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When a farmer sows a seed

by Oziboomer
15 replies
When you place an advertisement or start an advertising campaign how long are you prepared to cultivate?

Here's the thing. . .

When we can all target buyers in our market.

When we know where they've been and where they've shopped and what they are looking for but everyone is targeting these people who are ready to buy.

What do you do to target people who are not ready to buy yet but may do in the future?

How do you keep in contact with future customers when they may not even be prospects yet?

What nurturing strategies can offline businesses use today to make them the business of choice when the time to purchase arrives?

Best regards,

Ozi
#farmer #seed #sows #strategies
  • Profile picture of the author Ron Lafuddy
    Originally Posted by Oziboomer View Post

    When you place an advertisement or start an advertising campaign how long are you prepared to cultivate?

    Here's the thing. . .

    When we can all target buyers in our market.

    When we know where they've been and where they've shopped and what they are looking for but everyone is targeting these people who are ready to buy.

    What do you do to target people who are not ready to buy yet but may do in the future?

    How do you keep in contact with future customers when they may not even be prospects yet?

    What nurturing strategies can offline businesses use today to make them the business of choice when the time to purchase arrives?

    Best regards,

    Ozi
    In your experience, how many businesses have you come across taking this kind of long term approach?

    I understand why they should do it. I just don't see it happening anywhere.

    Ron
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    • Profile picture of the author Oziboomer
      Originally Posted by Ron Lafuddy View Post

      In your experience, how many businesses have you come across taking this kind of long term approach?

      I understand why they should do it. I just don't see it happening anywhere.

      Ron
      We do in our business with content that is out there for people who are not yet ready to buy.

      I see it in the long term attendees of Chamber of Commerces and Rotary members etc - maybe not intentionally but they are out there making their presence known.

      DigitalMarketer is advertising to each stage of it's funnels and nurturing via pixeled offers even before they've got the opt-in

      Going to cold traffic is one of their strong strategies and inside some of their certified training courses they go quite in depth as to the structures they use to nurture and build the constant flow of new business.

      They show some statistics to support a lower cost for advertising when they are sending people to pure content from paid advertising knowing they are going to segment them by interest and then approach them in the future with more targeted material.

      Best regards,

      Ozi
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  • Profile picture of the author Peter Lessard
    This is gonna be fun ;-)

    Farmer sows a seed...
    Toils in the sun all day...
    Prays for rain.
    Works from sunrise to sunset 7 days per week.
    Some years his crop is fully destroyed by random acts of nature.
    His wife leaves him for his best friend that is a dentist
    His kids hate the family business and are only interested in growing pot they smoke behind the barn.
    His dog (the only friend he has left) dies because he cannot afford the operation to heal him .
    His horse trips over the new grave where the dog was buried and goes lame.
    The farmer would shoot himself but he cannot afford a bullet.

    The occasional year that he has a great crop I hop the fence and load up my buggy and make off with the spoils...

    This is exactly what I do online for most of my offline clients. I hit with ads at the exact moment that buyers have made the decision to buy AFTER everyone else has nurtured them.
    I feel bad not sending thank you letters to them for taking the time to educate my buyers ;-)

    On a serious note I get what your saying but I just had way too much fun writing all that.
    I do believe in a basic re-marketing campaigns for offline real type businesses.

    To your main point
    I agree that "everyone is targeting these people who are ready to buy"
    but
    where we part ways is that "everyone" is doing such a piss poor job it's still easy to get the sale.

    If you are unable to get the sale when someone wants to make the purchase it is a sign that your marketing needs help. The answer to poor marketing is not to then throw yourself into cultivating future leads so that your poor marketing can loose them after an even longer process.

    Now before anyone jumps on me for being so black and white about this
    I do of course realize there are grey areas here and some businesses (but very few) businesses need to be in the longer nurture business. Having said that I still have NEVER run into a business that plays the long game that does not get constantly ripped off just before the finish line if they have a smart competitor. I spend my days crafting messages and campaigns to steal away these nurtured clients from others and its like shooting fish in a barrel.
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    • Profile picture of the author eccj
      Originally Posted by Peter Lessard View Post

      This is gonna be fun ;-)

      Farmer sows a seed...
      Toils in the sun all day...
      Prays for rain.
      Works from sunrise to sunset 7 days per week.
      Some years his crop is fully destroyed by random acts of nature.
      His wife leaves him for his best friend that is a dentist
      His kids hate the family business and are only interested in growing pot they smoke behind the barn.
      His dog (the only friend he has left) dies because he cannot afford the operation to heal him .
      His horse trips over the new grave where the dog was buried and goes lame.
      The farmer would shoot himself but he cannot afford a bullet.

      The occasional year that he has a great crop I hop the fence and load up my buggy and make off with the spoils...

