How Much Does an Effective Marketing Strategy Cost?

Let’s look at a quick recap of last weeks required elements for an effective awareness strategy:

ONE:

• A deep understanding of your ideal client and main problem you help them to solve.
• You know where they already spend their time and money attempting to solve this problem.
• You know how to speak their language from a place of empathy. 

TWO:

• Your messaging clearly helps them identify the gap between where they are and where they want to be.
• You have a strong ‘call-to-action’ that invites someone who is interested in your messaging to take the next step. Make it a small step (a ‘freebie’ or $27 mini-course). Asking someone who’s just discovered your program to sign up for a high-ticket experience is like asking someone to sleep with you on the first date! (we don’t do that anymore, right?)
• You follow-up with more inspiring and educational information to support them in integrating the ‘freebie’ or mini-program they signed up for.

THREE:

• You invite them to an application and/or discovery call to learn more about their situation and discover if you are a fit to work together. 
• You both determine you are a fit and it’s a “Hell YES!” Let’s get started moment.
  You have a clear method of receiving payment. 

How Much Does an Effective Marketing Strategy Cost?

Of course, the answer is, “It depends…” But let’s look at the bare-bones minimum for a brand new start.

Assuming you have all of the above elements in place and you’ve already created your freebie or mini-course, you need your main technical components to work together to deliver information and/or receive payments.

#1 You need a landing page (also called a sales page) that explains the benefits of signing up for your course or your freebie.

#2 You need an email auto-responder that does two things. First, it delivers access to the freebie or the mini-course, and second, it nurtures the person engaging in the content to further integrate the benefits while at the same time getting to know more about you!

Cost: There are too many options and combinations of services to list here for pricing. Some begin at FREE (for a limited time or until you reach a certain # of people in your database). I use a service called: Simplero that combines the ability to create landing pages, a full website, courses, memberships, and of course as many email lists as you might ever need. It also integrates with different payment processors and appointment schedulers. (Full disclosure: I get a small affiliate commission when new people register for Simplero from my link).

Your landing page will tell your visitor about the benefits of your freebie or mini-course and invite them to participate. 

In the case of your freebie (which can be delivered electronically), all they need to do to participate is fill out their name and email in your auto-responder form and then be given access through the follow-up email they receive. 

In the case of a mini-course, you will need a way for your visitor to pay for the course before they receive access. 

#3 You need a payment system. It can be as simple as a link to your Paypal or a payment processing system like Stripe (I use both). Cost: generally around 03% - 04% of the amount charged to the customer. For a $27 product, Stripe keeps $.95 cents.

Once your new customer or potential customer is in your email database, you need to create follow-up content that helps them assimilate the content you have provided for them. You will also let them know that you are available for more advanced support (with your expert team of horses!) and invite them to have a conversation with you. 

#4 You need an appointment scheduler linked to your calendar. Appointment schedulers are wonderful. They only book the time slots you tell them too, and won’t book your calendar where something else is already scheduled. They also automatically adjust for the participant’s time zones. Cost: Again, there are many you can start with for free. I use the free version of Acuity as well as the paid version of Timetrade ($29/year). Read the fine print of others, they can jump up in cost pretty quickly. 

All of the above is the basic technology you need to send people to a site where they can access specific information about the benefits of how you help them and request more info.

Who you serve and what you do for them will depend on where you focus your awareness strategy! 

We’ll talk more about that in a future post! 

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A Quote to Lick n’ Chew on… 

“You can only become truly accomplished at something you love. Don’t make money your goal. Instead, pursue the things you love doing, and then do them so well that people can’t take their eyes off you.”

~ Maya Angelou

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To Your Horse & Soul Success,

~author of, “The Business of Coaching with Horses. How to Reach More Clients, Feed Your Horses, and Change the World!”

My mission is to empower and educate equine-inspired practitioners in the art of profitable program design and marketing. My dream-come-true is to see equine-assisted personal and professional development be recognized and celebrated for the unique transformational modality that it is, and to become as popular as yoga and Starbucks!