Your ROI will increase as you travel up the pyramid

Fundamental growth for business is easily captured by my marketing philosophy. Similar to Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs each level builds upon the previous level of developmental psychological needs. Maslow fully expressed the chart you see here in his 1954 book “Motivation and Personality”.

Building your online marketing presence is a careful process. Protect yourself from confusing customer service agents. Be careful not to waste money on flashy new gadgets that are proven to sell. I will show you how to approach each level of marketing. Within my philosophy, cost-effective options are available at each level, all while increasing your ROI.  

Add each level of marketing as a way to increase your bottom line with earnings. Growing your business is about the relentless pursuit of opportunity. Increase in your marketing to capture the momentum you create. In that order. If your income does not increase as you increase marketing spend then you are doing too much too fast. As you grow and climb the pyramid you should be protecting the momentum you have built with your added efforts.

Approach each level from the very beginning at a low cost. This will give your insight to approach the full scope with understanding as you grow your business long term. If you have not yet considered each level now is the time.

LEVEL 1

The Essentials…

Everything you do starts with a solid website. Your website will serve as a foundation to connect all of your tools and marketing language. Your website doesn’t have to be flashy and elaborate. A simple landing page with your core information is good enough for people to find you if they are looking for you. Adding each level will help people find you even when they don’t yet know who you are but need your services and products.

In any business the easiest way to keep in contact with clients and potential customers is by using a strong EMAIL list. Personalizing those emails will show that you care for each person with a hands on approach to their needs. I will show you how powerful your email list will be for you as you build each level on top of this foundation.

Simple Google Tools are free and easy to set up. You will need a Gmail to get started. It will be very important to optimize your setup of these tools. If you would like some professional help making sure you are doing this the right way, look for marketers to provide a one time fixed pricing arrangement to get you started. You should have Google My Business with all fields completed as well as some Social Media to support your ideas and values. Other Google Tools will include Webmaster Tools, Search Console, Google Analytics, Google Alerts, Google Tasks, Google Calendar.

The Safe Bet…

In this next level it’s all about making a sure bet on how to get consistent clients. PPC marketing done the right way will guarantee a regular source of clients.

Google estimates that for every dollar you spend on search ads you will bring back two dollars of revenue. This is an average based on amateurs and professionals together. Personally I would be very disappointed with my results if 2x ROI was the best I could do for you. Working with a professional will greatly increase the money you make from this approach with each click. Paying for clicks can be expensive to it is important to be wise in your spending.

The more expensive tool in this section is Customer Resource Management software. This kind of tool is good for businesses with high end clients that need to be tracked for repeat business. The simple and cost effective way to do this is with staying organized through spreadsheets and manual operations. As you scale your operations for larger production it will be absolutely critical to have the right CRM to maintain consistency and plug gaps in your activity. A good CRM will stop leads from dying as fast. You will not have to worry about keeping in contact or understanding where your efforts are best served. Automation is the strongest aspect of having a good CRM. Good automation will act as a full time employee in your marketing efforts.

Social Acceptance and Validation…

As you solidify your efforts in the first 2 levels it will become very important to make sure your clients are saying good things about you online. This level should not cost you very much money but will greatly increase and validate your efforts in the previous 2 levels. You should see your revenue double as word of mouth spreads.

Sentiment Analysis will monitor your relationships with customers in other valuable ways. As your number of reviews reach 100 or more it will be increasingly important to understand if people are saying the things about you. Understand common sentiments will help you manage your employees better. Also you will see what days of the week may need a promotional boost. Particular items that need additional advertising to boost sales will expose themselves in this type of analysis.

If you are looking to expand your business or enter new territory competitive analysis can provide the due diligence you are looking for to point out new opportunity. This can be important to do from the very beginning if you are a start up in a competitive market.

Respect from Google…

SEO and other content marketing services are the most coveted after purchasing a website. Many people approach me for advice in this area before they have themselves established. Everyone wants to show up on the first page of Google search for their favorite keywords.

What many people do not understand is that SEO is all encompassing. Your overall SEO will include everything you do online and offline. Having your website coded properly to meet Google Best Practice standards will require the work of a professional that pays close attention to Google update releases. Google vary rarely announces any updates to their search algorithm.

Doing the right thing with your website will often require some level of SEO surgery. You will need a professional to open up the guts of your code and get things sorted out. More importantly you need people to love the content that you are presenting. Proper sales funnel to bring new people to your site will drive traffic. Also having the right content to get them reading is very important. Having a website that loads fast doesn’t matter if people don’t find you captivating. Blogging can be time intensive if you are not an avid writer. I enjoy writing but I often times overthink things and get writers block.

Taking your time with the previous levels in my diagram with SEO on your mind will allow you to build a solid foundation for strong ranking before you worry about the details of your code and digital best practice. Once people love you for doing the right things, paying for SEO will have a much faster turnaround. Ranking organically can take 6 to 9 months. Faster turnaround happens when you already have good traffic to your website.

Self Actualization

You business will come full circle once you understand your Brand and begin to repeat that message in your advertising. I was once told that Marketing is what you say about yourself, and Branding is what your customers say about you.

As you begin to craft your branding messages you will understand the importance of Brand Guidelines. These are rules to live by as you train your staff to keep the message consistent. You want people to know what makes you awesome as you carve out your niche and claim your territory. Buying a completed set of Brand Guidelines can be very expensive. If you have a clear understanding of what this should be as you begin your journey you can greatly reduce these costs by forward thinking from the genesis.

People don’t fall in love with products or services, they fall in love with People and BRANDS. Add some emotional stimulus to your marketing and your customer service. Give people a reason to love you.