Your mailing list is a huge piece of your success puzzle as it gives you serious leverage in your business. Image source: Stuart Miles/ FreeDigitalPhotos.net.
I believe having a growing and responsive mailing list of clients and prospects is one of your most valueable business assets.
Why?
Well, for starters, it is a huge piece of your success puzzle as it gives you serious leverage in your business.
It gives you a way to stay in touch with people. It enables you to start building trusting relationships with the people on your list. It makes getting new clients easier and it that can lead to growing your business faster.
Let’s look at an example to illustrate how a list of clients and prospects can benefit your business – even if you have a brick and mortar shop.
So, let’s say you have an offline business…. e.g. an up-market Art gallery in a bustling shopping mall. You get a decent flow of walk-ins but a good percentage of people who visit your store are simply browsing. Most people really admire your art work, but since it is their first time in your gallery, it’s likely they won’t be buying anything the same day.
So how do you let these brief encounters with your visitors “stick”?
How will you get them to remember you, and think of you when they are ready to buy some art?
Well as a start, you can ask people in your store to sign up for your mailing list so they can get regular free tips about art related topics, e.g. how to care for their art pieces, different aspect of art, how to recognize a unique piece etc. Also, if they sign up for your list they’ll be the first to know about sales and special events that you host. You can even offer them a percentage discount off their first purchase if they join your list.
With this, you have a way to lengthen that first “walk-in” encounter and actually start building a relationship with your guests.
Through your regular mailings, they get to know you, they like your tips, they see you have occasional sales. And when they are ready to buy some art, you’ll be the first person they think about. They’ll even tell their friends about you too.
Also, when you for example display the work of a new artist, or branch out into contemporary art or start providing art-classes, they’ll be the FIRST to check that out.
The same is true for an online business. When people first discover your website, they are basically “walk-in’s” and they’re not going to do much. Generally, 99% of your first-time web visitors will not buy anything from you, or even take any action – unless you entice them to sign up for your mailing list by making them some type of compelling offer.
This offer is usually something you give to them in return for their name and email address and thus, it should be prominently displayed on your website.
By having something you can offer your first time visitors, you get that “stick” factor. And when they sign up to receive your offer, it allows you to build a longer term relationship with them.
So, here is what I hope you take from this article:
Continuously building your list with more and more targeted subscribers gives you tremendous leverage as a business owner and it should be one of your top business priorities.
Remember, your products and services will evolve and change, but as long as you have a list, you know you have a “built-in” audience – and all you have to do is keeping the relationship warm and continue delivering services and creating products that are perfect for them.
Start building your list today!
To Your Success
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To grow your business with more clients, it is important to reach more and more people with your marketing efforts. It is common sense, right? Clients come, client stay, clients go away …and then those spots need to be filled with new clients…and more clients. So consistently reaching more people is a never ending activity for the lifetime of your business.
The good news however: It’s often easier than you think. But, it does require you to spend some time upfront to get more clarity about what you want and need to do.
So, here are 3 easy and straightforward (but absolute key elements) to incorporate in your marketing when you want to reach more people.
1. Create A Plan
It sounds obvious right, but it’s amazing how many people work without a well-thought-through marketing plan.
And whether you believe it or not, a workable plan can have an amazing impact on your business because it provides clarity, purpose, and direction on how to attract and retain clients.
What I found it that without a plan it is difficult to have continuity in your marketing and you often find yourself doing a lot of marketing…. but you do it haphazardly… a little bit here and a little bit there, without getting real and tangible results.
Implementing and working according to a marketing plan, however gives you the focus you need and keeps your marketing consistent. It furthermore keeps you accountable to do what you’ve set out to do and inspires you to achieve the marketing goals you set for yourself. All this enables you to keep momentum and consistently reach more people – thus increasing the probability of getting more clients.
So, if you are running your marketing blindly, perhaps it’s time to think about creating a plan to do it more effectively. And remember, your plan doesn’t need to be a long, boring document. It can be a simple 1 page document outlining the basics such as:
Who you work with
Where you’ll find them
What marketing methods you’ll use to reach them
When and how often you’ll use each marketing method.
The journey to reaching more people and getting more clients always starts with creating a plan and working your plan.
2. Have a Multi-Channel Marketing Outreach
If your business is doing okay with only one or two marketing methods, that’s great! But, just imagine what you can achieve if you use five or six proven marketing methods consistently?
By creating a multi-channel marketing approach, you establish more ways for potential clients to hear about you and eventually enter your client pipeline.
An added benefit is if someone doesn’t respond to one of your marketing tactics, they might respond if you present that same offer to them in a different way. E.g. one person may totally ignore an email (because he is just not a reading type of guy), but he might jump at your offer when it is presented in a video he can watch.
