Why More Leads is the Last Thing You Need to Grow Your Business

Lead Generation vs Conversion Rate Optimisation (CRO) - David Lee-Schneider MarketingDavid Lee-Schneider Marketing

In the world of small business, there’s a pervasive myth that more leads and traffic automatically translate into more success. It’s easy to get caught up in the numbers game, thinking that the key to business growth lies in continuously adding more leads to the sales pipeline. “Traffic” has become all the buzz in the world of marketing. However, this relentless pursuit of new leads can often lead us astray from what truly matters in business growth.

Let me share an alternative approach, one that I’ve learned not just through my consulting experiences but also through a journey of understanding what really drives sustainable success. This approach centres not on acquiring more leads, but on nurturing the ones we already have.

The Leaking Bucket Analogy

Imagine your business as a bucket, and your leads as water filling that bucket. Now, if your bucket has a bunch of holes, adding more water won’t fix the problem; it’ll just lead to more water wasted. The key isn’t to pour in more water more aggressively but to first fix the holes, ensuring that every drop added contributes to the bucket’s fullness.

I’ve seen businesses obsessed with pouring more into their bucket, spending thousands on advertising strategies, only to realise they were losing valuable leads just as quickly as they rolled in due to neglecting the ones they already had.

The Importance of Nurturing Your Leads

Conversion Rate Optimisation, or CRO, is the art and science of transforming leads into paying customers. It’s about making your bucket more efficient, reducing the leakage, and ensuring that more of the water you add (your leads) turns into valuable, sustained revenue.

CRO is critical because it leverages your existing traffic and leads, making your marketing efforts more efficient and effective, while significantly reducing your investment in traffic strategies. For instance, improving your website’s conversion rate from 1% to 2% effectively doubles your sales without the need for more leads. That’s the power of CRO. But the one thing that’s missing most often in the businesses I consult is a strategic, consistent follow-up process.

Working with a wide range of businesses globally, I’ve seen firsthand how shifting focus from lead generation to lead nurturing can dramatically impact business outcomes.

One client, Danielle, who runs a local beauty salon, was struggling to increase sales despite a steady stream of new customers. She had been working with an advertising agency for a few months and was promised new leads on tap. With a monthly ad budget of $1000 plus management fees, the agency delivered on its promise. Every week, new customers would book appointments, some showed up, and some didn’t. But the real challenge was getting them to come back. This was the leaking bucket analogy in action.

Danielle decided to try something different and joined my 90-Day Marketing Transformation, a program I designed to help businesses bridge the gaps in their customer journey and put their marketing on autopilot. We shifted the focus to optimising her email marketing strategy to offer personalised recommendations and exclusive deals to existing leads. The result? Within less than six months, we saw a 48% increase in repeat customers.

Essentially, we increased Danielle’s profits while significantly reducing her ad budget. And because the strategies we implemented were completely automated, she was no longer relying on an advertising agency to drive her sales.

“Leveraging automation in marketing doesn’t mean losing the human touch. It means being able to send the right message at the right time. And marketing is all about timing.” – David Lee-Schneider

Practical Steps to Improve Lead Nurturing and Conversion

Improving your lead nurturing and conversion doesn’t have to be complicated. Here are some simple actionable steps that you can focus on to get started:

  • Implement a CRM system to understand better and track your leads’ behaviours and preferences.
  • Personalise your communication, leveraging data to make your messaging resonate more deeply with your audience.
  • Use email marketing strategically, sending targeted content that adds value and nurtures leads over a longer period of time.
  • Optimise your website for conversions, focusing on user experience, clear calls-to-action, and fast loading times.

Rethinking Success: Quality Over Quantity

It’s time to shift the focus from quantity to quality. More leads don’t necessarily mean more business if they’re not the right leads or not being properly nurtured.

So, while generating new leads is an important aspect of business growth, it shouldn’t be the sole focus. Sustainable success comes from nurturing existing leads, optimising conversion rates, and building meaningful relationships with your customers.

I encourage you to shift your focus from chasing traffic to cultivating the leads you already have. This approach not only ensures more efficient and effective growth but also fosters a loyal customer base that is the true foundation of a thriving business.

The Art of Copywriting: What Small Businesses Can Learn from Apple’s Marketing Magic

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The Art of Copywriting: What Small Businesses Can Learn from Apple's Marketing - David Lee-SchneiderDavid Lee-Schneider

Copywriting, the craft of creating compelling marketing messages, plays a pivotal role in how you connect with your customers. One company that has mastered this art is Apple. By dissecting Apple’s strategy, we can glean valuable insights to improve our own marketing efforts, irrespective of the size of our business.

The Apple Approach to Copywriting

Apple’s copywriting hinges on several key principles: simplicity, emotional resonance, and product-centric messaging. Their brand has a unique voice, a blend of clarity and creativity that resonates with audiences worldwide. Here are 7 of Apple’s key principles you can use in your marketing to improve your messaging and reach more people.

