Over the years, online marketing has become both far more common and easy to access while simultaneously becoming more complex and difficult to get right.
Never before has it been easier to set up your own campaigns and promote your content - with Facebook leading the charge in this arena for many years now.
But just because it's easy to use doesn’t mean its easy to do it right — and get results in your business. In fact, business owners are frequently more confused with how to use the platform - and commit a number of rookie mistakes. Mistakes that cause them dearly both in terms of pouring money down the drain, but also in terms of not knowing what "normal" is and stopping campaigns that are actually working really well.
Many moons ago when I was just learning online marketing, getting a funnel to work was a LOT more difficult than it is now. Even with my background in computer science and understanding the tech side of things - getting marketing that actually generated leads was hard. For most people it took 12-18 months of running ads before they really got what we’d call “good” results - learning things takes time, and marketing is no different.
Now, things are MUCH simpler. Rookies can get results 2-3x better than what we’d have called good 5 years ago. They can do all this with limited training and experience. In reality, they’re FAR ahead of the curve in terms of getting results - but they still have unrealistic expectations. What's crazy about this is that even people who have done zero marketing before commonly have ridiculous expectations of their marketing returns.
If you think you’re going to make tens of thousands of dollars with a $100 spend on your ads, you’re mistaken. The days of sub $10 leads (on an ongoing, long term basis) are over. Sure, you might have a campaign or two hit it out of the park each year, but realistically, when you’re marketing on an ongoing basis — you’re going to be paying more. The biggest mistake here is not actually figuring out what your cost of acquiring a client can be. Just the other day we calculated it for a PT in a small country town. She could technically afford to pay $680 per lead.
That’s right, she could pay $680 per lead and still get a 10x return on her marketing spend. I'm willing to bet, if your service is priced properly, and you're suitably good at your job, you too can afford to pay WAY more per lead than you think is acceptable.
This is important, because when you’ve got unrealistic expectations, you’re FAR more likely to commit the next two mistakes which can cause you to never want to run ads campaigns ever again.
Almost all prospects I speak to who have done some ads in the past complain about ads that “didn’t work”. When I ask them how they came to that conclusion — the answer is almost always “high cost", "no leads" or “no sales”. The problem here is that when you dig a little deeper - the prospect had incredibly unrealistic expectations both in terms of how many leads they thought they would get combined with unrealistic sales expectations.
No, people won’t just give you money because they opted in on your ad. You actually need to develop rapport, show them value and then ask for the sale and handle objections and questions. Your ads can’t do that for you - more than ever people respond well to the personal touch and having someone reach out and have a conversation with them. I know there's people out there who will tell you and teach you that your marketing can do all that in an automated fashion - and if you're the best in the world at what you do AND you're an incredible marketer, it can work.
But when you reach out personally, the chances of success for the rest of us mere mortals is much higher. In other words, it's a game you can win, rather than a game that you pour money down the drain trying to win.
In addition to this, nearly all of these prospects with ads that “didn’t work” - actually had ads that were working just fine. They just didn’t know they were winning. They didn’t know they had to take other steps to convert those leads into sales.
So obviously when you run an ad you want to talk about yourself, what you do and provide a compelling and discounted offer, right?
… wrong.
This is a classic mistake many businesses make when running social media ads. Social media is about people, not products. People aren’t there to browse the ads, they are there to connect with other people, look at the photos and check out the latest feline related updates in their network. Facebook even says that their platform is a place for sharing and connecting people with ideas.
Everyone wants to talk about themselves and how cool their product or service is. The problem is — people don’t care about that. They care about what’s in it for them.
Social ads work best when they talk about the problems your product solves - not the product itself. People engage in content that is meaningful to them. If you’re talking about your product, that’s a mistake. If you’re discounting to get people in - thats a HUGE mistake in 90% of businesses, especially small ones. If you’re getting people to register for “consultations” or other appointments - 90% of your otherwise good leads are not opting in.
In short, you need to start producing higher quality marketing. Marketing that demonstrates your knowledge and authority in your area of expertise. But most business owners don't know how to do that. They struggle with writing and find it difficult to think about their prospects more than what they do - even though it's amazing.
So, to help you, I created a report on Lightbulb Marketing. It will walk you through how to create the "lightbulb moments" in your marketing where people see things in a different way than before. In a way where they see your unique insight and are drawn to your expertise and wisdom.
To get your copy, click the banner below, enter your details and we’ll send you out a copy.