A multi-channel marketing approach can include many different methods e.g. your website, blogs, emails, social media, videos, collaboration partners and JV’s, speaking, live events, referrals, the media, paid advertisements, books, articles and many more.
The idea however is not to implement every possible marketing method in your business, but to use the 5-6 methods best suited for your business and your specific target audience.
Using different marketing methods and having a diversified marketing outreach ensures you reach more of your existing prospects in ways that suite their style best AND it helps you to reach more new people that can enter your client pipeline.
And by the way… include these methods in your marketing plan to ensure you do them consistently
3. Put Your Business In Front Of Large Client Audiences
Having 1-on1 conversations with prospects are great and often a quick way to get one or two clients fast. But, it is often a slow and time-consuming way to grow your business.
When you however put your business in front of large client audiences, it makes your marketing easier, more cost-effective and help you reach more people simultaneously.
The important thing here is to ensure it is the right audience.
It is therefore important to know who you want to work with. Once you know who your target audience is, you can identify local businesses that serve the same market segments or identify who else in your industry or in another industry is already speaking / working with that audience. This gives you a change to form a collaborative partnership or joint venture with those individuals.
Contact these potential partners and offer to add something of value to their audience. This way you not only raise awareness of your business, but you reach more people and increase the likelihood that they will end up on your doorstep because they’ve heard about you from someone they already trust.
Also think about organisations, events or places where your target audience regularly hangs out and then ensure you are also present there.
So, here is what I hope you take from this article:
Consistently reaching more and more people to grow your client pipeline and your business is not really that difficult. The important things to do, is to:
Create a plan how you will do it…. and then work your plan.
Incorporate different marketing methods to give you more reach and leverage.
Reach out to possible partners who already did the work of gathering your audience for you.
Be present in places where your audience hangs out in large numbers.
Put yourself and your business in front of these larger audiences and wow them with what you can do for them.
You’ll be amazed at the results 🙂
To Your Success
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Bill Cosby said “I don’t know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everyone.”
That is some pretty good marketing advice as well, because your marketing message can take your business to the next level and as a solo-preneur it is foolish to try and be all things to all people. If you are trying to meet the needs of a broad spectrum of clients, you may end up being so generic that you’re not meeting the specific needs of any one target group.
Alternatively, when you focus on (and thoroughly understand) a specific smaller target audience, it enables you to develop an effective marketing message that will resonate with them and bring more high quality, ideal clients to your doorstep.
Take for example a person that sells insurance.
Who needs insurance? Individuals? Employers? Small businesses? Large corporations? Well, the answer is all of them – but their needs are not the same. So, if the insurance guy focuses on one targeted group (for example self-employed individuals), he can truly understand what makes that group “tick”….and it will be totally different from what large corporations or even small business owners need. But by understanding his target audience, he is in the best possible position to develop a strong marketing message that resonates with that specific group and enables him to attract them as clients.
So What Is A Marketing Message?
Your marketing message is what you communicate to your target audience. It is the big idea and solution you want to share with the world.
The way I look at it is like this: you want your marketing message to be compelling – a way of describing your business to your ideal client that will make them respond enthusiastically; a message that will make them say: “Wow. You are exactly what I’ve been looking for all this time. How quickly can I start working with you?”
To get this type of enthusiastic response, it is critically important to have a message that positively resonates with your audience. And because people are naturally wired according to the what-is-in-it-for-me-principle, your marketing message needs to tell them that. Thus, as a minimum, your message needs to include a description of:
Who you work with (your ideal clients / target audience);
What particular struggles or problems they’re experiencing right now;
How working with you will solve those problems;
Where Can I Use My Marketing Message?
Once you’re clear on all the above points, you can use it in various formats.
You can use it in:
A written message. For example the content on your website, a sales page, the bio in an article that you’ve written, a brochure or your business card. In other words any content or marketing materials that you write and people read.
A verbal message. This can be your 30s introduction speech when people ask you what you do for a living or your signature talk, at networking events or any other verbal communication where you speak to people about your business and what you offer.
A visual message. That is your website look and feel, your business name, logo, tagline, the colors you use, your videos, the total image you project to the outside world.
…and it’s important that all three work in unison to send out the same message.
Why Is It So Fundamentally Important to Get My Message Right?
People are naturally wired according to the “WIIFM” way of thinking. Before they make a decision to work with you, they immediately think: “What’s In It For Me”.
Just think about it. You are bombarded with so many marketing messages every day: via email or on TV, over the radio and on billboards when they drive around. And the truth is: if those marketing messages are not directed to you specifically, your mind automatically filters out 99% and you simply ignore it! Right? You don’t take action on any of them.
But when you see something and realize: “There’s something in it for me”. That is when you suddenly stop and take notice.
It is the same for your prospects and clients. So, your marketing message must specifically addresses your target audience, so their minds can immediately pick up the wave and know there’s something in it for them.
