Neal Juern | CEO Juern Technology
THIS Kept Me Up At Night
I started Juern Technology in 2012. Like many MSPs, I began as a one-man IT shop and grew slowly from out-of-the-blue referrals. Through the years, I would try random acts of marketing: Facebook Ads – check. ClickFunnels – yep. Even hired a marketing consultant, but never got one client. ZERO! Being honest with myself, I didn’t know what the hell I was doing.
$1 million in revenue was my target… but I could never quite reach it. Then I ran into a quote from a marketer that changed my entire mindset about running a business:
“You can always tell when a company will stay small. They OBSESS about the product/service and NEGLECT the sales and marketing aspects of running a company. If you don’t do it all, you’ll STAY SMALL!”
That single quote haunted me and kept me up nights. Because that WAS me! Guilty! I was constantly polishing all the shiny technical aspects of my company, but just doing an occasional poke at marketing. That had to end…
2 Decisions That Pushed Us Beyond That $1 Million Barrier
With that blasted quote circling my brain 24/7, I made two critical decisions that would force me to trade in my tech hat for a less comfortable sales and marketing hat. First, I joined Accelerators Club. Next, I hired a Marketing Manager (Bella) – the BEST decision I ever made! Together, we went through Robin’s Rapid Implementation Workshop and had great results. By the end of 2019, we grew our MRR by 77% – from $47,990 (way under $1 million) to $85,164 (OVER $1 million)!
Another Powerful Quote, Another Transformation
Before Covid reared its ugly head, we started 2020 with a record sale! We used our print newsletters, client testimonials, and Shock-And-Awe box to close a deal we had been nurturing for 13 months! That deal worth $36,000 in NEW MRR was a record for us!
Just like everyone else, 2020 presented some challenges. Sales went flat. Clients panicked. Honestly, I was scared. I repeatedly asked myself: “Should I STOP all marketing? Should I CUT expenses? Should I let team members go?”
Enter Boot Camp 2020: Robin asked Marcus Lemonis, “What would you tell this group of MSPs to do during this pandemic?” His answer SHOCKED me to my core. Without hesitation, Marcus said, “DOUBLE up on your marketing.” Seriously. This is money straight from Marcus Lemonis himself. So, upon returning from Boot Camp, I met with Bella, and together we wrote out what it would look like to truly double our marketing. I’m proud to say, we DID double our marketing – our staff, our spending, our time and effort…EVERYTHING!
Question was: did it work?
Exploding Revenue Growth By 114%, Our MRR Increased By 79%!
Our success in 2020 was made possible by our commitment to Technology Marketing Toolkit and the fact that we didn’t sit idle. Rather, we literally DOUBLED our marketing.
Our revenue for 2019 was $1,114,124. In 2020 (what Robin calls the toughest year to grow a business), we DOUBLED our revenue (114% actually) to $2,383,835. Our monthly recurring revenue shot up 79%, from $85,165 in 2019 to $152,021 in 2020! Our net profit went from none to some, since we prioritized growth over profit in 2020. This year, we expect a ton more profit.
Our Most Effective Direct Mail Campaign By Far Yielded An ROI Of 15,176%! (You read that right)
Imagine shelling out $813.54 for ANY marketing campaign, and your efforts bring in TWO new clients worth $7,418.50 per month and $35,257.03 in initial project work, totaling $124,279.03! You would want to run that campaign over and over and over again, right? Well, that was our experience with Robin’s Aspirin campaign. It was the first direct mail campaign we learned in Accelerators Club and our most effective by far.
SURVEY: Get A FREE Custom Marketing Road Map With A Program Advisor…Click Here
We mailed 25 letters per week to both cleaned prospect and farm lists (pausing in Q2 because of Covid). Our offer was a 15-minute Discovery Call. Bella, our superstar marketer, handled EVERYTHING: the mailings, the follow-up calls and even booking the appointments. In total, we targeted 342 prospects, sent 447 letters, made 667 calls and sent 364 e-mails. Our cost per lead was $116.22, our cost per sale was $406.77 and our ROI blew us away – 15,176%! (Know your math…we do!)
Build A “Free” Salesforce That Works To Get You More Business: An “Always-On” Referral Program
Hoping and waiting for referrals to fall into your lap is NEVER a good plan. Juern Technology’s specific and benefit-rich Referral Program really helped us grow during the pandemic.
