Name: Back9 Digital
Price range: $$
Rating: 5

Do I really need a website if I have enough clients?

Posted on February 18, 2021July 4, 2024 by Allison Robinson

Many people think that if they are already busy, having a website won’t be much help. So do you really need a website if you have enough clients?

The short answer is yes, even if your business is happily ticking along, you are busy enough with word of mouth, and things are just plain fine and dandy. Your website is not always for your business but it’s for your customers too. With 70% of the buying decision now being made before a client has already contacted you, and 74% of people say website design affects their trust in a website, people want to be able to research and have their questions answered – and trust your answers are unbiased and accurate.

Take buying a new fridge for example. You can do a Google search from the comfort of your home and find out everything you want to know. You don’t have to go to a shop and be wondering will fit in your space or traipse the town finding parks while contending with bored kids, sideways wind, and salespeople eager to get you to buy something now.

Online, you can browse through all the main retailers to compare prices, specs, and measurements. If all the information you need is online, you just have to pop in and tell the store what you want!

Customers do research ahead of time

Potential customers want to research, research, research. Take a more complex and expensive purchase like renovating your home or building a new house. All those expensive things you just do not want to get wrong. The more expensive something is, the more research you’ll want to do first. You want to be absolutely sure that you have the right product and that you’re getting it from the right company. So if you’re a business owner, how can you make yourself out to be that company?

If you are good at what you do, don’t you owe it to your potential customers to inspire them with work you have completed and make sure they are getting the best people for the job? As someone who prides themselves on doing the right thing does it not grind your gears when you hear horror stories of shortcuts and shoddy workmanship when you know if they had just come to you they could have avoided all that?

This is where your work, your testimonials and reviews come into play. You need a place to house them and a website is perfect for this. Word of mouth is fine for people that are in your circle but there could be good clients out there that simply have not come across you yet.

Weed out bad fits and streamline the contact process

One possibility of having a website that may sound counterintuitive is that some companies end up with fewer people contacting them for a bit. Why would that be? It’s because if you have enough information on your website, customers can decide from there if you’re a good fit. You’ll be less likely to get tyre kickers and more likely to get people who are already interested in what you offer. This can also save you time. You’re less likely to have to put down your tools and stop what you’re doing to answer a call that leads to nothing or to answer a quick question. Instead, if this information is online, you can focus on what you do best– plain old fashioned hard work!

A website can prove you’re the expert

Customers want to know all their options to make the best decision for them. Remember, they don’t hold all the knowledge that you do as an expert in your field. I recently had a friend build a house and when asked about what sort of windows they wanted they just didn’t know what they didn’t know and felt like a deer in headlights. What are the options, what are the colours, styles are there extra things I can add? They didn’t know. If the customers don’t know this information ahead of time, that means more time for the worker to explain the options–or worse, don’t do it at all!

Simplify your processes

Helping your clients understand what you do and what you offer can save you time when it comes to quoting as well. With you providing everything they need to know on a simple, well-designed website, research is enjoyable and gives them time to figure out what they do and don’t like. A website can take away some friction for you quoting as well you can have an informed two-way conversion with the client as to why that may or may not work. You have educated them before bombarding them with industry jargon and on-the-spot decision making.

If there is one thing you don’t want is a house full of windows that just aren’t quite right and Joe down the road has all the bells and whistles that you didn’t even know existed. You owe it to consumers to share what you do and how well you can do it. Sometimes people want to be inspired by work they see online and how they can go about creating this for themselves and sometimes they just want to make sure that your services fit what they are looking for so they are not wasting your time.

Think about last time that you bought something with a difficult buying process that left you feeling in the dark. A website can help make sure you aren’t doing that to your potential customers!

Want to find out more about websites? Click a button below!

How can automation save you time and money?

Posted on February 11, 2021January 6, 2023 by Phil

When it comes to running a business, there can be a lot of admin that goes along with it. So you may have asked “how much time should I spend on Admin for my business?” It’s a fair question. They say the best way to get something done right is to do it yourself. Really, the best way to get something done is to do it once, then have it automatically repeated the right way. And that’s exactly how automation saves you time–and money.

