One of the most challenging aspects of owning a business is maintaining the correct mindset. In this article, I share insights from my favorite quotes from this year’s weekly newsletter.
This is a fun article that will provide perspective on mindset, developing the correct thought processes, and specific strategies to build your business if you are a writer or author.
So, let’s jump right in and get going.
Quote
“The secret is to spend most of your time and creative energy building assets that you control.”
-Sonia Simone-
If you ask many direct marketing companies “what is your most valuable asset?”, without a shadow of a doubt, most will say their customer list. Why is the customer list so important? Think about this, if you can contact your customers and make profitable offers your business can survive and thrive. If a business loses the ability to contact customers, then this can be detrimental to the success of the business.
Today, there are so many ways to build an audience to attract prospects and customers. But how many of these platforms do you control? How many times have you read about social media accounts being banned, people losing access to media that required time, effort and money to build?
It is okay to build alternative media, but do not rely on only channel to communicate with your customers. Build assets that you control like your website, email lists, and customer lists. When it comes to acquiring customers sure you use a multichannel approach versus relying on just one channel. If for some reason one channel no longer generates leads and revenue, then you have other methods to acquire new leads and customers. This creates a thriving business.
Quote
Make a customer, not a sale.”
Make a customer, not a sale.”
-Katherine Barchetti
Most companies view a customer as a way of making a sale. The most successful businesses view the sale as a means of earning a life-long customer.
Quote
“Direct marketing is shark marketing on a minnow’s budget.”
-Dr. Lisa Spiller-
This is one of my favorite quotes, and it is by the person that initially taught me direct response marketing. First, direct marketing is powerful. It is targeted to the business’s ideal customers. It is measurable, and there is an offer, a call to action, and there is a follow-up to the prospects and customers who do respond. Direct response marketing is ideal for authors, small publishing businesses on micro-budgets to larger conglomerate businesses. Anyone can use the principles of direct marketing to improve their advertising and acquire customers with a positive ROI.
Quote
“The man who stops advertising to save money is like the man who stops the clock to save time.”
“The man who stops advertising to save money is like the man who stops the clock to save time.”
-Thomas Jefferson-
Again, this quote reminds me of the differences between companies that look at marketing as an expense or a means of acquiring a life-long customer. The fastest growing companies realize that there is an expense to acquire a customer. But once the customer is acquired it cost far less to serve current customers. Plus, customers that have a positive experience with your company are more likely to purchase more often and at higher price points. The moral of the story is invest money in marketing to acquire new customers. Once you have earned a customer, do your best to provide a positive experience, so the customer will continue to purchase from you.
Quote
“I never thought I’d enjoy collaborating so much, but turns out it feels like a super power if you collab with the right people.”
-Lisa Hanawalt-
Many small business owners try to build their business on their own. They try to grow their audience and earn revenue by themselves, one customer at a time. A secret to incredibly fast growth is to partner with others. How many people, organizations, direct and indirect competitors want to reach the same audience? How many non-profit organizations can you partner with to reach your goal? If you start partnering and collaborating with other businesses in mutually beneficial relationships, then it is much easier to surpass your goals, reach more people and make a greater impact.
Quote
“The best-performing organizations — as defined by their revenue growth, profitability, market share and customer satisfaction — understand that being customer-focused requires a blend of attraction, engagement, satisfaction, collaboration and retention.”
-Business Insider-
Whom do you focus on?
Whom are you trying to serve?
Whose best interest do you advocate?
Here are three questions that I ask each day are:
-How can I provide more value to my current customers?
-How can I serve more people that are like my current customers?
-How can I help my customers get desired results faster?
Here is how each part of the Business Insider quote can be beneficial to your business:
Attraction– Attraction can be creating content that is valuable to your prospects and customers. Content such as articles, blog posts, reports, podcasts, webinars, and social media posts. The primary purpose is to build relationships and engage prospects and customers.
Engagement – Engagement is often thought of as sharing, posting, liking, and commenting on your content. So, are you creating content that your readers find engaging?
Satisfaction – Satisfaction is often thought of as how happy customers are with their overall experience. This can be related to content, purchasing products and their overall customer experience.
Collaboration – Collaboration can be sharing articles, guest blog posting, promoting each other through email, a podcast guest, creating premium paid content together, co-creating workshops and speaking engagements. Collaborating is one of my favorite methods to build an audience and create great content.
Retention – Retention can be as simple as people who open your emails frequently, to visiting your website, to customers who are happy with your products and services and purchase again and again. Remember a repeat customer is the most profitable customer.
Quote
“Email has an ability many channels don’t: creating valuable, personal touches – at scale.”
-David Newman-
Today, email is the most profitable marketing channel, and there are many reasons for this. Email allows you to communicate with your subscribers and build relationships at scale. Think of this if you have an email list of 5,000 subscribers and a 30% open rate then 1,500 people open your email each week. If you double your email subscribers to 10,000 with the same 30% open rate, then 3,000 people open your emails. Now imagine an email list of 20,000, 40,000 or more subscribers. How would this change your business and your life? Finally, an email list is an asset that you own.
Quote
“Publishing is a business. Writing may be art, but publishing, when all is said and done, comes down to dollars.”
-Nicholas Sparks-
Publishing is so much more than books. Publishing includes magazines, ezines, newsletters, and premium paid content such as courses, membership sites, and so much more. If you really want to grow your email subscriber list, then you must know your critical numbers. Some critical numbers are the cost per subscriber, the value of each email subscriber, and the lifetime value of each customer. If you know that it cost $3.00 to acquire each new subscriber and each subscriber is worth $4.00, now you can quickly grow your business exponentially. Lifetime customer value tells you how much you can spend to acquire a customer and still break even.
The Real Secret to Achieving Your Dreams
There you have insights from eight quotes that will help you build your business and plan for the future. If there is one silver bullet to success, it is taking action. Taking action is the real secret to achieving your dreams and reaching your goals. So, I encourage you to start today, take action, and do something that your future self will thank you for.
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