In my series of articles in this magazine I’ve been revealing to you the 30 fundamentals required to build a successful business.

Last time, I briefed you on the fifth critical fundamental small business owners must have…  developing an effective sales process.

Now let’s discuss fundamental number six… strategic marketing.

To understand strategic marketing, it’s best to understand what most small business owners use today… and that’s tactical marketing.

When you send out an email, a direct mail letter, a postcard or send a prospect to your website, those are all tactics.

But when you send an email letting a prospect know they will soon receive a direct mail letter from you, and then that letter arrives and directs the prospect to your website where they can download a free and valuable informational offer, and then that prospect receives a follow up phone call from you that closes the sale.

And if the prospect doesn’t buy at that time, then a follow up “drip campaign” kicks in that continues to nurture that prospect until they are ready to buy what you sell. That is STRATEGIC marketing.

Strategic marketing is a series of tactics that does everything from generate the initial lead to finally closing the sale.

It’s the entire sales process from start to finish. It’s the RIGHT way for small businesses to market, and yet less than 1% of them are doing this.

As coaches, THIS is the great opportunity that we should be capitalizing on. But alas, less than 1% of all coaches know anything about strategic marketing, and even fewer understand it or know how to help their clients implement it.

Perhaps a real life example will help you understand the concept. In my business, I partner with business coaches all over the world and teach them how to immediately create a 6 figure coaching practice. I currently partner with more than 500 coaches in 20 countries. Here is the strategic marketing process I used to find EVERY one of them.

This landing page offers them the opportunity to “opt-in” to watch a free video that explains my coaching opportunity. When they enter their first name and email address, they get sent to my video landing page that looks like this…

After they watch the video, they can “opt-in” to a live screen share with myself where I walk them through the partnership details and help them begin their due diligence. I also provide them with access to my online coaching platform, and several pieces of information to assist them.

Then we schedule a final meeting several days later to answer any final questions and learn their decision. In the meantime, if the prospect does NOT watch my video or request to meet with me, the very next day my “drip campaign” kicks in and they start to receive weekly emails that provide tremendous value to the coach that convinces them that I really can help them and they reengage with my sales process.

Now, is this a LOT of work?

Sure, but it’s why I have a 40% plus conversion rate compared to the typical small business that has less than a 1% conversion rate.

Compare my process with the typical small business marketing campaign that send out an email that says… Want to make $100k per year as a business coach? Call XXXXX.

That tactical approach will only appeal to NOW buyers, and they make up less than 1% of available prospects. A strategic approach appeals to all prospects, and for coaches that know and understand this style of marketing can dominate the entire small business coaching space.

In future articles, I’ll continue to reveal these critical fundamentals, and how their application will greatly impact the businesses you coach… both professionally and financially.

So until next time,

Adrian Ulsh