Do you find yourself constantly busy but not making progress in your business? Are you unsure which marketing strategies will work for you and tired of trying one tactic after another without seeing results?
In this episode of Shop Talk, “The Ultimate Breakthrough Business Formula,” I share precisely what you need to know to move the needle in your business! From creating awareness to nurturing prospects into paying customers and even taking it up a notch by delighting your customers to create ambassadors, I’ll share the exact process I have used to help my clients and build my own business.
If you’re ready for a comprehensive guide to business growth, listen to “The Ultimate Breakthrough Business Formula” and take your business to new heights!
Snapshot of this episode:
- 1:39 – A Proven Method For Business Growth
- 3:22 – The Breakthrough Formula
- 6:21 – Marketing Your Business For Success
- 19:00 – Strategies for Effective Sales Conversion
- 21:36 – The Power of Delighting Your Customers
- 31:33 – Why Your Business Strategies May Not Be Working
- 38:25 – How I Can Guide You Toward Your Goals
- 39:17 – The Path To Success
Do you feel like you have a never-ending list of things to do, you’re working all the time, yet, not actually moving the needle in your business?
You’re not alone!
If there’s one common thread among entrepreneurs, it’s that they are motivated go-getters that know how to get stuff done and are REALLY good at keeping themselves busy….the question is, are they busy working on the right things?
And to make matters worse, if you lined up 100 marketers and asked them what you need to do to grow your business, you’ll likely get a bunch of different strategies. Honestly, it’s not that one is wrong and another is right. It’s that they all have taken different journeys while building their businesses and have found business strategies for growth that work for them. And, as I’m sure you know, there’s more than one way to grow a business.
So, let me tell you, if you’re…
- Feeling frustrated from a lack of progress in your business despite putting in long hours and hard work
- Confused about which marketing strategies will work for you
- Not sure which marketing channels to focus on and how to make them work effectively
- Tired of trying one tactic after another, from social media ads to email campaigns, without seeing the results you were hoping for
You’re in the right place!!!
Today, I’m sharing what we call, The Ultimate Business Breakthrough Formula!
A Proven Method For Business Growth
Before I dive in, let me introduce myself. I’m Misty Kortes, and for the last decade, I’ve helped entrepreneurs package their knowledge, expertise, and experience into successful online businesses so they can serve the world in a meaningful way, make an impact, and ultimately be rewarded with freedom, flexibility, and control over their own life.
Ultimately, I am an example of what’s possible. I go before our clients in the trenches, testing, experimenting, making mistakes, failing forward, and experiencing incredible wins so that I can teach you in detail what actually works.
And because of that, I’ve been blessed with a multi-million dollar full-service coaching and implementation agency that has helped over 3,600 entrepreneurs create, build, launch, and expand their businesses, generating millions of dollars in revenue as well.
And today, I will share the exact process we’ve used to build our business and help our clients.
There are 3 things I will cover are:
- The Breakthrough Formula: This will help you understand your customer journey at a 10,000-foot level.
- Strategies That Work: These are the exact strategies we use daily in our business and deploy for clients.
- The Path To Success: This will clarify where you’re at in your business and what you should focus on.
The Breakthrough Formula
I’m sure you’re wondering, “What exactly is this “Breakthrough Formula?”
The Breakthrough Formula is a mix of strategies a company uses to communicate and move its target audience from being a prospect to becoming a customer, an ambassador, and eventually a life-long customer.
Essentially, it’s the lifecycle of a customer.
To give you a better idea of how it works, let’s break down each stage:
- Awareness: In the awareness stage, you are looking for ways to get you, your company, and offers in front of your perfect ideal customer (PIC).
- Capture: The next stage is where you deploy various strategies to capture the contact information of your ideal customer so that you can add them to your email marketing list.
- Nurture: Here, your goal is to continue to grow the relationship with the people who have joined your community through your email marketing list. The ultimate goal of this stage is to get these new connections to know, like, and trust you.
