A short YouTube talk (Jeff For Local Marketing) arguing that reaching ideal customers often works better indirectly — especially via referrals and top-of-funnel content — than by direct advertising. Jeff contrasts costly, price-sensitive direct ads at the funnel bottom with content marketing and referrals that build relationships and produce higher-close-rate customers.
And today I have an interesting topic because the more and more I work with clients, the more I realize that to get to their ideal customer, it often is not a direct path. So today I'm calling it the indirect path to success. Now what I mean, what do I mean by that? Well, I started noticing that when, and you may have experienced this when you're trying to go directly to your customer that will buy your product. What is it, what is it typically that you do? Well, most people will run ads and they are swimming in a very, very shark infested water. Meaning what's happening is all your competitors are down there focusing on that end user, really their ideal customer. And what happens, those people are in a situation where now they're looking at everybody. And what are they? They're price sensitive. So what happens is it costs the business owner more money to get in front of them, that is paying for the ads and then their profit margins are lower. Well, for years, in fact, since 2010, I've been in the content marketing business and I tended to work at the top of that funnel. If we think of a funnel down at the bottom is going where, that's where the end user is really coming out the other end. But that's where all the advertising, that's where all the big money is spent. But also, and I'm not saying 100%, but most of the time those people are more price shoppers and the profit margins are less. At the top is the area where we are getting to know people and we're putting out content that's answering questions for them that they'll, that they'll be asking naturally on their buyer's journey. Well, when you do this, what happens is you're attracting these people and you're building a relationship. But today I want to talk about the indirect path because what happens is.
A lot of times you get what you get referrals. And referrals are really, quite honestly, they're our best source of customers, aren't they? Because, you know, many, many years ago I said, hey, when, when somebody would send me a referral, it was about an 80% done deal. Now raise your hand if that's not you. I said if it's not you. In other words, if somebody sends you a referral for your business and it doesn't matter what business is in, you could be insurance, real estate, health care, it doesn't matter. But when somebody refers someone to you who they knew closely, the deal is pretty much done. You'd have to just really screw it up to not get that deal. Here's the thing. That is an indirect path to success.
