James Schramko SuperFast Business Online Business Coaching

If you love the technical SEO stuff this is where you will find it...The Best Source Of SEO News Traffic Feb-6-2014//In today's traffic news:00:03 - Looking for technical SEO updates? 00:18 - Where to get it 00:29 - Head over to SEOPartner.com/news Stop letting your competition beat you in the search results Click Here  Download the PDF Transcription  Tweetables:Get your SEO news fix here. [Click To Tweet] Your stop for SEO updates [Click To Tweet]   James Schramko here with an SEO news update. You’ve probably noticed, I haven’t been talking about the technical SEO stuff as often on SuperFastBusiness.com. That’s because we’ve been moving into very broad subjects like growing your business and developing your websites, conversions and lots of interviews. Where Can You Get SEO Updates? What we’re doing now is we’re putting the very technical stuff on our SEOPartner.com site. It’s in the news blog there and we’re curating the best round-up from the week from each of the SEO sources.Photo credit So if you’re really interested in the technical stuff, head over to SEOPartner.com to our news blog and check out the curation. I guess it’s like having an assistant go and look at all the stuff around the Web and then give you the source and a few bullet points on each. I hope you enjoy the posts. I’m James Schramko, thank you for watching. Please comment below.

In this episode: 00:23 - We care about you 03:04 - Why podcast? 05:55 - Hunting versus farming 07:48 - Nurturing an audience 08:45 - A look at the numbers 10:04 - How James got into podcasting 14:10 - Frequency counts 16:27 - IOS rules 22:11 - Podcast structures 29:12 - What do people really want to know? 31:29 - Where do ideas come from? 34:42 - The tools of the trade 41:04 - The role of images 46:09 - Content is everywhere 48:18 - Don't do this yourself 51:34 - Our list building tools 54:05 - Product promotion 57:40 - Get onto other shows 59:15 - Encourage feedback 1:01:12 - In summaryLearn how to podcast like a professional HERE Download the PDF TranscriptionTweetables: Why should you podcast? [Click To Tweet] Interesting Podcast presentation [Click To Tweet] Podcasting is going to be BIG. [Click To Tweet] James and Ezra deliver! [Click To Tweet]Transcription:James: James Schramko here and I’m also here with Ezra Firestone. Good day buddy.Ezra: Ladies and gentlemen... That was my version of hello buddy.James: That was like the best intro you could hope for. It was kind of better than the intro we had at an event that we spoke out recently, it was like this particular presentation live and it was hilarious but what we thought we’d do in the good old nature of the leverage of the Internet is to grab the slide deck and to run through thee slides with a little bit of commentary that we could share with people who are special and dear to our heart so that we could get the message out there.Ezra: And like the funny thing is people say that kind of stuff right? Like people who are special and dear to our heart but I think we are the only dudes who actually mean that. Like we really care about you and your business and how it goes, what’s going on and whether or not you have accurate information, we genuinely care about it.James: Yeah, we don’t actually really have anything to sell except the idea that we want to give value and hopefully this will inspire people to create and to get as much reward out of podcasting as what we have which have been substantial and we’ll cover that in the slides so are you ready for it?Ezra: Let’s roll. I’m sitting on a bouncy ball by the way.James: Wonderful. Thank you for sharing that.Ezra: Yeah, it’s got a little back support. It’s got these little handles like I can bounce around the room.James: Yeah? Well, last time we’re sitting down together before the presentation that we just did recently, we were presenting it at my event and something strange happened at that event, I put it down to this, the cup of tea you’re having for your sore throat or whatever sickness that you were bestowed when you travel, sometimes, you get out of shape, but that led to something unusual. Ezra: Well, I don’t know how unusual it is and why everyone just won’t let this go? That happens.James: It is unusual, I’ve never seen it before?Ezra: You’ve never seen anyone pee before?

