The Single, Powerful Marketing Principle That Can Change Your Business

Relationships compound, based on familiarity.

You can’t “skip a step”. To be rewarding, it must be earned.

It’s called “Funnel Marketing” and it takes the “old” Contractor Marketing model of “Let’s put every dime we’ve got into the Yellow Pages and see what happens” (a model I openly despise) and makes a more intelligent, rational, less costly but more results-based marketing plan.

We’ve advised it for the last 7 years with roughly 1,200 contractors, but now in its 3 generation of results, with help from the phenomenal volume of trackable data from websites, we see even more power behind it.

Here’s why it works.

One of the biggest mistakes contractors make is in assuming that all your customers are in a single group. Think about it.  You have strangers, acquaintances, friends, family – varying degrees of relationships, varying levels of communication.  And your customers aren’t any different.  If you – like much of your competitors – ever feel “a customer is a customer” you’re finished before you ever got started.

Tell your wife or husband they’re just like every other male or female and see how well that goes over.

In a business relationship, your job is to steadily “funnel” or advance customers through your company to achieve the maximum benefit for them and maximum profit to your company.  And it goes like this…

Your 5 Part Marketing Funnel

For marketing success, you’ve got to narrow your target audience from “everyone” to “those most likely to buy.” Funnel marketing is a proven way to make that happen.  Just like a kitchen funnel, the Marketing Funnel is broad at the top and narrow at the bottom.

The simplest way to explain it is that this form of marketing automatically and systematically “graduates” your customers from cold prospects to active customers.  It’s the process that enables you to move your message through a “funnel” that narrows to a tighter audience – and with more controlled media. 

Think each of these five funnels through as your message and means of delivering it narrow: 

1. WHO is your intended target market?   This is your most valuable funnel, by far.  “Who” goes from cold prospects at the top of the funnel, to contacted leads, to inactive or old customers, then to referrals, down to the active, spending customers. Fewer of them but the highest prized of the group.

The current and tragically flawed marketing model for contractors goes from “everybody” spending to “customer” spending in one huge step. And most companies don’t even separate that. It’s just “marketing” and one size fits all.

In other words, all the people who didn’t buy after the first contact, go right back into the “everybody” pile… where you get to pay for them again, just like they were never a prospect.

This also divides the world into only two groups: the entire general public and your customers. That’s the same as saying all people are either total strangers or close friends. If you follow this rule in your marketing model, it’s costing you a fortune in sales and a fortune in wasted advertising.

2. WHAT are you saying? This is your ad message according to your familiarity with the group. “What” you say is your biggest challenge. I critique hundreds of ads every year for contractors and I can tell you these almost never say the right things, in the right order, or in the right way. Many of them are offensive, hokey, or just plain amateur.

Take all your leads inwardly through your messaging. Advance your prospects from a big-market, broad message to narrower “follow up” message, to “reactivation” message, to “retention, upsell” message (Newsletters, Maintenance Agreements) at the bottom of the funnel.

3. HOW do you send your message?  This means media, from the broadest to the most personal. Understanding this can slash thousands of wasted dollars out of your ad budget.

Start loading your How Funnel at the top with broad market media such as Yellow Pages for all purpose ads and broad market newspaper ads. Your next level could include community newspapers and direct mail. Each level works toward a more personal form of communication. Just like in the Who Funnel, each level gets more specific. 

4. WHEN do you run these ads?  YP ads run year long. Some newspaper may run 26 times a year. Radio is seasonal. Direct mail can be 4-8 times a year per promotion. The frequency decreases right along with the number of people you contact as your messages become more specific.

Your contact rate would drop gradually throughout the funnel until it reaches its lowest point at the customer level of 4 contacts per year. If you’re not contacting customers at least 4 times a year then you’re begging them to leave.

5. HOW MUCH do you spend as a percentage of sales dollars? Contractors fear spending money on something yet to be realized, and this kills planning in its tracks. Aggressive marketers spend 6-8%, Moderates 4-6% and a Conservative 2.5-4%.

Yet, with the marketing funnel, the only totally “cold” marketing dollars are spent acquiring leads in the upper levels of the funnel, largely through direct response. As you work through the funnel, these dollars are spent following up or working in tighter, less expensive media with fewer and fewer marketing dollars.

The results of following the funnel are an instant increase in closing ratio at fewer marketing dollars.  Unfortunately, most contractors let warm prospects linger on the vine…letting them get perfectly “ripe” for buying… from their competition! This brings me to a startling revelation that ought to make you a little mad. Without a proper funneling sequence…

You’re marketing for your competition!

