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INSIDE THIS ISSUE:
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Understand the 4 Campaigns Your Business Needs to Focus On Common Reasons Marketing Fails and How to Fix Them ‘The Power of Moments’ Book Review Aha! Helps Companies Nail Deadlines and Organize Projects Planning a Drive-In? Check Out Our Marketing Tips No Challenge Is Too Big for Attorney Matthew Taylor
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MAKE A PLAN TO GET TO A
POSITIVE OUTCOME
company don’t stand a chance. I read a few weeks ago that in Idaho (where I live) alone, the number of calls to the suicide hotline last month was 10 times higher than it was the same month last year. I know that, personally, when I can’t imagine a better future and see a path forward, my mental health that day or week is off. I thrive when I can work toward a better tomorrow, which is likely the reason I’ll never retire. As the leader of your company, you have to take time to focus on yourself and your own well-being. There are a number of things I do in this arena that have helped me through numerous difficult times in my life, including this pandemic, and I’ll share my process in the rest of this article. Continued on Page 2 ...
As I listened to those in the room, it was interesting to hear the themes. Everyone had been affected, as you’d imagine. Some had seen tremendous growth during COVID-19, and others took massive hits. Some had to reinvent their businesses on the fly, and others reinvented nearly all of their marketing. Most had gone to some level of working from home. Everyone just wanted to get back to normal, as we all wish we could. Regardless of all the changes, growth, or decline, nearly everyone agreed on what it would take for entrepreneurs to work through this crisis and come out better and stronger on the other side.
Over the last several years, a few of my friends and I have been getting together 3–4 times per year to help each other with our businesses. These are some of the best and brightest entrepreneurs on the planet. In years past, we’d all talk about marketing and growth or hiring and firing. We may have helped come up with new product or service ideas or helped find a new way to sell an existing product or service. We recently got together for the second time in 2020. Our first get-together was weeks before COVID-19 really hit the U.S. The group of people in attendance this time around was much smaller, as you can imagine, and the topics covered had a bit more variety because some of us had challenges related to COVID-19 to discuss.
The first area we all need to focus on daily is mindset. If your mindset is off, you and your
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... CONTINUED FROM COVER
works and how your subconscious can’t tell the difference between practice reps in your mind and the real thing. Many years ago, I read a book called “Psycho-Cybernetics: A New Way to Get More Living Out of Life” by Maxwell Maltz, and that is where I was first introduced to this concept. It has been pivotal for my success in life. There is also a very good talk on this subject called “The Secret Imagination of Elite Performers” by Charlie Unwin. I allow myself to have hard times or days. Like everyone else, I’ve had to deal with COVID-19 and its impacts, which have been both positive and negative. This goes for both my business and some major personal issues that hit on literally the exact same week. Frankly, it has been one of the most difficult periods of my life, and I’ve had to take a minute from time to time. I’ve had periods where I’ve been overwhelmed with emotions, stress, or in most cases, both. I put in 16-, 18-, even 20-hour days, seven days a week, for over a month, and the exhaustion would get the best of me at times. It is okay to not be okay occasionally. As the leader of my company and my family, it is difficult for me to admit sometimes that I need a minute or that I’m struggling. After all, I’m the one everyone else turns to when they need help. I’ve learned over the years — and 2020 has reinforced this — that I can’t help anyone if I don’t first help myself. Many people rely on me, both personally and professionally, and I need to make sure I am at 100% or I won’t be able to help anyone else. And you need to do the same, both mentally and physically. –Shaun
“I’VE LEARNED OVER THE YEARS — AND 2020 HAS REINFORCED THIS — THAT I CAN’T HELP ANYONE IF I DON’T FIRST HELP MYSELF.”
