EPISODE 4 OF THE MARKETING SOLUTIONS PODCAST: GENERATING LEADS FOR SERVICE-BASED BUSINESSES WITH MY MENTOR, AARON WITNISH
Sonya:
Today I'm so excited that I get a chance to interview one of my longstanding mentors, Aaron. Hi Aaron. Thanks so much for taking the time to chat with me today.
Aaron:
It's great to be here, always got time for a lovely chat with yourself.
Sonya:
Thank you. When we first met, I think it was nearly two years ago now, I think I was about six months into being in my agency full time. You had actually advertised a free workshop on getting easy to manage clients. Now, I don't think that's what it was called, but that was the general gist of it. I'd hit a point in my business where I was doing about 10k months, with a VA, and I wasn't happy with the income level I'd hit because I was working so many hours, didn't know what a weekend was, and my inbox and my phone were constantly blowing up with needy clients. When I saw your workshop, I came along and I sat there probably for about the first 15 minutes thinking, "Who on earth is this guy? This is too good to be true. He's just another guru selling online courses and coaching without any experience and proof."
But then you showed me a snippet of you and a business partner with Grant Cardone. Personally I'm a big fan, but I don't even know if half the people in the room actually knew who he was. But it did make me sit up and take notice. How on earth did that even come about?
Aaron:
That's an interesting story, that one, because Grant probably isn't as prominent in Australia as he is internationally, in places like the States. But he actually is on his way over to Australia with Gary V to do a speaking tour in August so it's pretty good timing this podcast. And the way it came about was we had a company, myself and my business partner, Jack Murray. And their producer, Robert Sislow, friended us on Facebook and managed to come across a little bit of our content, we were doing some video's at the time, this was back in early 2015. He enjoyed us, so we had a bit of fun, mucking around and obviously put a bit of value into the content as well. We were having a conversation on Facebook messenger and he said, "You know what, Grant would be pretty keen to meet you guys and talk to you guys, would you like me to mention it or have an introduction?" That's sort of how it came about. One thing led to another, next minute we're sending a two minute video, because they wanted us to do a little show on their network, Grant Cardone TV. That's how it came about, through a connection with his producer.
Sonya:
That's crazy. What kind of video was it that this producer had come across on your Facebook page?
At the time we did a lot of, I'd say behind the scenes scenarios, and we often do that live. We were very confident to just hit record and we were doing sales calls and meetings, all sorts of things like that. Live and streaming it to the internet and it might've been a meeting that we had at a cafe with someone and it was quite an intense meeting and I think we put it on Periscope, or some place like that, and then repurposed it. And seeing that behind the scenes interaction, people actually willing to go live and share some insights into their business. I think that got their attention because they could see that, obviously there's some skills there, but also willingness to put yourself out there with a bit of uncertainty, not knowing what's going to happen, whatever will come of it, comes of it. I think that was appealing to them.
Sonya:
That's awesome. So basically it was behind the scenes, you and Jack hustling, live. That's awesome.
Aaron:
Gotcha. We're doing sales calls, all that sort of stuff, we were quite happy to put it on the internet and that's probably what got us the introduction to Grant.
Sonya:
Oh, so good. So what does your current business model look like? What are you up to nowadays?
Aaron:
So, from an agency perspective, we have a very tight business model and that means that we're very clear about who we work with. So usually the business owners that we work with they're probably running a medium size business with a few staff and not really interested in touching their marketing at all, or don't want to have too much involvement in it but know it's important if they want to generate more business and leads. So we'll work with them and have two ways we go with it. What we do is generate them leads, or we also do their content on social media, distribute that as well as do the lead generation. So we do that with a fixed pricing model, unless it's a really extreme circumstance. So it's very simple, our clients pay us weekly. It's very smooth. It's a great cashflow model, our client's like it because there's very little upfront cost to get started with us and we found that that's definitely the best model for us and then also for our clients.
Sonya:
So your business hasn't always looked this way though. What did it used to be like?
