If your business is the vehicle that provides your financial freedom and a creative outlet, marketing is the engine that powers that vehicle. Without effective marketing, your business will fail. No matter how good your business idea, no matter how high the quality of your product or service, no matter how needed your service is, if you don’t get the word out, your business will suffer.
When I practiced law, I noticed that some of my collegeus were extremely bright, knowledgeable attorneys. Some were in fact quite brilliant. Yet, for some reason their law practices lagged behind others financially.
An Example
Take the example of one attorney, we'll call him David. David was in his mid 40’s and had been practicing for about 15 years. He seemed to know a great deal about virtually every area of law. Not just the superficial stuff, the nitty gritty details. You could ask him a specific question about criminal law. He’d know the answer. After getting a second or third opinion, his answer stood up.
I’d hear someone else ask him a family law question. He’d know the answer and again it stood up under scrutiny. Civil Procedure. Estate Planning. Real Estate law. He just knew. He prided himself in his ongoing research into many areas of law.
Yet David could barely eke out a living practicing on his own. At one point, I remember that he hired a personal consultant to help him develop a “look”. He bought new business suites, shoes and got rid of the thick glasses in favor of contact lenses. He looked great but his business didn’t improve.
It wasn’t until he joined another firm that his income began to grow. That firm provided the mechanism to attract many new clients who could then take advantage of his superior skills.
The Lesson?
Although its imperative that you provide outstanding value, at some point you must come out of the kitchen and start selling your goods, not just develop new ones. You do this with marketing.
Many people confuse marketing and sales. They are separate and very distinct processes.
Sales are the one on one phone interaction where you describe the outstanding benefits or your goods or services. Marketing is what made the phone ring in the first place.
Sales is a face to face meeting in your store where you demonstrate your product. Marketing is the advertisement that brought the people to your store.
Sales is the relationship you develop with your customers so that they keep coming back. Marketing is what made them contact you in the first place.
The best product and the best sales force will fail if you don’t get in front of the right people. Marketing gets you in front of the right people.
The types of marketing techniques are virtually unlimited. They can be traditional, they can be creative, they can be conservative, and they can be totally outlandish. But one thing is certain, whatever your ultimate approach, your marketing efforts must be consistent and long term. If you stop marketing, your business begins to die. It may be a long, slow process, but make no mistake, your business will suffer.
We don’t have the time here to study marketing in depth; there are hundreds of good books on marketing that you can study (don’t miss Guerilla Marketing by Jay Conrad Levinson). Yet, lets take a brief look at some ideas that may put you on the right path.
Print (newspapers, magazines, coupons, discount books, pads, pens, freebies. Radio, ads and interviews Billboards and signs
Networking Join local business and networking groups, attend seminars, and create a mastermind
Trade Shows Every area of business has one or more shows where you can set up a booth or table
Partnerships and Joint Ventures Remember David the attorney? his partners provided the marketing while he provided the expertise. Jay Abraham calls them host beneficiary relationships
The Internet A properly designed web page with an affiliate program will get the word out
Newsletters and E-Zines Can be developed and sent out via e-mail for almost nothing and can produce huge results
Become and Expert Think about John Grey and Dr. Ruth. They created themselves as personalities with specific areas of expertise. Their subject matter (relationships and sex) is ageless. They simply put their face on those topics
Write a Book Ask Robert Kiyosaki what Rich Dad, Poor Dad is and he doesn’t call it a book. He calls it his “brochure”
Seminars and Workshops You can do them yourself or team up with others with similar businesses
The list goes on and on...
Take ten minutes and write down five new things that you can do to market your business. Next, make a plan to implement those ideas.
Sincerely,
Drew Miles, The Tax Saving Attorney
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