In today's update:00:00 - The number one excuse 00:23 - Big decisions are scary 00:53 - I'll see you hereGet more details about SuperFastBusiness Live James is able to help you with your online business - Details Here Rapidly increase your six or seven figure per year business HERE Download the PDF TranscriptionTweetables:Big fear big results... [Click To Tweet] Survey results are in. [Click To Tweet] Is this your excuse? [Click To Tweet] Transcription:"I'll come to the next one." That's usually the line I get when I put an event for sale.And it's great but I think it's a throwaway. It's actually just like when I was involved in the motor industry, when it came to the purchasing decision, people would say, "Oh let me think about it; let me check with my wife/accountant/company director.”An Invitation To SuperFastBusiness Live When it comes down to this fear of making a big decision, and I know I've been there. When I hopped in an airplane 6 years ago when I went to my first big conference in America, it was a big deal.But right now, you have the opportunity to come to SuperFastBusiness Live in Manly and I encourage you to come. If you're a little bit uncomfortable about it, then that just means, it's a big decision. It also means that the results you'll get as a result of coming to the event will probably be huge.So I really hope to see you at the SuperFastBusiness Live because we know the date, we know you can come to this one. And if you're one of the people who said to me, “I'll come to the next one,” and any of the years prior, well you know that it's time to come to this one. I'll see you there. I'm James Schramko, thanks for watching.Get more episodes – subscribe to the podcast in iTunesYou're welcome to comment below.

In today's news:00:07 - Improv versus rehearsed presentations 00:41 - How to deliver best value for your audience 01:07 - An example of planning for resultsJoin around 1000 dedicated online marketers in this private forum Rapidly increase your six or seven figure per year business HERE Download the PDF TranscriptionTweetables:Are you winging it? [Click To Tweet] Preparation pays. [Click To Tweet] Strategy equals results. [Click To Tweet]Transcription:James Schramko here, and today I’m talking about the difference between winging it, and preparing professionally.When I was selling, and then subsequently managing salespeople, I noticed some people were more successful than others. Salespeople are the classic type of person who want to wing it.Now there’s a big difference between improv – improvisation, and prepared and rehearsed selling. If you have a strategy and a system and perhaps a template that you follow every time, you will get a predictably better result.It Pays To Pepare You don’t just turn up to a TED Talk and wing it on the spot. And your favorite comedian will have rehearsed his routine over and over again, to have that spontaneous laugh.You want to prepare your slides and go through the slides several times so that when you get up there and prepare, you can be very confident knowing that you’re going to deliver great value, and that all of the things you need to cover, especially the Why, the What, the How, and the What If, will be presented for your audience’s best value.Now if you are winging it, you are short-selling your results. Put in that preparation time, do a little bit of homework, and you’ll get results.Take This Example Now the best example I can think of to demonstrate this is my weekly call to SuperFastBusiness community members. In our paid private community, I deliver a one-hour mastermind each week, and it covers a set criteria of topics.And I prepare that in advance for each session. The results are about tenfold what I’d get if we just wing it. It still heavily relies on improv, because we have a mastermind and there’s other people contributing, but the structure is in place and the key points are outlined and covered throughout the one hour.Come along and see a mastermind for yourself. Join our community. Head along to SuperFastBusiness.com/membership, and you can join like-minded other professionals.Well I hope you’ve enjoyed today’s topic. I’m James Schramko, I’ll speak with you again soon.Subscribe to the podcast on iTunesFeel free to comment below.

