The “During” Phase Section Summary In the “during” phase, you’re dealing with leads. Leads are people who know you and have indicated interest in what you have to offer by responding to your marketing message. In this phase, you’ll capture these interested leads in a database system, nurture them with regular value-building information and convert them into paying customers. The goal of this phase is to get your leads to like you and what you have to offer enough to buy from you for the first time. Once they’ve bought from you, they become a customer and enter the third and final phase of your marketing process. Capturing leads in a database system for future follow-up is critical to your marketing success. This is because only a very small percentage of interested leads may be ready to purchase from you immediately. Lead capture is all about properly handling interest and building your future sales pipeline. Highlights covered in this chapter include: Why you should never try to sell directly from an advertisement and what to do instead How to transition from “hunting” to “farming” and ensure you always have a full pipeline of new business Why you shouldn’t treat all prospects equally How to use an “ethical bribe” to uncover high-probability prospects How to instantly increase the effectiveness of your advertising by 1,233% Why some businesses get a constant flow of leads and prospects while others struggle How to be seen as an expert and authority by your target market. Capturing Leads Hunting vs. Farming Imagine yourself as a hunter. You wake up in the morning, gather your weapons and head out to the hunt. Some days, you come back with a kill and your family eats a feast. Other days, you come back empty-handed and your family goes hungry. The pressure is on every single day to hunt successfully—it’s a constant battle. Now imagine yourself as a farmer. You plant your seeds and wait for them to be ready for the harvest. In the meantime, you nurture them and treat them with care. You water and tend to your crop. When they’re ready, you start harvesting. In my experience, most businesses are hunters, not farmers: They make cold calls to generate new business. They spend huge amounts of time and energy trying to get a new customer and do anything to close the sale as soon as possible. Their advertising reeks of desperation as they try discounting and competing on price just to make a quick sale. They waste huge amounts of time pestering people who are not interested in their product or service. Most business owners are clueless about the purpose behind their marketing. They slap the name of their business on their ad with a pretty logo and some meaningless slogan claiming to be the leader in their industry or area. If you ask them what the purpose of their advertising is, most will say it’s to sell their products or to “get their name out there.” This is wrong! Dead wrong. They may as well be flushing money down the toilet. In direct response marketing, the purpose of your advertising is to find people who are interested in what you do rather than trying to make an immediate sale from the ad. When your interested leads respond, you put them in your follow-up database so that you can build value for them, position yourself as an authority and create a relationship built on trust. After doing this, the sale comes (if it’s right for them) as a natural consequence. This will take a mindset shift but is an absolutely vital concept to understand. Credit: 1-Page Marketing Plan. Check out the '60 Day Startup Launch Blueprint' Course for Entrepreneurs. https://www.udemy.com/share/103RYq/ Share your feedback, @digitalentrepreneur247 on Instagram. Will see you Thursday! Cheers 🥂
