Would you like to discover how to triple your sales, cut your marketing spending by 90% and work fewer hours – all at the same time?

Of course you would!

To discover how to one entrepreneur has done exactly that, I interview Janette Gleason in this episode of the Bright Ideas podcast.

When you listen to this interview, you will hear Janette and I discuss:

• how they nearly went out of business before finally getting their marketing systems on track
• what they changed with their marketing
• how automation using Infusionsoft plays a large role
• her 12 stage sales pipeline
• and so much more…

More About This Episode

The Bright Ideas podcast is the podcast for business owners and marketers who want to discover how to use online marketing and sales automation tactics to massively grow their business.

It’s designed to help marketing agencies and small business owners discover which online marketing strategies are working most effectively today – all from the mouths of expert entrepreneurs who are already making it big.

Watch Now

Transcript

Trent

Dyrsmid: Hi there, and thank you so much for joining me for this

episode of the Bright Ideas podcast. I’m your host, Trent Dyrsmid, and this

is the podcast for business owners and marketers who want to learn how to

use marketing automation and sales automation tactics to massively boost

their business.On the show with me today is a woman by the name of Janette Gleason, and

her and her husband own a small tax and accounting firm. Now, a couple of

years ago they were spending about $15,000.00 a month on marketing, and

they nearly went bankrupt. Then, thanks to deploying a new piece of

software, called Infusionsoft, which has helped them greatly with their

marketing, not only were they able to cut that marketing budget by 90%, but

they were able to triple their revenue in the process, work less and get

more dinners at home together.If you’re a small business owner, and you’re struggling with marketing, and

you’re looking for some inspiration as well as some specific tactics and

tools you can use to massively boost your business, this is an episode that

you do not want to miss.Please join me in welcoming Janette to the show.Janette, thank you so much for coming on to do this interview with me and

talk about how you are using Infusionsoft to make your business so much

more successful. I really appreciate you making the time to be on the show

with me.Janette

Gleason: You’re welcome. Thank you for having me.Trent: For the audience who doesn’t know who you are, let’s

first of all give you an opportunity to just talk real quickly about what

your business is, and then we’re going to talk at length about how using

Infusionsoft has really helped you move the business forward.Janette: Okay. My husband and I own a financial planning firm in

Surprise, Arizona, and we our target clients are retirees, people who are

50 and older, and we do their financial planning, retirement planning,

income planning, and we also offer tax preparation services.Trent: Okay. In your space, in your area, is there a lot of

competition?Janette: Oh, yes.Trent: Plenty.Janette: My husband’s name is Joe, and we joke how we’re kind of like

the Starbuck’s. There’s a financial planner on every corner.Trent: If you had to guess, how well do you think your firm is

doing relative to that all the other “Starbuck’s” that are on the block?

Are you guys in the middle?Janette: Yes, I think we’re doing really well. We’ve really worked very

hard on building a good reputation. Always treating our clients with

respect and always doing what’s best for them and not what’s going to

always make us the most money, but what’s best for them and their

retirement. I think that reputation has served us well, and we get a lot of

referrals, and we stand out from the crowd that way.Trent: Okay, so you’re doing better than average?Janette: Yes.Trent: All right. You started using, and by the way I’ve gone

outside, and I don’t know if you can hear it or not, because if you can I

might have to reschedule this, but there’s a leaf blower and the

landscapers going right now, and for me it’s noisy as heck. Can you hear it

on your end?Janette: No, I can’t.Trent: All right, so that means none of the audience can hear it

either, so we’ll keep going.[laughter]Janette: Okay.Trent: You started using Infusionsoft in 2008. When we talked

before we went on the air, the first two years you weren’t exactly using it

“properly”.Janette: No, we weren’t.Trent: I want you to talk a little bit about that, because maybe

there are some people listening to this who are using Infusionsoft, and

they might be using it like you were using it before.Janette: Okay, yes. When we first got Infusionsoft, we were using it

basically as a glorified Roll-A-Dex; a place just to keep all the

information about our prospects and clients. We were using it for the

calendar feature and also as an email blast machine. Anytime we had a

holiday greeting or an event coming up, we would just send that email out

and the same email to everybody on our list. We thought our message was so

important that everybody wanted to hear everything that we had to say.Trent: Okay, and so for the people who don’t know what

Infusionsoft is, maybe you could just very quickly explain what it is,

because we both use it, and we both love it . . .Janette: Right.Trent: . . . but before I heard of it, you know, I didn’t know

what it was.Janette: Yes, well it’s the all-in-one sales and marketing software for

small businesses. To me there are three feature modules of Infusionsoft.

