Summary: In today’s Entrepreneur MBA podcast guest, Samuel Thimothy from OneIMS speaks with Stephen Halasnik from Financing Solutions about small business marketing and the key to your business growth. They talk about the different types of business strategies and why they are important for a business to thrive. They also talk about the challenges of having a strategy and why people even gravitate toward a small business in the first place.
Summary
The challenges of having a strategy
The struggles with Lead Generation
However, awareness is not the only problem small businesses have. Lead generation is the outcome that you are expecting because of consistent inquiries coming in. Small businesses are struggling with lead generation because they have not figured out how much to invest or acquire customers for the business. Focusing on lead generation alone should be the main focus for a small business that wants to expand its business. Brand awareness is the driver of getting customer acquisition.
Customer Acquisition strategy
The formula to grow a business is acquisition plus retention which equals growth. You need to figure out what the acquisition side of the equation is which means acquiring customers on a consistent basis. Which requires you to figure out all the tactics you need to do that. You need to retain customers too, it is more expensive to acquire customers than retain so it is best that you try to keep the same customers on board. However, you do need to do both because if all you are doing is retaining customers then your company is staying stagnant and vice versa.
SEO is seen as a popular tactic used to acquire customers. It is essential if someone googles a searched term and your company is getting discovered using that same search term. What you are trying to solve is how are you driving consistent traffic. So you want to figure out the lowest cost for visits you can have that can drive qualified visitors to your website. So the essential goal is how to get traffic from the targeted customers and how to nurture them to turn into a customer long term. SEO is only part of the equation, not the whole thing. You need to do a great job knowing what keywords you should be focusing your content creation around and making sure your content is found by customers.
Why do people gravitate towards small business marketing?
The reason why most people gravitate towards what Samuel solves for because over time the cost of acquisition is being lowered. Usually cost per lead is extremely expensive and the chances of losing any of your leads are very slim. Once businesses realize the price of the acquisition is really expensive, they reapply that money towards other forms of marketing such as podcasts which can sell even when you are not working. This creates value for your target customers so your website would be an asset that you built as a result of that.
Business owners need to start thinking about is their web property is an asset to their business. Sales representatives might leave them but the website never will. The website is constantly earning money and operates while the business owners are asleep. Once business owners understand the framework of that mental mindset, their whole perspective changes. Business owners start taking the website seriously and start monetizing the website property based on how much traffic the website gets. Most business owners think a body solves a problem but in reality, it does not. They need to think about the total lifetime customer value, the cost of acquisition, and how to reduce it by making sure you have a very strong brand people recognize. People need to trust your brand over a rep that shows up with a better presentation. When using different marketing strategies you should know how much money you are making off each strategy.
About Samuel Thimothy from OneIMS
Samuel Thimothy is a knowledgeable expert in online marketing, demand generation, and sales with over 15 years of experience. He helps businesses develop and execute marketing strategies that improve their lead generation efforts and drive business growth. Samuel is dedicated to helping clients achieve their goals and continually sets the bar higher. Currently, he serves as the Chief Growth Officer for OneIMS, an inbound marketing agency. He has also co-founded Clickx, the digital marketing intelligence platform that eliminates blind spots for brand marketers and agencies. Samuel is a contributing author on Forbes, Inc Magazine, and other business publications. He also hosts and produces his own show called Coffee with Closers, where he gathers valuable insights from successful entrepreneurs and business leaders.
About Financing Solutions Small Business Line of Credit
Financing Solutions provides an easy-to-setup unsecured business line of credit to small businesses. The small business financing product is a great cash backup plan that costs nothing to set up, nothing until used, and is inexpensive when needed. Financing Solutions is rated A+ by the Better Business Bureau and 5 stars by the BBB/Google Reviews.
Unlike a traditional business bank loan, our business credit line requires no collateral or personal guarantee (except in the cases of fraud) making it an excellent alternative business financing option. Small businesses often used their line of credit for short-term expenses, working capital, to make payroll, or for a business investment especially when business cash flow is temporarily down.
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