There’s a lot to learn when it comes to backpacking – from gear to training to safety. That’s a lot like marketing – lots of questions about tools, tactics, and what really works. In today’s marketing tip, I answer three very common marketing questions I hear from business owners and nonprofit leaders. What marketing questions do you have? Drop them in a comment below and we’ll answer it on our live stream this Friday at noon CDT!
Full transcript below.
Full Transcript
So over the last few weeks, I’ve talked a lot about training for this backpacking trip out in Colorado. And I was thinking when I was getting ready for this video for today, I got to thinking about all the questions that I’ve had about backpacking. The gear, getting ready, our training, what’s going to happen when we get out there on the mountain? All these questions. And thankfully, we’ve had this training group that we’re a part of, so we’ve been able to ask our guides questions. These are folks that have been on scores of trips and guided hundreds of people. And so we’ve been able to learn from their wisdom.
And, you know, marketing’s a lot like that. As a business owner or a nonprofit leader, my guess is you have marketing questions. Maybe you’ve tried some things that just didn’t work the way you thought they were going to. Well, today I’m going to answer three common questions. And then this Friday at noon, I want to invite you to join us at wayfindmarketing.com/live. We’re just going to answer marketing questions. This is our weekly live stream. And so this week we’re just answering questions. And so if you’ve got questions, feel free to drop those into the comments below, shoot me a direct message. And we’re going to cover those on Friday.
So my name is Steve Phipps, and this is your Weekly Marketing Tip from Wayfind Marketing. And so the three questions that I get, number one is how do I get more traffic to my website? And there are a variety of different ways, three common ways. Number one is search engine optimization. And that is simply the practice of getting your website to show up in the search results when somebody searches for something relevant. Now, that can take a lot of time, but that has many, many longterm benefits. And number two is pay-per-click advertising. And so these are ads that run on the search engines, Google, Bing, Yahoo, and you pay every time somebody clicks on the ad and goes to your website. Number three are Facebook Ads. This is another way, it’s a different approach than pay-per-click, but it’s another way to reach an audience to get them to your website. Now, there’s strategies behind each of those. We’re putting them together, but there are different ways to get people to your website. Just putting out a new website’s not enough. That’s not going to get traffic there.
Number two is how do I get more leads from my website? Maybe you have people showing up. Maybe you have good traffic, but you’re not getting leads. You’re not getting conversions. People aren’t requesting a quote. They’re not scheduling a call. They’re not doing what you want them to do. Well, it could be a couple of things. One could be your messaging. Is your messaging clear, is it concise? Does it communicate the benefit and the value that your customers receive when they work with you? Number two is are you providing them with a way to get into your sales funnel without having to schedule a call? The majority of people who go to a website, they’re not ready to schedule a call or request a quote. So what we suggest is give them something to do in exchange for an email address. And that could be some sort of a downloadable PDF, a free resource, sign up for a discount, any number of different things. They give you an email address, you give them something of value, and now you can market to them through email. So check your messaging, and put some sort of a lead-generating offer there.
Now, the third thing is really sort of a combination of things, but ultimately the question is do I need a marketing strategy or can I just do some tactics? Well, the problem with just doing tactics is that it leads to wasted money, so you’re getting a low ROI. Usually marketing that’s done that way is ineffective. Now, it doesn’t mean you have to have a super fancy, 30-page strategy. You could have a one-page marketing strategy, and that could be more than enough to line up your tactics to where they’re working together. Think about it like an orchestra. In an orchestra, there’s all sorts of instruments. They each have their place, they have their time, and there’s somebody who’s conducting all of them, so they’re working together to create something beautiful. Marketing’s the same way. A strategy simply helps orchestrate the different activities so they’re working together, and that creates the best results for you for your business. You maximize your ROI, and you’re winning more customers.
So I hope you find this all helpful. Join us on Friday at noon central time, wayfindmarketing.com/live.
