Marketing, advertising, branding and sales aren’t operated in a binary form – there is no black and white, yes and no, true or false.
In many cases, we operate different campaigns, strategies and tactics in co-operation and unison with other areas. Even deeper into digital marketing, we can create campaigns and run them in unison from different practices. SEO campaigns can be run alongside social media campaigns, as well as “with” them, as an example.
Many times, this is true.
One exception is in lead generation. Usually, you will need to decide ‘are we focusing on new and unfamiliar to the brand customers, or on existing and historical customers?’. This is one situation where it is one or the other.
Or, does it have to be that way?
In this article, we are going to focus on choices like costs, timing and current business status. We are going to look at how, in a small town like New Castle, you can elevate your business’s results in your lead generation actions by deciding: new leads from new-to-brand customers, or revenue generation from existing clients and previous customers – or both???
Let’s talk about lead generation in YOUR business
Lead generation is a fairly large discipline in digital marketing. For the most part, it is one of only a couple of disciplines that encompasses marketing and advertising, as well as sales.
So, before we dive into deciding on different paths in such a large subject, we should talk about the basics first.
What is lead generation?
Lead generation is the discipline of driving traffic, usually cold, into a funnel that takes that user to the next step, and steps thereafter, until the user meets the goal of the lead generation system.
Basically, lead generation is the process of moving people through a process to get to the final action – buying a product or service. We can use multiple forms of traffic to drive people to these ‘next steps’. Then, we use creative and copywriting to lead that traffic into the next action. Finally, we use interest and awareness to drive people to make complete ‘the sell’.
As an example, let’s look at a lead generation funnel that you may have seen, or see a LOT of on Facebook.
You see an ad while you’re scrolling (paid advertising).
Next, you click the link and are taken to a website that has a lead magnet on it. A lead magnet is usually a free consultation, audit, estimate, report, guide or checklist. You give your information like name, email and phone number, in exchange for the freebie.
The lead generation funnel could stop there.
Or…
After you download your guide or schedule your estimate, you will receive another contact with an upsell of some type. This will be a “paid for” offer that is similar to the first offer, but continues your customer along the path. By the way, I should mention, a lead generation funnel could have 1,000 upsells in theory. Each should do the following things:
- Create more value
- Create more trust in your brand
- Increase their input for your output (usually money or time)
At the end of the day, lead generation generates not just leads, but revenue as the goal. The steps leading up to the final “sell” might be free or low cost, but the end result, the real goal, is revenue generation.
New leads in New Castle; and what it means
New Castle is a fairly small town in Pennsylvania. Even with what people would consider as a small town, there definitely are quite a few businesses that are located and operate within the area.
Now, I don’t know about you, but knowing all of these businesses operate and grow, makes me believe that there are ALWAYS enough people for new business for new businesses, right?
New leads are out there. New business is available to you. Even in a small town like New Castle, lead generation systems work for generating revenue for your business.
But, lead generation in New Castle works a little differently. First, paid ads are a bit cheaper than larger cities. Next, offers can be faster to ‘direct to call’ as a final goal. Likely, the goal of the offer changes too (the price tag, the size of the service, etc).
Still, lead generation systems are necessary, no matter their scale, nor your business’s industry.
Why New Leads Can Be So Successful, And Such A Pain In The $*%
Money can solve many problems. In lead generation, two things are very easily solved if you pump enough money into the problem – time (speed) and targeting (building awareness in the ideal customer).
Traditional lead generation systems can be built, turned off and on, dissected, edited and duplicated and edited for multiple needs.
But, they cost money.
And sometimes the cost of acquiring a new customer just is not worth the effort for the offer and revenue that comes with it.
For instance, in roofing in the area, the average CPL (cost per lead) of a new customer is about $100 to $300. This, for a brand new roof, is great; the average roof costs about $13,000.
But what if you are a small business that does roofing? And what if you don’t perform new roof installations? The CPL is nearly the same for most roof-centric offerings like new roofs, roof repairs, metal roof installations, etc. That $100 – $300 CPL could knock your profits from $1,000 per job to $700 or less fast.