- Convert: This is what every business owner wants…to convert your subscribers (aka leads) into customers. The mistake that many entrepreneurs make is that they want to create awareness and immediately jump to converting. And while that can sometimes happen, more often than not, converting a prospect into a paying customer requires a number of INTENTIONAL communication and touchpoints to build trust so that they are willing to invest in your solutions.
- Delight: Don’t make the mistake of thinking the sale is the end goal. If you want to build a business with raving fans (or, as I call them – ambassadors), you’ll want to look for ways to delight and wow your new customers.
- Ambassador: An ambassador is someone who can’t help but to tell other people about you, your business, or your program. Here, you want to be intentional about encouraging your ambassadors to spread the word.
- Retain: This is where you look for ways to create a life-long customer.
And that is the 10k-foot view of the breakthrough formula!
Now there’s one thing I want to make sure is clear. There are only 3 business strategies for growth that you should focus on in your business if you are under $5 million in revenue. They are:
- Marketing
- Sales
- And delivering your programs, products, and services to delight your customers
I know looking at the Breakthrough Formula can be overwhelming. Do you want to know the truth? The formula is simply a set of strategies to support the 3 categories I just shared with you!
To simplify it, I’d like to show you how it works:
- The first 3 stages, awareness, capture, and nurture, are where you focus on marketing.
- The convert stage is where sales take place.
- And the last 3 stages, delight, ambassador, and retain, are where you are intentional about delivering and delighting.
Now, in each stage, there are specific strategies that you can deploy to support your intended purpose. Let’s walk through each one together as I provide specific examples.
Marketing Your Business For Success
Marketing is critical to your success since it helps you get your message in front of your PIC, builds brand awareness, and ultimately drives sales. Without effective marketing, your business may struggle to gain traction and compete in today’s crowded marketplace.
Awareness
This is where you are looking for ways to get you, your company, and offers in front of your PIC.
How can you do that?
- Website
- Networking
- SEO
- Social Media Marketing
- Facebook Advertising
- LinkedIn Advertising
- TikTok Advertising
- Google PPC
- Podcasting
- Speaking
- Events
Now, this isn’t a complete list, of course – but these are the top strategies we recommend to many of our clients.
Capture
This is where you deploy various strategies to capture the contact information of your ideal customer so that you can add them to your email marketing list.
The top 3 strategies used to capture leads are:
- Networking
- Lead Magnets
- Quiz
HOW you capture the leads is through:
- Forms
- Landing Pages
- Pop-ups
- Content Upgrades
- On Your Blog
- And Events
Nurture
This is a critical stage in the breakthrough process because this is the stage that builds trust and rapport with your prospects. Unfortunately, this is also the stage most entrepreneurs want to skip over. Your goal is to continue to grow the relationship with the people who have joined your community through your email marketing list.
How can you do that?
- Newsletter
- Drip Campaign
- Weekly Broadcasts
- Blogging
- Podcasting
- Webinars
- Facebook Live Calls
I want to point out that, in our company, we do all of these (and recommend that our clients do as well.) But, to deploy these strategies, you have to have CONTENT. Content is the key here. Without it, you cannot send a newsletter, a weekly broadcast, etc.
This is why we HIGHLY recommend that our clients host a weekly Facebook Live call so that they can use the content (aka video recording) to nurture their prospects and customers like I am doing here today with all of you!
But the content you create through your FB Live doesn’t just end with nurture! You can use that video to…
- Write an SEO blog article
- Create short videos
- Design social media posts
- Create lead magnets
- Extract the audio for a podcast episode
How you can repurpose and use your live video content is truly mindblowing. This is why I am CONSTANTLY talking about this strategy as the key to simplifying your marketing efforts.
Strategies for Effective Sales Conversion
Conversion is the ultimate goal of any marketing effort. By effectively nurturing and engaging with your prospects, you can establish trust and credibility, ultimately driving them to take action and become loyal customers who can help grow your business for years to come.
