Marketing Rules

Marketing’s 95/5 Rule That They Didn’t Tell You About

The 95-5 rule is a fundamental concept for business growth in the B2B landscape. It states that only 5% of your target market is actively seeking a solution at any given time. The remaining 95%, while not currently in the buying cycle, represent your future customer base. This emphasizes the importance of demand generation as a key strategy for building brand awareness and nurturing relationships long before buyers are ready to purchase.

The Problem with Lead-Gen:

Traditionally, B2B marketing has focused heavily on lead generation, targeting individuals actively searching for solutions. While lead generation remains important, it only addresses the 5% of your market that is currently in-market. This approach ignores the vast potential of the 95% who are not actively seeking a solution but may become future customers.

The Benefits of Demand Generation:

Shifting from lead-gen to demand-gen offers several advantages:

  • Long-Term Relationship Building: Demand generation focuses on nurturing relationships with potential customers and industry influencers, building trust and loyalty over time. This leads to stronger sales conversions and long-term customer value.
  • Wider Audience Reach: Demand generation strategies reach a broader audience, including those not actively searching for your product. This expands your potential customer base and opens doors to new markets.
  • Reduced Dependence on Inbound Leads: By proactively creating interest, you reduce reliance on inbound leads, making your marketing efforts more predictable and less dependent on immediate market trends.
  • Brand Building: Demand generation activities like content marketing and social media engagement enhance your brand’s reputation and authority, attracting and converting leads more effectively.
  • Adaptation to Changing Buyer Behavior: Modern consumers are more informed and empowered, requiring businesses to adapt their marketing strategies. Demand generation aligns with this shift by providing valuable content throughout the customer journey, not just at the point of purchase.
  • Better ROI: While lead generation may offer short-term gains, demand generation provides a superior ROI over the long term. By nurturing relationships and focusing on the entire customer journey, you increase customer lifetime value and generate more sustainable revenue.
  • Alignment with Modern Marketing Techniques: Demand generation leverages modern marketing techniques such as inbound marketing, content marketing, and social media engagement, maximizing their effectiveness in today’s digital landscape.
  • Competitive Advantage: By adopting demand generation, you differentiate yourself from competitors who rely solely on lead-gen, gaining a competitive advantage through a strong brand presence and consistent customer engagement.
  • Data-Driven Insights: Demand generation utilizes data analytics to understand customer behavior and preferences, allowing you to refine your strategies continuously and make informed decisions based on real-time insights.

Conclusion:

While lead generation remains valuable, demand generation is essential for long-term B2B success. By understanding the 95-5 rule and focusing on building brand awareness, nurturing relationships, and engaging a wider audience, you can position your business for sustainable growth and adapt to the ever-changing B2B landscape.

Building an effective digital marketing program for your business can be confusing today due to the many available options. Pull out your calendar right now and let’s schedule a time when we can figure out together the ONE BIG THING you should do first to get more prospects aware of your products and services that will convert them to customers as well as start an effective marketing plan to get your brand IN Demand! Sign up for a FREE 30-Minute Discovery Call to audit your current marketing plan for better results.

Oh!  When we do talk, you will get our “No Pitching” guarantee. No pitching means we will not try and sell you in any way. If you want MORE after 30 minutes you will have to ask for it!  We think that sounds fair, don’t you? Well, after all, that is what we are known for.

FOCUS 24 Series Discussion Topics

7 Tips To Better Email Marketing

7 Ways to Boost Email Campaign For Better Conversions – Infographic

Improving your email marketing strategy is a never-ending endeavor to increase results. Here are 7 ways to boost your email campaigns to get more opens and click-throughs to your content.

