Four Cornerstone Principles Of A Successful Marketing Strategy That Monetizes

While fully embracing the right mindset is the first step towards transforming your business into a marketing machine, there are four key principles that you must understand in order to impact your success. These are so important to your business success in this new economy that unless you build your marketing strategies upon this solid foundation, you will have a 99% chance of failing.

Therefore, it is critical that you take time to learn these four cornerstone principles and implement them into your business.

LET’S GO OVER THEM BELOW

Cornerstone #1:

Calculate the Lifetime Value of Your Customer

When business owners hire us to help turn their business into money-makers, one of the first things we do is calculate the lifetime value of their customers. The lifetime value (LTV) of a customer is the amount of sales and profit each customer brings on average to your business over the course of their buying lifetime.

No, that number is not the equivalent of how much you sell your product or service for.

However, unless you keep great records, you should probably hire a bookkeeper to dig through receipts and calculate the numbers for you.

Why is this an important metric?

The reason why the lifetime value of a customer is so important is because it gives you an idea of how much you should invest in marketing to get the customer in the first place.

Now think about that for a minute. Remember our discussion of S.O.S.? If you know the LTV of a customer, then the next time you run across a “great” marketing product/concept/service/idea, you will be able to determine how “great” this is for your business based on the facts of your specific customer’s LTV. It takes out one part of the guess work and can keep you focused on the best tools for your company.

BREAKING IT DOWN:

Let’s use the following simple way to calculate your LTV:

Total Amount of Customers for the year	100
Average # of purchases per customer	2
Average Purchase Amount	$125.00
(100 x 2 x $125) Total Revenue	$25,000.00
Cost to produce each product or service (including parts & labor)	$35.00
Total cost to produce product for the 100 customers (100 x $35	$3,500.00
Marketing Costs for the year	$5,000.00
Total Costs	$8,500.00

Total Revenue – Costs = Gross Profit
($25,000 – $8,500)    $16,500.00

Gross Profit   $16,500.00
Customer Lifetime Value For The Year
($16,500 / 100 customers) $165.00

So in the example used above, each customer in that business represents at least $165 in profits, on average per year.

Now, multiply $165 times the number of years your customers typically stay with you and you have the lifetime value of your customer.

However, it doesn’t have to stop there. In fact, your goal should actually be to increase the lifetime value of each customer. How do you do this? One simple way to increase your LTV is to increase your transactional average, the amount they buy from you when they do, or increasing your transactional frequency, having them purchase from you more often.

Based on our example, this business owner knows that if he spends another $5,000 in marketing in the same ways he’s investing in the market currently, he can reasonably expect to double his profits. Without knowing that lifetime value of his customers, he doesn’t have the confidence to make that kind of investment in marketing. Knowledge is power. Yes, specific knowledge of your customer’s LTV will give you the power to increase the results you expect in your business.

Cornerstone #2:

Track the Source of Every Lead Coming Into Your Business

The best way to spend your marketing dollars effectively is by knowing where your customers are coming from. You do this through what’s known as tracking. If there was only one piece of advice that we would want you to remember from this entire book, it would be this: Track the source of every lead that comes into your business.

There are simple ways to do this:

• Ask clients how they found you.
• Use special phone numbers with unique extensions in your ads.
• Design special landing page websites with tracking codes or special urls for a specific sales, coupons, etc.

At the end of the day, you absolutely need to know where your leads are coming from so that you know exactly what’s working in your business. Once you know where your leads are coming from, then you can begin to invest marketing in those specific areas that are generating the best leads and customers. Without tracking your leads, you’re just throwing stuff against the wall, hoping it will stick.  You may be wasting thousands of dollars on ineffective marketing strategies.

Not tracking your results is using the MUSTA Marketing Method.  The MUSTA method is thinking that when more customers are coming into your business, then the marketing MUSTA worked.

We cannot tell you how many businesses run using this method.  We know many personally that have the capability to track and measure their results of what is working and what is not and they refuse to, because they think it will take too much time.

We are here to tell you that you cannot afford not to!  Many of these businesses who refused to track their results, are no longer in business today.  While you should always look at every cent you invest in marketing, in tough times it is even more important to create leverage through your investment in marketing and advertising.

Cornerstone #3:

Calculate Your Marketing ROI (Return On Investment

Building on the previous cornerstone, the only way to truly know your return on investment is to track the results of every marketing strategy. Once you know how much you are spending and how many customers you’re getting as a result of that spending, then you will know exactly how much each marketing dollar is bringing back to your business.

