Is Your Marketing Missing Some Basics?
It might have happened that when you started your business, you told a few people what you were up to and clients just showed up. You may have had the good fortune of not having to work too hard to get noticed or think much about the details of your marketing; things just seemed to take off.
(If you’re saying to yourself, “Is she for real? This actually happens to people, where they don’t have to struggle to get clients, especially at the beginning?” The answer is yes, it’s a real thing.)
Want Clients to Choose You? Be Special
The marketplace is crowded these days. It doesn’t matter how you’re trying to get clients. If you’re going to live networking events, you may find half a dozen professionals in your field at every event you attend. Online, there may be dozens of websites in your category that get a higher rank than yours. On social media, you probably see content from professionals like you all over the place. How will your potential clients find and choose you with all that competition?
10 Ways to Get Your Marketing Unstuck
Have you ever found yourself knowing exactly what you need to do about marketing your business… and then not doing it? You are not alone. Many self-employed professionals and creatives find that the hardest part of marketing isn’t figuring out what to do. What’s hard is actually doing it.
How to Be Successful in Business if You’re Not a Nuts & Bolts Person
Congratulations, you’re a business owner! You know your craft and are filling your days doing what you love, giving value to your customers, and putting well-earned cash in the bank as a result. Everything is as it should be.
Except.
There’s a voice you keep hearing that says something like:
You aren’t nuts & boltsy enough, how can you be successful in business? You can’t even understand a profit and loss statement – how do you expect to make it?
*sigh*
How Entrepreneurs Get “From Failure to Failure Without Loss of Enthusiasm”
One of my coaching clients had recently experienced a string of failures. A business venture that had consumed a great deal of her time flopped. A new line of business she was attempting to market was finding little response in the marketplace. Several of her long-time clients stopped working with her.
Three Ways to Make Marketing Easier on Yourself
Maybe this sounds familiar: you’re staring at your marketing to-do list, fully aware of how important it is to get things planned and executed, and yet getting started feels hard.
Four Powerful Ways to Keep Your Marketing on Track
When was the last time you put the amount of effort into marketing that you intended? For most self-employed professionals, getting marketing tasks accomplished is an ongoing challenge. You don’t have a boss looking over your shoulder ordering you to make those follow-up calls or write those blog posts. It’s easy to get distracted by client emergencies, family responsibilities, and technology issues. Then another week goes by without enough — or any — attention on marketing.
You may have put a considerable amount of energy into figuring out how to market your business, and coming up with smart plans for what you’ll do. But if you fall short on execution, even the best plan won’t help you get clients.
Here are four approaches to making sure the marketing activities you’ve chosen for yourself actually get done.
Are You Hearing the Siren Song?
Recall this story of Ulysses: his ship is passing the Sirens who live along the rocky shore, and he asks his men to tie him to the mast so he won’t succumb to their Siren Song, smashing the ship into the rocks.
Flash forward to your business today and compare this story to your marketing. There are plenty of Sirens calling to you; are you in danger of smashing into the rocks and wrecking your business ship? Below are several Siren Songs, and how you can safely navigate through them.
Audio: If 2021 Wasn’t Business As Usual, What Was It Business AS?
No doubt about it, it’s been a year…
As we approach year’s end, take a moment to reflect on how it started, and where you’re at now. Very likely it wasn’t business as usual, so what was it business AS?
What’s new or different? What did you try? How did things go? How would you like to finish the year?
Keep Your Marketing Well Full
There you are, sitting at your desk, ready to get the word out about your business. Trouble is, you not sure what to say, or how to say it. Adding to that, it seems like you’ve said everything 100 times before. Bottom line: you’re feeling a distinct lack of inspiration. Sounds like the perfect time to fill your marketing well!
What does it mean to fill the well? It’s a phrase I learned from reading The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron. The book is a guide to uncovering your creativity, and one of its first suggestions is to set aside time each week to replenish your well, the source of your creativity.