Aaron:
Oh, like most people when you sort of start out, you're sort of finding your feet. You go into all sorts of different areas, different directions and learn your lessons. We had a ton of clients at one point, we were basically working with anyone. We wanted really small clients and solopreneurs. And the challenge of that is, not so much getting them results, just they don't have a marketing budget like a bigger business does to work with. So every dollar that they invest into marketing has a lot of energy riding on it and a lot attached to it. And when you're working with a whole bunch of clients that are at that level, there's a lot of checking in, there's a lot of stress on their part and yeah, it's not enjoyable for both parties.
So it was around that same time in 2015 when we started to shift the business model and move away from people who had to meet a certain criteria and had some ability to actually invest in their marketing. So we grew as a longer term view, not just looking for instant gratification tomorrow, but more taking a what can we achieve over the next three months approach and then going from there. And that really did create a much more peaceful and zen type business model. Not just for myself, but I think for the clients as well.
Sonya:
Yeah, definitely. And you're so right talking about when people are first starting with marketing, they'll sort of take anyone and everyone and it can get quite stressful, especially if you're trying to juggle so many clients at once. So you are a bit of a master at creating lead gen campaigns. What advice would you give to people trying to streamline their marketing funnel?
Aaron:
I think people have too many moving parts, to be honest. The trick to getting marketing working well is just to focus on one theme, get that right. Tweak it, optimize it before you start moving on to a whole variety of other strategies. And the best way to do that is just think about what would be the fastest process to take a complete stranger through to being interested in your product and what's going to be the most efficient way from a sales perspective. Too many people think I need these 15 step funnels, these massive automated email sequences, all these things. But all it does is delay the sales process of people that are ready and interested to buy now. So I would say get a really strong offer. Most people's offers when they're marketing are too weak and they're not appealing, so not enough people are going to take action on that. And it's very competitive advertising in the current climate.
And number two is if you've got a really strong offer, make sure it's going to the right audience. Because if it's not in front of the people that are ready to put their hands up now and have some sort of problem they need solved, some sort of pay point, or they're after a specific result, then you can have the best offer in the world and no one's going to take you up on it. So they're probably the mains things. Streamline it, focus on one thing first, get a really strong offer, and make sure you're targeting the right audience.
Sonya:
Marketing can be a bit of a grind sometimes. How do you keep it fresh?
Aaron:
Yeah, I think part of being really good at something means it can be a bit boring, because it is a lot of repetition. But I think when you work with a heap of clients in various different industries, that gives you enough variety. And I think relevancy's the really big part and keeping it fresh. If you're looking at what's relevant in the market place and social media, what's in the news, and you're taking that and sort of leveraging that into the marketing, it's fresh with the audience receiving that, and it's also enjoyable for yourself because you're not, I guess, doing the same thing every day. You've always got, maybe some new content that you're producing, you've got a new campaign built around a new theme or emerging topics. So for me, I want to be bored to an extent, but it's all those things I just mentioned. Different clients in different spaces and keeping relevant with what's happening in marketing and also in the media and in the news, and leveraging that into the marketing.
Sonya:
Yeah, definitely. So I guess for you, you have a certain criteria of the type of clients that you work with, but that doesn't necessarily mean that they're all in the same industry.
Aaron:
No, and one thing I am big on is, when people are starting business, is nicheing and picking a specific client because then your marketing becomes a lot easier because you're talking to a very specific person. A byproduct of being in the game for nearly a decade now is you get to pick up clients across different industries through get a referral or word of mouth. And when you know you can help someone and you're going to enjoy working with them, you offer your services. So I think, in retrospect, if I was advising someone starting from scratch I'd say niche, niche, niche. But as you progress and you get your skills increasing in whatever business or trade or work you're in, you can start to identify pretty quickly if it's someone you can help and enjoy working with. And then if you think that, yeah, it's going to be fun, you may send an invitation and say, yep, let's see what that would look like.
Sonya:
Yeah, that's great. I know that you're a big fan of sort of doing a trial initially with clients before proceeding and I think that's such a great thing because, especially if you're working with a new industry, it allows you to work out whether or not you can actually provide that value for them and it makes sure that they feel comfortable with that process as well.
