80/20 Internet Lead Generation

You can’t run a successful marketing campaign without social media. Before we dive into any other information, we have to accept that as a baseline fact. Gone are the days of old-school print media and the campaigns that were based on the simple distribution of flyers. Today, you have to have a social media presence if you want to attract customers. But how do you craft a campaign that really works? And how do you get people to listen in the first place? Over the course of this summary, we’ll learn why the internet can be a valuable asset for your business and how you can make the internet work to your advantage.

The internet has completely revolutionized the way we communicate. It has also impacted the way we do business in the modern age. So, if you want to stay relevant in the digital age, it’s important to upgrade your business practices! And integrating social media into your ad campaigns is one of the best ways to do that. That’s because old-school methods can’t cut it anymore. The customers who will love your products are out there, but they’re not looking at their local newspapers anymore. Instead, they’re looking at their phone. So, if you want to reach them, you have to start by speaking their (digital) language. And in this chapter, we’re going to learn how you can do that. But before we dive in, we’re going to talk about the titular concept of this book: 80/20 internet lead generation.

What does 80/20 internet lead generation mean? And why is it important for your business? 80/20 internet lead generation is a formula crafted by the author and specially designed to help you attract customers using digital marketing. Here’s how it works: this theory is founded on the principle that you don’t need a huge amount of customers to turn a profit. Instead, the author’s research indicates that 80% of your company’s revenue comes from only 20% of your customers. The 80/20 principle is helpful because it enables you to simplify your strategies. Instead of wasting time and trying to attract every prospective customer in the world, the 80/20principle encourages you to learn about — and cater to — the 20% of ideal customers who will help your business succeed.

So, how do you know who those customers are? Well, that’s where market research comes in. Spend some time thinking about the people who are perfect for your product: the people who really want what you’re selling or the people whose lives will be improved by your invention. Those are your ideal customers. And once you know who they are, you need to know how to reach them. This is when we turn our attention to digital marketing. So, now that we’re back on the subject of social media and digital marketing, let’s start by taking a look at Facebook ads. Because, believe it or not, a Facebook ad is an entrepreneur’s best friend!

We’ve all had the experience of scrolling through Facebook only to be blindsided by an ad. Mixed in with photos of your great aunt’s chihuahua and your brother’s family vacation, personalized ads have been woven into your feed and sneakily tweaked to make you click on them. Some don’t even look like blatant ad campaigns! They might be Instagrammable fashion inspo or shots of aesthetically pleasing lattes. It might be a cute shot of a pet in a bandana, depending on your interests. But no matter what your interests are, Facebook ads abound, all of them designed to make you go, “Ooh, that’s cute! I want that!” So, given that Facebook ads are everywhere, promoting a million different things to a variety of audiences, why shouldn’t your product be among them? After all, if your grandma can promote her Etsy shop via Facebook ads, why can’t you?

Well, if you’re not one to fall for clickbait, you might have a few objections in response to that question. But the author posits that the benefits of Facebook marketing might warrant a change in perspective! Here’s why: for starters, Facebook is an untapped wonderland of marketing potential on both a macro and micro level. On one hand, you have an opportunity to put your product in front of Facebook’s 1,2 billion active users. But what if you wanted to narrow that down? It’s pretty likely that all of those 1.2 billion people aren’t going to be interested in your product, so how about marketing to your ideal target demographic? In that case, you can takeadvantage of Facebook’s advanced targeting capabilities by carefully selecting your audience.

For example, let’s say you run a coffee shop that’s geared toward twenty-somethings. Your ideal customer is hip, trendy, socially conscious, and Instagrammable. So, how do you make Facebook work for you? You customize your ad settings to target young men and women in their twenties who are interested in coffee, aesthetically pleasing lattes, and ethically sourced coffee! By customizing your ad settings accordingly, you can ensure that you’re putting your product in front of the right audience. That way, you’ll convert ad clicks to customers! But how much would you expect to pay for that kind of personalized marketing? Would it surprise you to learn that Facebook is actually the cheapest marketing option around? Most digital marketing platforms come with a CPC rate, which stands for “cost per click.” Your CPC determines how much you have to pay when a potential customer clicks on your ad. While platforms like Google charge between $1 and $2 for an average CPC, Facebook massively undercuts its competitors by charging less than $0.10 for your CPC! This means that you can put your ad in front of thousands of people and pay less than ten cents for their interaction with it!

So, even if you’re not one to click on Facebook ads or you’re worried that it might be a waste of money and time, it might be worth it to change your perspective! Because you might not respond to ads… but a lot of people do! More specifically, your customers do. And if you can build a better mousetrap, they’ll click on it. (Okay, that’s kind of a mixed-up metaphor, but you get the idea!) In fact, the odds of your prospective customers engaging with your ad are significantly high. And at less than ten cents CPC, you’ve either spent a minimal amount of money on converting loads of new customers or you’ve wasted a small amount of money and gained a few new customers anyway! So, what do you really have to lose?

Wouldn’t it be great if this book could give you the recipe to come up with a winning idea? Whether that idea is your inspiration for an ad campaign or an idea for the perfect product, when you first think about it, you might be tempted to say, “YES! That would be awesome!” Because if someone could just hand you an awesome idea, it might save you a lot of time and trouble while you try to come up with one yourself. But in reality, it wouldn’t be awesome. Because the beauty of your idea for your business is that it’s uniquely yours. That’s what makes it special and that’s what fuels your passion! So, this book can’t give you an awesome idea, but it can tell you how to turn that idea into digital media that your followers will connect with. So, let’s take a look at the ingredients for crafting a winning ad.

