tripleclicks.com
Leon McKee, SFI Platinum Team Leader
This
is part 3 of how a $6 lead turned into millions of dollars in sales. Part 3
will address the math and additional marketing concepts that are critical for
your internet marketing business. The part 4 addendum will feature another
story that has significant meaning on a personal and business level.
If you did not have a chance to read part 1 then click here: $6 Lead Turns Into Millions of Dollars in Sales - Part 1
If you did not have a chance to read part 2 then click here: $6 Lead Turns Into Millions of Dollars in Sales - Part 2
Hint: The critical lessons interweaved in parts 1 through 3 are not all shown with acronyms and marketing jargon. A little, but not much!
How much is your average lead conversion worth? The voice on the other end of the phone seemed to be frustrated with my responses. I was also frustrated and feeling a little overwhelmed with all the insider acronyms and jargon being thrown my way by this mail-order marketing expert. I remember thinking “What is this marketing system he’s talking about”. I really did not have any good answers to any of his questions and my overall response was simply “I don’t know”. What I learned that day changed the way I looked at marketing!
Come to find out if you know the value of a conversion and what to do with that information you’ve got a secret weapon. I had no clue at the time, but it was time to figure out the math and start systemizing my entire marketing process. Let’s move forward in time to the ad in question…
The first thing I had to figure out was who do I want to see my ad? I had learned that not just anyone would respond to a business opportunity ad. What to do? I looked for advertising opportunities where the readers had already been proven to be seeking a business or income opportunity. Sort of like fishing where others are fishing because that’s clearly where the fish are! I did not try and reinvent the wheel as the saying goes!
The next step was to come up with an ad that would get the attention of my target market. I used the formula AIDA which stands for:
1. Attention
2. Interest
3. Desire
4. Action
Learning to write your own ad is not an easy task to say the least! Sometimes the process takes a day and sometimes it takes a week. However, with experience and measurable results the process starts to become a little more systematic. I remember thinking through what’s unique about the income opportunity I was advertising. If I could just get their attention and then spark their interest I could create desire and end with a call to action. That’s the AIDA formula and it’s time proven in the direct marketing and mail-order industry. Seems to work just as well in the Networking and Affiliate industries also!
I remember feeling a sense of relief when I had my first ad ready to test. Why? I was highly motivated to succeed because I knew my WHY. I’ll save my personal why for another story, but the point is my why was very important to me and I was highly motivated.
I placed my first ad and a few months later the leads started coming through the system. Hmmm! I was not happy with my results as the average lead cost was over $10. I made a few changes and placed my next series of ads. I repeated this process with what’s called A/B Split Testing to improve my cost-per-lead. After testing and testing I was able to get my cost-per-lead down to a consistent $6.
The cost of those leads was only part of the math as I also had follow-up costs. My average follow-up cost was right around $2. However, just to be transparent, some of those leads did require time on the telephone which was not cheap in those days.
So, my average cost to process a lead from ad placement all the way through the follow-up system was $8. What I had learned years earlier, from the mail-order marketing expert is that most marketers stop right here because no one has ever taught them the real secret.
The real secret is that if you know what a lead conversion is worth you know how much to spend to get that conversion. Converting a lead simply means they purchase your product/service or sign-up in your business opportunity. What I was able to determine was that my average sign-up cost was $45 which was not bad in those days. However, the secret sauce to the entire system was that I made that $45 back around three months from each sign-up. After those three months all the additional income was pure profit. Serious profit! WOW!
This was an exciting time! If I or one of my group members could invest $45 and make that back in three months then…
Rinse and Repeat
What we did next was scale up our advertising to as many publications as we could afford. What we knew was that based on prior results we would get our money back and then some! The real secret gets even better when you consider leverage!
The kind of leverage that made our system powerful and lucrative was:
1. Co-op Systems
2. Residual Income
The bottomline is that we outspent our competition because we knew our average return on investment. We then used co-oping to dramatically increase our exposure and lower everyones risk. This was a win-win for all involved!
Hopefully you can understand why the expert I mentioned in part 2 that thought my ad was ineffective was absolutely wrong? The expert had an opinion, but I had done the testing. Testing is critical to your marketing system! The numbers will tell you everything you need to know!
I think back to that fateful day I followed up with that $6 lead… I had learned, through results, that someone that provides the minimum information has the lowest conversion rate. However, I followed up because I knew what my average sign-up was worth! I had a system and I would simply rinse and repeat each and every day. The numbers don’t lie! That $6 lead turned into millions of dollars in sales!
I would like to leave you with a few thoughts…
Become a student of the marketing process, but don’t just study what to do! Take action and then rinse and repeat your way to success.
Think about how much a customer or sign-up is worth to you over different periods of time.
Our industry provides a lot of leverage when you grow your business deep. There’s a LOT of leverage in converting a lead and then working with that sign-up to build a large team. Focus on action takers!