No one is going to be right in the mind if they consume 24/7 negativity, and that is what is being thrown at us. You have to limit your intake of bad news, and when you do, you’re more likely to stick to just the facts and what’s been proven, and it helps eliminate the opinions as much as possible. I pray, I meditate, and I visualize. I’m a Christian, so prayer is a part of my life. I both ask for help and express gratitude for what I have. I meditate so I can clear and focus my mind. I’m not great at this one yet, if I’m being honest. I also visualize. This goes hand in hand with what I said earlier about needing to see a better future or the outcome I want in order to work toward that outcome. There have been many studies about how the brain
As I said, I need to have some goals to work toward in order to see a path to a positive outcome. I can muscle through bleak situations, and I have, but I find it much easier to keep going when I’m moving from bleakness toward positivity. I also need a plan for the worst-case scenario, just in case. If the situation calls for it, I may have a plan for two or three worst-case scenarios. This allows me to see potential issues coming and maneuver to avoid them before the worst case happens. I limit my consumption of social media and news. There are way too many opinions floating around out there, and most of them are wrong — and that’s just on the major news outlets. Don’t get me started on social media and the keyboard warriors.
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IT’S TIME TO FOCUS ON THE FUNDAMENTALS OF BUSINESS BUSINESS HOW-TO
4. Customer retention campaigns: The longer a customer stays with you, the more valuable they are to your business. Making sure you’re building relationships, nurturing (as I mentioned above), and having amazing customer service is very important to keep as many customers as possible for as long as possible. After each of those is in place, you can certainly look for additional new-customer acquisition campaigns. Most people typically start with campaigns to entice new customers, but that isn’t smart at the best of times, and right now, it may be an even worse idea. New-customer acquisition campaigns are by far one of the most difficult (and least profitable) parts of running a business. Investing in marketing that may not pan out, while you’re leaving low-hanging fruit on the tree (as in the above four sections), is silly. The campaigns I’ve mentioned will cost less, yield more profits, and do it more quickly than another new-customer acquisition campaign. This will ultimately help your company be better prepared for the coming downturn, whether that downturn comes next week, next month, or six years from now. –Shaun
THE SMARTEST MOVE IS TO FOCUS ON THE FUNDAMENTALS OF BUSINESS, WHICH ARE (IN
It makes me feel old when I can look back and think, "I remember the last time the economy went through a cycle like this" and see the patterns repeating themselves. Right now, I'm seeing a number of businesses that have not been working too hard at their marketing and are scrambling. I’m also seeing a number of professionals, who had a few months off, suddenly be as busy as ever and think that is going to be the new norm. As the economy was previously very good, everyone — from the entrepreneur to the customer — got lazy and sloppy. Employees, in many cases, felt invincible; after all, they were in demand and could get another job whenever and wherever they wanted. Entrepreneurs felt like they were geniuses; after all, their business was growing with little to no marketing or effort needed. Customers allowed businesses to be sloppy because they had more money in their pockets than ever before and weren’t as scared of having a bad experience; they could always leave a negative review. And the sheer volume of other vendors to choose from gave them confidence. Right now, it is too early to tell which way the economy will go for sure, but I’d bet that it won’t be as strong as it was at the end of 2019. However, it is unlikely to be The Great Depression Part II, either. With that said, no one really knows. So, what is the best strategy for growing your business right now, without taking on too much risk, just in case?
NO PARTICULAR ORDER): 1. Nurture campaigns for
prospects: These campaigns will allow you to maximize any investment you’re already making in customer acquisition. 2. Nurture campaigns for driving
revenue growth from existing customers: The easiest sale to make is always to an existing customer. The sale is made even easier if you’ve done nurture and
relationship marketing previously, as customers always prefer to buy from someone they know, like, and trust. 3. Referral campaigns: Birds of a feather tend to flock together, and referred customers close faster and spend more on day one than cold leads. As an added bonus, referred customers also tend to refer others more frequently.
