Before hiring a marketing agency, it’s good to understand which local business marketing services will have the best ROI. There are 5 pathways to sales depending on how quickly you need them and if your budget is higher or lower than 18K for the year.
What Local Business Marketing Services Bring In More Sales?
- Refresh website and copywrite top 3 service pages
- Copywrite service area pages
- Google Ads – Remarketing & Call Me
- Free Offer Sales Funnel
- Facebook Ads that lead to a Sales Page
Keep reading to figure out what part of the business life cycle you are in and which of the 3 pathways you should take.
What is the Business Life Cycle?
Google and you’ll find different names or phases of the cycle. I like this graph the best.
5 Phases Of The Business Life Cycle
- Phase One: Launch – you are launching new services, sales are slow, revenue is low, and startup costs feel very risky.
- Phase Two: Growth – you have a proven service, people love you, sales increase rapidly and you are dialing in your marketing to get better CPC and paying less to acquire customers.
- Phase Three: Shake-Out – sales still increase but at a slower rate due to increased competition in your neighborhood which makes your profit decrease.
- Phase Four: Maturity – sales begin to decrease, cash flow is stagnant, and profit margins are thin so you need to pivot or get fresh new service ideas.
- Phase Five: Decline – all 3 areas decline; sales, profit, and cash flow. This is where you make the decision to exit the market.
My heart goes out to everyone that experienced Phase 5 this past year. It is so sad to hear of friends from church struggling to stay open. Don’t become part of this stat!
“A report by Yelp found 163,735 businesses listed on Yelp that were open in April 2020 had closed by September. That averages out to more than 800 closures per day.”
What phase describes your business this year?
Now is the time to do your research and get some help.
At RebelFish Local, we know small businesses struggle to compete with corporate brands. We believe businesses with great reputations deserve to outsmart the big guys online so they can make a local impact and grow.
#1 Refresh Website and Copywrite Top 3 Service Pages
If you are in Phase 2 (Growth) or Phase 4 (Maturity) then you’ve most likely already done this. Move onto the other local business marketing services.
For everyone else, this is the best place to start.
The problem is you don’t have consistent new website visitors and when they come to your website they don’t take action. They don’t call you, book an appointment, or fill out your contact form frequently.
You can check all your stats through Google Analytics which should be connected to the back of your WordPress website. This what your marketing manager or marketing agency should be showing you monthly so you can make better marketing and sales decisions.
You may be thinking…but I need sales yesterday! You can do this at the same time you are doing Google Ads so you start getting leads this week.
Taking the time (6-weeks) and spending the money (10K) is worth it.
Our Website That Books Calls package is for most local businesses that want to book more qualified sales calls or get more foot traffic. You get a couple of messaging & copywriting review calls with Liz. Then we design and develop a website you love.
We have a Pandemic Discount when you buy all 3 services on that StoryBrand page and guarantee that you will 10X your investment within 6 months.
#2 Copywrite Service Area Pages
If you are in Phase 3 (Shake-Out) start here.
I talked about this in last week’s blog How To Do Multi-Location Local SEO For A New Location. Having service area pages works even if you only have 1 location.
Think about it. We live in San Diego.
To rank on page 1 of Google in a city of 1.4 million people is tough. But to rank for a smaller neighborhood or service area like Point Loma isn’t very competitive.
Service Area Pages work great for these 10 local businesses:
- Real estate agents
- Solar companies
- IT companies
- Kitchen remodelers
- Interior designers
- Pool installers
- Window washers
- House cleaners
- Speech therapists
- Personal trainers
What do all these local businesses have in common?
They all have 1 business location but they drive to see their clients in different areas of town to provide their services. Most on this list are home services. For the cities that keep having “shelter in place “orders sales for home services have increased.
People need and want to hire you!
They just don’t know you exist so get found on Google with service area pages.
#3 Google Ads – Remarketing & Call Me
Rarely do I recommend doing advertising unless you have a solid marketing message. However, with this pandemic, we’ve skipped taking the time to refresh your website and sales funnels because you need sales this week.
We’ve during the 90 days to do the website refresh package we’ve run Google Ads using the marketing message we created and clients loved the results of an increase in website traffic, sales, and people added to their email list.
Should I do Google Ads or Facebook Ads?
Think about it.
Why are people on Facebook? Most likely they are bored! They are scrolling to watch the news, see what their friends are up to, or they are going into groups to see if they can learn anything interesting.
