The first level of our LEADS model is the all-important marketing goal of generating more leads. Fundamentally, this is what your entire marketing strategy should be about - attracting more qualified leads into your business and giving your sales team more opportunities to close deals. 

 

 

To begin a solid marketing plan, think about who you want to target. What is the ideal market you would like to work with? Once you have an idea of the audience you want to market to, you need to make an avatar of your ideal customer. 

This avatar will have a name, occupation, hobbies, job, salary, car - the more detail you can create about this person the better. 

This avatar describes your ideal client perfectly so everyone on your team knows exactly who you’re targeting with your marketing. 

If you’re struggling to figure out where to begin with your avatar, start by basing it on your very best past client. Think about someone who was a joy to work with, someone you’d be happy to work with again and again. You’d want more of your clients to be just like them, so that’s the person you’re going to try to reach with your marketing. 

 

Now you know who you are marketing to, you need to figure out what to say with your marketing message. 

What’s most important to your ideal customer? What makes them want to take action and make a purchase? What makes them interested in your business? 

The best way to get the attention of your ideal buyer is to focus on their fear, frustration, and desire. Tapping into their emotions will help you connect with them through your marketing and show them you’re the best business for their needs. 

Even if an ideal customer needs your product or service, they won’t take action without feeling an emotional connection. Whether that’s frustration, fear, or desire, being able to identify that emotion will transform your marketing. 

It’s just like going to the dentist. Until a person is in pain with toothache, they don’t think about going. It’s that pain and need for a solution that drives them to action. 

Once you understand the key problems a customer is facing, it’s easy to show you understand the emotion and use the right language in your marketing. 

Using the right tone of voice, the right phrasing, and the right acronyms in your marketing will make all the difference. Imagine you had customers in France, Germany, and Spain. You’d craft your marketing to each country by using French, German, and Spanish, and this would be much more effective than using the same English message in all three countries. 

Crafting your marketing message to your ideal customer is like learning to speak their language - they’ll feel understood and form a connection with your business. 

 

When it comes to delivering your message, you have to consider both online and offline media. Offline, your marketing is communicated through your branding, adverts, exhibitions, etc. Online, it’s about communicating through social media channels, your website, and your email list. 

In every media, your aim is to show how you can help your potential customers and the value they’ll receive by choosing to buy from you. 

Too many clients I work with think they’re overselling by continuously marketing both offline and online, but the truth is you need to communicate with a potential customer at least nine times before they will be ready to make a purchase. Not to mention, your customers won’t see every piece of marketing material you put out there, so showing up over and over through different media is crucial. 

Capturing leads 

The last element of bringing new leads into your business is capturing leads and nurturing them. It’s much easier to show up to leads nine times if you have their email and have a direct line of communication with them over time. This also means you can curate the best content and be in control of how often you show up. 

So as part of your lead generation strategy, think about funnelling potential customers into your CRM - this is usually through an email newsletter sign-up. It’s much easier marketing to customers already within your sales funnel than hoping these customers see your social media updates, attend your events, or search you out. 

You can never be sure where customers are finding you, online or offline, so it’s important to have consistent branding and messaging throughout your marketing efforts. By showing up in as many places as possible with a consistent message, you’ll reach as many customers as possible and solidify your brand as a leader. 

 

 

This moves us on nicely to the next level of the LEADS model - creating a value escalator for your potential customers. 

I often talk about the concept of having a value escalator with my clients. This means that at each stage of your marketing, you have value to offer potential customers. This could be free, low cost, or a tripwire product that gives them experience of your brand. 

Imagine walking into a shop you’ve never been in before and looking around. You might talk to an employee first to find out more about a specific product, you might try a free sample, and then you might buy a low-cost item to see if you like it. 

Rarely will you walk into an unfamiliar store and purchase the most expensive item for sale. But once you’ve worked your way up to this point, you’re a customer for life. You’ll recommend the store to friends and family, you’ll keep an eye out for sales, and you’ll happily return when you need their services again. 

This is the experience you’re creating with a value escalator. From your free blog content and social media posts to freebies you offer for newsletter sign-ups, to low-cost offers, you’re building your customer up to a larger purchase and giving them experience of your brand. 

Once they’re ready to make a purchase, your brand will be the obvious choice because they are already invested in your messaging and value. 

Each of your offers acts like an escalator, slowly progressing in value as your customer moves up toward your main offer. This way, when they reach the top, they are much happier and more comfortable making that larger purchase because they already trust your business and know the quality you can offer. 

 

 

The next level of our LEADS model is assets. What marketing assets have you created that you can reuse again and again? This might be blog content, training videos, social media content, podcast episodes, etc. 

Having valuable marketing assets like this makes the process of creating content much easier because you can repurpose it and use it across different channels. 

The most crucial marketing asset your business should have is a database of potential customers. Your marketing should funnel customers into your database - the larger your list, the higher value it is to your business. 

In my business, I use a tool called Infusion-soft to build an email list and nurture my leads. There are a lot of different tools out there to establish a database - Constant Contact, AWeber, Salesforce, etc. 

Whichever tool you choose, focus on capturing lead data and building your list. This will become your main source of income and where most of your new leads come from. 

 

 

Once you have the basics of marketing in place in your business, you can move onto the fourth level - do. At this point, you’ll want to hire a doer who is an expert in marketing. A marketing expert will take care of your social media schedule, your email marketing, your brand messaging - all of that important content that helps you show up in front of customers. 

In my business, I have a marketing team that takes care of my website updates, email newsletters, landing pages, and social content. All of this is taken off my plate so I can focus on working with my clients and offering a better level of service. 

Hiring these “doers” is an investment, but it funnels new leads into my business and frees up my schedule, meaning I can take on more clients. So, in the long run, this adds to the bottom line. 

If you try and do everything in your business, you’ll be working a lot of hours and find it difficult to do any job well. Having somebody dedicated to your marketing, whether that’s internally or externally, will make sure your marketing is optimised and working effectively. 

5. Superstar 

The final level of our LEADS model is hiring a marketing superstar for your business. Eventually, this will be your marketing director. 

This person will oversee your marketing plan, work out your marketing messages, and ensure your branding is consistent. From the way you communicate with suppliers to the way you communicate with customers, they will ensure each piece of content and each member of staff is on-brand and following your company ethos. 

Overall, they are the superstar that makes sure new leads are consistently coming into your business. And not just leads - high-quality leads that are low-cost and high-return. 

Your business might not be ready for a marketing superstar yet, but this is the level you are aiming for when you go through the process of optimising your marketing. 

 

 

Consistent, engaging marketing is key to bringing in new clients. Without it, you’ll struggle to create a consistent stream of clients that keep your business busy and closing deals. 

Once you have your marketing strategy optimised, we can move on to your sales. 

The next and final sector in the Bright Seven Sector Model is sales. This is the final, crucial piece of the puzzle that ensures your business is in profit and growing in revenue each year. 

When clients tell me that they lack consistent sales, I often find the same issues within their business. In the next section, we’ll look at how you can optimise the sales process and optimise your business for consistent growth.