The "New Client System" Interview | Douglas Digital Agency

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The "New Client Growth Secrets" Interview

Terence's "New Client Funnel" Diagram

(mentioned in the interview)

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Interview Transcript

Chris:

 I'd love to welcome everyone to the Getting New Clients show. On the show, we talk with  the world's top experts at growing restaurants and service-based businesses. Today, we're talking with Terence Douglas.


Terence is the owner and CEO at Douglas Digital Agency, an online marketing  firm focused on growing restaurants and service businesses using digital marketing. In this  interview, Terrence is going to walk us through the unique way that they've been able to help  their restaurant service business clients grow their monthly revenue using a unique and strategic  online marketing strategy.




Terence Douglas

Well, thanks, Chris. It's an honor really to be here, and I'm looking forward to sharing with you what Douglas Digital Agency has been doing to actually help grow clients' businesses. Okay, first big question.

Chris:

Okay, first big question.


What led you to starting Douglas Digital Agency, and why do you focus exclusively on working with restaurants and service businesses? 


Terence Douglas

Well, the funny thing is I actually had a retail business for years, and I  discovered internet marketing or marketing online just from the need to increase my own revenue,  increase my own clientele. I needed a way to reach out to customers and reach and try to get new clients. After doing that for myself, I actually realized that other people, other businesses needed  the same information or the same way that I figured out in their business.


I saw that  most businesses know nothing about internet marketing. Most businesses know nothing about marketing online. They actually market in newspaper, radio, TV, and magazines most of the time.


And when it comes to the internet, they're totally baffled by it, so I decided to go in business for myself. But not only being baffled, this internet thing is somewhat intimidating. It's  intimidating because when you're in business, you're concentrating on your customers.

You're concentrating on your clients. You're concentrating on the day-to-day thing that you have to do.And realistically, who has time to research this anyway? So I'm here to share it.

I'm here to help  other businesses do what I've discovered over the years.


Chris

So what kind of restaurants and service  businesses do you work with specifically?

Terence

Well, I really prefer to work with restaurants,  sit-in restaurants versus fast food restaurants. Sit-in restaurants have a different type of  clientele, and you want those people to come back.


Not only that, you want to fill the seats on the slow nights. The fast nights are usually okay, but it's the slow nights that is  hardest. On the service business side, it's really nice working with those trades that come to people's homes or come to businesses that is HVAC, air conditioning that is, plumbing, painters,  electricians, carpenters, and the like.


I'm finding that these businesses are the...  It's funny because when you need these services, where do you go to find them? A lot of these  services, they don't even settle down to have a... A lot of times they don't even have a website.  And if they do, the website is subpar. They don't have any way of telling the public who they are  and what they are most of the time.


Chris

I love it. So let’s get to the part everyone is waiting for. I’d like for you to walk us through the exact strategy that you put in place for all of your restaurants and bars that gets them new business using the internet.


What is the core framework of your system?

Terence

 Well, that's a real good question. I wish in one way  that it was very sophisticated so that I can sound like I'm so intelligent I haven't got it  all together. But what we do is we call it the new client's growth system and it's based on three  core components.


It's the website, social media, and just getting Google reviews. It's as simple  as that. But underneath or underlying all of that is... Behind all of this, the core purpose of  these three entities is to get more clients.


It's all targeted to get more clients. The very  first principle that we always deal with is being very specific as to what the website is supposed to do. What is social media supposed to do? What is your Google reviews supposed to do? So it's all supposed to really just get you more clients.


Chris

Ok… so how do all of those pieces fit together?

Terence

Well, that's a real good question. I wish in one way  that it was very sophisticated so that I can sound like I'm so intelligent I haven't got it  all together. But what we do is we call it the new client's growth system and it's based on three  core components.


It's the website, social media, and just getting Google reviews. It's as simple  as that. But underneath or underlying all of that is... Behind all of this, the core purpose of  these three entities is to get more clients.


It's all targeted to get more clients. The very first principle that we always deal with is being very specific as to what the website is supposed to do. What is social media supposed to do? What is your Google reviews supposed to do? So it's all supposed to really just get you more clients.

Okay. So how do all of those pieces fit together?  Let's start with a website. A website... Most businesses get a website because the competition  has a website or it's simply a thing that you're supposed to do as a business.

You know every  business is supposed to have a website, right? But the website must vibe or must reflect the nature  of the business. It must reflect what the restaurant is all about. But also that's just  the first part of it.

A lot of times websites look fantastic but it's not accomplishing anything.  It's just, wow, it looks pretty. Wow.

But it has to accomplish something. You have to allow... Your  website must be geared towards capturing information. Capturing information from customers.

 You can also capture and gather information to in turn return information to the customers.  It could be emails. It could be text messaging.

It could be anything automated to get information to your customers and to your clients. And that's what's so important about websites. Not just getting a website because someone else has one or you're keeping up with the journals so to speak.

