The most successful businesses can figure
out a way to get more customers or users in
a cost-effective way.
What is the best way to get out the word
about your business? What secrets do you
need to implement to get ahead of your
competition? How can you get more
customers in a profitable way?
I recommend that you read Do It! Marketing:
77 Instant-Action Ideas to Boost Sales,
Maximize Profits, and Crush Your
Competition .
Promoting a business is an ongoing
challenge for all businesses. Startups and
established businesses must conquer the
customer acquisition battle.
I challenge you to implement the following
low-cost, high-impact marketing methods to
promote your business .
It’s customers not products that
make a business.
1. Start with a plan.
The core of every marketing plan is the
customer. Who is your customer? Your
answer will have a huge impact from here on
forward. If you give a vague answer, there is
a good chance that your business will fail.
The more specific you can be the more likely
will the foundation of your marketing plan
work.
Here are the questions you must answer
about your customers:
Who is your customer? Consumer or
Business?
If consumer – s*x, what age (old, young,
or child doesn’t work), male female,
income, education, level of education,
etc.
If business – What industry (what sic
codes)? How many employees? What
location? Size of revenue? Years in
business?
How do they make buying decision?
Whose products do they currently buy?
Who are they influenced by?
What industry events do they attend?
How are their buying decisions
influenced?
What websites do they visit?
What is their favorite social media
accounts?
2. Determine lifetime value (LTV).
Some might call it “break evenâ€, but we’ll
call it LTV. If your business is to succeed,
you have to get new customers in a
profitable way. The way to get there is to
calculate the LTV. LTV is the estimated
revenue generated from a customer.
Here are some important variables for
calculating LTV:
Average sales – What is the average
sales amount?
Customer lifespan – How long will a
person or business remain your
customer?
Customer retention rate – What
percentage of your customers will
repurchase? If you have a transactional
business like a coffee shop you will have
a very different customer retention rate
than a wedding band.
Profit margin – Depending on your
industry your net profit margins will vary.
Health care and real estate are among
the highest profit margin sectors.
Accounting, tax preparation, and book
keeping has the highest profit margin at
nearly 20%.
The simplest way to estimate lifetime value
is:
(Average value of the sale) x
(Number of repeat sales) x
(Average customer retention rate)
For example, let’s look at an SEO company
whose customers spend an average of
$1500 per month for for two years.
($1500) x (12 months) x (2
years) = $36,000 in total revenue
(or $18,000 per year)
Based on the above number and
understanding your profit margins, you are
ready to set the appropriate budget going
forward. Of course, the above is a highly
simplified calculation, but it is enough to get
you started thinking about the process.
3. Update your website.
Many times your website will be the closer
in the sales cycle. And, if your website is not
about selling then it is about building
credibility.
Don’t squander an opportunity to get a new
customer by having an old outdated website.
Here is the bare minimum of a website you
must have to use it as a customer
acquisition machine:
Use WordPress as your website platform.
There is a reason is has become the
most popular website platform. It is
simple to use. It scales. Most importantly
it is a highly reliable platform.
Get a responsive design. If you want
customers who own smartphones and
tablets, you must have a responsive
website.
Hire a professional web designer to
create your website. I know it cost
money. After all you are running a
business and there are certain things you
shouldn’t skimp on.
Post excellent content, and lots of it.
Yes, your website must position you as
the authority in your field. The best way
to do that is to have tons of great
content related to your niche. If your
content is not good enough to be
published by an A-list publication, keep
improving it.
Have a call to action. Once you get
people to your site, tell them exactly
what to do.
Aggressively grow your email subscriber
list. Email marketing is still the most
effective marketing method.
4. List your business in search engines – if
your website is new.
Listing your website in the search engines is
not the most effective marketing tactic
anymore, but if you have a brand new
website your should do it. Both Google and
Bing offer free listings for local businesses.
So, why not?
To get your brand new website listed in Bing,
go to bing places for business .
To get listed in Google, go to Google My
Business.
There are other paid services to include your
site into search engines, but I do not
recommend any at this point.
5. Set up your LinkedIn company page.
This is especially important if you have a
B2B focus, but any business could benefit.
