Story about MSLP changing Marketing Strategy.
I've changed some terms to hide identity and my busines, but the point remains the same.
1. I did Paper (yellow pages/verizon) advertising along with getting every damn certification/membership available locally.
2. Realized this didn't work(wasted money) and started doing Pay-per-click advertising on the internet.
3. Improved some, but realized I needed to be more keyword specific to get to my ninche. (example instead of my ad appearing when someone typed flower...now they had to type yellow flower, because I only sold yellow flowers) NOTE IMPORTANT FACTOR is that the more specific keyword the more it cost.
4. Improved some more, but my closing sales % was still not where it needed to be.
5. I continued with my accurate/specific keywords, but I did it accross the country rather than just locally (larger market)
6. This actually had a reverse effect (I took on larger losses again) because my margins nationally were much smaller.
7. I continued with specific keywords nationally, but I made the biggest change ever...I limited my ads to customers had to be atleast 1000 miles from where my product was available (example: client in seattle searches for "yellow flower in Seattle" - this potential client would NOT see my ad....however if they searched "yellow flower in Orlando" my ad would appear. The percentage of closign sales shot up over 400%...(I realized that somebody searching my product was willing to pay way more if they had to travel/ship to get it; to ensure that got what they were paying for because they couldn't just down the street and complain to the local provider.
8. Even better I was able to continue to do this nationally and pay less and get more quality clients because I could go back and use vague keywords again that are way cheaper....becuase it wasn't the keyword that made the difference, it WAS the distance my client was from the product/service.
9. Now my ad appeared everytime somebody time "flower" because I knew that anybody outside of 1000 miles from my product already wanted a yellow flower.
10. Google set me back by increasing my fees as I was NOT as relevant as my competitors were (googles opinion)(google makes relevancy very important) because my keyword flower would get typed in 500 times a day locally (local conversion rates were roughly 3 per 500, yet my ad would never appear; meaning google couldn't make money off me LOCALLY; but outside of 1000 miles "flower" was only searched 20 times and I would convert 5 for 20.
11. I called google and complained about the extra cost I was incurring and complained. they stated what I said in #10 that I wasn't relevant enough....well my numbers told me the opposite.
12. I sued google for the differences in extra cost and the time involved to persue legal action.
13. Settle out of court.
14. I have NO certifications or memberships
15. I have been in the black ever since
Point being things change! Marketing Strategies, Company Structure, etc.
Again, I am NOT saying MSLP will never be or want to be NSF certified, but TODAY it is NOT WORTH the COST.
Do people really think that MSLP was begging to be NSF certified and knocking on thier door saying "please, please, oh please" and NSF said sorry you forgot your homework at home, too bad, your out. This was a business decision as it should have always been...not talking about the decision itself...but the fact they made a decision that the cost was NOT worth it today!
NO WAY! MSLP made a decision to NOT follow through and it was strictly cost based! They want and will make money from now on!
Sorry for the lenghtly post....couldn't think of a better way to make my point....hopefully I was successful.
Regards,
MSLP
