Marcus Richards
Welcome to the one-stop-shop for all you need to grow the marketing, sales, and operations of your business.
Taking and applying these concepts and the strategies along with them will take your business to new heights over any and all of your competition.
So feel free to take what you like from this list and run with it.
Let’s dive in.
Google Ads
Google AdWords is probably the best and most absolute way to get in front of people already searching for your product/service. Whether you’re selling overpriced t-shirts or offering estimating services to construction companies.
To illustrate an example, let’s say you have a business that sets up gardens in people’s backyards and you want to grow your business.
Well, if I was your marketing consultant I would ask you 2 questions to start.
- Are you running Google Ads?
- How much content are you putting out to the world?
All it takes is one Google search of “how to start a garden” to see that there is a lot of room to include your service in the ad space.
With a service like setting up gardens, it would be very beneficial to have an e-book serving as a lead magnet being advertised on Google as people search up relevant terms. Because after all, the only people looking up “how to start a garden” are people interested in… starting a garden. So providing them genuine value would position me as an authority in the space, and combined with some great retargeting advertising, would lead to a sale.
So think about your business. What would a potential customer search for on Google? How would you be able to get in front of them? The better you answer these questions, the better Google Ads can help explode your business.
Facebook Advertising
Facebook is the biggest social media platform out there, with more than 2,450,000,000 monthly active users, there is a lot (a LOT) of potential to grow your business.
How to tap into this if you aren’t already? I’m glad you asked.
By creating a funnel, and not one of those complicated ones where all we do is sell the same stuff over and over.
We’re going to provide genuine value for free to build trust and allow people to start to understand our brand and grow familiar with us.
It’s going to be 2 steps, with the 1st ad offering a valuable item for free to collect email addresses, and in between the 2 ads will be a 3-email sequence of nonstop value without asking for anything. And the 2nd ad is to give them a relevant offer.
So it goes like this: give, ask, give, give, give, final ask.
Taking this approach to your Facebook advertising will lead to you building a powerful funnel that predictably brings you business.
Instagram Content
This ties into Facebook advertising.
Instagram is one of the hottest platforms out there right now, and its dynamic is unique in that people take good care of their timeline.
That means when people go on Instagram, they expect to only see content they’re familiar with, or are interested in. They don’t want to get bogged down with ads (no one does) and they don’t expect to see people they don’t know.
All this info leads us to believe that producing approachable content that gives value in exchange for absolutely nothing leads to brand being built. If you want more followers and attention onto your brand on Instagram, post better stuff. It’s as simple as that.
PRO TIP: Create a content map that details all the different kinds of content you can expect to post on your account. Some common ones include (but are not limited to):
- Images with quotes
- Videos giving advice
- Videos explaining important facts
- Slideshows giving advice
Tiktok Virality
If you’re under the age of 22, you may already have Tiktok, and if you’re a parent, you may have already had experience seeing your daughter learn the newest trendy dances for the platform.
The truth is, Tiktok is experiencing explosive growth (it’s more widely used than Instagram) and it is so incredibly easy to go viral, that if you’re in B2C, it’d be a critical mistake for you to not be taking advantage of it.
If a business is in position to advertise to a younger audience, then they need be to be thinking of ways to provide value and entertainment to that demographic.
Through posting quality content consistently, you’re almost guaranteed to achieve some level of virality on the platform and bring a ton of attention to your brand.
LinkedIn Content
LinkedIn is the B2B version of Tiktok right now.
The reach you can have, and the networking opportunities out there are through the roof.
It all comes down to the kind of content and how much you put out.
If you post 3 times a day on LinkedIn and combine that with outreach to people in your field you have a great chance of growing your business.
LinkedIn has a wide variety of posts that perform very well, you can post videos, only text, slideshows. Anything that entertains or educates your audience that works in parallel with your brand will help you grow your business.
4% Rule
If you’ve never heard of the 80/20 rule it’s basically that 20% of the input creates 80% of the output.
