One of the most interesting experiences was visiting the Tunnels of Cu Chi: the underground maze about 70kms outside of Saigon, from which the Communist Viet Cong waged their successful guerilla war against the US-led South.

These days, the tunnels have been enlarged for venal Western tourists. Even so, it wasn’t easy shimmying down narrow ladders, squeezing through passages sideways and dragging ourselves through tiny chokepoints on our elbows.

From the surface, you would never have imagined the underground city below. The tunnel network even included makeshift operating theatres, lecture theatres, dormitories, mess halls and ammo dumps.

You’d think that “stuff” below the surface would have presented a big target for the Allied/Southern forces to take aim at. And they tried everything…

They tried bombing the hell out of the tunnels with 30,000 kg “bunker buster” bombs.

Unfortunately, the unique geological structure of the soil meant that even massive explosive ordnance would only collapse a very narrow radius as the earth soaked up the force like a sponge.

They tried flooding the tunnel network with megalitres of water. But the VC built watertight trapdoors to keep the water out.

Then they tried poison gas. But the guerillas installed water-filled “airlocks” that foiled that plan as well.

The only strategy that actually gained some traction was putting together a special squad, dubbed the “Tunnel Rats”, who were sent in one-by-one with a handgun and a bowie knife between their teeth (literally!) to root out the guerillas one by one.

Being a Tunnel Rat required nerves of steel. After all, they had to negotiate the sweltering tunnels literally inch-by-inch, keeping a keen eye out for booby traps loaded with grenades, razor-sharp spikes or poisonous snakes.

While the Tunnel Rats did make slow but costly progress, the war ended before they could complete their mission and the Tunnels of Cu Chi were credited by the North as one of the keys to their victory.

So here’s the marketing lesson in all this: truly world-class online lead generation systems are like a guerilla tunnel network, loaded with the marketing equivalent of tripwires, trapdoors and motion sensors that allow you to reach the right prospects with the right message at the right time.

When your guerilla tunnel network is built, not only can you communicate with everyone in your circle of influence in the most appropriate way and drive extraordinary ROI – but you also make it V-E-R-Y difficult for your competitors to work out how the $&*#^ you’re doing it, because so much lies “below the surface”.

Especially if you sell something expensive or complex – building guerilla tunnels into your lead generation process will pay off tremendously.

And don’t be put off by the apparent scale of the task. This is a step-by-step process where layers of complexity can be added, one at a time.

All you have to do is begin.

We are super-busy at the moment and are not in a position to accept new clients until at least September 1 (other than people we’re already talking with).

But what I have done, is put together an “Autoresponder Technology Guide” which explains the best automation systems for building your “Guerilla Tunnels”.  Here’s where you can grab your  copy:

Get the Autoresponder Technology Guide (no opt in required)

That’s a line I hear quite often.  While it’s true that many good (obvious?) domain names are taken, many are still available.

One tool I use quite a bit for checking domain name availability is AjaxWhois – here’s a brief 2m 47s video that explains what it is and what it can do for you.

No doubt, you’ve also heard these familiar examples, such as:

20% of customers drive 80% of your profits

80% of sales come from 20% of your products

80% of your value is delivered in 20% of your time

Etc.

But what you may not know is that the 80/20 rule is “fractal” – meaning you can apply it infinitely. Let me give you an example, applied to your website:

20% of website visitors will drive 80% of opt-ins

20% of opt-ins will drive 80% of enquiries

20% of enquiries will drive 80% of sales

20% of sales will deliver 80% of profits

In the example above, 0.16% of website visitors drive 41% of profits.

What about in reality?

Well, in the case of Marketing Results, 1% of our database drives 90% of revenues.

The next 3% drive the remaining 10% of revenues, and the last 96% represents a cost.

So a lot of what I do from a marketing perspective is simply aimed at “finding the top 1%”.

If I can find twice as many of “the top 1%”, our business would double. (Actually resourcing for that growth is another story — more on that below).

What this means for you is – your marketing should be LASER-focused on the 20% that generate 80% of the results at EACH stage.

A business owner recently asked me, “what should I do about the 80% of website visitors who leave my website without enquiring or opting in?”

My answer: NOTHING – focus on what to do with the 20% who ARE taking action.

What should you do with the 80% of people who don’t open your emails?

NOTHING. They ain’t THAT interested. They ain’t buying.

Focus on having the critical conversations you need to have with people who ARE listening.

How about your marketing budget?

