's in it for me from the reader or listeners point of view.'


When you write copy put yourself in their shoes, asking yourself questions such as; why should I care to read this, how will this product or service  benefit me? What do I need to do to take advantage of this offer, what problems does this product or service solve for me? How will it make my life better, more enjoyable easier, more fun? Are these people genuine is it worth building a relationship with them?


Does the copy explain the features and benefits of the product or service?


What will your call to action be? (Fill in the form, the coupon, sign up for the teleseminar, webinar, call the special number etc).


These are a few of the questions that I would focus on when writing sales copy. These same principles and questions apply tor a website, email, brochure or a script, for a video or audio.


Testimonials should echo what's being said and ideally (for business products and services) denominate the benefit, in terms of time saved, money saved or money made. ROI is useful as well.


Before and after is another useful concept to use.


If you don’t explain or demonstrate what your product or service is about, don’t expect many sales.


If you need help with sales copy you have my details.




Take Care 




Regards Mark 




CONSULTING RECRUITMENT MARKETING SALES


MARK WHEATLEY associates provide business improvement services to help businesses and practices increase sales and profits. Services include Sales and Marketing Recruitment, Marketing Consulting, other Marketing Services, Sales Consulting and Performance Improvement.  They are based in Nottingham in the East Midlands UK.

A results driven approach to your business success


http://www.wheatleyassociates.org/ Copyright Mark Wheatley 2010 All Rights Reserved

Does yours stand out? Image from Glastonbury

Anyone for tapas?

 I took this photo at Glastonbury last month.

Its a very large flamenco dancer promoting the sale of tapas.

It certainly got my attention.

The question is; could you buy or make something a little wacky like this, that you could use? Something along similar lines to get your business to stand out?

It does not substitute for signage and clearly space is an issue, but for a retail or restaurant business with a little room outside, well its a possibility!

If you have seen anything similar send me your photo's and I'll put them on the blog giving you a mention of course. 

All comments welcome.

Take Care 


Regards Mark


Integrated Marketing  Copyright Mark Wheatley 2010 All Rights Reserved

Repurchase Systems

A repurchase system is a hidden marketing asset. (See my earlier posts which explain more about hidden marketing assets).

Your customers or clients should benefit when they purchase your product or service when it’s needed. 

You might think that's an obvious statement, but do your customers or clients purchase at the optimum time?

Do you have repurchase systems in place?


For example, it might be better for you to get your hair cut every four weeks not every six weeks.

So the optimal time is four weeks not six, to avoid those bad hair days!

What does that mean if you own a hairdressers business or hair salon owner, if your from the USA? 

Lets say the price is £10 for a cut for man. If someone purchases every six weeks that's it works out at 8.66 haircuts a year, well we don't have a .66 of a haircut, so lets say its 8 haircuts a year.

For at least two weeks out of this six week cycle, your hair might look slightly untidy.

Its £80 sales revenue per customer, per year without any extras.

Now if the hairdresser pre-booked the appointment and managed to get their customers to have their haircut every four weeks, that would generate 13 haircuts a year or £130 per customer in revenue an additional £50 per customer on the six week repurchase cycle or 62.5% more.

Just by changing the repurchase pattern, you can achieve a significant increase in sales.

In our Results Driven Marketing coaching program we have around 23 different proven marketing strategies like this one, to increase sales and profits. Creating better repurchase systems is one of the approaches we can use.

The program is available internationally coaching takes place via the telephone or video.

If you implement the ideas and strategies that we create for you, your return is guaranteed. 


Significant levels of growth is possible with the system.


Why not email me to find out more.

Regards




Mark




Integrated Marketing  Copyright Mark Wheatley 2010 All Rights Reserved

Hidden Unique Selling Proposition

I went to see a new prospect today, a really nice chap with an interesting business.


Without giving away who he is; its an online business which helps other business owners manage their people.


He has advantages in his services that are superior to the major competitors. 


When I asked him what are his concerns about his marketing he complained that 'people don't understand our service.'


Well prior to the meeting I reviewed his website and considered the notes from my first phone call with him. During the meeting he told me about other features and benefits, about how his system worked and guess what?


What do you think it said on his website and in his sales copy about the advantages of dealing with him?


Not a lot , he really wasn't telling anyone about his unique selling points or the extra value he was providing or about why people should do business with him as apposed to his competitors. So no wonder people didn't  understand his service.

A Hidden USP

If your business isn't communicating about 'what's in it for me,' from your prospective customers point of view, why should they care why should they buy from you?


