There are a lot of marketing strategies and ideas that are floating around the web and you may have tried some only to discover that they didn’t work for you.
Why?
Marketing strategies require more than just creating content a content calendar, posting on social media or sending out emails.
It’s about making the buying decision easy and that’s where many businesses are struggling.
Learn in the podcast or blog article below what’s should be behind your marketing strategies and some ideas on how you can make it easy for your customers to buy from you either online or offline so that you can maximize your revenue and profits.
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How to Create Marketing Strategies and Sales Funnels that Make it Easy for Your Customers to Buy from You
Today I want to have a conversation about marketing strategies, but I don’t want to do it from a standpoint of just telling you the different things that you can do.
Last week I focused on Finding Purpose and Getting Results for your Website . How to Inspire More Sales and How to Use Video to Close the Deal.
Instead of focusing on a list of “how to’s”, today I want to challenge you to think a little bit differently about marketing.
Marketing is a function of psychology and how do we move people through sales funnels that allow your customers to solve their specific problems, meet a specific need or fulfill a specific desire.
In other words, what are you giving them that they want?
Before we can give somebody something they want, we have to understand something about the person. We have to understand something about who he or she is and what their motives are.
Another way of saying this is what is their “why”?
“Why” is such a big deal!
There have been a lot of books and information written on the “why” as it pertains to consumer behavior and marketing strategies. Consumer behavior is one of those things that have just been so amazingly researched over the last couple of years. There is so much that we can learn just by critically thinking through and researching what’s going on in the mind of the consumer.
This is the core and the way that we get marketing to function and work well for business.
I’m absolutely convinced that one of the biggest reasons why companies and small businesses are struggling in this economy has really nothing to do with the economic situation. That doesn’t mean that the economics of our time don’t play a role in what’s happening in the marketplace and how it might be affecting your business.
But, what I am saying is that it doesn’t have to dominate your business.
If we can tap into the consumer (to those who are able, willing, and ready to buy) and who are looking for our products and services, then we can create marketing strategies that deliver results.
There are a lot of businesses out there that are making a lot of money right now.
No question about it. Just look at the profit margins of some of these companies. They’re astronomical. It doesn’t mean that you can’t make money in this market. It doesn’t mean that this economy has to put you in peril.
What it could mean is that if you do a really good job of understanding the consumer and their “why” you can position yourself in the marketplace to outlast your competition and to still make healthy profits.
When the economy rebounds, and I’m confident it will because it always does, you will be positioned to reap a serious reward.
However, before that happens, you have to understand the mind of the consumer.
What is Purpose of Marketing?
Marketing is an interesting phenomenon. I found one definition that I really like:
“The sole purpose of marketing is to develop a satisfying relationship with customers that benefit both the organization and its customers.”
I found this definition in an article on a Search Engine Journal that was written by Olga Andrienko. Olga works for SEMrush, which by the way is a fantastic company. If you’re looking to drill deep and understand what’s going on in the search world and discover the search terms that people are using and wanting, SEMrush is one of the best products out there to help you.
Consumer behavior through keyword research is a marketing strategy that will help you understand your customer’s “why”. Through search terms, we can understand what it is that your consumers are actually looking for.
How were they searching and what are the terms that they’re using in their search?
That gives us some level of insight into what’s going on the marketplace and how to speak appropriately to our audiences.
That’s the next piece of it… at the end of the day it is in the psychology.
What is it that they’re experiencing and how do you talk too their experiences?
This is so important. It’s huge!
Why?
Here’s what the consumer is left with when the consumer doesn’t know what to do because their “why” and their problems, needs or desires don’t match up with what they read on a website…
- They either don’t do anything
- Or as Olga said in her article, they just imitate others
Actually, the will do something. They will leave your website. According to the 2015 B2B Web Usability Report, nearly 50% of website visitors leave a site immediately if they don’t identify with the content or feel that’s it’s relevant to them.
To Olga’s point in her article, this is why reviews and testimonials can be powerful.
If you have enough social proof, if you have enough social validation, then all of a sudden someone has a way and a reason to buy that product.
This becomes really important when people don’t know you.
Why do people first by you?
We’ve bought into this old adage that people buy because they know, like, and trust you.
That may become true… but I don’t believe that’s true in the beginning.
What I absolutely, fundamentally, will stake my claim on is that people buy first from you because they feel your competence and it’s competence that leads to know, like and trust.
What is Competency and How Should it Be Defined?
The question is how do you define competency?
The definition of competency can vary depending on a business model or industry.
Competency could be something as simple as your price is reasonable compared to your competitor whose price is just outrageous. That could be one way of evaluating whether or not you are competent.
This is especially true in retail. But another form of competency in retail is what if the person that you’re interacting with just does not have any people skills?
What does it say about a business who hires the wrong people that cannot communicate and can’t interact with customers socially?
A Real Experience I had with Sports Authority
This probably is not a good illustration but I’m going to use it because Sports Authorities is going into bankruptcy and is closing all of their stores.
I was a local Sports Authority store just over a week ago and my son and I were looking at bikes. My son is thinking about buying one. It just happens that I have a bike and I’m thinking about buying a product for my iPhone. I want a phone holder that goes on the handlebars so that I can track my bike ride.
A sales rep walks by I asked if she could help me and she basically just dismisses me.
She clearly felt she had something more important to do with some type of inventory items than stop and answer a question or get somebody who could help me before she moved on to her task.
