If you're running ads and still not getting the results you want, you've probably asked yourself why your marketing isn't working. The usual answer business owners land on is to do more marketing, more ads, more this, more that. That typically won't fix it. You just have to find the constraint in your current business.
At Fiture Marketing, a big part of helping businesses get more leads and sales is figuring out the bottleneck they're running into. I walked through how to find it in a video called "Marketing Masterclass: How to Scale an Existing Business With Better Marketing." This post covers the main lessons and the homework I gave.
Key Takeaways
- Before you spend more, find the one constraint holding your results back.
- Marketing is a revenue equation, so check every stage from traffic to sales.
- Small improvements at each stage compound. In my example they nearly doubled revenue.
- Know your numbers, because more budget only helps once the math works.
1. You Don't Need to Double Your Marketing
Your constraint could be how many leads you're getting or the quality of those leads. It could be that you're spending too little, or it could be your sales process. It could be a lot of different things, but whether you're trying to go from 20 to 30 or from 100 to 200, the number one thing holding your marketing back is your constraint.
Most business owners don't spend much time on this. They think, well, let me just do more marketing, and all that really does is bring more complexity to the process. So put your focus on finding the bottleneck instead.
Try this exercise. Write down how many leads you're getting, the types of leads you're getting, your conversion rate and your sales cycle. If you don't know any of those, that's constraint number one. Then put it all on a sheet so you can see it week by week and know what to do and what to avoid. Once you can see it, identify the constraint and put all your energy into defeating it.
2. Treat Marketing as a Revenue Equation
Marketing is a revenue equation. It's not an ad. The ad only controls the beginning of the process. From there it goes traffic, leads, appointments, sales and revenue, and at each one of those stages you have to figure out where it's stopping or breaking.
A lot of business owners say, just get me more traffic and I'll figure it out. I've made that mistake before, and it never turns out the way you want. Say you're getting lots of traffic and lots of leads but no appointments. Then the sticking point is how those leads turn into booked calls. Does your calendar work? Can people type in their information? Do you have too many or too few appointment slots? Those are typical bottlenecks.
If you're getting traffic, leads and appointments but no sales, stop looking at your ads and look at your sales process. What are you or your salespeople saying or doing that needs to be adjusted? This is where a lot of business owners get completely stuck. They look at the whole thing and say it's broken instead of asking which part is broken. Your homework is to write this exact flow on a piece of paper and figure out where you're getting stuck. I explain how the whole flow fits together in what a client acquisition system is.
3. Run the Math on What Happens After the Money Is Spent
A $5,000 ad budget isn't the real number. What matters is what happens after the money is spent. Say you spend $5,000 and get 50 leads, so $100 per lead. With a 60% booking rate, 30 people book. With a 70% show rate, 21 show up. With a 25% close rate, about 5.25 people buy, and at a $3,000 average sale that's $15,750.
If you don't know those numbers, that's another problem. You can blow a lot of money this way, but what happens more often should get you a little excited. Many business owners have a decent marketing engine, and because they don't run the math, they under-invest in it and get lower results than they deserve. Without the numbers you're going by gut feel, and gut feel is how you get into trouble with marketing decisions.
You also don't need every metric to double. You just need the system to stop leaking. Look at what happens to that same example when each stage gets a little better.
Before
50 leads
60% book rate
70% show rate
25% close rate
About $15,750 in revenue
After small tweaks
60 leads
70% book rate
80% show rate
30% close rate
About $30,240 in revenue
That's roughly doubling revenue by fixing little things at each step, which raises your return on ad spend. It isn't as exciting as one trick that takes your revenue from this to this in 10 seconds. But if you make enough small tweaks, you get a big result. For homework, ballpark these numbers for your business over the last 30, 60 or 90 days, or the last year if you're serious about growing.
4. Make Your Offer Specific
If your offer sounds interchangeable, your ads have to work twice as hard. Most offers sound like this: high quality service, free consultation, contact us today. Do you feel as excited as I do right now? That's what most businesses are doing.
A strong offer names a specific buyer, a painful problem, a valuable outcome and a clear next step. Compare "I have CFO services, book a call with me today" to something like "Are you doing a million dollars a year but somehow have no money? Book a call with us and we'll show you exactly how to keep 30% more of your revenue." With the generic version you'll most likely get no leads, and the leads you do get will be low quality.
Don't forget the clear next step. It's extremely important, because without it people can be sold on everything and still not do anything.
5. Make Sure Your Message Attracts the Right Buyer
There are different stages of buyers. Top of funnel, middle of funnel and bottom of funnel are basically cold, warm and hot. If you want better people entering your ecosystem, your message has to be dialed in for the person you want.