Here’s how we made it work:
Step 1: We QUALIFIED our referrals – We asked for businesses based in San Antonio or Austin with at least 20 computers.
Step 2: We REWARDED EVERYONE – First, the business being referred received a FREE service call! Second, they receive a $100 Visa gift card when their friend schedules a free Network Assessment.
Step 3: Chance to WIN a computer! – If the referral becomes a customer, they are entered into a drawing to win a new JT Machines computer!
Step 4: Promote, promote, promote! – We talk about our Referral Program in every Technology Business Review, promote it in our print newsletter, include it in social media posts, added a landing page, and even include a flyer in our Shock-And-Awe box.
While we spent $1,100 promoting our Referral Program, we generated 12 leads and three NEW CLIENTS valued at $5,437 in MRR! Our ROI was 5,831%!
Pivoting To Digital Marketing Was A $41,350-A-Month Godsend!
Once we shut down direct mail early last year, we knew we needed to shift our focus to digital marketing. We immediately worked on our online presence, landing pages, and website conversion as we started driving more traffic to our website.
Problem was, we weren’t getting much organic traffic. After testing keyword searches for “IT services” and “managed IT services,” I realized that local directories owned all the top results. The two leading directories were Clutch and Upcity.com. So, rather than work like crazy to COMPETE against those top directories, we JOINED them. We created free listings on each of them and added real customer reviews.
Combining this directory strategy with retargeting ads from Facebook and LinkedIn, our website traffic JUMPED by 330%! Plus, our social media traffic also went way up! We spent $2,941 on digital marketing in 2020 (know your numbers), which generated 22 leads and FIVE new customers worth $41,350.57 in MRR! That’s a 16,772% ROI!
Turning Our Website Into A High-Engagement, High-Converting Tool
Even before watching Donald Miller at Robin’s Boot Camp, we were studying his StoryBrand approach. So, after hearing him speak, we were excited to finally upgrade our website content. StoryBrand is all about SIMPLIFYING YOUR MESSAGE so more customers and prospects engage. We’ve now finished “StoryBranding” about half of our services pages, and the positive response has been overwhelming!
Steal This Cheat Code: REPURPOSE Your Content!
Beyond having a company mission, we wanted to have a mission exclusively for the marketing team. So, last March, we met with them and said, “Our mission is to REACH and INFLUENCE our market using ALL MEDIA ALL THE TIME.” This includes social media, our website, our print newsletter, LinkedIn, and more.
From that day forward, we have strived to 1) know WHO our market is, 2) give them GOOD content that they find VALUABLE, and 3) continuously reach them through MULTIPLE media sources. So, we started a content calendar. We took some of Robin’s long-form content and broke it down into pieces. Some content goes to the website, some to the newsletter, and some to social media. It’s the SAME message in different formats to reach prospects where they’re at!
Even More Benefits To Doubling Your Business
I know what you’re thinking: doubling my marketing means doubling my work, my costs, my headaches. Not necessarily, especially when you hire the RIGHT marketing manager!
Fact is, by doubling our marketing and doubling our business, we doubled our PEACE. Today, we have plenty of money in the bank and zero cash-flow issues. We invested in our business to become an MSSP in 2020 and had the funds to pay for the employees, training, and resources we needed.
Also, because we doubled our marketing, we added more marketing oil wells, so it’s been a lot easier to PREDICT results! Finally, we also doubled our impact. We went from nine employees to 16, and I was able to give each employee a surprise year-end bonus!
Becoming A Better Your Best Finalist Is Simply A Stepping Stone To Our Goals
When I look back over 2020, it’s definitely NOT what I had expected. Probably what NOBODY had expected. However, 2020 showed me that following Robin’s lead and pushing forward WITHOUT FEAR can produce incredible results. I am personally grateful for the growth and prosperity that has been afforded to myself and my employees.
Standing on stage next to four incredible Better Your Best finalists this year simply confirms that an ordinary guy with a great team and determination to follow a proven plan can achieve amazing results. I’m never one to complicate things. Rather, I find that one thing that works (like a hand crank) and then…just spin the shit out of it!
It was just a couple of years back that we were scratching and clawing to reach that $1M mark. This year we expect to cross the $3M mark, and we are entering our second market in Austin, Texas. Juern Technology is PROOF that technical perfection doesn’t win. Marketing wins! And with the right marketing, could I win it all next year? Stay tuned…
