Title: Nurturing Leads: 5 Ways To Connect With Prospects – **1PMP Series**
Featuring: Peter Wilson
Peter: Today, we’re continuing our conversation about the one page marketing plan book and framework by Alan Dib. Now just as a quick refresher, we are talking about the three phases of marketing, the before phase, before your prospect knows who you are. The during phase, which is after they know who you are. And then the final phase is the after phase after they’ve actually purchased from you. So today we are talking about chapter five, which is nurturing leads.
So we’ve talked previously about capturing leads. That was our last episode and what you can do to capture leads. So capturing leads means that you are getting prospective customers for your business to raise their hand and at least give you some bit of information so you can follow-up with them, whether it’s a phone number, an email address, or maybe even a mailing address. These days, email is the most, efficient way to work with prospects. So today, we’re going to talk specifically about email and web related tactics for nurturing lead.
Welcome to the Biz and Life Done Well podcast, where we explore what it means and what it takes to do business and life well. I’m your host, Peter Wilson. If you’re like me, you’re intrigued by stories of common people who have achieved uncommon success in business and life. Join me as I interview fascinating people about how they got started, their successes and failures, their habits and routines, and what inspires them. I’m sure that you’ve all seen different things around the Internet where you’re interested in, a certain business or you wanna learn more about something and you click on an ad.
In order to find out more, you have to give your email address. What a company will do is they will put those into a database and then they will potentially initiate different types of campaigns to get your business. Now if you remember back from the few chapters ago in the one Page Marketing Plan book, we were talking about who are we marketing to. A lot of companies just spend all their time marketing to the 3% of the people that are ready to buy right now. And that’s really the sum total of folks out there that are looking for any particular product that might be ready to buy it.
Like 3% are ready to buy right now. So the majority of folks that we are targeting today in these tactics, they are interested in your product. They’re not ready to buy today. And that is a 30% roughly as Alan estimates of folks out there that we’re marketing to in your total addressable market are interested in your product but just not ready to buy today. So 3% are ready to buy today, 30% are maybe eventually gonna buy but just not today.
That’s a 10 x factor in terms of the amount of the market. So if they’re not ready to buy today, obviously, we’re gonna have to engage with them and provide them value over time and not just constantly say, buy now, buy now. That’s gonna wear people out, And they’re going to quickly turn you off, unsubscribe from your campaigns, and maybe even get a really bad impression about your business. Whereas if you provide value to them over time, when they are ready to buy, they’ll think of you. If you do your job right, you’ll be at the top of their list for who they think of to go to when they are ready to buy.
What we’re gonna look at today are some specific types of content that you can use in email campaigns and blog posts on your website and social media to continue to engage with folks that are not ready to buy today. The first one that we’re gonna look at is a term that I got from Seth Godin, most famous modern marketer of all time. Seth Godin is a he’s written books like Permission Marketing, This Is Marketing, Purple Cow, many other books. He recently released a chatbot that takes that took all of his blog content and turned it into a chatbot. Now you can go online and similar to using ChatGPT, you can actually ask Seth a question.
So I said to Seth, what is one piece of content that is helpful for engaging prospects? And he called it the honest buyer’s guide to fill in the blank, your service. Calling this one your ultimate honest buyer’s guide to fill in the blank, to dentists, to lawyers, to law firms, to accountants, to roofing companies, plumbers, home heating and air companies, home remodeling. The purpose of this or the goal of the honest buyer’s guide, so this is something that you will create for your business. And the goal is to provide the buyer who is actually the prospect, the prospective buyer with all the information they need to make an informed decision about their purchase By being extremely transparent and upfront about the pros and cons of different options that they have in the market, you can build trust with potential customers and establish yourself as an honest broker.
Those are Seth’s words from the blog bot. The honest buyer’s guide should include the following. A list of all the available options in the market, including your competitors. A clear explanation of the pros and cons of each option. A list of questions that a buyer should ask before making a purchase.