It’s the CRM module . . .Trent: What’s that? What does CRM stand for?

Janette: CRM stands for client relationship management.

Trent: Okay.

Janette: It’s a place for us to just keep information data about our

prospects and our clients. We know their names, addresses, email address,

phone numbers and notes anytime anybody comes in. We have records of their

appointments, all the emails that we’ve sent to them, and so it’s a place

for us to just keep a history of our interactions with our prospects and

clients.

Trent: Okay.

Janette: The second part of Infusionsoft is the marketing module, and

it’s not just email marketing. We don’t only have the ability to send

emails. We can do voice broadcasts and we can send letters, so we can use

it as a multimedia marketing tool.

Trent: Okay.

Janette: Then the third part of Infusionsoft is e-commerce. Typically

for the typical Infusionsoft user, the e-commerce is more for an internet

markets, or somebody who has a product to sell; a book or a widget, what

have you. We’ve actually adapted that module to be able to, one, collect

invoices and collect payments for the tax preparation that we do, but also

to track the commissions that my husband makes.

The clients don’t pay him directly for his financial services, the

financial institutions do, so we’ve been able to use it to track the return

on our investment on the marketing that we’re doing, and see the lifetime

value of our clients and see which marketing methods are working and which

aren’t.

Trent: Ah, that’s very, very important.

Janette: That’s it in a nutshell.

Trent: All right, so in 2008 you were using a Ferrari to take

the trash to the curb, we’ll say.

Janette: Exactly.

Trent: Then in 2011 you became one of Infusionsoft’s Ultimate

Marketer of the Year and 2011 finalists.

Janette: Yes.

Trent: There’s kind of a big gap between not having a clue what

this thing will do to really, really killing it, which is one of the

reasons, the primary reason, why I asked you to be a guest on my show.

Let’s start going through, well actually, let’s kind of get to the

conclusion. Now that you’re using it really well, how important is it in

the growth of your business? How tightly round into that marketing, lead

attraction, client acquisition . . .

Janette: Right, it’s the hub of everything we do. I tell people that I

don’t know how our business would survive without Infusionsoft at this

point. We’ve been able to centralize everything in our marketing, our

office procedures and systems, the sale process, our billing, everything is

in Infusionsoft.

It’s really an integral part of our business, and we were really struggling

a few years ago and didn’t know from day to day whether or not our doors

were going to stay open. We had Infusionsoft at the time. This was the time

we weren’t really using it correctly, and when the bills would come in,

we’d have our bills, and say, “What are we going to pay? We have this much

money,” and Infusionsoft was always number one on our list, because we knew

without it we would be done, and we’d have to close up shop.

Trent: Okay, wait a minute, I want to go back. In 2008, I don’t

know if you’re comfortable discussing revenue numbers that your firm does,

if not we can go about this a different way. Do you want to talk about

specific numbers at all, or should we just talk about percentage change?

Janette: Well, with the seminar marketing, I can tell you the marketing

cost was astronomical for us.

Trent: Yes.

Janette: We were spending $15,000.00 a month on direct mail, on hosting

these workshops, and in the beginning of 2008 we actually had two months in

a row where we were spending this amount of money having to use the line of

credit on our home and using credit cards to pay for this, because everyone

says marketing always pays.

Trent: Yes.

Janette: We kept doing this. We were kind of that one-trick pony that

used that one form of marketing, and for two months in a row it failed us.

That got us thinking that we need to market in a different way, and we need

to find software and companies that can support us in marketing in a

different way and give us different ideas.

In that year it was really tough, but it actually ended up being our best

year. We started doing some basic email marketing, and this was even before

Infusionsoft, and had the best summer that we ever had.

Then, in 2009, the economy tanked, and things went really south for us. We

just couldn’t afford paying lots and lots on marketing anymore. We went

from bringing in maybe $400,000 of revenue, down, cut in half.

Trent: Wow.

Janette: My husband’s commissions were cut in half. Our marketing

dollars were still increasing. Our rent for our office was increasing. The

cost of living goes up, but what we were bringing in was going down.

Trent: Okay, so that’s a pretty tough time. My very first

career, as I may have mentioned to you, was in your space, so I do

understand your business well, and $200,000 gross commissions coming in is

not enough to pay anywhere to all the bills.

Janette: No.

Trent: You were bordering on going out of business. You were

probably losing money at that point in time would be my guess.

Janette: Yes, we worked for free for a couple years. For nothing.

Trent: Yes.

[laughter]

Trent: What you’re saying is because you learned how to use

Infusionsoft – hello person in the background.

[laughter]

Janette: That’s Joe on his way to the office.