You may have heard that robots are out to steal your job. And that is a complicated topic with a lot of nuances. However, you might be interested to know that robots–or rather, automated processes–can steal the jobs you don’t want from you right now, opening you up to do more of the things that matter or that you care about doing. By automating repetitive busywork, automation saves you time, and it could be much more than you think!

How does automation work?

Automation isn’t magic. But it might look like it once it starts working! There is complicated automation using API integration, and there’s automation using logic and pre-existing software.

The basic premise behind the latter is that you set up a task once, then set rules for when it’s done. Once you get the hang of automating things, it will take a little bit of setup to get it working right, but then you’ll never have to do it again. There are a lot of different automation softwares out there. Zapier, ManyChat, and HubSpot for instance can all automate different things. While they all have different specifics, automation requires a few basic skills:

Understanding Fields and Variables

Variables are the basis of automation. In order for automation to work, variables have to be defined and then they can be used. If that sounds complicated, fortunately, most of the software does this part for you. For instance, any CRM like HubSpot will have you put in a contact’s first name, email address, and phone number. Each of those items are called fields and are used in your automation.

Here’s a quick real-world example that we use:

Our business is sent dozens of invoices from clients each month. These Invoices all have the same fields, even if they’re a different spot. They’ll have an invoice number, company name, due date, and so on. And we want to keep a record of these in our own accounting system.

With automation, all of those fields can be recognized, and then put in a format that the software can understand. So instead of having to find the invoice number, their name, the due date, and all of that, that information will be picked up instantly and typed in for us. Since we were just going to take the information and type it in manually anyway, having that task be automated saves us a lot of time!

Logic Pathways

The next level of automation is understanding logic pathways. If you can do this, then you can automate a lot more tasks! A logic pathway simply means that one action will happen if a user does one thing, and something else will happen if they don’t. And then you can have a further level beyond that to be as complicated as you can wrap your head around. So how can logic pathways help you?

Here’s a quick real-world example that we use:

We wanted to guide people who showed interest in learning about Content Creation to more resources. But we didn’t want to send everyone the same thing–we wanted to send them items that would be valuable for them. To do that, we used logic pathways.

First, we would send out our eBook, What is Content and why do I need it? If they didn’t open the email, we’d send a reminder in a few days with a link to the download. Then if they downloaded it, we could send them an article about how to make effective Facebook posts. If they never downloaded it, we wouldn’t bother them again–they may be too busy or were just curious.

If someone opened the email and downloaded the eBook right away, we’d send that same Facebook article. But if they also clicked a link that they were interested in talking with us, then a task would be made for us to follow up with them in a few days.

This entire process is automated. So instead of checking manually and calling someone who might not want to be bothered, everything is done automatically. And relevant tasks for follow-ups are only made when they’re needed!

Testing and retesting!

Automation is a fantastic helper–when it works properly. When it doesn’t–and you think it is–it can hurt more than help. That’s why testing is super important. This is especially crucial with more complex automation. We’ve been doing automation for awhile, so some of the tasks can be quite complex. Take a look at this one we’ve done for Facebook Messenger:

There were a lot of branching pathways to deal with, and if one of those in the middle didn’t work, no one would ever get to the end goal! So each of those pathways were checked, then double-checked to make sure they worked properly. Some errors were caught and fixed, then they were double-checked again.

That’s why it’s important to thoroughly test any automated tasks before relying on them. Sure, it takes time, but the time and headaches saved is worth it. Even with all of the testing, automation saves you time–especially when it’s something that you would normally do dozens or even hundreds of times a month!

Automation seems complex, how do I start?

You don’t need to start by building a multi-level pathway with dozens of steps. Start with something simple, then move on to more complex tasks.

For instance, say you want to make sure you get back to everyone who fills out a contact form on your website. You probably already get an email that you have a new submission. But you can also make it so that you get a calendar alert, a text, or a pop-up notification an hour after the submission. Then once you get the hang of it, you can move on to more complex tasks. Eventually, you’ll open up a lot of free time for other things–like things that make money!

Of course, not all tasks can or should be automated.

What tasks shouldn’t be automated?