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CLIENT SUCCESS
MARKETING HOW-TO COMMON REASONS M THESE ISSUES MAY BE DO FOR THE REST OF T
"My wife and I are very impressed by [the newsletters]. I hand them out to clients when I meet them, and it's a good conversation starter … I get 1 to 2 comments every week. They ask me about my family because they see the family aspect. It's one of the best decisions I've ever made — getting a newsletter."
for your business. Having clean data allows you to be more efficient and effective with your marketing, and it makes the marketing results better. One of the main reasons marketing campaigns fail is bad data. If you send a campaign to the wrong group of people, or to people who never see the message, the marketing will fail. Having clean data is important, and it’s worth your investment to both clean up your data and to keep it clean and up to date. Another common mistake is making too many offers in the same campaign. It is important to be very clear in your marketing about who the offer is for and what it includes. Many people think that sending
I get to see a ton of various marketing campaigns, as well as hear the results of those campaigns, and I’ve noticed that many people are making the same mistakes and causing their campaigns to fail. I’ll go through a number of the most common mistakes I’ve seen in the last few months. At The Newsletter Pro, we get to see a ton of campaign data. As you can imagine, it comes in all shapes and sizes. The shape and size that is most rare is that of good, clean data. Most people have pieces of information, but they are rarely uniform and even more rarely up to date. Your lists need to be validated on a regular basis and segmented into categories that make sense
-Robert Burns BLG Environmental
"I am so happy with my newsletter. I get new clients because of it — my readers give out the newsletters to their friends/ family. My readers LOVE my newsletter! They comment on it all the time. New clients will bring the newsletters in and say 'Add me to your list; I want to get these!' I also read the TNP newsletter and get good information from it. I think part of the appeal of my newsletter is that there's nothing 'technical' about a physical piece of mail — no chance for internet issues and the like. I'm already excited about next year's stories. I'm in it for the long haul!" -Kevin Tharpe North Georgia Elder Law
OUR BOOKSHELF
CREATE DE WITH ‘THE
“Moments matter. And what an opportunity we miss when we leave them to chance!” If we knew how to elevate simple moments and make more experiences meaningful, how would that affect the lives of the people around us? In “The Power of Moments,” highly acclaimed duo Chip Heath and Dan Heath (also known as the Heath brothers) examine why the defining moments in our life are the most memorable and cherished and what they have in common with each other. These moments are not necessarily attained when we reach our goals. They happen when we feel
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MARKETING FAILS AND WHY FIXING E THE MOST PROFITABLE THING YOU THE YEAR!
Tony spoke about was that it used to take eight times for someone to even notice you existed, but as of a few years ago, it now takes 16 touches before prospects are even aware of you. Most businesses give up far too early in terms of the number of touches needed to make a sale. This is where prospect nurturing comes in. We often get people at The Newsletter Pro who have been receiving our direct mail and emails for 1–4 years before they finally are ready to sign up. Had I given up on our leads sooner, we’d be a far smaller company than we are today. We often have to send emails and direct mail as well as make phone calls in order to have the highest chance of getting the information in front of prospects so they have the ability to make the
three offers at once increases the likelihood of a response, but in many cases, it actually decreases response. A confused prospect simply won’t buy. It is far easier for a prospect to do nothing than to try and decipher marketing in the hopes that they want whatever it is you’re offering. Be clear on what someone gets, how they will benefit from your offer, exactly how they should respond, when they need to respond by, and why responding now instead of waiting is a good idea. I went to a small-group session about two years ago and the guest speaker was Tony Robbins. Tony talked about nurturing prospects and customers, a message you’ll read about in other parts of this newsletter and one I’ve been preaching more and more lately. Part of what
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EFINING MOMENTS E POWER OF MOMENTS’ elevated, gain insight, feel pride, or feel a real connection with something or someone. teams together by simply talking about unity. They must experience unity. That’s what makes it a defining moment.”
Have You Heard the Good News?
2 Timothy 3:16 — “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness.” Proverbs 3:5–6 — “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.” 1 Corinthians 10:13 — “No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.”
