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Have you ever said the two little words “good enough” or “I’m fine”? The word “good” has become a common excuse when it comes to going beyond the status quo. But telling ourselves, “The deal is good enough,” can be the lock on the door that leads to greatness.
In a way, good is not good at all. It’s a false sense of achievement cloaked in complacency. When I realized that being okay with “good” wasn’t going to help me achieve my dreams, I changed my mindset and plan of attack for my business.
Last year I decided that nothing would stand in the way of our expansion and reaching the next level.
I increased my marketing budget by 5% from 2022 to 2023, and as a result our revenue increased by 8%, an increase of over $7 million this year. And that decision is still paying off – sales are up about 20% so far this year.
Here are some key steps I took that helped us achieve our highest annual revenue ever last year – $104.6 million.
Related: How to Turn Marketing Into a Sales and Revenue Engine
Direct mail leads generate 600% more revenue per lead than digital sources
Since I started in 1998, I’ve sent postcards every week to promote my business, PostcardMania, and I’ve only ever increased the amount I send – with one exception. The only time I cut spending was in 2008 and it was a total disaster. The next year our revenue fell by about 15%.
Direct mail takes up a large portion of my marketing budget. It’s not the cheapest way to generate leads, but it’s absolutely irreplaceable in my marketing mix. Postcards generate the highest quality leads of all other lead sources, from organic search to pay-per-click to social media.
Here’s the proof: In 2023, we generated $229.41 in revenue for each postcard lead, while with pay-per-click we only generated $37.09 in revenue per lead. That’s a massive 519% difference – and six times more sales! Only new orders are taken into account, not repeat orders from customers who know and love us.
And that’s just the revenue that we can directly attribute to the postcards. There are so many more leads that come in through “organic search” or some other source that has been receiving our postcards in the mail for years. I believe there is a lot more revenue generated from postcards that are misattributed to other sources, but we can save that for another time.
If you want to take your sales to the next level, I recommend you increase your marketing spend – a 5% increase in spend resulted in a 7% increase in sales for me – and consider adding direct mail to your arsenal to increase your sales increase sixfold per year.
Adding and continually improving live chat increased sales conversations by 16%.
These days, fewer and fewer people are willing to pick up the phone when they need something. In fact, studies show that most consumers (63%) prefer to use live chat to interact with a business.
In 2016, we added live chat to our website, which improved our sales conversations (people willing to speak directly to a sales rep) by 16%. However, I don’t advise you to start a chatbot and call it a day.
The success of our live chat system comes from the fact that we have real people on the other side of the screen. When you use bots – even fancy, AI-trained bots – you run the risk of annoying prospects and customers who want answers and don’t limit themselves to the frequently asked questions (FAQs) they find on your website.
Final live chat tip: Don’t set it and forget it. Play with colors, messaging, and placement and see which combinations elicit the best response from your website visitors. We’ve replaced a generic message on our thank you pages with a live chat prompt, significantly reducing the lag time between a prospect visiting your website and speaking to a sales representative on the phone.
Related: 4 Marketing Budget Hacks That Will Boost Your Business in 2024
Include videos in your meta ads to increase social media leads by 105%.
If you’re a social media user, you’ve probably noticed more and more videos making their way to your main feed. In fact, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg revealed in a recent earnings call that 50% of all people on Meta platforms are now spent consuming videos.
That’s why we decided to make our 139 video case studies – real business owners talking about their successful campaigns – available to us on Facebook and Instagram. We uploaded lists of our current customers and prospects and generated similar audiences similar to our own lists that we can target with our video ads.
This doubled our social media leads. In 2022, our average number of social media leads per week was 174, and in 2023, the average number of leads increased to 356 per week! That’s an increase of 105%.
The research is conclusive: video returns outperform static images. A recent report found that videos drove nearly 30% more clicks than simple static image assets. Another study found that video ads drive 48% higher sales rates than static ads.
Studies prove it, I’ve tested it myself, but you may be wondering if you have the budget to implement it. There is an opportunity for you to incorporate more video ads into your marketing strategy at a low cost. We’ve just started offering video ads on both social media and connected TV channels like Netflix at small business prices.
By working with the right marketing agency, it’s possible to implement a video advertising plan that doesn’t overwhelm your marketing dollars. Additionally, the amount of revenue these video ads will bring you is well worth the upfront investment.
Related: 3 Marketing Blind Spots That Are Holding You Back (and How to Fix Them)
So this year, will you take the blue pill to stay good, or will you take the red pill and embark on the more challenging path to greatness? I challenge you to take a closer look at the harsh reality and figure out where you can improve to achieve better results and a better business.