“If you build it, they will come”
The field of dreams quote is terribly outdated, and I’m probably not the first to mention it to you. “If you build it, they will come” might still relate to ballplayers needing a place to work their craft, but it could not be more different from the landscape facing most businesses today.
As a company who works on developing effective marketing strategies, especially when it comes to the web, we see too many businesses with amazing products or services who have “built it,” but new leads aren’t coming.
Every company is different in what they are looking for in an ideal customer, but with the growing number of searches online for anything and everything, it’s increasingly important to have a strong web presence AND a way to generate and convert leads.
Although more businesses have websites, we are seeing a quantity vs quality problem. Google reports that the number of visitors who take a look and leave (bounce rate) in less than 10 seconds is increasing year by year.
The formula is different for each business, but there are two general rules that apply:
- Know your Target Market extremely well.
- Give them what they came for.
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How to Know your Target Market Extremely Well:
Before you can expect people to find you and buy from you, it’s important for you to know exactly who will be purchasing, why they appreciate what your selling and how they can further impact your business through referrals, positive reviews or repeat purchases.
- make sure you do the research to find your ideal client by building a target profile. Take a serious look at your business and see which clients are most valuable to you. These are the people you need to find more of. This could be measured in the scope of work, profitability, duration of projects, frequency of purchase. These clients meet your target profile.
- is there enough of them? Find out how many potential clients might be out there that meet your target profile above. If the number is limited, what would be a variation of that target profile or a second profile might be needed to accurately scale your sales and marketing efforts,
- how can you reach your ideal clients? That’s the question that can be answered in two ways. The first way is to start a very widespread campaign and filter to more specific targets as conversion starts to happen. However, if you did your homework above, there is a short cut. By using geographic, demographic, the topic of interest, and buying habits, the profile will make your marketing campaign much more effective. We all respond to offers that are accurately targeted. More and more emails are titled “just for you” or “exclusive offer” because the data backs it up. Let’s use this to your advantage.
- Focus on the depth of your offering during your advertising campaign. Rarely are products bought immediately following the first introduction. Don’t leave to chance everything that comes between the first impression and the sale. By giving more information ahead of time, having key selling features in your retargeting campaigns and showing competitive advantages in your programmatic ads, you can stay top of mind while potential customers are on and off your site.
How to give customers what they came for:
In order to follow through on the principle, a couple of things are required.
- If you were to be in their shoes, what are your ideal clients looking for? What about your offering is something that they would be attracted to and gain value from? What resonates with your company may be a big advantage over the competition. Everything counts, don’t forget the smallest detail. Over the course of our careers, finding the smallest connection can be the difference-maker in closing business. A common neighbourhood, industry understanding, your perspective, how you run your business, etc. Truly dive into this exercise and find out more about your target profile because it continues to comes in handy.
- Getting the conversation going is fantastic, but there is something else you want from these ideal clients; their business! It’s important to have an offer that makes sense for your business and that is attractive for your ideal customers. Qualifying these potential ideal clients and getting them into your sales funnel is important. Depending on the type of business, a free quote might be appropriate, a resource that you’ve produced, possibly a sample, or it could just be a sale because of your value proposition. You now have a solid new lead to work with and adding value.
For most businesses, this is where you shine. We’re now back into comfortable territory. Converting leads to sales.
Figure out your Why
Building it is the start. Having a purpose for your website is required for the “WHY” to make sense to your best clients. Leave the guesswork out and start moving with these steps to help optimize your marketing funnel.
The team at 323 Media has helped businesses refine their strategies and spend each marketing dollar more wisely. If you’d like to have us do that for your business, we’d love to talk. If your team is looking for a competitive edge, we also teach our approach to marketing teams through online courses and on-site training.
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