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Jump back in your time machine to the year 1986. Think about what was popular and how different the world we are living in now is versus 34 years ago. 34 years ago computers were barely a thing, there was no such thing as the internet as we know it today or smartphones. Why is that small business still think they can market the same way as they did in the past? 

I have often said and will continue to say until someone can prove to me that traditional marketing for small businesses is dying. Traditional marketing is in your face, says look at me and don’t you forget about me! This is all in hopes that you remember them when and if you need them.

Learning to market in this new digital age can be tricky at best. While most people are out there doing their sales and marketing at level 10. What I want to help you do and show you what to do is, give you that little extra push over the cliff, and turn up your sales and marketing to 11!

See a video presentation of the information contained here!

11 ways to turn up your sales and marketing

Turn Your Sales Marketing Up To 11 With Google My Business

1. Google My Business (GMB)

GMB is the keystone to the internet these days.

If you are unfamiliar with what a keystone is, it is the wedge at the top of an arch upon which all the other components lean and is the most important component. Keystones are the last piece set in place, and it locks all others into position.

Google is often the entrance or gateway to your website. The GMB serves to support and lock everything in place. It contains all the basic information, social proof (reviews) and now allows you to post about your business. 

SMA Marketing said that “49% of businesses receive more than 1,000 average Search views of their GMB listing per month, and 33% receive 1,000+ views on Maps.”

One of the greatest assets of GMB is the ability to leave a review. According to Bright Local, “90% of consumers read online reviews before visiting a business.” 

If you don’t think your prospects care about the number of reviews you have, then think about this, the average consumer reads 10 online reviews before making a purchase decision. And 57% of consumers will only buy or use a business service if it has at least a 4-star rating. Also, purchase likelihood peaks when the average star rating of a product is between 4.2 and 4.5 stars on a 5-star scale. The reason a product with a 4.2-star rating sells better than a five star is that our brains are wired to resist being sold to. It's a defense mechanism or in other words, nothing is perfect. From Reviews to Revenue: How Star Ratings and Review Content Influence Purchase.

Turn Your Sales Marketing Up To 11 With Social Media

2. Social Media

Social Media such as Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, Snapchat, TickTock, and to some extent GMB are vital to helping build the gateway.

Social Media Sharing Strategy: The 5-3-2-1 Guide

It's not enough to have a willy nilly posting mentality to social media, you need to have a definitive strategy around your social media sharing. 

When it comes to social sharing, the 5-3-2-1 guide is a ratio to follow to help get the most out of your social media sharing strategy. The guide includes curated, educational, humanized and informative, and promotional content.

5 Pieces Of Curated Content 

Utilize your social media channels to build trust. It’s easy to share what you are saying because after all, you are the expert. However, you need to show your readers that what you're writing about is important not just because you say it is, but because others say it is too. Be sure this content is relevant and that you link back to the page.

3 Pieces Of Informative And Educational Content

Here is where you can share things you have written and link out to your own blogs, landing pages, geographical landing pages, and pillar pages. This should not be a sales-focused page or post. Think education and informative not buy now!

2 Humanized And Personal

Here is where you can post your personal and fun content that helps humanize your brand. Think about posting about office parties, congratulations, birthdays, etc.

1 Promotional content

Now you have built up the trust with your audience you can go for the “right-hook” and ask them to do something. This could be a promotional ask, link as appropriate. Now is the time and this is where you can link directly to a sales-focused page.

Turn Your Sales Marketing Up To 11 With Pay-per-click

3. Pay-per-click/Paid Advertising

Pay-per-click (PPC) is typically referred to as the ads running on search engines. This can be a quick way to get to the top of the page, but depending on your industry it can get costly quickly. For the sake of simplicity, we are going to lump social media display and “boosted” post ads in with this list.

There are numerous factors that can go into the cost of each ad. I often equate PPC to a drug or a quick fix. Yes, it can help you get a quick boost in traffic and potential sales. 

What you might find interesting is that on average small businesses will spend between $9,000 and $10,000 per month if they are running Google Ads as part of their online advertising strategy.