So don’t make that mistake.  Focus your marketing down the funnel, so more customers and sales will funnel your way. Who knows, you may end up with a Marketing Merit Badge for your trouble. You’ll be brave, reverent, and truly amazed at the results.

Teach a Man to Fish

Though I’d grown up fly fishing, I did a poor job showing my son how to fly fish (yes, this and any other shortcomings, including those yet to be discovered, are my fault). So my son was going to be a first-timer at everything in a type of fishing environment largely confined to connoisseurs with years of skill. Yet, he was eager. (Make a note of this trait.)

Since it’d been awhile since I had done any serious casting, I was out of touch with modern techniques and equipment. Plus, my son and I (added together) knew as much about the Trout in Colorado as say, the Sloth in Siberia.

However…

There was ONE element that GUARANTEED our success. And this ONE element will guarantee your success too, day in and day out, in business, relationships and in life. The best part? You do not have to wear rubber pants or risk wading into Tijuana. Nope! Success is contained in a single phrase.

Before I blurt it out, know that my son’s friends are serious outdoorsmen. They had fished nearly every day during the summer, had the latest equipment, had up-to-the-nanosecond fishing news and were intimately familiar with the rivers, bait and feeding habits of the fish.

So the Thing That Guaranteed Our Success Was:

Being trained on exactly what worked for others, and copying those steps.

Yes. It was that simple. We had built-in success. See the proof below! This included 3 simple parameters that apply directly to your business - -

“Where” to Fish? (Or “Where to Market?”)

“My Son caught a trout on his FIRST cast. True. His father, um, didn’t.”

My son’s friends had assessed that the 14 miles of river we “could” fish were mostly infertile or over-fished. They’d narrowed down the most predictablefishing to within a few hundred yards. This saved tons of time and dashed hopes.

Sort of like knowing you should: A) NEVER send a broad direct mail letter unless you already know the response probability from a simple split-test, B) Do NOT spend over 12% on Customer Retention or you get diminishing returns and C) DO use the “2-step lead multiplier” aimed at customers for web marketing. How do we know?

Because we’ve narrowed down the “14 miles of river” for you. It is our pleasure to tell you and show you. Here’s a quick video to help you find the way.

“What Bait to Use?” (Or “What Ad Message to Use?”)

The boys knew what the fish were eating. They knew where the fly hatches were because they’d spotted them before we had arrived. They knew their colors and – most importantly – already had a few of the mimicking flies.

Sort of like knowing the exact email and exact subject that generated a 406% response increase in web traffic. Or showing you which Postcard consistently produces a flood of tune-ups. Or which Direct Response offer outperforms “normal” rebates (The Trade-In) and which Newsletter ad always gets a laugh.

The same quick video invites you to SEE the exact ads, how they were used and the result they got.

“When Do You Use the Bait and for How Long?” (Or “How Long Do I Run the Ad?”)

Our boys knew that feeding time for brown trout was from about 3:30 pm ‘til about 7:00 pm, by which time at least ONE of us had no feeling in his feet. None. You could’ve told me my feet had already walked to the car and turned the heat on and I’d have believed you.

Plus, if we went more than 35 minutes without a “rise” (the fancy term for a trout opening his/her little mouth to inhale said microscopic fly), we just left and went to the next spot on the river, or just kept wading downstream, avoiding icebergs, boulders, anaconda, current-swept fishermen, whatever.

Sort of like knowing you should use the “21-Day Method” of lead generation from your database twice a year. (This has worked consistently for 10 years, and works even better on the web. Just call or email your coach for an explanation of this, whether you’re a member or not. This is child’s play and it’s costing you a fortune in media not to know this. )

“Even a trout- repelling dad can pull in a nice haul! Training makes ALL the difference. Let us guide you to a better business in 3 easy courses.”

We’re Going to Show You ALL OF THIS and Much More during the 2nd Annual NEXT LEVEL CONTRACTOR ONLINE MARKETING EVENT.

Last year, hundreds of contractors jumped at the chance to attend the “NLC” event, and this year it’s even bigger, with a theme I think you’ll love:

It’s called the “Web Marketing Battle Plan for Contractors.” The short video will tell you all about the event.

You’ll see the exact plan in 3 entire courses, 1-hour each, set 1 week apart. I’ve hired two Class A “Guides” to help me out. You get full downloads, workbooks, executive summaries and replay links.

