Don’t You Want to Make Money While You Sleep?
When you own a business, it’s really the dream isn’t it: make money while you sleep. You’re good at what you do, but your potential earning is limited by time – there is only so much you can do in a day. As the business owner, you are your most valuable asset; you are the one accountable to bring in the revenue, to boost profits, to give out the pay cheques at the end of the month. Wouldn’t it be great if the money kept coming in, even if you’re not involved in every little detail?
High-payoff activities are where you likely focus now – spending time talking to someone who can write you a cheque. But business owners often find themselves doing it all: taking out the garbage, stuffing envelopes, meeting with every customer for extended amounts of time. Who has time for things like marketing?
Successful business owners leverage repeatable systems like marketing, so they can ‘scale themselves’:
Building systems to produce it over and over again - where you have money coming in, even when you’re not directly involved with the customer - can free you up to spend more time on activities where you’re needed.
Ask yourself: Is this a one-off with a cheque at the end? Or can I leverage this into a product I can resell, use it to acquire additional customers, or a system I can implement?
Marketing as a repeatable system:
How can marketing become an engine that takes some of the pressure off you, and helps “make money while you sleep”? Marketing systems can drive new leads, help you keep your existing customers, and basically drive revenue in a volume that is profitable.
We know from the IDC study that business buyers are online doing research before they ever talk to anyone. The customer is making it clear that marketing has a key role to play in leading the prospect to you (and not your competitors) through digital, social, websites etc.
Today’s partners use marketing like “business networking groups” of the past. Yes, networking groups work, but they require you to be there. Through digital marketing, Partners can “be there” virtually; introducing themselves and their services, building credibility, educating, providing trials, comparisons, offers, and even making the sale (or passing a warm lead to sales), ultimately building the relationships without ever having to attend a weekly business networking breakfast. That’s Highly leveraged.
IDC goes on to say “Everyone is in Marketing” and that creating a clear plan and executing against it drives a connected Marketing and Sales journey, ending with a conversion or a sale (and continuing through nurture, upsell, service). Today’s marketing can be measured, mapped, and optimized, so you can see Return on Investment (ROI). Your marketing plan and journey becomes your repeatable system.
The Bottom Line
Developing marketing systems can take the weight of the customer journey so you don’t have to be high-touch to every customer every step of the way – marketing helps customers find you through websites, social, search etc. It needs to be a system – not just a one-hit wonder. If done right, marketing can lead customers through a journey to a sale, again and again.
You can’t do it all, all the time. Are you developing systems? Are you building products you can re-sell over and over again? By implementing systems like marketing, not only can it help “make money while you sleep,” but maybe you can just get some sleep for once!
Kate Bergsma
Partner Marketing
Microsoft Canada