Set up your LinkedIn company page
completely. You can add your company logo,
describe your services, and share content
daily about your company.
6. Configure relevant social media accounts.
At least you should have a Facebook and
Twitter page set up for your business. The
key here is not to over do it. Most
businesses are pretty good about setting up
the accounts, but that’s where it ends. It is
important to stay active. If all you do is
create the account, just to abandon it, you
are wasting everyone’s time. To easy the
load, start with one account and when you
are comfortable with it add one more, and
so on.
7. Sign up for an email marketing service.
I personally like Mailchimp, but there are too
many email marketing options out there to
mention. It is important to send regular
emails to your leads, prospects, and current
and past customers. Email marketing is still
one of the most effective marketing tactics.
8. Aggressively grow your email list.
The same way it is easy to set up a
Facebook page it is easy to set up an email
marketing account. What’s hard is to grow
your email subscriber list. Most website with
an email signup, wrongly, ask people to sign
up for a newsletter. Honestly, is there
anyone out there who wants to get yet
another newsletter? I didn’t think so. So,
instead of asking people to sign up for
something they don’t want give people
something valuable in exchange. You could
give away an ebook, a special report, or
special list.
9. Send regular emails.
As you are building your subscriber list, it is
important to stay connected. At least you
should send one email update per month. I
recommend sending text emails instead of
fancy html ones. The more your email looks
like a regular text email, the more likely will
people actually open it.
10. Form strategic partnerships.
Strategic partnerships help you grow your
business exponentially. Strategic
partnerships can help you get more sales
without hiring any more sales people. You
should look for a strategic partner who
serves the same customers as your
business. When you reach out to a potential
strategic partner make a case for mutual
benefit. You will only have a lasting strategic
partnership if it works for both sides.
Don’t stop at one strategic partner. Any
company can come up with a hundred
potential strategic partners.
Consider the following about strategic
partnerships:
Create a list of at least 100 potential
strategic partners. Look for companies
that are larger than yours and more
established than yours.
Focus on building a relationship with your
strategic partners. You are not building a
transactional relationship.
As you approach potential strategic
partners, have a strong case showing the
benefits, to both sides, of partnering.
Make sure your cultures align.
Negotiate the details of the partnership.
Build the required support system to
ensure the success of your partnership.
Do not agree to exclusive partnerships.
11. Learn from your competition.
Don’t hate your competition. Think of them
as you teachers, but don’t copy them. Study
their marketing tactics. Learn about their
pricing. Find out what their customers say
about them. Follow them on social media.
Consider what they do well. Can you do
better than your competitors? Just a little
better is not enough. To get your
competitors’ customers to make the switch,
what you are offering must be a lot better.
Use the following list to learn from you
competitors:
Where do they advertise?
How much do they charge for their
products or services?
What do they do well?
What do they do poorly?
What do their customers say about them?
What can you do better than your
competitors?
Can you become bigger, better, faster,
cheaper, more reliable, more respected
than your competition?
12. Build a referral network.
Referrals generate some of the highest
quality leads for any business. When
someone refers your business they are in a
sense vouching for the quality of your
service. A referral lead is many times more
valuable than a lead you buy.
Important note! Your referral network is not
the same as your customers. Don’t expect
people within your referral network to
become your customers. That is not how it
works.
Here is how to build an effective referral
network for your business:
Identify the right networking groups for
your business. There are many
networking groups out there and most of
them don’t work for most businesses.
Your job is to find a few that work for
your business. Here is a hint. Some of
the best networking groups are not
called networking groups.
Reach out to people in your larger
network. Send them an email, tell them
about your business, and the the types of
customers you are looking for. Keep your
email short and to the point.
Contact influencers within your
community and your industry.
Provide referrals. When people know that
you reciprocate they are more likely to
refer you business.
Take excellent care of your customers.
Your customers are your best referral
sources.
Be an active part of your industry and
community events.
Use email and your social networks to
build and nurture your referral network.
Always ask for referrals. When you get a
compliment, ask for a referral. Every time
you start a new project, ask for a
referral. When you successfully complete
a project, ask for a referral.
