You have to do it properly. Else you will waste time, effort and money.
Most small businesses copy the big brands, but don't have the budget, systems, or resources to compete.
There is a better way. You can use your small size to your advantage and build relationships with a small pocket of people. This can be done effectively and affordably.
Building relationships is the Key to converting leads to clients and thriving as a Small Business.
But, doing this manually wastes a lot of time, effort and money.
There is now a way for small businesses to affordably automate the relationship building process. It's called a Lead Funnel.
Thousands of Businesses Worldwide are even ditching their websites for Lead and Sales Funnels.
Cricket Fanatics Magazine is a multi-platform Digital Publication that is well-known and respected by Players, Coaches, Fans, Administrators and The Media.
Khalid is in charge of publishing and is responsible for all the content of Cricket Fanatics Magazine. Through his efforts, he has made Cricket Fanatics Magazine a well-known and respected publication by Fans, Players, Administrators and Fellow Journalists.
KHALID MOHIDIN
Faizel is the Information Systems Manager and has more than 30 years experience designing, building and managing systems in the Corporate World. He is responsible for the infrastructure, systems and processes of Cricket Fanatics Magazine.
FAIZEL MOHIDIN
We meet once a week for an hour, where I use my framework to develop a strategy for your business. After each session, I do a lot of work behind the scenes to build and automate your Lead Funnel.
Marketing your business online can be the most effective way to grow and scale your small business.
But there is a problem.
Most small businesses don't do it properly.
The result is wasted time, energy and money.
This article shows you a strategy and a process to do it the right way and also shows you a system to implement the process and strategy.
This is how it started...
My Name's Faizel. I'm the Information Systems Manager for Cricket Fanatics Magazine.
I worked in the Corporate World for over 30 years designing, building and managing systems.
I spend a large part of my career managing the customer systems of a Billion Dollar Fashion Retailer. In my later years, I worked as a management consultant to them.
Recently, I built multiple online publishing platforms for my own initiatives.
The first was my online training, consulting and coaching platform, Using Mind Maps Academy.
I also built two digital magazines, Cape Fishing Magazine and Cricket Fanatics Magazine.
At first I tried to copy the methods and systems I used in the corporate world.
But I didn’t have the budget, or the resources to make it work.
It wasn’t until I learned how to build systems on a small budget that were more suitable for small businesses, that things began to change for me.
I was lucky that I had the technical expertise to build my own platforms so that I could experiment to find out what works and what doesn’t work.
I've spent thousands of hours and thousands of Rands to figure it out.
Now, I'm sharing that knowledge with you, so that you can make the right decision for your business.
In this article I will cover how online marketing can work properly for real businesses. I am also going to show you how to do it with the lowest possible cost and the least amount of effort.
The proper way for small businesses to market their products and services is to build relationships.
Online technology and systems enable you to grow and scale your busines. They enable you to automate a large portion of the relationship building process.
But to make it work, you have to do it properly.
The best way to show you is by example.
I will use our Cricket Magazine as an example.
While we have our main website, where we publish content, we send people to a landing page to get subscribers.
The landing page tells people who we are, what the magazine has to offer and why they must sign up.
Prospective subscribers either sign up or they leave.
Once they decide to sign up, they click on the subscribe button, which opens up a form for them to leave their contact details.
They are then added to our database and taken to a page where they can access all our magazine issues.
They are also sent a welcome email with a link to where they can access all the magazine issues.
They are also sent a weekly email with information and news about what happened in the past week, and what will be happening in the coming week.
This allows us to keep the communication channels open. It also allows us to add value to the relationship.
These are two important ingredients for any lasting relationship.
All of the communication delivery is automated. And it can scale to thousands of subscribers affordably without any extra effort.
This is exactly how your online marketing should work.
You should treat a prospective client as someone you would like to take on a first date.
Imagine meeting someone for the first time and offering a marriage proposal!
