Today I'm going to share the 5 fundamental levels of scalable marketing and how to begin using these to systematically scale.
Most entrepreneurs think they need to add more products or services, or even start a new business because they believe they have scaled their marketing as much as they can, but the fact is they're not even close.
Most business owners are nowhere close to the full potential of reaching their market.
Scalable marketing is made up of 5 levels:
- The Decision
- The Strategy
- The Platform
- The Media
- The Frequency
The Decision
The first level I call "The Decision" because you are simply deciding if it resonates with you more to leverage paid or organic strategies.
Paid
A paid strategy means you are buying your way into the market with some form of paid advertising. If you are paying for the media and message to be seen by your market, then this falls under the paid strategy side of the framework.
Pros:
- It's much faster
- Reach a high number of people
Cons:
- The cost can add up quick
- It's more difficult to get right
- The leads can be lower quality
Organic
An organic strategy means you are earning your way into the market, not paying for it. If you are not paying for your media and message to be seen by your market, rather you are investing time and energy (yours or others) into getting your message and media seen by your market, then you're leveraging the organic marketing side of the framework.
Pros:
- Higher quality leads
- Lower cost
- Refined message and offers
- Easier to transition into paid
Cons:
- It takes longer
- You must be consistent
- It's more work
- It still costs a little money
Essentially, at this level, you need to answer the question:
Do I want to leverage a paid strategy (buy-in) or an organic strategy (earn-in)?
The Strategy
Once you've selected the path you want to take to reach your market, then it's time to determine which strategy you think will be most effective to reach your target market and convert them into customers.
On both sides, paid and organic, there are what seems like countless strategies for reaching your market. It can be intimidating to choose.
Organic Strategies:
- Content marketing
- Social media Posting
- Video marketing
- Email marketing
- Community building
Paid Strategies:
- Social media ads
- Pay per click
- Re-marketing ads
- Sponsorships
- Video ads
Both of these lists could be much more extensive, but this just gives you an idea of the strategies of our two paths and what I mean by that.
The choices here can be intimidating. One thing that has helped me in the past is looking at the big picture of what I know about the business AND the strategy. If I can't clearly see the straight line path of how this strategy takes someone in my market from unaware of me to becoming my customer, then I find someone who can help me to see that, or I move on to the next strategy.
It also helps to realize that you can (and will, as you scale) be able to do more than one of these.
So at this level, you need to answer the question:
Which strategy do I see working best for my company to systematically bring me clients based on my abilities and resources?
If you need help deciding which strategy is going to be best for you, book a call with me here.
The Platform
Most marketing strategies like the ones we discussed above can be applied to multiple platforms.
So the next decision you will need to make is the platform you're going to carry out the strategy on.
Here is a formula to help you choose the best platform for you.
Platform = Market Volume + Frequency + Time
In other words, you want to choose a platform that has a high volume of your target market on it, AND they visit it frequently, AND when they do, they spend a lot of time there.
Some great platforms to choose from are:
- Twitter
- YouTube
- LinkedIn
- Instagram
These platforms are the largest (market volume), so the odds are that people in your market are on them. They also work well with both organic and paid strategies so that you can get more leverage out of each.
So at this level, you need to answer the question:
Where (what platform) am I going to implement the strategy I've decided to use?
The Media
Each platform has multiple types of media to choose from.
The basic media options come down to:
However, each platform will have its own unique blend of media options for you to choose from.
For example, if you're using Twitter, you've got:
And within each of those options, you can choose to use a combination of text, images, videos, or even quizzes.
If you're on YouTube, then you're going to have options of:
- Horizontal videos (longer format)
- 60-second or less vertical videos (shorts)
- Text and image-based posts
Each platform has an abundant amount of different media types to choose from, and some have a bigger impact on your market and are better to convey your message than others.
So at this level, you need to answer the question:
What type of media on this platform do I want to leverage first that will best convey my message?
Eventually, you will want to use as many of them as you can.
The Frequency
This is one of the most overlooked and most important aspects of your marketing plan. That is, how much and how often are you going to do this?
Is it something that will be done:
- Annually
- Monthly
- Weekly
- Daily
- Multiple times per day
Each platform has a sweet spot of how often or how much you should be posting or spending before it reaches a point of diminishing returns. At scale, you want to be on the high end of the frequency.
For example, if you're posting on Twitter, then you want to do multiple posts per day and multiple threads each week.
If your focus is on YouTube, you could be doing a short each day and a long video each week.
If you're running ads, then the frequency is more about spend, reach, and how often people in your market are seeing your ads. However, if you're going to run limited promotions, then it also applies that way.
So the last question you need to answer is:
How frequently am I going to do this?
Conclusion
In conclusion, if you want to scale but think that you're maxed out, then the odds are that you haven't fully leveraged both paid and organic, all strategies available to you, on all viable platforms, with all media options, and at the highest frequency you can get away with.
If you need help implementing this in your business, schedule a call with me here.
