|
1. Spend Time with Marketing Every
Day
The more you practice marketing on a
daily basis, the more comfortable
you’ll become with it. When you
arrive at the office in the morning
try to make a phone call to a new
prospect. Take note of the personal
interests of your existing clients—it
may give you a reason to reach out
to them. And don’t discount
word-of-mouth marketing: tell at
least one person each day what you
do. You never know where it may
lead: I once landed a new client
through my Pilates instructor!
2. Marketing Should Look and Feel
Beautiful
Did you realize that every piece of
material that you use to contact the
outside world is considered part of
your marketing campaign? Business
cards, websites, letterhead, pocket
folders, and even your voicemail
message all send an image to your
past, existing, and future clients.
Remember that the overall look and
feel of your marketing materials
should work as one cohesive package
that you can feel confident about
distributing.
3. Don’t Take Your Relationship with
Marketing for Granted
Each and every single month, I
encourage you to make a date to
speak with your existing clients in-person or via phone (do not use
solely e-mail). Sometimes we forget
how valuable our existing clients
are to our businesses. In fact,
existing clients are so important
that you should consider them part
of your marketing team. These
clients are often in a position to
refer work, support your business,
and are more often than not repeat
customers.
4. Never Break a Date with
Marketing, It Can’t Wait!
It’s so tempting to get caught-up
with our daily routines that we
inevitably put marketing on the
backburner. However, marketing
should NEVER stop, because it will
appear obvious and unprofessional.
Like everything, marketing takes
time and work and it does not happen
overnight. If you have a company
e-newsletter, commit to sending out
each issue on a quarterly basis; or
if you hold a monthly marketing
meeting, take notes and make each
attendee accountable to perform at
least one marketing duty before the
next meeting.
5. Marry Your Marketing with Others
who have Similar Interests
Often times we overlook the power of
our own service providers, when we
really should form relationships
with them—or better yet, marry our
services! Doing so could possibly
lead to increased services, which
could generate more sales. Recently
Spotlight formed a relationship with
Constant Contact to provide digital
marketing services to new and
existing clients. Together with our
knowledge of marketing and graphic
design and Constant Contact’s
technical capabilities, we are able
to launch a new product for our
clients: a fully
customizable
e-newsletter that
they can send out each month.
6. Love Consistently.
Think of
marketing as a
long-term relationship and like all
strong relationships, the secret is
simply to find what works and keep
on doing it. That means you should
NEVER give it up, even if it seems
other things are more important.
Trust me—your marketing will be
missed. Even if you think no one is
paying attention, it will certainly
be noticeable if you stop. |
