There are a lot of ideas floating around about how to do business. How to get started, the best ways to “make money”, how to grow your business… it goes on and on and on.

Here at SEOSiteCheckUp.com, we talk A LOT about “New SEO”. New SEO is about VALUE. Providing value to your customers, and through that experience, providing value to Google. As a result, your rankings soar and you have a great chance of keeping them.

Value is really the currency of business (and the world). And in order to succeed in business, YOU NEED VALUE.

For some reason, there’s still a misconception out there that making money is “shady”. Now, if you’re reading this, you probably don’t think that way. But it’s still worth discussing. 

The most profitable businesses are created on value and word-of-mouth marketing. Which, if you think about it, are basically the same points. Because if you have a valuable product, people talk about it. As a result, more people buy the product. As a result, more people talk about the product. And so on!

This is why when you get into business, you should be focused on the PRODUCT and the VALUE you offer – not how much money you’re going to make! If you’re focused on money, you’ll make decisions not based on value, but based on money. Therefore, your odds of creating a successful business diminish considerably!

If instead, you focus on VALUE and what you have to offer, you’ll find that money comes your way easily.

In the rest of this article, I’m going to talk about a handful of ways you can provide value in your business, to ensure customers tell everyone they know about it and keep coming back.

Rule #1: YOUR PRODUCT MUST PROVIDE VALUE

Of course, it all boils down to what you originally offer your customers. If your product is trash, the entire experience will be trash!

Here’s a good idea to keep in mind when developing your product: if the product you’re releasing isn’t the absolute BEST product in your niche, then don’t release it!

Yes, that’s right. Only release a product or service if it’s the absolute best thing out there! Because think about it… why would any customer want the second best, or third best, or 42nd best product or service? The vast majority of customers will want the best. So if you provide that, you become a magnet for these customers. If not, you’ll find yourself competing with other mediocre businesses, for the lower value customers!

Rule #2: CUSTOMER SERVICE MATTERS!

Customer service is a HUGE deal. You should spend a considerable amount of effort focusing on customer service. Although books like “The Four Hour Work Week” recommend only spending an hour on email a week, if you’re creating a brand new company, realize that it’s much more productive to answer emails as soon as you get them! 

If a customer sees you’ve responded to an email immediately, they’ll remember that, and it will be a definite plus to their overall experience.

Rule #3: DON’T PUSH YOUR CUSTOMERS

This stems from a valuable product. If you have the best product in the niche, you wouldn’t have to cram it down people’s throats. Therefore, when figuring out your landing pages and sales techniques, realize that as a top-quality company, you don’t need to beg for scraps!

Instead, create an entire experience that showcases the major benefits of your product. Then, if people are interested in having the best product for their needs, they’ll buy it! Not because of some sneaky sales tactic or “in your face” marketing, but because your product is actually fantastic!

Although value is the key currency of business, many business owners forget to offer it first and foremost! As a result, their entire business is diluted, and rarely ever makes a significant impact in the market.

If you focus on value first, and your customer’s experience, you’ll find yourself the owner of a highly profitable business sooner rather than later!

Why Would Anyone Want Your Product?

People don’t buy products.

Yes, you heard that right – people don’t buy products.

We have this idea of consumer culture, people buying loads of STUFF because they think it will make them happy. And this is true.

But what is happiness? Well… we could go on about that one. But for the sake of this article, we’re going to simply say, happiness is a feeling. It’s a sense you get when you feel fulfilled, satisfied, content, etc.

Now, physical objects are not feelings. But they can help synthesize feelings. And this is why people buy “stuff” – to get that feeling of happiness.

It won’t work long-term, but it’s great for a short burst of that happy feeling.

Therefore, realize that your product—whether it’s physical or an information product—is absolutely worthless without the feeling customers get when they buy it. Because at the end of the day, that’s all it comes down to. 

You make an app that makes someone more productive. They like that feeling of productivity, so they gain satisfaction from using your product.

Listen up: you’re not selling a productivity app – you’re selling THE FEELING OF SATISFACTION THAT COMES WITH PRODUCTIVITY.

This is CRUCIALLY important. And once you fully grasp what I’m saying here, you’ll change the way you market your product forever. Because when you sell an app from the angle of, IT WILL MAKE YOU FEEL SATISFACTION, it makes a world of difference!

Think of this…

“Our app will make you more productive.”

“This app will help you accomplish everything you want, every single day.”

The difference? The second evokes a feeling – accomplishment. This is a feeling your customers will like feeling, so this gives you a MUCH better chance of closing a sale. Because remember, people don’t care AT ALL about your product. They care about how they’ll feel when they use your product!