Anyway here is the ad. If you need a new USP creating to convert more sales, just email me and I will explain how I work etc. It does not matter where in the world you are, this service can be handled via the web.


Take Care 


Regards


Mark



P.S. If what you do is good TELL PEOPLE.!!!!



A Results Driven Approach To Your Business Success


Mark Wheatley associates is a business development company that helps companies and professional firms grow providing low cost business growth strategies and sales techniques through coaching training and consulting services www.wheatleyassociates.org

Copyright Mark Wheatley 2009 All Rights Reserved

The Sun Asda and Tesco

I was doing the weekly shop the other week and the cashier said to me 'would you like a Sun to read, its free,' I was about to say no and then she said 'you can have £5 off your shopping bill,'

Well money for nothing and the Sun for free that's almost a song. Anyway it was a deal based on an irresistible offer. Why wouldn't I want £5 off for no effort on my part, even if I don't like reading the Sun, who's headline was all about the none football activities of our England football captain that was.


When I said okay to the cashier, she opened the Sun and she tore out the coupon that was in a full page ad that Asda was running.


It was interesting to see how Tesco reacted to the competitive threat and a reminder that coupons are a direct response tool to bring new customers or clients into your business.


You don't however have to spend money on full page ads in national newspapers to take advantage of this lead generation mechanism. There are online and offline methods which are both low cost and very effective. 


If you want to know which work best or tell other people your experiences with coupons please leave a comment.


Regards


Mark



Integrated Marketing  Copyright Mark Wheatley 2009 All Rights Reserved

Sales and Marketing Questions

Here are a few questions to simulate your strategic thinking for the New Year. 

If you are getting too many no’s or don’t knows, just leave a comment and I’ll do my best to reply.

1. What sets your business apart from the competition, why should they choose you instead of your competitors? 

2. Have you got five or more lead generation strategies to generate sufficient leads to achieve your budget for 2010? (Excluding referrals).

3. Do you close above 50% of your prospects? (A prospect is defined as someone that has shown an interest in your products and services).

4. Have you got three or four referral systems that are being consistently worked by the appropriate people in your organisation? (Word of mouth does not count).

5. Are you spending sufficient time in managing and developing your sales and marketing activities?

6. Are you attempting to increase the size of every sale with every new and existing customer/client?

7. Do you have a cheaper alternative when people cannot afford to buy from you?

8. Are repeat sales built into your sales model?

9. Do you know how long an average customer/client stays with you in years?

10. When you have lost a customer/client do you know why?

11. Do you continually communicate and educate your customer/clients in terms of the benefits and applications of your products/services?

12. Do you have a very strong initial offer to start a relationship?

13. Have everyone that 'sells' been trained in consultative sales?

14. Have you done anything before that’s worked in sales and marketing, but you no longer do it? (If yes start doing it again).

15. Do your sales people have script books that enable you to ensure that your sales expertise doesn't ‘walk out the door’ if your best salespeople leave?

16. Is it really easy to buy from you or could you make it even easier?

17. Do you use joint ventures to obtain more customers or sell more products and services?

18. Is your website generating sufficient leads in relation to your investment in it?

19. Do you take advantage of your existing relationships? (For example has your solicitor, accountant or banker helped you beyond just providing a service?)

20. Is the time that you are investing in social media and the internet producing a return? 

Let me know what you think to the questions or if you have any issues.

These questions are from our strategic business audit document.



Regards




Mark



Integrated Marketing  Copyright Mark Wheatley 2009 All Rights Reserved

Sell it again Alice

Last Friday I had a nostalgic trip down memory lane and enjoyed seeing Alice Cooper in his 'Theatre of Death' tour in Nottingham.


It was the third time I've seen him and he keeps on coming up with new ways to 'act' out his death!


Hanging, guillotine, a box full of spikes and a large syringe administered by his nurse the 'killer. Tiffany Lowe, after the song poison.


Its all harmless fun, it was a real laugh hanging out with lots of people with strange makeup and black Alice wigs. They weren't all middle aged + but it wasn't a family show either!


Anyway back to my normal subject of marketing. Prior to the gig there was a bloke with a drum handing out leaflets promoting the recording of the gig.

This was on a memory stick, which enabled the punters to take away half he concert. The other half was available via a download later on plus some other goodies.

As you can see I was one who decided to part with more money.