For example, if you spend $500 on a mailing campaign, which generates two new customers, who then spend a total of $4,500 in your business, the return on your investment is 900%! In terms of actual dollars, you receive $9 for every $1 spent. By most standards, that is a pretty good return, wouldn’t you agree?

Cornerstone #4:

Create Marketing Designed To Convert

Super Bowl ads may get a lot of attention, however, in our opinion, most are really a huge waste of money. The ads that run during the Super Bowl are designed to be funny and cute and win advertising awards. They make the creative departments of the ad company feel very good about how clever they can be. However, those ads rarely make their companies any real profit.  The big brand building ad should be gone with the wind! Those days are in the past. Every penny spent on advertising should be designed to convert–to create cash flow!

As a matter of fact, those commercials should be the laughing stock of the marketing industry because companies blindly line up and fork over three million dollars for a thirty second “funny” ad, believing that by simply putting them in front of millions of eyeballs, the ad will pay off. The reality is that most companies will receive little to no results in relation to those marketing dollars spent.

Over 90% of the business pay for regular advertising, which does not have the same powerful impact that education based marketing has. Education based marketing is designed to engage your prospects, to hook them by providing value while positioning your business as the solution to their problems and challenges, so they want to become your clients.  If you go online and Google “education based marketing”, you will find over 100,000 entries with lots of examples to choose from. Business Week magazine said, in regards to educating your clients: “Don’t just pitch to your prospects—cast a wider net and offer useful information. You’ll out market your rivals and boost sales.”

When it comes to advertising, you either need to know how to write great education based marketing pieces or hire a great education based copywriter. The focus has to be on understanding the pain of your prospects and communicating clearly how you can solve this pain for them.  Study good education based copywriters, even if you won’t write the copy yourself, so that you understand what should be included and recognize great copy. This education based information is the cornerstone, as you will utilize it in all of your marketing pieces, customer interactions, sales presentations, etc.

Although not exhaustive, here are some basics that you should consider when creating any marketing piece:

Here are the basics to consider:

• Use a compelling headline that will attract, then hook and engage potential customers.
• Think of the market-based information that you can use to educate your prospective customers on why you, your product, service, concept, or idea will impact and/or bring value to them.
• Share existing customer testimonials wherever possible
• Where it makes sense, utilize a compelling offer.
• Insert testimonials from past customers for social proof, wherever possible.
• Include a “no-brainer” guarantee to reduce resistance.
• Make it unique so it stands out from your competitors.
• Focus on customer benefits, not company vanity.
• Have only one goal for each ad, which is to get customers to visit your business, pick up the phone, and call or request FREE special information.
• Get straight to the point and be easy to understand. A clever ad may be clever, but that doesn’t mean that the customer is going to “get” the joke.

At this point, you may be thinking that these cornerstone principles seem like a lot of hard work. So here’s a little bit of encouragement for you — most change is difficult in the beginning. Once you understand your customers’ wants, needs, desires, and challenges, then you can utilize your specialized or researched information to educate them on why you are the solution. You will transition your focus from ‘selling’ to ‘educating’ and it actually becomes fun! You start to build a relationship with your prospects and customers and they come to appreciate you for the value you add to their lives.

Just like so many other things in life, building that solid foundation upon which you will build your empire (or legacy) does take design, some planning, and a bit of work. Your willingness to actually implement these strategies on a consistent basis is one of the most important factors that will contribute to your success in business.

Build a solid foundation for your marketing and everything else will fall into place.  Are you ready to build that solid foundation?

READY TO MONETIZE?

By the way, if you are ready to monetize your business more effectively and accelerate your business results, let’s connect. I know we can help.

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Get to Know Mark O’Brien Chicago

Value Growth Partners Founder and now a partner at Newport, mark o brien Chicago has over thirty years of experience in Business Growth, Successions, and Transitions as a business owner, executive, and advisor to privately held & family businesses. He is adept at accelerating sustainable growth in competitive & challenging markets. 

Knowledge, skillset, and experiences enriched through hands-on work in manufacturing and distribution within aerospace, automotive, woodworking, plastics, supply-chain logistics, & technology worldwide.  Mark is highly experienced with innovating, improving, & implementing manufacturing & supply chain solutions that yield improvements in productivity, cost reductions, and throughput resulting in sustainable growth.

Mark supports business owners with realizing their value potential, achieving life goals, and fulfilling dreams by supporting growth, transition, & succession plans that assist with Getting-2-Next©.

After many years of assisting owners in transitioning their business, Mark and VGP partners help business owners realize that one of the biggest challenges is executing succession and transition is the lack of a plan for "What's NEXT?"

It's very challenging for an owner or executive leader to manage a leadership succession and even more difficult to manage a business transition without a transition plan that addresses "What's Next." We understand and have a plan that will assist.