Trent: Okay. You learned how to use Infusionsoft, and now you’re

doing, and again I know what the number is, and you can say it if you want

to say it or not, but it’s a lot bigger than the $200,000 number.

Janette: Yes, definitely. In the high six-figures and really, onwards

and upwards.

Trent: Yes. All right, so hopefully for the listeners, if you’re

wondering at this point, “Why am I listening to this interview?” that’s why

I ask those questions, because I want people to understand that you’ve had

a profound change in your business as a result of your marketing practices.

I don’t imagine you’re doing those, well, I know you’re not because you

told me before, $15,000.00 a month seminars.

Janette: Yes. No.

Trent: You’re not doing those things anymore. Are you still

spending $15,000 a month? Now, your revenue obviously is a lot higher so

I’m sure you can afford to . . .

Janette: Right. No, the range we spend on marketing per month is

between $500.00 and maybe $2,000 a month on marketing.

Trent: Wow.

Janette: Advertising, sending out direct mail pieces. We’re much

happier with that.

Trent: That’s phenomenal.

Janette: Yes, a lot less stress.

Trent: From $15,000 down to $,1500, let’s call it, on average,

and yet your revenue is over three times what it used to be.

Janette: Yes.

Trent: Now, the economy, the markets, the stock markets, have

gone up and things are a little better, and I’m sure that doesn’t hurt your

cause, but still, I was in that business long enough to know that even if

the market is going up it doesn’t mean all these people are suddenly

running to your door, saying here take my money. It just doesn’t work that

way.

Janette: Right. No, and right now they’re very gun shy because people

are really frozen right now with wanting to make financial changes.

Trent: I’ll bet.

Janette: We really have to focus on that trust-based marketing and get

people to trust us. Again, that’s where our reputation comes in, and the

type of marketing that we’re doing is more educational for our existing

database and our new prospects.

Trent: Okay. All right, here’s what’s coming up next in this

interview. We are going to talk about Janette’s sales funnel, we’ll call

it, the ‘life cycle of a lead’, and we’re going to talk about, as much as

time permits, what she’s doing to stimulate referrals.

Without me yapping too much, let’s just dive right into that. Let’s talk

about the life cycle of a lead. Describe what you do who don’t know who you

are or have somehow interacted with you to becoming a client, what happens

first?

Janette: Okay. When somebody shows interest in working with us . . . do

you want me to get even before that?

Trent: Yes, because I’m going well how do they even know you

exist?

Janette: Right. Our lead attraction really comes from this tax base,

this base of tax clients we’ve built.

Trent: Okay.

Janette: Last year we did taxes for over 800 people, couples, in the

area. During that time, which used to be a lost leader for us, we used to

charge $49.00 per tax return as a way to get people in. Two years ago we

nearly doubled the price of our tax preparation, and now we’re up to $99.00

for the base price. Some extra schedules are additional fees.

In that process, when they come in, we have them filling out

questionnaires, doing some intakes, and we’re getting lots of information

about them. We legally can’t get it from their tax return. They have to

give that. We can’t use their tax return as a way to market ethically.

By giving them intake questionnaires and doing surveys after tax season,

we’re able to gather a lot of data from them. They give it to us

voluntarily, and we’re asking things about them, such as what worries you?

What concerns you about your retirement? Are you worried about outliving

your assets? Are you worried about paying for long-term care expenses in

the future? By asking these questions we’re finding out those

psychographics, what makes people purchase and what we should be focusing

on for our marketing.

A lot of people are concerned in retirement about having enough income that

will last them throughout their retirement and being able to leave a legacy

to their loved ones. A lot of our marketing, then, focuses on that

information.

Trent: Okay.

Janette: We get them in as a lead for the tax preparation. We’re able

to capture their information, get to know them better through, again, those

surveys and questionnaires and just our interactions with them. After that

we do a lot of educating. When tax season is over and their taxes are

completed, we send out a whole sequence of emails that talk about tax

planning for their retirement.

From those emails we have links to articles and just educating them in the

same time about what we do, the services we provide and how we can help

them. When they are ready, when they’ve raised their hand that they would

like to come in and meet with Joe for that initial consultation, we put

them into our sales pipeline, which is over 10 stages long. We’ve really

thought about, what are the steps that the ideal person will go through as

they meet with Joe?

First they come in for an initial consultation, then the next stage, and we

have all this in Infusionsoft, we use the opportunity module to keep track

of this. After we have a new opportunity, our job then is to call and

schedule that initial consultation. During that initial consultation, we’re

gathering lots of information about them and getting that information into

Infusionsoft.