Part 4 will be an addendum of sorts. I have another story… I would like to show that financial rewards are not the only tangible benefit this industry can provide you. The story I have to tell will be difficult as my connection is so strong. I hope to see you on the other side.
Thanks
If you did not have a chance to read part 1 then click here: $6 Lead Turns Into Millions of Dollars in Sales - Part 1
If you did not have a chance to read part 2 then click here: $6 Lead Turns Into Millions of Dollars in Sales - Part 2
Hint: The critical lessons interweaved in parts 1 through 3 are not all shown with acronyms and marketing jargon. A little, but not much!
How much is your average lead conversion worth? The voice on the other end of the phone seemed to be frustrated with my responses. I was also frustrated and feeling a little overwhelmed with all the insider acronyms and jargon being thrown my way by this mail-order marketing expert. I remember thinking “What is this marketing system he’s talking about”. I really did not have any good answers to any of his questions and my overall response was simply “I don’t know”. What I learned that day changed the way I looked at marketing!
Come to find out if you know the value of a conversion and what to do with that information you’ve got a secret weapon. I had no clue at the time, but it was time to figure out the math and start systemizing my entire marketing process. Let’s move forward in time to the ad in question…
The first thing I had to figure out was who do I want to see my ad? I had learned that not just anyone would respond to a business opportunity ad. What to do? I looked for advertising opportunities where the readers had already been proven to be seeking a business or income opportunity. Sort of like fishing where others are fishing because that’s clearly where the fish are! I did not try and reinvent the wheel as the saying goes!
The next step was to come up with an ad that would get the attention of my target market. I used the formula AIDA which stands for:
1. Attention
2. Interest
3. Desire
4. Action
Learning to write your own ad is not an easy task to say the least! Sometimes the process takes a day and sometimes it takes a week. However, with experience and measurable results the process starts to become a little more systematic. I remember thinking through what’s unique about the income opportunity I was advertising. If I could just get their attention and then spark their interest I could create desire and end with a call to action. That’s the AIDA formula and it’s time proven in the direct marketing and mail-order industry. Seems to work just as well in the Networking and Affiliate industries also!
I remember feeling a sense of relief when I had my first ad ready to test. Why? I was highly motivated to succeed because I knew my WHY. I’ll save my personal why for another story, but the point is my why was very important to me and I was highly motivated.
I placed my first ad and a few months later the leads started coming through the system. Hmmm! I was not happy with my results as the average lead cost was over $10. I made a few changes and placed my next series of ads. I repeated this process with what’s called A/B Split Testing to improve my cost-per-lead. After testing and testing I was able to get my cost-per-lead down to a consistent $6.
The cost of those leads was only part of the math as I also had follow-up costs. My average follow-up cost was right around $2. However, just to be transparent, some of those leads did require time on the telephone which was not cheap in those days.
So, my average cost to process a lead from ad placement all the way through the follow-up system was $8. What I had learned years earlier, from the mail-order marketing expert is that most marketers stop right here because no one has ever taught them the real secret.
The real secret is that if you know what a lead conversion is worth you know how much to spend to get that conversion. Converting a lead simply means they purchase your product/service or sign-up in your business opportunity. What I was able to determine was that my average sign-up cost was $45 which was not bad in those days. However, the secret sauce to the entire system was that I made that $45 back around three months from each sign-up. After those three months all the additional income was pure profit. Serious profit! WOW!
This was an exciting time! If I or one of my group members could invest $45 and make that back in three months then…
Rinse and Repeat
What we did next was scale up our advertising to as many publications as we could afford. What we knew was that based on prior results we would get our money back and then some! The real secret gets even better when you consider leverage!
The kind of leverage that made our system powerful and lucrative was:
1. Co-op Systems
2. Residual Income
The bottomline is that we outspent our competition because we knew our average return on investment. We then used co-oping to dramatically increase our exposure and lower everyones risk. This was a win-win for all involved!
Hopefully you can understand why the expert I mentioned in part 2 that thought my ad was ineffective was absolutely wrong? The expert had an opinion, but I had done the testing. Testing is critical to your marketing system! The numbers will tell you everything you need to know!
I think back to that fateful day I followed up with that $6 lead… I had learned, through results, that someone that provides the minimum information has the lowest conversion rate. However, I followed up because I knew what my average sign-up was worth! I had a system and I would simply rinse and repeat each and every day. The numbers don’t lie! That $6 lead turned into millions of dollars in sales!
I would like to leave you with a few thoughts…
Become a student of the marketing process, but don’t just study what to do! Take action and then rinse and repeat your way to success.
Think about how much a customer or sign-up is worth to you over different periods of time.
Our industry provides a lot of leverage when you grow your business deep. There’s a LOT of leverage in converting a lead and then working with that sign-up to build a large team. Focus on action takers!
Part 4 will be an addendum of sorts. I have another story… I would like to show that financial rewards are not the only tangible benefit this industry can provide you. The story I have to tell will be difficult as my connection is so strong. I hope to see you on the other side.
Thanks
Leon McKee
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