In today's episode:00:00 - Charging a premium 00:22 - Customer service that stands out 01:17 - Be better than the competitionDo you know where 6 and 7 figure marketers talk about business? Click HERE Rapidly increase your six or seven figure per year business HERE Download the PDF TranscriptionTweetables:Want to command higher prices? [Click To Tweet] 30 Million Dollars For A Car! [Click To Tweet] What makes you stand out? [Click To Tweet] Transcription:30 million dollars. That’s how much a 1954 Mercedes Benz just sold for at auction, which is a world record. That's a fair bit of money for a commodity item. In this episode, I'm going to be talking about how you can actually charge a premium and get paid more instead of being a commodity or selling the lowest-priced offering in your marketplace.Great Customer Service So I just got back from an event, and I saw Mr. Wonderful Kevin O’Leary, talking about things that he looks for when he’s investing in a company. And one of them, which he places a value on, is customer service. And I’m talking about real customer service. The sort of service that I get from Greg when I catch a Qantas flight in the business class.You see, Greg is different to all the other people. He goes out of his way to make sure that you’re comfortable, that he takes your jacket, that he gives you an extra little champagne, that he makes sure that you’re comfortable when you’re asleep.He evens looks after you during the night with a special warmed up cup of cappuccino or espresso instead of having the filtered stuff. Because Greg puts himself in your shoes. Greg knows what it’s like to offer service.That’s why I’m more likely to pay more for a Qantas flight, than to just look up the cheapest fare or take the lowest bidder.How To Be Noticed If you have a look at Gatorade, and then there’s Powerade. You really have to stand out if you possibly can. So if you’ve got an ability to add some extra customer service, do it in your business. Have a look at how companies like Apple make you really love the product. I notice that Dell just went private, they’ve purchased back the company.Michael Dell’s really going to have to look for that softer side if he wants to be successful the next time around. Because the first time they were all hard and about numbers. So if you want to be a “me too” marketer, make sure that you have other things up your sleeve. There’s so many people willing to copy you in the marketplace.Today’s action step is to think about how can you come to the market a little bit better, a little bit different, a little more service-oriented than your competitors. How can you stand out – just like Greg does on the Qantas flights? I’m James Schramko, speak to you soon.Enjoyed the episode? Subscribe to the podcast on iTunesFeel free to comment below.

Clay Collins is back with the latest update on his ever-evolving software, LeadPages.Today's podcast highlights:00:35 - Clay is back 00:50 - Leadpages' constant improvement 01:26 - Changing the game with true feature leadership 02:21 - More deliberate innovation 03:49 - Building a group of thought leaders 04:42 - The number 1 job of the CEO 05:24 - Wanted: VP of Marketing 06:50 - Strengthening SuperFastBusiness as a superbrand 07:29 - From multi-products to one focal point 09:37 - Parenting a new generation of Internet marketers 11:28 - Rich content sources 14:02 - Interesting split test findings 18:37 - A new Facebook feature 20:10 - The 100% conversion landing page 21:34 - Wrapping things upJames helps you grow your business into a profit powerhouse HEREMasterMind with other serious business ownersSee Clay Collins and James Schramko speak at Underground XBuy LeadPages and get a bonus product Download the PDF TranscriptionTweetables:  The number 1 multiplier is this... [Click To Tweet] Aim for the content sweet spot. [Click To Tweet] Raw images win every time... [Click To Tweet] Transcription:Good day, James Schramko here, welcome back to SuperFastBusiness. I hope you like the new site, we’ve even adjusted the font on the site to make it easier to read. Please let me know what you think about it. Now I’m here with a special guest, Clay Collins, who has been on this show more than any other guest. Welcome, Clay.Clay: James, it’s great to be here. What is this, number 5? Number 4?A new feature every week James: Oh, listen, probably a listener would know. it might be 5, or 6 or 7. The reason you keep coming back is you just keep moving so damn fast, like this LeadPages machine of yours, seems every single week I’m getting a new email with a new feature. What is going on over there?Clay: You know, I think that when we first started out in this business, we realized that there were so many applications that we’d just release a feature once, and then maybe every two years they’d launch a version 2.0. And we set out from Day 1 to create a software company that was engineered from the ground up and architected to create a release every single week.And our version of leadership is not blowing people away with fancy marketing per se or having a bunch of takeaways or this bonus is going away or you know, there’s this discount, buy now. We wanted to lead the market with true feature leadership.And so it’s been our agenda to come out with huge market-changing releases at least every quarter. So in 2013 we came out with LeadPages, but in December of 2013 we came out with LeadBoxes, and then in January of 2014 we came out with LeadLinks.Today we came out with a new form of Facebook integration, and our goal in 2014 is to actually even accelerate even...

