May 23, 2016
One of the reasons we launched Diffactory was to address all of the waste in marketing and eliminate marketing costs for our partners. Sounds controversial for a marketing company, right? We call it being honest.
Waste comes in the form of throwing darts at the board, trying every new thing that comes on the market, not sticking to your strategic plan, hiring gurus and a plethora of other distractions. So here’s the unfiltered truth that will ruffle some people’s feathers on how recurring revenue can eliminate your need to market and sell.
Most marketing gurus have never operated a business
If you have never managed a P&L, dealt with cash flow, built operational processes, made sales or done anything outside of marketing, how in the world can you make marketing recommendations without knowing the impact on other areas of the business?
Healthy, functional companies don’t operate in silos. The lines between technology, marketing, operations, finance and human resources gets blurred more every day. If you flip an operational lever it will impact other aspects of the business in some way. If you make a change in technology it will ripple throughout the organization. Why do some marketers think that a change in marketing won’t affect other parts of the business? Simple, they have never experienced it first hand.
I was involved in an experiment with over 4,000 websites. One day the CTO and I made the decision to move the contact form to the top of the page on all 4,000 sites. Overnight organic leads increased by 40%. This move made by the technology and marketing team about killed the client care team. They weren’t prepared for a 40% increase in work when they came into work the next day. It took them weeks to catch up to the mess we had created.
To be an exceptional marketer you have to understand how business works and the ramifications of the things you do. Maybe this is why many marketers are afraid of businesses that operate on recurring revenue models. They know that if they do theirs jobs correctly they will eventually not be needed.
Why would their jobs be in jeopardy if they do them correctly? Let’s take a look.
Customers will become your sales and marketing team
If you offer a remarkable service or product, your customers will become your sales and marketing team. Think of your service or product like the connective tissue of a tribe. We all like being part of tribes – something larger than ourselves that includes people who have similar interests. When we experience something remarkable we earn social currency by telling our colleagues, friends and family about it. It makes us feel good to share awesome experiences with those we care about.
Today I found myself talking about a membership medical practice I joined and about the positive impact it has had on my life in just three weeks. I went in depth about what Navitas Health and Wellness was doing to help me live the best life I can and shared my experience with two colleagues.
Do you think my personal testimonial is more powerful than any marketing this practice can do?
Absolutely.
Is it possible my colleagues will tell others about Navitas Health and Wellness based on my experience?
Absolutely.
If you build a remarkable product or service and you have a loyal tribe of repeat customers they will handle business development for you. Eventually sales and marketing may not be required.
Built-in market research
Market research is expensive and time consuming, unless you already have a data set and a way to communicate with that data set.
Your members/subscribers/customers = your data set for market research
Let’s say you want to roll out a new feature and you want to know if it is going to work before you build it. Why not survey your existing customers? Not only will they become more loyal for valuing their opinions, they become more engaged when you bring on their suggestions to market.
Ask what they want and deliver it (assuming it makes sense for your company).
You should fire your marketing team/company one day
I tell prospective customers that I hope they don’t need us one day.
Most of them look at me like I’m crazy.
I hope they fire us because we helped create a loyal and vibrant tribe of repeat customers. Customers who are addicted to their offering and who generate business for them without our help.
Talk about one an amazing case study.
And guess what? Those customers, the ones who fired us because we did our jobs correctly…they become our sales and marketing team.
Parting thoughts
What are you doing to turn your customers into your sales and marketing team? Can you reduce or eliminate your marketing investment once you have a great customer-base?