Alien movies would have you believe that math and numbers are a universal language.
I’m here to tell you that they are misleading. (If you’re not a numbers person, you can breath half a sigh of relief – because you do still need to keep track of them 😉
Numbers can be misleading because they can make your business look like everything is a-okay, when in fact it’s really not.
You could be running Facebook ads and growing your list by thousands every month, but most of the people you’re talking to are not right for your services (if you’re even getting queries at all).
Or, you might participate in a giveaway or host a telesummit and get 2,000 new leads on your list, but half of them unsubscribe before you ever even make an offer.
Or, let’s say we look at the other side of the coin, you could launch a new program that you know is amazing and your sales turn out to be a complete flop… At least that is what the numbers would tell you when actually your program isn’t the problem, it was the message you used in your marketing.
The moral of the story is, numbers do not tell you the whole picture.
In addition to the numbers, when you’re marketing online you need to pay close attention to the overall quality of who you’re attracting.
- Are they able to afford your services?
- Do their circumstances fall into your “sweet spot” where you do your best work with people?
- Are they coming to you already ready to hire you, or does it take a while for them to build trust?
- Are you getting a lot of unsubscribes in relation to the number of opt ins each month? (Unsubscribes are totally normal every time you send an email – but it should be a very small percentage).
- Are you getting a lot of tire-kickers and no-shows on your calendar?
- Are most of the people you’re attracting a good fit but there aren’t nearly enough of them in relation to how much traffic or people being added to your list every month?
Every quarter I help my Trailblazers Collaborative clients audit their marketing so they know what’s working and not working and not getting hung up on the vanity or disappointment of numbers that are really just a symptom, not the whole picture. I find this is huge when taking command of the results you want in your business.
So what do you do if you find that your numbers don’t really match the quality and results you think you should be getting?
I find that 9 times out of 10 when someone comes to me with failed marketing, or lots of leads that aren’t the right fit, it all comes down to their message.
Oftentimes their message is too broad in order to “appeal to as many people as possible” which in fact does the opposite because it doesn’t attract attention. Another common mishap that is super easy to overlook is using language that doesn’t speak to their ideal client on their level.
For example, if you’re attracting a lot of people that can’t afford your services, you are probably missing language in your marketing that attracts a more affluent or experienced client. And/or you may be missing language in your funnel that “qualifies” and/or “disqualifies” prospects from being a good match for you before you speak with them.
Before you do any marketing (especially online) you need to get dialed into exactly who you want to attract and know what their problem is, and how to position your program as the solution.
To get you started, here are some questions I take my clients through when we are fleshing out the language that would attract their ideal client:
- Who is your target audience? (In detail, do they have a family? How old are they? What kind of job do they have? What kind of support do they already have? Are there certain things that come along with this time of their life (kids, divorce, hormones, you name it!)
- Are their multiple stages they could be on their journey (Example: Business owners could be start up, established and looking to scale, or scaled and burning out)
- What is it they want to do, be, or have?
- What advantages do they have to getting what they want?
- What are the disadvantages?
- What have they already tried (DIY)?
- What other professionals might they have hired?
- Why didn’t those things work?
- At what point do they say “enough is enough!” and start looking for help? Or, what is the problem they have that they need to get fixed no matter what?
- Who in this market would not be a good match for you?
These questions should get you started on dialing in on who you’re really talking to. You will have a lot of good language and examples you could pull from these questions and use in your marketing to attract more ideal clients.
So, don’t let the aliens tell you that as long as your numbers are high, you’re in good shape. If you work these messaging pieces into your content, you’re going to see very different results (and hopefully with the same high numbers you may already be experiencing).