1. Simplicity and Clarity: Lessons from Apple’s Slogans

Apple’s slogans are often remarkably simple, yet they encapsulate powerful ideas. Take, for example, the iconic “Think different.” This concise, direct command encourages a shift from conventional thinking, championing innovation. It is memorable and impactful, sticking in the mind long after reading.

Next time you want to create a product of service, try creating slogans or messages that are clear, concise, and meaningful. Stripping away unnecessary complexity helps your message resonate with a broader audience.

Apple iPad Marketing Copywriting Tips - David Lee-Schneider

2. Building an Emotional Connection: Selling More than Just Products

Apple excels in forming an emotional connection with their audience. They sell experiences and lifestyle, not just products. This is clear in the slogan “The iMac to Go” for the iBook, creating an immediate link to the beloved iMac.

You can adopt this approach in your business by emphasising the experiences their products or services offer. What feelings, moments, or changes can your product catalyse? Answering these questions can guide you in shaping an emotional narrative around your brand.

3. Double Entendre: The Power of Dual Meanings

My favourite thing about Apple’s advertising is that they frequently leverage double entendre—phrases with two meanings—to make their messages more engaging. A perfect example is “Light. Years ahead.” This phrase used to promote MacBook suggests that Apple’s products are years ahead of their competitors and light in weight.

Take a leaf out of this book by incorporating phrases with dual meanings into your marketing copy. This technique can make your message more engaging, triggering deeper thought and dialogue around your product.

MacBook Marketing Copywriting Tips - David Lee-Schneider Marketing

The infamous “Light. Years ahead.” advert for Apple’s MacBook.

4. A Conversational Tone: Making Your Brand Approachable

Apple uses a conversational tone in their advertising language. This approach humanises the brand, making it feel more approachable. For instance, the phrase “Now it’s even faster than it looks” communicates a friendly, relatable brand image.

Small businesses, too, can embrace a conversational tone to foster a stronger connection with customers, making them feel as if they’re interacting with a friend rather than a faceless company.

5. The Element of Surprise: Catchy and Unexpected Phrases

Apple often employs unexpected phrases to grab attention and create a lasting impression. A classic example is the slogan for MacBook Air, “There’s something in the air.” This element of intrigue prompts curiosity, compelling the audience to learn more about the product.

Try infusing your messaging with surprise or intrigue, crafting catchy phrases or slogans that stand out. Such unexpected phrases pique interest, nudging potential customers to explore your product further.

6. Product-Centric Advertising: Putting Your Product at the Center

Apple’s copy focuses heavily on the product’s design, features, and benefits. For example, “The all-in-one for everyone” for the iMac highlights the product’s versatile capabilities.

You can mirror this approach by spotlighting your products in your advertising messages. Whether it’s a unique feature, a groundbreaking design, or a noteworthy benefit, let your product shine in your messaging. Highlighting a single benefit can be more impactful than a long list of product features.

7. Cultural Relevance: Connecting with Your Audience on a Deeper Level

Apple’s slogans often tap into cultural, historical, or philosophical ideas, enhancing their impact. “iThink, therefore iMac,” for instance, references René Descartes’ famous phrase, imbuing the message with a philosophical depth.

Small businesses can harness this technique by tying their messaging to familiar ideas or phrases. This not only makes your copy more impactful but also fosters a deeper connection with your audience.

Take a Bite into Better Marketing

While Apple may be a global titan, their copywriting techniques are accessible to businesses of any size. By embracing simplicity, building emotional connections, using double entendre, and connecting with cultural relevance, you can enhance your marketing language like the big buys do. Drawing from Apple’s playbook, we can turn our copy into a powerful tool to engage customers and drive growth.

However, copywriting is just one small piece of the marketing puzzle. In my 90-Day Marketing Transformation, I work closely with business owners to curate their brand online and implement a fully automated marketing strategy that creates sustainable organic business growth.

If you are spending too much time on your marketing and would like to learn how to better leverage your time and budget, let’s have a chat!

Click here to schedule your Growth Strategy Session today.

 

Grow Your Business Without Breaking the Bank

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Grow Your Business Without Breaking the BankDavid Lee-Schneider Marketing

Marketing is an essential part of any business, and it can be especially important for small businesses trying to grow and stand out in a crowded market. However, many small business owners struggle with limited budgets and resources, making it difficult to implement effective marketing strategies.

Here are three marketing strategies that small business owners can use to grow their business quickly without the need for a big budget.

1. Leverage social media

Social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest offer small businesses the opportunity to reach a large audience at virtually no cost. By regularly posting engaging content and interacting with followers, small business owners can build a strong online presence and attract new customers.

Additionally, social media platforms offer targeted advertising options, allowing businesses to reach specific audiences based on demographics and interests.