source: Wistia   If you are interested in the audio gear I use the most it is this:   Home Studio:Rode NTG-3 Shotgun Mic Rode Boompole with grip XLR extension Cable BeachTek DXA XLR mixer (This plugs into the Canon DSLR camera and powers the Mic)   (For Screen recordings I use a Rode Podcaster USB Mic)   When Out and About:I use a Rode SmartLav (plugged straight into iPhone)   What equipment are you using? (We talk about topics like this inside our private community)   Tweetables:Bad audio can ruin the best of videos. [Click To Tweet] Why you MUST use an external mic [Click To Tweet] Get your mic as close to your subject as possible. [Click To Tweet]  Want more episodes? Subscribe to the podcast on iTunes

In this news video: 00:11 - How you can grow your business using Wealthification 01:00 - Access this course for FREE!Check out all the other courses by joining SuperFastBusiness Rapidly increase your six or seven figure per year business HERE Access The Entire Course For FREETweetables:Grab this Free business training course. [Click To Tweet]. Growing a business is the best wealth path. [Click To Tweet].Transcription:Hi, James Schramko here and today I’m going to tell you about how you can get access to a course that will really grow your business much faster and the course is absolutely free.How It Started A few years ago in my mastermind, I noticed that the common challenges kept coming up. So what I did is document them and formed good responses for them in our weekly mastermind calls. Then what I thought I’d do is on the back of my very successful product called TrafficGrab is that I would create a nice, simple product that explains the answers to the biggest challenges. That product was called Wealthification.Initially, only available to my mastermind students, I then rolled it out as a separate product which people paid for. Now, I added it to SuperFastBusiness – my online Internet business community which is very close to a thousand members strong, and they’ve been loving it and learning a lot and growing their business. The members who’ve consumed and implemented this are getting great results.I’m Giving It Away For FREE Today though, you access this entire course for free. As part of my 2014 strategy for really growing SuperFastBusiness into an authority website, I’m giving away Wealthification. I want you to experience some top-level training and you can get to know me and see what else I might have available.Inside SuperFastBusiness, I have a lot more training like Wealthification and I also am there to answer your questions, to answer the challenges that you’re having and to respond right where the videos are to your needs. But for now, you can access the entire course on iTunes, YouTube and right here on SuperFastBusiness. So go ahead and register for the course, it’s absolutely free.You’ll also receive my video updates when I post them on SuperFastBusiness as an additional bonus to registering for the course. So, go ahead and access Wealthification for free. The opt-in will be right near this video on SuperFastBusiness.com and it’ll be on the homepage.I truly believe you can grow a profitable business that can fund your lifestyle. It’s worked for me, it’s worked for many of my students and now it’s yours. Enjoy!I’m James Schramko and I’ll speak to you soon.For more episodes,

In the news:00:27 – I was surprised at the stats on my emails sent / received last year 00:50 – Get a quick email report from this free app 01:25 – Why I had fewer emails sent out (and how you can too) 02:16 – I'd like to hear from you about your email volumesJoin around 1000 dedicated online marketers in this private forum Rapidly increase your six or seven figure per year business HERE Download the PDF TranscriptionTweetables:Filter your emails and automate your replies [Click To Tweet] Manage your inbox properly [Click To Tweet]Transcription:82,000 emails a year, 6,700 per month, 224 per emails day, that’s what I received in 2013. In this short video I’m going to talk to you about your email in and out ratio and how you can find out what sort of load you’re under and certainly how you can fix it.The good news is that I only sent out 21,000 emails from my Gmail account which is about 1600 per month and about 56 per day.Analyze Your Emails I published a course a while back called Inbox Relief and I put that out there as a product. It was well received. People liked it. It helps you actually eliminate emails from your inbox. One of the tools in Inbox Relief was a free tool that could sign up for and it would tell you your email activity.Now, that tool was taken off the market for years but they just released the report function again. It’s not as detailed as it used to be, but if you go to ToutApp.com, you can take the report.I’ll put a link right near this video where you can go and get your own report. I’m not affiliated with this, it’s just a great resource. Once you analyze your own emails, you can compare that to mine and then start working on improving your situation.Why I Sent Out Fewer Emails Of the 82,000 emails that I received in 2013, a lot of them went to labels or filters that I’ll never actually look at. Like a check label or a file or archive label. The reason I only sent 21,000 emails from my Gmail account is that most of them were replies and they were the bare minimum that I need to run my business on average.Now, there are peaks and troughs. The bulk of my emails were sent using a professional autoresponder service like Office Autopilot where I’ve sent millions of emails in 2013 but from a full on whitelist-cleared subscription-based email CRM system and that’s the best way marketers should operate.Hopefully you’re not sending broadcast emails from your Gmail account because that’s a sure way to get yourself in trouble. Make sure you use a proper system.Share Your Reports If you’d like to find out other ways to reduce your email system, check out Inbox Relief. I hope you enjoy the tool. I hope it gives you some insight into how busy your in...