Now, we’re gonna see that one come up later as well in the podcast. A detailed description of what the buyer can expect from your product or service, a list of common mistakes that buyers make when purchasing this type of product or service. A guide to pricing, including what the buyer can expect to pay and what factors may affect the price. Now you don’t necessarily need to give specific detailed quotes. You can obviously give ranges of pricing.
And then a list of resources that the buyer can use to learn more about the product or service. So let’s just break this down for a moment. Let’s say that I’m considering getting a heat pump for my house, which is, you know, home heating and air. And if I an HVAC contractor, I could put a buyer’s guide for what options are available in the marketplace. For example, I’m looking at a heat pump, but I could also get AC, which is a different technology.
And I can get them from different vendor. I mean, if I wanted to just keep my house cool, I could probably get a standalone AC unit that I could get at Costco for 4 or $500. So that is an option that I would put in this buyer’s guide, and I would also weigh out the pros and cons. Obviously, that’s a very temporary solution, not very energy efficient, and not necessarily very effective. But it is sort of on the spectrum of things that I would consider for buying AC or getting cooling in my home.
And then the, again, sort of the pros and cons, could put home just a standalone AC unit or one that you stick in your window. Then you could talk about get a full on dedicated air conditioning unit and what are the pros and cons of that versus getting a heat pump which actually does heat the home and cool the home and it’s, more energy efficient. Also, what can a buyer expect? And then mistakes that buyers make when purchasing. So for example, I have a furnace in my home now.
Some people may keep their old furnace. That might be a mistake. They’re just trying to save money. Maybe it’s better to replace the furnace or maybe you just use part of the ducts or something. I’m not, you know, I’m not an expert on that.
That would be something to call out, which would be list of common mistakes that buyers make when purchasing this product or service. And then pricing, this is really important. And it’s not just the initial investment, but I would also include factors like the operational costs for each factor. And then also include rebates that are associated with each factor because I know that, for example, with HVAC units or sorry, with heat pumps, I believe that our local electrical utility offers rebates for, folks that purchase those. And then the last thing is a list of resources.
So list of resources that you could use to learn more about the product or service. It could be a link to the local electrical you know, the local PUD about those rebates and then links maybe to manufacturers about their products and things like So I’m really a fan of this idea of the buyer’s guide. And I would really recommend that you take a look at putting one of those together for your business. You can post it on your blog. You can use it as content that you would send maybe as a PDF or as an attachment or make it available as a download to folks who have shown an interest in your business.
So that’s number one, the buyer’s guide, the ultimate honest buyer’s guide to fill in the blank your service. So the next piece of content that you wanna create and send to prospects is top 10 questions to ask when hiring a, fill in the blank, your service. So top 10 questions to ask when hiring an HVAC contractor. Top 10 questions to ask when hiring a dentist. Top 10 questions to ask when hiring a chiropractor, when hiring a plumber, a remodeling contractor, and the list goes on, a roofing contractor.
What you’re doing is you are basically reminding clients or helping them understand what are the things they should be looking for when they’re hiring a new whatever you do. For example, when you’re hiring a dentist, one of the things that I’ve considered is asking what advanced services do you provide because I don’t wanna go to a dentist who only does very basic services and then has to refer me out to other specialists if I need more advanced treatment. I’d rather go to a dentist that has a certain level of expertise, not just in basic stuff but other things like implants and things like that. So that’s something I would wanna ask a dentist. Do they do any orthodontic type work, adult orthodontics?
Do they do any cosmetic dentistry? So you may not necessarily need some of these services right away, but it’s nice to know that they do offer those services if and when I need them. So that’s the type of thing that you would want to have in the questions. And obviously you wanna use this as an opportunity to subtly highlight the strengths of your own business with the answers that are providing. You have the question and then you have the answer there.
So top 10 questions to ask when hiring a blank your service. So the next one I think is pretty cool. Never thought of this before, but it’s really relevant to me, particular when it comes to home repairs. It’s DIY tips and when to call a professional. This could be very relevant to a plumber for example, which would be how to unclog your drains and when to call a professional.