We assume that these instances happen spontaneously, but defining moments don’t have to be left to chance. Even the achievement of reaching a goal is embedded in a moment of realization or celebration, and the Heath brothers’ research shows us how to use the elements from our most defining moments to enrich our lives. For example, company meetings can feel like the “emotion had been deliberately squeezed out” and make people wonder why the information isn’t just shared in an email. But you can “just as easily conduct a meeting that has drama, meaning, and connection,” the Heath brothers say. “You cannot bring two
“The Power of Moments” joins the Heath brothers’ other successful business books, like their very first book “Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die,” which was translated into 25 languages, made The New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller lists, and retired from the BusinessWeek list after 24 months. It’s considered among the top 100 business books of all time. We highly recommend “The Power of Moments” to anyone looking to connect more deeply with the people in their lives and improve their responses to each moment. It’s been a wonderful read!
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MARKETING HOW-TO CONTINUED ...
"THIS IS NOT AN EASY TASK BUT IT WILL LITERALLY
they spend with you each month or year. The goal is that eventually every dollar you lose to a customer who downgrades or cancels, you make up with a new dollar from a customer upgrading. This is not an easy task but it will literally propel your revenue and profit growth to levels you may not have imagined. Since this isn’t easy, many people just bury their heads in the sand, but even a small decrease in churn — combined with a small increase in purchases by existing customers — will change the overall profits of your business significantly. All in all, if you spend the rest of the year fixing just these issues, you’ll have a thriving business with profits like few others in your industry have.
decision that is right for them. You don’t need quite so many touches to get the attention of your existing customers, but "less" doesn’t mean only one or two. Here's the bottom line: You have to put a system in place to make sure you automate as many of those touch points as possible and hit as many different media as is right for your business. If you want help with that, schedule a call with my team and they’d be happy to chat with you about how we can assist: NewsletterPro. com/schedule or call 208.297.5700. The final major mistake I wanted to mention kind of goes back to underutilizing your list. Every business has churn (lost revenue or lost customers due to cancellations on some level). Smart entrepreneurs work to reduce churn, but if you really want to take your business to the next level, you’ll work to get to a state of revenue neutral churn. What that means is that you put marketing campaigns in place to help your existing customers increase what
PROPEL YOUR REVENUE AND PROFIT GROWTH TO LEVELS YOU MAY NOT HAVE IMAGINED."
–Shaun
RESOURCE OF THE MONTH FIND YOUR ‘AHA!’ MOMENT A Look at This Fresh Option for Cloud-Based Software
The company's cloud-based project management software is geared toward helping small, midsize, and large companies, from startups to global leaders. Aha! also serves a broad range of industries, including education, finance, legal, marketing, and nonprofits. Teams that use Aha! talk about the ease of access and usability, and for companies looking to easily capture and store team and customer ideas in an organized way that drives projects forward, Aha! is ready to simplify the process. Users appreciate that the platform comes pre-populated with examples of features, releases, and goals, making it easier to understand how each tool works together to help you organize projects. With visually appealing cards that can be organized by due date and dragged around the interface, teams may find they are better able to prioritize tasks with Aha! Most features on Aha! can be customized, including the navigation tab, layouts, and workflow, so if you like to have flexibility in your project management platform, this can be an added bonus. As Aha!’s website highlights, you can also create portals to track deliverables and dependencies, helping you make your clients happy by keeping them in the loop of where their product or campaign is and delivering it on time. Aha! offers a 30-day free trial of their software, so you can give it a try with no commitment. If you’re looking for an alternative option for streamlining processes and capturing ideas to help move projects forward, Aha! might be right for you.
As Aha! explains on their website, they are a different kind of software company. Like many other SaaS companies that provide project management services, Aha! includes features like task lists, product road maps, collaboration tools, and analytics. Applications like Salesforce, GitHub, Trello, Zendesk, and more can be integrated with Aha! So, what’s different about Aha!? For starters, the company doesn’t go after venture capital and is entirely self-funded. Instead of a sales team, Aha! offers a robust customer success team to help businesses decide if the product is right for them, and they do daily live demos to help teams get the most from their services.