Then, after that appointment, my husband does his research and planning and

puts together that financial plan for them in his recommendations. Then

after that we get them to come back in for what we call a second

appointment, or a recommendations meeting, where he presents a plan to

them. After that, they give us a thumbs-up or a thumbs-down, or the “I need

to think about it.”

We have tracks for people who say no, we have a track for people who say

yes, I’ll go ahead with this plan, and we also the a track for people who

are the “I need to think about it” we like to call them, the ‘undecided’s’.

Trent: What are the percentages when someone comes in for that

second presentation to receive the plan, what percent say ‘yes’, what

percent say ‘no’ and what percent say ‘I want to think it over’?

Janette: We have a really high percentage that say “yes”. I don’t know

the exact numbers. Joe, my husband, could tell you that better, but I would

say the people who come in and have gone through this process, we probably

have more than 50% chance, perhaps more than 75% chance of them becoming

our client. Those undecideds happen may 3. . .

Trent: A 5%?

Janette: Yes. Some people just say, “No, this is not for me,” and we

always give them that we want to make sure this is a good fit, that you’re

a good fit for us as a client and we’re a good fit for you as your

financial planner, but we have a whole sequence of not only emails, but

cards that we send.

We use send-out cards, and we’ve integrated that with Infusionsoft to be

able to send them a card with a little bag of maybe coffee grounds, and we

can say, “We know you want to think it over. Here, brew a cup of coffee,

and we’ll be here when you’re ready.”

Trent: Okay.

Janette: Then we continue on with educational emails and being in touch

with them that way.

Trent: Okay.

Janette: Go one.

Trent: I want to back up a little bit. This life cycle is, you

get a tax lead, they answer these questionnaires, you learn about them,

they start receiving emails, there’s a 10-step pipeline, they have an

initial consultation.

Joe does the research, they have a second meeting where the information is

presenting, and a large portion of the people say yes and become clients.

Let’s back up a little bit.

Where does Infusionsoft, and maybe you can describe how Infusionsoft is

used throughout the steps we just described.

Janette: Okay.

Trent: I want people to understand. It’s one thing to do all

this stuff, but it’s a totally different discussion to do it efficiently in

such a way that people don’t fall through the cracks and your labor costs

aren’t going through the roof because there are too many hands touching too

many things, and it’s all manual, and it’s not cohesive.

Janette: Right. Well, the cornerstone of Infusionsoft that helps us

with what we call our pipeline is the opportunity module. It’s the sales

pipeline, and you can identify the sales stages in a linear way. We know

that people can maybe jump over a stage, and they don’t have to always go

into each and every stage. Then we put all this on our dashboard.

When we log into Infusionsoft, we can see our dashboard, and we know these

three people are new opportunities. We need to get on the phone and call

them today. Then we can move them manually, but then all the automation

happens once we move them.

Trent: You move them manually by just changing a tag?

Janette: There’s a way to view the opportunities, and we can look at it

with the inline editor. There’s a way to hover over the stage so we can see

the person’s name, their phone number, what stage they’re in, and there’s a

little pencil that appears when you hover over it.

Trent: Okay.

Janette: You just hover over, it pulls up a drop-down menu, and we just

move them to the next stage, hit save, and then all the magic happens. All

the sequences we’ve built behind that happen behind the scenes.

Trent: Okay. Let’s talk a little bit about that magic, because I

know this is one of the areas where, for me, because my business is all on

line. I’m so fascinated because based upon the links people click, I can

alter the path they go down through the sales funnel. Let’s talk a little

bit about that for you. What happens in this magic?

Janette: When somebody goes into a stage, and we’ve built all this in

with the new campaign builder.

Trent: Okay.

Janette: We have all the stages going as our goal method. When you pick

a goal, you have to choose the goal method, and the goal method that we

choose is the opportunity stage movement.

Trent: Okay.

Janette: When I built this in Infusionsoft, that’s the goal method

maybe that we’re going into the research and planning stage. Then what

happens is we apply a note template to their record, and that’s one of the

first steps in this sequence. We tag them so we know that they’re in this

stage, and then we can maybe send them an email saying, “Thank you for

coming to meet with us.”

Or, have it come from Joe saying, “I’m really glad you were able to share

your retirement goals with me. I’m going to be working hard on putting

together a plan for you, and we’ll be in touch to schedule your next

appointment.” That’s kind of the magic in that particular stage that would

happen.

Trent: This is all, and I just want to make sure people

understand, it’s not like you’re sitting down and typing out this email.

You created it one time, but all this stuff happens on auto-pilot.

Janette: Yes. We created it once.

Trent: When you move them from one stage to the next, everything

else you just described after that, it just happens. Correct?

Janette: Exactly.

Trent: Okay.

