Transform Your Business with a ‘Marketing First’ Mindset

I always say that “Marketing First” store owners will get more sales than store owners who don’t make their marketing a habit. A Marketing First mindset means strategically positioning marketing at the core of your business activities. Whether you’re a seasoned entrepreneur or just starting out, adopting this mindset will be  immensely beneficial.

I recently spoke with Melissa Davies, owner of Bike Pretty. She’s really the quintessential Marketing First store owner, and I want to share the story of the amazing transformation Melissa made last year.

Melissa was already a good marketer. She has owned her business for ten years so she was consistently posting to social media, emailing her list regularly, running social media ads, etc. But she wasn’t quite connecting the dots of how her social media efforts were translating to sales.

Watch this video and learn:

• How Melissa built an audience of 4.6 million
• What happened when she posted a video for the 5th time
• How her supersized audience affected her sales

Two Game-Changing Trainings

Early last year we introduced a couple of new trainings to the Inner Circle. One was ‘The Big Picture’ in which we showed members how to build a sales funnel, and understand their numbers. The other was Brand Video Creation. In this one, we taught members how to create really effective 45-second brand videos they could use to build their audiences without paying a lot for ads.

So Melissa really was able to visualize her sales funnel for the first time. And she had a lightbulb moment when she realized that she had been underestimating how many people she needed to reach on social media in order to bring in the traffic she would need to reach her sales goals.

Once that was clear, she decided to leverage the second training to make a brand video that she could turn into an ad that would get her business in front of a LOT more people.

The brand video lesson empowers members to craft short, engaging videos showcasing their products and business benefits, accompanied by a strong call to action. These videos are not just fluffy showcases; they are powerful tools for audience growth, especially when used effectively on platforms like Meta and TikTok.

A Success Story: Melissa Davies’ Remarkable Year

To truly understand the impact of these lessons, let’s look at Melissa’s mind blowing numbers. She started with a monthly audience of 140,000 – a respectable figure by any standard. But after diligently working on her brand videos and leveraging our ’30 Day Audience Builder’ training (an oldie but a goodie!) she saw her audience explode to a staggering 4.6 million.

Melissa combined the power of consistent posting, strategic use of brand videos, and a deep understanding of her sales funnel to achieve these numbers. Her story is a testament to the potential of ‘Marketing First’ and its impact on sales.

Key Strategies and Tactics for Success

In episode 190 Melissa told us how she got over herself and committed to a 3x/day social posting strategy. That’s how she came to recognize the importance of reposting old content for increased visibility, and embraced the necessity of setting and chasing monthly goals. Once she understood her sales funnel, she began optimizing each stage – from audience building to converting traffic into sales.

Understanding the Sales Funnel

Let’s break down the sales funnel stages that Melissa mastered:

1. Audience: This is where it all starts. Building a large, engaged audience is crucial for funnel effectiveness. Usually, this is on social media platforms like Meta or TikTok.
2. Traffic: Once you have an audience, the next step is to get a percentage of this big pool of people to visit your website.
3. Focused Marketing: This stage involves targeted marketing efforts (like retargeting ads or email campaigns) to people who have visited your website or signed up for your list.
4. Conversion: The final stage, where website visitors turn into paying customers.

Melissa’s approach to each of these stages was methodical and data-driven. By focusing on her audience size and engagement, she managed to significantly increase her website traffic, leading to better sales.

The Power of Video Content

Melissa’s use of video content was a game-changer. Her brand videos, posted across social media platforms, significantly boosted her reach. And since they were working, she kept re-posting them.

And on the SIXTH repost of one of her brand videos? It went viral.

These videos, which were neither high-budget nor technically complex, really resonated with her audience. She attributes this to the down-to-earth, approachable, and on-brand tone of her videos. And rather than bore her audience, Melissa believes that posting them more often actually contributed to their virality.

The Impact of Melissa’s Marketing Strategy

The results of Melissa’s marketing efforts were clear and quantifiable. Her traffic skyrocketed, and while her conversion rate for new visitors was relatively low, the overall impact on sales was substantial. Melissa’s story demonstrates how a focused, consistent marketing strategy can lead to significant financial gains, far outweighing traditional advertising costs.

Lessons from Melissa’s Experience

Melissa’s journey offers several key takeaways for business owners:

• Focus On Your Funnel: Understanding and optimizing each stage of the sales funnel is critical for converting audience size into actual sales.
• Repetition is Key: Reposting content can significantly increase visibility and engagement.
• Reach More People with Video Content: Even if it’s simple and low-budget, video is the single most effective way to increase audience size.

The Path to Becoming a ‘Marketing First’ Business Owner

Melissa’s story really exemplifies the ‘Marketing First’ philosophy in action. She is continually monitoring her data, adjusting her sales funnel, and staying consistent with the type of organic content she knows is working.

This is the type of data-driven strategy we are working on in the Inner Circle this year – setting actionable goals that are based on real numbers, and putting a plan in place so that we get consistent results. Ready to make 2024 the year you become a Marketing First business owner? Join the Inner Circle HERE.

RELATED LINKS:

The Stress Free Content Plan That Built A Huge Audience: https://thesocialsalesgirls.com/the-stress-free-content-plan-that-built-a-huge-audience-episode-190/

How Melissa Reduced Her Cost Of Acquiring A New Customer By 44%: https://thesocialsalesgirls.com/how-melissa-reduced-her-cost-of-acquiring-a-customer-by-44-percent-episode-191/