The first thing you want to do is think about your customers as if they’re fish. That might sound a little weird, but trust me, it works! Just think about the tools you need if you want to catch a fish: a hook and some bait. The bait is what you throw out there to make the fish say, “Ooh, that looks tasty! I want some!” And once they bite the bait, you’ve hooked them; you then get to reel that fish in. Well, the same is true for your customers. (Although hopefully, you’re not trying to stab them with sharp objects and you don’t intend to eat them!)

As you can see in our analogy about the fish, when it comes to creating an effective ad campaign, you need bait that will catch your customers’ eye. And you need a hook that will reel them in. In this case, your “hook” is what converts them from “people who viewed your ad” to “paying customers.” So, how do you reel them in? The author recommends that you start with an appealing image. For example, if you’re marketing a coffee shop, maybe start with an Instagrammable picture of some latte art staged in a tastefully decorated shop. The picture of the coffee will intrigue your customers and make them wonder where they can get such a pretty drink. This will then motivate them to click on your ad and learn more. And once they learn that your shop is local and ticks all of their boxes for a new favorite hangout, they’ll be hooked and excited to visit!

However, you can’t communicate your message with images alone, so make sure you have some awesome ad copy to drive your point home. The author recommends leading with an attention-grabbing question, so spend some time brainstorming a question that will invite prospective customers to keep reading. Maybe the trick is a witty Instagram caption. Maybe it’s a pitch that presents a problem (and offers your product as the solution). Whether you’re working with an ad team or you’re running a one-man show that situates you as your own writer, editor, and graphic designer, you should know your target market pretty well by this point. That means that you should have spent a great deal of time researching your potential customer pool — their level of education, their age, their interests, and their social media habits. And if you know these things, then you probably already know what type of ad copy will appeal to them. So, be as specific as possible and let these specifics drive the curation of your ad campaign! All that market research might take a little time and effort, but it will pay off in the long run! (Especially when it comes to the arduous task of crafting compelling ad copy!)

In the previous chapter, we explored the importance of creating digital ads that connect with your customers. But now it’s time to expound on that concept and learn how you can measure your results. Once you create your ad, it’s important to know if it’s working for you and bringing in the results you want. So, let’s take a look at some tips for assessing the effectiveness of your online presence.

If your background is in the old-school business model, you probably know how to measure the success of more traditional marketing campaigns. But social media is different. And if you want to succeed in the digital sphere, it’s important to know the appropriate hallmarks of success so you can accurately measure your impact. Whether you’re using Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram (or all of the above), your success on any social media platform is generally measured in terms of “followers” and “engagement.” Your followers are the people who have subscribed to your content. Havingfollowers is important for a couple of reasons. For one thing, it enables you to share your message with a wide variety of people. And when someone follows you, it’s encouraging and satisfying because you know that someone liked your content enough to say, “I would like to see more of that on my Instagram feed!” Put simply, you want followers because, without them, who’s going to know or care about your product? So, that’s one reason — and perhaps the biggest reason — why you want followers on all your digital platforms. But you also want followers because the amount of followers you have communicates something about your success on social media.

In this respect, your follower count is very similar to the scale of popularity you might find in any given high-school. If you only hang out with the geeks and the losers, other kids might (unfairly) assume that no one likes you and you’re not worth their time. Similarly, if your account has less than 1,000 followers, people will draw the same conclusions. People may also draw the same conclusion if you have less than 10,000 followers, but when you have less than 1,000, people are especially inclined to believe that your content is irrelevant. Both of these assessments are overly shallow and unfair, but sadly, they’re indicative of our reality in the digital age. So, if you want to launch a successful business, it’s important to connect with as many people as possible and create content that makes them want to follow you. But followers aren’t the only metric for determining success. Engagement is crucial because your engagement indicates how many people actually care about your content.

Anybody can buy robot followers. You absolutely should not do this, but many people do, and it always backfires. Because when you buy followers, your engagement suffers. To put this into context, let’s imagine that you bought 10,000 followers. These followers may or may not be real people; they’re probably robots or spam accounts that will never actually engage with your content. So, if someone checks out your page and sees that you have 10,000 followers and only 50 likes on a post, they instantly know that something is up. If you have 10,000 real followers, you should have a substantial amount of people engaging with your content by liking, commenting, and sharing it. That’s because engagement is the real test ofyour social media presence. In order to genuinely connect with your audience, you need to create content that will engage your followers.

So, ask them questions. Post about things that are important to them. Create interactive polls that encourage them to vote and share their opinions. This is how you form a genuine connection that will make people want to engage with your page. And if you have a lot of people interacting with your content, then you’ll know you’re winning at social media marketing!

In the age of digital marketing, it can be difficult to stay current and competitive when advertising your business online. But the author’s formula for 80/20 internet lead generation can help you find the right tools to connect with the right customers. The 80/20 formula simplifies your digital marketing efforts because it helps you concentrate your resources on your ideal customers. You can target your ideal customers by using social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram to create ads and tailor them to the interests of your target demographic.

Both of these platforms offer a feature called “cost per click advertising” (commonly abbreviated as CPC). CPC ads are user-friendly, cost-effective, and they can help you connect with a wide variety of potential customers all over the world. So, while you’re employing the 80/20 model, make sure you’re taking advantage of this resource! Once you’ve created the perfect ad and promoted it online, you can use a few of the author’s top tips to measure your success in the world of social media. You’ll know you’re winning at social media when you’ve created a genuine community of followers who are interested in your content. Authentic engagement on your posts is another great way to measure the effectiveness of your digital marketing strategies. Following these steps will help you succeed because they enable you to make a genuine connection with customers who will love your product.