Let’s look at the greatest example of this: Apple.

Apple sells feelings, not products. Well… they do sell products (and damn good ones). But the reason why Apple is the most profitable company in the world is due to the feelings their customers have when they buy an Apple product.

I personally use a mac and I love it. I love the experience, as I type this, I’m viewing the word processing program I’m using. It’s sleek, clean, easy to navigate… it feels great.

And that’s why people buy Apple products – and lots of ‘em. It’s why people buy Apple products even though they could get a PC that does basically the same thing at a MUCH lower price. It’s because of the feeling they get from using it!

Apple doesn’t just sell products – Apple sells lifestyles. And that’s why they’re so successful. Because of the feelings, their products evoke in their customers!

Now, it’s up to the product to present the “face” of what the customer will feel. But it’s up to the marketing to decide what it is your product truly feels like! When looking at your products, identify how you want your customer to feel when they use it. Then figure out an angle that will present that feeling quickly and efficiently. 

We used to see this all the time with cigarette companies – they’d display advertisements of cowboys, mountaineers, sophisticated women, etc. Human beings at the top of their game.

Even though smoking is proven to be INCREDIBLY harmful to human beings, there are still millions of smokers. It’s because of the feeling people get when they smoke (and I’m not only talking about the nicotine!). 

To identify what your product does. Then figure out what feeling that functionality creates. Then figure out the right way to market your products based on that feeling and watch as your sales skyrocket. 

Give Your Customers What They Want  

The best way to make money in business is to not be in business to make money.

This is funny because the vast majority of people who get into business do it exactly because they want to make money.

The end result? We get nice statistics like, “9/10 businesses fail”. Well, of course, they fail when the sole focus is making money, and as much of it as possible!

A “business” isn’t some magical money printing machine. The money has to come from somewhere. And where does it come from? The customers! The customers are the ones who pay money to buy a product or service that you offer.

So instead of focusing on making some “business” that just generates money (which is impossible), why don’t we focus on the people who have the potential to make us money? Why don’t we focus on the customer?

Businesses built with the customer in mind make money. Businesses built with the founder’s bank account in mind will—in the vast majority of cases—fail miserably. 

The best way to be successful is to listen to those you’re trying to sell to. Because they’ll tell you exactly what they want. They will literally tell you what they will pay for. Then if you provide that to them, guess what? They’ll pay for it!

This is the easiest AND most profitable way to run a business!

Introducing the NPS Score

So the question now is, how can we shape our business direction to match what the customer wants? Fortunately, there’s a handy little metric we can use to determine exactly what the customer is looking for: the NPS score.

The NPS score revolves around one question, posed to the customer: would you recommend this company to someone else?

The customer is then asked to rate their answer on a 0-10 scale. A zero means the customer absolutely HATED the business, 10 means they would recommend it to anyone and everyone they know.

The idea is simple. Ask each and every one of your customers this question. Then, collect all their answers. Once you reach a large number of answers, simply determine the average rating. This is your NPS score.

Now, let’s break it down:

0-6: This is a negative score. Customers who rate your business a 0-6 did not like their experience, will NOT recommend your business, and will actually—in most cases—recommend people never use it!

7-8: This is the “neutral” level. These customers had a normal, everyday experience at your business. It wasn’t bad, they won’t be complaining. But they’re not going to be in a hurry to recommend it to anyone they know.

9-10: Lastly, we have the ravers – the ideal customers. These people LOVE your business. They will continue to give you money and will recommend you to anyone and everyone who needs what you can offer.

By figuring out the NPS score, you can immediately get a good direction for where your company should beheaded. Obviously, the most successful companies will have an NPS score of 9-10 (this is excluding MASSIVE chain stores, where the customer shops not for the quality of service reasons, but for pure convenience).

9-10 customers are your ticket to business success. Because not only will they buy your products, again and again, they can also be up-sold. And not only will they buy those products, but they’ll also recommend their friends and family buy them as well.

Essentially, customers who are 9’s and 10’s are mini-marketing machines.

Once you have your NPS score, determine the next moves for your company. If the majority of your customers are 9-10, congratulations – you’re doing incredible.

If the majority is 0-6, clearly you’re failing in some large area. So the next step is to identify where that area is, then implement programs to fix it.

Lastly, if you have customers in the 7-8 range, you’d be surprised how easy it is to get them into the 9-10 range. How do you do this? Simply go the extra mile. If customers want to return something, make that as easy as possible. If they want customer service, don’t make them wait on hold – pick up right away. 

Make little changes that no other business is doing, and you’ll get customers as no other business has.