Aaron:
Yeah, definitely. Whenever you're venturing into a new space, you want to be transparent about that with the client. And then you also want to be clear about, we're going to do a trial period, we're going to get some information, probably some core results as we go. And then based on what we collect in that trial period, together we can have an adult conversation and go, do we think that we can expand on what we've found out so far moving forward, or the results just aren't there yet. So I think that's the fairest way to get started with a client. And I know they appreciate that trial period when they're starting out with an agency and it's a new experience for them.
Sonya:
Yeah, definitely. And I mean there are so many agencies out there that will do a 12 month locking contract with minimum ad spend per month. And I just look at it and think what an awful experience that must be for both parties if it just isn't working and you know that a few months in. So I love that method of doing things.
Aaron:
Yeah. No, to me that's not cool for either business because it just, as much as for the client themselves, you might not enjoy working with that client. So the trial period allows both parties a bit of grace period there to see if their relationship's working, if the results are there. Locking people into a 12 months scenario, I think that opens up all sorts of potential problems and then problems are really what steals your joy, your ability to sleep well at night and feel good about what you're doing.
Sonya:
Yeah, definitely. So, for you personally, what motivates you and keeps your engine running?
Aaron:
I'm a very competitive person so for me it's probably more of the competition side of things. So I really want to get better results from my clients. I want to outperform what I've done previously. I get very motivated by solving problems and challenges. So I think it's that never ending desire to be better. That competitive side of myself is a natural motivator for me. And, I wouldn't say I'm completely attached because you can't be fully attached to your clients results, you'd drive yourself insane, but yeah, I do everything in my power to try and get them the outcomes that I know will put a big smile on their face and exceed expectations. So they're the things that motivate me.
The other things that motivate me to are of course family, providing for them, giving them a great life, being able to have experiences with them, set up the business in a way that I can spend time with my family as well. So there's a whole variety of factors. There's no shortage of things that I can look to, to get fired up and really wanting to grow the business and do great work. So yeah, I'm never lacking motivation, that's for sure.
Sonya:
Yeah. So you're super clear on what your why is and why you're getting up every morning and doing it.
Aaron:
Yeah, definitely. And that took a long time to establish. I think in the beginning when you start a business, you don't necessarily dive into that too much, but having been around a lot of business owners over a long period of time and you see the pain that can go with running a business and when you can step in and you can make a business better, you can create more jobs, help a company increase their ROI, be more profitable, pay more taxes to the government and they're getting their products and services to more clients and they're getting certain benefits. When you have that mindset and focus, it takes it off yourself and usually when you're focused on yourself it doesn't get you very far, but when you're thinking about other people, I think it fires you up at a whole new level. And when I got clear on that, we're here to help businesses succeed online and then looked at the exponential effect that can have on their customers, their clients, their families, their employees, the government, the economy. That got pretty cool when I looked at it that way.
Sonya:
Yeah, much bigger picture thinking rather than just yourself and your family and sort of that small impact, and seeing how it expands from there. So maybe a bit of a controversial question but Google Ads or Facebook marketing?
Aaron:
It's a good question. It's very much industry specific. As in some businesses there's a place for both. And a number of my clients we advertise on both platforms. But to give some contrast, I think Google Ads is a really strong place for sort of emergency type services and things like trade because people are looking for a solution right away. So if you just Google a locksmith, you want to be there as a locksmith advertising on Google when someone's making that search because they've got a very urgent problem and they're probably going to call you up and pay for, like emergency plumbing, things like that. I'd almost exclusively focus on Google because people are searching when they've got a very urgent problem that they need solved.
Then, businesses that need to educate their clients more definitely need to play it on Facebook where they can distribute video content and then come back after they've educated the marketplace a little bit. So anyone that's in an advisory type business, so lawyers, real estate, conveyancing, consulting, accounting, book-keeping. Anything like that you definitely want to be on Facebook where you can give a lot more information, educate your marketplace a lot more because there needs to be that in order for the sale to take place, or otherwise someone's just going to shove you on price. So, yeah, it's very industry specific, but there's always, in a lot of cases, merit for looking at both.
Sonya:
Yeah, definitely. So I suppose Google Ads, with what you're mentioning with the locksmith, it's more sort of reactive. People need a problem fixed now. Whereas with Facebook, it's brand building. You're educating them first, warming them up, making them realize, oh maybe you've got a problem that you need fixing first.