You may also like: 3 Things Your Business Needs BEFORE Spending A Single Cent On Ads

2. Utilise content marketing

Content marketing involves creating and sharing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly defined audience. This can be in the form of blog posts, articles, videos, or social media posts. By consistently providing valuable content, small businesses can establish themselves as thought leaders in their industry and build trust with their audience.

In recent years, many tools have been developed to help automate the delivery of content across multiple platforms. In this free social media blueprint, I show you how to completely automate your social media posts without ever having to worry about what to post.

3. Partner with other businesses

Collaborating with other businesses is one of my favourite ways to scale a business quickly, as it’s one of the most cost-effective way to reach a new audience. For example, small business owners can partner with complementary businesses to cross-promote each other’s products or services. This can be done through joint promotions, social media shoutouts, or even co-hosting events or give-aways.

In addition to these strategies, small business owners can also consider offering discounts or promotions to attract new customers, collaborating with influencers or celebrities to increase visibility, and utilising email marketing to stay in touch with current and potential customers.

While marketing can be a challenging task for small businesses with limited budgets, it’s important to remember that it doesn’t have to be expensive to be effective. By leveraging social media, utilising content marketing, and partnering with other businesses, small business owners can grow their business quickly and effectively – and without breaking the bank.

Evergreen Marketing: 3 Fundamental Strategies to Marketing Success

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Have you ever felt frustrated and overwhelmed when it comes to marketing your business? With so many different platforms and tech tools out there, is it any wonder that most business owners struggle to keep up?

But what if there were ways of growing your business not by doing even more, but by actually doing less? As a marketing consultant, I have helped hundreds of business owners do just that using Evergreen Marketing.

Marketing is such an important part of making any business profitable. However, most of us didn’t go into business to write a marketing plan, but because we wanted to enjoy more freedom and time to do the things we love.

The big problem with marketing is that it means something different to everyone. From website and social media to email marketing, blogging and advertising, as business owners we are forced to wear many hats, especially when it comes to marketing.

So, what does marketing actually mean? Where do you start? What should you focus on and, most
importantly, how do you bring it all together to make it work in alignment and produce results?

There is a common misbelief amongst business owners that they need to do even more to successfully market their business. However, I have found that the best way to grow your business is actually not by doing more but by doing less – using Evergreen Marketing.

What is Evergreen Marketing?

Evergreen Marketing is a set of strategies that we can set and forget. Timeless tactics we can simply implement once, but that will work for us for years to come.

A recent study by HubSpot, one of the leading companies in the marketing space, found that 43% of business owners spend six or more hours every single week managing their social media accounts alone.

What would you do if you had an extra day every single week to do more of the things you love doing?

Today I want to share the 3 fundamental strategies with you that Evergreen Marketing is built on. These are practical tips you can take and implement in your business right away.

1. Make All Your Content Evergreen

It takes the same amount of time to create a piece of content that’s only relevant today as it will take to create a piece of content that’s going to be relevant for years to come. So, be very conscious of the type of content you create.

What are the different pillars in your business you can educate your customers around? What are some timeless tips you can share with your audience that won’t go out of date and that are going to be just as relevant in five years as they are today?

By focusing your time and effort on creating evergreen content, you will build up a large content library over time that you can repurpose and reuse, saving you an endless amount of time and headspace.

Download your FREE Social Media Blueprint to completely automate your social media content

2. Have a Clear Next Step at Every Step of Your Customer Journey

When posting on social media, ask yourself what step you want people to take next. You might want to send them to a specific blog post to learn more. Once on your blog, you might want to get them to enter their email address in return for a free download. Once you’ve got their contact details, you might want to send them an email with an invitation to book a phone call or free trial.

In other words, always have a clear call to action for your audience and eliminate as much friction as possible.

This brings us to the third fundamental strategy of Evergreen Marketing.

3. Automate, automate, automate

Automation really is a game-changer that will allow you to take your marketing to a whole new level. Because once we start using some of the amazing automation tools available these days (many of them are free) we are able to free up valuable time and resources and escape the rat race of constant content creation.

Great content doesn’t always have to be new as long as it’s still relevant to your target audience.

I believe Evergreen Marketing is the future of marketing because it allows us to be more consistent while freeing us up to do more of what we love to do.

 

How To Create An Effective Dance Studio Marketing Strategy

Dance Studio Web Design Brisbane for V-Hub Dance - By FlySocial DigitalFlySocial Digital

Creating an effective marketing strategy for your dance studio can be challenging, and let’s be honest, you probably didn’t start your business to go into marketing. The reality is, however, that marketing is a vital part of creating a profitable business.

Today, I want to show you the exact steps we used to design and implement a fully automated marketing strategy for V-Hub Dance, a Brisbane Dance Studio located in the heart of Fortitude Valley.

