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Introduction
This week in the Entrepreneurs Newsletter
As business owners and entrepreneurs we're always working on some aspect of our business. This week I'm taking a closer look at generating sales.
Reviewing a variety of ways to generate leads no matter the size of your business or where you are in stage-wise with your business.
Whether you're just getting started or you're more seasoned and feel like you've hit the ceiling on what you can accomplish.
Spend money wisely and your time with better results?
For those that like to skim for relevant articles of interest. Here is a list of what you can expect to see.
- New research shows Google serves almost half of all ad traffic on fake news sites
- 11 Facebook Ads Campaign Objectives and When to Use Them
- How To Market Your Business To The Local Community
- Let's go shopping — for more and better data
- Engaging The Digital Window Shopper
- How to Use Surveys to Better Understand Your Customers
- 3 Ways to Leverage Brand Champions for Your Business
- 13 Best Drip Campaign Examples to Inspire You in 2021
Featured in this week's "Questions Business Owners Are Asking".
How do you overcome business stagnation?
If you have questions or struggles that you'd like to see covered. Simply reply to the email and submit. I'll do my best to address them
Questions Business Owner Are Asking
Question Business Owners Are Asking
How do you overcome business stagnation?
The challenge as an already established business goes from brand building to trying to stay competitive. Holding onto the audience and customers that you have now.
Once you’re out there and competing you’re not taking anyone by surprise. They get a chance to see what you’re doing that’s successful and look to make adjustments.
When so much of a business's time is spent on maintaining a share of voice in a competitive market. It’s easy to take your eye off of growth & expansion.
A key to overcoming stagnation is to go back to the basics. Identify a problem, find a solution, & produce results. The three pillars don’t change only your approach to them.
Let’s take a look at questions that you can ask and answer to address business stagnation.
There are 4 categories to cover when thinking things through.
- Marketing Strategies
- Internal & Industry Review
- Customers vs Target Audience
- Business Expansion/Adjustments
From a marketing standpoint. Start by taking a look at the strategies that you’re using and what other opportunities that there are for reaching your target audience.
Some things will gain interest and some campaigns that will gain customers. Are you promoting for both or just overall?
Is it the target audience that the issue? Are you too niche or spread too far across audiences? One message instead of more personalized messaging?
Internal reviews help you take stock of what you’ve done with your business over time. Where you can make adjustments to your approach and processes.
How much time are you devoting to generating new leads? What is your lead gen process and what kind of results is it netting you?
Retention can also be a form of lead generation. How much time and effort are you putting into stopping churn?
Are you still using the same marketing materials or have you updated them? When was the last time that you updated them?
Have you tracked the results using A/B testing to confirm what’s resonating and with whom?
Industry reviews help you take stock of where things are overall.
What changes are happening in the industry? Is it in specific markets or across the board? Are they structural or process changes? Pricing changes?
A change in products and or services and the needs of the customers? Changes in customer mindset?
Business adjustments and expansion take a look at things from an external standpoint.
The ideal is to strike a balance between maintaining where you’re at & finding growth opportunities.
If you feel like you hit a wall. Check to see why. It can be that you’ve hit a ceiling of peak performance. You’re doing as well as you can with your product or service suite as is.
In situations where you need to make an adjustment or expand
You can accomplish this by creating or replacing underperforming products and or services.
A great place to start. Do your research on what’s next through your customers. Take a survey & ask for feedback.
People appreciate it when you value their opinion. It will not only help you find what’s next. It can also help strengthen customer relationships. When they see that you listened and followed through on their feedback.
If you can answer these questions and do your due diligence with these best practices. You can find ways to overcome business stagnation and get back on track with growing out your business.
Advertising Tips
New research shows Google serves almost half of all ad traffic on fake news sites
According to studies, Goole serves roughly 48% of ad traffic on "fake" news sites. New data indicates that unless advertisers are paying careful attention to their exclusion lists, there's a chance that ads could be showing up next to fake news online.
Why I care: One of the first things that I get asked about when I mention having a digital agency is advertising. When you don't know what to look for as you're setting up your ad campaign.
You run the risk of blowing through your marketing budget. Promoting your business to people who may or may not fit your target audience. Worse yet be advertising on sites that if you were aware of you'd be upset and see how it could be hurting your Brand Reputation.
Think about it for a moment. If you're leveraging your credibility and dedication to integrity. How useful is it to be promoting that on fake news websites? Your message is lost on them and so is the opportunity for it to resonate.