Repeat revenue from existing customers
The most attractive part of using existing customers versus new leads for revenue generation in business is the cost. For returning and repeat customers, your cost to acquire is nearly nothing.
For a small town like New Castle, which has just around 20,000 people living in it (about 100,000 in Lawrence County), repeat business just makes more sense. Brands that build trust, create affordable solutions and offers, and really value customer service usually win hands down.
Plus, you likely already have all of the resources you need to get started.
Don’t believe me?
Grab your list of customers and clients that you feel were happy with your service or products. Start calling them to let them know that you have XYZ offer available at a discount to them.
BOOM! New revenue stream!
Using digital marketing, we can expand this, automate this and make things less time-consuming and more focused. Loading those customers into a CRM or into an email marketing list program will allow for direct contact, scheduled and edited.
Your follow-up can be timed and automated as well.
Making The Decision To Use Existing Customer Bases For New Revenue
If you have a customer list, you should be reconnecting with them to drive new revenue.
Why?
First, they trust you. You offered a product or service, and they were happy with what they received from you. Basically, you provided what you said and you weren’t a dick while doing it.
Next, they have already been proven to spend money for something that you offer. The proof here is you and your business. Which means that they are VERY likely to spend more.
Next, every industry, no matter what you make or do, has the ability to create an offer that extends your revenue streams.
And, before you build any negative impression of what I am talking about here in your mind, I am NOT talking about creating something just to get money from a person for doing nothing. You aren’t in the business of being a scumbag, so I don’t expect you to be one. What I am talking about is creating an offer, or editing an existing one, to provide more revenue from people that have already bought something from you.
This process is far cheaper than new lead acquisition will ever be. You already have contact details, now you just need a system to use them.
How to decide – lead generation systems or reengagement of your clients
So, time to give you a big tip that will help to reform and redefine this whole argument and your marketing in general for your business…
You should be doing both!
Yes, I said it. As a marketer, as a business owner, as an educated ‘knower of people’.
You need new leads for new sources of revenue, and you need to use existing sources for new revenue with new offers.
Both types of systems built and running effectively will mean you will be busy AND making money.
With all of that said, I can say that if you are trying to walk this path alone, I would recommend one strategy over another. And that is using email marketing to reengage and reenergize existing and past customers. Specifically, if your business is located in and / or operates in a small town like New Castle, reengaging existing customers just makes sense.
Re-engage, Re-energize, and the revenue that follows
So, we’ve already talked about the benefits of using an existing list of customers to generate new revenue for your business.
Let’s talk about some practical steps you can take to make this a reality. And no, you won’t need to hire a marketing agency to get started.
First, you need to decide on an email marketing platform for automating these conversations. I like both MailChimp (https://mailchimp.com/) and Constant Contact (https://constantcontact.com/) for these needs. Both come with pretty standard features like the size of allowed lists, amount of emails sent, etc. There are differences in pricing models, features and add-ons that your business might, and might not, need.
Then, you need to format your customer list. Most people use spreadsheets. You can use a Google Sheet or a Microsoft Office Excel sheet. Whatever it is, we need only a few items:
- Name
- Email Address
- *optional – phone number, as some platforms allow for SMS marketing too
For this example, we only need a name and email.
Now, we need to create a similar offer that is close to what we normally offer, but is not exactly it. I’m not talking about mowing grass and then offering clipping removal along with it.
Let’s take that a step further. If you offer lawn cutting, create an offer that is for “Fall Lawn Cleanup” involving shrub clipping, brush cleanup and leaf removal. Make it approachable and reasonably similar to the pricing and affordability of your base service.
Next, you write your email. Describe the service, and its benefits, and then include the special pricing. Remember, while writing your email, you are talking to them, one person, at a time.
Now, you load in your customer list, schedule your email and you’re done.
This is no guarantee of customers blowing up your phone with responses. But, this is the most simple example of contacting and re-energizing existing customers for new revenue.
Is it affordable for you? Yes.
Is it a more simple method of increasing revenue without building a lead generation system? Definitely.
Is it easy? Not really, but it is manageable for most business owners.
Can you repeat this without spending extra money? Most definitely.
