Then, and only then, is it worth spending time, energy, and that hard- earned cash, turning on those Taps.
The ‘sales funnel’ is a picture that depicts how many people you lose through a buying journey. If you really wanted to choose a kitchen implement to visualise this, it would be a colander!
This is why we use Bucket, Funnels, and Taps instead. It shows more clearly why you need to start at the bottom and work up. Do this in any other order and you will necessarily be wasting money some- where.
Build your marketing baseline to support every step in a sale
With a new mental image of how marketing supports sales from end-to-end, you next put yourself in your buyer’s shoes, and map marketing to the way they think and navigate a buying decision.
For this you’ll need to decide WHAT to say, WHEN & HOW to say it, and to WHOM.
What to say
Here, you want establish a clear interconnected set of messages that take someone through the whole journey. We use the powerful Logic Sandwich™ messaging framework, taking you well beyond that opening one-liner. It gets you to pinpoint messages that trigger an emotional response – usually a negative one. This creates a path to logical thought, where you’ll need to prove your credentials. You then cement the deal with emotion again – this time positive and inspirational showing the outcome buying from you would move them towards.
When & how to say it
This is about earning the right to a person’s precious time. By choos- ing a set of marketing tools and techniques, you respectfully allow them to steadily increase the amount of time they give you, over time, as they build towards their decision.
And, to whom…
Then, identify which third parties they turn to at what point. Typically, people will cast the net wide to create a long-list, and then draw in to a closer circle of people whose opinion matters more as the decision draws near. Mapping this through means that you can focus energy on getting the right people to say the right thing about you, at the right step in their decision.
These three elements combine to build a Baseline Marketing Activity Plan that supports all the way through from initial awareness to ongo- ing loyalty. So much more powerful that simply generating leads!
Tweak your marketing leaks from the bottom up When you’ve mapped this broadly, zoom in to the finer detail. We use the Thirteen Touchpoint Leaks™ to prioritise the elements of a com- plete marketing toolkit, starting at the bottom. This ensures means every investment builds incrementally on the last, and every penny is carefully placed to deliver long-term profits.
In a boot-strapping start-up, you’d use this to put a tried and tested technique in place from the bottom up. Setting the bar at creating each element at ‘functional and not embarrassing’ gives you cash- flow. Then go back to the bottom and tweak it up at each and every
62 • STRATEGY •
opportunity. So many start-ups spend their precious cash on expen- sive marketing Taps, only to see it run straight down the drain.
Make marketing a lifetime healthy habit for your business
Following these steps, you will have re-wired your brain to under- stand your buyers’ thinking, and mapped your marketing to that. Many will find that this takes a lot of foundation work in things like systems, skills, and creative.
These things cost. They cost in time, emotional energy, and in money. In many businesses, especially start-ups where it may be a first-instance, these investments will pay back over years, rather within the financial year. It takes stamina to push through.
Much like going to the gym and jumping on the scales every day… the needle will barely have moved. This does not mean you should stop. Indeed, if you do (February gym cancellations!), the effort you’ve put in will have been in vain.
Here, a clear future vision, backed up by robust measurement that balances long- and short-term metrics, equips you to maintain mar- keting momentum.
George Spence, MD of Redspot Storage, commented: “I’d spent money on lead generation. I’d see a quick boost – but I just couldn’t get it to stick. After 18 months following the Watertight Marketing ap- proach, I’ve got my Touchpoint Leaks to Amber. Addressing them in order, with the red lights first, has significantly reduced the fire-fight- ing and our income is on a steady upward curve. We’re completely ready for what we know is coming down the tracks. We’ve doubled bookings. That’s just by tweaking it up one level in a way we could manage… not taking massive leaps. I’m confident, and excited, to calmly step things up yet again with our third facility well on track.”
Join Bryony Thomas for her next one-hour FREE webinar, the 4 Steps to Sustainable Sales.
watertightmarketing.com/4steps
Bryony Thomas is the best-selling author of the multi-award winning book, Watertight Marketing, and founder of the country’s only network of quali- ty-assured marketing consultants.
watertightmarketing.com
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