Tip 10 - Leverage Your Brand With Paid Advertising

blog 2017
Written By Andrew Ford

Doing paid marketing, such as Google Adwords or Facebook ads, are not as effective as activities to build your brand leading to a referral. However, there is room for both in an effective marketing strategy for your small business so let’s review how to use them both in a campaign. 

Why are referrals?

Most small businesses rely on referrals for their new business. If you do a good job you will get clients recommending you to others, and these referrals are the best marketing you can ever get. They convert from an inquiry at between 50-80% and cost next to nothing! However, the way referrals work has massively changed over the last few years and those that haven't caught onto this change are at risk of being overtaken by their competitors.

This was highlighted to me recently when I had a call from a potential new client. Let’s call this new potential client “James”. James has been running his family physio business and been losing business to competitors steadily over the last few years. In fact, it was so bad, James was considering retiring after 25 years in the same location. 

The issue was when a prospect Googled the business, you couldn't find him. There were many competitors within 1km of their location, you couldn't find James. It turns out he didn't have a website, social media or any digital presence! Wow. So even with a great reputation, 25 years’ experience in the same area and a shop front, James couldn't get enough new clients. James was losing business to competitors who had a stronger digital presence. 

Therefore, when a client referred a friend to James and they tried to find him, they couldn't and would move on. Even if they found him, he didn't seem credible with his current profile and lacked a clear way for a client to buy from him. Fixing the 'findability' issues was his top priority, but then he needed to build his online trust quotient and create a clear sales path. This all takes time so paid marketing can be very useful to fill the gap.

Paid marketing 

Paid marketing is great for instant traffic, but it is a lower quality investment than branding because as soon as you stop paying, you stop getting the results. With branding, it builds over time into an asset.

The first thing to decide about paid marketing is which platform will suit your situation the best. There are many options but Google Adwords and Facebook ads are the most popular and easiest to use. The type of product and target client should easily distinguish between these two.

The second action is to choose one category for your campaign. You can't target everyone you choosing a very niche area is always best for your ROI. Make sure your using the language of your customer, not what you think they type into the search box.

After working in digital marketing for 15 years I have seen some massive waste of money from companies, big and small, in paid marketing. One very large, blue IT company I worked for liked to spend all its Google search engine marketing (SEM) budget on buying ads for their product names. Every code number and product - there were hundreds. The issue with this strategy is they were already getting the organic SEO link right under the ad. Therefore, the person searching was getting the paid link and the organic link, and if they click the paid link it costs the company money which they could have been getting for free.

The lesson here is to focus your spend on what you are not getting organically. So that's not your business name as you should get that naturally. Better to focus on your customer's problems as they describe them. Focus instead on what “term” or “type of information” your prospect would search for before they know your name or product. 

The last part is to decide the spend you want to invest. Use a realistic conversion rate such as the 4x 10s. That means if you want 10x sales, you need 100x hot prospects, 1,000x warm leads and 10,000 hits to your sales page. If the cost of getting 10,000 people to your sales page is higher than 10x sales, it's probably easier to ask your current clients for a referral.

This is the last in my 10x digital tips, I hope you got some value and if you missed some of them you can download them all free in one convenient eBook here.

Best of luck building your brand and business and subscribe to be part of my next content adventure a Podcast!!

Andy

P.S. If you want to chat regarding your personal brand just set up a call and I will give you some free tips for building your online assets.

Andrew Ford
Marketing expert Andrew Ford, the founder of Social Star, has discovered the secret of ‘Powerful Branding’. With a fire for unleashing people’s inner brand and developing business models to generate profit from an individual’s passions, Andrew leverages ground-breaking digital and social media marketing techniques to create digital strategies for clients to attract maximum opportunities. Having established a strong name for himself in the field, Andrew blends traditional business techniques with now-necessary tools for entrepreneurs to achieve scale, quality, and influence in their niche. Andrew’s comprehensive business background and qualifications consist of a Bachelor of Business (Marketing) (RMIT 2003), a Graduate Certificate in Management (MBA Executive Program, University of Sydney 2005), and a Masters of Entrepreneurship and Innovation (Swinburne University 2011). Continually on the cutting edge of his own education, Andrew has tested his marketing theories in forums such as the BCG Business Strategy Competition, which he won in 2005 against all Victorian MBA schools, and the Venture Cup Business Plan Competition (Swinburne University 2003), which he won in the Masters category. With experience working at Hewlett-Packard, Sensis (Telstra) and IBM, Andrew also has mentored dozens of junior staffs to help them achieve their professional goals. Meeting and influencing high-profile public figures helped Andrew to realise just how many professionals require more understanding and control of their public brands or appearance, and need help with the skills to use the many amazing free tools at their disposal to generate success. At Social Star, Andrew consults with clients to uncover their personal brand – both where it is today and where it can be tomorrow – and refine and define how that should be displayed in social media in order to attract their perfect target audience. Andrew mentors his clients to rapidly grow their business’ audiences, resulting in larger potential client bases and higher revenue. Applying formulas that integrate over twenty years of Andrew’s business experience and fifteen years of formal business education, Social Star specialises in building clarity and velocity for clients’ brands using the ‘Understand, Build and Leverage’ methodology. ‘Having a Personal Business enables people to have an authentic, congruent connection with their valued clients and partners, using their brand as the bridge,’ says Andrew. ‘I’m highly driven to work with the new breed of entrepreneurs and small business owners – people who have a passion for making the world a better place. Traditional business models are stepping aside as people follow their innermost dreams and my role is to see them operate within their values while creating wealth. Some people think you have to sacrifice what you love to be successful in your business, yet it is actually the opposite. Follow your passion and success will come.’ Lecturing at Swinburne University from 2009 to 2011 on brand dynamics and digital marketing, presenting at numerous conferences, and consulting to hundreds of clients, Andrew has seen his philosophy work that if you follow your unique path, based on your skills, experience, values and goals, you will automatically attract the opportunities you desire and achieve the success you deserve. Living his mantra, Andrew has created a successful business and attracts high-profile clients including musicians, athletes, authors, models, entrepreneurs, professionals and small business owners, helping them find their ‘why’ in their business and fulfilment in their lives. Business for Andrew is more than work, it’s personal. Running a personal business means that he is able to fulfil all of his values rather than separating his life from work. It supports his two boys while providing social opportunities, educational development, fitness opportunities, spiritual fulfilment and many valuable friendships. Social Star has now become the vehicle for Andrew to crystallise his mission in the world, to help people love what they do, supporting his ‘why’, that if more people loved what they did, the world would be a better place.
http://www.andrewford.com.au/
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