Before The Marketing Transformation

Vanessa Friscia, the founder of V-Hub, has been involved in the Brisbane dance scene for almost two decades and her passion for all things dance really shines through. Before V-Hub’s 90-Day Marketing Transformation, Vanessa’s main way of attracting new members was using social media. But it was incredibly time-consuming and not always a strategy you can rely on for consistent business growth. So, what does a good dance studio marketing strategy actually look like and what should it entail?

Here are the 3 core functions of a good dance studio marketing strategy:

  1. Attract new visitors
  2. Convert more visitors into members
  3. Increase member retention

Let’s have a look at what this might look like in practice.

How To Promote Your Dance Studio in 2024

Apart from running ads, social media can be an incredibly powerful tool to promote your dance studio in the local community. But how do you consistently stay active across multiple social media channels without spending hours of your time every week and actually seeing tangible results? The answer can be found in marketing automation.

When working with V-Hub, we designed an entire library of engaging social media posts and completely automated the posting schedule. What’s more, every post is specifically designed to encourage viewers to take some kind of action. Providing a clear next step is the key to social media success. In most cases, we ask people to click on a link that takes them to various pages on the V-Hub website, where they can learn valuable tips, have all their questions answered or watch engaging dance tutorials.

Free Download: How To Completely Automate Your Social Media Content

But simply sending people to your website isn’t enough to grow your dance studio. You also need to have a clear next step to turn traffic into leads and get people through the door.

Dance Studio Social Media Marketing for V-Hub Dance Brisbane

Social Media Marketing for V-Hub Dance Brisbane

Dance Studio Lead Generation

The biggest mistake I see business owners make in their marketing is not providing their customers with a clear path – or what we call “The Customer Journey” in the marketing world. No matter what stage of the marketing journey your customers are at, we need to let them know what specific action we want them to take next.

Many of your customers will have questions before they are ready to attend a new dance class. Some of these questions will be conscious, while others will be on a subconscious level. Our job as business owners is to help them find answers and make it as easy as possible for them to take the next step when they are ready.

Don’t assume that just because someone has shown an interest in dance classes, that they are ready to sign up. There are many factors at play, such as timing, finances, level of skill and confidence, and their willingness to step outside their comfort zone.

That’s why the first goal of your marketing strategy should not be to make a sale but to get a micro-commitment from your visitors. Asking someone to join a membership will be too much of a stretch for many people and will result in low conversion rates.

“Good marketing helps to make the purchase easy. Great marketing provides value even before people know that they need what you sell.” ~ David Lee-Schneider

The fastest way to attract a new audience is to give them something for free. Something they actually want.

In the case of V-Hub, we decided to offer something with no obligation and no strings attached: A complimentary trial pass for any of V-Hub’s dance classes.

Innovative? Maybe not. But very effective. Remember, you don’t have to reinvent the wheel do do great marketing.

In return for the free dance pass, website visitors simply have to enter their name and email address. No other decision needs to be made at this point, like whether they are actually going to use it, when they’ll redeem it – or if they are going to sign up for dance classes afterwards.

The only decision they need to make is whether or not they want the free trial class.

By eliminating the number of decisions visitors need to make when taking the next step, we increase the number of leads we generate. But the true value in collecting people’s names and emails is the ability to follow up and start a two-way conversation.

Dance Studio Marketing Brisbane for V-Hub Dance - FlySocial Digital

Email Marketing Campaign for V-Hub Dance Brisbane

The Importance of Follow-Up and How To Use it To Increase Your Conversion Rates

Simply put, conversion optimisation is about decreasing our customers’ objections and reducing friction on their path to becoming our customers.

To truly understand what these objections are, we need to put ourselves in our customers’ shoes. Here are some questions people might have before they are ready to join your dance classes:

  • What if I don’t like the class?
  • What if I don’t jive with the teachers?
  • What if I don’t connect with other members?
  • What if people judge me?
  • What if I’m not good enough?
  • Do I need to commit to an entire month or can I just attend casually?
  • I don’t know what to expect, it’s all too scary

If we can answer these questions in our marketing even before people attend a class for the first time, we drastically increase the chances of them actually attending.

In Vanessa’s case, people who had attended a couple of classes usually came back because they loved it so much. The challenge was to get people through the door for the very first time.

By offering a free class pass and collecting people’s email addresses online, we are now able to send them relevant emails that answer all their questions and connect with them on a more personal level.

Did you know that most purchases happen after 5-12 touch points? How many opportunities are you currently missing out on because of a lack of follow-up?

Marketing Mistakes You Should Avoid At All Costs

The first thing many dance studio owners look to when trying to grow their dance studio is attracting new customers through advertising. But what’s an influx of leads worth if we can’t convert them?

You can waste a lot of money on Facebook ads, Google ads, print ads, flyers and more if your conversion strategy isn’t working.

