The 9 Steps to Building a 6-Figure Drone Business

Over the next few posts I'll be giving you a behind the scenes look at how some of the top drone companies in the world consistently generate leads, close deals, and scale to 6 and 7 figure earnings annually.?

Specifically I’m going to show you how to completely change the way you market your drone business so you bring in consistent warm, organic leads, all without spending money on ads, cold calling, or any other boring, tried tactics. Let’s get started.

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Today I want to help you bring in more revenue for your drone business.

The first thing you have to understand about running a business is that marketing is the most important aspect of your business. And this has nothing to do with the type of drone you have. In general, being a good drone pilot doesn’t make you good at business, and vice versa.

Many drone businesses suffer for three reasons:

Reason #1 - Too many niches

When we first started Global Air Media, we were providing services for real estate, drone STEM workshops, adult training, weddings, general aerial photography and video coverage. We then moved to construction site mapping using software like Drone Deploy. We then tried entering into agriculture, delivery, light shows, drone racing, thermal inspections, lidar, and more.?

Simply put, we were doing TOO MUCH.?

Our inability to focus on one niche led to a drastic slow in growth. When we decided to solely focus on training and consultation, we started to see exponential growth.

And I get it, when starting your drone business journey you need to explore a few niches to gain experience, flight hours, and learn what you’re actually passionate about. The point here is that when you do find that passion, only put your focus there. The most successful drone companies have ONE niche they specialize in.?

But there’s another (and more powerful) reason that drone businesses aren't generating the revenue they want.

Reason #2 - They don’t have a solid marketing strategy

By now you might already be familiar with this scenario; you take a few sales calls in the morning, head out to a job site, finish, and realize you were supposed to send out a proposal. You quickly rush back only to remember you were also supposed to send an invoice and call a client back.?

In the midst of all this, you think about how to get even more clients, and you realize you haven’t posted anything on social media in a while. So you go find photos from a recent project, post it on LinkedIn and IG, spend money to run an ad, and wait for some inquiries to come to the inbox.?

The result??

A waste of 50 bucks, and no new leads.?

But how in the world are you supposed to find time for marketing with so much going on on a daily basis??

Now, you might think the solution to this would be to put more money behind the ads. You’d only be half right, assuming you have a potentially viral ad and an actual social media plan in place.

All too often, drone business owners forget the importance of having a solid marketing plan in place and think that by simply having a profile on all platforms, and posting a few times a month, it'll be enough.??

Well, by definition, they HAVE met the minimum requirements of having their business online. But are they actually bringing in consistent leads??

Not really.

Here’s a better option. One that costs absolutely NO money and can be done at any time convenient for you. You ready??

Create more content.

Yep. Whether you prefer writing blogs, making videos, or recording podcasts, it’s absolutely crucial that you generate VALUABLE content that gets noticed and keeps you relevant. I emphasize ‘valuable’ because it must speak to the problems your target audience has, and the solutions you can provide.

Why does this work??

It is a basic marketing principle that it takes seven “touches” before someone will internalize and/or act upon your call to action. This can be by seeing your logo, reading a blog post, receiving an email newsletter, seeing a social media post, seeing an ad, through a physical connection at an event, or by word of mouth.

Reason #3 - Their offer isn’t good enough

Many times we see drone pilots that are on a race to the bottom, undercutting their competitors to get more sales. In the end, they are barely breaking even on each job and are likely in the red most of the time.?

How does one get out of that cycle??

You charge more for every job by simply adding more value to the offer. For example, you can either:

• Charge $200 for 20 Raw Photos; or you can
• Charge $375 for 30 Edited Photos, a Final Report, Raw Video, and a guaranteed 48 Hour Turnaround

You see the difference between these two offers? More on this, later.

The lifeline of any business is your ability to present consistent compelling and irresistible offers. The better you are at crafting a good offer, the more likely you'll be to succeed.

You maybe wondering, so just what are the 9 Steps To Building A 6-Figure Drone Business.

1. Planning
2. Awareness
3. Lead Generation
4. Lear Nurturing
5. Your Offer
6. Delivery
7. Customer Retention
8. Customer Relationship Management
9. Partnerships

We'll get into these in detail throughout this series.

Action Step:?

The question you might be asking is: “Where do I start”?

My simple rule of thumb is to just get started. No need to overthink it.?

Today I want you to create a piece of content. It would be a simple post as well. If you don’t like being on video, write a post, a blog or record some audio. If you don’t like writing, make a 30 second Instagram reel!?

Talk about the top 5 ways drones are used to survey real estate properties, or talk about a case study where you helped the client get amazing results. Create an Instagram reel showing behind the scenes of your jobsite and equipment set up.

Don’t worry about what someone may think or if you’re qualified or even an expert to talk about drones. None of that matters. What matters is people seeing your grind and that you are learning along the way. Be open, the people need to hear from you!

The bottom line is, there is no substitute for content creation. Not only is it good for your company it’s good for your personal brand and people will ultimately start to know, like, and trust you more.?

If you’re already generating content, great! Do you have a content calendar? Are you also using email marketing to its fullest potential?

I’m a big fan of Gary Vee and Alex Hormozi so if i start talking all “markety’, you know why :)??

I’m sure this motivation will work for you too.

That’s all for now!

Cheers,

Eno

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