Convert
We all get excited about this stage – turning our prospects into customers! In this stage, you need things like…
- Sales Strategy
- Sales Process
- Sales Scripts
- Sales Pipeline
- Proposals
- Order Forms
- Sales Funnels
The idea is to create a smooth transition from prospect to customer. This way, you will have higher closing rates and make an enjoyable process for everyone.
The Power of Delighting Your Customers
Delighting your customers is crucial for the long-term success of your business. By exceeding their expectations and providing exceptional service, you can create loyal customers who continue to buy from you and become your biggest advocates, driving even more business to your doorstep through word-of-mouth recommendations.
Delight
As I mentioned earlier, don’t make the mistake of thinking the sale is the end goal. We’d all love to build a business of raving fans (or, as I call them – ambassadors). To do that, you’ll want to look for ways of being INTENTIONAL about delighting and wowing your new customers.
The reality is most businesses just deliver – they don’t delight. Let me give you a super simple example. I walk into a coffee house to grab a coffee, and they say, “Good news, your coffee is fresh and hot today.”
Wait, what? Um, that’s DELIVERING.
But, if that same coffee house takes a few extra seconds to make a cool design on my coffee and write my name on the cup – that’s DELIGHTING.
And what happens when I walk away? I immediately pull my phone out, take a pic, share it on social, tag the business, and share my delightful experience.
Now, I know that most of our businesses are not built like that, but there are still things that we can do. For example, I had a program I offered a few years ago called “The Seven Figure Apprentice.” When new members came on board, I sent them a “Shock and Awe” package. It was designed to create a reaction: I’m shocked and “Awe…that was so sweet, I didn’t expect it.”
In the package, I sent them an extraordinary t-shirt and a mug with a note that said, “Every time you use this, think of us as a couple of friends just having coffee.” I also sent them a framed million-dollar bill with a note that told them to hang it on their wall to keep their eye on the prize.
That’s just one example. Here are other strategies that you should consider deploying:
- Welcome Email
- Onboarding Process
- Shock and Awe
- New Customer Gift
- Satisfaction Survey
- Membership Portal
- Community Badges
Ambassador
Remember, ambassadors are people who had such a great experience that they can’t help but tell other people about you, your company, your team, or programs, products, and services.
Here, you want to be intentional about encouraging your ambassadors to tell others. How can you do that?
- Shout Outs
- Group Ambassadors
- Quick Qins
- Success Stories
- Testimonials
- Case Studies
- Online Reviews
- Refer-a-Friend
Retain
Finally, this is the stage where you look for ways to create a life-long customer. Some of the most effective ways to do this are to:
- Upsell
- Cross-sell
- Bundle
- Continuity Programs
- Abandoned Cart
- Payment Recovery
Why Your Business Strategies May Not Be Working
Now, you have a ton of strategies to use for each of the three categories in your business. In fact, we have deployed every method I shared with you in our business and with our clients. So, I know firsthand that those strategies work!!!
Now, you may be thinking, I’ve done some of those things…but I didn’t get great results.
I share this because I often hear this from new clients we bring on board. So, I thought it would be a good idea to discuss why you may not have gotten the results you thought you should.
Executing the right strategies (at the wrong time).
We all know that timing is everything. So, to implement a strategy, you have to lay the foundation that will make it a success. Let me explain. Let’s say you want to create an automated email sales funnel to sell your services, but you didn’t do the work to nurture your prospects before the launch. You may think email marketing doesn’t work because no one purchased your product or program, right? In reality, if you had nurtured your prospects, it would have created the interest they needed to create a successful email marketing campaign.
Not getting the complete strategy.
Consuming content online through YouTube, social media, blogs, and even through Facebook Live calls are EXTREMELY valuable….but they also have a risk.
Typically, the content you gain access to for free doesn’t provide all the details. A lot of content online is designed to create awareness, pique interest, and get us to purchase the complete solution.
Reverse engineering can work…but if you aren’t getting the results you think you should by doing this, you are likely missing some key components of any business strategy for growth. The only way to access those key things is to become a customer of that person sharing the content with you.