20% of your customers provide 80% of the revenue.
20% of the apps on your phone take up 80% of your screen time.
You get the idea.
Many business owners apply this rule to their organization to maximize productivity by focusing on the tasks that produce the most outcomes. But what if you could divide it up even more?
What if we could apply the 80/20 rule to the 20% of our business that provides the most output?
20 times 20% is 4. And 80 times 20% times 4 equals 64.
Thus, 4% of the input creates 64% of the output.
So if you wanted to create the most results possible with the fewest amount of work, you’d hyper-target the tasks in your business that lead to the most revenue, then delegate everything else to people equipped to handle it so you can focus on the most high-producing activities.
That’s how you maximize productivity and set up a foundation to building a solid business.
Create a S12C
This is mainly for people in the B2B sector offering high-ticket services.
An S12C, or Select 12 Cluster, is a list of potential clients you’re going to focus most of your effort on.
Let’s say you want to start a consulting agency that charges $499/month for business advice.
The first order of business would be to look for clients, and not in the way everyone else does it.
Most people create a website, start running broad ads on social media, and cross their fingers someone is going to magically take money out of their pocket and throw it at them. It’s an approach where businesses expect people to come to them.
The S12C way is different. Here, you’re going to go to the people.
Create a list of 12 potential clients you want to work with, be intentional and know who you want to bring value and help. Understand their company, their brand, and figure out how you can most help their company.
After doing your homework, you’re going to reach out to everyone in your S12C and make yourself known by giving genuine value for free.
This creates a brand around your business that’s positive and let’s you gain good standing with a select group of people who are perfect candidates for your services.
You won’t be successful with every company on your S12C, but that’s where you remove names and continually add them to constantly tweak your list until it’s all positive and producing revenue.
The intentionality and genuine value nature of this process brings results.
Local SEO
When you look up location-sensitive things on Google, you get a taste of Local SEO.
If your business operates in a local area, then hopping on Local SEO is a must because it allows people who are interested in what you offer to see and interact with your brand.
To get your Local SEO game started, try going on freelance websites like Fiverr or Upwork and searching for “local SEO services”. I promise you’ll immediately get an almost overwhelming response of people offering to get you on top of Google’s local rankings.
Paid Lead Generation Services
Investing in the marketing of your business can pay off in amazing ways, I mean, what’s better than having another company of seasoned professionals handle almost every aspect of your online marketing to bring leads on autopilot?
There’s only 2 things:
- It can get very expensive.
- Most lead generation services are not good.
Given that starting an agency offering to get companies leads is so easy to start and requires very little initial investment, the market is very saturated with people who are in it for a quick buck and not actually passionate (or good) in marketing.
This means it may take some shopping around to find lead generation services that will bring your business results, but once you do, it’ll be so worth it.
And the goal is to be in an ATM-type situation, where the more money you put in, the more that comes out. And once that’s the case, the cost of the lead generation won’t matter because you’ll predictably and steadily have a stream of revenue in your business.
Train Your People to their Peak
If you apply the 4% rule (mentioned above) and you delegate everything in your business, you can suddenly find yourself to become the HR manager of the company.
This means you’re the overseer and manager of people doing the work, instead of the work itself.
Of course, there’s the obvious advice about treating employees well and caring about people, but there’s another aspect to ensuring high performance.
It’s training and mentoring your people!
When someone starts work at a business you’re in or you run, they should be onboarded with nonstop training and practice to get them up to speed by either you or someone else that’s very knowledgeable about their position.
Too many companies just throw employees into the fire right when they start, there needs to be a positive environment that encourages training and practice to help people reach their fullest potential.
Don’t be afraid to invest in people, they’re your company’s biggest asset.
Conclusion
Growing a business takes a lot of hard work, but by educating yourself you make your path much clearer and can execute without overthinking.
Hopefully this piece brought you some eye-opening value that can help you in your business or in the company you work for.
Thank you for reading!