      This is exactly what I do online for most of my offline clients. I hit with ads at the exact moment that buyers have made the decision to buy AFTER everyone else has nurtured them.
      I feel bad not sending thank you letters to them for taking the time to educate my buyers ;-)

      On a serious note I get what your saying but I just had way too much fun writing all that.
      I do believe in a basic re-marketing campaigns for offline real type businesses.

      To your main point
      I agree that "everyone is targeting these people who are ready to buy"
      but
      where we part ways is that "everyone" is doing such a piss poor job it's still easy to get the sale.

      If you are unable to get the sale when someone wants to make the purchase it is a sign that your marketing needs help. The answer to poor marketing is not to then throw yourself into cultivating future leads so that your poor marketing can loose them after an even longer process.

      Now before anyone jumps on me for being so black and white about this
      I do of course realize there are grey areas here and some businesses (but very few) businesses need to be in the longer nurture business. Having said that I still have NEVER run into a business that plays the long game that does not get constantly ripped off just before the finish line if they have a smart competitor. I spend my days crafting messages and campaigns to steal away these nurtured clients from others and its like shooting fish in a barrel.
      I believe this strategy is called "winning in the last three feet." It comes from the department stores where P&G Spends 2 Bills a year advertising to bring someone in the store and the small guy tries like hell to get on the shelf and win in the "last three feet."

      I''ll tell ya what.... everything you said is fair enough. It's basically true. In fact, I used to do the same type of thing in the insurance and financial advice space.

      We had a good 'ol time laughing at those idiots at the big companies when we were stealing their customers at the last minute with our better products and services.

      In insurance especially, if you are buying from a company that advertises on TV you are paying too much. There was (and is) a company in a life insurance niche I worked that sold policies that cost 2-3X as much as the policies me and most all the indy agents sold.

      If you got into a house and the prospect had this company's insurance you were walking out a happy man with a $1,000 commission.

      Here's the thing though......

      We make okay money.....

      The big guys who are soooooo stooopid?

      They make tens of millions.

      Sometimes their owners are even worth a billion or more.

      So who is the stupid one? Yeah... guys like me.

      Societies based on farming are far more prosperous than societies based on hunting and gathering. That's not an accident either.

      Farming is just better business.
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      • Profile picture of the author Peter Lessard
        Originally Posted by eccj View Post


        Here's the thing though......

        We make okay money.....

        The big guys who are soooooo stooopid?

        They make tens of millions.

        Sometimes their owners are even worth a billion or more.

        So who is the stupid one? Yeah... guys like me.

        Societies based on farming are far more prosperous than societies based on hunting and gathering. That's not an accident either.

        Farming is just better business.
        I couldn't agree more and your point is one of the main reasons I do what I do for most of my clients. You see most of my clients are NOT the "big guys" and NOT the "billionaires" so their best path is hunting and gathering and with that strategy they make what they consider a killing.

        I actually had to adjust my thinking way back when I first started helping business owners. I have been at this 17 years but I started with really big companies like Apple. Working there I was taught to have success via nurturing/branding, playing the long game. When I tried initially to take that to the average business I quickly saw they would be homeless and broke long before these big guy strategies would ever work for them and even more important they did not need those strategies (even if they could wait) to achieve what they considered success if taking advantage of ready buyers was done really really well.

        It is also why I said there are exceptions. I do have some national clients that absolutely depend on the long game of nurturing. I also fully understand that in things like selling coaching/courses that the nurture game is critical. Just not so much for the guy that sells locksmith services or granite or the other 1,000 types of businesses that make up most of the economy.
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    • Profile picture of the author Oziboomer
      Originally Posted by Peter Lessard View Post

      This is gonna be fun ;-)
      To your main point
      I agree that "everyone is targeting these people who are ready to buy"
      but
      where we part ways is that "everyone" is doing such a piss poor job it's still easy to get the sale.

      If you are unable to get the sale when someone wants to make the purchase it is a sign that your marketing needs help. The answer to poor marketing is not to then throw yourself into cultivating future leads so that your poor marketing can loose them after an even longer process.

      Now before anyone jumps on me for being so black and white about this
      I do of course realize there are grey areas here and some businesses (but very few) businesses need to be in the longer nurture business. Having said that I still have NEVER run into a business that plays the long game that does not get constantly ripped off just before the finish line if they have a smart competitor. I spend my days crafting messages and campaigns to steal away these nurtured clients from others and its like shooting fish in a barrel.
      Totally agree with you about most of small business marketing being piss poor.

      If it wasn't you wouldn't be able to work your magic as easily.

      I also agree there is little point playing a longer game if you haven't worked out your strategy and also understand the stages including the ROI at each stage.

