How to avoid the summer slump

Your busy, and that's great. Some of you are really busy. You've made good progress since the start of the year. 

Now you have stopped doing outreach, stopped doing lead generation, and neglected your marketing. Why? Because you are too busy working on your business, serving your existing customers and making them happy. 

We have all been here. 

Before you know it, the days turn into weeks, a month passes you by, and then 2 months where you have not reached out to any new prospects. You don't have a marketing system in place to bring in new leads. 

You hit the wall 

Common excuse (I hate)

."summer is always a quite period"

Summer is only quiet when you have not put in enough ground work in the 3 months leading up to it to have enough leads and consultations, to give you projects to work on. Most people start dealing with the summer when the summer arrives. Bad idea. Everything you do is always 3 months ahead of time.

What do you do now. 

Action 1: 

(20mins) Make a marketing outreach plan

Don't take too long doing it and it shouldn't be longer than 1 page. 

Before you do this, you know who you ideal customer is. 

If you don't have your ideal customer sorted, then refer to this post about how to build your perfect avatar. 

Plan to give yourself 1-2 hours every week for reaching out to new customers. Lock it into you diary. 

Action 2: Build a target list 

You should have a target list

Go through LinkedIn and search for ideal customer. 

Log their names in to XL. 

Set a goal to reach out to 10 new people every week with a personalised message. 

Action 3: Execute or Outsource 

Start reaching out to your target market. Invite them for a coffee, ask to buy them lunch. Tell them how you can help, and how you have helped other similar companies. 

If you realise that you do not have the capacity to reach out to new prospects. Hire a marketing partner to run this for you. 

ProTip: Prospecting tip

When you are doing outreach and prospecting, here are some basic rules. 

The #1 Rule: don't go for the kill in round 1. 

What Boxer do you know does that? It's normally in the later rounds that you can secure the win. 

So play the long game. 

Introduce yourself. 

Be entertaining. 

Offer some value 

Find out some relatable bit of information from their LinkedIn or other social platforms, and start with that. 

You're trying to build rapport by starting a conversation. 

Once that person knows, likes and, trusts you... now they will consider working with you!  

Now go ahead... kill that summer slump!

Building a referral business for a pet care provider

Consider putting in a formal referral program in place

Encourage people to refer you and they get X% off the next time. 

Also I have also seen companies successfully use a discount off the quoted price to encourage a referral. 

You could say to them, 

“BTW there is a 30% for you if you can refer me to 3 people" (which means pass on their info, or send an email to that person and CC you with an intro). 

Nowadays referrals need incentives.

 Ask them to share (and make it easy for them)

Ask your clients to share your message on social media. Give them the blurb ready to go, “your story in 1 paragraph”. So all they need to do is copy and post to their facebook. Make it easy for them to do it. If they are happy customers and loved your service they should have no problem doing this. 

 A contest

Or run a competition. Ask your old clients, even your facebook page audience, and tell new clients that they could be in with a chance to win a free $150 groom for their pet. All they need to do is like and share your post and they are in the contest.

Best of luck with it.  

When making contact with a new prospect, which is best: phone or email?

If it's your "ideal customer" you're going after, then I would suggest prime them a little before hand. Email first, see if they are active on social media, blogs, linkedin blogs etc, start to comment on their activity. So eventually when you do call them there is a more recognition rather than fully cold. 

Your first email most likely won't be read, but if it is read I would suggest you tell them you are going to call at a certain time. It takes the surprise element away from the call. 

​If you really wanna be a pro... do your research on that person. Scour their LinkedIn, blogs, facebook, find out what they are interested in. Use that thing to create a personable connection. (be careful not to be a creepster here whatever you eventually do say, make sure you don't sound like a stalker. When emailing, don't talk business in your first line. Be interesting, thoughtful, and relatable. 

7 of the best (and most useful) {and free} resources to share with you

Everyone loves free shit. Here’s some free resources that will help you.

And best of all, they are FREEEEEE.

Icon Finder

https://www.iconfinder.com/free_icons

What is it: Free icons

Icons are great for websites, flyers, any sort marketing material really.

Canva

Canva.com

What is it: Design anything.

From online banners, flyers and brochures, business cards, inforgraphics. Loads of templates to choose from.

 

Mailchimp

mailchimp.com

What is it: Free email marketing soltuion

its too easy

and now they have built in marketing automation, landing pages, website popups

 

Adspresso — facebook ad examples

https://adespresso.com/ads-examples

What is it: a collection of facebook ads for a variety of companies (over 130K)

If you are in the game of creating facebook ads. This resource is great to see what other people in your industry are advertising like.