Find out more about Mark O Brien Chicago on our website and contact us if you are looking for help with a business transition strategy. Value Growth Partners/Newport can assist you in knowing and growing your business value before the transition - (312) 525-8382.

Modeling the Availability of Jet Fuel from Biomass

Modeling the availability of woody biomass (organic matter from trees and plants) in heavily forested areas was the focus of a recent project conducted by the U.S. Forest Service and the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), one of the national laboratories of the U.S. Department of Energy. 

A joint team set out to build a software model to show the economics behind harvesting woody biomass as an energy source, and how harvesting could create benefits to boost forest restoration and reduce the risk of wildfire. The study focused on biomass from commercial thinning and timber harvesting and evaluated the delivered costs of biomass from restoration activities, factoring in data from nearby markets, processing, and transportation costs. 

Initial results from the team’s research, based on a specific geographical area, showed that nearly 1.5 million tons of economically viable biomass were available for bioenergy use. This included delivery of about 395,000 tons of wood chips at or below $60/ton and another million tons generated from mill residue.

The team’s research further validates everything that NWABF has been pursuing in the past years. Creating jet fuel from biomass is a viable proposition for the future. This was confirmed in the 2013 NARA (Northwest Advanced Renewables Alliance) study, released by the Department of Agriculture. The three-year, $40 million study explored the availability, the costs, benefits, and logistics of using forest residuals and mill residues as a source of SAF. It confirmed that more than 10 million tons of woody biomass is available to create jet fuel from biomass. 

This is encouraging news, as Northwest Advanced Bio-Fuels takes woody biomass, gasifies it and through a sophisticated proven technical process, converts it to Premium Renewable Sustainable Aviation Fuel from the conversion of slash, forest residues, and mill residues in forests. Having a better understanding of the availability of woody plant biomass available to convert jet fuel from biomass will help NWABF with its long-term operational forecasts. 

To learn more about the NWABF Project, converting woody biomass to sustainable aviation fuel process, please contact us at info@nwabf.com. You can also get more information on woody biomass, sustainable aviation fuel and much more on our Biofuel FAQs page.

5 Ways That Your Website Is Costing You New Business

Why Your Website is Costing You New Business

With technology growing at an alarming rate over the last decade, the Internet has been at the forefront of each and every single one of these advancements. Smart phones and tablet devices are now a part of everyday life. You can even use them to do your banking and to pay for items and services. Yes, technology is most certainly king and for that reason, if you want to stand any chance of succeeding within the business world, you need to embrace it and get with the times.

The size of your business is irrelevant. The simple fact of the matter is that if you want to stand any chance of succeeding, you will need to own a website for your business; and if you want your business to flourish in these new times, your website will need to do more than the days of old.  Your website will need to work for you. If your website is outdated, neglected, or just simply poorly designed, this could potentially be costing you thousands in lost revenue every single month.

If your business is suffering and you’re not quite sure why, maybe, just maybe, your website could be to blame? Here’s a look at 5 ways in which your website could potentially be costing you new business.

Your site does NOT have a clear call to action

One of the best ways of actually getting what you want is to ask for it, and in simple terms, that is essentially exactly what a “call to action” is. On your site it is your job to encourage or even to direct your customers towards exactly what it is that you would like them to do once they’ve finished browsing your services and/or products.

Exactly what you require them to do will of course depend on what your business is all about.  Do you want them to sign up for a free trial? If so, a simple hyperlink linking to the “free trial” page with the text “Click here for your free trial” is all that you need to do. Do you want them to browse your service or products? If so, “Click here to browse our full range of products/services.” Place these clickable links strategically throughout your website, ensuring you don’t overwhelm the customers with too much text or content.

It’s essentially the same as using bait while fishing. A few carefully placed links with simple call to action text will bait customers into clicking them, seeing your products, seeing something they like the look of, and purchasing it  — while making you a tidy profit in return.

Your site layout sucks

On average, a new visitor to your website only spends six seconds evaluating whether to stay on your site or to click the back button and go somewhere else.  If your website’s most important information is buried under the fold, then there is a pretty good chance it’s not being seen. The layout of your website is arguably one of the most important factors to consider when creating a new site for your business. Although there are a number of “create your own” websites out there that cost little to nothing at all, it is advisable to always hire professional web designers to create and design your website for you.

You should think about what you want each page to say, and then look for ways of saying it using as minimal text as possible. Hey, if you have a talent for writing, that’s great – that’s what your blog is for.

Most of your potential customers will be visiting your website to browse your products and services, not to read long walls of text. They want to be able to find what they’re looking for as quickly and as easily as possible. Make sure you keep the text to a minimum, don’t try to include too many images, and make sure each page is well balanced.