Read Next: 3 Things You Need Before Spending Money on Ads

That’s why you should always begin by optimising conversions. Then, once your organic marketing strategies are starting to gain traction, you can use ads to further scale your business.

After joining the 90-Day Marketing Transformation, Vanessa now has a fully automated marketing strategy in place that helps her dance studio get found online, convert more members and increase retention rates through targeted follow-up campaigns.

Here’s what Vanessa had to say after our work together

“Before working with David, quite simply, there weren’t enough people attending our dance classes. Every day I would pray that people would turn up. I wasn’t making any profit in my business, so I always had a full-time job to support it. I never knew how to market to new people and would rely on word of mouth. The studio was suffering, and so was I.

When I met David, I could tell straight away that he was passionate about helping small businesses. He knew the journey of transitioning from working for a company to working for himself, so I felt understood and comfortable straight away. He had the biggest smile on his face when he spoke about marketing, and the strategies he designed to help businesses succeed. What’s more, he made it seem EASY – and it was!

David’s automation processes are a game-changer. I never have to worry about my client’s journey, knowing they are safe in the hands of David’s Wizardry! He has made our website so user friendly and very easy to navigate. It’s so in depth and well thought out. He has literally thought of everything. Again, a complete game-changer. With our marketing automation in place, we now have Google reviews coming through, higher instagram traction and a minimum of 20 new people every week coming through our doors.

I would absolutely recommend David to ANYONE who runs their own business, regardless of the size of the business. Sole traders through to big companies, David is for you. His face lights up when he talks about your business. It’s truly humbling to witness.

For the first time in 10 years, I can say I run a successful business that I am proud of.”

How To Find More Customers And Increase Sales

How to Find More Customers And Increase Sales - David Lee-Schneider MarketingDavid Lee-Schneider Marketing

Your customers are the lifeblood of any business and without them, frankly, there is no business. But it can be challenging to find a reliable way to consistently attract new customers and increase sales.

Today, I want to share three simple strategies that you can implement in your business to grow your customer base, encourage sales, and ultimately, increase your profits.

1. Take Advantage of Social Media To Connect With Customers

Social media is a powerful tool that businesses can use to connect with their customers and generate leads. However, many business owners post content without a proven strategy.

To turn your social media efforts into actual sales, you need to get people to take action; so we need to tell them exactly what we want them to do next. Try to include a call to action in every post you publish to make it easy for your customers to take the next step.

Here are some examples:

  • Link to a helpful article or product page on your website for people to learn more
  • Link to a free download that helps your audience solve a specific problem
  • Link to a page where people can claim a free trial or discount
  • Link to your FAQ page to help answer your customers’ questions
  • Link to a testimonial page where people can read how you’ve helped others
  • Ask your audience to direct message your business

If you post once daily and start including a call to action in every one of your posts, you have just created 365 opportunities for your social media audience to move one step closer to a sale.

Pro Tip: If posting on social media is taking up too much of your time and headspace, download this free guide to completely automate your content strategy.

2. Publish Helpful Blog Articles That Answer Your Customers’ Questions

When people have questions, the first place they’ll look for answers is, of course, Google. But how do you make your business show up on the first page of the search results?

The answer is, by providing helpful content that answers any questions your customers might have. A blog is a fantastic tool for that. Many business owners believe a blog requires them to publish articles regularly, creating even more work for them. And while this may help, for many small businesses it is enough to have a handful of timeless articles on their blog that help customers with their purchasing decision.

Put yourself in your customers’ shoes for a second. What would they be searching for on Google? What questions or concerns do they have? What do they need to know before they can confidently buy from you? When you take these questions and answer them on your blog, you drastically increase your chances of being found online.

For example, if you are looking to grow your beauty salon, publish articles that discuss beauty tips, mistakes to avoid and how your products and services can help your customers achieve better results.

A blog is also a great tool to showcase case studies from previous customers, before and after pictures, valuable insights you have learned along the way and so much more. Publishing great content not only helps you rank higher on Google but also establishes you as a leader in your industry.

3. Look For Opportunities To Widen Your Circle of Influence

One of the fastest ways to grow your following is to partner up with other established businesses or communities that serve the same target audience as your business. By tapping into the customer base of other businesses, you can reach a large number of people without having to start from scratch.

Furthermore, by teaming up with other established businesses that share the same values, you instantly position yourself as a trusted alliance.

Here Are Some Examples:

  • Offer to speak at a local networking event
  • Ask to be a guest speaker on a webinar or podcast
  • Offer to write a helpful article for a publication or blog aimed at your target market

If you are selling a range of health products, for example, you could offer to give a free talk at a local health foods store. If you run a café, it might be as simple as giving a free coffee voucher to everyone at a large corporate office nearby.

Ask yourself, what existing audiences could you tap into to widen your circle of influence? What other businesses could you team up with and provide value to?