80% of your marketing budget should be spent on the top 20% of your database.

I would sooner send an elaborate direct mail package costing $30 to a red-hot prospect than spend 10c on a faxout to an unqualified suspect.

When we start working with a new client, one of the first things we do is pinpoint the critical leverage points that are the hidden drivers of their leads, sales and profits.

Because working on the WRONG parts of your marketing process is almost as bad as not working on anything at all.

On that note…

Due to overwhelming growth at Marketing Results over the last 6 months, we are not accepting any new clients until at least 1st September.

You are still welcome to enquire regarding your upcoming online marketing and lead generation projects.  Just be aware that we are currently running a “waiting list” system, with the earliest new start date 1st September and a requirement of a nominal deposit to reserve your place for:

• Web Design Projects
• Pay Per Click (Google AdWords) Optimisation
• Conversion Optimisation
• Holistic Lead Generation Consulting and Implementation

You need to start marketing before you need new clients.

I know that sounds self-evident.  Yet so many business owners I speak to continue to do it the wrong way.

E.g.

[In January] “Our high season doesn’t really kick off until April so we we’ll probably look at improving our website around then.”
(Way to miss out on the best time of year)

“We’re quite busy at the moment so we’ve turned off some of our advertising”
(What will your sales pipeline look like when you’re not so busy?)

The Pain of Stop-Start Marketing

Because we specialise in online lead generation and I tend to talk with business owners from many industries where there is both a “sales” and “production” function, I come across many people plagued by Stop-Start Marketing.

Stop-Start marketing occurs when you get very focused on prospecting and land a few deals….

…then go into “production mode” to deliver what you’ve just sold…

…while neglecting your marketing and sales function…

…then once the work is delivered, you find yourself staring at an empty sales pipeline, so it’s…

…back to going nuts on prospecting while your cashflow starves…

The Solution To Stop-Start Marketing

The solution is to introduce more consistency and automation in your lead generation in order to keep sales opportunities flowing (almost worse than too few leads is lumpy or unpredictable lead flow.)

Ideally, lead generation, lead management and actual “selling” should be kept separate (i.e. the same person should NEVER perform both functions).  That ensures your salespeople are focused on SELLING rather than administration and maximises total sales throughput (thanks to Justin Roff-Marsh at Ballistix for articulating this idea so well – grab this free Sales Process Engineering Report if you’re interested in learning more).

There is no doubt that the best way to institute an effective, low-friction lead generation system is using the Internet in concert with marketing automation tools such as autoresponders, prospect filters and CRM systems…underpinned by the right marketing strategy, of course!

Particularly where prospecting activity is labour-intensive and/or passive (think: cold calling, networking and word-of-mouth), Stop-Start Marketing is never far away.

By removing that highly labour-intensive prospecting activity from the process, you’re freed up to spend more time on high-value activities such as sales appointments.

I go into more detail as to what this automated lead generation pipeline looks like in my free course, “7 Steps To Doubling Your Website Leads”

Do you have any feedback on this article?   Why not leave a comment?

In many industries, there is a “pecking order” of key contacts, clients or movers-and-shakers who have the ability to unlock doors and smooth the way for you. Let’s call them Linchpins (with apologies to Seth Godin).

What most people do to these Linchpins is to try to extract value from them before providing value.   Pitch them on something.  Sell them something.  Ask for advice or a favour.

Trouble is, everyone else has the same idea.   Linchpins are in demand and surrounded by deafening levels of “noise” that make it very difficult for you to gain traction.

This “get before you give” approach seldom works, yet we all do it.

Rather than think about what we can get, it’s much more powerful and effective to think about how we can add value.   The key question is:

How Can I Add Value To You?

This might sound like another worn-out self-help trope, but have you considered how few people put this into action?

I’m a pretty pragmatic person.  I do what works.  Here are three examples of this technique in action:

• A friend of my friend was a successful affiliate marketer and wanted to break into the “big time” seminar circuit.  He asked this question of a “household name” Internet marketer and ended up helping him with some Google AdWords stuff.  Less than a year later, this friend of a friend found himself on the seminar circuit, doing what he always wanted to do.
• My friend used this approach to build a relationship with the Linchpin in his market space.  Within 2 days the Linchpin himself had taken a good look at what my friend had to offer, endorsed his product and tentatively proposed a joint venture to co-promote his product down the track.
• I used this approach with a person of influence in my target market.  It immediately got some constructive dialogue going — I was able to deliver some value and my “Linchpin” was able to do several things of value to me.

