by Niki Tudge
There are no magic bullets in marketing. If I say this once per week I say it ten times. A good marketing approach and marketing plan works if done correctly. However, if you only attempt activities once or haphazardly or for a short period of time you will be disappointed. If you subconsciously self-sabotage your own efforts by restricting or hampering your own abilities to complete the marketing function you will become frustrated and despondent. If you are simply not able or motivated to engage fully in your business you cannot expect positive results. In some cases, it may just be that you need to adjust or improve your approach when interacting with clients.
The good news is that by either increasing your marketing activities or adjusting your personal approach you can bring about immediate rewards. Consider a lack of new prospects a reflection on the marketing activities you are doing and a lack of prospect conversion, clients that are interested but not making the commitment, a reflection on the personal selling skills. From this you will know where to place your immediate focus.
Growing a business is hard. Growing an ethical sustainable business is even more difficult. A full time commitment and professional effort to sustainable marketing does pay off in the long run. Simply choose a strategic direction, have a plan and use your personal skills and branding to execute it.
Marketing is Not Just Advertising?
According to the Amazon Affiliate SEO Guide, marketing is all the activities you do to interact with your market place this means letting others know about your business. It is not just putting out a few flyers or adding a few listings to the internet. It is anything and everything that interacts or influences your products, the development of your products, your pricing and packaging and how you place these products into your local market. Finally, it is about how you promote the products, advertise them, market them and sell them.
In my opinion, as we are in the service industry, we are an important part of the core product. This means our marketing also covers everything from our availability, commitment, approach and people skills.
Marketing is not just advertising as so many people believe. It’s about your complete personal branding, attitude, personality, persistence, resilience and ability to generate prospects who want to become your clients, yes want to work with you because of how you portray yourself. This kind of marketing is far more difficult and not something everyone can do.
So how do you want to grow? write down your tasks, plan time to execute them and manage the activities daily. Each day ask yourself a simple question. What have I done today to positively move my marketing plan forwards? Rinse, repeat and track the progress and the results. Tweak when necessary!