Written by Spot MarketingFebruary 2, 2022

Spot Shares the Secrets of Flywheel Marketing

Unfortunately there’s rarely a singular thing that transforms a business from good to great. Rather, as with most things it’s a process that resembles an ever-evolving wheel, or as businessman Jim Collins described it – a flywheel.

First – what is a flywheel? It’s a revolving wheel that increases a machine’s momentum by storing and releasing energy in its perpetual loop. It’s a spinning wheel that ideally never stops. It’s a much different concept than a sales funnel – which is designed as a vertical tunnel that ends at the sale, when a customer reaches the bottom. 

But wouldn’t it be better if you kept your customers engaged, making referrals and buying again? That’s why a flywheel is designed in three sections: attract, engage and delight.

Attract: Awareness with advertising, SEO, video campaigns, collaborations, etc.

Engage: Build meaningful relationships with customers through communities, different outreach channels, etc.

Delight: This is crucial – you can’t just sell and deliver quickly. You need to create a customer experience they will want to share. Satisfaction surveys, good email follow up, unexpected value added perks, quick response to customer inquiries (should you add chatbots for 24/7 response), affiliation with causes they support, etc.

The flywheel also serves as a guide for you to take a closer look at your business and the customer experience. It also gives you a goal for everyone associated with the business – keep customers happy enough to recommend your brand to others.

How fast do potential customers move though the sales process, how successful is the sales process in closing, how delighted are customers once they purchase from you? This involves marketing, sales and product and customer service teams. A whopping 81% of buyers trust their friends and family more than what they see from companies – so the “delight” stage is critical.

You’ll also be examining your flywheel for friction points. Does it take too long to respond to customer questions? Is the return policy confusing? Are the product listings always up to date? Potential customers will exit the flywheel if they hit friction.

What do potential customers want from your content and how easy is it for them to get it? Eliminate obstacles and keep it spinning freely.

Let Spot help you design your own flywheel, identify potential friction points, make suggestions about how to eliminate friction, and watch sales grow.

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Written by Spot MarketingJanuary 13, 2022

Sales Funnel

When talking about content, it’s more than just an occasional blog or social media post. There’s a proven strategy to what you post and in what order, so you can lead a potential customer to a sale.

That means, you start with broad engagement, and then continue through to very specific types of content.

The funnel itself is divided into three parts – Top, Middle and Bottom, with content types associated with each portion.

Here they are:

Top of the Funnel


This includes:

  • Search-optimized blog posts. Done right, these can generate lots of traffic over many years from low-intent visitors, or those who haven’t yet decided that they want to purchase anything from you yet.
  • Social media videos. These can include tips, opinions and inspiration and are designed to encourage engagement and interaction.
  • Infographics. They are designed to provide information in a concise, visually appealing way that will get shared and attract links. We’re not to selling yet.
  • Round-ups and interviews. These can be collaborations that will drive traffic and create more trust.
  • Guest posts. Again – a lot of visibility and exposure to a new audience.

Now we move to the middle of the funnel.

  • How-to-articles. These help DIY visitors, but are directly related to your services/products.
  • How-to-videos. Same as above but more engaging and memorable. Done right, they are also big trust builders.
  • Original research. This can be a powerful credibility builder, but the relevance may be indirect.
  • Gated guides. More commonly called newsletters, they are opt-in, long form subscriber communications. Now they’re connected.
  • Welcome series emails. Okay – send them your best stuff to keep them interested.
  • Webinars and events. Collaborate with others and engage in the Q&A. What would you want to see?

Now we reel them in!

  • Sales enablement articles. These include specific information with one goal – conversion.
  • Your story. A specific traffic source with one goal – conversion.
  • Landing pages. These come from a specific traffic source with a singular goal – conversion.
  • Service pages. This page is filled with answers, evidence and calls to action,
  • Testimonials. This one speaks for itself.
  • Case studies/customer stories. You solve problems in the real world and there’s evidence.

Sound complicated? Spot can help with strategic, targeted content at every stage. Drop us an email or give us a call and let’s get started turning your prospects into committed customers.

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Written by Spot MarketingDecember 10, 2021

Why is December the most important time of the year for a company?

It’s not for the reason you think – your last chance to maximize sales and close the year out strong, although that’s crucial as well.

It’s the most important time because it’s when you should be devoting as much time as possible to reviewing the results from the year and planning your marketing for the following year.

Too often businesses just coast on autopilot and keep the same plans as the previous year because they don’t make the time to really evaluate them and make changes.

What worked? What didn’t? What new options are available? Has the creative gotten stale? Are there new products or services that need to be highlighted? Are there expanded audiences you should be reaching?