Try this question. It works!

The natural extension of this is: you don’t need to sell your website visitors on the concept of buying widgets.  You need to sell them on buying YOUR widgets.

That means your marketing message has to focus primarily on differentiation from the competition and any other alternatives they have available to them.

When you successfully establish real points of difference in your prospects’ minds, you’ll not only generate more leads, but you’ll also reduce the proportion of people who are “shopping around”, versus those who have already made up their minds to buy from you.

Usually the question is followed up quickly by reasons why it WON’T.

Reason Why Internet Marketing Won’t Work #1:

“Our get all our new customers by referral.  People just don’t look for our service on the Internet”

This statement came from the owner of an (admittedly successful) business in the technology space that has grown strongly via strategic alliances and, yes, referrals.

Meanwhile, we happened to have a client in the same city and the same industry, who was keeping 4 full-time salespeople busy with high-quality sales leads generated via the Internet.

Google is the new Yellow Pages.  You might be surprised how many people use the Internet as a primary source of research.   Not only consumers but purchasing managers and C-level executives who have needs that need filling and money to spend.

Reason Why Internet Marketing Won’t Work #2:

“You recommend Google AdWords as a principle traffic generation strategy, but I never click on the ads… I always click on the left side of Google.”

This is another one I hear surprisingly often.

My response is always the same: Google‘s ad revenue in Australia is in the billions, and my company Marketing Results directly manages over $1.5 million in AdWords clicks every year – so somebody must be clicking on the ads.

With the right strategy and execution, I believe AdWords can be made to work in almost any lead generation scenario.

If you think Internet lead generation won’t work for you, is that really true or have you just not found the right formula yet?

Something to think about…

By this I mean: how does blogging stack up against other online marketing methods available to business owners in terms of Return On Investment, Return On Time and Return On Effort?

There’s no one-size-fits all answer to this question, but let me share a few insights after working with many SME clients from multiple industries on their web marketing strategy, which has often included a blogging component.

Blogging for “offline” businesses

In this post, I’m mainly considering how a typical “offline” business selling products or services can use blogging to enhance the performance of their website.

There are two broad scenarios I’ll consider:

1. Scenario 1: “Necessity-based” businesses - when your prospects and clients don’t have a particular interest in what you do beyond the result or outcome you can produce for them. This would apply to many strong  “Yellow Pages” categories such as pest control, landscaping, rubbish removal etc.
2. Scenario 2: “Interest-based” businesses – when your prospects and clients can identify more strongly with the “subject matter” behind the products and services you provide, especially in “information-rich” industries  (e.g. model aeroplanes, financial services, Ultimate Fighting Championship subscriptions, coaching clubs etc).

In other words, some businesses and industries tend to easily spawn a wealth of information that your prospects and clients will eagerly lap up.  In others, prospects will have little personal interest in drilling deeper into what you offer (e.g. latest techniques in rubbish removal).

There may also be cases where different customer segments may fall into the first category (e.g. a home computer shopper searching for the lowest price desktop PC) and others the second category (e.g. an avid computer geek following the launch of the latest must-have graphics card).

What this means for your blogging strategy

Where your customers don’t care deeply for your subject matter and are simply looking for a result (Scenario 1 above), the main benefit blogging can offer your business is that of increased search engine visibility.

Briefly:

1. Search engines like “fresh” content.  Blogs offer a convenient way to add fresh content without interfering with key conversion pages.
2. Regular blog updates allow you to add posts which target long-tail search terms.  It is difficult to rank the same website for multiple competitive terms, especially when you have  a limited number of pages on your website.  Blogging effectively allows you to add more search-engine optimised pages, which target less competitive key phrases.  Good rankings for many specific long-tail or multi-word key phrases can add up quickly.
3. With this strategy, it’s important to quickly convert the search into a conversion.  Because users are not necessarily interested in your content, clear calls to action and/or seasonal offers are vital to ensure you do something with the traffic you generate.

Then there’s Scenario 2 - in which the user is potentially highly interested in what you have to say.

Here you have the option to use your blog to gain a position of Thought Leadership in your market.   You’re not as focused on the quick conversion as you are in building a reputation with prospects, clients and even colleagues and competitors in your market.

There may be the same SEO benefits as with Scenario 1, but the principal benefit of this strategy are the long term conversion and loyalty benefits.

Bottom line: this strategy takes longer to gain traction and requires a higher standard of content writing to demonstrate the Thought Leadership which fuels outsized results.