Here’s a quick summary with much more detail below the infographic for you to do a deep dive into the content with ideas and suggestions:

  • Write to one person
  • Write consistently
  • Write stronger subject lines
  • Test the length of your email copy
  • Add stories to your email copy
  • Focus on one response per email
  • Create sequence

7 Ways to Boost Email Campaign Conversion

Here are 7 things you can test and apply to boost email campaign conversions in more detail:

1) Write to one person: Email is a personal communication medium. While people do use email for work, people receive email on their phones, on their tablets, and on their computers when they are home, at play, and traveling, in addition to at work. So it may make sense for you to write emails in a personal voice as if you were writing to only one subscriber, even if you have untold thousands reading the same message. Each subscriber who reads your promotions will feel more like they are receiving a personal communication. Don’t you feel more connected when someone writes to you personally? I’m asking to demonstrate the point because by addressing you in the second person as ‘you’, I’m demonstrating the very writing style I’m suggesting in this tip.

2) Write consistently: The phrase out of sight out of mind applies to email marketing. If you email less than once every week or two, you risk having some subscribers forget who you are. As long as you are sending emails that your subscribers find valuable and interesting, there is a benefit to more frequent emails. While it is important to match your subscribers’ expectations as to how often you will send emails, some of the most successful email marketers mail daily, and some mail even more than once daily. That may not be appropriate for your situation, but if you have reason to mail more frequently it may increase your conversions. If you’ve only ever mailed infrequently, it may be a good idea to invite your subscribers to opt in for a higher frequency list and restrict your higher frequency email schedule to that new list.

3) Write stronger subject lines: One of the most effective ways to boost your email conversions is to get more emails opened. After all, an email that goes unopened can’t get any conversions. Self-interest is a powerful motivator and curiosity can be even more powerful than the promise of personal gain. Curiosity allegedly killed the cat, after all. That’s why using curiosity or a benefit in your subject lines, or even better, using both, can boost your open rate significantly. You may find that mailing the same email with a different subject line will get a different response from the same list. Try split-testing the same email copy with different subject lines and see which ones convert best to your list.

4) Test the length of your email copy: Few debates have raged along within copywriting as to whether short or long copy outperforms better. The best answer is: it depends on your situation. If you are currently writing short emails, test writing longer copies and vice versa. In today’s hectic lifestyle pace, you may find that readers will respond to shorter copy with a more direct approach. Or, you may find that subscribers will respond to longer, more in-depth messages if they enjoy your messages and like to immerse themselves in the content. Similarly, some offers are so obvious that a straight-to-the-point pitch will convert better than a long wind-up. However, more complex offers will suffer without a sufficient case being made. Either way, the copy is never too long, it’s only too boring. As long as the copy is good, it should convert and hold the target audience’s attention and should be as long as necessary to do the job, and not longer.

5) Add stories to your email copy: Most emails are predictable and boring, especially after subscribers have received the same basic message format over and over again. If you tell engaging stories in your emails you could see a substantial increase in conversion, even when selling the same offer. For example, if you tell stories about your customer’s successes, your own experiences, or even the story of the development of your product, the message can be more engaging and convert higher. We are conditioned across human history and across all cultures to find stories engaging and the best salespeople use stories to convey sales messages.

6) Focus on one response per email: A common mistake many email marketers make is to divide the focus on their emails by asking their subscribers to consider too many different things in a single message. For example, you could promote an upcoming event, or a new product, and ask for a response to a survey all in one email. But the reality is that your subscriber is more likely to respond to a message that is focused on one thing. There are many reasons for this tendency so it’s worth testing to see if exclusively focusing on one topic per email boosts conversions. After all, if you want to promote a product and the email contains multiple links to different calls to action, how can you know how effective the offer was? This advice may not apply to a newsletter with multiple topics, but it almost always does apply to a dedicated email promotion tasked with selling an offer.

7) Create sequences: People tend to like to finish what they start when it comes to installments. If you can create a series of several emails about a topic then make sure to mention that in the subject line. For example, “How to lose weight over the holidays (Part 1 of 5)”. When you mail this series to your list people will tend to try to read each one. This can boost your conversions because you have captured your subscribers’ interest. Also, if they tune in on Part 2 then they may well seek out the previous email and also pay extra attention so as to be sure to see the remaining parts. That’s why it is better to say ‘Part X of Y’ than just stating ‘Part X’. That way your subscriber can anticipate how many parts to watch out for.

