Last night at Cloudland, 96five hosted The Buzz, and we had an incredible time diving into the 7 Secrets to Digital Marketing Success.
Now, let’s get one thing straight—secrets aren’t set in stone. They’re simply bits of knowledge waiting to be uncovered. Whether you stumble upon them, figure them out through trial and error, or have someone pull back the curtain for you, they’re out there. And that’s exactly what we did last night; we lifted the curtain on some of the key foundations of digital marketing.
- Identify your "bread and butter" customers and focus on building volume with them. Don't be afraid to turn away the wrong clients.
- Align your brand with your business goals. Evaluate how your brand is perceived and ensure it reflects your future vision.
- Retain customers through loyalty programs and convert existing traffic into sales. Use tools like CRM to engage with customers who already know your business.
- Keep your content short and engaging. If it’s too long-winded, your audience will lose interest. Focus on getting the essence of your message across quickly.
- Use retargeting ads, email follow-ups, and CRM-driven reminders to stay in front of customers. Make sure you’re visible during their buying journey.
- Know where your business stands by monitoring key metrics and using business intelligence dashboards. Set clear goals and benchmarks for future growth.
- Don’t be afraid to test new ideas and approaches. Innovation through experimentation is key to discovering strategies that work.
Remember The Wizard of Oz? Everyone feared the powerful, all-knowing Wizard… until Toto pulled back the curtain and revealed that it was just an ordinary man working behind the scenes. That’s a lot like digital marketing—what seems complex and mysterious often comes down to simple, foundational principles.
When we pulled back the curtain on the Seven Secrets of Digital Marketing Success, you might have had a moment of disappointment. “Where’s the magic formula for 1,000 instant Facebook likes?” Or maybe someone in the back was hoping for a “spend $1, make $10,000” shortcut.
Sure, every now and then, an app goes viral, and someone cashes in. But for the rest of us—the business owners building something meaningful—the real secret is simple: do the basics well.
No matter the platform—Google Ads, Instagram’s latest feature, or a future social network yet to be revealed—the core principles don’t change. That was the heart of last night’s presentation. We focused on key areas where many business owners get stuck.
So, as you go through the PowerPoint PDF, take time to jot down your thoughts. Writing things down is a powerful way to turn ideas into action.
At its core, if you don’t truly understand your own business, the brand that represents you, your target customer, or the journey they take to find your product or service solution, then you’re relying on the “Good Luck Journey,” not a strategy for success. Keep in mind: luck can’t be measured or replicated, but a solid strategy can. If you want to develop your business into a mature, scalable operation for future growth, it’s crucial to start building a model based on these key elements now.
Our seven secrets last night covered these essential areas that any business owner or operator needs for success. You might recall I said the two most important words in marketing are “What Next?” As we go through these principles, keep a pen and paper handy to answer the “What Next?” question.
Who is your customer? 🤔
Starting off in business, you can feel that sense of either desperation or being the fool-hardy conqueror. When you are trying to feed your family, any business is good business. When you have the head of the conqueror, you believe everybody needs your product or service, and you just need two minutes in a locked room to convince them. In reality, success comes from focus.
Back to day-to-day living, it’s now time to develop a plan that is profitable for your business, which can be done by:
- Finding a ‘bread and butter’ customer base, building volume, and scaling that model.
- Identifying A+ clients—people who are great to work with, value your expertise, and pay on time.
The key? Be willing to turn away the wrong clients to focus on the right ones.
What Next?👇
Start by asking yourself who you currently know who matches one of these two customer types. You probably know them well. Now, write down what you know about them and create a customer persona for each, like the examples in the presentation PDF linked below.
Do you know your brand identity? 🎨
For your business, you probably put a lot of thought into the name, followed by the logo, and now those visual identities are part of your brand in the market. However, as the business continues, there are a number of other components that contribute to the recipe we call a brand.
An important take-away from our presentation was asking, “Is my brand in line with my business goals?”. Your business has matured, your product and service range has possibly changed, or the quality of work and pricing has risen. So take the time to evaluate your brand, your goals and how you want to be perceived.
What Next?👇
Take the time to review your brand from the customer’s perspective. How do they see, hear, and experience it? Compare it to leading competitors—does your branding reflect your business’s future direction? Write some notes on where they connect with you and what ‘impression’ your brand gives of your business as a whole.
Now, ask yourself who you see as leading competitors in the market and review their brand identity. Are you both moving in the same direction, apart from the USP (Unique Selling Proposition) that makes you you, or do you need to work on bringing your brand into line with your ‘future state’ business goals?
Gold beneath your feet 💰
This was a key message as we highlighted how many businesses spend time and money on attracting new clients without working on either retention through customer loyalty programs or correctly converting the enquiry from people who already walk through your business, whether as a brick-and-mortar store or your website online.
Review your opportunities to invite customers in to engage or to find resale or upgrade opportunities. With the unseen customer, we talked about looking at your website analytics to see if there is traffic you haven’t converted. Talk to your staff to see what can be done to catch the ‘wanderer’ or quiet browser and see how you can engage them at their point of need.
For the unlisted customer, start taking down customer details. Use or buy a CRM solution and develop a customer list you can speak to. With some CRM options free or less than $50/month, it’s an important component of creating a conversation with people who already know you, your brand and your offering.
