written by
Bradley Waldrop

Viral Marketing Expert Fixes 4 Local Lead Generation Mistakes (2018)

Local Business Digital Marketing Viral Marketing 9 min read
viral marketing expert fixes local lead generation mistakes

You've heard that the key to victory in a local business is a location, location, location. Well, as a local viral marketing expert, I'm telling you that's a bunch of B.S.! So in this hard-hitting article, I'm going to show you what to do to take control of your future and drive foot traffic to your door at the push of a button!

In fact, over the last 30-years I've been helping local businesses, I've noticed a pattern of mistakes that are crushing the spirits of shop owners just like you. That's why I thought I'd give you the secrets to:

Creating a digital campaign to grow your list of potential customers and give you the power to drive traffic to your shop or service center at the push of a button.

Knowing the value of your marketing and quickly calculating the return on investment. This simple technique gives you the insight to stop paying for stuff that doesn't work.

Tapping into your best and cheapest advertising asset to boost your ROI. If you know how to do this, you can cut your advertising spend in half this weekend.

Going viral in your advertising campaign. Viral lead generation isn't some fly-by-night flash in the pan concept. It's the same concept that's given Apple the leading market capitalization in the world (over $1 Trillion).

Why This Article Now From This Viral Marketing Expert?

Well, I saw something that broke my heart yesterday. The City of Roseville had shut down a local roadway in the middle of the day to do some resurfacing. Unfortunately, the professional center that was surrounded by the road work is one of the worst locations in town, and this added burden puts their September profits at risk. That breaks my heart!

viral marketing expert reveals why you need a local lead generation strategy
This is the actual situation that created this article. My heart hurts for those local businesses that aren't able to serve their customers because the City of Roseville is doing road work.

So, I thought to myself...

If I had one of those businesses, what would I need to be confident that this bump in the road wouldn't jeopardize my entire 2018?

My answer is simple.

I'd want the power to push a button and have people show up at my shop in a moment's notice. I'd want the confidence to know that as soon as the City finishes the road work, I could drive a flood of traffic to my door and make up for the traffic City kept from me as they were fixing the streets.

If you're like me and want the control and confidence to know you can drive traffic to your door at a fraction of the cost of Every Door Direct or print advertising, then let's get cracking!

Viral Marketing Expert Secret To Creating a Digital Campaign to Grow Your List of Potential Customers Which Gives You the Power to Drive Traffic to Your Shop or Service Center at the Push of a Button

Before you read this section, you have to understand where I'm coming from for just a second.

I hate spending money on branding campaigns. I think it's a waste of time and a waste of precious treasure for every local business. Look! You and I both know that the profit you see in your business is thin and every dollar needs to speak for itself, so I focus on lead generation, direct response, and offer-based campaigns ** PERIOD **.

The fastest way I've found to build a list is a referral campaign. In some circles, this is called a "viral campaign." It's called that because the referrals that you get are free advertising and you get more eyes on your campaigns than in traditional one for one marketing.

In this short video, I walk you through the difference between traditional marketing and viral marketing so that you can get a better understanding. After you watch the video, I'm going to give you the key to a great viral campaign so that you can build a massive local lead list.

Shows You How to Build Your Business Faster!

The One Thing You Can Do To Make Your Digital Campaign A Winner!

As promised, there is one thing that you can do to make your digital campaign a real winner. You can create an offer that your ideal customer can't refuse.

That seems so simple.

Well, let me break that down into two critical parts to make it easier to understand.

Part One: Your Ideal Customer.

If you're going to put together a viral campaign, you're going to want to identify an offer that you're target customer will find irresistible. Why? Well, you'd like to repel those that aren't in your sweet spot, and you'd want your campaign to generate highly targeted leads. So, the critical piece here is to describe your ideal customer. Based on what you know about them, how do you separate them from the crowd? That's the offer you want to put out into the ether to build your local lead list.

Part Two: An Offer They Can't Refuse.

Let's face it. Poor marketing campaigns are mostly losers because of the offer. It's not the picture, the headline, the sales copy or anything else that's contributing to the dud status. It's the offer!

I like to describe this as an offer that your ideal customer is willing to crawl through broken glass to get. The best part about viral referral campaigns is that you can run them as a sweepstake. So, only one entrant receives the grand prize. So you're not out the cash of the great offer to everyone. It's the bait you'll use to lure in your best customers.

Free Killer Offer Local Lead Generation Resource Guide
Grab the local lead generation resource guide that will give you a head start on your campaign!

As Your Viral Marketing Expert, I've Gotta Tell You That You'll Want to Know the value of your marketing and easily calculate the return on investment.

This simple technique gives you the insight to stop paying for stuff that doesn't work.

Do you know your average customer value? Do you know how much it costs to obtain a customer? Do you know how much they usually spend on their first transaction?

If you don't, then you're throwing money down the drain!

If you're working with a local marketing agency that believes you should be looking at likes, comments, shares, and other vanity metrics, it's time to leave them for an agency that cares about the money you're spending.

In fact, we just finished up a viral campaign where we were delivering leads at less than $0.50 each - all in. That means our fee and the advertising spend were all included. That's a massive improvement over our client's traditional campaigns. Before he met us, he was spending at least $1.50/lead plus the cost of his Facebook Ads guy.

That's why it's important to know your numbers!

Here's a quick screenshot of the metrics we track with our campaigns. There are lots of options out there to get these set up. Everything from Google Analytics to super-sophisticated platforms like ConversionFly (what we use).

viral marketing expert tools - ConversionFly
This is the super-powerful tool that we use. But, you can do a lot of this on paper if you don't want to commit to the monthly cost. Better yet, hire us to do it for you!

The short story... if you don't know your numbers, you'll never know when to throw more money into the campaign or when to stop it and regroup.

How To Tap Into Your Best and Cheapest Advertising Asset.

If you know how to do this, you can cut your advertising spend in half this weekend.

When we take on new clients, we're continually surprised at how few of them have viewed their existing customers as an essential component to their marketing. We're also surprised how much money they're leaving on the table when they start a new campaign.

In a viral campaign, word of mouth advertising is the name of the game! There's nobody better at doing that for you as an ambassador as your existing customers. That's why it's important to start your campaign by seeding the traffic with your current list.

When you do this, you send an email, letter, post-card, social media post, and video on YouTube. (okay, okay... I understand you may not have all those channels, but you get the picture).

When you goose your campaign in the beginning, you get a great response because your existing customers understand you and trust you with their friends and family. Starting with your current list gives you and your sweepstakes immediate credibility. Credibility will help push your campaign into the viral realm!

So, the next time you get ready to launch your digital viral campaign, stack the deck in your favor and send it out to your list first!

VIRAL MARKETING EXPERT TIP: Tell your list that they're getting this first so that they have an advantage to get in early and earn more extra points than the new names coming into the list. It'll give them a reason to send it out early and often!

Going Viral in Your Advertising Campaigns

So, what does it really mean to "go viral"? Well, there are a number of viral marketing experts that have different metrics. And, for the sake of this quick article, I'm going to say that success is defined as...

Going Viral Definition: You receive more leads from your referrals than you do from the direct spend you're making in your campaign.

Going viral means that if you're collecting 100 leads per day from your Facebook, Google or another platform Pay-Per-Click campaign and you've collected 101 leads that same day from all those people sharing your campaign, then you've gone viral!

We track every campaign and report back to you every week so that we can ruthlessly monitor the progress and continuously make improvements to give you the best ROI possible with every campaign.

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