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Have you ever said those two little words, “enough is enough” or “I’m fine”? The word “good” has become a common word to describe challenging the status quo. But telling yourself, “That’s enough business” can be the key to the door to greatness.
In some ways, what’s good isn’t actually good at all. It’s a false sense of accomplishment wrapped in complacency. When I realized that being satisfied with being “good” wouldn’t allow me to achieve my dreams, I changed my mindset and my plan of attack for my business.
Last year, I decided that nothing would stop me from expanding and reaching the next level.
I increased my marketing budget by 5% from 2022 to 2023. As a result, revenue increased by 8%, increasing revenue by more than $7 million for the year. And that decision is still paying off, with revenue up about 20% so far this year.
Here are some of the key initiatives I took to help us achieve record annual revenue of $104.6 million last year.
Related: How to turn your marketing into a sales and revenue engine
Direct mail leads generate 600% more revenue per lead than digital sources
I mailed postcards to promote my business. postcard maniaSince I started in 1998, I have increased the volume of mailings each week, with one exception. The only time I cut back was in 2008, and that was a disaster. The following year, our revenue decreased by approximately 15%.
Direct mail makes up a large portion of my marketing budget. It’s not the cheapest way to generate leads, but it’s an absolute must in my marketing mix. Postcards generate the highest quality leads of all other lead sources, from organic search to pay-per-click to social media.
The evidence is as follows. In 2023, they earned $229.41 per postcard lead, but only $37.09 per lead from pay-per-click. That’s a huge difference of 519%, or a 6x increase in revenue. This only takes into account new orders and does not take into account repeat orders from customers who know and love us.
And this is just the revenue that can be tracked directly from the postcard. There are many other leads that come from “organic search” and other sources that have been posting to our posts over the years. I believe there is a lot more income from postcards that is incorrectly attributed to other sources, but I’ll save that for another time.
If you want to take your revenue to the next level, I recommend increasing your marketing spend (5% increase in spend increased revenue by 7% for me). Also, consider adding direct mail to your arsenal to increase your revenue per email by 6x. lead.
Increased sales conversations by 16% by adding live chat and continuously improving it
These days, fewer and fewer people are willing to call you when they need something. in fact, According to research Most consumers (63%) prefer to use live chat to interact with businesses.
When we added live chat to our website in 2016, we saw a 16% improvement in sales conversations (those who want to speak directly to a sales rep). However, we don’t recommend using chatbots and calling it a day.
The success of our live chat system is rooted in the fact that there’s a real human on the other side of the screen. If you use a bot (even a high-powered AI-trained bot), you run the risk of upsetting prospects and customers who are looking for answers rather than memorizing FAQs on your website. there is.
A final live chat tip: set it and forget it. Experiment with colors, messages, and placement to see which combination elicits the best response from her website visitors. Replaced generic message on thank you page with live chat prompt. This has had a huge impact on reducing the time lag between a prospect visiting her website and getting on the phone with a sales representative.
Related: 4 Marketing Budget Hacks to Boost Your Business in 2024
Including video in meta ads increases social media leads by 105%
If you’re a social media user, you’ve probably noticed that more and more videos are flooding into your main feed. In fact, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg revealed during a recent earnings call that 50% of all people’s time is now spent on the Meta platform. consume video.
Catching up on this, we 139 video examples — Real business owners talking about their successful campaigns — Work for us on Facebook and Instagram. You uploaded a list of current customers and prospects to generate a lookalike audience similar to your own list to target with video ads.
As a result, our social media leads doubled. His average number of reads per week on his social media in 2022 was his 174 people, but in 2023 his average number of reads increased to his 356 people per week. This is an increase of 105%.
This study is conclusive, video revenue outpaces still images. A recent report found that video is the driving force behind this. Approximately 30% increase in clicks than simple static image assets.Another study found that video ads promote advertising 48% increase in sales They are more expensive than static ads.
Research has proven it, and I’ve tested it myself, but you may be wondering if you have the budget to do it. There is an opportunity to incorporate more video advertising into your marketing strategy at a lower cost. We just started offering video advertising on both social media and connected TV channels like Netflix at small business prices.
By working with the right marketing agency, you can implement a video advertising plan that won’t overwhelm your marketing costs. Additionally, the revenue generated by these video ads is well worth the upfront investment.
Related: 3 marketing blind spots that are holding you back (and how to fix them)
So, are you going to take the blue pill of staying in good shape this year, or are you going to take the red pill and take a more challenging path to greatness? Better results and a better business I would like people to take a hard look at the harsh reality of what needs to be improved in order to achieve this goal.