13. Join forums your customers visit.
A great way to get in front of your
customers is to hang out in forums they
visit. Become part of the conversation. Don’t
sell. Be helpful. Mostly help answer
questions. Spend 80 percent of your time
helping and 20 percent selling.
Referral networks are very powerful, but they
take time and effort to build. Don’t expect
overnight results, but it will pay off in the
long term.
14. Blog regularly.
A business blog is one of the best platforms
to get more customers. Your blog helps you
several ways. For starters, it helps to drive
traffic to your site. Instead of paying for
traffic you could have qualified prospects
landing on your website simply because you
have some amazing blog posts.
Many entrepreneurs get excited about
blogging. They are doing OK for a while, but
most of them quit before they succeed. The
key to successful blogging is to stick with it.
Blog regularly.
When people land on your blog you can start
converting them from site visitor to lead to
customers.
The best way to make sure that you blog
regularly is to have an editorial calendar.
Plan ahead for at least the upcoming thirty
days.
15. Join Triberr.
A blog without promotion is a waste of time.
Triberr is a great platform to promote your
blog and to network with other bloggers.
Dino Dogan is the founder of Triberr. You
can check out my interview with him .
Think of Triberr is the social network for
bloggers. Triberr will help you promote other
peoples’ blogs and in return they will
promote your blog.
16. Build an authority website.
Authority websites are customer magnets.
Whatever you niche is you can turn your
website into an authority.
Authority websites have the following
features:
A lot of related content. If your niche is
web design , your website should have
tons of content related to everything web
design.
Add several different types of content.
The best authority sites have text,
images, audio, and even video content.
Create better quality content than what’s
already out there. If you find a great
article on your niche create one that’s
better researched, more detailed, longer,
with better images.
Interview experts and publish it on your
site.
Produce videos and post them on
Youtube. Then link them back to your
own site. People love videos.
Post original content.
Create content for humans not search
engines. Worry less about SEO and
optimization and more about producing
excellent quality content.
Long content is more valuable. Short
articles have much less clout. Articles
with 2000 words of more are more likely
shared than shorter articles.
Promote your content through your
social network accounts.
17. Take SEO seriously.
SEO is the best way to get free traffic to
your site. Even if you are not an SEO expert,
you should learn enough to be dangerous.
The first thing you have to know about SEO
is that it takes a lot of hard work.
There are two ways to get great SEO
results:
1. You can pay a professional SEO company
and pay them big box.
2. You hire someone to do SEO internally.
The thing to remember about SEO is that it
is no magic bullet. Also, there are no real
secrets about SEO. SEO is content
marketing.
18. Attend seminars.
Seminars offer a great way to network with
people, learn about industry trends, and to
form strategic partnerships. Do your
homework before you register. Call the
organizers to find out more details. Ask to
speak with attendees of past seminars. They
cost a lot of money and there are so many
of them you want to attend the best ones.
19. Improve your conversions.
If you could double your sales conversions
of you could double you revenue. Optimizing
your conversions is usually the quickest way
to increase your customers.
There are many ways to improve your
conversions, here are just a few:
A/B test – designs, ads, calls to action,
shopping carts, images, and prices.
Experiment with alternate images,
headlines.
Use different layout and navigation.
Change the color, text, and size of your
order B*ttons.
Set up a sales funnel.
Use simple language. Don’t write above
9th grade reading level.
Address possible objections during the
closing process.
Build more trust and credibility.
Reduce the number of choices. Too
many options reduce sales.
Offer proof that your product/service
works.
Remove distractions from your checkout
process.
Learn from your competitors.
Add incentives to buy now.
Offer a warranty.
20. Sign up for HARO.
Help A Reporter Out aka HARO is a great
tool for creating greater awareness about
your business. HARO is a PR tool for
entrepreneurs.
Check out my interview with HARO founder,
Peter Shankman.
21. Offer livechat on your website.
Live chat is one of the best tools to convert
someone who is looking into a customer.
You should only have a livechat installed on
your website if you are monitoring it. A big
turn off for me to see the livechat icon on a
website with an off setting. Don’t install
livechat if you are not going to use it.
