“Either you run the day, or the day runs you.” (Jim Rohn)
When I think of marketing my services, I remind myself regularly that I’m in it for the long haul. Marketing is not a one and done task. Even professionals who’ve been in business for years can share a personal horror story or two about how they stopped marketing during a busy stretch only to start a new calendar year with nothing on their plate and an empty marketing pipeline.
Here are some ways to think about your Marketing:
- Identify your daily/weekly/monthly numbers:
- Know your daily or weekly revenue goal needed to meet your annual income goals. Begin and end each day asking yourself if you met the goal or what you need to do differently tomorrow to stay on track financially. This can be a very powerful strategy.
- Number of calls, letters or emails you will make daily to fill or maintain your marketing pipeline
- Number of new clients you want to attract weekly or monthly.
- Nurture a Daily Marketing Mindset–a daily action framework to maintain a robust marketing presence. Block out time on your calendar and get it done. Track your progress daily to stay on track.
- Think of your marketing strategies in terms of short-, medium-, and long-range, and create separate goals and action plans for each.
- Consistent daily action is the key to long-term success. However, sometimes you’ll need or want to take massive action towards a specific goal. Think of it as High Intensity Interval marketing. This might apply if your business is cyclical in nature or you are submitting a proposal for a large project.
- Decide on your top one to three marketing strategies and stick with them for at least 30 to 60 days. If you don’t give yourself a framework, you can’t track progress or results. And if you change strategies too frequently, you’ll likely waste a lot of time, energy and money with nothing to show for it.
- Identify daily habits that will help you maintain a strong foundation. When you’re flying solo, it’s easy to burn out. To avoid overwhelm, devote special attention to potential personal weak links—finances, health, time management, the loss of a key client or staff member, and give regular focus to maintaining or improving your highest priority foundational areas.
- Avoid perfectionism. Get comfortable experimenting with new marketing strategies. Pilot new offerings. Ask your best clients for input. Get your work out there and change or modify as you go along. I can’t tell you how many times I kept tweaking and refining a program or workshop (a/k/a failure to launch) only to see a competitor launch something similar and–you guessed it–mine was equal to or better. Another lesson learned.
THIS WEEK’S CALL TO ACTION:
Take 30 minutes and identify your daily marketing numbers and then create a tight, focused implementation plan and get to work.
Weekly LEADING EDGE question:
How can I improve my current marketing strategy?
“Don’t mistake movement for achievement. It’s easy to get faked out by being busy. The question is: “Busy doing what?” (Jim Rohn)
