Data! It's A Thing. And It's Important.

I'm a total Infusionsoft nerd. We've been using it at Kettlebell Concepts forever. Their newest video, while "simple" could not be more applicable for ANY business in ANY vertical. End of conversation. Doesn't matter if you are B2B or B2C. Seriously. Watch the entire thing. They did a bang up job.

Yet, business of all sizes-tend to either:

A) Not know this stuff (in which case their marketing department stinks and sales suffers--possibly dramatically--as a result!) Or. . .worse? They think they know it but don't. (See below.)

B) They don't want to spend the time writing the whitepaper or filming the video or whatever it is. (That's just laziness and hurts, perhaps substantially, in the long run.)

C) Think "My customers are different!" That couldn't be more egotistical...and it's simply flat out wrong.

No. No they're not. Your customers are not special snowflakes. Doesn't matter who they are, where they live, how expensive your place is, how fancy your website is, or how much money and "high end" they think they are or you think they are. They are human just like everyone else and therefore will respond to a properly targeted and relevant marketing offer or lead magnet JUST like the rest of us.

Read that last sentence again.

And you, Dear Owner/President/Decision Maker, are utterly mistaken if you think otherwise. I also don't care who you are or how well your business may be doing now. (By the way, if you point to that as a way to prove your point, it's incredibly short sighted.)

If your business is doing great now? Amazing! I'm always rooting for the SMB owner. But keep sticking your head in the sand, being stubborn and NOT listening to those who know marketing & sales? Watch what happens. Businesses (ANY business in ANY vertical) will decline. It's inevitable.

I know this echoes my last article, but this Infusion video just brought it home again: Set up some sort of lead gen program and, for the love of pete, get your clients contact info. Email? Bare minimum. Cell phone # for text messaging? Way better and far more effective.

Watch the Infusion video. Twice if you need to. But watch it! It's amazing to me how many owners simply either don't know this (in which case they can be forgiven) or simply continue to stick their head in the sand pretending they know everything.

If you're one of the stubborn ones (because nobody reading this is, right? ;) Guess what? You're to blame when things go south. Not your staff. Not your chef. Not your cousins 22 year old niece who is doing your social media for next to nothing. YOU. You're to blame when, after 3, 4, or even 10 years in business, you eventually realize you can't remarket to ANYONE because you couldn't be "bothered" to collect their contact info, or set up a loyalty program, or reward them with gift cards, or whatever the case may be.

Lastly, while I don't want to go into this in depth here, I can't help but touch on it: "But what about third party apps?" you ask. "What about UberEats? OpenTable? Seamless? GrubHub!" These are all great apps and certainly can help bring in another revenue stream, and sometimes a substantial one at that. All good! But running a business based on third party applications is risky, putting it mildly. That customer that comes from those guys? All those office workers? That's their customer. NOT yours. They raised the millions to build the platform. They do the marketing. They maintain it, improve it, etc. You're just a vendor (and while you may be an appreciative vendor thanks to the revenue stream they provide) they owe you exactly zero.

Harsh, but true. (Why do you think that they don't let you export?) Upside? You have your chance to get them to become your customer. . and that's when they visit or order. Don't let it go to waste.

How do you get them to become your customer? (Or at least, get their data?) Well, that's the secret sauce, isn't it? Reach out if you have questions and enjoy what the Infusion guys put together in the meantime.