While many repetitive tasks can be automated, there are some that still need a personal touch. Reaching out to customers is one of them. This isn’t to say that you don’t do marketing emails; far from it. But automation can go too far. Consider a scenario when you haven’t reached out to a client in 3 months and wanted to check-in with a phone call.

Automated check-in — Robocall

Hello… Barry. Our records indicate that we haven’t spoken in…. 3 months. How is everything with… Frydays Chip Shop? Please call us if there’s anything to do to help. Thank you.

Personalised check-in — Personal phone call

Hi Barry, I stopped by for some of your amazing chips this week and got to thinking, we’ve got that big race coming up next month and people from all over will be wanting some chips. I thought if we did a special campaign on Facebook we could let these people from out-of-town know that you’re the best around. I thought of a fun campaign, “Make any day a Fryday”? What do you think?

Good tasks to start automating

One of the best places to start with trying out automation is with emails. Most email clients like Gmail and Outlook have rules that can automate what to do with certain emails. For instance, if an email gets through your spam filter for “US Concealed Carry Permit” and you don’t live in the States, you can make a rule to always spam emails from that user. But some spammers are also tricky and use dozens of emails. So the next level would be to automatically Spam emails with “US Concealed Carry Permit” in the subject. You can find out more about specifics for Outlook or Gmail. From there, look into anything that is repetitive and start automating away!

Automation saves you time, money, and resources. Find out more about how we can help you with automation on our marketing automation page or get in touch today.

Are you too busy to market your business? [VIDEO]

Posted on February 1, 2021November 20, 2023 by Phil

Being a person who runs a business to business business (that’s a mouthful, no wonder it’s B2B!) I talk to a lot of business owners. And they are all busy! But a lot of them are fielding the same enquiries over and over. That means they’re spending way too much unnecessary time answering the same queries. Which in turn means they could be doing more meaningful productive work.

So how do we do this?

Business owner mindsets

There are predominantly two types of people I’ve talked to this year so far.

The ones who are ready to take their business to the next level and smash some goals and;
The ones who are already there. Well, actually they are split into two categories.
1. One lot are extremely busy and don’t want to grow. Many are struggling to find people to employ, but are still pushing forward and doing what they can with the resources they have. And are still doing enough to market themselves. These proactive people are looking at ways they can actually market to potential employees – how can they attract people to our region and help service the need they are experiencing within their industry. – They understand that when building a brand their target audience and target market is not just the prospect or potential customer – but the also people they want to attract to their business – not just clients or customers are loyal to brands!
2. The second part of the people already crushing it are the ones who think they are too busy to market because they can’t actually take on any more work. This is admirable, These people are already delivering a great product or service, and the last thing they want is to let a customer down or over-commit and under-deliver. I respect that and I feel the same way.

It is important you don’t Turn off the marketing Engine in times of Uncertainty either. It takes a long time to build a successful marketing strategy and it needs to be constantly be driving in the background.

Sales versus Marketing

We need to stop seeing advertising and sales, which is about getting more work through the door, as the most important part of the business. Marketing, which is about bringing a brand’s story to life and educating customers about their options, is just as important if not more important these days.

What if there was a way to do marketing that could actually reduce your admin and sales part of the process and save you a bunch of time? What if the frequently asked questions could be addressed before a client even contacts you? And what if your customer actually came to you with an in-depth understanding of what you offer? In this day and age, this is no longer a what-if… It’s happening right now.

What does successful modern marketing look like?

Most people make 70-80% of the buying decision before they contact a company. The most successful businesses around the globe get this. This is marketing.

Marketing is NOT about selling more things to more people at higher prices. Marketing is about providing answers to the questions your prospects or customers have. It’s about answering them honestly without bias and allowing your audience to gain trust in your brand. Marketing is not about you and your business; it is 100% about your customer. It is about educating them about your industry and it is about answering their questions and queries before they even contact you.

If you believe in putting people first then you should never be too busy to educate and help your potential customers understand your industry or what you do or can offer.

How do you educate your customers?

Educating your customers is one of the best ways to know if you’re the right fit. But how do you do that?