11 Facebook Ads Campaign Objectives and When to Use Them
Learn how to choose the right Facebook and Instagram campaign objective to achieve your goal and what to do if you started with the wrong objective.
This is a fairly comprehensive dive into what to consider when running an advertising campaign. One that goes into more details and explanations than the gurus that make it easier than it truly is.
Here's why I care: For every guru that over simplifies a process. There are easily 100's of businesses that pay the price for missing important and relevant details.
Setting up a campaign without a proper objective is doomed to get average results at best. While costing you more of your budget than it should.
The bad experiences lead to blown budgets and people with trust issues from their DIY experience. My goal is to at least arm you with enough information to ask follow up questions that can help you sort out the people passing out bad information.
Brand Building Strategies
How To Market Your Business To The Local Community
Here are 7 ways to help local businesses stay top of mind and relevant in their communities. Helping to increase sales and brand loyalty. Establish the foundation in your community that you can build on and expand to outer areas.
Why I care: Being a local small business in this climate is even more of a struggle these days. For those that weathered the pandemic. It's time to be able to recover from the financial strain. Taking steps to strengthen your business in your community ensures that you both recover and get to a better situation. One that you can all benefit from.
Let's go shopping — for more and better data
Data is an important part of any and all businesses if you know how to use it. The issue is that so many people glaze over looking at it that they miss out on all the use cases for it.
This article paints a picture that will hopefully provide more insights into why it's important and why you should care.
Why I care:" When it comes to creating a marketing strategy data is going to be a valued resource for successful campaigns and promotions.
The data will give you insights into your customers, prospects, and leads. Answers that they might not even be aware of to answer if you asked them directly.
There are habits and things that we do unconsciously but they still drive our decisions. Being able to keep that in mind is the difference between a decent conversion rate and one that you build a business on for the long-haul.
Helpful Tips
Engaging The Digital Window Shopper
The story of the pandemic for advertisers and marketers was the massive adoption of online shopping and e-commerce in every industry. From life insurance to groceries, consumers moved online. However, not all online activity produced sales.
With more time spent online, many consumers became browsers, filling out forms out of curiosity rather than urgency. Time spent filling out individual lead forms remained a good indicator of intent, with more consumers spending less time on forms compared to before the pandemic, indicating lower intent or interest from consumers.
Why I care: The customer journey is one that can be full of detours and distractions. Things that keep them from making it to their final destination of a purchase.
By taking note of where you're people are getting stuck and knowing how to segment your prospects. You can devote your time more wisely and get better results.
Take the time to walk those through the process that doesn't know what they don't know. While addressing those that do in a way that they can appreciate and help them get to their purchase.
One approach across the board is not going to get you the conversion rate that you need to be successful. This is where personalization because the difference-maker.
How to Use Surveys to Better Understand Your Customers
You’ve heard the saying “The customer is always right”, which is true. But not only is the customer right, but customers also choose whether your business fails or succeeds.
So, to be successful in an online competitive market you need to be in contact with your customers. You should find out what they need, where they shop, and how they decide which products or services to buy.
Why I care: Customer surveys let you know how you're doing. What to add to your product and services suite. Where you can find more of your ideal customers and so much more.
When you find yourself hitting a wall and your business sales getting stagnant. One of the best ways to find out how to fix it. Is by checking in with the people who matter the most.
3 Ways to Leverage Brand Champions for Your Business
What's better than having your employees & customers as your champions? Learn how to gain brand champions + incorporate them into your marketing strategy.
I share this one with the caveat of if you're going to look to your employees. Be a great boss and employer.
Here's why I care: Brand Champions will not only build up brand awareness and trust. When considering the "know, like, trust" customer journey. That moves your potential leads that much closer to becoming clients and customers. Saving you marketing and advertising budget trying to identify, find and sway these same people.
Enlisting and rewarding brand champions with even something as simple as acknowledgment can go a long way in helping to establish your business with a good reputation and solid sales lead funnel.
Marketing Strategies
13 Best Drip Campaign Examples to Inspire You in 2021
This article provides 13 email drip campaign examples to fuel your inspiration and get more sales by doing less!
Before you can run a proper email marketing campaign and strategy. You should have a proper understanding of what it is and how you can apply it to your business and goals.
Here's why I care: Email marketing is an overlooked an under utilized marketing strategy. One that you can automate with drip campaigns and still reap the benefits of without devoting all of your time.
Email campaigns can provide you with insights into what's resonating with your subscribers. Build and strengthen customer loyalty and engagement. Both key factors in addressing retention and insights into what products or services to promote and add to your offerings.