Sounds crazy, right?
Yet this is how most businesses treat prospective clients.
Instead of opening with a pickup line and trying to get their contact details, we open with the equivalent of a marriage proposal, shouting:
"Buy my stuff! Buy my stuff!"
We should rather focus on starting and building relationships before we hit them with a marriage proposal...
This is how you do it online.
1. Starting a relationship:
You send people to a landing page.
The landing page tells them who you are, what you have to offer, why your products or services are needed, and what they must do next.
You invite them to leave their contact details by offering them something to help them take the next step. This is called a Lead Magnet.
People who want what you have to offer will click on the button and leave their contact details.
They then go onto your database and receive a welcome email from you.
Then they are sent to a page where they can access your Lead Magnet.
You can then communicate with them to answer all their questions and invite them to purchase your products or services.
2. Maintaining the relationship:
To grow the relationship, you communicate regularly with them and add value to the relationship, just like you would in a real relationship.
With their permission, you can regularly offer them your products and services.
The best ones will become repeat buyers.
It’s up to five times cheaper to sell to an existing client than it is to sell to a new one.
3. Building new relationships:
Once you know how to start relationships effectively, and maintain those relationships, you can then focus on promoting your landing page to get more leads, prospects and clients.
You can use referrals, social media and blog posts, or advertising to send people to your landing page.
The beautiful thing about this is that you can automate everything. You can capture and convert leads to clients even while you sleep.
This is called a Lead Funnel.
There are many other marketing and sales funnels, but the Lead Funnel is the first funnel you must implement.
The biggest asset you can have online is a database of qualified leads.
The best example of this is Facebook's purchases of Instagram and WhatsApp.
Facebook paid a billion dollars for Instagram. And it paid a whopping $19 billion dollars for WhatsApp!
Facebook could easily have built both apps. They didn't buy it for the technology.
They bought it for their user base.
They know the value of a list.
And you should too!
If you grow a list of qualified leads, you will have an asset that will give you returns forever.
If you have a new product or service, you can simply send them an email.
An email is still not only the cheapest way to communicate at scale. It's also the most effective.
Unlike Social Media, WhatsApp and Messenger, it's not owned by anybody. Email is actually at the core of the Internet and will be around for as long as the Internet is around.
If you want to sell your business, your list can be the most valuable asset on your asset register.
Now, you may be thinking that this would be complex and expensive. And you would be right, if you are building this from scratch.
But, you don’t have to do that.
We’ve invested in the infrastructure, systems and processes, so that you don’t have to.
But, before I tell you about that, let me answer a few questions that I often get asked.
Do I need a Lead Funnel?
Only businesses who want to get leads and clients, need a lead funnel. If you don't, or you have enough already, then you don't need one.
Do I need a Website?
Thousands of businesses are ditching their websites for Sales Funnels. But, you don't need to do that. Simply add a Lead Funnel to your list of online assets. You could even advertise your funnel on you website.
If you don't have a website yet, you may want to seriously think about a Lead Funnel First. It's the most cost effective way to get leads and clients.
What if I only have Social Media?
You've probably built a list of fans or followers, but found that your posts only reach a small percentage of them. You now have to spend money to reach the followers that you spent so much time and effort building. Social Media is increasingly becoming a 'pay to play' environment.
What if I am not technical?
You don't need to be technical to have a successful lead funnel. But you must understand the process of acquiring leads and converting them to clients. This can be easily learned.
Next Steps:
Now that you know that you need an automated Lead Funnel, you just have to decide how you want to get it built.
While there are many options, from hiring people, to doing it yourself, we are offering you an alternative that's not available anywhere.
We are making our infrastructure, systems and processes available to help a few small businesses market their businesses online, as case studies.
Click on the button below, to get access to all the details on how to get Lead Funnel to automate your lead conversion process.
You will also get direct access to me to answer all your questions so that you can have clarity to choose what is right for your business.