Aaron:
Yeah. With Google, it's very much in market. So people are actually actively searching for stuff. On Facebook it's more disruptive marketing. So you're trying to grab someone's attention, not necessarily on what they're looking for, but what they're interested in. So it's very much a strategic conversation based on who the end client is and what the product or service on offer is. So yeah, it's a good conversation and I like having it with prospective clients and existing clients.
Sonya:
So, can you take us through maybe a bit of an example of a simple funnel that's been really effective for one of your clients?
Aaron:
Yeah, definitely. So, we've got a few, I'll give you a couple so we can have a contrast between a couple of different industries. So, I've got a lot of clients in the trade industry, that's very simple. So we'll look at people that are looking for a quote, a measuring quote for a specific service. So that's very simple, you literally just run an ad, usually on Google. Someone might be searching for a bathroom renovation cost and you'll set up a little ad saying, "hey, get a free quote for a bathroom renovation in Melbourne" as an example. Click on that, they'll go to a landing page that will pretty much say the exact same thing and it'll have a button click here to put your details and we'll call you to come out and organize your quote. So, that's a really simple funnel and really great from an agency perspective because there's not too many moving parts.
From a more consultative type client. One of our clients is in the mortgage broking space, so what we do is we actually distribute video content on all platforms, but we circulate it with advertising on Facebook and on YouTube. And then what we do is, anyone that's consumed that content becomes an audience. We'll then run an ad that offers them a free guide for purchasing a home. So that's a free home buyers guide. So we're looking for people that want to buy a home now to the next eighteen months and then they'll go into a funnel and they'll get educated on what's available for home buyers in 2019 and in each stage of that funnel they've got the opportunity to have a free consultation with a broker to see what they need in place, what they can potentially borrow, all those parts.
So at each point they've got the opportunity to book in a consultation, but at the same time we're building up the database of people that are getting access to these guides and we're touching base with them regularly because we know everyone's timelines for buying their home is going to be very different. Some will want to buy now, some will want to buy down the track. So we've got to have a funnel that enables us to capture those people when they are ready to put their hand up and buy a home.
Sonya:
Yeah, that's great. So you're doing Facebook and YouTube videos and then anyone that's consuming that content, you're then retargeting them with a Facebook ad. Is that right? To drive them to a landing page.
Aaron:
So both Facebook and Google. And also anyone that visits their website. So they'll have ads pop up on YouTube, on websites, in their Gmail inbox. Then on Facebook. We're basically following them all over the web offering them this free home buyers guide. And then they'll click on that, they go to a landing page. They click, put their email in and they get access to the guide and that really kicks off the process. And then, like I said, some will book in for a consultation right away because they're pretty keen to buy. Others will be a lot further down the track when they actually get in touch with the client. So if you're looking at buying a home soon, let's do that.
Sonya:
Yeah. Great. So off the top of your head, do you know how much it's costing you per sign up for that free guide at the moment, roughly?
Aaron:
Yeah, absolutely. So it's really important to understand what the cost per acquisition is. So in this instance we're paying probably $17 to someone, and that's on top of circulating all the content and videos, we're paying $17 on average for someone to get access to that guide.
Sonya:
And do you know roughly how many are converting to actually booking that appointment and then showing up.
Aaron:
So with this particular funnel, we probably haven't got all the data but we'd say that out of, let's say we're collecting between 20 to 30 emails a week, for example, last week two of them booked in for a consultation, out of those. I think there was 24 last week. So you could say probably around the 8/7% mark. And then obviously you've got that lag effect from when the others book in. So that's a recent example of two out of 24 were ready to have that consultation right away, from last week.
Sonya:
Yeah. And I think it's so important to know your numbers because there'd be some people here thinking, oh $17 per email address, that's so high. But when you're looking at it on the other end, if they're getting someone in for an appointment once a week that actually then become a client of theirs, what would the average value of a client be worth to a mortgage broker?