Pro Tip: Whenever you have the opportunity to connect with a new audience, try offering something of value at the end, so people can connect with your business and take the next step. Depending on your business, this could be a discount voucher, a free download, a helpful checklist or a complimentary strategy call.

Naked Wines made a genius move once when they partnered with Easy Pest Supplies and offered a $100 discount voucher to all their customers. At first glance, a company that sells wine online and an online store for pest supplies might not seem like a great fit. However, they share the same audience; homeowners who take pride in their homes and love to shop online.

Thinking outside the box can really pay off. Once you start looking, you will realise that there is an abundance of opportunities out there to reach more people, grow your customer base and increase sales.

Need help with scaling your business? Click here to book a free strategy call to discuss how an automated marketing strategy can help you find more customers and increase sales long-term.

 

 

 

Why Email Marketing in 2024 is More Important for Business Growth Than Ever

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Why Email Marketing Today is More Important Than Ever - David Lee-SchneiderDavid Lee-Schneider Marketing

Recently, I had a conversation with the owner of a beauty salon in Sydney who asked me for the best ways to market her business. But when I mentioned email marketing as a strategy, she looked at me stunned. “Aren’t emails dead?”, she asked.

The answer is, far from it! To this day, email marketing remains one of the most effective (and profitable) ways to reach your target audience. In fact, it’s never been more important for small business owners to focus on building their email marketing list than in 2024. Here are 5 reasons why.

1. You Own The Data And Stay in Control

Many business owners are under the impression that a Facebook or Instagram page is enough nowadays as a marketing strategy. And while I agree that they provide a fantastic opportunity to grow your audience, no business should solely rely on social media.

Facebook has already made drastic changes to the way your content is distributed. Have you noticed that your reach has decreased significantly over the last few years? Even if your page has thousands of followers, that doesn’t mean you can reach them. Only about 5-10% will actually see your posts.

The reason is that Facebook and Instagram are in the business of advertising. So, if you operate a business page, of course they want you to pay for your content to reach more people. That means it’s really out of your control.

As a business owner, you always want to minimise risks and putting too much power in the hand of social media companies is a risky move. Your email list, however, is completely owned by you, not Meta.

2. Email Marketing Delivers Personalised Experiences

One of the biggest benefits of email marketing is that it allows you to create personalised customer journeys. When you send an email to your list, you’re not just reaching out to everyone on that list – you’re targeting each contact personally. This means that you can connect with your customers on a more personal level, creating a stronger connection and building trust.

Think about it this way: If a business sends you an email and all they say is, “Hey, thanks for subscribing!” – chances are that you find it rather impersonal. But if they send you an email that’s personalised and tailored specifically to your interests, then you’re much more likely to read and respond.

Especially in small businesses, this can have a huge effect on how their business is perceived. Making use of email automation is very much like cloning yourself multiple times. You can send all your leads and customers the right message at the right time. And in marketing, timing is everything.

3. Email Marketing Allows You to Build Long-Term Relationships with Customers

Another great benefit of email marketing is that it can be used to establish long-term relationships with your customers. This builds trust and keeps your customers coming back – which is essential for small businesses on a budget.

Email is the ideal medium to onboard new customers using a series of short messages to introduce them to your services, your team and all the other benefits your business provides. It’s also a great way to introduce existing customers to products and services they haven’t tried before. This will also increase your chances of building repeat business and increasing your overall sales.

Do you know your Digital Marketing Score? Take this short quiz to find out and receive practical, actionable tips to increase leads, sales and profitability. It’s absolutely free!

4. Email Marketing Can Be Used To Drive Traffic To Your Website (Or Wherever You Want It)

One of the best ways to drive traffic to your website is through email marketing. Having people join your mailing list, means you can reach out to them again and again at virtually no cost. This means that you can send them new content and updates regularly, driving traffic back to your website, to specific offers, to your other social media channels and more.

Moreover, it allows you to invite customers to leave a review for your business on Google and Facebook, which is a fantastic way to enhance your reputation online and improve your Google rankings.

With all these benefits, email marketing should no longer be an option, but an absolute must-have for any small business owner who is serious about growing their business.

5. Your Email Marketing Strategy Can Be Fully Automated

To me, the real benefit of implementing an email marketing strategy is that it can be completely automated. That means it’s not another thing you, as the business owner, have to manage or worry about. It’s something you can set and forget, like we did for V-Hub Dance, a dance studio based in Brisbane, Australia.

Marketing automation is often overlooked and undervalued.

As a marketing consultant, I help business owners all over Australia implement effective, fully automated marketing strategies that free up their time, budget and headspace.

If you would like to have a chat about your business and how we can use email marketing and other automation tools to help you scale, click here to book a free strategy call with me today.