So Alice sold the gig twice, not to everyone of course, but that's the opportunity for you and many people in different walks of life. The opportunity to record to reproduce your knowledge, your skills digitally, then to sell it again.


So the question that's worth asking is. What do you know or what skills do you have that are worth something to someone else?


What are your skills and knowledge, which can be reproduced and sold many times over?


That's real leverage.


He's another idea even if you don't want to sell it; you can still help other people by sharing your knowledge.



Food for thought for the New Year.

All comments welcome have a great Christmas and all the best for 2010.


Regards




Mark



Integrated Marketing  Copyright Mark Wheatley 2009 All Rights Reserved

Talk to your customers

Talking more to your potential customers and your existing customers pays dividends.

It's kind of obvious, but how much time do you spend, finding out what your customers or clients want? Are they really happy with what you provide for them?

Could you do anything more to serve them better?

What are their frustrations how could you help them overcome them?

How do you compare to your competitors? Ask your customers they will know.

Early this year a client of mine who has a manufacturing business, asked me to create a unique selling proposition for him and part of the process involved talking to his customers.

What we found that his customers felt that all manufactures in his industry, had poor product photographs.

So we hired an expensive product photographer who took some really good pictures and together with a graphic designer produced a great new brochure. It was in fact more than a great brochure it was a presenter that my client's customers used in their own sales presentation.

The presenters were leather bound and they cost around £25 each. Here's the best thing. his sales started to grow, he took on more accounts because of the presenter and the quality photographs.

His prospects and his existing customers all wanted the presenter, this together with the new unique selling proposition, he closed more sales.

Part of the USP made a promise that if his customers placed an order before 9.30 a.m. that the product would be with them the same day by 3.30 p.m. or its FREE.

The moral of the story is ask questions, listen and take action.

Regards

Mark

Integrated Marketing  Copyright Mark Wheatley 2009 All Rights Reserved

Great Customer Service

I took my wife on a Mediterranean cruise with P and O to celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary. If you ever want to find out more about customer service and marketing I cannot recommend it highly enough.

Also you have some fun, meet some great people and visit some wonderful places.

Lots of the simple things are done consistently well. For example the staff always use your name, ask you if you are enjoying yourself, engage in conversation just in passing. Every effort is made to make you feel welcome.

When I get a minute I will write some more specifics about how they go about it.

Regards

Mark Wheatley

Integrated Marketing  Copyright Mark Wheatley 2009 All Rights Reserved

No time to market

You cannot manage time you can only manage yourself and others.

Most businesses that fail do so because of a lack of sales, caused through ineffective marketing.

Ineffective marketing is normally caused by.

1. A lack of knowledge and poor execution

Or

2. The business owner knows that marketing is important and they have the knowledge to build and implement an effective marketing plan........BUT they don't seem to have enough time to do it.

Sad but true the ability to manage self and others leads to insufficient time being allocated to building a marketing and sales system that works.

Anyway that's all for now I don't have time!

Regards

Mark

A Results Driven Approach To Your Business Success

Copyright Mark Wheatley 2009 All Rights Reserved

An Easy Way To Grow

One of the easiest ways to increase sales and profits is to obtain more customers/clients like your best customers/clients.

If 100% of your customers/clients where like your best customers/clients what would your sales and bottom line profits look like?

(Multiply your total customer/client numbers by the average annual sales value and profits of your best customers/clients).

If you do that exercise and build a multi sequenced marketing campaign it can make a significant difference to your profits. In my coaching and training programme I can show you what is the best approach to take advantage of this marketing principle.

Regards

Mark Wheatley

Integrated Marketing  Copyright Mark Wheatley 2009 All Rights Reserved

What is business development

Let’s start with the purpose of a business, according to the author business writer Peter Drucker ‘‘there is only one valid definition of business purpose: to create a customer.’’

Beyond that to retain customer/clients and make sufficient profit to sustain and grow the business, as well as satisfy the stakeholders.

Business development is a series of management disciplines that should work congruently to achieve those three aims create customers, retain them and make a profit.

Successful business development from a consulting point of view, which is my standpoint, is working on the business, maximising the results in certain key areas including:

Strategy, Marketing, Sales, Customer Service, Operations including IT and Finance, taking account of people management and leadership.

Techniques to measure the success of a business development project are again based around the three aims, number of new customers, improved retention and increased profitability.

You could argue that this is business improvement, but the difference between business improvement and business development is the additional aspect, which is managing the future of the business, looking forward to make sure as best you can in an ever-changing world, that the strategy is robust enough to sustain the business in the future.

