Why It May Not Be A Marketing Problem
Hey Reader,
A dental practice came to me believing they needed more Google ads and to do more direct mail campaigns.
That made sense on the surface. If you want more revenue, the obvious answer is often to bring in more leads, more calls, more traffic, more patients.
But when I looked deeper into the business, marketing was not the real problem.
When investors in that business came to me they were sure it was poor ads, but the ads I was running for them were outperforming all of the competitors. When I looked closer it was they couldn't keep up with the demand.
Calls were being missed, potential patients were falling through the cracks, and when I looked at the numbers, the opportunity represented roughly $2 million in potential lost revenue at a minimum.
That completely changes the growth question.
When you are analyzing your business Instead of just automatically adding more marketing start to look at your customer journey in detail and figure out where your buyers are getting stuck.
The challenge is adding more is not always the answer
100% of business owners I work with say "I need more eyes". They may be right, but usually if that was true one Facebook ad would make them rich.
If business already has demand or traffic and something inside the customer journey is broken, adding more people can actually make the problem bigger.
You are simply sending more opportunities into a system that is already losing them.
The Shift To Get Better Results
Before adding more demand, look at what is happening to the demand you already have.
- Where are people showing buying intent?
- Where do they stop?
- Where does the business fail to respond, follow up, convert, or make the next step easy?
Sometimes the fastest path to growth is not creating something new. It is finding the revenue that is already trying to happen.
Nine times out of ten the fastest path to increase revenue is buried somewhere in your business right now, without adding more effort.
What happens after you focus on the right bottleneck
In this case, the data revealed a much larger revenue opportunity than another marketing campaign would have addressed.
The business did not first need more visibility.
It needed to strengthen the system behind the visibility it already had.
That is why I always want to understand what the business is telling us before deciding what strategy comes next. Where are your bottlenecks and what is in your way? By focusing on where the real problem exists you get faster results.
How to apply this in your business
- Look for existing demand. Where are people already calling, clicking, visiting, replying, requesting information, adding products to cart, or asking about your services?
- Find the drop-off points. Where do interested people disappear before becoming customers? What pages on your website?
- Measure the value of the leak. A small conversion problem can become a very large revenue problem when enough people are moving through the business.
- Fix the system before increasing volume. Improve follow-up, conversion, customer experience, response time, automation, sales processes, or whatever is preventing demand from turning into revenue.
- Then decide whether you need more marketing. Once the business is capturing the opportunities it already has, increasing demand becomes much more valuable.
Before you spend more money trying to attract more people, ask yourself:
What is happening to the people who are already trying to buy from us?
Inside the Studio
I finally have my case studies together in one place, (adding more weekly) which I’m really excited about because they show something I talk about all the time:
There is no single path to growth.
In some businesses, the opportunity was hiding in a revenue leak. In others, it came from strengthening the offer, reconnecting with existing customers, improving how the business was positioned, or building a better system for turning demand into revenue.
That is why I wanted the case study page to show more than just the results. I wanted it to show the strategy behind the results and how different the right next move can look depending on the business.
You can explore the case studies here and see the different ways we’ve increased revenue, improved conversion, strengthened offers, built demand, and created more scalable systems.
This month’s featured service: Thrive eCom Accelerator™
Each month, I’m going to highlight one of the services inside A Call To Thrive so you can get a better sense of what I actually help businesses with and where each offer fits. I offer a lot and I figure this is the best way to help you figure out where your business might benefit the most.
This month, I’m highlighting the Thrive eCom Accelerator™.
This is for ecommerce businesses that already have something working but want to increase revenue by 30%-60%.
In this program is filled with proven strategy, case studies and results others have already gotten.
It's not a theory or a guess on what might work but proven process to increase revenue and if you are ready to show up for your brand, invest time in making it succeed, this program might be fore you.
I currently have businesses inside the Accelerator working on increasing revenue by walking through the transformation process.
Some businesses start with Scale Clarity™ first because they need help determining the strongest growth strategy before deciding what to build or fix.
Others already know ecommerce is where the opportunity is and move directly into the Thrive eCom Accelerator™.
And for businesses that need to build their brand and assets first before they invest in Accelerator, Thrive Launchpad™ can help strengthen positioning, buyer trust, and the foundation needed before scaling further.
There isn’t one right starting point for every business. It depends on what is happening now, where you want to go, and what is getting in the way.
The Year End Is Almost Here, Where Do You Want To Take Your Business?
Before deciding that your business needs more marketing, a new offer, a redesigned website, AI, a salesperson, or another tactic, it helps to get clear on where you’re actually trying to go.
Start with where you want the business to be 12 months from now and work backward from there.
The Business Goal Roadmap™ is a free assessment designed to help you look at where your business is today, where you want it to go, and what may need to happen in between.
There’s no opt-in required. You can simply download it and use it.
|
Latest Podcasts
Ep 285 IS YOUR BUSINESS INVISIBLE TO AI SEARCH?
Your next customer may ask an AI assistant for a recommendation before visiting a search results page. What happens if your business never enters the answer?
In this episode of Thrive Radio, I talk with Kevin Armstrong about the changing ways customers discover businesses and the practical work of understanding what those customers need. A former product leader at Amazon and SpaceX, Kevin now builds tools through Armstrong HoldCo, including Website Auditor, which helps businesses investigate their visibility in AI search.
In this podcast you will learn:
- How AI assistants are changing the way customers discover businesses.
- Learn which buyers recognize your product’s value.
- Build trust by listening before you pitch.
- Connect your message to the outcome customers want.
- Use AI while retaining your judgment and voice.
- Research the right media outlet before seeking coverage.
Ep 286 BUILDING A BRAND FOR AN OVERLOOKED MARKET
When Deborah North's daughter started wrestling, she saw girls participating in a sport without gear that truly considered their needs. That experience became the inspiration for Yes Athletics. In this episode of Thrive Radio, Aimee Montgomery talks with Deborah about moving from recruiting into physical products, building an advisory network, reaching coaches directly, and finding her brand's difference while competing with larger companies. Listen for a candid look at customer understanding, founder responsibility, and the mission of helping girls feel they belong.
In this podcast you will learn:
- Recognizing unmet needs in an overlooked customer group.
- Moving from a service business into physical products.
- Finding advisors through conversations and introductions.
- Connecting product design to fit, coverage, and customer experience.
- Reaching coaches with problems their teams need solved.
- Finding support through the financial and emotional demands of entrepreneurship.
- Stepping back from comparison to clarify your brand's difference
Ep 287 BEFORE YOU GROW: FIX THE OPERATIONS HOLDING YOU BACK
If every decision and daily problem comes back to you, growing the business can feel like adding to an already full workload. In this episode of Thrive Radio, Aimee Montgomery talks with John Roddy about reducing founder dependence through stronger operations, team development, and clearer ownership of the work. Their conversation explores capacity before demand, growth that fits your life, and the preparation required for a business to continue beyond its founder. Listen for practical questions about what needs to change before you take the next step.
In this podcast you will learn:
- Recognizing when founder dependence is limiting the business.
- Developing the team while helping the owner step back.
- Examining capacity before increasing demand.
- Looking beyond staffing numbers to training, culture, and leadership.
- Building trust through direct observation and conversations.
- Defining growth around the owner's goals and priorities.
- Preparing operations for a sale or family handoff.
- Choosing support that matches the business's actual needs.
To Your Success,
Aimee
P.S. If you'd like to access my previous newsletters you can find them here.