Janette: We create it once, and then, exactly, it just happens behind

the scenes.

Trent: Correct, correct, so it’s a very consistent process is

what I’m really trying to drive towards. I think what a lot of, I know I

struggled with in my early years as an entrepreneur, is we’re so busy

chopping down trees, we don’t take time to come up with a plan to

effectively chop down trees.

Janette: Exactly.

Trent: Systems to chop down trees with the least amount of labor

because you’re just chop, chop, chop, chop, chop.

Janette: Right.

Trent: I’m hoping that people are getting from hearing this

interview an understanding that Infusionsoft can help them become so much

more efficient and turn the onboarding of a client, or the conversion of a

prospect to a client, into a very, very consistent process.

Janette: Right. Everybody who comes in or is indicating interest to

meet with Joe, everybody goes through the same steps and the same process.

It’s systematized, and that helps our office stay efficient and allows us

to really communicate in a very professional way to our customers. Then we

have less people falling through the cracks.

Before we had this system, people would say, you know in Arizona in the

summer it gets really hot – so a lot of our retirees, they leave. They go

north, they go back home, and they’re out of here. They might say in May,

“You know we’re interested, but we’re going back home, and we’ll be back in

November. Give us a call then.”

Maybe write it on a little post-it note and put it up, and it gets lost. We

would forget about that person. By the time they came back, we saw them the

next year to get their taxes done, and they had rolled that money with

somebody else. That really was an eye opening to us. We had a case where

somebody rolled $1 million with another firm.

Trent: Ooooh.

Janette: That lost revenue hurt. We could have really used that money

at that time. We used to get mad at those people and say, “Well why did you

do that?” and, “You’ve got the nerve to come back?”

Trent: It’s not their fault.

Janette: Yes, then we said, “It’s our fault. We weren’t keeping top-of-

mind awareness”, and we needed to figure out a way to do that.

Trent: Yes.

Janette: Now with this system, those people are falling through the

cracks anymore.

Trent: Okay. How’re we doing for time? We’re doing pretty good.

Let’s now shift into, because obviously we don’t have enough time on this

call to go into absolutely granulated details of ‘here’s how you do this

and do that and do the other thing’.

There’s an army of Infusionsoft consultants out there that will help people

do that. Infusionsoft has truckloads of training videos and a great support

team that will help you to figure all that stuff out.

Janette: Yes, they do.

Trent: That’s not the purpose of this interview. Let’s now talk

about when someone becomes a client, and I know from experience that when

you get a client, you don’t get all their money at the get-go. They have

money all over the place.

Janette: No.

Trent: You have a lot of selling left to do to collect all that

money? You may never get it all, but of course it’s the goal.

Janette: Right.

Trent: How are you guys using Infusionsoft to make sure a client

remains a client, clients refer other clients and clients bring you all

their money? Those are three very important steps, so let’s talk about

those.

Janette: Yes. That’s really one of the most important things to us,

rolling out the red carpet to our new clients. Letting them know they’re

important to us, we value them, we know them by name, we know about their

interests, their families, and we’re able to use that using Infusionsoft.

One of the first things we do when they become a client, actually even

before that, the whole rollover, or the bringing the money over to our firm

has even completed, we welcome them as a client because this processing

stage can sometimes take six weeks to two months.

Trent: Weeks.

Janette: We’ve had it where people have changed their mind during that

time. It’s taking too long. Once that paperwork is done and we submit it,

we welcome them to our family of clients. We send them a gift. We send them

a card with a box of brownies.

We begin giving them our monthly newsletter that’s tailored for just our

clients. They really feel as part of our family. We do annual events. Last

January we held a Gold Rush Party. We started offering precious metals as

part of one of the services that we provide. We thought we’d blow this out

and let everybody know that we’re doing this by having a party.

We call it our ‘Gold Rush’, and we had everybody come out to a local

restaurant. We had line dancing instructors there. We had a good time. Joe

just gave a brief introduction and speech about what the changes are, and

all our clients were able to bring their friends. We asked them and said,

“We’d like for you to come to this event. The cost of admission is to bring

a friend with you.”

Trent: Perfect.

Janette: We had over 100 people come and half of them were brand new

leads for us, and we were able to get many of their friends to become

clients as well. We used Infusionsoft to send out emails and invitations to

track who had registered for the event and then a follow-up afterwards as

well to our clients and communicate differently to their guests that came

as well.

Trent: Fantastic. Do you happen to know of the 50 guests how

many have become clients?

Janette: I don’t know off the top of my head. I know we got one very

large client out of that event that more than paid for it. She actually

came back this week and is ready to invest more money with our firm.