Of course, you don’t have to apply all these 7 tips at once. However, doing just one can help you increase your profitability relatively easily and you can test more of these strategies in a step by step manner as time and resources allow.

The key is to understand that increasing conversions can be accomplished in many ways and to test different factors on a consistent basis to maximize profitability.

Desired:

Imagine how much more profitable your business could be if you could increase your email campaign conversions by just 10%. Or 20%. Or even 50%. With the tips above, you can start seeing results immediately.

Action:

Implement one of these tips today and see how it impacts your email campaign conversions. Then, come back and try another tip. By testing and tweaking your email campaigns on a regular basis, you can maximize your profitability and achieve your business goals.

Bonus Tip:

Personalize your emails as much as possible. Use your subscribers’ names, birthdays, and other relevant information to make your emails more relevant and engaging.

Do You Have an Ideal Buyer Profile

Focus 24: Creating The Ideal Buyer Profile For My Business

Creating an ideal buyer profile (ICP) is an essential step in any successful marketing strategy. An ICP is a fictional representation of your ideal customer, based on your existing customer data and research. It includes information such as demographics, psychographics, and behavioral data.

By creating an ICP, you can better understand your target market and tailor your marketing messages and campaigns to their specific needs and pain points. This can lead to increased conversion rates and revenue for your business.

Here is a step-by-step guide on how to create an ideal buyer profile for your business:

  1. Identify your best customers. Start by identifying your most profitable and successful customers. These are the customers who are most likely to buy from you again and who are most likely to recommend you to others. Once you have identified your best customers, take some time to analyze their common characteristics.
  2. Collect customer data. Once you have a good understanding of your best customers, you can start to collect data on your target market. This data can come from a variety of sources, such as website analytics, customer surveys, and market research reports.
  3. Analyze the data. Once you have collected a significant amount of data, you can start to analyze it to identify trends and patterns. This will help you to better understand your target market’s needs, pain points, and motivations.
  4. Create a buyer persona. Once you have analyzed the data, you can start to create a buyer persona for your ideal customer. This is a fictional representation of your ideal customer, based on the data you have collected. Be sure to include information such as demographics, psychographics, and behavioral data in your buyer persona.
    • Here are some examples of information to include in your buyer persona:
      • Demographics: Age, gender, location, income, education level, occupation
      • Psychographics: Interests, values, lifestyle, hobbies
      • Behavioral data: Website behavior, social media behavior, purchase history

  1. Validate your buyer persona. Once you have created a buyer persona, it is important to validate it to make sure that it is accurate. You can do this by surveying your existing customers or interviewing potential customers.

  2. Use your buyer persona to guide your marketing. Once you have a validated buyer persona, you can use it to guide your marketing efforts. Use your buyer persona to create targeted marketing messages and campaigns that are relevant to your ideal customer’s needs and pain points.

Here are some additional tips for creating an effective ICP:

  • Be specific. The more specific you can be when creating your ICP, the better. Don’t just say that your ideal customer is a “small business owner.” Instead, try to narrow it down to a specific industry, size of company, and job title.
  • Use data. Your ICP should be based on real data about your existing customers and your target market. Don’t just make assumptions about who your ideal customer is.
  • Keep it updated. Your ICP should be a living document that you update regularly as you learn more about your customers and your market.

By following these tips, you can create an ICP that will help you to target your marketing efforts more effectively and achieve your business goals.

Creating an ICP can be a time-consuming process, but it is a worthwhile investment for any business that wants to improve its marketing results. By taking the time to understand your target market and create an ICP, you can create more effective marketing campaigns that will help you achieve your business goals.

Not sure where to start? We make it easy for you by providing a FREE 4-Step Guide To Creating Your Ideal Buyer Profile that you can download right now to help you find the best buyers for your products and services.