Beauty Salon Marketing That Raises Eyebrows (Literally)

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Beauty Salon Marketing & Web Design Brisbane - David Lee-Schneider ConsultingDavid Lee-Schneider Consulting

When I first spoke to Rhina over the phone, I could hear a little frustration in her voice. She had already been running her Brisbane eyebrow salon for many years and had an established customer base, but marketing has always felt like an uphill battle.

When you operate a small business, word of mouth is great but it’s not a growth strategy you can rely on. Rhina was also very active on social media posting almost daily, however, all that time and effort didn’t seem to get real results.

She also had a basic website that used to bring in a few enquiries, but showing up in Google search results had become increasingly difficult and so the enquires declined over time.

So, where do you even start when the marketing landscape keeps changing at a rapid pace and new tools and platforms pop up all the time? How do you keep up and find the time to do it all?

Rhina is absolutely incredible at her craft and has helped many women in Brisbane look and feel amazing. Doing eyebrows is her gift. But after all, she didn’t start a business to worry about marketing and where new customers will be coming from.

So, together we embarked on a journey to completely rethink her marketing strategy and put some simple systems in place that would allow her to promote her business more consistently and reach more people in her local area.

Click here to learn more about working with me to implement a solid marketing strategy in your business.

Laying the marketing foundation for a Beauty Salon in 3 Simple Stages

The reason so many salon owners struggle with their marketing is that they don’t look at their marketing holistically. They do a little work on Social Media (or a lot), they may even have a basic website like Rhina, but nothing seems to bring in the results they need to run a profitable business. We established a strong marketing foundation for Rhina’s business in 3 stages.

Beauty Salon Website Design for The Eyebrow Specialist, Brisbane

Beauty Salon Website Design for The Eyebrow Specialist

Stage 1 – Attract New Customers with an Optimised Online Presence

I like to use the term “online presence” rather than”website” because it involves a lot more than a few pages listing your services.  We deliberately designed Rhina’s new website to achieve 4 things:

  1. Get found on Google
  2. Inform and educate her clients about her services
  3. Give visitor’s a reason to connect
  4. Make the booking process as easy as possible

In other words, her website was built to generate leads and sales! If you would like a copy of my PDF checklist with the 17 elements every business website needs, you can download it here.

Stage 2 – Convert Website Visitors into Leads and Leads into Customers

This is a crucial step that small business owners often overlook. If you really want to grow your business, you need to first grow your database.

Your customer database can be a real gold mine. It’s here where you store all your customer details, contact info, preferences, where they are in their customer journey and more.

But having all that information in an Excel spreadsheet somewhere on your computer won’t do much for your business. We need to make use of some clever tools that help us tap into the potential that’s hidden here. This tool is called a CRM – short for Customer Relationship Management System.

A CRM allows us to send each customer the right message at the right time. And in marketing, timing is crucial. In Rhina’s case, we integrated her CRM with her website, as well as with her booking software in order to capture as much data as possible. That allowed us to set up some smart automated messaging.

  • New leads receive a small gift and a warm welcome from Rhina
  • Leads that still haven’t booked an appointment after a few weeks receive little nudges
  • New clients receive educational emails about other services they may like to try
  • Repeat clients receive an invitation to leave a Google review

Combined, these messages help Rhina to increase sales, improve client retention, encourage recommendations, as well as increase organic traffic coming from Google.

Stage 3 – Amplify Results by Driving More Traffic to Your Website

If we want more people to visit our website, we need to give them a good reason to do so. Moreover, we need to let them know that they have good reasons to visit.

Social media allows us to tap into a large potential audience and direct them to various pages on our website. So, why would someone who is scrolling through their Facebook feed click on a post that directs them to your website?

People visit your website to:

  • Read about a challenge they’re facing and how they can overcome it.
  • Watch an entertaining or informative video.
  • Get helpful tips related to your services.
  • Find your full list of services and pricing.
  • Find answers to common questions on your FAQ page.
  • Look at the results you have achieved for previous clients.
  • Read reviews clients left for you.
  • Send you an enquiry.
  • Make a booking.

That means the content you create and put out on social media should revolve around your clients’ needs and motivations. Having a blog on your website is a fantastic way to share relevant content and then link to it from your social media accounts. Over time, you will create a great number of backlinks, which will also greatly improve your Google ranking, so more people can find you when searching for your services online.

Beauty Salon Social Media Marketing - David Lee-Schneider Marketing

Social Media Content for The Eyebrow Specialist

For Rhina’s business, we created a large library of content designed to speak to her ideal clients and made use of some clever automation tools to have it go out on autopilot at specific times.

After joining the 90-Day Marketing Transformation, she now has a fully automated marketing system in place that attracts new customers, generates leads, drives sales and builds her online reviews – all without having to worry about how to manage all her marketing herself.

