Part two of a two-part post. Now that we have the description of our perfect client in place, we also know who to go to.
See, there are really two phases of marketing. The first phase is the guessing part. We guess at who we are targeting and how. But now, we have the “who” part down. What we need is the “how.” This is where your current wow clients come in again.
Step 6
The next step will be to contact each one of your current wow clients and conduct a survey. This doesn’t have to be a painfully long survey – we don’t want them to dislike working with you suddenly! Instead, send them a short and to-the-point email asking these questions:
– If you were in a situation to refer me to a friend or colleague, would you do so?
– If you answered yes to the above question, why? If you answered no, why not?
– What is the biggest challenge you are having right now in your business?
– Oftentimes, if you do not hear back from these clients, you will need to do a follow-up call (no more than 5-10) minutes. Many business owners are busy and may not write back, but they will give you the answers over the phone or in person! Always follow up on the people you want to do business with and get feedback from them.
Now, the most important part of this process is for you to take notes on what their answers to numbers 2 and 3 are. These will be your keywords and action phrases in all of your copywriting and marketing for the next several months.
Here’s an example response to the survey, with important keywords/phrases in bold:
I would definitely refer you to a friend or colleague, and I actually have! I love working with a no-BS coach who will tell me like it is and push me to achieve greater things in my business. You can usually pinpoint weaknesses that I cannot see as I am too close to my business and give me immediately actionable advice on how to fix them. I love it!
The biggest challenge I am having right now is attracting new customers. I have great current customers who always come back, but I am having trouble expanding into new target markets. I need to change something to do this, but I don’t know what to do!
I recommend you do this exercise at least twice yearly, as you and your ideal clients will change. Never rely on the same marketing tactics and language for so long; you become dated and irrelevant.
An amazing final touch to this process is to send the clients who responded a handwritten thank you card. Not an e-card or mass-marketed card, but a handwritten thank you. You may even want to include a $5-$10 gift card as well. After all, they’ve just helped your business in an immense way!
Step 7
Finally, now that we have all of these puzzle pieces, it’s time to put them all together. This is extremely important, and I want you to do a few things to be sure to dedicate the appropriate amount of time and energy to it:
Time block AT LEAST 1 hour for yourself to do this exercise (preferably 2). Ensure it’s within the next week or two so all the momentum you’ve built up on this doesn’t die out.
Be in a place without distractions – no family or employees, turn off your phone and ignore your computer. Take just a notepad/notebook and a pen.
Now, ask yourself, “What information can I share with my clients that they would appreciate receiving?” Don’t think about products, packages, pricing, or anything else. Just brainstorm all the information you can share with your clients that they would appreciate based on their current business challenges. You should be able to brainstorm at least ten valuable pieces of information during this time, but the more, the better!
Important note!! While doing this exercise, it is tempting to get distracted and think of all of the products or ways you can sell this information before you’ve completed the list. FIGHT THIS URGE! If you half-ass this list, you will half-ass the product creation and marketing, and your results WILL suffer! At this point, assume you’ll give all of this information away for free and don’t think about how you will deliver it.
Step 8
Once you feel you have a complete list of information you can share with clients that they’d appreciate, you can begin brainstorming how to deliver it.
Here’s a hint: I have made more money on the things I gave away for free than on anything I have ever sold.
Why? Because of the work and investment required to sell a product/workshop/whatever will usually result in one sale per customer (maybe two if you have mastered the art of upselling). But FREE content gets shared freely by many people. If it’s truly valuable, those people become your fans or followers, and you can market many different products to them, often resulting in 4-5 sales per customer. It’s also a lot less work to market free stuff than to market items requiring someone to break out their wallet.
Knowing this, your best bet would be to start with what you can offer for free. Here are a few of my favorite options:
Video. Gather 10-15 of the most frequently asked questions you get in your business, and create a short (2-4 minute) video addressing each one. These can be put out on YouTube, Facebook, your website, and more as completely free and valuable content that your potential clients are happy to share.
Worksheets. If you have a step-by-step process for solving some issues that your clients or customers often have, create a worksheet they can download and use to solve their own problems. Make sure to brand it so they always know where it came from. Bonus: you can request their email address to download.
PDF guides. Much like worksheets, use 10-15 page PDF guides to essentially duplicate yourself and explain a certain process you have that would help your ideal clients.
If you can create a batch of 10-15 free items, you will be in a perfect position to begin a strong sales funnel that will keep you up and running for months.
When you are ready to start thinking about products/programs you can sell, head to my Perfect Sales Funnel blog post to craft the perfect sales system.
I am excited to discuss your goals and challenges to fast-track your success. Book time on my calendar today. You can call me at (916) 765-2596 or email me at jpyron@johnpyron.com. Make it a great day!