Aaron:
So initially, just from the first mortgage writing process you're looking at maybe $4,000 to $5,000. But really good brokerage firms, they work with clients for life so that would be refinancing when better rates and deals become available, when people upgrade and then moving homes. And there's usually a load of backend referrals, once someone finds a good broker they refer their friends. So the lifetime value of a customer, we factor all that in. It's just tens of thousands of dollars, so you'll happily pay $17 for someone who's looking to buy a home in the next 18 months to get in the database, to start building a relationship in contacting them, if you know that, if they become a client, they're going to be worth potentially tens of thousands of dollars to the business. So it's all relative. You know, we have some clients we work with who we acquired the same thing, a lead for a couple of dollars. So it just depends on the industry, what the lifetime value of a client is and also what we can offer them as well.
Sonya:
Yeah, definitely. So, that sort of brings me to my next question. How do you go about setting expectations with clients and do you often have to have that conversation with them around, it's not like these campaigns that you can switch them on and open the floodgates overnight. There is some testing involved, talking to them around the concept of the lifetime value of a client. What does that conversation look like for you when you are setting those initial expectations?
Aaron:
Yeah, I think one of the things that can be lacking in a lot of businesses is complete transparency. I think in the sales process sometimes people say or do things to get the sale over the line. And all that does is set the relationship up for a failure. So just like my clients do, we take a long term view. We're not looking to get paid today from someone. We want to get paid from our clients years, 10, actually 15 years if we can, plus get referrals. So if we're not transparent, we don't do cartwheels, back flips and try and throw in the steak knives to get deals across the line, we know that relationships probably, we might get paid for the first round, but there's probably not going to be a second round. And we've found that the business owners that we work with now, they're professionals. So they can see the difference between another professional and someone who's trying to win the sale.
And the reality is you've got to set the expectations right from day one. So that conversation happens right from the outset before we've even offered our services. So we'll basically frame it as you know, the trial period. And that trial period is to be able to get to the end of that trial period and have a really clear plan on what would we need to do to meet the goal that we've spoken about within sales. So say they want to add $200,000 in new revenue to their business in the next 12 months. Well, we got to reverse engineer that as a marketing agency to see what that would take and so our goal in that trial period is to be able to go to them and say, hey, based on what we've collected, the leads we're getting, what it's costing us in this trial period, this is what we need to do to meet that goal. And is it viable? Is it profitable? Does it make sense?
And too many people, I think as human beings we want boundaries. If we don't even set expectations and have those boundaries in place, people are just pushing to find where they are. So you've got to be very clear and say, hey, this is what we do. This is what our line of expertise is just like you are in your craft that you work in. So let us do what we need to do, when we need something from you, we'll check on in and get that from you, but otherwise, here's how it works.
If you actually tell them how it goes, set the agenda and be very clear about that, when they can get in touch, when you will be sending through the results and everything that you're doing on your end. I think that's the big one. If you're sending through results each week there's a lot less people checking in going, what's going on with this? What's going on with that? So that each week I'm going to get my updates. So for me that conversation always happens right at the start. There's a lot of transparency. I'll be completely upfront about what I think is going to happen based on my professional experience. And that might even say, hey, you probably won't be able to make a positive return in the first three months and here's why, but I think in the long run we can do quite well. So it's yeah, being completely transparent, here's how it works, clear terms of engagement, when we get in touch, go back and forth and always keeping clients up to date so they don't have to come back to you and ask what's going on. That's really important.
Sonya:
Yeah, and I think that's something that you've really helped me with is setting boundaries with clients and feeling confident and comfortable to do that because you're right, people actually like to have boundaries and be told this is how things are going to pan out. This is the plan of attack, this is when you'll hear from me, this is what I need from you. I think it sort of adds a level of trust, that they know what you're doing with the process, and keeps clear communication as well.
Aaron:
Definitely. See if I had a builder at my house I'm not going to tell them how to build. When do you put the trust in architraves or that sort of thing. I don't know anything about that. So it's really giving them the same perspective, that they're really good at what they do in their business, the services or the products that they sell. And then letting them know that, hey, this is what we're really pretty good at that over here and that's why you're paying us. So we can take it off your hands, you don't have to worry about it and if we need you, we'll come to you.