In this episode:00:29 - Introducing video expert Ryan Spanger 02:22 - An overview of the session 03:03 - Personalised sales videos 03:45 - Ask questions, listen, take notes 05:39 - The Dream Engine guarantee 08:35 - A video production kit for less than $2,000This training is one of the many training videos located inside SuperFastBusiness.com Click To See More Get more details about SuperFastBusiness Live Interested in SilverCircle? Click Here Download the PDF TranscriptionTweetables:Make videos like a pro. [Click To Tweet] What makes great video? [Click To Tweet] Develop a filmmaker's eye. [Click To Tweet]Transcript:James: As you know, one of my best marketing activities is to create videos and put them out there on my website and in order to do that I’ve been through a steep learning curve. Especially with what equipment to use. I have tubs, like plastic tubs, full of discarded electrical equipment. I have microphones, cameras, cords, plugs, batteries. I think I have every possible combination.And I only wish I had attended a session like the one we’re about to have now where we get to find out from the guy who does it for a living, my friend Ryan Spanger here, who has a video production company.He does really good quality video productions and he knows exactly what gear you need to use. He also understands what it’s like as a smaller business and as a marketer that we’re not going to go out and buy the hundred thousand dollar gear, but we can, with a little bit of equipment, get a real edge on people who just want to do the cheap stuff.So I’m going to hand over to Ryan who’s a SilverCircle member and has been instrumental in helping me get my equipment set up properly and I’m still a work in progress and we’ve done some great reviews about it. But I’d love Ryan just to share directly with us, what are we going to be needing to make good quality videos. Let’s put it together for Ryan Spanger from DreamEngine.com.au.Ryan: Well thank you, James, and just so I can get an idea of where you guys are at the moment, can you raise your hand if you’re using video at the moment to promote your business? OK, awesome. A lot of people. Now can you tell me how many people are you... would you like to be using video more than you’re currently using? Yeah. And what about not using video at all but want to start? OK, cool.The Gardening Service Story So this is pretty relevant and you guys are doing better than I was for a long time because I spent years making videos for other companies to help them grow their business but I wasn’t actually applying the same techniques to my own business. I was sort of like the story of the gardening service where my lawn was growing and I wasn’t actually, you know, applying the stuff to myself.And what I discovered is once I actually started doing this in my own business, things really took off, so I want to tell you some of the things I’ve been doing in my business to use video to make more sales.Personal Sales Videos

2013 best posts:Lead Capture Page Conversion Tips With Clay Collins From LeadPages4 Steps To 6 Figures Within 92 Days By Kyle TullyWhy I Am Replacing My MacAir and iMac With ThisChris Farrell And James Schramko Reveal Recurring Income StrategiesOptimizePress 2 Review James Dyson Truth RevealedEmotional Documentaries Are PowerfulJames Schramko And Ezra Firestone Discuss The Growing Ecommerce IndustryMy New Video Studip SetupHow To Get BroadCast Audio Quality FreeHow To Get 40% Conversions Even With Weak Sales CopyBonus:How To Design Powerful Training CoursesPeep Laja From Conversionxl.com Reveals Common Conversion MistakesGet access to all of James' courses HERE Learn 10 steps that could double your profit. Click here Download the PDF TranscriptionTweetables:What clicked in 2013? [Click To Tweet] The Top Ten on SFB [Click To Tweet] Great example of top blog posts [Click To Tweet]Transcript:James Schramko here with the Top 10 posts from SuperFastBusiness for the year. So I’ve gone back through SuperFastBusiness, I’ve had a look at the most trafficked posts, the ones where we’ve had the comments, and I want to just give you a little walk-through of the top ten.LeadPages