First of all, this is about culture. We need to adapt to the evolution of our customers. Some businesses are afraid to answer certain questions because the customer might decide they can do your job on their own. And some might decide that. But, anything they need or want to know is probably available to them online. So the question is do you want to be the one to answer them – or do you want your competitor to be? If you answer them, then you’re seen as the authority, and someone that can be trusted. And if it’s “industry secret” knowledge you’re giving out, all the better–it shows you really have their best interest at heart. Then it’s up to you to explain why it’s better to choose you then someone else or a DIY approach.

Customer behaviour has changed

Secondly, we need to believe, accept and understand that customer behaviour has changed. They now want and expect the information they require to be available.

If we can accept and acknowledge that this is the case (customer behaviour has changed) then we need to then adopt an Inbound Marketing approach. Gone are the days where trying to “get our name out there” to all and sundry. In marketing, we need to be more targeted and be developing content that will attract the ideal customer to us.

Find out what content is by downloading our Ebook “What is content?”

By creating content that directly addresses the questions your customers have, you will find in time (depending on how quickly, efficiently and most importantly genuinely you can create the content) that you will have more and more people contacting you that are far more likely to be ready to buy that in the past. This is because they are more educated – they understand their options and they in most cases have already decided they want to work with you. This is because they are already in the decision stage of the Buyer’s Journey.

Educating customers means that the leads that do end up contacting you or more likely to do business with you. That means less time wasted on quotes that come to nothing. And conversations where you find out you aren’t good fits for one another.

Inbound Marketing Recap

At the end of the day it is up to you what you choose to believe, but if you truly want to do best by your customer or prospect, then embracing an Inbound Marketing philosophy will undoubtedly help you and your business grow in the long term. Marketing is a marathon, not a sprint.

Advertising (an element of sales) has generally always been a method to manipulate buyers, whether it be by using discounts or scarcity tactics. Inbound Marketing doesn’t use tactics or manipulation – it is about being 100% customer-centric and solving for that customer. I believe the true measure of success in business these days – and in particular, in the digital or online space – can only be measured in two aspects: Authority (do you know what you’re talking about) and whether online or in real life, the one true currency that actually matters – Trust (Do I believe you what you are saying is genuine and true?) By combining trust and authority, you’ll be seen as an expert on the topic, and get more qualified leads who are already invested in how you can help them.

Keen to find out more about lead generation?

Take a look, it’s in our book, The Beginner’s Guide to Generating Inbound Leads. Download it now!

The Beginner's Guide to Generating Inbound Leads - Cover

Today’s Marketing is Tomorrow’s Sales

Posted on March 20, 2020May 19, 2021 by Phil

*UPDATE May 2021. Fortunately, New Zealand faired pretty well during COVID-19. Although we got out of lockdown, many of these tips still apply; today’s marketing is still tomorrow’s sales!

With Covid-19 / Coronavirus affecting the world, should you still be spending money on Marketing?

We’re certainly in a strange time right now – historically, downturns like this traditionally spell trouble for Marketing Agencies like us. Businesses get cold feet and see Marketing and Technology as a cost they can cut, rather than an opportunity to capitalise on. But cutting your marketing spend could mean you cost you a lot more than the brief savings you get back. Don’t forget that today’s marketing is tomorrow’s sales!

How does a business get through hard times?

To survive these rough times a business needs 3 things:

A plan to mitigate the impact on their business
Identify any hidden opportunities and capitalise on them ASAP
Plan and prepare now to launch ahead of the competition when the eventual upturn occurs.

What are some of these hidden opportunities right now?

So what are these hidden opportunities that you can capitalise on right now? Below are 9 points to help reframe the strategy and identify the hidden opportunities with your clients:

Right now, a lot of people are cautious about going out and travelling. But that doesn’t mean people will stop buying things, or looking for things to buy once they go out and about again. Buyers are now spending more time than ever online, doing research, reading content, checking LinkedIn, etc. Right now, it’s imperative to be present online. If you aren’t where your customers are, you will fall behind.
Getting new customers might slow down for many businesses, but remember that today’s marketing is tomorrow’s sales. By neglecting your marketing now, you could seriously prolong the effects of the current situation.
Online marketing doesn’t just mean ad spend. Advertising is just one part of digital marketing. In fact these days, organic trust and Authority is key. With businesses being more risk-averse and less likely to buy, investing money in ads could see a pretty significant immediate outlay for not much return. This is the time for more sustainable long-term approaches to lead generation, such as focusing on inbound marketing that can bring customers to you.
Brand will win in the long run. You need to create great content that is helpful and educational that builds trust with your audience. People will only buy from companies they know and trust – make sure your marketing takes that into account, and that your business is seen as one of these trusted brands.
We could be looking at a recession where budgets get cut. That means it’s more important than ever to make sure you’re cutting the ad budgets that aren’t yielding any return and optimising or doubling down on the ones that are working. Now is the time to start making smarter money decisions with your ad budget.
Event marketing is all but over for the next quarter; perhaps the year. Just look at all the major events globally that have been cancelled! Relying on your booth at those trade shows you had planned to get leads for the year is unrealistic. Even if some events do go ahead, decision-makers probably won’t be the ones who show up. While you could save that money for events later on, now is a great time to reallocate that spend into digital channels so you can meet your customers where they’re going to be–online!
Related to events being canceled, have you been considering looking into things like social media marketing or Google Ads? Now is the perfect opportunity to “try-out” digital marketing strategies that have been put on the back-burner for ages.
Aim to gain visibility now. Use the added visibility from people spending more time online to turn marketing into a revenue centre. Now is the time to stop campaigns that simply don’t provide a return and double down on the campaigns that do. Ad spend is about to get super competitive with big brand out-bidding smaller businesses, so unless you have an unlimited budget you need to know where the ROI is coming from!
Businesses are often scared to invest because they don’t know how the market will perform. Should they be tactical or strategic? Well, the blessing in disguise here is we know exactly how it will perform for the next two months – Poorly. With the market heading the way it is for the next while, what can you do to stand out and show that you have something more to offer? Now’s the chance to invest in those opportunities and be prepared for when things go back to normal.

Keep your online presence going strong

Right now, we don’t know how long things will be the way they are. A lot of things might change in the future. But one thing that will likely grow even stronger is the importance of the internet. Start building your online presence now if you haven’t started yet. Make sure that people can out about you, what you offer, and how you can help them. If you’re already online, make sure to keep your content current and updated. Let people know that you’re out there and ready to do business and have what they’re looking for. Continue to reach out to customers and keep up with your marketing. Marketing is an investment, but one that will pay off in the long run if done right. Feel free to get in touch with us to see how your business can improve its marketing.

Are you accidentally harming businesses you love through online ratings?

Posted on November 12, 2019December 27, 2022 by Allison Robinson

Online ratings and customer reviews are one of the most important metrics to help first-time visitors decide to visit a company. Most review sites such as Google Reviews, Yelp, and Trip Advisor use a five-star rating system where 1 is the worst and 5 is the best. Something we’ve noticed, especially for local businesses, is that some satisfied customers are leaving low review scores, yet their review is nothing but praise. Some people have even admitted to never giving 5 star reviews. If you’re one of them, we hope this article will help change your mind.

A 3 star review is NOT a good review score. It means you were unhappy and that the business didn’t deliver on its promises and expectations. Even if you personally think 3 stars means a job well done, the majority of people see the scale a different way. Satisfied customers giving poor star ratings is frequent enough that we think that some people are misunderstanding what the star rating on some of these sites mean.

Happy customers giving those 3-star ratings could accidentally be harming a business they love. A couple of these for the same business could lower the online rating enough for people to not bother clicking in and reading more, all because satisfied or even regular customers rated it poorly. Are you one of them?

Continue reading “Are you accidentally harming businesses you love through online ratings?”

9 Ways to Become a Professional Networking Professional

Posted on July 29, 2019July 19, 2021 by Allison Robinson

Networking. It’s something the experts just won’t shut up about. How do you get that dream job? Networking. With proper networking, you can get the job before it’s advertised! What comes up when you type in “best way to get new customers” into Google? Networking. Even articles about “creative ways” to get customers will mention showing off your existing customers or using your existing network. How do you have an existing network? Networking!

Continue reading “9 Ways to Become a Professional Networking Professional”

Category: Inbound Marketing