To run a business, there are things that MUST be done and things that are less important. If you have a limited budget, it’s even more important to concentrate on the priorities.
Setting up sales pages on your website and running ads and emails ( and connecting them together into sales funnels ) are all actions that are often needed to promote and run a business.
BUT they are a tier or 2 down from your starting point.
It’s important not to have your attention tied up in details when you’re working on a plan.
The TOP 3 THINGS that must be done are just below, and the basis of any business plan is working out how they can be effectively implemented.
The way to run any business, on the internet or off is …
- Contact people
- Make them an offer. The first offer should also collect their contact details ( emails, phone numbers etc ) so that you can offer them more things later.
- Deliver what you offer.
Repeat & increase this as fast as you can.
The other steps that marketers mention just smooth it out : things like building trust through testimonials or referrals, guarantees & copywriting techniques.
Contacting people starts with advertising to get the initial attention. And steps 1 and 2 are often done in one action when you offer people something in exchange for their email address or phone number.
If you’re reading this page, then I’ve contacted you and I’ll make you an offer right now. Email me at robert@spellboundweb.com & I’ll talk with you about how these steps can be implemented in your business.
Here are some details to help you with the 3 steps.
Step 1
Work out where to contact new people online. This research plan can help.
Then run ads on Facebook, in Google Ads, on the Google display network. The following 2 posts can help with that.
Step 2
Collect contact details by asking people to leave you an email address or a phone number. Offer them something in return, like a phone call, a download or a trial.
After you have contact details you can offer people more things. There’s a flowchart showing how this can be done that you can download here.
The best place to make an offer is on a page of your own website.
You can also make offers on Facebook, on stand-alone landing pages, in directories and the ads you run. But you have more flexibility on your own website pages to list all the details and control dynamic aspects like popups and followup actions, like forwarding visitors to other pages and email sequences.
Step 3
Delivering a product ( or service ) in good time & hopefully one that’s better than expected builds goodwill and this …
- increases how many future offers will be taken up by existing clients and customers and
- leads to existing clients and customers referring you to new people.
A strategy that you can use to help work out the details of these 3 points is covered in this post about top-level planning. AND my simple digital marketing checklist will smooth things out.
Email me at robert@spellboundweb.com for a talk.