Say you want established business owners, but your message is a beginner one like how to get your first customers. Well, duh, you're going to get people with no money or really low revenue. An established message sounds more like how to add $20K a month without doubling your ad spend, or why your $40K a month business is stuck at $40K.
Dan Kennedy, my favorite marketing guy, puts it this way: if you're getting customers you don't want, ask who picked them, because you did. As business owners we pick our customers through our messaging and what we're offering. If you're getting low quality leads, you can fix it. It's not impossible, trust me. I shared more on this in how to attract better clients.
That's also why chasing cheap leads can backfire. A $50 lead can be expensive and a $200 lead can be cheap. Volume is great as long as it's the right type of customer, and when your leads are actual buyers, selling gets a lot easier.
6. Fix Your Conversion Before You Buy More Leads
Your landing page could be quietly deleting your revenue. Say you get 1,000 visitors and convert 3 to 5% of them, so 30 to 50 leads a month. Improve that conversion rate and the same traffic gets you 20, 30 or 40 more leads. If you don't focus on it, you'll keep spending more and more money without getting exponential growth.
The same goes for your sales process. I see this all the time, especially with people who don't like to sell, maybe because of the fear of rejection. They hide behind getting more leads, free this and free that, and never work the leads they have. Then they get 100 leads and zero sales, decide the leads are terrible and buy a different set with the same result. Then they go to 1,000 leads and get $3,000 in sales. It doesn't work that way.
With a monetization system in your sales process, those same 100 leads could look like 60 booked, 42 shows, ten and a half sales and about $31,000. Without one, all the marketing in the world won't solve the problem. Your homework is to write down your conversion process and how you could make it 10% better, whether that's a better landing page, a better sales script or better salespeople. If leads are coming in but sales aren't, read getting leads but no sales.
7. Track the Few Numbers That Show Where Growth Is Stuck
You don't need 50 metrics. You just need a few that tell you where your growth is stuck:
- Traffic: Are enough of the right people seeing your marketing?
- Cost per lead: What is the attention costing you?
- Book rate: Do your leads take the next step?
- Show rate: Do the appointments happen?
- Close rate: Can your sales process monetize the demand?
- CAC and LTV: Can you afford to scale?
When you know your customer acquisition cost and your lifetime value, you can scale your marketing by the numbers. Businesses are usually afraid to scale because they don't know their numbers, and they should be, because they're going off gut feel or faith. To go deeper on this, read about CAC payback period.
"More budget comes after the math works, not before. More budget doesn't fix bad math."
Greg Marshall
What Would Have to Be True to Add $10K to $20K a Month?
This is essentially how you scale an existing business. You can build your own machine if you're willing to take the time to map it out, from who you're trying to get and what offer you're getting them with to your profit margin and close rate. Put messaging and math together and you've got yourself a nice system. If you try to scale before your numbers are dialed in, you can lose a fortune.
So ask yourself what would have to be true to add another $10,000 or $20,000 a month. How many more leads, sales or dollars per customer would it take? If you've been stuck at the same number forever, that can feel like moving mountains. When you write it all down and look at everything, you'll usually see it's not as hard as it feels once there's a game plan.
That's your last homework assignment. Write down what would have to be true to add the next $10K to $20K a month, and then go do it. If you want to see what scaling looked like for one of our clients, read how to scale an ecommerce business.
Want Help Finding the Constraint in Your Marketing?
Fiture Marketing is a Utah marketing agency that helps businesses find what's holding their marketing back and build lead generation systems that turn traffic into sales.
Our free strategy call includes a full audit of your ads and marketing. We'll look at what's working in your business and what needs to be optimized, then give you an honest read on what to fix first. There's no high-pressure sales on the call, just straight up value.
Book Your Free Strategy CallThe full walkthrough is in "Marketing Masterclass: How to Scale an Existing Business With Better Marketing" above, and you'll find more like it on our YouTube channel.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why is my marketing not working?
Usually there's a constraint somewhere between traffic and revenue, such as lead volume, lead quality, booking, show rate or your sales process. Doing more marketing just adds complexity. Look at each stage and find where it's breaking.
What marketing metrics should a business track?
You don't need 50 metrics. Track traffic, cost per lead, book rate, show rate, close rate, customer acquisition cost and lifetime value. Together they show where growth is stuck and whether you can afford to scale.
Is a cheaper cost per lead always better?
No. A $50 lead can be expensive and a $200 lead can be cheap. What matters is whether the leads turn into customers.
When should you increase your marketing budget?
After the math works. More budget doesn't fix bad math, so know your numbers from lead to sale before you scale your spend.