One Path to Millions
Here’s a quick story about how I learned the value of paths as a young bloke, and why it’s a marketing lesson I’ve never forgotten.
It was many years ago. I was in my 20s, and there was one bloke I knew who was a marketing genius.
It all started on his property, where he sold used building materials.
Every week, more people would turn up and buy them. His sales kept growing.
Primary Research
He started asking customers what they were buying the materials for.
The common thread was that they were owner-builders trying to build homes as cheaply as possible in rural areas. They told him it was taking a lot of time because they had to visit several places to find everything they needed.
So he started putting kits together. They were effectively kit homes that people could build to lock-up stage.
Advertising His Offer
Back then, advertising meant newspapers. One of the best places to advertise to general consumers was the Trading Post, which mostly featured second-hand goods. It was much like Facebook Marketplace is today.
But it wasn’t really for trades. Or so we thought.
He placed a three- or four-line advert for his kits in the second-hand building materials section, which cost him $40, and his sales went through the roof. Pardon the pun.
He made hundreds of thousands of dollars in the first year and went on to make millions.
He didn’t just happen to sell more building materials. He did some quick research and noticed the path his customers were already following, saw where they were getting stuck and created a simpler way forward. He also had one call to action: phone him. That made the next step clear.
One Path to Over Half a Million
This one’s personal.
My first business ended up being an e-commerce business, and I was always on the lookout for products to sell.
I came across one from an existing supplier: real estate window displays. You know when you walk up to a real estate window and see all their properties displayed there? Well, that’s a real estate window display.
I put the product on my website. It got a Google listing that took people back to a landing page showing the product, and there was one call to action on that page: request a quote. I started receiving quote requests.
That Google listing netted me no less than $120,000 in sales a year for the next five years from that one product. Of course, the competition caught up eventually and sales dropped off, but I got five good years out of it.
There are many more examples like that—things I had no idea would sell. But because I was paying attention to my analytics, I found out they were in demand. I just made sure I met the demand coming in along those paths.
Identifying the Paths
Identifying the paths your customers follow when they want to buy your product or engage with your service can be a very profitable exercise.
These days, the paths to purchase are far more fragmented. Some paths are simple. Others are more complex and much harder to spot.
They can be a mix of online and offline paths. They can start offline and move online, or vice versa.
One thing’s for sure: there are many paths to your product or service that you haven’t discovered yet. But when you start looking, you’ll be amazed at how many you find. Sometimes, they’re discovered in mundane things, such as having the correct contact information on your website and social profiles.
This guide will help you identify, strengthen and track the paths that can lead to profitable opportunities.
Next Step
Download the Local Hub Method Guide here. It’s free!
The Local Hub Method is a modern strategic marketing framework for building one clear hub—your digital home—strengthening existing paths and creating new ones that lead to profitable opportunities.
