Marketing a Company: Defense v. Offense

Why playing defense in your marketing might keep you safe, but going on the offensive can put you in the lead

Defensive marketing examples:

1. PPC (Pay Per Click)

2. SEO (Search Engine Optimization)

3. Referrals

4. Loyalty programs

5. Reputation management

For example, Google PPC and SEO are only effective if 1) a person has a problem and 2) that problem is irritating the person so much that they're on the Internet looking to solve the problem now. If you've experienced your own PPC success, consider how many other people are out there that would be down to hire your cleaning company — their problem just isn't yet so great that they need to solve it today.

Now consider how many other companies — just like yours — want "to be #1 on Google". The competition is brutal. But that doesn't mean you should shy away from building an incredible (and incredibly optimized) online presence.

Getting to #1 on Google will not put you in the lead anywhere. It will help, but it will not help you take the lead on its own. You need more channels, more sources of leads.

Content on X often boasts about dirt cheap leads but will only show you 1 days' worth of data. You're only ever seeing the good stuff. If you're not extraordinarily careful, you'll get sucked into their world of defensive marketing and begin to adopt such a scarcity mindset that you'll never consider offensive marketing. You'll shy away from LSA leads because they've increased in cost without any regard for the fact that this person just might pay you $250/month for the next 10 years. You'll become addicted to only look at the short term instead of the bigger picture.

To go on the offensive, the first thing to do is figure out how much you're willing to spend to acquire a new client.

1. Direct mail

2. Facebook ads

3. Content creation

4. Email marketing

5. Influencer partnerships

These 5 channels are all offensive in the sense that you are "going out" and creating opportunity.

In the case of The RCF, you're guaranteed an acquisition cost of $250 for each [recurring] client you find through the program. If you were to experiment — on your own — on other platforms, you can confidently test your campaigns to see if you can achieve an acquisition cost of $250 (or better).

If you're able to afford a $250 acquisition cost, you are going to simply "out buy" the market share from your unwilling competitors.

This dominantly aligns with Dan Kennedy's quote:

1. Whoever can spend the most to acquire a customer, wins.

The RCF is your partner in helping you win your market area by going on the offensive. This is what it could look like for you just 12 months after joining the program.

You'll already handle the defensive side (referrals, client retention, etc) which, in turn, also drive organic Google searches!

But The RCF deploys campaigns across all offensive channels, going out and grabbing opportunities for you and dropping them into your Nurturely+ account.

With defensive channels, you're waiting for your audience to take an action.

It's the offensive marketing channels that will help put you in the lead.

How much are you willing to pay for a new recurring cleaning client?

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