Management need to undertake research, ask questions about the economic, political, technological and social influences, review the competition, ask questions about the changing market place and the anticipated needs of the customers/clients in years to come.

So part of business development includes the process of looking outside the business and thinking strategically, to ensure that the business changes to meet the needs of the future. Strategic Management.

Happy to take any questions if you want me to expand upon this subject.

Regards

Mark Wheatley

Integrated Marketing  Copyright Mark Wheatley 2009 All Rights Reserved

Multi Sequenced Marketing

I said the other week on Twitter that I would tell you about a client of mine that was generating a significant number of new appointments.

Essentially the technique involves creating several pre-prepared communications, that follow in a sequence, in this case all aimed at getting an appointment.

All of the communications are linked, its a bit like telling a story.

So there are sales letters, e-mails, postcards, telephone scripts all put in place prior to starting a campaign.

Its not about being a pest or being pushy, its about creating different reasons why its in your prospects best interest to see you.

You may have heard the one about good salespeople keep following up and the less successful ones giving up at three attempts. This method allows you to keep following up without running out of things to say.

It can be used not only to gain appointments, it can also be used also to sell products and services.

The system is great if you are going after specific prospects that if you converted into customers/clients, it would make a significant improvement to your bottom line profits.

If you are interested in developing something along these lines, this is one of the services that we provide.

Regards


Mark Wheatley



Integrated Marketing  Copyright Mark Wheatley 2009 All Rights Reserved

Structure of a Sales Message

There are a few structures which you can use to construct a winning sales communication; this is one of them. This outline is based on the AIDA formula, Attention, Interest, Desire, Action.

The adaptation is the concept of Removing Doubt, in terms of how the prospect cannot lose out by being your customer/client.

Outline of an ad e-mail or sales letter.

Target the right prospect (Fundamental).

1. A compelling headline or in the case of e-mail a compelling message (Attention)
2. Graphics (Attention)
3. A proposition leading to an offer (Interest)
4. How will they benefit from your proposition and offer (Desire)
5. How they cannot lose by taking you up on your offer (Remove Doubt)
6. How others have benefited – Optional (Remove Doubt)
7. A call to action (Action)

Regards


Mark Wheatley

Integrated Marketing  Copyright Mark Wheatley 2009 All Rights Reserved

Asset Marketing Part 3.

Three more hidden assets

1. Your existing relationships with your customers/clients

2. The community

3. Your suppliers

I was talking to an editor of a magazine the other week discussing a business opportunity and whilst in our discussions the subject of databases came up.

I mentioned that I found it strange that many companies did not actively seek to build their database or do much with it.

He agreed making the comment that he was glad. I said ‘why is that?’ ‘Well if people collected their customers/details more and marketed to them, they would not need us.’

The database allows you to build and create a stronger relationship with customers/clients. To nurture and build that relationship you need to collect their details and get them onto your database.

Whatever your marketing costs are to generate enquiries, you are wasting them if you are not building your database.

Another hidden marketing asset is the community around you.

Here’s a practical example. Someone I know runs a convenience store; he supports the local school through sponsoring competitions.

One he ran last year linked in with British Sandwich week, he organised a sandwich competition for the local school children.

The children created different types of sandwiches and there were some prizes naturally.

The local paper were involved, it was a ‘win win’ publicity event and relationship building exercise.

There was another hidden asset involved; the suppliers of the convenience store provided the food for nothing.

You only need some imagination and effort to make your hidden marketing assets work for you.

If you’d like to explore any of these further let me know in the comments box below and I’ll answer your question.

Regards

Mark Wheatley








Copyright Mark Wheatley 2009 All Rights Reserved

Asset Marketing 2.

Here’s two examples of assets that can be leveraged without any additional investment.

1. Your relationships with other firms and business associates

2. A below average sales force

Strengthening your proposition, improving your competitive advantage along with some consultative sales training, can significantly improve the results from your sales efforts.

Working with other businesses sharing resources, even working with your competitors can lead to all sorts of different opportunities.

You can gain access to new markets, products and services, share costs, create a bigger offering all without any investment.

If your closing ratio from your sales efforts is low, making a few changes to your sales processes can make a big difference to your bottom line profits.

Part three will follow shortly and I’ll give you a few more examples.

If you’d like to explore any of these further let me know in the comments box below and I’ll answer your question.

Regards

Mark Wheatley

Integrated Marketing  Copyright Mark Wheatley 2008 All Rights Reserved