On today’s episode we start a new series that digs into tools and techniques that help you grow a healthy profitable business.
Whether you’re an entrepreneur, a business owner, or a key player in someone else’s business Scratch Entrepreneur offers insight into the gears that make it all work.
Today I sit down with the owner of Felt Creative Agency and Marketing Guru AJ O’Reilly. We lay out the 7 specific steps to the perfect marketing approach. Get these steps right and the biggest issue your business will have is how to keep up.
LISTEN HERE:
The 7 Steps to Marketing Success:
Step One: BRAND (2:00)
Your brand is YOU. It is the business embodiment of your passions, your interests, your expectations, your personality. Great brands are the result of business owners molding all of their best personal features into a clear mission and vision for their business. People who try and cover that up, be something they aren’t, or generally paint a different picture are destined for business level confusion during every other step of this process.
Step Two: TRIBE (5:00)
Understanding your ideal client and then building a group of ideal clients into raving fans. Some people say target market, so call it your ideal customer avatar. Whatever you call it you need to zoom in on the exact personality that you want to work with. Once you understand that, figuring out how to reach them becomes a TON easier. How do you do that? You build a story. It’s a real story, a true story of who your brand is and why you’ve chosen to connect with your ideal client.
Having a tribe means you also have people that you’re NOT for. This is super powerful and an important part of your brand story.
[bctt tweet=”“When you’re serving everybody you’re really serving no one”” username=”@shineinsure”]
Step Three: CONTENT (10:45)
Making content is the creation of real and valuable information for your ideal client. It could be images, documents, podcasts, videos, blog posts, etc. Sharing information that helps your ideal client makes you the “thought leader” for your industry. Once your ideal client sees you as a thought leader, who are they going to contact the second they need the service you provide? YOU, of course.
Plus, by educating the population, you can we create ideal clients by teaching them the basics before they even call us.
Step Four: DISTRIBUTION (14:50)
There are SO MANY avenues for sharing the content you create. There’s Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Pinterest, Reddit, your Website, and that’s just the digital options.
When you’re first starting a business, our advice is to pick one or two that you already spend time on. Another way to do it is a program like Buffer that lets you enter your post into one place. Then the program posts it to all of the different social media sites.
PICK ONE, DO IT WELL, GIVE IT TIME
Step Five: FUNNEL (22:30)
Creating content for your ideal client and getting it out there is great. It definitely puts you on the top of your ideal clients mind. But great businesses take that to the next level. They then have a system to walk people through the purchase journey. That means your actively asking people to take next steps with you as a business.
Your funnel could include more valuable content, testimonials, in person engagement, tutorials about your product, free versions, etc.
Walking through the brand journey is kind of like dating. Your sharing more and more about yourself and learning more and more about a potential client. Sometimes it works out and sometimes it doesn’t
Step Six: SALE (26:00)
This is when an ideal client becomes a member of the tribe. Both sides have decided that the relationship works and you’re ready to move forward. Most businesses spend the majority of their time honing this part of the process and you SHOULD. This phase should be seamless, impressive, and a great experience. You spent time and money on the first five steps. Now an ideal client is ready to move forward. Make sure it’s right!
Step Seven: ANALYZE (28:30)
We are all in the center of our businesses. We see everything we do and think it’s great. BUT WE MIGHT BE WRONG! Our ad my not hit right, our product may not work properly, we may have an employee that just isn’t connecting with customers. Systems for feedback and analysis on every level is the number one way to grow a healthy profitable business.
[bctt tweet=”“What gets tracked gets fixed”” username=”@shineinsure”]
Special thanks to Aj O’Reilly for taking the time to breakdown the 7 Steps to Marketing Nirvana with us today. You can find AJ at feltcreative.co
Resources Mentioned in the show:
Austin Kleon – Steal Like An Artist
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