Your design is outdated

A great website design can validate to consumers that your business is a legit, professional business that they want to patronage. It can either boost your reputation or turn potential consumers away.

If you’re trying to save money by doing it yourself, you could actually be losing potential customers, and in the end, losing money. By taking design into their own hands, small business owners cause themselves more headaches and risk by ending up with a poorly designed and planned out website.  Not surprisingly, 41% of small business owners who are unhappy with their current website say design/aesthetic is one of their top priorities.

Word of advice – do it right the first time. Hire a professional web design company and make sure your website looks contemporary, attractive, and allows customers to easily engage with your business.

You don’t have any social networking links

Social networking is now a part of everyday life, and whether you like it or not, it looks set to stay that way for the foreseeable future.

First of all, if you don’t have several social networking pages created for your business, you need to consider getting them set up ASAP. Social networking is ideal as it’s a great source of free, or very cheap marketing and advertising, millions upon millions of people use these pages, and it’s a great way of potentially drumming up more business.

After you create your first several social networking pages like Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Pinterest etc., you will then need to ensure that you provide links to each page from your website. Linking to social networking pages is ideal because it allows you a way of keeping in touch with potential customers, and keeping them up to date with what’s going on. So let’s say you are having a sale.  People love sales, right? By promoting your sale through social networking sites you have a direct line of communication to people who are already interested in what you’re selling.

Your friends, fans and followers then see the amazing deal you’re offering and will likely take advantage of it because you’re speaking directly to your target audience. We spoke about calls to action earlier, and social networking links are prime examples of how effective a call to action can be. Simple text such as “Stay informed by liking us on Facebook” with a direct link to your Facebook page is all that is required, and it’s proven to be extremely effective.

Your site is not mobile-friendly

As mentioned previously, smart phones and tablet devices are now extremely common, with close to 68% of all US citizens actually owning at least one of these devices. For that reason, more and more people are using these devices to browse the web rather than laptops or computers. If your website isn’t mobile friendly you could be missing out on a lot of customers.  This is something that you should address as soon as possible!

Websites that are not user friendly show up incredibly small on the screens of smart phones, forcing the user to have to enlarge the text and to then scroll left, right, up, and down, every few sentences. If there are any clickable tabs or links on the page, they often inadvertently get clicked by accident, which is extremely frustrating for the user. Rather than spending 10 times as long as normal to simply read a few paragraphs, the user will instead search for a much simpler alternative, namely one of your competitors with a mobile friendly website.

Mobile friendly websites recognize when a user is browsing via a smart phone and will display the text in the perfect size for your device’s screen. This means you won’t need to enlarge the text, you won’t accidentally click on the wrong page, and you won’t need to scroll left and right every few words. You simply read the text and scroll down as you go. It’s simple but it works so much better than the non-friendly alternative.

Your contact information is hard to find

Studies and expert research have both found that including your contact information on every single page of your website is the most effective way of maximizing your potential to increase and boost your sales.

Many businesses make the mistake of placing their contact information solely on their ‘contact us’ page, or sometimes not at all. Visitors don’t want to navigate through different pages just to find a telephone number or email address.  Visitors want to be able to find what they’re looking for as quickly as possible.  You can easily eliminate any frustration by listing your business phone number, your operating hours and business email address at the top and bottom of every page.

For further benefit make sure to include links to your social networking pages with your contact information. The easier you are to get hold of, the more likely you will be to land yourself extra leads and sales. You get the results you want, and so does the customer who easily finds exactly what it is they’re looking for without wasting time by navigating through page after page.

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Blog site Your Way To Success Ten Powerful Blog Writing Tips

What are your objectives? They must be listed as well as well specified. This is regardless of how lovely your blog might look, or having actually a well created, rich and distinct content blog posts. Nevertheless, every specific niche is not necessarily as rewarding as others. You will obtain an affiliate link for each product you choose to advertise. The reason for the very same lays in the search choices of the Web users

Take pleasure in. Permit anyone to make remarks freely, and you will certainly obtain individuals seeing your blog simply to participate. To make accomplish this, you must locate a subject which you like to speak about. It's a pure social journalism platform and it does not use individuals many personalized alternatives

Obviously I do not wish to inhibit those who are preparing to try their future with blogging. Backlinks, utilizing your main search phrases will certainly draw in internet search engine crawlers. As long as your commenting is insightful as well as not considered as spam, there is a possibility that a discussion can be struck up between you and also the other blog writer