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IN THE SPOTLIGHT
DRIVE-INS ARE BACK IN STYLE! Tips for Marketing This 20th-Century Throwback in 2020
event.” The Rose Bowl has since followed suit. Brooks’ July performance, meanwhile, was “filmed exclusively for this drive-in concert event,” according to Vivid Seats. A NOSTALGIA HIT Drive-in movies are an old-school experience, so why not push the nostalgia further with a theme or period concessions? One successful operation in New York does just that. The Finger Lakes Drive-In opened in 1947 and made USA Today in June for its juxtaposition of the past and present. Its classic films screen just beyond an electronic billboard of a pointing Uncle Sam admonishing, “I Want YOU to Wash Your Hands.”
theaters across the country. If you’re planning a drive-in, here are three marketing strategies you can steal from Brooks and his peers. THE SAFETY FACTOR Safety is an obvious point in favor of drive-ins and makes them attractive for people at higher risk of catching COVID-19 who otherwise might stay home. In your marketing, remind potential attendees that cars are like built-in social distancing bubbles. Stay inside them, and suddenly it’s safe for hundreds or even thousands of people to gather bumper-to-bumper in one place. EXCLUSIVITY If your event is one of a kind in any way, put that front and center. The unique factor could be location, content, or both. In June, for example, Boise State University got creative by screening a movie in its arena, billing it as “a wholly unique
The COVID-19 pandemic has changed a lot about the way businesses run, and few sectors were hit harder this spring than the entertainment industry. As concert halls, arenas, and movie theaters closed across the country, entertainers were forced to pivot how they deliver their product. One of the most creative innovations they’ve come up with is actually a throwback: the drive-in. Drive-in movies were never dead, but they had plummeted in popularity from their peak in the 1950s and ‘60s. Now, they’re seeing a resurgence as an option for people to get out of the house and enjoy a film or concert at a safe social distance. Some celebrities, like Keith Urban, DJ D-Nice, and Garth Brooks, cashed in on this trend early. On June 27, Brooks held what he called the “World’s Largest Drive-In Concert.” His performance streamed to more than 300 drive-in
Whether you hit one of these points or all three, you’ll be following in the footsteps of success.
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208.297.5700 391 N. Ancestor Pl., Boise, ID 83704 Keep up with our latest office news, blogs, and promos at www.thenewsletterpro.com!
BUSINESS PROFILE HERE TO MEET THE CHALLENGES OF TODAY — AND TOMORROW Taylor Law Offices S ince 2011, Matthew Taylor has had an average of one new case every business day. As the founder of Taylor Law Offices, to say business sphere, and his clients left him glowing reviews on Google Reviews and similar websites.
After more growth, he moved into his current offices, which gave him and his associates 3,000 square feet of breathing room. But it wasn’t long until he dove headfirst into his next major challenge. When he moved, he told Google he wanted to keep all of his Google reviews. He was simply moving his office to a new location. He had about 50 at the time and they influenced his business. People read reviews. Those little stars do impact your reputation. Seems like an easy request, right? Except Google transferred Matthew’s review profile to another attorney who had the same last name. This other Taylor, a criminal defense attorney, had to hire an assistant to forward relevant calls back to Matthew. To make matters more complicated, Google marked Matthew’s firm as “permanently closed” for about eight months. The clients began to slow down because the world’s biggest search engine couldn’t get its act together. Of course, Matthew forged ahead. He worked with what he had and, despite the setback, continued to pull in the new legal matters. He knew what he had to do — and it came down to the mindset he’s had since day one, when he had to figure out how to start a law practice in recession-hit Idaho without any help, operate out of a tiny office, and bring in clients when no one had ever heard of him.