What Next?👇
It’s time to review the touch points around your business to ask where you are currently missing new customers that are hovering around the outside. How can you bring them in? Write it down. Now, look at your current customer base and ask yourself if this is in a form where you can make announcements, engage customers in the life of your business or grab that resale or upgrade opportunity. 
Digestible content 🍽️
People move fast—especially online. With this understanding, we need to move at the pace of our customers when it comes to online communications. If I was talking to you at a BBQ and you started to look away or at your watch, then if I were tuned to those social cues, I would wrap up our conversation or use some way of grabbing your attention to refocus the conversation.
When you’re not in front of a client reading or rather scanning your website online, you don’t see those cues and need to keep the conversation flowing. Remember our key mantra in this conversation: If your content is too long-winded, they’ll tune out. Your website isn’t a textbook; it’s an introduction.
What Next?👇
Take the time to review your online and even printed content collateral. Ask yourself if you had 2-3 minutes to take the ‘essence’ of the message out of what is on the page, what would stay and what would go? Start being ruthless because you will also have a lot to say. If you are passionate about your business, you can’t help yourself.
Now, ask if the layout and design allow you to glance through the page, finding what is important to the person after information about a product or service, for the user looking for your experience or for the user wanting indications on the service in terms of time, price or warranty. Start writing down what you have discovered and decided.
Don’t let go 🔒
Every day, your competition throws a bit of bait out for new customers and then does the same tomorrow and the next day. It’s wasteful in time and money and often isn’t fine-tuned for better results. Start being more intentional in your customer acquisition strategy.
With online tools that tell you when your customers return to your website. Consider tools like:
- Retargeting ads
- Email follow-ups
- CRM-driven reminders
If you haven’t heard about re-marketing or re-targeting, talk to an expert who can develop a campaign in line with your brand that keeps you in front of customers during their research phase so you are there when it’s time to buy. It’s incredibly cost-effective as you generally only pay for the click at the start of their journey and the end, not for the impressions in between.
What Next?👇
Map out your customer journey. How long does it take for someone to go from “interested” to “ready to buy”? How can you stay in front of them during that time? Are there ways you can speed up the process? If you have a long professional assessment process involved in your clients coming on board, consider how you can keep seeding your USP into their view.
Where are we? 📍
You probably already know this, and your accountant should help keep you on track financially, but just like a ship captain needs to know their current location to navigate, you need to understand where your business stands to plan where you want to go. Whether it’s a star map or Google Analytics for your website, having a benchmark for your business performance is key.
From there, take a moment to ask yourself, “What does success look like?” This will help you shape the strategy to reach your business’s “Future State.” It’s time to start envisioning the future and setting clear metrics to measure your progress along the way.
What Next?👇
Start by reviewing what you already have. Are there reports you’ve been ignoring or things you measure but don’t compare to past periods in your business? From our presentation, you’ll see that BI (business intelligence) dashboards are becoming more affordable and can keep your business performance front and center.
Next, get rid of reports that don’t focus on the key KPIs driving your business growth. This way, your ‘at a glance’ review helps you make quick decisions that impact focus and momentum.
Innovate the mousetrap 🧠
Last night, we wrapped up talking about innovation and how many businesses don’t make room for experimenting with new ways to communicate or attract clients. Our message was clear: “Don’t shortchange the experiment!” We shared examples like Thomas Edison, who tested over 1,000 methods before perfecting the light bulb.
It’s important to allocate both time and budget for these experiments. Without this, your strategy becomes too rigid, and you miss out on the potential breakthrough that could transform your business.
Just like Google and Elon Musk, there are times in your business when you need to try multiple ideas and then identify the ‘winners’ to focus on. And remember, it’s okay to let go of the ones that just don’t work. Don’t get too attached to your ideas! They’re just that—ideas. Your business must be flexible enough to adapt through both trial and error, as well as trial and success.
What Next?👇
Look at your next business marketing activity with an open mind and consider ‘testing the market.’ Ask yourself: What are 2, 3, or 4 ways we could tackle this? Maybe it’s tweaking your ad copy or targeting different audience groups with the same message to see which resonates best. Jot down an idea for a website ‘call to action,’ or the copy for a brochure or radio ad, then create a completely different version aimed at a different goal. If this isn’t your area of expertise, now’s the time to bring in the right help to add that creative touch to your marketing efforts.
In your business, there’s one secret that isn’t part of the seven we’ve covered so far—and that’s you. Your health, clarity of mind, and passion for what you do are at the heart of your success. Think back to the story I shared about being a young St. John Ambulance cadet in first aid training. I was taught that the loudest patient isn’t always the most urgent. I consistently earned awards because I learned to focus on the quieter patients first.
As you take a step back to look at your business’s needs and foundations, give yourself the time and space to see the big picture. Even stepping away from the office, the phone, and the staff to view things objectively will put you in a strong position. And if it means taking a weekend at the beach, the bush, or the art gallery to clear your head, do it.
I’d love to hear how these now-revealed secrets help grow your business!
Feel free to connect with me online.
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Download the 96five The Buzz Presentation (5.5mb)