22. Offer a discount to those who share your
product on Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest,
blog, etc.
You have friends, customers, and a lot of
other people in your network. Why not ask
them to share your product with their own
friends. In return you can give them
additional discounts and rewards.
23. List your business in online directories.
Online directories were all the rage during
the early days of the web, but they are still
effective. Find directories relevant to your
industry and list your website.
24. Become a speaker.
Speaking is a great way to establish yourself
as an authority. Reach out to professional
organizations, seminars, and trade shows
and volunteer to become a speaker.
25. Guest post on blogs.
Guest bloggers gain instant access to new
audiences. If you are a good writers, reach
out to relevant blogs and offer to submit a
guest post. It is important to be familiar with
the blog prior to pitching. People see though
half-hearted attempts. We get those all the
time here at Success Harbor.
26. Offer discounts and deals.
People love discounts. I know I ended up
buying in the past because there was a
discount. A discount is not enough to sell
the product, but it can be the little nudge
people need to buy.
27. Create a direct marketing campaign.
Everyone is talking about digital and social
media, but direct mail is still very effective in
attracting new customers. The entry to
direct mail is much higher than email. It
doesn’t cost any money to send an email
while direct mail has some real costs
involved.
Direct marketing is great to test new
markets. Direct mail is also more cost
effective than many other forms of
marketing.
28. Write a book.
Thousands of people write blog posts, but
only a very small percentage of those will
publish a book. A book is a great
differentiator. You don’t have to charge for
your book. You could give it away as a gift
to get more email subscribers.
29. Use Slideshare.
You could take your most popular blog posts
and turn them into presentations. Slideshare
is one of the most popular presentation-
sharing platform. They have over 60 million
unique visitors in a month. When you post
your presentation on their site you will get
eye balls on your work.
30. Publish a press release.
There is no reason why you couldn’t publish
a press release once a month. You could
write a press release about a new product or
service. Press releases give you a great
opportunity to share what’s new with your
business.
Use one of the free press release
distribution sites:
Prlog
OpenPR
Newswire Today
31. Create Craigslist classifieds.
You can create free ads on Craigslist to
promote your business. Craigslist is one of
the top visited websites online. That means
they get a lot of traffic. Craigslist results
show up in Google results. Only a very small
percentage of businesses are using
Craigslist for marketing, so you are in a less
competitive environment. If you can create
great looking ads, you will outshine the many
badly designed ads. Best of all it’s free to
use.
32. Create a seminar or webinar.
When you create your own seminar of
webinar you control the content and the
attendees. I prefer the webinar format
because you are not limiting your geo target
area. You can charge or offer your webinars
for free.
You can also record your webinar and reuse
it.
33. Be active on social media.
Many companies have Facebook pages, but
most of them are inactive. It is a big turnoff
when I look at a Facebook page and the last
post was sometime last year. If you are
going to get more customers through social
media, you have to stay active.
34. Sponsor an event.
Sponsor local or industry events. This is one
of the more expensive marketing tactics, but
it can be effective. The key here is to find
the right event. Be very selective and make
sure your target market attends the event.
35. Optimize your website.
Optimize your website the following ways:
Make sure your website is mobile-
friendly.
Use small file size images to improve
load times.
Include unique page titles with your
target keywords.
A/B test
If you have a WordPress website, keep it
updates. Don’t use too many plugins.
Plugins can slow down your website.
36. Install Google Analytics (GA).
GA is the free analytics tool your website
should use. If you don’t understand what’s
going on with your website, how could you
make improvements?
37. Donate some of your products or
services.
I am sure you want to support some great
causes while growing awareness about your
brand.
38. Design infographics.
Infographics are excellent for Pinterest
marketing. They also make for great blog
posts. You can repurpose your most popular
blog posts into infographics.
39. Become a content marketing
powerhouse.
Content is what differentiates failed brands
from successful brands. Content marketing
is the only SEO you need to do for your
business. Think of content marketing as the
organic traffic growth engine.
Most content marketing efforts fail.
Why?