Remember… it is your marketing message that takes your business to the next level because it can ignite your audience into action and position you as the leader in your field. The big idea of your marketing message is to join the conversation that’s already going on in the heads of your target market so that you connect effortlessly with your audience, they feel understood on the deepest level, and you are naturally perceived as the expert you are.
So go out today and create your compelling and jaw dropping marketing message and if you’d like more support on crafting a powerful and effective message that magnetizes and gets your target audience to fall in love with you, check out my Create More Marketing Momentum Program here.
I love stories, especially when there is a lesson in it.
So today I want to tell you a story that hit me between the eyes when I first read it as a bedtime story to my daughter many years ago.
It changed the way I looked at marketing and getting clients and it was a turning point in my business. I hope it can do the same for you….
So, here’s the story…(the shortened version :))
A story about a boy, a flock of geese and an elusive deer
A poor little farm boy became the only provider for his sick, bedridden mother after his father tragically died.
To put food on the table he daily spent hours at the nearby lake – waiting with his shotgun for birds to arrive.
At different times of day, different flocks of birds visited the lake, but because the boy and his sick mother were very poor, he had to use his ammunition sparsely and could only afford one shot per day.
So he waited for the best opportunity and biggest flock of birds. When the birds flew over his head, he fired into the air – hoping that one pellet of the shotgun would kill a bird.
It often happened that this one shot didn’t even kill one of the many birds and he had to go home disappointed and sad because they don’t have anything to eat for the day.
One day while waiting at the lake a hunter passed by, spotted the boy and asked him what he was doing. The hunter felt very sorry for the boy and gave him a rifle, 3 bullets and instructions how to shoot deer. He also instructed the boy to take the first deer he kill to the butcher in town.
The boy was however too afraid to use the rifle, and carefully buried it under a huge tree.
Eventually one day, his shotgun ammunition run out, and after struggling to provide for his family, his sick mother sadly died.
Left completely alone, he remembered about the rifle, the 3 bullets and the instructions from the hunter.
He dug up the rifle, spotted a big deer and started to follow it through the forest. Eventually he gathered enough courage to take his first shot. He aimed, waited for the right moment, pulled the trigger…and missed.
However after many days of tracking the deer, and finding the paths they frequently walk, he tried again and killed his first deer.
That one shot changed the boy’s life.
It not only provided food to keep him alive, but he remembered the hunter’s instructions and sold the access meat to the butcher in town.
…and through a strategy of repeated kills and selling the meat, the poor boy eventually became a well-known hunter and a very wealthy man.
*****
This is just a children’s story, but it actually made me sit up and realize the truth behind it with regards to how we sometimes do marketing.
We use the wrong approach!
As in the story, many of us use a shotgun approach for marketing and getting clients and then starve without enough clients and income…..
We spend too much time either waitingfor clients to come by (hiding at the lake or behind a computer screen)…
…or trying to market to anyone and everyone(e.g. shooting some marketing into the air in the hope that one of the pellets hits a client – any client).
Unfortunately, this “shotgun” type of marketing leads to unsatisfactory, disappointing and frustrating results wherewe either don’t have enough clients to work with or we end up working with non-ideal clients who do not pay us what we are worth.
As in the story, a much better approach to getting clients and filling your practice is to start using the rifle approach because it leads to better results in the end.
Here’s why…
With the rifle approach you are working with an ideal target audience – a specific group of people who is interested in what you do.
Working with a target market gives you a much better return on your marketing effort, time and investment because you create more focus and work with people you can serve best.
In return, these clients want to work with you, value your services and handsomely reward you for it.
When working with a target audience you can…
Get to know your market really well;
Understand what they need;
Give them what they want and
Recognize where they spend their time so that you can be present as well.
This allows you to spend your time more productively marketing and talking to this specific target audience and it exponentially increases you chance to land an ideal, high quality client.
Working with a target audience also helps you to improve on your marketing skills since you can easily adapt and make changes on how you do things based on the reactions and needs of your target.
Now, it’s true that the rifle approach of choosing a target audience can be scary.
As in the story, you’ll have to get out of your hiding place and start following the deer (your target audience).
You might need to learn new ways of hunting.
You might feel you will lose out because there are not as many deer in the forest than birds in the sky.
You might even have to walk with your target for some time before you can take aim – and you might miss your target with the first shot or two.
But, even with all these fears, when you do hit your target, it has totally different results for your business and your life.
So, what I hope you take from this article is this: A rifle approach to marketing (i.e. choosing and working with a target audience) is much better than the shotgun approach (i.e. trying to working with anyone and everyone). The rifle approach positively impacts your business and leads to better quality clients, more income and a business you truly enjoys.
It’s also a better way to spend your valuable time and limited resources to get more ideal clients for your business.
