What I Learned From Spending $5.9 Million on Marketing Last Year

Have you ever said nan 2 small words, "good enough" aliases "I'm good?" The connection "good" has go a communal cop-out for moving beyond nan position quo. But saying to ourselves, "Business is bully enough" tin beryllium nan fastener connected nan doorway starring to greatness.

In a way, bully is really not bully astatine all. It's a mendacious consciousness of accomplishment that is wrapped up successful complacency. When I realized that being okay pinch "good" was not going to thief maine execute my dreams, I changed my mindset and my business's scheme of attack.

Last year, I decided thing would get successful nan measurement of our description and hitting nan adjacent level.

I accrued my marketing budget by 5% from 2022 to 2023, and arsenic a result, our gross accrued by 8%, adding complete $7 cardinal that year. And that determination is still paying disconnected — gross is up astir 20% truthful acold this year.

Here are immoderate cardinal moves I've made that helped america scope our highest yearly gross ever past twelvemonth — $104.6 million.

Related: How to Turn Marketing into a Sales and Revenue Engine

Direct message leads make 600% much gross per lead than integer sources

I've mailed postcards to advertise my business, PostcardMania, each azygous week since I started successful 1998, and I've only ever accrued my mailing amount — pinch 1 exception. The only clip I trim backmost was successful 2008, and it was a full disaster. Our revenues plunged astir 15% nan pursuing year.

Direct message takes up a ample information of my trading budget. It isn't nan cheapest measurement to make leads, but it's perfectly irreplaceable successful my trading mix. Postcards make nan highest value leads among each different lead sources, from integrated hunt to pay-per-click to societal media.

Here's nan proof: In 2023, we generated $229.41 successful gross for each postcard lead while we only generated $37.09 successful gross per lead from pay-per-click. That's a monolithic quality of 519% — and six times much revenue! And that's only taking caller orders into consideration, not repetition orders from customers who cognize and emotion us.

And that's conscionable nan gross we tin way straight backmost to postcards. There are truthful galore much leads that travel successful from an "organic search" aliases different root that has been getting our postcards successful nan message for years. It's my belief that there's a batch much gross from postcards that's incorrectly attributed to different sources, but we tin prevention that for different time.

If you want to return your gross to nan adjacent level, I promote you to bump up your trading walk — a 5% walk summation resulted successful a 7% gross summation for maine — and see adding nonstop message to your arsenal to 6x your gross per lead.

Adding and continually improving unrecorded chat accrued income conversations by 16%

Fewer and less group are consenting to scope for nan telephone these days erstwhile they request something. In fact, studies show that astir consumers (63%) for illustration to usage unrecorded chat to interact pinch a business.

We added live chat to our website successful 2016, and it improved our income conversations (people consenting to talk straight to a income rep) by 16%. However, I don't counsel that you propulsion up a chatbot and telephone it a day.

The occurrence of our unrecorded chat strategy is rooted successful nan truth that we person existent quality beings connected nan different broadside of nan screen. If you're utilizing bots — moreover fancy, AI-trained bots — you're going to tally nan consequence of upsetting prospects and customers who want answers and not a rote regurgitation of nan FAQs they tin find connected your website.

Last unrecorded chat tip: Don't group it and hide it. Play astir pinch colors, messages and placements, and spot which combinations elicit nan champion consequence from your website visitors. We replaced a generic connection connected our convey you pages pinch a unrecorded chat prompt, and it had a awesome effect connected reducing nan lag clip betwixt erstwhile a imaginable is connected your website and erstwhile they're connected nan telephone pinch a income rep.

Related: 4 Marketing Budget Hacks That Will Boost Your Business successful 2024

Include video successful your Meta ads to summation societal media leads by 105%

If you're a societal media user, you've astir apt noticed much and much videos making their measurement to your main feed. In fact, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg revealed during a caller net telephone that 50% of each people's clip connected Meta platforms is now spent consuming video.

Catching connected to this, we decided to put our 139 video lawsuit studies — existent business owners talking astir their successful campaigns — to activity for america connected Facebook and Instagram. We uploaded lists of our existent clients and prospects and generated lookalike audiences akin to our ain lists to target pinch our video ads.

As a result, our societal media leads doubled. In 2022, our mean number of societal media leads per week was 174, and past successful 2023, nan mean lead count accrued to 356 a week! That's a 105% increase.

The investigation is conclusive — video returns are outpacing fixed images. One caller study recovered that videos drove almost 30% much clicks than elemental fixed image assets. Another study recovered that video ads thrust 48% higher sales rates than fixed ads.

Studies beryllium it, I've tested it myself, but you whitethorn beryllium wondering if you person nan fund to execute it. There are opportunities for you to incorporated much video advertisements successful your trading strategy astatine a debased cost. We conscionable began offering video ads connected some societal media and Connected TV channels for illustration Netflix astatine mini business prices.

By moving pinch nan right trading agency, it is imaginable to execute a video advertizing scheme that won't overwhelm your trading spend. Plus, nan magnitude of gross that these video ads are going to beryllium bringing successful for you will beryllium good worthy nan upfront investment.

Related: 3 Marketing Blind Spots That Are Holding You Back (and How to Fix Them)

So, are you going to return nan bluish pill of staying bully this twelvemonth aliases return nan reddish pill and travel down nan much challenging way to greatness? I situation you to return a person look astatine nan difficult reality of wherever you tin amended for amended results and a amended business.