 

Hootsuite

hootsuite.com

What is it: Social media manager

Manage your social media posting schedule, follow your competitors, follow important industry influencers. Target influencers with your content

 

Hubspot CRM

hubspot.com

What is it: A CRM

A place for you to manage all your contacts. You can move these leads along the pipeline until they become a client. Has in built email marketing function where you can response to prospects.

 

Gav’s Guide

nononsensemarketing.ca/gavsguide

What is it: Free marketing planner tool

Shows you every possible avenue for you to market your business and reach customers

Also provides a simple drop-down selector to build your own plan and start executing.

Here‘s to your FREEEEEEEEDOM

5 Things To Do this Monday to Start your week

5 things you can actually implement today...

and it won't take you all day

1. Draw out your sales funnel. (20mins)

A sales funnel is the journey by which your customer enters the selling process. It is a step by step process for converting a new prospect into a client. 

Take a sheet of paper and from left to right, take notes under each header

Education --> Awareness --> Decision --> Action

Traffic Source; Lead Magnet: re-targeting: automation/follow-up: close

Why do this? It might make it clearer for you to remove any roadblocks preventing people from moving to the next stage of the funnels




2. Ask for a referral. (5mins)

Go back over you clients for the last 6 months and call up one of them to ask for a referral.

3. Reach out to 4 people thru Linkedin. (15mins)

You should know you target market. Linkedin is great because you can search for that Job Title with a specific industry. Reach out to them and say that you work in "this industry", and you want to learn more about what they do. 


4. Answer a questions on Cuora (10mins)

Search Quora for questions relating to your industry 

This exercise is part of your "becoming a thought leader" strategy 



5. Write a day in your prospects diary

If you really understand your prospect, their wants, desires, feelings, and deepest fears. You should be able to write a day in their diary. 

Having that much insight is powerful and will lead you towards creating the right solutions for them!

You could even do it over your lunch hour...

"The Prospectors Lunch", we'll call it! 

How to start a Facebook Ad campaign (Very quickly)

How to start a Facebook Ad campaign (easily... and by remodeling what's working)

"Model those who have come before you". The best of the best are repeatedly staying that you should not reinvent the wheel. Tony Robbins, master life coach, Russell Brunson, click funnels creator and even Virgin's Richard Bransen are all in agreement that the best approach is to see what's working, re-engineer that model and adapt for your own.  

Simple right?

So here are some easy ways for your to spy on your competition and see what sort of Facebook campaigns are working. 


1. Set up an Ad account for free

If for you and your business only -  
https://www.facebook.com/ads/manager.

If you wish to manage multiple accounts - https://business.facebook.com/

2. Use Adespresso.com to see how your competitors are advertising

https://adespresso.com/ads-examples/
Type in your keyword, or search by industry and learn how others in your field are advertising.



3. See what ads your competitor is running
Visit your competitors Facebook page. Locate the 3 dots (...) in the top right corner beside the share button

Click the drop down and select "View Ads". You can now see every ad that the company is currently running.


4. Spying on your competitors traffic sources

Use Spyfu.com - you receive 10 free credits if you stick in an email address. Have a look at the referral traffic for your competitors website. If a decent (and consistent) chunk is coming from Facebook, then you know they are getting a high click through rate from their ads... you could be onto something!

Now you've got a good idea on what's working for your target market, let's create the ad.

Click here for the post on setting up your first Facebook Ad

What's wrong with the business basics - Friday tips for small businesses

Basic business principles

I know that business has become more casual in the way that people do business.

No need for full shirt and tie, meet a prospect in a coffee shop, no problem. Email sign off as "cheers mate, chat soon" is also part of it now. I understand the trend towards "less formal" communication but yet there are some basic principles that I think are utterly important to have that we CANNOT compromise on!

Non-compromise 1:
Email address
When did it become acceptable to put a gmail address on your business card? What does it say about your business? That you are not really professional, that you are not really serious about what you do. It's a simple thing, but it can have a very big impact on trust. 

And it goes without saying that hotmail, yahoo, and any others are also not business accounts, they are personal accounts.

Non-Compromise 2:
Networking
There is so must involved in a simple networking interaction and there are many many books on the subject matter. I've noticed a lot of poor networking etiquette that is not doing the person, the company and their brand any favours.  

One networker goes.."Can I have you card?", you reply "Sorry, I only have a few left". 

Essentially you have just said that this person you are speaking with is not important to you! You're really giving him the 2 fingers. How do you think he feels? Do you think he is going to refer you to a potential prospect down the line? Does that person have good feelings about you and your company? Basic courtesy here is crucial.

Ok, but what happens if I meet a prospect, I need to keep my cards to give to them, to give to this person that actually might need my service. 

Come on.. really.. that's simple. You can take our your phone and either add them on Linkedin, or take down their email address as a note. Or you can say. "Hey, I think I might be able to help you with that project, I dont have any business cards left but would it be ok if i take down you telephone number and email." Done, easy! 