Some of the most expensive PPC keywords for 2020 are:

  1. gartner contact center as a service at $867 per click
  2. aegon structured settlements at $820 per click
  3. nearest 24 hour emergency clinic at $732 per click
  4. software developer startup at $689 per click
  5. identity access management best practices at $686 per click
  6. business internet providers los angeles at $615 per click
  7. lawsuit mesothelioma at $615 per click
  8. car accident attorney long beach at $590 per click
  9. personal injury lawyer in colorado at $585 per click
  10. accident attorney san bernardino at $536 per click
  11. injury lawyers in phoenix at $316 per click

List compiled from Wincher.comr, Mondovo.com, and  Spyfu.com

As I mentioned above about PPC Ad costs, those who spend money on social media ads are spending around $1,000–$2,000 per month. 

Some of the most expensive social advertising keywords for 2020 are:

  1. Insurance at $17.55 per click
  2. Online education at $12.08  per click
  3. Marketing and Advertising at $6.45 per click
  4. Legal at $6.11 per click
  5. Internet & telecom at $4.96 per click

List compiled from SEM Rush

An average click-through-rate for Google AdWords showing on the search page is 3.17%. Whereas organic search results will have an average click rate of 30% for the first item, 15% and 10% rounding out the top 3 according to Adam Heitzman at HigherVisibility.

Turn Your Sales Marketing Up To 11 With Landing Pages/Geographic Landing Pages

4. Landing Pages/Geographic Landing Pages

A landing page is a simple page designed to help convert the user and eliminate distractions. A landing page may or may not have a menu or navigation, it will be super clean and focus on one topic or one keyword phrase. They are often used when a user clicks an ad, email link, or finds it directly through a search.

A geographic landing page is very similar to a landing page in that it is a simple page designed to help convert the user and eliminate distractions. A geographic landing page will typically have a menu or navigation. It will focus on a keyword or keyword phrase in conjunction with a geographical location. They are typically designed for when a user is searching for the keyword or keyword phrase in combination with the “near me”, “city,” or zip code determined by Google.

Turn Your Sales Marketing Up To 11 With Email Newsletters

5. Email Newsletters

We have all gotten and or seen them the email newsletter. They can be a great way to communicate with your clients/customers or they can be annoying. The best way to not be annoying is to provide them something of value in the email. I know that might sound shocking, but no one wants to see an email newsletter that has nothing of value in it. Use list segmentation to make sure you aren’t sending information to those who don’t need it nor would you want it. For example, if you had two distinct niches that you worked in, chiropractors and vets. You wouldn't want to send an email newsletter geared towards the vets to the chiropractors or vice versa.

According to Salesforce, “Email marketers in the U.K. reported an average return on investment of 3,800%. That means that for every dollar invested, the average return was $38.” 

You might also find it interesting that “73% of email marketers send emails at least once a week.” – The Manifest

If you’re an HVAC company, I’m pretty sure your customers don’t want to hear from you daily, however other industries such as a restaurant may benefit from a more frequent email newsletter. 

People are much more likely to see an email from a business than they are to see a social media post especially since they check email daily. This is especially true when it comes to mobile devices. According to eMailMonday, “Mobile email will account for 24 to 77% of email opens, depending on your target audience, product, and email type.” We live in a mobile world you need to think about mobile users even more than your traditional desktop users. 

Turn Your Sales Marketing Up To 11 By Blogging

6. Blogging

Blogging is simply content and message creation that resides on your site and you control. Typically a blog will follow some sort of a schedule and consistency to your posts. While a blog can be anything from your thoughts and musing to informing your audience about your latest product update or services. However, the best blogs and for that matter, the best content is that which answers peoples questions, such as:

  1. How much will it cost
  2. What are the problems with it, what problems will I run into, etc.
  3. Comparisons of different products or services
  4. “Best of” Lists

Turn Your Sales Marketing Up To 11 With Backlinks

7. Backlinks

A backlink is simply a link from one website to another. If it helps, think of a backlink as a citation in a research paper. Google wants to see that you are linking to authoritative and factual sources and that others are linking to you as well. Google uses these backlinks as a ranking signal and high-quality backlinks can help to increase a site’s ranking position and visibility.

How to get backlinks

Get backlinks is one of the hardest things to do and takes the most effort. Here are a few quick ways you can start.

  • Add links to your site on your social media profiles.
  • Do a Google search for a post that’s already ranking well and then improve and expand it.
  • Create list posts, “how-to” posts, “why” posts, infographics, or posts with embedded videos. These formats usually get more backlinks than standard posts.
  • Write the ultimate guideposts. These are very long posts containing several thousand words and cover every angle of the topic.
  • Write guest posts on other blogs and websites

Pillar Pages

8. Pillar Pages/Long-Form Content

A pillar page or long-form page is and will average around 2,000 - 3,000 words or more and covers all aspects on a topic. It will form the basis to which other pages, such as your blog, landing and geographical landing pages point to.