We’ve got a sink that gets clogged often and I have to go and unclog it and it would be nice to have some tips from a real pro as to the best way to do that and also know when I’m supposed to call a pro. This is could be a fun interactive blog post or email that you can put out. And you could also use all of this content on social media. And it’s just DIY tips related to your industry. It’s not only gonna help demonstrate your expertise, but it’s gonna give value to the reader regardless of their purchase intent.
So you’re just trying to show yourself as a a helpful person with authority, you know, with the knowledge and authority and expertise in your industry. And obviously remember to highlight when it’s essential to call in a professional and how your business can assist in those scenarios. So there’s probably a lot of plumbing scenarios where I need to call a pro. So it’d be nice to highlight that as well. So the DIY tips and when to call a professional is a great piece of content that you can create.
The next one is common myths and misconceptions about blank service debunked. There are any industry, for example, home services, they’re full of myths and misconceptions that can deter potential customers. For example, one that I hear commonly is related to home remodeling. It’s whatever they tell you, it’s gonna cost twice as much. That’s kind of a myth and a misconception.
It certainly can happen. But that is a great opportunity to explain to folks what the truths are about common myths and misconceptions about the services that you provide. And it may not be applicable to all businesses but there are certainly some generalized myths and misconceptions about different services that you could debunk. Obviously, with a plumber, I think there’s some scene of some plumber bent over the sink and obviously we all have this vision of that plumber under the sink. And there’s maybe you could even have some fun with that one.
No. We’re not all these grubby guys that don’t know how to dress. And you could show a picture of your guys, your folks that work for you in their professional uniforms ready to go. The next one that I like the most really, this is really the best one is success stories, real life experiences with your services where you’re showcasing real life success stories with your customers who benefited from your service. This is something that you can do with a post, an article, works very well on social media as well and video is extremely powerful.
We have a few clients that are collecting video testimonials and they’re great because we can use those on their website and it’s a very powerful piece to put on their website. It’s also very powerful to put it in an email that we send out to prospects where they can actually see somebody who has the same problem they have and how the problem was solved and their experience with your business. And if you’re providing good services to your customers, you shouldn’t have any problem finding folks that are willing to talk about their experience with you and what it meant to them and how they felt after you left. The main thing that you want to focus on is not just what you did for them but how it made them feel. And it’s really powerful when you hear stories about common issues in a home, for example, are, we actually have this, our water heater went out and the water heater blew up and the way it’s situated in our home, it actually leaked down on top of our furnace.
So the guys came out from, Energy Works and they replaced the water heater, cleaned up the furnace, made sure the furnace was still working. They actually didn’t need to replace the furnace. They made sure that it fired and started. And they actually did a little tune up on the furnace while they were here as well. And I was really happy because I thought everything was ruined.
I thought our furnace was just shot. And they were able to get it going again and just replace the water heater. Also put in a drip pan so the next time the water heater decides to go, at least there’s a drip pan there with a drain and an alarm and a shut off valve. It’s a lot less likely to harm the furnace that’s underneath it. So success stories, real life experiences with your service, and these are incredibly powerful to use on social media as well.
And nice thing is you can recycle those through your social media. You can have different snippets of them and you can also look at your reviews online and see customers that you’re aware of and just get their permission to repost what they said if you wanted to post it on in an email or something like that. So those are five ways to engage and connect with prospects. Again, that’s the honest buyer’s guide, the top 10 questions to ask when hiring, DIY tips and when to call a professional, common myths and conceptions about your service debunked, and finally, success stories. If you would like to learn more about the services that we provide, we do use the one page marketing plan to coach our clients and to create marketing plans for them and execute marketing plans for them.
We offer a audit, a free marketing audit. And if you’ll just go to our website at bizmktg.com, you can see a book consultation there. It’s a free consultation and we will again do an audit of what your current marketing is and look at gaps in your marketing and opportunities to help you. I’m Peter Wilson, bizmarketing.com. Thanks for listening.
So the second piece of content that we’re talking about is the Thanks for listening to this episode of Biz and Life Done Well with Peter Wilson. You can subscribe to us on iTunes, Google Podcasts, Spotify, and most of the other popular podcast platforms. Please tell your friends about us and leave us a review so even more people will find out about us. Thanks again. We’ll see you soon.