Trent: Terrific.

Janette: Yes. You know, making it fun. Financial planning is not always

something you can tell your friends about.

Trent: Yes.

Janette: People are a little skittish about doing that. Being able to

make it fun, and offer coffee talk, come on over, we’re having an open

house. Bring your friends, and let’s just make this a fun and

nonthreatening way to get together and meet them.

Trent: I really want to keep tying in how Infusionsoft helps you

to streamline all this, is that a point you can speak to? Is there a bit

more detail you can give on what you just talked about and how Infusionsoft

supported that?

Janette: Definitely just keeping in communication and being able to

invite people to these events. Once that event is over, we can email them.

Sometimes at our events we have a sheet of paper that our guests can fill

out.

Trent: Yes.

Janette: What are you interested in? They can check boxes. Based off

what they check, we follow-up with them in a different way.

Trent: Okay.

Janette: If they’re interested in tax preparation, well then we tag

them and we know next year we’re going to market to them when it’s time to

schedule our tax appointments. If they’d like to come in and meet with Joe

for a financial planning appointment, we can apply a note template and get

that ball moving, get them in as a new opportunity right into our sales

pipeline.

Trent: Okay, you said a phrase there that I know what you meant,

when you say you tag someone, I just want people to know what that is.

Infusionsoft at its heart is a database, and these tags are like sticking a

sticky note to someone to say, “This person is interested in blue, and this

person is interested in red, and this person is interested in red and

blue.”

Janette: Exactly.

Trent: Infusionsoft’s automation oftentimes is very, very

tightly related to these tags, so when tags are applied, Infusionsoft can

then fire off a sequence of emails or actions or any number of things. I

just wanted people to understand that the tagging is not just like sticking

some little paper note on their file or typing something in.

Janette: This feature helps give our database, it helps it to live and

breathe. We can say, “Okay, I want to find somebody who’s this age, who has

this much in assets, who’s worried about this”, and I can pull up a list.

It might not be 1,000 people, but maybe it’s only 50, but I want to target

those 50 people and spend my marketing dollars on them because they’re much

more likely to respond to those marketing pieces we’re sending to them.

It’s laser focused.

Trent: That is a perfect segue into what I put a star beside in

list segmentation. At the beginning in 2008 you said you were using

Infusionsoft as an email broadcaster because you thought everybody would be

interested in everything you were saying, which is not the case.

Janette: Right. No people were opting out and we’d get spam complaints.

Trent: Correct.

Janette: When you spend all this money to build up a database, the last

thing you want them to do is opt out.

Trent: Correct. With Infusionsoft you can actually send them an

email, and it drives them to a form, and it says tell me what you’re

interested in, and they can fill in the little checkmarks and the dots, or

whatever, hit submit, and then Infusionsoft will apply those tags. You can

really allow your customers to self segment themselves.

Janette: Definitely.

Trent: The more information you collect, and I know that

Germaine Gregs with “Hear and Play” is the czar of tagging . . .

Janette: Yes.

Trent: My point is, the more tagging that you do, and I think he

uses like 9,000 tags or some ridiculous number like that, the more you can

laser target your list.

Janette: Yes.

Trent: I hope the people understand that if your message is

extremely relevant to your audience because you’re able to target so well,

what does that do for your conversion rate?

Janette: Oh, it goes through the roof.

Trent: Absolutely.

Janette: During the past year or so, we’ve really been collecting a lot

of data about our tax clients. Now we know, again, who has maybe more than

$250,000 in investible assets and who needs social security planning. Who’s

worried about social security? Now, when we have an idea to do a marketing

campaign of direct mail or email, a combination of the two, we’re able to

select just those people and send it just to them.

They’re not getting something in the mail, “Oh, why are they sending me

this about social security? It doesn’t apply to me.” It definitely speaks

to them, and we’ve been doing some lumpy mail and creative marketing

pieces, and it’s been a lot of fun, and our database has really been

responding well to that. That’s because we’ve been able to collect that

information, tag them, and segment our database. [phone rings] Sorry about

that.

Trent: That’s okay. Let’s go back to before you go so good at

using Infusionsoft, and I kind of think I know what the answer to this is,

how much easier is your business to run now than it used to be and how much

less stressful is your business now than it used to be?

Janette: Oh, a lot less stress, and we’ve systematized so much that in

the years prior, during tax season, I never saw my husband. I never got to

see him. He was working. He got to the office before I even woke up, and

came home super late at night.

This last year we were able to have dinner together as a family most

nights. There might have been a night or two he had to stay late. One day

he came home, towards the beginning of tax season, and he said, “You know,

we’ve really got this systematized so much that I had some time in my

office today where I was looking around thinking, I don’t have anything to

do!”