      Would you suggest a new business focuses more on the people who are ready to buy right now or as you mention in your example here--> One line of copy that stole 2 million in sales in 2017 build the "heavy-lifting" content first?

      Best regards,

      Ozi
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      • Profile picture of the author Peter Lessard
        Originally Posted by Oziboomer View Post


        Would you suggest a new business focuses more on the people who are ready to buy right now or as you mention in your example here--> One line of copy that stole 2 million in sales in 2017 build the "heavy-lifting" content first?

        Best regards,

        Ozi
        I can't think of any reason why a business would not want to make money as soon as possible. They still need at minimum to put in place whatever would be required to get some conversions. What that would take depends on niche and competition.
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  • Profile picture of the author SARubin
    Personally, I'm a big fan of relationship building / nurturing.

    I have a number of clients who have been with me for many years. I'd like to think they see me as a trusted friend, and advisor.

    Even if some slick talking marketer comes around offering them the latest "bright shiny object," they'll usually call me to ask for advice before jumping on any bandwagon.

    It does take a while to earn that type of trust and loyalty, and admittedly I do lose some short sales with my long game approach. But most of the clients I do end up with, stay with me for a long time, and cost me very little (monetarily) to keep them as clients.

    Now, I think we all can agree that if you catch someone when they're already primed to buy, it's much easier to sell them.

    But it just seems to me, if a marketer spends half their time lurking in the shadows, waiting to snatch the scraps from someone else's kill; then they must spend the other half of their time looking over their shoulder, wondering who's trying to steal their food away?

    Originally Posted by Oziboomer View Post

    What do you do to target people who are not ready to buy yet but may do in the future?

    How do you keep in contact with future customers when they may not even be prospects yet?

    What nurturing strategies can offline businesses use today to make them the business of choice when the time to purchase arrives?
    Just be there, and show some interest in who they are, and what they do.

    Also, let them know what you do, and if the opportunity presents itself, offer them a little something to show them you're interested in more than just their money.

    I recently read Claude's book "Selling Local Advertising" where he talks about a "grapefruit lady" who was an attorney.

    She brought him a number of grapefruits, for no other reason than to be friendly. When the time came for him to need a lawyer, she was the only one he considered for the job.

    You can ask Claude for the detailed story, but I imagine that as long as she's competent, he'll never even go looking for anyone to replace her.
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    • Profile picture of the author Peter Lessard
      Originally Posted by SARubin View Post

      But it just seems to me, if a marketer spends half their time lurking in the shadows, waiting to snatch the scraps from someone else's kill; then they must spend the other half of their time looking over their shoulder, wondering who's trying to steal their food away?
      Lol there is no lurking, snatching, stealing.

      Lets step away from analogies for a moment.
      First off I have over a dozen clients with me more than 10 years.
      My services get them exactly what they wanted so yes they trust me and like me and personally I stay with helping business owners because I get gratification from it.
      I realize of course you are not attacking me or anyone personally :-) so I'm just stating as a matter of fact to correct any misconceptions about the messaging approach.

      How does this "snatching and lurking" actually look like in real life?

      A client has a need.
      They search online or are approached by someone.
      They then enter research phase.
      This is where they will either be exposed to the nurture type messaging or messages for those ready to buy. There is no personal connection to anyone at this point.
      What happens more often than not is that after someone is educated (nurtured) by others peoples contents and funnels, they choose to buy from someone that plops "buy now" messaging in front of them at the exact right moment.

      There is nothing wrong with taking either path BUT for most local businesses they will have much better financial results focusing on going after the ready buyer for a multitude of reasons.
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      • Profile picture of the author SARubin
        Originally Posted by Peter Lessard View Post

        Lol there is no lurking, snatching, stealing.

        Lets step away from analogies for a moment.
        Sorry about the analogy.

        It didn't really add anything to my post (except for maybe a chuckle). But after reading your funny farmer story, I just couldn't resist throwing it in.

        And no, it was absolutely not directed at anybody. It was just my feeble attempt at humor. (for the record... I almost went with the "stealing someone's lunch money" analogy. But I flipped a coin and the "snatching scraps" one was the winner)


        All the best,
        SAR
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  • Profile picture of the author DABK
    That would depend on business type, wouldn't it? For some businesses it might not be financially feasible. For others it might.

    If you sell bridal dresses, there's a long time between the engagement and the wedding. You might want to have your ads in churches, bakeries, venues. You might want to offer a "Let's text you when we have new dresses."

    If you do mortgages, you might cultivate relationships with the people who sell home insurance. You have a closing on a purchase today. Odds are good that a few years down the road, they'll refinance. Sending home owners/renters stuff directly for 7 years can work. Simpler, though, you have less control, is to partner with an insurance agent and get people who've not been your clients.