1. The first course on September 13th is all about Online Lead Generation.
2. The second course focuses on Social Media in 10 Minutes a Day with Rebecca Hussey.
3. In the Third course, Steven Rowell will show you how to get it done! A full implementation blueprint.

Please know: Registration is limited to 550 people and is OPEN NOW. Check out the video and register soon. You will even get pre-event training videos, but I’m not sure how long that’ll last.

Please tell at least ONE FRIEND about this event. We’d be very appreciative.

SUMMARY: We could’ve “guessed” our way through Colorado’s fishing, and ended up predictably disappointed with the results. The same goes for web marketing. You can go blindly into it, “guessing” and “hoping” that you’re doing it right. Or you can COPY WHAT WORKS.

Let us show you the way. And I promise, you won’t end up in Tijuana soaking wet in rubber pants. Deal? Then watch the video!

Customer Retention Fantasy Land

Faster than a speeding Moped, more powerful than a 60-watt bulb, able to leap small children in a single bound…it’s me, Market Man! 

Ok, maybe it takes me two leaps, but children are growing bigger and bigger these days.  Have you looked at the size of these things they’re calling kindergartners?  It’s like they’ve all been eating their Wheaties…or else there’s something in everyone’s water but mine!

Enough about me and my delusions of vertical grandeur.  Let’s talk about the fantasy world you’ve been living in.  You know, the one where you provide someone a service once and then think that makes them a customer.  Or the one where your service and expertise is so amazing that customers remember your name and number with total recall, never visit the Yellow Pages again, and refer you endlessly to friends, family, and neighbors.

That’s the sort of LaLa land that will put you straight out of business and into the unemployment line.  In the real world, it’s your responsibility to remind customers that you exist and that you provided an exemplary service.  And if they forget you, guess whose fault it is?  Bingo.  Not theirs.

So, Who Are Your Customers?

Calls from returning customers don’t automatically come.  In fact, quite a few of the ones you rushed out to see on a cold winter (or warm summer) day for an emergency repair don’t even remember your name.  So, how could you expect them to remember that they’re your customer?  When they need a contractor again, they’ll probably be flipping through the Yellow Pages –starting the process all over. 

Now, don’t be offended that customers are so fickle.  Instead, you’d be much better off recognizing that human nature and sound marketing practices can work together to keep your customer files filled with active customers.     

So first, let’s clarify why your customers would lose interest in your company anyway.  According to a survey of 9,000 paying customers, customers leave for any of the following reasons:

§  4% said your pricing was unfair.

§  9% died or moved away.

§  12% had an unresolved complaint.

§  16% took a competitor’s offer.

§  55% left due to your “indifference”. This just means they didn’t think you cared!

The second reason is the only one you can’t do anything about.  And, the last two figures actually relate to the same reason:  71% left because you weren't there… but your competition was.

Customers value relationships with their vendors.  In fact…

• 37% said the relationship was the most important reason they bought.
• 22% said it was because they owned another product of yours.
• 14% were referred by a friend or family member.

Add those up, and 73% of your business has some relationship tie in. 

So, now you know two key points:  customers leave because you aren’t there for them, and they’re looking for a relationship. 

But here’s where these issues get further complicated.  Contractors typically spend up to 80% of their marketing money going after people with whom they have little or no relationship (Yellow Pages are the best example).  Yet, if they would redirect a portion into effective retention marketing, they could transform their contracting business. 

The simple fact is this:  Contact is the way to keep customers.  And, “contact” isn’t some kind of big marketing mystery.  It’s easy things, like follow-up phone calls after repair or service calls, thank you letters, holiday cards and customer newsletters. 

That last example, the customer newsletter, is the crown jewel of retention marketing.  They’re simple to use, quick, and customers keep them around.

Your newsletters should have information that is not solely about the business. This is because you must – repeat “must” – retain customers’ interest… and 2500 words on sump pumps will not do it.  In order to be effective and interesting, maintain a 60/40 split of “general interest” to “specific field interest” in your editorial split.  Call, email or fax us for a free sample.

The best newsletter campaigns give customers rich, interesting information that helps customers run their households safely and cost-efficiently.  Plus, they bring your company name and logo right into your customers’ homes.  It keeps them informed about new products and services while proving customer benefits. Best of all, it’s not perceived as “advertising” and thus forges a far better image and strengthens the relationship. A better relationship equals better retention.