If you are like me and many other entrepreneurs out there, we start our solo business for many different reasons, but in the end it really boils down to one or more of the following. We want to:
Have more freedom in our lifestyle – to do what we want, when we want to do it.
Enjoy what we do every day and not be bound by a mundane, tiresome 9-5 job that we really dislike.
Use our services and products to make a difference in the world.
Have more disposable income so we can actually do and buy the things we want.
The reality however is that it takes a lot of hard work, sweat and tears, and a truckload of dedication and perseverance to bring our business to a point where we can “have it all”.
Through the past 5 years I’ve worked non-stop at this process “to-have-it-all”. I’ve tested and tried many different strategies and tactics and here are the 6 pillars I’m currently building my business on. Since I’ve put these pillars in place, things dramatically changed for the better and it is bringing me step-by-step closer to “having-it-all”.
So today, I want to share these 6 pillars with you
1. Choose Your Audience
It all starts here. The golden rule in building a successful solo business through marketing & attracting clients is this: “If you try to appeal and market your services to anyone and everyone, you’ll end up appealing to no-one”.
Thus, the absolute first pillar of your successful business needs to be a clear knowledge and understanding of who you want to work with (your target audience). Because then, marketing and finding more clients become so much easier simply because you know where to start looking for clients and what to say to them.
2. Master Your Message
A problem that we as solo-preneurs often struggle with is this: People do not get what we can do for them, and it is often difficult for us to put it into words and to convey a marketing message in a clear and easy understandable way.
So the second pillar to create a massively successful solo business is to understand your target audience extremely well so that you can start mastering the message you send out to them and thus have a message that they can understand too. When your message resonates with the clients you want to work with it will inspire people to line up behind you, to support the things you do, and it will intrinsically motivate them to work with you or buy your products.
3. Consistently Reach More People via Your Marketing
Over the years I’ve realized that marketing is not a once-off event, and marketing is not something you do ONLY when you want to sell stuff. It is way more than that. Marketing (when done right) is about authentically communicating and connecting with people in many different ways and through many different platforms to first of all inform more and more people about what you do and the solutions you provide, and then to have them raise their hands willingly to follow you or work with you.
So the third pillar is about creating a continuous and diversified marketing road-map to reach more and more people with your message and attract them to become part of your community / tribe.
4. Build Your Tribe
I believe that in this day and age, if you do not have a client community, a tribe, a list or whatever you want to call it, it will be really hard to consistently grow your business to levels where you can have it all – more freedom, more impact in your world and more income.
So pillar 4 is to continuously build your list with people who are interested in what you offer and who want to know more. Building a community of raving fans and followers gives you instant and direct access to an ever growing “ideal” target audience every time you want to promote a particular product or service. It takes the “pain” out of getting new clients, because the people on your list already know you and are more likely to start working with you.
5. Build Relationships With Your Tribe
People buy from people they know, like and trust. It is therefore important to build authentic relationships with the people on your list so they can get to know you better, like you more and start to trust you. The easiest way to do that is to frequently stay in touch with your list and to be a valuable source of information to them.
With an effective staying-in-touch-strategy you create a connection and bond between you and your prospects where you progressively turn cold leads into warm leads and eventually prospects into paying clients.
6. Make a Difference in Their Lives and Become Prosperous Through Sales
To truly impact someone’s world and to make a real difference in their lives, people need to experience you and what you have to offer. E.g. they need to work with you personally or use your products. That’s the only way they’ll get the true value of what you offer. Thus you have to sell stuff! AND you have to ask people to work with you or to buy your products. Otherwise you won’t be able to grow a profitable, freedom based business where you can continue to do what you love.
Pillar 6 is therefor about having services / products that truly solve a problem for your audience and then regularly asking people to work with you so you can help them solve that problem. The funny thing is that in most cases, people will not pull out their wallets unless you ask them to – so be bold about it and start asking them. Luckily with the other pillars in place, this step becomes much easier since you’ve already established a relationship with the people you ask to work with you.
So, what I hope you took from this article is this: Building a massively successful solo business does not happen overnight (no matter what anybody tells you). But when you put the above 6 pillars in place, that process can be much quicker and you can be more successful than you’ve ever imagined.
Obviously there are a number of finer details needed to effectively put these pillars in place. So over the next few weeks I’ll discuss each of these pillars in more details. Be sure to check back again …. or even better: if you don’t want to miss any of the strategies,sign up hereto have them delivered to your inbox, and as a thank you from my side, you’ll receive a free gift that will help you go “from no clients to paying clients”.
To Your Success
PS: Thanks for reading. If you enjoyed the article, you are welcome to share it using the buttons below. Thanks!
Francis van Wyk is an experienced business and client attraction mentor who supports women solo-preneurs with planning and achieving business success online.
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