News highlights:00:00 - A case of brand mismatch 00:26 - Align with your promise 00:40 - Avoid losing businessAccess all of James' business training HERE SilverCircle is currently OPEN Click Here Download the PDF TranscriptionTweetables:How accurate is your branding? [Click To Tweet] Branding FAIL [Click To Tweet] Trancription:I’m doing some Christmas shopping, and the interesting thing is this brand mismatch. I’ve gone to a shop and their pitch sign is, “Talk to the textperts.” The thing is, the people in the store know nothing about the products. I picked up a product, I asked the guy about it, he gave me the absolute wrong advice. And then I went to another one, and they also knew nothing about the products.Deliver what you promise Now here’s the thing: if you’re going to sell stuff, try and align yourself with your brand promise. If you say you know about something, you really have to know about something. There’s no place in the market for shops or retailers who are not experts but pretend they are.It would make me go to a different store. In fact, there’s a store just one level above this store, where they do know what they’re talking about, and I will make that transit next time when I’m about to spend my money.I hope you’ve enjoyed this little Christmas tip. I look forward to catching up with you soon. I’m James Schramko, and this was filmed on an iPhone and nothing else.Enjoyed the episode? Subscribe to the podcast on iTunesFeel free to comment below.

In this episode:00:15 - Touching base with your team 01:42 - Workshopping in California 02:49 - What should you be doing to succeed?Do you know where 6 and 7 figure marketers talk about business? Click HERE MasterMind with other serious business owners HERE Download the PDF TranscriptionTweetables:Plan now for future success. [Click To Tweet] Are you doing what you need to succeed? [Click To Tweet] Build strengths, eliminate weaknesses. [Click To Tweet]Transcription:James Schramko here with a business news update. Now I’ve just come back from a trip, where I’ve been to a few different countries and I’m going to share with you why I went and what I did while I was over there and what I’m doing now that I’m back home.Catching up with the team So the first stop was the Philippines, and I was able to meet with all of my managers who run the various divisions of the business - our SEO business, our website development business, our affiliate marketing arm, and our Internet business coaching communities, SuperFastBusiness and SilverCircle.With each of the managers, I was able to go through our performance for the quarter, and what we’re planning to do next quarter, and to spend that quality time going over the numbers, the challenges, the strengths where we’re going really, really well, and what we really want to spend our focus on. And that time with the managers allowed us to have tremendous vision and focus for what we’re about to do next year.Now after that, I took the entire team to lunch, and it was really good to put all the people in a room and to see that we have a real and substantial business there that’s over fifty people now in SuperFastBusiness. But it doesn’t feel like that when I’m working from home or from wherever I happen to be traveling to.So we are a real business with real people, and it’s  nice to show them that I care a lot about them and that we are happy to share the vision of where we’re going and to have real connections. Now we’re coming up to our fourth year as a team, so it’s pretty special, and it’s a testimony to being able to run a business remotely, which we referred to a few weeks ago when I suggested you read the book “Remote”.Assessing the business The next stop for me was to head over to the United States, to California, and I spent a few days workshopping my own business, looking for the best in me and what are my absolute strong points that I want to focus on only and weeding out all the things that I shouldn’t be doing. Peter Drucker really said this well. He said we should focus on our strengths and eliminate our weaknesses by having someone else do them. Words to that effect.So what I did is write down a list of everything that I’m doing, and make sure that I’m not doing anything that could be done by somebody else. Now I do like making these videos,

