productivity Archives - Page 5 of 15

Let’s Put an End to Silver Bullet Marketing

I have a dream for us self-employed professionals. I picture us all making simple marketing and sales plans, working our plans consistently, and as a result, landing all the clients we need. But in order for my dream to come true, we’re going to have to stop letting ourselves be pulled off track by the tempting lure of silver bullet solutions.

The lure of the silver bullet
Maybe you know the ones I mean. There’s always some flavor-of-the-month approach to sales and marketing that you’re hearing about.

Three Ways to Have Fun Getting Your Marketing Done

by Kristine Carey | Getting Things Done

There are days when you wake up ready to go, eager to get the word out about your offerings, and then there are other days when, well… you’re just not feeling as eager, or clear, or motivated, or… *sigh*

Is there anything you can you do on those days when it feels harder to do the marketing you really — truly! — want to (and need) to do? Yes, of course there is. Enter…

Fun!

Getting Your Must-Do Marketing Items Done Before Year’s End

by Kristine Carey | Getting Things Done

As the holiday season approaches, it can be overwhelming to think about what needs to be done before the end of the year. For you personally, there are often extra family and social obligations. Adding your business marketing to-dos on top of that can create an even bigger sense of obligation and overwhelm.

Luckily, there’s something you can do about that.

When getting your end-of-year marketing done, try these tips to make your life easier and create space for those things that are most important, personally and professionally.

Marketing on a Deadline

by Kristine Carey | Getting Things Done

It’s happened to the best of us: you had good intentions of getting started early, of finishing before the deadline, of easing into the task, yet there you are, last minute, wondering how you can get things done, pronto.

This may be a familiar scenario with regards to your to-do list, but what if it happens to your marketing? Marketing can’t happen that fast, can it?

Four Ways to Measure Your Marketing

by Kristine Carey | Getting Things Done

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?

Not Reaching Your Marketing Goals? The Time to Act Is Now

by C.J. Hayden | Getting Things Done

If you’re like most self-employed professionals, you started the year with goals, plans, and maybe even dreams, for your business. This was going to be the year you reached ambitious marketing goals, implemented a realistic marketing plan, or expanded your business with a new market or service. And now, you find yourself not on target. The goal’s not met, the plan isn’t in place, or the expansion hasn’t taken off. That’s a pretty normal state of affairs for us self-employed folks. Stuff just gets in the way.

There’s really only one solution to this problem, although it comes in a number of different flavors. Take action. Now.

Advanced Maneuvers: Getting Things Done Beyond the Basics

by Kristine Carey | Getting Things Done

As a service-based professional, you’re likely familiar with marketing basics, yet are you taking advantage of advanced maneuvers beyond those? If you’re not sure what the difference is between the basics and the advanced, keep reading to learn more about the distinction, and why you may want to consider moving beyond the familiar.

Marketing Basics are those things that apply to the foundation of your business, things that help ensure you know who to talk to, and what to offer, and how to keep your business organized. Some of these basics include:

What Stops You from Marketing… and What to Do About It

by C.J. Hayden | Getting Things Done

The number one complaint my clients and students — self-employed professionals — bring me about their marketing is that they aren’t doing enough of it. You would think this would be easy to fix. I could just tell them to spend more time marketing and selling, and that would solve their problem. But like so many other challenges in life, knowing what needs to be done doesn’t necessarily make that thing occur.

Consider losing weight, for example. If it were as simple as being told to eat less or exercise more, we would all be as thin as we wished just by deciding to make it so. Since that doesn’t happen very often; it’s clear we humans need a bit more help.

Can Planning Your Marketing Be Simple?

by Kristine Carey | Marketing Plans & Strategies

Planning your marketing can be as easy as sitting down with a pen and paper (or your keyboard) for an hour. What’s that you say — sounds too good to be true? What if this were the truth: your marketing is easy and simple, and creating a plan for it is simple, too. What could be possible for your business from that viewpoint?

When you have a marketing plan, things become easier. Easier because you know what you’re going to do, you have a plan, and you just follow it. You don’t need to think about it. Thinking is often the thing that gets in your way the most. As much as your human brain is an asset, it can also be a hindrance when it comes to getting things done.

Why You Shouldn’t Do What the Gurus Do

by C.J. Hayden | Marketing Plans & Strategies

It’s only natural to emulate successful people. You’d like to copy their success, so it seems it would make sense to copy their approach to sales and marketing. But modeling your marketing after the gurus in your field may not get you where they are.

Simply put, the present situation of these highly successful people may be entirely different from your own. Gurus typically have plenty of money to spend, staff to help, a large in-house mailing list, many followers on social media, widespread name recognition, a suite of products and services to offer, and many years of completed work to draw from. If you don’t have all this in your business, trying to copy their marketing and sales approach may be a recipe for failure rather than success.

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