    If you're selling bagels? Should you partner up with a pizza place?

    Originally Posted by Oziboomer View Post

    When you place an advertisement or start an advertising campaign how long are you prepared to cultivate?

    Here's the thing. . .

    When we can all target buyers in our market.

    When we know where they've been and where they've shopped and what they are looking for but everyone is targeting these people who are ready to buy.

    What do you do to target people who are not ready to buy yet but may do in the future?

    How do you keep in contact with future customers when they may not even be prospects yet?

    What nurturing strategies can offline businesses use today to make them the business of choice when the time to purchase arrives?

    Best regards,

    Ozi
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  • Profile picture of the author socialentry
    Yeah, I used to work in a stock broker's office who did that.

    The office would call people, set up a meeting and depending on the size of the fund, they might have pursued the prospect for several years.

    Did it work? Yeah. But it took forever.In the office, it was said that to make it as a broker (on 100% commission) you had to ideally have ~30 k cash just for living expenses (that or you work as a busboy on the weekend or something).

    It really wasn't sophisticated. Basically they did constant follow up until the other broker screwed the pooch and the prospect felt like switching.
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  • Profile picture of the author savidge4
    NOW as powerful as it may be, may not always be the best path to success. I beg to differ in terms of "branding" and its uses and abilities. A long term strategy played along with short term gains is pretty powerful stuff.

    Radio ads, Newspaper Ads, Truck signage, store front signage, billboards, Mail pieces, TV ads, yard signs ( corflute signs ) are all pretty common methods of branding. Sure these can and are used in a more direct marketing sense.. BUT the actual purchase percentage in any of these endeavours is a bit lack luster.

    Creating "touches" over a period of time does something for all of your efforts as a whole... They get a post card, see your vehicle, see a billboard.. over and over. and the day they go online and do a search for what ever it is, and your client is sitting at #3 in the 3 pack.. those touches kick in. Touches equates to brand recognition. The prospect thinking to themselves as they do the millisecond scan of the results... "I am familiar with #3"

    Those last 3 feet... just turned into miles apart.

    If you are working with regional to local clients, branding makes a difference. Being seen, methodically inducing those touches. It can very easily be what separates you from your competition.

    What is so hard here... is the ability to track this stuff. The reality is to an extent you cant. How are you supposed to know if branding is effective if many of your leads come from online. But say you have a lead gen site in the #1 position, and a branded site in #3.. generally statistics say #1 should get more clicks correct... I could show you plenty of data that suggests otherwise.

    As your reach geographically extends - national or international branding efforts start to diminish. There are of course anomalies to this. ( speaking to those in the States and Canada ) If I were to say "Discount wood flooring" what comes to mind? How far off would Lumber Liquidators be? THATS the effect of branding.

    If I say "discount Cell Phones" what comes to mind? Not a damn thing correct? This in effect could be a niche that could be targeted at a more local level

    But lets get back to real local again.. plumbers, contractors, lawyers, dentists, doctors, lawn care... a calculated effort at branding coupled with a proper online presence starts manipulating the last 3 feet.
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    • Profile picture of the author Oziboomer
      Originally Posted by savidge4 View Post

      What is so hard here... is the ability to track this stuff. The reality is to an extent you cant. How are you supposed to know if branding is effective if many of your leads come from online. But say you have a lead gen site in the #1 position, and a branded site in #3.. generally statistics say #1 should get more clicks correct... I could show you plenty of data that suggests otherwise..
      Not to go into analytics and stuff but there are some very powerful tracking and promoting strategies you can use if you are using the right tools.

      The key is it doesn't matter so much where they come from in as much as it matters where they go and what actions they take and what followup you do.

      For example.

      Two things.

      Retargeting based on interest (say time or actions on a particular page) - less control but you can retarget them throughout your funnel if you have enough traffic and you understand how to segment them so they get the right offers.

      If you can get a prospect to opt-in so you can identify them further and the tracking gets easier.

      Inside something like active campaign or hubspot you can add interest tags via the number of times someone has visited a pre-determined url.

      Then you can set followups based on their target interests.

      When you couple the retargeting ads with focused emails and better still have engaged them socially because they registered for something using their Facebook id and you've direct mailed them couple with your other brand messages like signage etc you exert the greatest leverage.

      All of that leverage is data driven.

      For a small business it is hard to manage the data but the tools are pretty much in reach for most businesses if they look.

      Best regards,

      Ozi
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  • Profile picture of the author sarthakk
    Converting people into potential customers is a long process, you have to be in contact with them. have to follow them from a time period and mail them the product offers time to time. Just be cautious in this approach as you don;t want to lose your potential to be customers.

    Example: If you target to be mom women's regarding baby products, they will sure buy your products in the future.

    Hopes this helps
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