[laughter]

Janette: That, to me, was so gratifying. He’s less stressed and I work

from home, so I’m not there in the craziness of tax season, but to be able

to have him come home and have those family dinners and not lose him for

four months out of the year has tremendously increased our happiness as a

family. Words can’t even express that.

Trent: Yes. I’m just kind of choking up as I’m hearing that

right now.

Janette: Yes.

Trent: I don’t know what better testament, and I know this is

sounding like a huge Infusionsoft commercial, but I’m a passionate user of

1. It’s a monstrous part of my business, as it obviously is for yours. As

business people we’re always like how can I grow my business and make more

money.

I don’t know that so often that “it’s making us happier”, and “we’re

getting more dinners together” finds its way into the discussion, but I’m

sure glad that you brought that up.

I’m sure there are some people listening to this, and I know I’m in that

camp, that we think that’s pretty darn important stuff.

Janette: Yes, definitely. The reason we wanted to be small business

owners was for freedom.

Trent: Yes.

Janette: For lifestyle, and then you get in the thick of it, and it

consumes you. You can’t go away for the weekend. You can’t go away for a

week because everything would fall apart. Now, having systems in place, we

know everything is still running even though we’re not there, and we’re

still nurturing our leads even though we’re not there on the phone with

them and having to remember all of these things. Sleeping better at night

and having more fun is definitely a big plus.

Trent: Absolutely. Did you guys ever read the book “E Myth” by

George Gerber?

Janette: Yes.

Trent: Is that kind of what got all this started for you?

Janette: Yes, more so for my husband than for me. I went to college,

and I became a teacher, so I was an elementary school teacher, and that was

my mindset. You get up, you work hard, and it was very stressful for me

once we started having a family that I couldn’t handle everything. I

couldn’t be a teacher and a good mom and a good wife. I gave up my career

while we had little ones.

Now being an entrepreneur allows me to still be mom, but also be able to

have my career and support my husband in his small business. My husband was

really good and showing me there’s a different way. He read the “E Myth”

book a long time ago.

Trent: Okay. For those of you who haven’t read it, if you’re an

entrepreneur listening to this, and you’re chopping down trees all day long

every day . . .

Janette: A couple of weeks ago, I had the absolute pleasure of getting

to meet Michael Gerber at an event. He was the keynote speaker, and I

presented on a panel that day. I got to meet him and sit next to him, and

that was such a treat for me.

Trent: Yes, I’ll bet. I think I called him George, didn’t I? My

apologies.

Janette: I think so. Yes, Michael.

[laughter]

Trent: It’s a long time ago that I read it, but it had a

profound impact on me, as well, when I was running my last technology

company. I was ‘Hammered Home’, systems operation manuals, documented

procedures, and it really does set you free. I’ll just finish on this.

If you’re running a business, and you’re busy doing all this stuff

yourself, and you think I don’t have time to create that, I would encourage

you to go ahead and get his book and read it, and he may change your

opinion.

Janette: It changes everything.

Trent: It does. Okay, we’ll wrap it up here Janette. Thank you

so much for making some time. . .

Janette: You’re welcome. Thank you for having me.

Trent: . . . to share what’s working for you in your business.

For those of you who are Bright Ideas members who are listening to this,

whether you’re a premium member or not, thank you very much for being a

member. Without you I don’t have a business.

For those of you who are premium members, plenty more master classes are

coming your way so. Thanks very much everybody. We’ll talk to you again

soon.

All right, if you want to get the show notes for today’s episode, all you

need to do is go to brightideas.co/11. The other thing I wanted to mention

to you is if you go to brightideas.co/massivetraffic, you’re going to get

access to my Massive Traffic Toolkit.

What’s that all about? All the smartest traffic generation experts that

I’ve interviewed here on Bright Ideas have contributed to the Massive

Traffic Toolkit. The really great thing about this tool kit is all the

strategies that they have proven to work are easy to replicate, and you

don’t have to be some SEO ninja guru to do it.

To get free access to that, just head over to

brightideas.co/massivetraffic.

I want to finish off and ask you a small favor. If you would go to iTunes

and give the show a five-star rating and leave some feedback, that would be

a really huge favor. It helps get the show out in front of more eyeballs,

and the more people that become aware of it the more people we can help

here at Bright Ideas.

Thanks very much for tuning into this episode. I’m your host, Trent

Dyrsmid, and we’ll see you in the next episode.

