Have you ever said those two little words, “Very well” or “I'm fine?” The word “fine” has become a common cop-out for moving beyond the status quo. But telling ourselves, “Business is good enough” can be the key to the door leading to greatness.

In a way, good isn't good at all. It is a false sense of accomplishment that is wrapped in self-satisfaction. When I realized that being okay with “good” wasn't going to help me achieve my dreams, I changed my mindset and my business plan of attack.

Last year, I decided that nothing was going to stop us from expanding and reaching the next level.

I grew mine marketing budget by 5% from 2022 to 2023, and as a result, our revenue grew by 8%, adding over $7 million that year. And that decision is still paying off—revenues are up about 20% so far this year.

Here are some key moves I made that helped us achieve our highest annual revenue ever last year – $104.6 million.

Connected: How to turn marketing into a sales and revenue engine

Direct mail leads generate 600% more revenue per customer than digital sources

I have sent postcards to advertise my business, PostcardMania, every week since I started in 1998, and I have only increased my amount of posts – with one exception. The only time I cut it was in 2008 and it was a total disaster. our revenues fell about 15% next year.

Direct mail takes up a large portion of my marketing budget. It's not the cheapest way to generate leads, but it's absolutely irreplaceable in my marketing mix. Postcards generate the highest quality results among all other like sources, from organic search to pay-per-click to social media.

Here's the proof: In 2023, we generated $229.41 in revenue for each postcard lead, while we only generated $37.09 in revenue per pay-per-click lead. That's a massive 519% change – and six times more revenue! And that's only considering new orders, not repeat orders from customers who know and love us.

And that's just the income we can trace directly to the postcards. There is much more data coming from a “organic search” or another source that has been getting our postcards in the mail for years. I believe there is a lot more postcard income that is wrongly attributed to other sources, but we can save that for another time.

If you want to take your income to the next level, I encourage you to increase your marketing spend – a 5% increase in spend resulted in a 7% increase in income for me – and consider adding direct mail to your arsenal to 6x your revenue per lead.

Continuously adding and improving live chat increased sales conversations by 16%

Fewer and fewer people are willing to reach for the phone these days when they need something. Actually, studies show that most consumers (63%) prefer to use live chat to interact with a business.

We added live chat on our website in 2016, and improved our sales conversations (people wanting to speak directly with a sales representative) by 16%. However, I do not advise you to open a chatbot and call it a day.

The success of our live chat system is rooted in the fact that we have real human beings on the other side of the screen. If you're using bots—even awesome, AI-trained bots—you run the risk of upsetting prospects and customers who want answers rather than a rote regurgitation of FAQs they can find on your website.

The ultimate live chat tip: Don't set it and forget it. Play around with colors, messages, and placements and see which combinations elicit the best response from you website visitors. We replaced a generic message on our thank you pages with a live chat message and it had a huge impact on reducing the lag time between when a customer is on your website and when they're on the phone with a sales rep .

Connected: 4 Budget Marketing Hacks That Will Boost Your Business in 2024

Include Video in Your Meta Ads to Increase Social Media Likes by 105%

If you're a social media user, you've probably noticed more and more videos coming to your main feed. In fact, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg revealed during a recent earnings call that 50% of all people's time on Meta platforms is now wasted. consumer video.

Grappling with this, we decided to set up our own 139 video case studies — real business owners talking about their successful campaigns — to work for us on Facebook and Instagram. We uploaded lists of our current and prospective customers and created audiences similar to our lists to target with our video ads.

As a result, our social media leads doubled. In 2022, our average number of social media leads per week was 174, and then in 2023, the average number of leads increased to 356 per week! This is an increase of 105%.

The research is conclusive – video returns are outpacing static images. A recent report revealed that the videos failed almost 30% more clicks than simple static image assets. Another study found that video ads drive 48% higher sales fees than static ads.

Studies prove it, I've tested it myself, but you might be wondering if you have the budget to run it. It's possible for you to incorporate more video ads into your marketing strategy at a lower cost. We just started offering video ads on both social media and affiliate TV channels like Netflix at small business prices.

Working with the right marketing agency, it's possible to execute a video advertising plan that won't overwhelm your marketing spend. Plus, the amount of revenue these video ads will bring you will be well worth the upfront investment.

Connected: 3 marketing blind spots that are holding you back (and how to fix them)

So will you take the blue pill to stay fit this year or will you take the red pill and travel the most challenging road to greatness? I challenge you to take a closer look at the hard reality of where you can improve for better results and a better business.