How to Create a Pillar Page

When you create the pillar page you have to think like Goldilocks, not too broad but not too narrow either. For example, if you created a page targeting “trades marketing” it may be too broad to try to rank, however, if you created a page that only talked about “Residential Building Contractors in Western North Carolina” then you are too narrow. A better pillar page maybe something like “Residential Building Contractors.”

Just like with a blog think about the top interests and challenges of your target audience to give you ideas for pillar page content. Choose a topic that's broad enough that it can generate more related blog posts that will serve as cluster content, but not so broad that you can't cover the entire topic on a single pillar page.

Turn Your Sales Marketing Up To 11 With Video

9. Video

According to a study by Cisco, global video traffic will be 82% of all consumer internet traffic by 2022, up from 75% in 2017. To say video is huge is an understatement, it is and should be the greatest asset to your marketing strategy. 

There are seven videos that need to be produced. They are...

  1. The 80% Video

    For this, you want to brainstorm what products or services make up 80% of revenue and eventually create a video about each. You will want to include answers to the top 7 questions you are often asked. Break them into individual videos and combine them into one long one. Let the sales team use this as a way to help qualify prospects before the initial appointment.

  2. Bio Videos for email signatures 
  3. Product and Service Fit

    Simply put, list who you are a good fit for and who you aren’t a good fit for. It will save you time and prospects frustration.

  4. Landing Page

    Use a video if you are collecting information on the person to set fears and anxiety about “getting on a mailing list.” 

  5. Cost and Pricing 
  6. Customer Journey 

    The purpose of this video is to have the viewer identify with the customer in the video. You want them to think, “they had the exact same problem as I did and (your company) was able to solve it.”

  7.  Claims we make

    First, off don’t let the claims we make video be a glorified about us video. That’s not what it’s about! Use the video to help differentiate yourself from the competition.

    Your sales staff can even use video as part of the process this can include:

    • 1-1 videos that are individually personalized and placed in an email
    • During the “Social Distancing” of 2020 everyone was using video conferencing, why not continue it to maximize your sales staff time.

Turn Your Sales Marketing Up To 11 With Chatbots

10. Chatbots

What is a chatbot? The simple answer is a chatbot is nothing more than a computer program that automates the chat through a series of logical steps. Think of a choose your own adventure story. You come to a point where you are offered some options and based on the options you are offered another set.

Chatbots may use AI to determine the best path for you or they may provide you with a set of multiple-choice options depending on how it is set up and how sophisticated it is.

Turn Your Sales Marketing Up To 11 With Conversational Marketing

11. Conversational Marketing

Conversations happen in customer-time not your time

Conversations should and will occur whenever the customer prefers. It may happen in real-time, after finishing a meeting, or later that night when they have a spare moment. 

"Customers should be able to pick up things right where they left off whenever it is convenient for them to continue. The key is to remember that conversational marketing should be designed around the needs of the customer — not the needs of the business." – Dharmesh Shah, HubSpot Co-Founder

Conversations have context

How many times have you contacted a company about a problem you go through the entire process just to get handed off to another person only to have to do it all over again. The process can be even worse if you have to reach back out a second time.

We want to get the answer to our question as quickly as possible and with the smallest amount of effort.

Conversations meet customers where they are

You may prefer email, but your customer prefers to text or you may prefer to call and your client would rather email. Users today demand that you meet them where they are, on their time and how they want to be communicated with. This may mean, phone, email, text or messenger services.

Where can you go from here?

Hopefully, after reading this you have a better understanding of how to market in the modern age. No one ever said that keeping up with the trends would be easy. Sales and marketing are evolving at a breakneck speed and we are just along for the ride. However, if you are like most blokes and your sales and marketing is only at 10, Cube Creative Design can help you turn it up to 11.

Image of the author - Chad J. Treadway

Written By: Chad J. Treadway |  Tuesday, June 02, 2020

Chad is a Partner and our Chief Smarketing Officer. He will help you survey your small business needs, educating you on your options before suggesting any solution. Chad is passionate about rural marketing in the United States and North Carolina. He also has several certifications through HubSpot to better assist you with your internet and inbound marketing.

Editors Note:

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