Ways to use both tactics to build better marketing strategies
As stated before, I recommend using both of these methods to keep revenue in your business strong. You need new leads and new sources of revenue. You also need to tap into existing sources for new revenue.
Being busy is the goal, right?
The truly impressive thing about both of the sects of lead generation is that there is crossover. However, it is a crossover that some people don’t like to admit works.
It’s email marketing!
Mixing lead generation systems into a single system
For new leads, we use a lead generation system that starts with a paid advertising campaign. Basically, a person sees an ad and clicks, right?
They are then directed to a landing page on our website. This will have either a form for a complete information grab, or a phone number to call. For this example, we will use the form. They enter their contact details and the information is saved.
It does not mean this needs to be a purely informational lead magnet, nor a purchasable product. We just want to capture their information, so both examples work.
Now we have a contact list, correct? This is likely people interested in our product or service, or people ready to buy.
We can then segment this list – ‘customers’ and ‘interested’.
We can then build email marketing campaigns that will target our customers for follow-up information, as well as deals and upsells. This is also a GREAT way to keep people in touch (if you do this, do it sparingly). These customers will receive a triggered email within a few days after purchase, and then very gapped emails (sometimes up to 6 months between sends).
We now also build an email marketing campaign for those people who were “interested”, but didn’t buy from us. These people will receive our offers, as well as information that boosts our authority and knowledge. This could be as close in sending as once a month, up to 3 or 4 times a year.
Our ‘customers’ list also has a sub-list, ‘quiet customers’. These are customers who have not worked with us for an extended period of time. For smaller purchases, this might be a month or two. For larger ticket items, this could be 1 year or longer.
The key benefit: Automation
Automation is the biggest benefit to mixing these types of systems together. Your new lead generation campaigns will yield new leads. They then get automatically segmented into customers or just interest people. They then receive the emails in our campaign(s). This, in turn, will generate repeat business from those happy customers.
What are the costs? What amount of effort do you need to put in before you can go into automated mode?
The one thing I want to state, and say it fairly clearly, is that you will need a lot of front-end work to make things ‘automated’. The true costs are in the initial setup, ongoing advertising and the monthly email marketing software you choose. Basic systems can be created and customized professionally for less than $3000.
How do we put it together?
The first thing you need is the system itself – we need to outline and plan. This will involve your main offer(s), outlining traffic routes, etc. This planning will show the path to installing the complete systems and how they interact with each other.
Next, we need email marketing software. I recommend MailChimp or Constant Contact. Both have pros and cons, but you will, through experimentation and experience, be able to decide which is best for you.
Next, you will need to build the copy and content for the ads and landing pages of your offers. With the ads, you want to have a few A/B tests going as well, so not a single ad. With landing pages, you should be experimenting with size, content density, content and media types, and headlines.
Then, you will bind your new leads being captured into your email marketing lists. Those segments start with ‘new customer’ and then the category of the offer. This is done using an API from the email marketing platform you choose.
After all of the above is complete, we start our automated system and let it run.
We run ads that drive traffic into our landing pages. Those people take part in paying or free offers (lead magnets like guides and checklists). We then segment them into other funnels for automated emails that we preload. These emails drive them to other more expensive offers. We then use some time-based triggers to send automated emails 3 months or 6 months after they become paying customers for future services.
I know it can seem overwhelming, but the system’s complexity in setting up and building means simplicity when it is running. Usually, the ONLY things you need to consider are ‘how much do we need to spend on advertising’ and ‘should we create a new offer, or alter an existing one’.
Where Do We Go From Here?
In this article, we talked a lot about two major forms of lead generation – new client acquisition and reengagement with existing customers. We broke down their core concepts, their benefits and weaknesses and how they could also work together.
Lead generation systems are an essential tool in keeping revenue streams running strong for your business. Lead generation systems are custom for each brand, but have general steps and tools that allow for the right system to help your business grow.
During this article, you likely also have questions or thoughts about how a system like this could work for your business. If you need help with lead generation systems, understanding how they work and if they can work for your business, you can call me anytime to start a conversation at (724)510-7201.