Here are some of the things you’ll discover in this episode:

How to Use Infusionsoft to Create a Laser Targeted Marketing Campaign that Cuts Down Marketing Costs by 90% while Tripling Revenue

An old adage that most entrepreneurs adhere to states that “Marketing always pays.” This is an oversimplification of how things really are. When entrepreneurs don’t know how to market their businesses, products and services efficiently, they tend to waste a lot of time, energy and financial resources that don’t quite increase revenue. Watch the episode to hear Janette talk about how she and her husband Joe cut their marketing budget down by a whopping 90% while tripling their revenue, all with the help of Infusionsoft.

Of course, there are always going to be some pitfalls. Janette and Joe experienced many during their first couple of years in business as they worked for free just to make ends meet. In 2008, they were already using Infusionsoft but they were not using it properly, to say the least. Janette recalls that in the beginning, they were using Infusionsoft as a glorified Rolodex. Janette took it upon herself to discover and take advantages of the many features of the software, and it was only three years later that she became a finalist of the Infusionsoft Ultimate Marketer Award. That’s a pretty impressive achievement.

Learn what Janette’s secret is and how she used the features and the capabilities of Infusionsoft to pull this off.

With the use of the automated systems that they have developed for their marketing processes, Janette and Joe brought their company to new heights. Back in 2008, they really didn’t know if they were going to stay in business long. The price of their old direct marketing strategy was already about $15,000 and growing but their revenue was shrinking. And, Joe’s commission had already been cut in half. This was about the time that they decided

Automated systems helped slash Janette’s marketing budget.

Image source: 123rf.com

that they needed to do things differently. They discovered email marketing and the full potential of Infusionsoft to solve their marketing dilemma.

With the automated system in place, they were able to slash their marketing costs from a staggering $15,000 to a very manageable $1,500. During the process, they not only cut down their marketing spending, they also tripled their revenue.

Janette describes her strategy in detail, and it’s clearly something that can be replicated by others.

Listen to this interview to learn how you too can cut down on marketing time and money.

Janette and Joe’s company, the Gleason Tax Advisory Group, now enjoys very healthy revenues from $200,000 up to the high 6 figure range.  Janette credits their strategically targeted marketing. Listen to the show to discover her formula for an efficient and targeted marketing campaign.

She also reveals the life cycle of a lead within their financial consulting firm. She details how their firm treats their clients to build trust. Trust is the real key to success in this business, and the success of their business is proof that they are well trusted and even beloved by their clientele. Learn the little things that they do to add something special to their marketing campaign.

Listen to the show to discover how Janette and Joe get new clients and how they keep them loyal over time.

Janette details how they created the process that systematized all of their marketing. This system runs in autopilot, nurturing leads and communicating with clients on a consistent basis. This allows their company to stay in touch with leads and opportunities that would otherwise fall

Unique marketing, like coffee and brownies, made Janette and Joe memorable to their customers. Image source: 123rf.com

through the cracks. If you are having a hard time keeping in touch with your leads, you’ll want to hear all the goods on creating a targeted, personal marketing system with far less time and effort.

Your clientele need to be treated well in order for them to want to continue to give you business. The Gleasons have perfected this with their uniquely effective marketing and referral methods. A box of brownies, a packet of ground coffee and a referral dinner party are all things that the Gleasons have incorporated in their marketing campaign, to excellent effect.

Listen as Janette explains how they managed to incorporate these clever and highly effective marketing strategies to boost their relationships with current clients and generate new clients in the process.

Janette’s targeted marketing is key to her success.

Image source: 123rf.com

Classifying and segmenting your clientele is a crucial step to creating the best targeted marketing that will work wonders for your business. Before you can tag and segment your customers, you first need to solicit information from them. Listen as Janette describes her own method of collecting freely-given information from her clients. She then explains the tagging and segmenting procedures that help create a laser-targeted marketing campaign. In the end, Janette is clear that their products and services that are offered to the right people.

If you want to learn more about target marketing to your current clients, you’ll want to hear Janette’s experiences.

About Janette Gleason

Janette went to Augustana College and majored in Elementary Education and Spanish. She received the Sam’s Club “Teacher of the Year Award” and taught education professionals how to use technology in their classrooms. Janette stepped back from her teaching career to raise her children and to help her husband build his financial planning and tax preparation firm, where she is currently the Director of Marketing.

Janette had the honor of being a finalist in Infusionsoft’s Ultimate Marketer Contest 2011. Janette continues to share her success story by speaking at various events such as Infusionsoft’s Success Course, training events/webinars for service professionals, and national marketing conferences.

Before their new marketing system with Infusionsoft, Janette rarely saw her family because she and her husband Joe were just too busy with work. In her free time, she loves to scrapbook, sew, travel with her Joe, and spend time with their three young children.