7 Layer Cookie Bar...Continuous Flow of New Business!
A continuous flow of new business is essential for success, just like a 7-layer cookie bar where each layer adds value to the final product. My approach includes seven key methods for bringing new clients into the sales funnel: blogging, an ezine, talks and networking, PR, client gifts, print ads, direct mail/notes, and bonus calls to clients. To create your own strategy, define your marketing layers, be specific about their frequency, and estimate the annual cost for each to ensure a well-rounded and effective plan for attracting new business.
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Today's topic is part of my 5 Keys to a Profitable Business: ALWAYS Having a Continuous Flow of New Business!
I believe that having a continuous flow of new business is like a 7-layer cookie bar - You can't have just one or two layers of ingredients; it's the sum of the parts that creates the magic. Marketing is no different.
These are my 7 (plus a bonus) ways of getting new business (or the 7 layers to my bar) and represent the ways that my new clients enter my sales funnel:
* Blog
* Ezine
* Talks/Networking
* PR
* Client Gifts
* Print Ads
* Direct Mail/Notes
* Bonus: Calls (literally calling my customers)
Without lots and lots of the right kinds of new leads, I won't have any business and neither will you.
Here's how to create NEW business:
1) Write out the layers to your own 7 layer cookie bar. You can use my list as a reference and have more (or less than 7 layers) but you need to be specific. For example, you won't just write "print ads", you'll write: Print Ads: Martha Stewart Weddings Ad (4x/Year) and anything else you've got.
2) Next to the type of marketing, I want to make sure you say how frequently you're doing it. Be honest, you're not going to get in trouble. If you send out an ezine, don't put that you send it weekly if you only send it 6 times a year.
3) Next to the frequency put how much that line item costs you per year (approximately!) For example: If you put "Referrals" as one of the layers of your bar, it will be trickier to estimate the cost of that line item. Don't panic. Just think about, over the course of the year, how much money have you spent nurturing (through client gifts, etc) those relationships. Make sense?
Notes:
* Do NOT rush through and try to create this in one night. You'll never be able to give it the attention it deserves. My suggestion is to start on it, then come back to it, think about it some more and come back to it again.
* Realize that while the exercise might be "simple", you don't want to get deceived. The more effort you put into the exercises, the better your long-term outcome will be. Promise.
* When doing your homework, you can get help from your accountability partner (you should have one), friends, business associates, whomever.
Get to work! Let me know how it goes!