Marketing is a deliberately over-complicated term for small business owners. When you view marketing — as most do — as synonymous with “getting your name out there,” you lose. You lose money on ads that don’t work. You lose money on branding that doesn’t amount to even a small increase to your bottom line. You lose time and market share as you repeatedly try to “market” your business… to no or little avail. Marketing your small business doesn’t have to be expensive or risky. This advanced guide to marketing your business — with muscle instead of money — will help you win big. You’ll win clients. You’ll win with exposure. You’ll win with profit.
In order to market profitably, you must first change how you define marketing.
Marketing isn’t about “getting your name out there.” That’s a fool’s game. As Steve Chandler revealed to me so many years ago, marketing is about getting YOUR clients in HERE…. into YOUR store, YOUR office or on YOUR website, where you get paid.
In short, muscle marketing gets YOUR clients to come to you and traditional marketing — hopefully — gets your name out there. This is a huge shift in how you think. It’s not about getting your name out there. It’s about getting THEM in to see you. Moving on…
How To Tell if Your Marketing Has any REAL Muscle or Not:
How can you tell if your marketing effort has any REAL profit-building muscle or not? Here’s a list. If the marketing effort you’re considering doesn’t meet these requirements, skip it:
- Muscle Marketing relies heavily on leveraging all we know about our target market
- Muscle Marketing has a specific, measurable call to action. Any brand-based marketing without a specific call to action isn’t worth your time. (If you’ve bought ads that didn’t work, it’s likely because THIS requirement wasn’t met. Read this article to find out why your last ad may not have worked.)
- Muscle Marketing speaks to a very specific audience and doesn’t try to appeal to the masses.
To Create More Profitable Marketing Campaigns, Get To Know Your Market More Intimately.
I’ve said it a million times before, but she who knows her market BEST wins. I just can’t overstate this. In this article, I give business owners a TWO STEP assignment to create their own Client Cultivation plan… based on what you know about your target market. You can also download a client cultivation worksheet from that page, so you can become increasingly deliberate about how you are generating new clients. You may also want to check out this list of what you MUST know about your target market to begin attracting clients more effectively. Finally, here’s a fun and revealing 2-step QUIZ for how well YOU know your target market.
Profitable Marketing Begins with a Simple Plan.
Marketing is a critical — and fun — part of doing business. It’s where we get the attention of our target market and — by their action or inaction — begin to carve out a list of ideal prospects that we can serve. In a nutshell, marketing pulls our ideal clients out of a crowded room and into a conversation or relationship with us.
Many business owners — especially those just starting out or those who haven’t mastered their own marketing yet — feel like they don’t have the money to market. I feel their pain. In fact, I came up with the muscle marketing topic because it’s how I felt starting my business. I felt like I had to PUSH through using grit and muscle and hustle because that’s all I had.
But, marketing is different for every company. Nike needs a huge budget because they have to do BRAND advertising to make their stuff cool. They have to pay for endorsements so people will buy their over-priced shoes. (It’s not working, by the way. As I write this, Nike’s numbers are down… and they’re really struggling to keep market share.) It’s true that you — like me — don’t have Nike’s marketing budget, but it’s also true that you don’t need the exposure they need.
Maybe you simply need 4 new clients. Or ten more customers per day. Or 15 more members. The most profitable marketing isn’t a branding exercise… it’s the beginning of a profitable sales sequence and begins with a measurable goal. I honestly don’t think we can over-simplify this whole marketing thing, so let’s break it down.
- Have a very specific measurable goal. 4 new clients. 10 more daily customers. 3 more sales. Note that this goes a step beyond a MONETARY goal. This actually states what you’ll be selling and to how many people.
- Make a list of who would be perfect for what you’re selling. This could be people on your email list, specific people you’re already in conversation with, or those reading a trade journal or local paper you’re considering advertising in.
- Make an offer that allows them to RAISE THEIR HAND for more information. This is more along the lines of a first date and not a marriage proposal. In other words, if you’re selling coaching, you don’t want to try to introduce yourself, explain why they need your services, state price and ask for the sale all in one email, ad or presentation. Instead, regardless of industry, go for the easy yes. Invite them to download a free report, come into take a test drive, or schedule a complimentary audit of some sort. You just want them to take the next step and say, “I’d like to hear more!”
This is where marketing ENDS and selling BEGINS. Unfortunately, too many people confuse these two business tasks… expecting their marketing to make the introduction, position the product, handle objections and ask for the sale. Here’s a quick analogy that will help:
A resume’s job is to get you the interview.
Your job in the interview is to get the job.
LIKEWISE,
Marketing’s job is to get the lead in to see you (virtually or in person)
Selling is what you do after the lead shows up.
I hope this helps…. If you need more, here’s another article that will help you market with muscle when you can not market with money! =) Now, let’s go sell something! America’s economy is counting on us!!