 From there we can go on into social media. If you look at a lot of businesses social media accounts  you will see that there is a lot of inactivity. And because of that inactivity, the account that  you're dealing with, let's just say it's Facebook and the Facebook algorithm is not helping you any because you're posting so few and in between.

You're not posting enough. And when you do post, you're posting too much about what I'm gonna sell, what I'm gonna sell,  what I'm gonna sell. You cannot keep posting on your social media accounts about selling, selling, selling, selling.

You cannot do that. So that social media account must be designed  to inform, must be designed to entertain, must be designed to educate and last but not least  designed to sell. So you must incorporate all those things in your social media account in order for it to be most effective.

Realistically, you should look at social media as a living  entity, a living being that's an employee of your business. So it's what's going on from a day-to-day  from that living being. What's going on from a day-to-day in the business and that's what  social media can do.

Last but not least, we use different tools and techniques. For instance,  we use NFC cards. If you're a restaurant, you can use NFC cards, which is just a little card.

 You have these security cards. You beep it on the door to get in the door.  The NFC cards do just the same.

You beep it on someone's phone to ask them to share a review  on your Google review. For restaurants, it's brilliant because you can share with them your  NFC card to get them to sign up to your VIP program or whatever it may be. You have to always  design your business around objectives.

One of the number one objectives you should do in every  business is gain more clients, get clients to return, and get clients to spend more.  So the NFC cards can do that. So if I get someone to join my VIP list, the VIP list,  I will send them out a text every now and then saying, hey, haven't seen you in a while.

Why not  come by this week? We'll give you 10% off. It's your birthday. We'll give you 15% off. So you have to always be in the presence, always be communicating with your clients,  new clients, existing clients, and old clients on an ongoing basis. And that helps you grow your clients. So the new clients growth secrets, that is all designed around them.

Getting your clients  to come, getting your clients to come often, getting your clients to spend more, and getting ) new clients. It's always designed around those things.


Chris

I love all of that. So what do you consider a successful result of this system at the end of every month?

Terence

I love all of that.


So what do you consider  a successful result of this system at the end of every month? Boy, that's a great question.  To answer simply, some restaurants at the end of two to three months can add $10,000 to their  bottom line. $10,000.


Now you spend $500,000 or whatever it may cost, depends on the  package you get. You can increase your revenue by $10,000 a month. Now who wouldn't want that?) Now with a service business, the same thing can happen.

Maybe not $10,000 because it's not going  to grow as fast. But within a three to six month time period, you can easily increase by $10,000.  And in $10,000, you have to look at it from a long term point of view.

Getting one client to come, one new client, means they're going to get one new service or one new plate of food, depending on what it is, but they're going to come back. And that's the key. It's long term.


Chris

Okay. So let's say that a restaurant or service business wants to get started with your system.  Where do they go to sign up?

Terence

You just go to DouglasDigitalAgency.com and sign up there.


Put your name, your business name,  your website, and a phone number, of course. And I'll hit you back within a 48 hour period and we can sit down and chat on Zoom or face to face.


Chris

And what happens once a new restaurant or service business signs up? 
What is the onboarding process like?

Terence

 Let's just say once we settled on and talk and we agree to move forward and see which plan you're  going to go with.


We basically take a four week period and we go over the process, what needs  to be done, how they will be implementing things. We will go through training and so on. We look at  your website, see if you need a new website, a modified website, and whatever it may be.


But  the best part about it is once it's all set up, it's easy peasy. It's not much work you have to  do. It's basically zipping a card or sitting back and watching and waiting for things to happen.



Chris

If you could give any piece of advice to a restaurant or bar owner who was looking to grow using the internet besides all of the good stuff you’ve already laid out… what would that advice be?

Terence

 I have to say basically jump in. It's not as hard as you think it is and it only takes a little bit  of time a day. The best time to do any of this stuff is first thing in the morning.


So first  thing in the morning, sit down and do a social post. Don't be afraid. You'll be surprised at the  end of the month the difference that it's going to make on your bottom line.


Yes, we have it dialed  in. We know a little bit more of what we're doing, but for you, whether you work with us or not,  it doesn't really matter. What matters is that you, the business owner, sit down, take pictures,  do posts, write posts, but don't always try to sell when you're posting.

And you'll be surprised,  like I said earlier, the outcome


Chris

I love it. To everyone listening, I hope that you've pulled a  ton out of our interview with Terence today.


I've got a few pages worth of notes that I've  been taking as we go. And I can't wait to share this with a few of my buddies that have a service,  businesses or a restaurant. Terence, thanks for being with us today on the show.


And like Terrence  said, if you have any questions, you can find him at www.douglasdigitalagency.com. Thanks for  listening to the New Client Growth Secrets show. We'll see you next time.