he’s been busy would be an understatement. The Boise, Idaho-based law firm, which specializes in business law and litigation, has grown significantly over the past few years. It’s become a force in the Treasure Valley, where Boise and many other prominent Idaho cities are located. Matthew is also the business attorney for The Newsletter Pro! When Matthew first opened Taylor Law Firm, he had just moved to Idaho from New York, where he had attended law school. While he is an Idaho native, he wasn’t from Boise. He was from a small town in southern Idaho a couple hundred miles from Boise. He didn’t know anyone in the capital city, but that wasn’t about to stop him. Neither did the recession, which in 2011, was still in full swing in the Gem State. Matthew was here to be a business attorney, and even though business clients were in short supply, he opened up an office anyway. It was a 300-square-foot room with two desks — and that was it. He didn’t even need the second desk; he just wanted it to look busier and larger. Perception is a big deal when you’re building a brand and a reputation. About seven months later, he hired his first assistant. Cases were rolling in as the economy started recovering. Eventually, the 300-square-foot office space became too crowded. He moved into a new space at just over double the square footage. The new office was in the basement of a prominent Boise building, the Hoff Building. He then brought on another attorney and growth continued. They saw clients in this basement office. Some clients thought it was a little strange, but they looked past it, as the results of the work spoke for itself. Matthew was establishing himself in the Boise
Matthew has seen a lot in the past nine years. He’s gone from a solo attorney to working at a firm with multiple lawyers. In 2020, the Boise area continues to grow considerably, and there’s a huge need for business transactional law and business civil litigation. Matthew and his law firm are there to meet that need. Matthew attributes much of his success and growth to being a dynamic personality. He’s aggressive for his clients and he’s always learning. But more than that, he distinguishes himself in his community. He puts himself out there and gives back at just about every opportunity. The Boise Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, for instance, has recognized him as Man of the Year for his fundraising and awareness efforts. Plus, Matthew doesn’t shy away from attending galas and donation events or holding his own events at his law firm — all with the intent of helping area nonprofits. He is a man of his community. “I always push for the best and I always practice. Nothing is ever good enough because I know what might be good enough today won’t be good enough tomorrow. I’m here to meet the challenge.”
“That’s why they call it the practice of law,” Matthew says. “We don’t always know what
we’re doing — that’s why we practice. We may be professionals and have our juris doctorates, but the law is always changing. You may have been the best attorney 20 years ago, but you can end up irrelevant today if you don’t push yourself, try new things, and try new cases.”
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4 REASONS TO START A NURTURE CAMPAIGN: 1 BUILDING RELATIONSHIPS REQUIRES CONSTANT NURTURING
2 LEAD NURTURING CLOSES MORE SALES UP TO 23% FASTER According to The Annuitas Group, by adding a lead nurture campaign to your sales process, you’ll be able to close more sales up to 23% faster and your nurtured leads will make 47% larger purchases on average than non-nurtured leads.
A nurture campaign is an automated way to keep in touch with prospects and clients throughout their journey with you. The only things that separate your business from the pack is you, your story, and your relationships with your customers. One thing to keep in mind regarding prospects is that a customer is ready to buy when they are ready to buy, not when you’re ready to sell to them.
3 UPSELL, CROSS SELL, NEXT SELL Post-sale nurturing helps keep you top of mind with your clients and introduce them to other services you offer outside of the initial product/service you sold them. Did you know that sales increase more with nurtured leads compared to non-nurtured leads? The statistics will shock you.
4 COMMUNICATE AND EDUCATE
Based on research conducted by Demand Gen, only 29% of brands nurture existing customers beyond the initial purchase. The longest part of a nurture campaign involves product training and resources. It’s important to keep your customers updated on new services, updates, pro tips, etc. This content will reengage your audience, so don’t be afraid to mix it up with some PDFs, webinars, podcasts, blogs, etc.
Interested in learning more about nurture campaigns? Scan this QR code with your phone’s camera for link access to a FREE PDF takeaway on how to implement a nurture campaign. Or visit NewsletterPro.com/nurture
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