Is marketing one of those things that you know you should do, but you just never get to do it properly? Mostly because there are so many other things that take up your time?
What? Did I hear you say….”yes”!
Well, don’t feel too bad about it. For most solo-preneurs, this is a common problem.
We have to wear so many different hats in our businesses and have to do everything ourselves that it is easy to put marketing on the back burner and only focus on it once everything else (like doing your admin, cleaning your office or walking the dog) is taken care off.
And common reasons for this are that for many, marketing is not the most enjoyable activity. They even intensely dislike it. Or they don’t know where to start with it.
This is perhaps an over exaggeration, but the fact of the matter is, it often happens that we don’t give marketing and getting clients the attention it need.
And when you put marketing on the back burner and only focus on it once in a while (when all the other fires are put out), you never really get to do it properly. The scary thing is: if you don’t do your marketing consistently you don’t have clients consistently…. which ultimately results in uneven income or no income at all
Here are 5 things you can do to make marketing a priority in your business this year:
1. Plan your marketing activities
Pull out your calendar and write down a number of ideas how you’ll market you business each month of the year. Look for things like special vacation days – e.g Valentines Day, St Patrick’s Day or Thanksgiving and plan special marketing activities around those days. Write down events that you know are taking place and brainstorm how you can use those events to market your business. The thing is: even a rough plan is better than no plan. Just have something on paper that you can refer to frequently and that will keep you on track.
2. Pick marketing strategies that fit the goals of your business
Don’t do marketing just for the sake of marketing. To make your efforts hit the mark, pick marketing strategies that will reach your ideal clients effectively. In other words: go where your clients are! If you for example know your ideal clients are international speakers, it won’t help much putting an advertisement of your services in your local newspaper.
3. Create a frequent and regular communications campaign
A simple rule of marketing success is that it’s necessary to stay in touch with clients and prospects on a regular basis or else they forget who you are and what makes your services so wonderful. So stay in touch with regular communications: create an email newsletter filled with helpful info and send it out regularly; send unexpected greeting cards for birthdays, Valentine’s day, Easter or Christmas; send a small gift; pick up the phone and call clients to ask how they’re doing. Staying in touch does not need to be expensive. A little bit of creativity, can take you a long way.
4. Make time for marketing daily
Block out chunks of time in your calendar daily where you do nothing else than marketing. It will take a bit of self-discipline to stick to these time-slots in the beginning, but in the end it will bear fruit. Here are some things you can do every day, to market and grow your business: Follow up with a potential client who showed interest in working with you; send an introduction email to potential clients; attend a networking event (online or offline); create a blog and write a new blog post; post your article on social media sites and invite people back to your website; create a Facebook ad; call a past client and ask for a referral. Marketing doesn’t have to be complicated. Just make a commitment and do it.
5. Persevere and be consistent in your marketing efforts
It won’t help much to crank out a few marketing activities only when the appointment book looks a bit empty. Marketing is a process – it rarely creates instant results. The marketing activities you do today will bring in clients in future. So do your marketing every day. Persevere and you’ll fill your business with clients faster than you thought possible.
Remember, your clients need your help. They’re stuck and are searching for someone to help them solve their problems and frustrations. That someone is you! It is your duty to help them take the first step to get unstuck…. that’s what your marketing is all about. So, make marketing a priority in your business this year
To Your Success