One other important note:  You’ve already paid to get these customers. Studies show that it costs you $275-$325 to get a customer. Yet, a good Customer Retention newsletter only costs about $3 a year including postage for four issues.  It doesn’t take a financial genius to see that retention marketing is far less costly than acquisition marketing – and just as important. 

What’s Investment and Payoff In Customer Retention?

A Customer Retention campaign investment will range from a minimum of 6-8 of you’re your total marketing budget. You should send newsletters between 2-4 times per year to every customer who has written you a check in the last 48 months. That’s a paltry expense when you consider all you’ve just read. But for you fence-sitters, look at these figures…

§  Loyal customers spend 33% more than non-loyal.

§  Referrals among loyal customers are 107% greater than non-loyal.

§  Rate of referral is highest when closest to the point of contact.

The fact is your company’s current customers are the absolute #1 source of your future sales.  When you lose customers through neglect, you lose all of their future business and all of their referrals to your competition.  When you keep customers by maintaining regular contact, you keep that pool of sales for yourself.  So get your head out of the clouds and go keep some customers – before your competition beats you to it.  

Announcing: A No-Cost Sales and Marketing Training Vault

It is called “The Rule of Reciprocity,” and has been proven that when a person gives to another, it creates a sort of “vacuum” in the mind of those with integrity, such as, “I want to do something back for them.” Important to know, since…

This is parallel to our “Two-Step” Marketing where the “lead” is actually the result of having given something away to one who requested. Each year, we give away thousands of calendars, budget calculators, reports, local listing grades and more (well into 5 figures worth) for the speedy and well-identified lead.

Same holds true of our marketing for your results. Our marketing often gives away your front- end “Survey,” or “Scam Avoidance” reports, or “Shoppers Guides” or helpful Newsletter to earn the customer’s call or loyalty.

The method of “giving first” opens communication and fairness in a way no “normal” salesy, beggy or tension-filled request ever could.

That’s why we’ve just opened the “Marketing Vault” for SMI subscribers.
The SMI is moving from an ezine to a “No-Cost Training Resource” including:

• 4 Minute Marketer Videos – True to their name, these offer rapid-fire strategies and insider information to aid contractors seeking quick, video tips and training.
• Case Studies – These were hugely popular on the “old” SMI, so we’ve compiled them with proven steps to more leads, sales, using real contractor results. More importantly, these case studies use methods virtually any contractor can copy. Many of these case studies make their way to…
• Think-Tank Video Training – These are longer, multi-part videos that delve deeper into contractor marketing and sales challenges, showing “How It’s Done.”
• No-Cost e-Courses – These are 3 to 5 part “mini-courses” that arrive in your inbox, 1 per day, and lead you “step by step” through anything from building a Maintenance Agreement program to a 5-Day Website Makeover.

And now, since I’m not as smart as I think I am on every topic in the world, the following is a rather meaningful addition:

• Panel of Experts – SMI will now include training from consultants around the country who advise on hot trends in web marketing, social media, sales, customer service, publicity, operations, leadership and more. It’s like having a $5,000 a day (or more) consultant in your inbox!

And true to how I started this topic today, we’ve twisted their arms to give away real content, “things,” downloads and real benefits.

To Get This Party Started…

We’re giving away a “Pre-Launch” Package that includes:

• Ebook: Contractor Web Marketing Guide; this is 84 pages of ‘must-do’ material that demystifies web marketing, plus…
• Video #1: “Web Traffic Overload: 2 Step Lead Generator” with yours truly. It’s 61 minutes of rapid-fire, proven, repeatable strategies to take your online marketing out of the basement and into the attic.
• Video #2: “Skyrocket Your Social Media in 10 Minutes a Day” with Brian Kraff. 73 minutes of, by far, the HOTTEST social media tactics you MUST use to save time, and generate results. Brian unlocks what the other ‘experts’ want to keep secret.
  
  “I also agree to forward this offer to AT LEAST ONE OTHER HUMAN who is or pretends to be a contractor.”

Go HERE to get it all!

The Single, Powerful Marketing Principle That Can Change Your Business

Relationships compound, based on familiarity.

You can’t “skip a step”. To be rewarding, it must be earned.

It’s called “Funnel Marketing” and it takes the “old” Contractor Marketing model of “Let’s put every dime we’ve got into the Yellow Pages and see what happens” (a model I openly despise) and makes a more intelligent, rational, less costly but more results-based marketing plan.