Here’s what Rhina had to say about joining the 90-Day Marketing Transformation

“I cannot speak highly enough of David Lee-Schneider. Since the first day I came in contact with him, I was impressed with how much he knew about marketing. David’s ability to listen and then collaborate with you is so uplifting. He didn’t hesitate in going in the extra mile to ensure all angles were covered and that l had a full understanding of what I needed to do to help grow my business.

Marketing isn’t my strong point and l really struggled to find time to do it properly being a small business. The one source l always relied on to attract new customers was Facebook. Understanding Facebook’s rules, ever-changing algorithms, target audience and post scheduling was getting really overwhelming.

David’s professionalism is apparent in the work he produces. He did an absolutely incredible job in building a brand new website and has put the right tools and strategy in place, which has freed up so much of my time, and really makes an impact on my business. Working with David has eased my stress around so many issues l had with marketing. I’m very impressed at what he has achieved for me so far and appreciate having more time to focus on work, knowing that my business is well-managed.

I have happily referred David to many of my clients, not only because he is highly skilled and talented in digital marketing and website development, but because he actually cares about the businesses he works with and the people behind them. A rare trait that l really admire.

If you are looking to grow your business, contact David. His marketing skills are very unique and help business owners solve their needs. Thank you, David, your passion and expertise are so inspiring and I look forward to continuing working with you!”

~ Rhina Yaqub, The Eyebrow Specialist

5 Tips For Optimising Your Small Business Marketing Plan

Small Business Marketing Plan - David Lee-Schneider MarketingDavid Lee-Schneider Marketing

Marketing is essential for any small business. It’s the lifeblood of your business. But with the ever-changing digital landscape, it can be quite a stressful task to tackle and result in overwhelm. The good news is, it doesn’t have to be difficult. In fact, with a little bit of planning and effort, you can have a small business marketing plan that will help your business grow for years to come.

1. Define Your Goals

When creating a small business marketing plan, it is important to first define your goals. What do you want to achieve with your marketing efforts? Do you want to grow your business, reach new customers, or increase brand awareness? Once you have a clear understanding of your goals, it is easier to develop strategies that will help you achieve them.

Many business owners assume that in order to grow their business, they need to get more customers. However, if your business already has an established customer base it may be faster and more cost-effective to re-market to your existing customers instead.

2. Create A Targeted Strategy

Once you know what you want to achieve with your marketing efforts, the next step is to create a targeted strategy.

Some questions you might want to ask yourself include:

  • What are the specific channels and methods that will work best for reaching your target audience?
  • Which platforms are most effective and provide the best return on investment?
  • Which types of media do your customers prefer?
  • What tools or software will you use to achieve your targeting goals?

Once you have a targeted strategy in place, it is important to allocate the right amount of resources to each channel you choose to utilise.

3. Plan For Maintenance And Adjustment

No matter how well you plan, your marketing efforts will not be perfect from start to finish. In fact, it is likely that your strategy will need a few adjustments once it’s launched. This means that you will need to have a plan in place for maintaining and adjusting your marketing efforts.

Some things you might want to consider include:

  • How often should you re-evaluate your target audience?
  • What are the best times of year for advertising?
  • How do you handle it when one of your channels no longer works for you?
  • Can your strategy be automated or does it require ongoing management?

Remember to work smarter, not harder. There are lots of marketing automation tools available that allow you to implement “set and forget strategies” to free you up from having to actively manage them.

4. Set Your Budget And Timeframe

One of the most important factors to consider when creating a small business marketing plan is setting a budget and timeframe. By knowing how much money you have to spend and how long it will take to achieve your goals, you can create a plan that is tailored specifically to your needs. Additionally, creating a timeline can help keep you on track and prevent unnecessary (and sometimes costly) delays.

For most small businesses, every dollar counts and it’s important not to spend unnecessary amounts on marketing activities that don’t deliver results.

5. Implement Your Marketing Plan

A well-executed marketing plan can help your small business achieve its goals faster and with less effort. It’s important, however, to understand how the different aspects of your strategy connect and how to make them work in alignment.

Looking at marketing holistically creates leverage, meaning you will achieve a much greater rate of success while spending less time and budget.

In my 90-Day Marketing Transformation, I work with Australian business owners directly to implement a set of organic strategies that require very little to no maintenance and thus, make their marketing budget stretch a lot further.

In addition, I can help you automate time-consuming marketing activities, like social media content, lead generation and email marketing to free up valuable time and headspace, so you can focus on what you’re already great at – like looking after your customers.

But will this work for your business?

We have implemented marketing strategies for:

If you need help implementing a strategy that will help you attract more customers while saving you time, confusion and frustration, let’s have a chat. Book your free strategy call.

Conclusion And a Faster Way To Implement Your Small Business Marketing Plan

By following these five steps and planning out your strategy in advance, rather than approaching your marketing ad-hoc, you will significantly reduce the time and money you spend on marketing activities.