All these questions need to be posed and answered. Only with comprehensive strategic planning and evaluation (not just at the end of the year but throughout), can you maximize your return on investment from your marketing efforts.

And since marketing and branding drives your business, it should be the priority all the time, not the afterthought that many make it. It’s easy to let day-to-day operational duties and issues preempt the time that could be spent on marketing. If that’s the case for you, perhaps it’s time to consider working with a firm that can help examine your past year’s efforts, help you objectively evaluate the results and messaging, and then present you with a fresh look – keeping what worked and presenting some options that will be a better and more effective use of your marketing dollars.

And speaking of marketing dollars – how do you decide what to spend? Is it an arbitrary number? Is it a percentage of your gross sales? Is it as little as possible without considering what effect a bigger budget could have on sales? Is it balanced with other efforts through social media and branding through added value and customer service efforts?

All of these components can be evaluated by an experienced agency like Nug, which can do a comprehensive review and present you with a coordinated, integrated marketing campaign that will amplify your message and amortize the cost for elements across multiple channels.

Contact us today so we can get to work making 2022 your best year ever!

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Written by Spot MarketingAugust 3, 2020

What’s Your Online Reputation?

Online Reputation

We all worry about our reputations (or we should) and that’s never been more important for businesses than today. That’s because people’s opinions of your business are not limited to their friends and neighbors, but can travel across the internet via their social media, online review sites, and more.

That being said, what can be done about it?

  • Make sure all your directory listings are “claimed”. There are about 80 different internet directories where your business can be found. All of them need to have accurate information including your phone number, address, hours, etc.
  • The most important ones include YELP and Google+. In Yelp, you also need to make sure you have messaging enabled so people can reach you through Yelp. You get scored on how quickly you respond so you need to make sure the email address you put in here goes to someone on your team who can act quickly.
  • Check your scores – consumers are using review sites more than ever. It’s internet word-of-mouth and it’s powerful. A score of less than four practically guarantees you will lose potential customers. A program should be put in place to increase your positive reviews and raise your score.
  • When someone does leave a review, it needs to have a response posted quickly. In just a few words, you can thank someone for the nice comment and reinforce what they are saying. For example, “I really appreciated that Acme didn’t do a hard sell with me – they just presented the information and let me decide.” Your response? “Thank you for taking the time to share your experience and I’m glad you appreciated our “inform and educate approach.”
  • When someone does a search for your business, what do they find? Does an old negative article come up? Something else that’s not good? While these can’t always be eliminated, it is possible to create positive articles and work to have them “trend” up so eventually they will be the first thing that potential customers see, and the negative responses will move farther down the list, and thus be more likely not to be seen.
  • Are you considered an “expert” in your field? Well regarded articles on LinkedIn, on your website blog and more, can be boosted out and help raise your profile with peers and potential customers.

All a bit overwhelming? Spot Color Marketing has reputation management packages at several different levels to help you create a customized program that will help tell the true story of your business to enhance your online reputation and increase your sales.

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Written by Spot MarketingJune 11, 2015

Email your clients a virus (just kidding)

How a negative email turned into a positive experience.

A few months back one of my employees sent me an email with an attachment saying, “I can’t open this, can you? Is this from one of our clients?” I glanced at the email, saw it was from one of our valued clients and opened the doc. Uh-oh!

Thank god it wasn’t a terrible destroying type of virus, but it was a “phishing” email trying to collect as many emails as possible. It started sending the same email to all 3000+ friends, family and clients in my in contact list.

Within two hours my phone was ringing off the hook and my email was jammed. “Why are you sending me this? Did you mean to send me this? How do I open it?” On and on for the next 48 hours, argh!

Ok, so this experience was annoying and embarrassing, but it was also delightful! I heard from clients and friends that I haven’t heard from in years. We were reconnected! We set up lunch appointments and happy hours, I had past clients wanting new work, referrals were passed, the list went on and on.

When was the last time you reached out to your clients?

In a way it was one of the best “mistakes” I had made. Marketing 101: Reach out and stay on the top of people’s minds. We tell our clients this all the time. Why? Because it works. You don’t want to be selling to your clients all the time, that would get annoying and become of the best reasons for them to unsubscribe from your list. Instead, reach out to say “Hello” and see how things are going. Send along a cool article or give them some nugget of information that may help them with their business or personal life. That’s the good stuff! There are six types of emails that you can send to stay connected to clients without overwhelming their inbox. Let them know you value their opinion by sending a short survey, you can even offer an incentive to encourage a response and thank them for their time. Another great way to keep in touch is by sending a holiday email, this type of email is a great way to connect on a more personal level and build relationships. Those little touches can make a huge difference, please don’t send them a virus, but do stay in touch!

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