What will be the investment of time, money and effort?

With Scenario 1, the investment of time, money and effort can be fairly modest.

Design and setup of a blog may cost anywhere from $0 if you DIY to a few thousand dollars (sure, you can spend more if you go for a super-premium design which is overkill in 99.9% of cases).

Then there’s content production.  As the aim is not to demonstrate Thought Leadership with cutting edge content, it is easier in this scenario to outsource the content production function to a writer with very little effect on results.

Having one blog post a week written and published might cost you a couple of hundred dollars a month – a fairly modest investment.  (This is also one of the deliverables we often roll into our Gold Client Internet Marketing Program for SMEs).

Blog content usually gets picked up by search engines fairly quickly and it doesn’t take long to build up a base of posts to feed the search engines.  Within 3 to 6 months of regular posting, you can expect to get a comparatively large proportion of your organic search traffic via your blog.

However, you should recognise that this can be a bit of a “brute force” strategy – a large proportion of the traffic you generate via your blog will NOT convert – so it’s also important to ensure your offers and conversion strategy is sufficient to squeeze some conversions out of the traffic you do get.

Now let’s look at Scenario 2.  Setup costs will be similar to Scenario 1, but the content generation task tends to be much more labour and time intensive for the Thought Leader (who is often the business owner).

For example, if you’re an expert in cutting-edge loan structuring approaches for property investors, it’s hard to employ a low-cost writer to produce content that does your strategies justice and engages your audience.

My friend and blogging expert Yaro Starak talks about building a successful blog in 2 hours a day.  The problem for business owners is that most don’t have that amount of time to devote to a strategy that may take 6 to 12 months to gain sufficient traction to generate a payoff.

Many business owners under-estimate the ongoing work required to keep a Thought Leadership blog going. It’s common to see business owners write a few good articles before getting distracted by other things and it doesn’t take long for a blog to get “stale” and lose traction.

There are ways for business owners to leverage their time with a Thought Leadership blog (e.g. dictating post ideas to a good writer and proofreading the draft before posting), but there is still a substantial investment of time involved to ensure both post quality and frequency.

How long will it take to see results?

As mentioned above, in Scenario 1 you may see search engine benefits in 3 to 6 months sufficient to justify the ongoing investment.

In Scenario 2, the payoff tends to be slower (although it can be large if you manage to achieve a position of true Thought Leadership).

I’ve been writing this blog for 6 years now and although the payoff is sufficient to keep writing, by no means has blogging been one of my highest-return marketing activities.  However, I do see blogging as one component of the pre-eminence building process.

How does blogging stack up against alternative promotional approaches?

I am no doubt revealing my bias toward targeteded traffic+ conversion here, but I see blogging primarily as a supplementary promotional strategy for “offline” businesses rather than a primary one.

My advice is always to get your conversion funnel right first so that you know you can convert a visitor into a client.  You should test and tweak your funnel to ensure maximum throughput and maximum velocity from first-time visitor to loyal client.

Only once your conversion funnel is in place would I recommend looking at blogging as the “cream” on top of your strong foundations.

The final verdict

Blogging can be a very useful traffic generation and pre-eminence building strategy for SMEs – but you need to go in with your eyes open and be clear on your objectives, what the resourcing requirements will be and whether or not you’re prepared to pay the price.

It may also be prudent to think about what support is available to leverage your time and efforts to ensure you get the highest net return.

For example: www.xyzpl.com.au or www.wxyz.com

Unless you’re IBM, this can be a very costly strategy for a few reasons:

1. Abbreviations are meaningless, especially to people who don’t know you. Does BBS.com stand for Brisbane Baking Supplies or Boat Building Services?
2. Because abbreviations lack meaning, they tend to be harder to remember… for your prospects and clients.
3. Keyword-rich domain names assist your organic SEO results, both directly (domain names are a ranking factor for search engines) and indirectly (keyword-rich domain names lend themselves to keyword-rich inbound links)
4. Relevant domain names dramatically increase your Google AdWords (and other PPC) Click Through Rates and conversion results. In some cases we have seen different domain names outperform others by up to 400% when tested in AdWords ads (like in this online marketing case study, for example).

So what do you do if you’re already using an abbreviation as a domain name? My advice is to seriously consider changing, or at a bare minimum investigate other domain names to “park” over your existing domain name.

That will allow you to at least test new ideas in Google AdWords and gauge response – then if the results justify it, consider a complete change.