Is Your Marketing Approach Incomplete?
Trying to implement a marketing approach that has critical elements missing is like trying to make a pie without the ingredients to form the crust. Or in some cases, without an oven to bake it in!
There are four essential elements every successful marketing approach must have:
- Strategy – What are you trying to do, and why?
- Tactic(s) – How will you do it?
- Tool(s) – What will you need to do it well?
- Medium or Venue – Where will you do it?
If any one of these ingredients is missing, your approach will be less effective than it could be, and in many cases, will fail completely. Here are four examples to show you where an incomplete marketing plan can go wrong.
Distracted from Doing Your Marketing? Try These 3 Simple Tricks
Noticing the dishes piled up in the sink? Feeling like you need to do the laundry right now? Realizing the dog hasn’t been for a walk yet? Sounds like you’re suffering from distracted-itis.
When you sit down to do your marketing, it’s entirely likely there’s something else that needs to be done or seems more interesting -– yes, the dishes, laundry, and dog, and also starting your new exercise regime, watching YouTube cat videos, or learning how to create a bullet journal.
Two Ways to Make Direct Contact Easier
When thinking about the best way to get new business, it’s often good to remember that contacting a prospect directly can be the most effective tactic. However, this can sometimes seem too scary: the thought of picking up the phone, or meeting someone for coffee, or even sending an email can send a wave of fear through your business heart.
Here are some common fears you might experience when considering reaching out to someone directly:
- They’ll think I’m bothering them.
- I don’t know what to say.
- I’m not a good salesperson.
- I’m an introvert.
- I’m not good with words.
- They won’t remember me.
- I’m not sure how to make an offer.
Four Ways to Measure Your Marketing
It’s easy to start a new year thinking, “This year will be different! I’m going to stay on track with my marketing, and really get the word out about my business.” Yet once again, the months fly by and by the time you reach mid-year, you find yourself wondering if what you’ve been doing is working. Are people more aware of your business? Are the places where you’re putting your efforts making a difference? How can you tell if the marketing you’re doing is on track?
You Met A Bunch of People While Networking: Now What?
Meeting new people, in person, is consistently rated as one of the most effective ways to find new prospects for selling your professional services. After attending just a few networking mixers or industry meetings, you will quickly end up with a daunting collection of new contacts. But what do you do with them all?
Remember Why You Are Networking
The whole point of meeting new people is to give you a starting point for developing relationships. New contacts almost never become clients as the result of a one-time meeting.
Marketing: The Bottom Line Your Business Needs You to Pay Attention To
Your business has multiple aspects to it, things that need attention. Some are more important than others, some more fun than others. There’s one bottom line that needs consistent attention no matter what though, and that’s marketing.
Marketing can have vague connotations: does that mean posting fliers, or hiring a consultant? Does it mean going to mixers, or investing in social media? It could mean any or all of these marketing strategies; while it’s important to find the right marketing strategies for you and your business (you can read more about that here), what’s most important is that you do some kind of marketing on a regular basis. If not, your business will soon be in trouble. The question is, what’s the best way to do that?
Find Your Marketing Muse: 5 Types You Can Choose
Are your marketing activities in need of a boost? Motivation? Inspiration? Consider adopting a muse.
A muse is a person or being that serves as a source of inspiration. To adopt a muse means to intentionally choose a model individual to inspire your work. Following a chosen muse can guide you as a self-employed professional to sort out what you need to do in order to market yourself successfully.
Here are five Marketing Muses you might consider adopting. Each one embodies a different set of abilities and personal qualities which you might be able to relate to, or to emulate.
Why You Need Clients and What to Do About It
We need to talk about your business. Not to be too crass, yet part of the formula for a successful business looks like this: Clients = Money
You need clients because you need money, because you want freedom to do things for yourself and others, both personally and professionally, which means you need to do something about that. About the getting of clients. That thing that’s easy to say, that you’re “supposed” to do, yet is easy to ignore. But. Something. Is. Always. (Seemingly) More. Urgent.
5 Reasons Why Being Stubborn is a Good Thing
Being stubborn is a great trait when it comes to marketing your business. The more you can be persistent in your marketing, the better; remember the axiom that OK marketing, done consistently, is better than great marketing, done inconsistently.
To that end, here are five ways to that being persistent in your marketing will benefit you and your business.
It makes marketing easier
Be stubborn about making sure your marketing is a priority, that you’re using the same marketing strategies consistently, and that you have a set result your marketing is trying to achieve.
Three Ways Persistence Helps Your Marketing
Never say die!
This familiar battle cry speaks to what’s required if you are in business for any length of time. Having a business requires persistence: persistence in showing up to do your work every day, persistence in delivering the value your company offers, and persistence in your marketing.
How persistent are you, marketing-wise?