Non-Compromise 3:
It's not about you, it's about them
Remember that business is not about you. It's about the other person of whom you can help. It's about solving their problems. 

Don't try and ram your services down someone else's throat. People are wiser these days and don't respond well to direct salesy type of communication. Instead, ask them first what they do, dig deeper, be interested in them, and try to figure out their problems and how you can help them. Then your respond to them is tailored and relevant and they might even like what you say.

The basics are to listen first. To use an old cliche. "You have 2 ears and 1 mouth, use them in that ratio". 


Non-Compromise 4:
Follow up. 
Build your network and make connections. Even if you have nothing of note worthy to say, you should still send an email to that person to say, nice to chat to you. See you at the next event.

But if you want their business, this is a great opportunity to earn their trust. Do some research into their industry, find something that you think is valuable and that they would be interested in. Something that they can do to solve a problem that they have. You are not selling anything, but you are building rapport, becoming a thought leader, and building your case for them to become a client. 

That's all for now
..

Go get it done!
-GuruGav
No-Nonsense Marketing

Fun Friday - Actual Marketing tips to implement today

(Don't just take note and put it on the to-do list for next week)

This is not for Next weeks to-do list

ok..


Reach out - are you reaching out?

People are talking about RO marketing nowadays. Well what the hell does that mean. It's kinda like a new take on networking, building connections, and growing through referrals.

It mean you should reach out to people. People who you haven't spoken to in a while. Ask them how they are getting on and how their business is going. 

Is your mind focussed on reaching out you just might spot an opportunity. 

And not just to prospects.. reach out to old friends, ex-colleagues, old clients. Maybe they don't know that you have a company. Maybe they know someone that needs your services. If anything you are being nice and remaining top of mind. 

So go, reach out to 5 people.











Tip 2. 
Harness your craft. 

If you wanna be the best of the best give yourself time to become the best. There are skills you can always work on. Scripting, persuasion, sales videos. Try new things, put it out there and see what the reaction is.  

2 hours in the morning dedicate to harnessing your skills. If you can't give 2 hours, give 1 hour. If you cant give 1 hour, then set your alarm 2 hours earlier and do it

Get it done
-GuruGav

Marketing launchpad - the A-Z of what you need to do!

A - Ask your audience. People often undertake business ventures without ever asking the customer. "would you buy such a product/service"

B - Be yourself. Time and time again the best gurus in the world are repeating that the only way to be true to be comfortable is to devise your own method. Find a certain method/style that you like and adapt it for your own.  

C - Customer-centric - always have the customer in mind from the moment you start. 

D - Devise your plan - a plan of where you wanna get to is important. And now I don't want to see a 40 page business plan. That's so 1998! A simple plan that is actionable, that is ambitious, that is there is front of you every day as a guide. From my years of business I've learned that the you can get most of you plan onto 1 single page. 

E - Evaluate the market, the competitions. See whats happening, what is out there that you can make better

F - FOCUS - do not try and do everything at once. Pick a few tasks to focus on and hit the ground running. 

G - GOALS - set goals, SMART goals. We've all heard that acronyms a million times. but its true. Use it, its a good baseline for focusing your efforts. 

H - Hungry. be hungry for the sale. Persistence is king. Don't be afraid of "pissing someone off" or being self conscious. No-one really cares about you- that's the mentality you've got to have

I - Ideal Customer - everyone is referring to this now as the avatar. Do you know their needs, desires, deepest fears, problems, what keeps them up at night, what they eat for breakfast. Put yourself in their shoes. 

J - JUST DO IT - thanks Nike. In an era of procrastination, distraction, notifications, fear, and self consciousness. Nike has some great word of wisdom. Just do out there an get it done. 

K - Keep yourself moving. If you've tried one avenue and it isn't working, pivot and try something else. Life is about split testing. That essential how all great businesses start, trying one thing, learning, moving to the next, spotting an opportunity here. etc

L - Laymans - make sure that you keep everything simple. In laymen terms. The world is becoming too complicated and your clients will appreciate the simplicity of your offering and the clarity in which you can explain to them about how you can help. No jargon

M -mentality. This is the no1 thing that is going to decided your fate. Mentality separates the men from the boys. Most of the top sales coaches and marketing gurus work on mentality alone. they believe that the tools and tactics and strategy can be adopted by anyone. Anyone who approaches the work with the right mentality

N - Network . another valuable asset, and one which most people shy away from. Just get involved, speak to people. be kind and genuinely ask question about their business. If they are not a prospect, maybe then know someone who is. Build your bridges early. 

O - Open doors - open the door and introduce yourself. Don't be afraid to ring someone and ask them to meet you for coffee. 

P - Proof is in the pudding. When you start working with customers, make sure to document what you did along the way and the results you achieved. This will essentially be your sales pitch to the new prospect. 

