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My business reached a milestone in June. postcard mania: Founded 25 years ago. It got me thinking about all the lessons I’ve learned as a business owner and entrepreneur.
At first, I was more green than green. We went from zero to $97 million in annual revenue and over 350 staff, after some rough times where we didn’t know what we were doing. Our company is still growing. In his decade before that he had a much slower growth rate of 5%, but over the past three years he has averaged 20% revenue growth.
Through those experiences, I grew as an entrepreneur and gained valuable business insights that I wish I had someone to confide in.
In order to avoid some of the mistakes I made along the way, I’ve taken the time to articulate the three biggest lessons I’ve learned from 25 years of business ups and downs. Thankfully, there were far more ups than downs.
Related: 10 Lessons I Learned After 10 Years in Business
Lesson #1: Marketing budgets and revenue growth are tied together
There have been times in my career when I had to choose between paying for myself and paying for marketing. In 1998, I was a graphic designer with a dream and a computer. That was it.
When I started PostcardMania, I put as much money into marketing as possible. Due to my strong determination to grow my business, I paid myself very little living wage for many years.
I took an old Nissan Pathfinder to save on car payments. Sometimes I used my credit card to help pay (although debt should be avoided at all costs if possible), or I took money out of my house to buy a building for PostcardMania (which was a very smart choice for me, and it worked).
Those sacrifices paid off when my business took off. The more we marketed, the more leads we generated and the more our revenue skyrocketed. As PostcardMania steadily grew, I also increased my marketing budget. We noticed that our revenue growth reflected our investment in marketing. The more money they put into marketing, the more profit they made.
Think of it like the classic board game Monopoly. At first, he is hesitant to spend $1,500 when he starts the game (in real life, he didn’t even have $1,500 to begin with!). However, players quickly learn that he has two types. Those who hoard money to play it safe, and those who spend it all on real estate. And now I actually have enough money to invest in real estate, and I have a lot of it now.
In the end, everyone notices that the player with the most assets wins, as they get cash for every time someone lands in that space.
The same is true in the real world. If you don’t spend as much money on marketing as possible, someone else will, and your business will pay the price in the long run. But if you’re doing marketing, over time that money will come back, and some more.
So buy Park Place and New York Avenue. And when I get a little more cash from there, I’ll build a house there. It turns out that the biggest winners don’t play it safe. They move across the board.
maybe you’re not spending money right now Any Marketing costs money and you need to set a budget. Take your time and create your marketing budget as soon as possible. This is the first step to success.
RELATED: 7 Business Takeaways From Monopoly
Lesson #2: Beating Your Competitors Requires a Unique Selling Proposition
A unique selling proposition (USP) is a unique aspect of your business that your competitors don’t. Take Zappos, for example. Tony Hsieh started one of the first online-based shoe retailers, but even then there was competition.
What made him stand out? All returns and exchanges are free shipping. He found that what keeps people from buying shoes online instead of in-store is the inability to try them on before purchasing. By removing the problem of costly returns, people can now buy as many shoes as they want and return only the ones that don’t fit with no financial penalties. Zappos was sold to Amazon for just under $1 billion in 2009.
When I launched PostcardMania, we were ahead of the competition in many ways. We were the first to sell direct mail postcards directly to businesses at very low prices. For example, instead of paying $1,200 for 5,000, you sold 5,000 for $329. Before the word was coined, we were the first companies to offer free marketing advice without taking a commission, such as starting a blog. We are the first company to offer all the services you need under one roof, from ordering to postcard delivery. It didn’t just have one USP, it had multiple.
The first few years of business saw exponential growth reaching eight figures. In just four years, the company has ridden a wave of industry disruptors, surpassing her $10 million in annual revenue. The company was growing at close to 100% every year.
But competitors have caught up. They immediately started doing what we were doing, but the impact on our bottom line was worrying.
I knew I had to do something, so I took inspiration from Zappos and Tony Hsieh.
I looked within my industry for things that people didn’t like and that might deter them from buying. And it turned out that it was the fear of not getting a return on the investment. People wanted to know that mailing postcards would get results, so I tackled the problem head-on. I hired a full-time person (now an entire department) to track the results of successful campaigns and understand what factors contributed to their success.
We are currently analyzing thousands of success stories. 750 case studies Published on our website (only with permission), our clients can see exactly what companies in similar industries have done to generate revenue. None of my competitors do that!
So take some time to define what makes your brand unique. Instead of just claiming “best customer service” or “best product”, dig deeper. Then pitch like crazy and watch the results come.
RELATED: 4 Key Business Lessons I Learned as a CEO
Lesson #3: Create an Integrated Sales Funnel to Generate a Better Return on Investment
Every tactic is necessary when marketing a business. The combination of these tactics working in harmony to move a potential buyer from ignorance to awareness to curiosity to purchase is called the sales funnel. An optimized sales funnel integrates online and offline technology.
The big change for me was when I added digital advertising to my direct mail campaigns. We knew we needed to invest in the latest technology to stay ahead. This means the integration of digital targeting features and websites.
The postcard in the mailbox was no longer just a postcard in the mailbox, it was the starting point for people to connect with brands online. The mail to your home, the ads in your social media feeds, the videos you’re watching and branded reminders at the top of your inbox, all work together to drive traffic to your website, where the real magic happens.
Whether a prospect enters the sales funnel via email or clicks through your website, follow-up is always key. Every action a prospect takes should prompt another action that moves them closer to a purchase. Once a prospect has progressed far enough along the funnel that he or she visits your website, you need to get them to fill out a form, send an email, make a phone call, or make a purchase if your site has an e-commerce system.
Too many business owners consider this first website visit to be the last resort in any prospect’s customer journey. But one of the greatest lessons I’ve learned in his 25 years is to never give up on the lead.
For example, if a prospect visits your site but doesn’t convert, you can follow up with them offline using a technology called direct mail retargeting. This works similarly to digital retargeting ads, but instead uses physical mailers to encourage repeat visits and purchases from her website. These mailers are so automated that you don’t even have to lift a finger to start the process.
Related article: 21 lessons I pledged to myself after 21 years as an entrepreneur
Never underestimate the power of visible advertising. That’s why direct mail is such a powerful marketing tool for me, allowing recipients to touch, feel and see more than a typical digital ad.
It can take some time for users to take action, so be consistent in your follow-ups. I will continue to email, call, mail, and display ads to every prospect who has ever visited my girlfriend’s website and converted, regardless of time or inactivity. My sales funnel is constantly repeating until someone asks me to remove it. Because it’s better to annoy a few prospects you can delete than to miss multiple days when someone else is ready to buy.
Last year, I actually checked if emailing old leads was worth it. A few years ago, I asked an email specialist to compare sales records with email habits and the age of certain leads. In his two weeks in June and his first in July, 782 prospects of 3+ years replied to the email, 53 of whom placed new orders. During the same period, 526 prospects of 5 years or more responded and 29 of them placed new orders. Summer is our slowest season. That’s 82 new customers in just 6 weeks, which we would have missed if we weren’t following up with every potential customer every day.
So even if it’s daunting to get started, keep going, keep track of your results carefully, and stick to what works. It took me a while to learn how to build a sales funnel that generated over $80 million.
Finally, remember that experience is always the greatest teacher. Keep experimenting with different marketing techniques and you’ll find your own truth. I’m sure you’ll learn even more as you run your business for the next 25 years. The lessons never stop.