I think too many people will allow clients to influence what they're doing when they know that that's going to actually impede their results, because you know much better. And that's where you need to actually step up because it's of service to that client and to their business that you say, no, this is how we do it, this is why we do it, because we know this way works best. And being very willing to put your foot down if it's for the best of that client.
Sonya:
Oh yeah. I've definitely had campaigns, in my early days, railroaded by clients being pushy and thinking they know one thing when I know what I'm doing and it never ends well. So who do you follow and learn from?
Aaron:
So I've been working with a superstar by the name of Sean Soul for probably two and a half years now. So he's my business mentor and advisor. And he's the one that really helps me work on my business, run it from a CEO perspective rather than a technician perspective. And definitely someone that I look up to, he's very consistent, he's been very successful. So from a business stand point he's the main person that is my sounding board that I'll go to. I've got a pretty solid network now that I've acquired over the years that I can sort of lean on and call upon to have different conversations. So I've got that available.
But from a, maybe personal perspective lately I've been really following and listening to David Goggins, over in the States. He wrote a book, You Can't Hurt me, and he's a former Navy SEAL and it's really helped me to get disciplined in all areas of life, not just say business and being a good dad, but being a better husband, being, like from an athletic and health perspective, making sure I'm working out every day. So I looked at different people in different areas of life, but they've probably the two main ones that I listen to on a frequent basis at the moment.
Sonya:
I'm going to go and check out that book, I've just written it down. Where do you see the future of digital marketing heading?
Aaron:
I think we're going to see, and it's already very much in place, a lot of AI. So we're seeing already a lot of chat based robots and things like that. You're going to get to the point where, it's almost predictive, an artificial intelligent software can hold down a conversation and deal with clients to a certain extent. We've got virtual reality, which is going to become very mainstream soon. We're going to have blockchain, which is going to be significant. That's where we start removing all these third parties, like Facebooks and Ubers and that, we move out the middle man and it's [inaudible 00:30:40] It's going to be literally a situation where if I, let's use Uber as an example. Instead of going through the Uber platform, I go directly to you with no middle person and on the blockchain technology, the transaction and the order would take place.
So I think they're some of the biggest ones, AI, which we're already seeing. Blockchain is going to be significant. Virtual reality, and we're already seeing the emergence of the voice stuff with Alexia and things like that. So that again, these are stuff that are already in action but they're going to become more mainstream over the next probably 12 to 24 months.
Sonya:
Yeah, definitely. I mean we're seeing in the US at the moment, it's crazy. You can say Alexia, order toilet paper, and Amazon prime will deliver it. So it's kind of exciting to see what happens with that and I guess the race to see who can become that top search result for that toilet paper to be making those sales as well. I feel like it adds a completely new dimension to marketing that we haven't really had a huge amount of exposure to in Australia yet, in terms of that convenience factor.
Aaron:
Yeah, it's crazy, and we're doing some work with some clients now and we've got some of these AI, incorporated into their websites and marketing and it's fascinating to see the level that that's evolved at. And, from a marketing perspective and an agency perspective, you've really got to be paying attention because it can be so easy to get left behind if you're not watching the trends and seeing what's emerging. Because what's working now, I can guarantee in one to two years time, the landscapes going to be very different and it's going to keep evolving. So that's also exciting from an agency owner's perspective, you've got to always be researching and making sure that you're ahead of this field and not competing for the ball with everyone else all the time.
Sonya:
Yeah. There's a really good quote that goes something along the lines of "what got you there is not enough to keep you there." And I think when it comes to digital marketing, that rings so true.
Aaron:
Yeah. I remember when I first started marketing online, it was literally you set up a Google ad, have a crappy landing page or website with a whole bunch of text on it and you'd kill it. Because there wasn't a lot of people doing that. Then I was one of the first doctors of Facebook ads, same thing. You could do whatever you wanted and you get 5 cent clicks, send people to a site and you couldn't fail. And then yeah, as then introduce all these new social media platforms, more marketers jumping on, more competition and you've got to get a lot better at your craft if you want to be successful. But the advantage is, if you can predict what's coming next, you can be that person for 12-24 months getting those really cheap clicks, taking the cream off the table, killing it for your clients, killing it for yourself before everyone else cottons on. So you really want to be paying to attention to where those opportunities are at the moment.