Building an effective digital marketing program for your business can be confusing today due to the many available options. Pull out your calendar right now and let’s schedule a time when we can figure out together the ONE BIG THING you should do first to get more prospects aware of your products and services that will convert them to customers as well as start an effective marketing plan to get your brand IN Demand! Sign up for a FREE 30-Minute Discovery Call to audit your current marketing plan for better results.

Oh!  When we do talk, you will get our “No Pitching” guarantee. No pitching means we will not try and sell you in any way. If you want MORE after 30 minutes you will have to ask for it!  We think that sounds fair, don’t you? Well, after all, that is what we are known for.

FOCUS 24 Series Discussion Topics

 

Focus 24: Importance of a digital marketing infrastructure for your business

Focus 24: Importance Of Having A Digital Marketing Infrastructure For Your Business

Having a strong Digital Marketing Infrastructure is the foundation upon which all successful digital marketing campaigns are built as well as a thriving business. It is the collection of technologies, tools, and processes that businesses use to manage their digital marketing activities.

A well-designed digital marketing infrastructure can help businesses to:

  • Create and deliver personalized content and experiences to their customers across multiple channels.
  • Automate marketing tasks and workflows to save time and resources.
  • Measure and track the results of their marketing campaigns to improve their effectiveness over time.

The Key components of digital marketing infrastructure

  • Website: A business’s website is the foundation of its digital marketing presence. It should be well-designed, user-friendly, and informative.
  • Content management system (CMS): A CMS is a software application that allows businesses to create and manage their website content.
  • Marketing automation platform: A marketing automation platform helps businesses automate their marketing tasks and workflows, such as email marketing, social media marketing, and lead nurturing.
  • Customer relationship management (CRM) system: A CRM system helps businesses to manage their customer relationships and track their interactions with customers.
  • Data analytics platform: A data analytics platform helps businesses collect, analyze, and visualize their marketing data to gain insights into their customers and their marketing performance.

Benefits of a strong digital marketing infrastructure

A strong digital marketing infrastructure can provide businesses with a number of benefits, including:

  • Increased efficiency and productivity: Digital marketing automation can help businesses save time and resources by automating marketing tasks and workflows.
  • Improved customer engagement and satisfaction: A well-designed digital marketing infrastructure can help businesses create and deliver personalized content and experiences to their customers across multiple channels, which can lead to increased customer engagement and satisfaction.
  • Better insights into customer behavior and marketing performance: Data analytics can help businesses gain insights into their customers and their marketing performance, which can be used to improve their marketing strategies and campaigns over time.

How to build a strong digital marketing infrastructure

The first step in building a strong digital marketing infrastructure is to assess your current needs and goals. What are your marketing priorities? What channels do you want to use to reach your customers? What tools and technologies do you need to support your marketing activities?

Once you have a good understanding of your needs, you can start to select the right technologies and tools for your digital marketing infrastructure. It is important to choose technologies and tools that are integrated with each other and that can scale to meet your growing needs.

Finally, you need to put in place the processes and procedures needed to manage your digital marketing infrastructure effectively. This includes developing a content calendar, creating workflows for managing leads and customers, and establishing reporting and analytics procedures.

Conclusion

A strong digital marketing infrastructure is essential for businesses that want to succeed in the digital age. By investing in the right technologies, tools, and processes, businesses can improve their marketing efficiency and productivity, increase customer engagement and satisfaction, and gain better insights into customer behavior and marketing performance.

Here are some additional tips for building and maintaining a strong digital marketing infrastructure:

  • Keep your technologies up to date. Digital marketing technologies are constantly evolving, so it is important to keep your software and applications up to date. This will help you to take advantage of the latest features and functionality, and it will also help to improve the security of your digital marketing infrastructure.
  • Regularly review your digital marketing infrastructure. Your digital marketing needs may change over time, so it is important to regularly review your infrastructure to make sure that it is still meeting your needs. This may involve adding new technologies or tools or removing technologies or tools that are no longer being used.
  • Train your employees on your digital marketing infrastructure. It is important to train your employees on how to use your digital marketing technologies and tools effectively. This will help to ensure that your marketing campaigns are executed efficiently and effectively.

