
SEO, Influencers And Good Content: How To Grow Your Company’s Online Presence
Carm Lyman is President of Lyman Agency . Getty We live in a digital world that em...
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Let’s face it: nobody is creating content marketing for their health or just to hear themselves talk; content marketing is supposed to drive leads and sales for your business!
So why is it that so many people struggle to see a direct ROI from their content?
OK, so in general, I see a few reasons why businesses don’t get piles of leads from their content:
One of the first things I do in a VIP day with a new client is talk about goals — and then we run the numbers.
For many of them, it’s an eye-opening experience.
Let’s say they want to sell 20 spots in their course or group coaching program.
On average, a sales page converts at 1–3%. (If you’re doing sales calls, you can track your close rate, but average is somewhere between 25–50%.)
That means, to be safe, we need 2,000 people to land on the sales page to see the offer. (20 is 1% of 2,000.)
No problem, my client might say, I have 5,000 people on my email list!
Which is awesome and amazing.
And…
Not everybody on their list is going to ever see the sales page.
*RECORD SCRATCH*
See, the average click-thru rate is also around 1–3%. (If you know your numbers and they are better than average, that’s awesome! Apply them to these equations.)
So 3% of 5,000 people on your email list is…
150 people.
Even if you could guarantee that a different 150 people would be compelled to click every time you send a sales email, you would need to send 14 sales emails to get 2,000 people to your sales page and to get those 20 sales.
(And, let’s be real: it’s not 150 different people opening and clicking every time no matter how many emails you send…)
Now. These are all just averages, of course (and a highly simplified sales funnel).
The first time you launch something? You might have a WAY higher conversion rate than 3%! Your fans love you and want to buy from you! That is a GOOD thing.
But every subsequent time you launch the same offer to the same people, you’ll get a diminishing rate of returns.
Some business owners take that to mean they need a different offer, when often it just means they need new people to see the offer.
That’s why list building in between launches is so important.
Sales people will say “ABC: Always Be Closing,” but for us, I think it should be “ABLB: Always Be List Building.” (Not as catchy, I’ll grant you…)
But that doesn’t mean you always have to be running a huge event in order to grow your list.
It might not happen overnight, but you can create systems that help ensure that you are Always List Building.
But I think that too often we expect this to be automatic before we have set up or tested any of these systems. We have the “Field of Dreams problem” and think I built a website, therefore people should come…
The truth is, it just doesn’t work that way any more, and in reality, you will likely need all three of the above steps plus the occasional big list-building event to keep your list fresh and have the numbers you need to support your business as you grow.
The point I hope to make here is that list building isn’t (always) a big event that has to happen.
Sometimes it is.
You might do a big webinar, or a giveaway, or a challenge, or create some kind of EPIC content like a new training or ebook that you can give away.
These are all awesome strategies — and if you have a BIG launch coming up and you know you need to boost your numbers, they can be an important part of your pre-launch. It’s important to build that into your editorial calendar so that you don’t get focused on launching or delivery and forget to do it!
But if that sounds exhausting…
You can build in more opportunities for mostly automated list building and lead generation into your content marketing plans that will help keep your numbers high and your list fresh without having to create some big, huge thing.
And the more you make list building a regular part of your business that happens automatically, the less exhausting it will be, and the more successful your launches — and business — will be.
Follow @blogspiration42
Lacy Boggs is a professional ghost blogger who has been telling stories since she first learned to talk. After using her mad storytelling and journalism skills to grow her personal blog more than 800 percent in a single year, Lacy realized she could help other small business owners do the… View full profile ›
Carm Lyman is President of Lyman Agency . Getty We live in a digital world that em...
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