Not having the skill set to implement it fully.
We, as entrepreneurs, live in such an amazing time. We have access to SO MANY tools and resources. But, with those tools come learning curves. It’s not your fault you haven’t learned ALL the tools… it’s challenging.
And then, on the flip side, you can hire someone to do it for you – but it’s REALLY expensive.
We totally get it. That’s why we’ve been working the last year to release a new program that eliminates a lot of these challenges for our clients.
Over the next few weeks, we’ll be sharing more…but for now, I want you to know we’ve heard you, and we have a solution.
You need more than just one strategy.
I see it all the time – marketers boasting, “This is the key to your success!” They say that because it was the key to their success. I’m not saying that their strategy doesn’t work; it just may not work for your business. Everything depends on what your specific needs are.
Remember, there isn’t just one way to grow a business. Instead, everything you do is the sum of all the strategies that work for your particular situation at that specific time.
How I Can Guide You Toward Your Goals
At this point, you may be wondering, how does all of this fit together? Where can I get the help I need. Well, let me tell you: I’ve got your back! First, I would need to figure out where you’re at in your business. Think of it this way…
What if you were coming to my house for the first time and called me up, saying, “I think I’m lost. Can you help guide me?” I would need to know where you’re at to give you specific directions.
The same goes for your business. If I know where you are today and where you are headed, I can lay out a specific plan to guide you in the direction you want to go. To do this, I will take a look at what’s working for you and what’s not. Using this information, I will recommend the specific actions you should take working within the Breakthrough Formula to market your business, make the sales, and delight your customers.
The Path To Success
We have identified the stages every entrepreneur goes through when building a successful business. Think of your business growth like climbing a mountain. Each stage along the path to success is a basecamp. When you are at each basecamp, there are things that need to be done before you can ascend to the next phase.
Start
The first stage of any business is to simply start your business. In the beginning stage, you need to take care of:
- Business Model
- Market Research
- Irresistible Offer
- Program Development
- Legal
Build
In the next stage, you are working to build the business. This is the stage where you:
- Building Brand Awareness
- Lead Generation
- Sales Strategy
- Delightful Customer Experience
Grow
Now it’s time to grow your business. In this stage, you need to:
- Strong Brand Presence
- Product Depth & Innovation
- Increase Lifetime Customer Value
- Client Retention
- Getting Help & Hiring
- Processes & Systems For Scaling
Expand
After you have grown your business, it’s time to see how you can expand. Here you will focus on:
- Innovate
- Expand Into Different Markets/Verticles
- Add Additional Programs, Products, or Services
- Enhancing Customer Experience
- Build Strong Leadership Team
Thrive
In this stage, you are looking at the long-term, considering how your business will look without you. Some important considerations are:
- Innovate & Improve
- Strengthen Brand
- Strengthen Financial Performance
- Develop A Legacy Plan
My question to you is: where are you on the Path To Success? No matter where you find yourself today, our team can develop a Custom Growth Plan for your business! We’ll do a deep dive into your business to determine where you are and what you need to do to move the needle so you can reach your goals.
We’re offering a FREE business and marketing audit to determine where you are and what you need to do to move the needle in your business! We will use a combination of the Breakthrough Formula and the Path to Success to help you achieve your goals. By auditing each of those areas of the formula in your business, we’ll determine what things you already have in place and what you still need to put in place.
Finding Success in Your Business
You can use various strategies to grow your business, whether you want to attract new leads, make more sales, or provide better customer service. However, implementing the right strategy at the right time and getting the complete picture of your company and its specific needs are all critical factors for success.
If you’ve struggled to achieve the results you want, it’s possible that you’ve encountered some of these obstacles. But don’t worry – there are solutions to overcome them. With the right guidance and support, you can make significant progress toward your goals. Remember, business success is an exciting journey. You can reach new heights of achievement and fulfillment with the right mindset, skills, and support.