They are bored and aren’t normally looking for anything specific to solve their problems.
That’s why you see ads for cheap projects on Facebook.
Something small that will stop you from being bored and watch their video ad.
However, people on Google are searching for a specific product or service to solve their problem.
A wife on Facebook will be posting beautiful photos of her family but on Google, she is searching for Divorce Attorney.
Google searches tell you what is really in your heart and what you care about.
You go to Google to get answers and find a solution to your problem. You want to get educated so you can make the best decision.
Most local businesses should advertising on Google verse any other platform.
Should I do Remarketing or Call Me Ads?
Do both if you are in Phase 3 (Shake-Out) but if you need a lower budget pick Call Me Ads. Most local businesses need people to call so that you can book a free consult or schedule an appointment. These ads work great to get people to take action.
Call Me Ads are affordable.
It’s a good idea to once in a while Google your business name and city.
I was talking to an IT company the other day. They shared that their main competitor was running Google Ads to their business name! They were so frustrated. So if you notice a decrease in calls or traffic to your website it most likely is due to your competitors getting the attention.
#4 Free Offer Sales Funnel
The next 2 local business marketing services are advanced. They are for someone in Phase 2 (Growth) or Phase 4 (Maturity).
I call this our Grow Email List package.
We create a lead-generating PDF that collects emails and a 7 email campaign that gets them to like and trust you. These emails have CTAs with sales in mind. We do the web design and development then connect your CRM with the right tags and automations.
Having a free offer sales funnel will help you do cold outreach better. You can talk about your free offer on your blogs, when you on Zoom networking events, or for your customers that just aren’t quiet ready to upgrade to a bigger package with you.
After you refresh your website and have all the right pages copywritten, this is ALWAYS what. I recommend next. Imagine on a daily basis having people opt-in to your free offer then automatically taking them through your sales funnel. You keep giving them the emails they need to read to overcome their objections so that when you get on a call with them, they are ready to buy.
I get so excited about when sales funnels work!
It is challenging but I have competition in my top 5 Gallup strengths so I love a good challenge to increase sales for a local business that is struggling.
#5 Facebook Ads That Lead To A Sales Page
I rarely recommend doing this unless are doing all the local business marketing services above. This is for someone in Phase 2 (Growth).
I call this out Get More Sales package.
We create a sales page, email sales letter, and sales scripts that get results. Every local business needs to sell a package that can be bought from your website. Then drive traffic with paid ads and watch your sales increase.
I’m the proudest of an email sales letter I wrote that generated 40K for a church doing a matching donation.
I taught the client the framework I use to write sales letters and they’ve continued to use it.
I’m a teacher so anytime I work with a client if they are coachable and teachable I’ll spend extra time teaching you frameworks or film loom videos about how to do a techie thing.
Ok, let’s get back to Facebook Ads!
When it comes to Facebook Ads personally I only do Video View ads to a Facebook Live or video I posted. I’m the proudest of only spending $10 on one of these ads. In less than 7 days, this campaign led to a dental practice purchasing a 4K package. They didn’t know us and weren’t a referral. It was a COLD Facebook Ad to a sales page.
Most service-based businesses don’t have a $47 or a $299 offer. But if you do and the offer helps to build trust so they buy your bigger packages then go for it.
There are so many factors that go into making this strategy work.
Ask these questions:
- What’s the conversion rate of your sales page?
- Are you split-testing your sales page?
- What’s the conversion rate of your ads?
- Are you split-testing your ads?
- Do you have a pop-up offer if they try to leave your page but didn’t buy?
- Do you have a retargeting campaign for abandoned cart and people who visited the page?
- Do you have upsells for people who buy this $300 or less offer?
Before you try this strategy I think it’s good to get Facebook Ads to convert for your Free Offer. Since it’s so much harder to get someone to buy something than to opt-in for something free.
If you can’t figure out your free offer funnel and people don’t opt-in then most likely you won’t be able to figure out this strategy on your own.
Don’t waste your money or time trying to figure this out yourself.
I’ve been doing Facebook Ads off and on for 10 years for 2 different businesses of mine… the weight loss industry and marketing services. I’d love for you to prove me wrong. I’ve just seen and heard so many people say they’ve wasted time and money on Facebook Ads.
Take Action
We do all these 5 local business marketing services. Schedule a call and we will help you figure out which one is best to do next.
