GE 175: How Landon Ray Took ONTRAPORT from a Dozen Customers to 1,000 Customers in Just 2 Months (podcast)

Hey everyone, in this episode, I share the mic with Landon Ray, founder and CEO of ONTRAPORT, which is an award winning, all-in-one business and marketing automation platform that removes the burden of technology for small businesses and entrepreneurs.

Listen as we discuss how he went from day trader to entrepreneur, why losing one business resulted in building a new, better business, how he took ONTRAPORT from a dozen customers to 1,000 customers in just 2 months with a $0 marketing budget, and why having a great product is still the best customer acquisition plan.

Download podcast transcript [PDF] here: How Landon Ray Took ONTRAPORT from a Dozen Customers to 1,000 Customers in Just 2 MonthS TRANSCRIPT

Time Stamped Show Notes:

• 00:58 – Eric introduces Landon to the show
• 01:18 – Who Landon is and what ONTRAPORT is about
  • 01:57 – Landon was able to create a seamless process for his business
  • 02:08 – Having tools all over the place, Landon turned them into a business in 2008
  • 02:48 – “We help people overcome the burden of technology”
• 03:45 – In 2004, Landon started PageOne
  • 04:32 – “We created a very early SEO company for realtors”
  • 04:59 – The inevitable occurred – Google started to get better at filtering sites
  • 06:26 – The ultimate thing was, PageOne wasn’t a scalable model
  • 06:52 – Landon just woke up one morning knowing PageOne will lose to Google
  • 07:36 – How Landon felt shutting the business down
• 08:48 – How ONTRAPORT generates revenues
  • 08:50 – Monthly fees for platform access
  • 08:54 – How the pricing looks
    • 08:58 – Starts free with free a landing page tool on ONTRApages
    • 09:15 – Premium service at $15/month
    • 09:18 – Marketing automation and CRM platform at $79/month
    • 09:30 – Robust platform is at $297/month
  • 09:52 – Acquiring the first hundred customers through networking in conferences
  • 10:55 – About 6,000 customers on ONTRAPORT
  • 11:44 – Landon started making friends at conferences to market ONTRAPORT
    • 12:43 – Building relationships with customers
    • 13:00 – Creating an offer people cannot refuse
  • 13:57 – The most effective consumer acquisition plan
    • 15:52 – 75% are coming from word of mouth
    • 16:08 – Content marketing also works for ONTRAPORT
  • 16:38 – When you’re struggling, you just need to make one small tweak
  • 16:54 – What ONTRAPALOOZA is
    • 17:01 – A time for customers & entrepreneurs to learn about marketing
    • 18:19 – Many of Landon’s clients are ‘underground rock stars’
  • 19:09 – How ONTRApalooza helped ONTRAPORT
    • 19:26 – It helped create the culture around the company
    • 20:45 – It gets customers
  • 21:08 – Landon is not in charge of ONTRApalooza
  • 21:26 – Hosting events is a good idea for most founders
    • 22:16 – Forget about event planners
    • 22:18 – Create an event team instead
  • 23:27 – Landon, from a day trader to an entrepreneur
  • 25:04 – What is one big struggle you’ve faced while growing ONTRAPORT? It was all a struggle! It’s all really hard but ONE is growing a 7-figure business by bootstrapping
  • 29:02 – What is the difference between a 7 and 8 figure business? The team. An 8-figure business has more people and as a founder, it’s a dramatically different life and job. It’s more about leadership than execution
  • 30:51 – How did you learn to let go and delegate things? It’s hard, but get traction before you get an operations person. As soon as you got traction, you should be out there looking for an operations-oriented person
  • 32:33 – What one piece of advice would you give your 25-year old self? Travel and see the world
  • 33:36 – What’s one must-read book you recommend for everyone? The E-Myth
  • 35:44 – Connect with Landon on his website

3 Key Points:

1. Inevitable things happen in businesses so be prepared.
2. Hosting events can help businesses in different ways.
3. When you bootstrap a business, you get away from the unnecessary spending.

Resources From This Interview:

• ONTRAPORT
• ONTRApalooza
• ONTRApages
• Marketing School with Neil Patel & Eric Siu
• Must-read books: 
  • The E-Myth: Why Most Small Businesses Don’t Work and What to Do About It by Michael Gerber
  • Selling the Invisible: A Field Guide to Modern Marketing by Harry Beckwith
  • The Irresistible Offer: How to Sell Your Product or Service in 3 Seconds or Less by Mark Joyner
  • Getting Everything You Can Out Of All You’ve Got: 21 Ways You Can Out-Think, Out-Perform, and Out-Earn the Competition by Jay Abraham
• Landon on LinkedIn
• ONTRAPORT Community

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