By following these tips, you can build and maintain a strong digital marketing infrastructure that will help you achieve your marketing goals. To receive a FREE Digital Marketing Infrastructure Checklist click here and one will be emailed to you.

Be sure and check back next week as I will share how to make sure You Have An Ideal Buyer Profile For Each Of Your Products and Services. 

Building an effective digital marketing program for your business can be confusing today due to the many available options. Pull out your calendar right now and let’s schedule a time when we can figure out together the ONE BIG THING you should do first to get more prospects aware of your products and services that will convert them to customers as well as start an effective marketing plan to get your brand IN Demand! Sign up for a FREE 30-Minute Discovery Call to audit your current marketing plan for better results.

Oh!  When we do talk, you will get our “No Pitching” guarantee. No pitching means we will not try and sell you in any way. If you want MORE after 30 minutes you will have to ask for it!  We think that sounds fair, don’t you? Well, after all, that is what we are known for.

FOCUS 24 Series Discussion Topics

Super Charge Your Conversion Machine

FOCUS 24 Series: Super Charge You Conversion Machine

From now until the end of 2024 we are going to be posting a weekly blog post to get your business marketing and sales ready to kick some but in 2024. So stay tuned for more. Also, look at the end of this post so you can see what is coming in the weeks ahead plus links to what you may have missed already.

You may not believe this but your website is the most important tool that you have in your arsenal. Many think that you can set it and forget it once it is live. Truthfully nothing could be further from the truth.  Many see little or no results that impact their bottom line year after year. Well, your website needs to get ready to become a supercharged conversion machine!!

So here are some things for you to take a close look at when evaluating your website to give you an advantage over the daily hand-to-hand combat to find and convert new customers. Here are some of the strategies and tips to help you optimize your site for better-qualified customer conversions:

  • Understand Your Audience: This is fundamental; however, you would be surprised at how many marketing teams don’t survey their sales team to really understand your customers. Talk to your sales reps regularly. They are on the front lines and can give you a good insight into what motivates potential customers to buy from you. Simultaneously, you need to conduct market research regularly to understand your target audience’s needs, preferences, and pain points. The combination of these insights will help you create buyer personas to tailor your content better and offers to their specific needs. Don’t rely on your feelings that you are confident about who your customers are because due to the current economy and the state of business today that is changing regularly. I assure you your competition is not asking or listening to their customers.
  • Clear Call to Action (CTA): CTAs guide visitors on what actions to take next. Without clear CTAs, users might leave your website without interacting with your content or taking desired actions, such as making a purchase, signing up for a newsletter, or contacting you. Most importantly prospects need to know how to do business with you.  You need to lead prospects through your clear simple buying process. Placing prominent and compelling CTAs throughout your website, such as “Request a Quote,” “Sign Up,” or “Get Started.” Make sure CTAs stand out visually, with contrasting colors and clear, concise copy.
  • Lead Capture Forms: These forms are a primary means of collecting information from website visitors who have expressed interest in your products, services, or content. These forms allow you to capture potential customers’ contact details, such as their name, email address, phone number, and more. Keep forms concise and request only essential information to get them qualified based on your goals to reduce friction.
  • Landing Pages: Create dedicated landing pages for specific campaigns and special offers. Landing pages are designed with a specific conversion goal in mind, such as encouraging visitors to sign up for a newsletter, download a checklist, request a quote, book a dior make a purchase. Their singular focus on a particular action reduces distractions and increases the likelihood of conversions. When a prospect requests something from you they have crossed over wanting to know how you are going to help them solve their problem. Does the information you provide Optimize landing pages for conversions by maintaining a clear focus and removing distractions?
  • SEO (Search Engine Optimization): SEO helps your website be found on the internet across various topics and related to your location. You need to optimize your website for search engines to improve visibility in search results related to your company. Focus on keyword research, on-page SEO, and backlink building.  When was the last time you had an in-depth website audit to see just how you are ranking for the things you offer? It is time now to get that done prior to 2024 so you can be optimized for conversions. Find out how!
  • Mobile Optimization: Over 54% of your internet traffic now comes from mobile devices, such as smartphones and tablets. If visitors encounter a non-optimized website on their mobile device, they are more likely to leave immediately (with a high bounce rate). Ensure your website is responsive and mobile-friendly to ensure a great mobile experience.
  • Page Load Speed: How fast your website loads on any device is critical to not only ranking in the search engines but also when your website is optimized for rapid load times it reduces bounce rates and improves the user experience. Compress images, use browser caching, and choose a reliable hosting provider to ensure your site is loading fast.
  • Validation: Display customer reviews, testimonials, and case studies to build trust in what you can do for your customers. Showcase any industry awards, certifications, or partnerships to establish credibility. Prospects want to see that someone else, other than you, validates your offerings.
  • Email Marketing Integration: Integration with an email marketing platform such as Hubspot or Zoho Campaigns enables you to automate personalized email campaigns. You can set up automated drip campaigns, welcome emails, abandoned cart recovery emails, and more to engage with users at the right time. Implement email capture forms and offer incentives like newsletters, discounts, or free resources. Use automated email marketing campaigns to nurture leads and move them through the sales funnel.
  • A/B Testing: A/B testing helps you identify which variations of a webpage or specific elements (such as headlines, images, buttons, or forms) perform better in conversion rates. By optimizing these elements, you can increase the likelihood of visitors taking desired actions, such as signing up, making a purchase, or filling out a form. Continuously test different elements of your website to identify what converts best needs to .
  • Analytics and Tracking: Make sure you have Google Analytics set up or other analytics tools to monitor visitor behavior and conversion rates on your website. Stop right now and make sure you have it on your website now. Use data insights to make informed decisions and optimize your website further.
  • Social Media Integration: One of the primary goals of social media is to drive traffic to your website. Sharing blog posts, product pages, and other content on social media can attract users who may not have otherwise discovered your website as well as great demand for your products and services. Promote your website and content on social media platforms to drive traffic and engage with your audience. Use social media advertising to target specific demographics and segments. Promote value, ideas, and tips that help prospects and customers grow their business so you can become the SME (Subject Matter Expert) that everyone wants to follow.
  • Live Engagement: Implement chatbots or live chat support to engage with visitors in real-time and answer their questions. Chatbots can provide round-the-clock customer support, ensuring that users can get assistance or information whenever they need it, even outside of regular business hours. Live chat and chatbots can assist users in making purchasing decisions, answering questions, and addressing concerns, ultimately leading to higher conversion rates.
  • Exit-Intent Popups: Use exit-intent popups to offer last-minute incentives or capture contact information before visitors leave your site.
  • User Experience (UX) and Design: You know the saying: a first impression is a lasting impression. Your website is often the first interaction a user has with your brand. A positive UX creates a favorable first impression, which can lead to increased trust, credibility, and engagement. Ensure a user-friendly design with easy navigation and a visually appealing layout. Minimize distractions and make it easy for visitors to find what they’re looking for.

Remember that lead generation is an ongoing process that needs to be updated regularly. What works for one website might not work the same way for another. Continuously monitor your website’s performance, test new strategies, and adapt to changing market conditions to optimize your lead generation efforts effectively.

Building an effective digital marketing program for your business can be confusing today due to the many available options. Pull out your calendar right now and let’s schedule a time when we can figure out together the ONE BIG THING you should do first to get more prospects aware of your products and services that will convert them to customers as well as start an effective marketing plan to get your brand IN Demand! Sign up for a FREE 30-Minute Discovery Call to audit your current marketing plan for better results.

Oh!  When we do talk, you will get our “No Pitching” guarantee. No pitching means we will not try and sell you in any way. If you want MORE after 30 minutes you will have to ask for it!  We think that sounds fair, don’t you? Well, after all, that is what we are known for.

FOCUS 24 Series Discussion Topics