That is the best mistaken belief, don't fret about other individuals, there are many various other websites who teach 'how to earn money' no need of your own, please don't mind however that is fact. Not to pop anybody's balloon, but composing sounds extra extravagant than it remains in truth. Bottom line to keep in mind is, any type of site with a page rank of 4 will be tough for you to take on. Just how will you reveal your new blog site to the world? Many affiliate marketing experts utilize blogs as their only technique of promo as opposed to making use of standard sites as a result of the ease and also simplicity to update and also add web content without needing to get into full-screen editor and ftp programs. When and also exactly how commonly will I upgrade my blog site? 4

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Biofuel Jet Fuel and SAF News Roundup

There is solid momentum happening behind the scenes for Northwest Advanced Bio-Fuels LLC, as we move ever closer to the construction of a facility to produce and supply Delta Air Lines with 60+ million gallons of biofuel jet fuel annually.

As we continue to forge new partnerships with world-class engineering firms to fill the role of Owner’s Engineer, Project Manager, and eventually Construction Manager, the SAF and biofuels world continues to grow. Here are a few recent news stories that are indicative of the future growth we will all see in this sector.

Agriculture & Biofuels Industry Group Pushes for SAF Tax Credit

A group of biofuel and agriculture industry associations teamed up recently to send a letter to the U.S. Senate members to outline their recommendations for the SAF tax credit.

The undersigned groups are:

• American Farm Bureau Federation

• Growth Energy

• National Biodiesel Board

• National Corn Growers Association

• National Farmers Union

• Renewable Fuels Association

The letter comes at a time when the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives are considering legislation to establish a tax credit to promote and develop sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) this year.

New Partnerships in SAF

The SAF biofuel jet fuel industry has notched another high-profile partnership, helping its credibility to grow. In late July, Boeing, SkyNRG, and SkyNRG Americas announced a partnership to help grow the use and availability of sustainable aviation fuels (SAF) globally. Boeing will also invest in SkyNRG Americas’ SAF production project.

White House targeting 2050 for all jet fuel to be from renewable sources

The White House administration is said to be targeting 2050 as the year for all U.S. airlines to fly on 100% jet fuel from renewable sources. To do this, CNBC reports that

“The Biden administration is contemplating incentives to support private-sector production of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) as it searches for ways to eliminate greenhouse gas emissions in the hard-to-electrify aviation industry.”

The article continues to note that “Global demand for jet fuel currently totals roughly 200 billion liters a year, but airline trade group IATA estimates just 100 million to 120 million liters of SAF will be produced in 2021 – just 0.05% of overall fuel.”

COVID 19 Impact on Biodiesel Demand

A new market research study predicts that the global biodiesel market could hit $50.1 billion by 2027. This is despite the devastating COVID-19 pandemic has had on our economy in the past 18 months.

The report notes that manufacturing activities and logistic operations have seen a dip in the biodiesel market due to COVID. However, once the pandemic subsides and the economy recovers, demand for biodiesel products is expected to stabilize.

These are some of the biofuel jet fuel stories that caught our eye in recent weeks. Learn more about the NWABF SAF Project, which when completed, will produce and supply 60+ million gallons of biofuel jet fuel annually for Delta Air Lines. We are a committed team that’s excited for the future of sustainable aviation fuel.

The need for renewable biofuel jet fuel sources for airlines certainly won’t be resolved in the near future, but a project like Northwest Advanced Bio-Fuels LLC is developing will certainly go a long way to meet that need for the airline industry now and well into the future.

To learn more about Northwest Advanced Bio-Fuels, LLC on our website.

Embrace the Wild in your Dog with Bryan Bailey

Sled dogs are known as #1 source of transportation in the winter, and if you grew up in Alaska, you would be no stranger to these beautiful dogs. As a young boy, Bryan Bailey found himself up close & personal with wolves in the wild. The more time Bryan spent with these animals, he discovered the similarities between the wolves & his dog! This turned into a lifelong fascination for Bryan. Tune into this episode to hear about the amazing work that Bryan has done & continues to do throughout the world. Bryan’s passionate and powerful work is truly showcased in this episode! IN THIS EPISODE, YOU WILL LEARN: [00:04:22] How is Bryan’s Training Programs Different from the Rest? [00:14:59] Questions to Ask Before Choosing a Trainer [00:29:15] Advice For Dog Owners [00:34:31] Dog Pharmacotherapy: What is it? [00:46:26] Bryan’s #1 Favorite Transformation Connect with Guest Name: 1. Follow Bryan on Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram & Twitter 2. Find Bryan on his website 3. Purchase Bryan’s Book here 4. Listen to Bryan’s Radio Show here 5. Check out Bryan on YouTube 6. Shop Taming the Wild here

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