Because companies ignore what makes
content marketing work.
Here is what you need if you are going to
attract more customer with content
marketing:
Understand your audience. Who is your
customer? Who are your best prospects?
Who would find your content useful?
Align your content with your marketing
and sales goals. Your content should
appeal to different stages of the sales
cycle.
Create content to increase brand
awareness through blog posts, articles,
webinars, and infographics.
Create content to increase the number
of qualified leads through webinars, case
studies, and guides.
Create content to close the sale through
implementation guides, free trials and
free evaluations, and live demos.
Content cannot promote itself. Promote
your content. This is one of the most
often neglected part of content
marketing. Promote your content through
social media, email marketing, and paid
advertising.
Measure the effectiveness of your
content marketing efforts.
Make adjustments as needed.
40. Create an affiliate program.
Affiliate programs work really well for
products. If you have a service business, you
could still productize some of your offerings.
For example, if you are a graphic designer
you could offer a logo design as a product. If
you are a web designer , you could offer
monthly SEO as a product. Affiliate
programs are not for product companies
only.
The greatest thing about an affiliate program
is the there is really no cost to you. You
only pay when an affiliate brings you a sale.
There is very low financial risk. But, you
should be selective in terms of finding the
right affiliates for your business.
41. Create an online training program.
Whatever industry you are in, you can get
more customers by creating a training
program. You could create a 10 part training
program based on the 10 most frequently
asked questions. When you offer free
training you are getting loyal followers. Your
followers will convert to customers much
more quickly than regular leads. Even though
you offer your training program for free, it
still has to be excellent quality.
42. Start a podcast.
Podcasting is another way to grow your
customers. When you have your own
podcast you are looked upon as an authority.
What should your podcast be about?
Interview experts in your industry.
Provide training and/or tutorials.
Offer product reviews.
Interview customers.
Convert a case study or a blog post into
a podcast.
Encourage people to subscribe to your
podcast. Post details of your podcast on
your website. List your podcast in iTunes,
Stitcher, and more podcast directories.
Market your podcast the same way you
would market any other product.
43. Create an XML sitemap.
A sitemap is a list of pages on your website.
Think of it as a quick pointer for search
engines. XML sitemaps make it easier for
search engines to crawl your website. The
more of your pages are in the search
engines the more traffic will you get.
Although XML sitemaps don’t directly affect
your search rankings, not having one could
hurt your rankings.
44. Reach out to influencers.
Network with influencers. Influencers can
introduce you to much larger audiences.
Make a genuine effort to get to know them
before you ask them a favor. Read their
blogs. Comment on their posts. Interact with
them on social networks. Once they get to
know you, you can reach out to them for
input or cross promotion ideas.
45. Make videos.
Video is one of the most popular content
online. When you publish video you will
immediately grow your audience. Not sure
what kind of videos to make for your
business?
Think of the following possible video topics:
Customer testimonials.
Product reviews.
Training and tutorials.
Interview experts.
Convert your most popular blog posts and
articles into videos.
46. Run a contest.
Contests are a fun and exciting way to get
you more paying customers. Before you start
your contest understand your demographics.
Contests are not equally effective for all
demographics.
The prize you are giving away should
reinforce your brand. If you specialize in
luxury products, it makes sense to give away
something that is perceived to be a luxury
item.
The easier you make entering your contest
is the better. Facebook pages make for a
great platform to run contests.
47. Network with the right people.
The key to networking is to network with the
right people. Networking is a time-consuming
activity, so you have to make sure that you
are not wasting time. In order to meet the
right people you have to go to the right
places.
First, identify the people you want to
network with. Then, find the places you can
meet them. Seminars, trade shows,
professional organizations are a great place
to start.
48. Pay for traffic.
There is no better way to get quick traffic to
your site than paid traffic. Yes, it can be
expensive, but it doesn’t have to be. For
example, you could run a re-targeting ad
campaign on Facebook fairly inexpensively.
Instead of spending the bib bucks on Google
Adwords campaigns, you could advertise on
small niche sites where your potential
customers hang out. Even if you have a
small monthly budget, paying for traffic
might be worth it.