We’ve advised it for the last 7 years with roughly 1,200 contractors, but now in its 3 generation of results, with help from the phenomenal volume of trackable data from websites, we see even more power behind it.

Here’s why it works.

One of the biggest mistakes contractors make is in assuming that all your customers are in a single group. Think about it.  You have strangers, acquaintances, friends, family – varying degrees of relationships, varying levels of communication.  And your customers aren’t any different.  If you – like much of your competitors – ever feel “a customer is a customer” you’re finished before you ever got started.

Tell your wife or husband they’re just like every other male or female and see how well that goes over.

In a business relationship, your job is to steadily “funnel” or advance customers through your company to achieve the maximum benefit for them and maximum profit to your company.  And it goes like this…

Your 5 Part Marketing Funnel

For marketing success, you’ve got to narrow your target audience from “everyone” to “those most likely to buy.” Funnel marketing is a proven way to make that happen.  Just like a kitchen funnel, the Marketing Funnel is broad at the top and narrow at the bottom.

The simplest way to explain it is that this form of marketing automatically and systematically “graduates” your customers from cold prospects to active customers.  It’s the process that enables you to move your message through a “funnel” that narrows to a tighter audience – and with more controlled media. 

Think each of these five funnels through as your message and means of delivering it narrow: 

1. WHO is your intended target market?   This is your most valuable funnel, by far.  “Who” goes from cold prospects at the top of the funnel, to contacted leads, to inactive or old customers, then to referrals, down to the active, spending customers. Fewer of them but the highest prized of the group.

The current and tragically flawed marketing model for contractors goes from “everybody” spending to “customer” spending in one huge step. And most companies don’t even separate that. It’s just “marketing” and one size fits all.

In other words, all the people who didn’t buy after the first contact, go right back into the “everybody” pile… where you get to pay for them again, just like they were never a prospect.

This also divides the world into only two groups: the entire general public and your customers. That’s the same as saying all people are either total strangers or close friends. If you follow this rule in your marketing model, it’s costing you a fortune in sales and a fortune in wasted advertising.

2. WHAT are you saying? This is your ad message according to your familiarity with the group. “What” you say is your biggest challenge. I critique hundreds of ads every year for contractors and I can tell you these almost never say the right things, in the right order, or in the right way. Many of them are offensive, hokey, or just plain amateur.

Take all your leads inwardly through your messaging. Advance your prospects from a big-market, broad message to narrower “follow up” message, to “reactivation” message, to “retention, upsell” message (Newsletters, Maintenance Agreements) at the bottom of the funnel.

3. HOW do you send your message?  This means media, from the broadest to the most personal. Understanding this can slash thousands of wasted dollars out of your ad budget.

Start loading your How Funnel at the top with broad market media such as Yellow Pages for all purpose ads and broad market newspaper ads. Your next level could include community newspapers and direct mail. Each level works toward a more personal form of communication. Just like in the Who Funnel, each level gets more specific. 

4. WHEN do you run these ads?  YP ads run year long. Some newspaper may run 26 times a year. Radio is seasonal. Direct mail can be 4-8 times a year per promotion. The frequency decreases right along with the number of people you contact as your messages become more specific.

Your contact rate would drop gradually throughout the funnel until it reaches its lowest point at the customer level of 4 contacts per year. If you’re not contacting customers at least 4 times a year then you’re begging them to leave.

5. HOW MUCH do you spend as a percentage of sales dollars? Contractors fear spending money on something yet to be realized, and this kills planning in its tracks. Aggressive marketers spend 8-10%, Moderates 6-8% and a Conservative 3.5-5%.

Yet, with the marketing funnel, the only totally “cold” marketing dollars are spent acquiring leads in the upper levels of the funnel, largely through direct response. As you work through the funnel, these dollars are spent following up or working in tighter, less expensive media with fewer and fewer marketing dollars.

The results of following the funnel are an instant increase in closing ratio at fewer marketing dollars.  Unfortunately, most contractors let warm prospects linger on the vine…letting them get perfectly “ripe” for buying… from their competition! This brings me to a startling revelation that ought to make you a little mad. Without a proper funneling sequence…

You’re marketing for your competition!

So don’t make that mistake.  Focus your marketing down the funnel, so more customers and sales will funnel your way. Who knows, you may end up with a Marketing Merit Badge for your trouble. You’ll be brave, reverent, and truly amazed at the results.