Advertising Doesn’t Equal Marketing

Advertising Doesn’t Equal Marketing

I asked a new client recently what he had been doing to market his professional services. “Everything,” he said. “I’ve been running pay-per-click ads online, I hired someone to write a sales letter and mailed it to a list of local companies, I have a banner ad in my professional association’s directory, I’ve even been posting flyers around town… and I still have almost no business.”

“Ah hah,” I replied, “I think we’ve uncovered your problem. You actually haven’t been marketing your business. What you have been doing is advertising.”

read more
Should Your Marketing Plan Include Creating Content?

Should Your Marketing Plan Include Creating Content?

Does content marketing have any relevance to you as a self-employed professional? When you hear or read conversations about using free content to attract and persuade clients, the type of marketing being discussed may often seem out of your league. After all, you don’t have a marketing department down the hall that you can ask to produce a video documentary or customer magazine.

But creating content for prospective clients that is useful and relevant to them doesn’t have to be out of reach for a solo professional or small partnership. Much of the best content for professionals to use in their marketing is based on the written word. Consider these forms of content that you may already be producing, and that others like you frequently create:

read more
Put More Love in Your Marketing

Put More Love in Your Marketing

Do you want your clients and prospects to love you? I think most of us self-employed professionals would. When your prospects love you, closing sales is easy. When your clients love you, they keep doing business with you, and refer others to do the same.

Yet the language often used for marketing and sales reveals perspectives that don’t have much to do with love. The path to closing sales is to “overcome objections” or “don’t take no for an answer.” You’re supposed to write “killer copy” to use for a “marketing blitz” or “promotional blasts” so you can “blow away” your “targets.” You should “hone your weapons” so you can “battle for market share,” “fight for sales,” and “smash the competition.” When you succeed, you are “killing it” or “crushing it.”

read more
How to Build Trust with Potential Clients

How to Build Trust with Potential Clients

“But how do I get them to trust me if they don’t know me?” my client asked.

“Exactly,” I replied. “They have to get to know you in order to trust you. Either that, or they need to be referred to you by someone they know and trust already.”

Client: “So, you’re telling me that making cold calls and running ads are a waste of time and money?”

Me: “Yes. Unless you use those tactics to open the door to your prospective clients getting to know and trust you. If you expect to move from a call or an ad to a quick sale, you’ll be disappointed.”

read more
What It Really Takes to Get Clients

What It Really Takes to Get Clients

The longer I do this work, the more I come to realize that we self-employed professionals can be our own worst enemies when it comes to getting clients. We know what we should be doing to market ourselves better, and then we don’t do it. Or we don’t know what’s the right thing to do, so we throw a dart and pick something randomly, or respond to the latest email we got, instead of considering our options and making a well-reasoned choice.

Or we make a valid choice, then second-guess ourselves, dropping one marketing strategy and picking up another, without putting enough effort into any one approach to produce results. Or we spend too much time talking to ourselves and not enough talking to prospective clients, worrying about why the last prospect never got back to us, whether the blog post we just wrote is good enough to publish, or if the latest version of our tag line finally gets across our message.

read more
Want to Be a Client Magnet? Love-Up Those You Serve

Want to Be a Client Magnet? Love-Up Those You Serve

It’s easy to get caught up in how to find clients. And while picking marketing strategies that are right for you and your target market, and doing them consistently, is important (very important!), there’s another aspect to getting clients that’s not talked about as often.

Loving-up those you serve.

When you work with people you truly enjoy, some miraculous things happen:
* Your current clients feel your love and love you back.
* You’re energized by your work.
* You’re more attractive to potential clients.
* You become a client magnet.

read more
Follow Get C.J. Hayden on Facebook Connect with C.J. Hayden on LinkedIn

Subscribe to the free GET CLIENTS NOW! E-Letter and get your copy of Five Secrets to Finding all the Clients You'll Ever Need.

 
 
 

 
Join Us Each Month for Get It Written Day
You've got important stuff to write. Let C.J. Hayden help you make it happen at Get It Written Day!
Get It Written Day
Join us for this one-day virtual writing retreat for self-employed pros. Work on blog posts, articles, a home-study course, or a book, with coaching and peer support.
 
Find out more
 

Pin It on Pinterest