If I told you to double your business this year, how would you do it?
Double your prices? But then you’d lose clients, right?
Get more leads? But then you’d run out of hours in the day, or have to hire new people to take on the increased work load. You could end up even less profitable despite having more projects.
Then...what?
Don’t close this tab because it feels uncomfortable not knowing.
There isn't one single right answer for everyone who reads this.
But there is an answer for you and your business.
Think about growing your business not as one massive overhaul, but as systematizing and optimizing three specific areas.
- Leads
- Your offer
- Conversion
Let’s walk through what that looks like for each of these three areas so you can see that it is actually possible to double your business this year.
A System That Consistently Generates High-Quality Leads
Most lead-gen systems in creative businesses are either a) non-existent, or b) rushed and desperate.
“I just want to create! I didn't sign up for all this business stuff!”
Yet, what every business needs is a system that brings in new, interested leads, day in and day out.
That could be any combination of content, social media, referrals, ads, or appearances.
A healthy system has multiple inputs so if one gets “clogged” or “dries up”, the bigger system still generates the outcome it was created to.
So, how do you, for example, create content on social media that-
- pulls the right people into your website
- captures their email address
- sends them relevant marketing messages over a period of a few days
- presents them with the perfect offer to meet their needs at the exact moment they need it?
That sounds like a pretty great system.
You would likely increase your leads by 30-50% with a system like that working in the background, 24/7.
(And that’s just one option of many...)
Get Your Audience To Tell You What Products To Sell Them
There’s a theory called “Jobs to be done” that was coined by Clayton Christensen.
It states that customers aren’t paying for your product, they’re hiring you to get them an outcome that matters to them.
With this new context, you start to see patterns in the replies to your emails, and comments on social media.
You create new products and service packages based on these customer signals, rather than what you think they need.
That alignment between your experience, the customers “jobs to be done”, and the product you create for them leads to a much easier selling process.
You’re serving customers who are eager to hire you, rather than trying to convince anyone who will listen to your sales pitch.
There’s a shift from outbound being the main source of sales to inbound.
You’re getting calls to do the thing you want to do, rather than saying yes to anyone with money left in their annual budget to do projects just to make payroll.
You can better control the balance between supply and demand. You have more freedom to do the kind of work you want, because your customers want what you're selling.
That congruence and alignment leads to another 30-40% increase in “average order value”, and your customers and clients are coming back more often or engaging you with longer contracts.
Increasing Conversion Rate
Once an ideal customer, sometimes called a “warm lead”, gets on your email list, you can then use email systems like ConvertKit to segment them based on some simple questions like what stage they are in their business, what outcome matters most to them in the next few months, and what size business they have.
That data could then be fed into your sales system to
- present that lead with the offer that’s perfect for them
- give them the proper context beforehand so they’re excited to be sold to
- rather than trying to convince them that what you make is what they need.
With better context and more personalized offers, it wouldn’t be crazy to think you could increase the conversion rate by 20-30%.
What happens when you add all that up - 40% more leads, 35% increase in average order value, and 25% better conversion rate?
For those of us that don’t do public math, that’s 100% growth.
It’s a much better approach than trying to accomplish the Herculean feat of doubling any one of those areas. That doesn’t happen overnight.
If you’re here, reading this, it’s safe to say you’d like those results sooner than later.
I’ve got good news.
It’s not a magic pill, a secret funnel, or a hack.
This is the long-term approach.
It takes time, it takes effort, but it works.
Systems win over tactics in the long run every single time.
I’ve put together a short email series that goes into more depth on how to create these systems for your business.
Just let me know your best email to send them to, and the first one will be in your inbox in a matter of minutes.
And, to make sure I’m sending you the most relevant info for your business, after you put in your email there’s a short questionnaire that will help me tailor these systems perfectly to the needs of your business.
I’ll see you soon...
Daren