Sonya:
Yeah, I love that. It's so true. All right. Finally, let's finish on a quick one. It's probably going to be a long answer, but we'll see how you go. If a business is not doing anything online yet, so they're like old school have always worked on word of mouth referral and they're at that stage where they're ready to take it to the next step, where do they start to get some quick runs on the board?
Aaron:
It's a good question. Again, it would probably depend a little bit on their business in the industry, but I think most people need to pay the plate in marketing these days. So you can jump set up a Facebook page and put content, but no one's going to see it. Especially if you're a new business without an audience or any following, so I would say start out advertising. If it's not working, that's good, that's feedback. And you don't have to keep doing that, you change it and adjust accordingly.
So probably the easiest way I'd get started is message ads, if you set up on one of the platforms, like Facebook, you can write an advertisement or an offer and have someone just message your page. That way you don't need websites, heaps of moving parts. It's nice and easy. You can get it set up within an hour, it doesn't cost anything to set up a Facebook page, that's an easy one. Google, again, you probably want to look at something like call only ad's where it's just someone clicks on an ad and calls your business directly because it just eliminates the amount of moving parts that are required to get up and running. So they're probably the two easiest ways to get some ads happening and get some traction. Find out if people are responding to it. You're able to generate some inquiries or business opportunities and then start refining from there.
Sonya:
Yeah, I love that. I think so many people would automatically think, well, I need a website first before I can do anything, but with these two methods that you've spoken about, you actually really don't need a website to get started and start generating leads for a business.
Aaron:
Yeah, definitely. And I think people have also got to understand that the reason that you market is to get customers so if you're doing activity that's going to slow down that process, then it's not efficient. So you want to really look at well, If I advertised then I've got an opportunity to get an ROI or at the very least some feedback. So start there, start investing and then start measuring it. Because you never know, you might find that people are responsive relatively quickly and you start opening up a whole new revenue stream online for your business that wasn't praying previously there because you've been getting all your customers and everyone offline.
Sonya:
Yeah, I love that. That's why I think digital marketing is so amazing. We've got all that data that you can work with and there's so many different things that you can try to get the results that you want. There's not really a one size fits all for any business nowadays.
Aaron:
Oh definitely. It's important, you can go out and try and do this stuff yourself and watch YouTube videos and that sort of thing, but there is a lot of merit in seeking out an agency that does know what they're doing. That you trust, there's some agency's out there, I can't believe they have clients to be honest. But yeah, like a lot of a good agency owners will happily sit down and will happily give someone a strategy with no conditions or expected them to pay. I'll say, this is what I recommend. In a lot of cases with people we're not going to work with we do that anyway. Go, here's a strategy. This is what we recommend. We're just probably not the best fit for you cause we don't think that working with us is going to be viable financially, or whatever it is.
So I would at least speak to someone so you're not sort of going to the drawing board from scratch with a blindfold trying to work this out. You get some information from someone that knows what they're doing so you can get guided into the right direction. And that way you're going to get results a lot faster than if you're just winging it.
Sonya:
Yeah, definitely. Great advice. And I think it's a good reminder as well that agencies do this day in, day out. Chances are they've probably seen a business like yours and can help you with a bit of a strategy. So why not, you know, make a call and have a chat to someone before just, I guess throwing pasta at the wall and seeing if it sticks.
Aaron:
Yeah. And the thing about that is to, you'll be able to tell if someone's good at their craft by the conversation. People are pretty easy to read, you can tell a professional when you're dealing with one. So if someone isn't coming across as professional and they're looking like they're more interested in winning your business than actually explaining how it could benefit your business then that would be a red flag and you'd probably go look at talking to someone else. So yeah, if you're a professional, what you do, you can easily detect whether someone else is a professional as well.
Sonya:
Yeah, definitely. All right. Thank you so much for taking the time to have a chat with me today, Aaron. There's so much amazing advice in there. And yeah, thanks again.
Aaron:
You're very welcome, it was a pleasure.