News Highlights:00:09 - My simple video production gear 00:50 - Check your position and lighting 01:18 - You can make videos almost anywhereAccess all of James' courses here Let James show you the next ten things you can do to double your business HERE Download the PDF TranscriptionTweetables:Making videos with iPhone  [Click To Tweet] Make the most of what you have  [Click To Tweet] Be creative  [Click To Tweet]Trancription: James Schramko here and today’s video is about how to make a video if you’ve got absolutely no equipment at all.You Can Create Your Video Anywhere You Are So I’m standing out here at a development site in the Philippines. I’m in the shade because the sun is just too bright to be filming. I’m standing next to a road so you will hear road noise but hopefully even with a little bit of wind, this little Rode smartLav with a windsock is going to shield a lot of that.There’s construction noise in the background and hopefully when I run this video through auphonic, it might actually remove some of the noise. I’m also going to blow the background up a little bit using an app called TiltShift video.So I’m literally running the Rode smartLav mic into the iPhone which I’m holding with my hand. It’s probably a little bit shaky but that might steady it up.What You Need For A Basic Video Setup So the main factors are, I’m looking at my position in the camera. I want a little bit of light just above my head to the top of the screen. I want my side to the side of the camera there and even just using the front camera, I can watch myself back on the screen.I’m going to get a 720 aspect which is 1280 X 720 which is going to be fine for Youtube or Wistia-style videos on my blog. So anyway, the point is you have a video device in your pocket most of the time.If you get this smartLav then now you can really extend your capacity to make videos. So even if you don’t have WiFi like I don’t have today, you can make videos. I hope you’ve enjoyed this tip. I’m James Schramko, speak with you on the next episode.Want more episodes? Subscribe to the podcast on iTunesPlease leave your comment below:

In today's business tip:00:01 - What percentage of sales should go to marketing? 01:09 - Figuring out your investment per customer 01:57 - Try to track returnsAccess all of James' courses HERE Are you making more than $10,000 per month? Click Here Download the PDF TranscriptionTweetables:Should you have a marketing budget? [Click To Tweet]. Consider lifetime customer value. [Click To Tweet].Transcription:What percentage of your sales should be spent on marketing? That’s one of the questions I had on SuperFastBusiness.com. So here’s my answer.No strict percentage It shouldn’t really be a percentage. Now, I know in my old business, say the Mercedes-Benz dealership, they had a KPI or a key performance indicator that they would budget towards marketing. And that was tracking at around 1 percent of total sales revenue. Now, in your business, you might have an amount that you’re spending on marketing and hopefully, you’re tracking it.Now it can’t always be tracked, and if you have a look at the philosophy of companies like Apple, they’re very strong on branding and not everything is trackable to the dollar. If you go the direct response route, then everything is trackable. In a business like mine, some things aren't completely trackable.Perhaps if I go overseas, I attend an event, that mightn't be instantly trackable. But I will feel for the general rise in business when I go and meet people and start putting through orders. And every time I attend a podcast, a new person finds out about me. And every time I post on Facebook, a new person finds out about me.So as long as you’re allocating a percentage of your energy towards marketing, and continuing to grow your business, that’s more important than a strict percentage.How much is a customer worth? What you really want to do is take the total amount of sales that you have for the lifetime value of your customer, and work out what a customer is worth to you. This is called lifetime customer value. Now, there are a few things to consider. There is how many times they repurchase, how long they stay for. You may not ultimately know.You might need to sort of draw a line in the sand and say, well, in a 12-month period, the average customer is worth X to me, this is how much I could invest to get those customers. And you also need to factor whether you have a lifetime customer model, or a transactional model where you have just one-time customers.Track your returns In any case, just make sure that you are thinking about your marketing, that when you invest in marketing that you try, wherever possible, to track the return on that investment so that you can make better calculations. Most business owners aren’t tracking anything, so any kind of tracking is a good start, perhaps a simple spreadsheet. What you spend, where you spent it, and how much business came from that.Now if you have an online business, then you can use Google Analytics for tracking goals. You can also do things in your shopping cart like track the value of a customer and the value of a product line, how many people purchased a different product after the first product. So these things are all important. In any case, it’s not a strict percentage, but it’s something you need to pay attention to.I hope this is helpful. I’m James Schramko, catch you again soon.