To me, that said volumes about Sports Authority and why they’re struggling.
Do they treat all their customers like that?
Do they dismiss all their customers?
Their prices are high compared to their competitors, both online and off-line, and the employee just did not have the time to care about me.
How Reviews Can Make or Break Your Marketing Strategies in Service Industries?
There are many marketing strategies but one of the most visible is reviews and testimonials.
What if you want to go to a restaurant and you’ve never eaten there before?
How do you know if the food is good?
You’re may know if the food is good by looking at reviews and what others had to say.
How many stars does the restaurant have?
What are people saying about it?
It’s also true for hotels.
What about if you’re a consultant or business coach?
Reviews and testimonials, and social validation are huge simply because so many coaches and so many consultants have done such a bad job for such a long time.
Because of their incompetency, people are concerned about hiring someone to help them. They know they need help. They know their business could benefit from coaching or consulting.
But, why hire someone if they can’t prove that they are good at what you do?
How many stories are there of businesses who spent $20,000, $50,000 or $100,000 on business coaches and consultants and they have nothing to show for it?
The better a business coach or consultant’s reviews and testimonials are the higher the competency level grows on the prospect. They more comfortable they are in believing the coach or consultant can really help them.
Marketing Strategies and Social Validation via Social Media
One of the biggest and most visible marketing strategies is social media.
Many people will follow someone (or a business) just because a lot of people are following them on social media.
The fallacy of that is I follow some really popular and successful people like Gary Vaynerchuk on Facebook.
Gary has some incredible insights to share.
But you know what… I very rarely go his Facebook page.
While social validation through numbers can be helpful, in and of itself it doesn’t necessarily mean that someone is making a lot of money just because they have a lot of followers.
Who are those followers?
Why are they following?
How are they being captured and given an opportunity to buy?
Do they even want to buy?
Marketing Strategies that are Thought Out Make It Easy for Consumers to Buy
The whole point behind this article is how are we making buying decisions easy for our customers or consumers to make a purchase?
To start with, you have to define the business that you are “really” in and learn to speak your customer’s language.
Once you know what’s going on in your customer’s head you can create a sales funnel flowchart for different types of customer profiles based on how they entered your sales funnel from your marketing.
What was their specific problem, need, want or desire?
I know a lot of businesses out there may have just one or two sales funnels.
But you should have multiple sales funnels.
You may have a large number of sales funnels depending on your business model and how complex or simple it is.
You can’t just put everybody in a single bucket.
If I’ve got three sales funnels, say A, B, and C, in my flowchart they may all and end up in the same place. They may arrive at the same place. Their “why” may even be similar in terms of why they are buying from me? But, you may have to take them to a different sales funnel to get them there and that takes work.
All marketing strategies ought to be dictated by your message that’s tied to a consumer’s problems, needs, wants or desires.
If it’s not then you’re just going to struggle.
You’re going to be all over the map and you won’t be attracting anybody and sales are going to be harder and harder to come by.
This is so vitally important in a world where specificity is king!
People now understand that they get what they want when they go to a search engine and put in exactly what they are looking for.
Searches are very specific. They’re not broad and in a matter of fact if you’re looking for something you’re probably going to use the exact words of what you’re looking for.
You don’t want to have to filter through to 2, 3, 20 or 50 Google pages in order to find that one thing you want information on.
Consumers have learned that the more specific they are the better their search results are.
Google has learned how to give their customers that specific thing there are searching for.
It’s also true on Facebook.
And, it’s true in off-line marketing and advertising as well.
It’s the old adage, I say this all the time… I had a speaking coach who used to say:
“Don, if you go into a room and you give a presentation and you’re broad in your presentation, a 100% of the people walk out of the room. A whole bunch of them will pat you on the back and tell you how wonderful of a job that you did.
But, if you get really specific and speak to one person in the room you will have 20% of them come up to you and say, “Oh my God, how did you know?”
How did you know that’s what I was going through?
How did you know that’s what my experience was?
How did you know that I was thinking about?
How did you know that’s what I wanted to do just two weeks ago and that has been on my mind?
How did you know?”
That’s what you’re after in your marketing.
Your marketing strategies ought to lead people to the “Oh my God, how did you know?” moment.
If you do that, the sales funnels you created for each problem you solve, need you meet or desire you fulfill ought to take them through the process of easily buying you.
You just made it really easy for them.
Unfortunately, we complicate this stuff or some of are lazy and just don’t want to do the hard work. This is not easy and it’s not something you do in a couple of days. This is a process. It’s something that you discover as you go through the learning curve and the learning process of understanding your consumers.
No one should have to go through 20 pages on your website before they can finally get what they want.
No one should have to keep clicking around aimlessly before finally checking out on the shopping cart.
No one should have to dig through your website just to find your phone number. It should be on every single page.
If you want to increase your sales, you have to make a buying decision easy for your customer.
The way you do that is by:
- Understanding them
- Giving them what they want
To do those two things the process ought to be simple!
If you’ve got some questions or thoughts about how to create marketing strategies that are dictated by your message and audience and that result in an easy buying experience, I would like to offer you a free 60 minute, no obligation consultation. I guarantee that you will get at least one idea that you can use immediately.
Click here or on the image below to get access to my calendar where you can pick a convenient time.
Do you have a thought, idea or question you would like to ask? Leave it below in the comment and let’s discuss it.