Q - Quit the mind. The best of the best are all turning to meditation as a way to calm the mind and really focus on the task at hand. Try Headspace App

R - Reach Out - look at your network, your extended network. anyone who you think might be a prospect of know someone. reach out to them
Also reach out to old university friends, school friends and ex-colleagues. your never know when an opportunity might arise from a simple Linkedin "how are things" message. 

S - Sales funnels - understand the flow of your customers journey from initial phase through to sales. what are the trigger points/persuasion tools 

T - Time. Is a crucial best friend. use her wisely. Read the 4 hour work week if you wanna know how to be a critical time keeper, and master productivity player

U - Use the various tools at your disposal. Youtube videos for learning, sales funnels software, lead magnets, landing pages, SEO tools. etc

V - Value - make sure you continue to provide value at every point in time. Consider the value ladder. (if you don't know read Dotcom secrets) if you are not providing value to the client you don't really have leg to stand on. So some ground work and really figure out a solution that is going to solve their problem

W - Webinars. If you fancy yourself in front of the camera, this can be an amazing way to bring in new leads. 

X - X marks the spot. Set your eyes on the prize and go for it. sell, sell, sell. Always be selling. Frame you mind to be consistently scanning the environment for possible opportunities and prospects. all day every day. 

Y - You.. are the only one who can determine your success. Which means.. look after yourself. Don't forget about your family. Stay in touch with friends, and keep in good health. All these factors will contribute to your overall health, your mental health--> mental strength-->business success

Z - zzzzz. don't sleep. But visualize. If you visualize your success the action you take every day will seem familiar and you'll feel more comfortable. 

BOOM
Now, get it done!

complements of www.nononsensemarketing.ca

February Blues (Like a hangover from January)

February blues are the real blues!!! Because you've started the year with so much gusto, a fantastic plan, then you get swamped. You think, faaaaaack!! What happened to January, I had grand plans but how can I keep going like this.

If this is you, you need help. Taking the weight off the shoulders is the best thing you can do for yourself and your business. Work on your biz, not in it. (overused cliche I know)

We all start off Jan with great intentions. Ambitions to grow, to connect with new people, to bring on new clients. X and Y should be achieved and you should be on your way to a solid Feb. But something has happened. Its hasn’t come as fast as we would like.

We’ve got suck running the business, with firefighting. Getting bogged down in the day-2-day. And yes it is hard to take yourself from the daily activities when you are in this alone.

Why has this happened?

Partially because our minds are sucked into the get rich quick, immediate ROI, 10K in 30days mentality, which is being touted in the media to helpless business owners. Unfortunately that’s not the way it works. It’s takes graft, creative strategizing, persistence, but no-one wants to hear that story.

Change your mentality. Believe in the process. Focus on the small steps you can do each day that will ultimately bring you closer to your goal.

So, here we have it.

February Blues — Hangover CURE

1. 1. Quickly analyze January — don’t spend too long at this.
   What worked, what didn’t, why didn’t I achieve on what I set out to do.
2. 2. Looking ahead — Feb and Mar (Q1) — really visualize what you are going to do these 2 months
3. 3. Don’t plan too much. Because “planning is the opposite of doing”. What can you honestly say you can commit to every day.
4. 4. Highlight the areas you want to focus on. 1 or 2 marketing tasks, don’t spread yourself too thin
5. 5. Make it an execution month. Where you set SMART goals and deliver on these goals daily.
6. 6. Sales funnel clarity — (and make it visual — funnelytics.io) Think of all the steps it is going to take to bring your client through the funnel from initial interaction to the sale
7. 7. Outsource and Automate — these should be your new best friends. Start adopting processes that automate the sales processes appointments scheduling, and follow ups.
8. 8. Capture info — You can easily set up you website with a lead capture, or run ads to drive prospects to a landing page with value.
9. 9. An email sequence — to nurture/warm your prospect. Offer value, then a discount, and then your core offer.

Some useful resources

I like Neil Patel, he covers the broad spectrum. Even interesting reads like “How to Do SEO When You’re in a Low-Volume Niche”

Landingi — a pretty cool sleek landing page creator. Its all drag and drop, they have pre-made templates that are 1 page optimized landing pages.

Digital marketer — beginners guide to Digital marketing, check it out

Facebook groups — they are tons of these. All providing great insights, free value, and brilliant for Q&A

Builderall — the all in one marketing solution. My favourite tool I’m using right now. Includes a website builder (drag and drop), sales funnel templates, landing pages, an email auto-responder. And is just down right fantastic to use. If you don’t want to pay $97/mth for Click Funnels. This platform is $30/mth.

Stay fresh, stay hungry!

-Gavin (founder)
nononsensemarketing.ca