How Marketing Messages Help You to Grow Your Business

Marketing messages are clear statements that you use to tell the world (or at least your prospective customers) what you do. They are critical for two primary reasons:

1. It is human nature to be attracted to that which is consistent, and messages ensure that you stick to a consistent communication pattern.

2. The biggest mistake we can make as marketers is to fail to set a customer up for what we are going to deliver or set them up for something on which we cannot deliver. Solid messages ensure that you tell people exactly what they can expect from you. This gives your customers the powerful satisfaction of being "right" and also allows them to promote your business to other people in the correct manner.

Here is a graphic I developed to demonstrate this concept:

Next ...I'll tell you how to create your marketing messages.

Minute Marketing

Everyone knows how important marketing is, but somehow it always falls to the bottom of our to-do lists. Here are some ideas for quickie marketing tactics that add up to just 30 minutes per day.

Make Some Calls: spend 10 minutes researching a potential new client and then take five minutes and give them a personalized call or e-mail to let them know about the services you provide. This is a modified cold call and is quite effective, especially if you are able to identify a way that you can immediately help the prospective client. TIME: 15 minutes/day

Pitch the Media: everyone knows that PR is a powerful tool, but we usually think of it in big, expensive terms. For a gradual approach, pick one publication and research it to get a feeling for the types of stories covered and who writes them. Then send a concise e-mail to the appropriate journalist, editor or assistant editor with your idea. Follow up with a phone call (you’ll usually have to leave a voice mail) and then move on to another publication. TIME: 4 hours/month

Attend Networking Events: research appropriate groups, and then during each meeting seek out just one or two potential customers or referral sources and focus on creating a relationship with them. This approach can have much higher results than spreading yourself thin and trying to connect with everyone in the room. TIME: 1 hour/month

Smarty Pants

I have always been a little bit of a "know-it-all." Lately I have been working on bringing more curiosity and understanding (vs. "knowing") to each situation. This helps me actually build on my knowledge. It also makes me waaaaaay more secure and, dare I say, likeable. Finally, it feeds my need to learn - after all, curiosity is a much better teacher than Smarty-Pants. Here is the new graphic I'm working with:

I (Think I) Hear You!

I have always been intrigued (and a little irritated) by the statement "listen to your body" regarding eating & exercise. I wondered: "does my body really speak?" And, if it does, doesn't it want to sit on the couch eating donuts?

Since embarking on a quest to be healthier (not just skinnier), I have gradually become more in-tune with my body. It has taken 10 months of ups and downs, and very gradual moves forward and backwards, but I think that I can finally hear a tiny little murmur from my body requesting more or less food and even more or less exercise.

Please let me know if you hear your body and what it says!

Clients are People, Too

Sometimes when we are marketing and selling, we forget a key element of the process: our clients are people, too.

I fell into this trap the other day. After an inspiring insight about a new way to package my services, I was unexpectedly approached by someone for marketing support. I was still so "high" on my new idea that I immediately pushed the concept on her. Luckily, I think that I realized my error in time to remedy it, but the bottom line is that rather than pushing my new idea, I should have first asked questions about what she was looking for. Duh!

My error was even more ironic given a conversation I had earlier in the week, during which another client of mine was discussing the difference between the way that I work compared to someone else. She said "with it's all about her. With you, I feel it's all about me. "

Funny how, just as you are beginning to think that you are stellar, life kicks you in the butt and reminds you to stay alert.

Thus, my new mantra whenever talking to anyone is to ask first; advise second (if at all). This approach helps to remind me that each client is unique and special. It also helps to keep the focus on the person; not the opportunity.

3 Types of Networkers

I do a lot of networking. In fact, most of my business has has come from networking - both in-person and online. In both places, I see three types of networkers:

1. Slimers - these are people who think that the old sales techniques still work (they don't) and tend to mercilessly push their services on others without taking any time to find out what the other person does, cares about, or wants. Such one-sided marketing leaves me feeling "slimed."

2. Wallflowers - these are people who think that showing up is enough (it's not). I totally understand that sometimes you just want to lurk - that's fine! And lurking can also be OK if you are doing market research, but lurking will not grow your business.

3. Enlightened Marketers - these are people who recognize that the best way to market yourself in a networking environment is to meet lots of new people and truly listen to what they have to say. Then they make suggestions, recommendations, referrals, etc. based on what is most important to the people they meet. They follow up either with a recommendation or some other personal comment based on the conversation they had. This approach results in a high level of qualified leads because potential clients feel as if you truly care about who they are and what they do.

Please let me know if you have any thoughts about the above approaches - or perhaps some additional ones that I haven't noted!

Envy & Doubt

I have begun to notice a strange little phenomenon in my life. It appears that I have two "protectors," Envy and Doubt, who are hard at work making sure that life works out for me.

Envy follows me with a whip, pointing out everyone else who has succeeded and will succeed (or just says they have/will). Envy believes that if she doesn't whip me, I won't keep running; I won't keep working; and I will never, ever, catch up with everyone else. She believes that, without her, I will simply stop trying. So she chases me around with her whip, making sure that it doesn't happen.

Doubt, on the other hand, thinks she knows the truth, which is that I may not succeed. She diligently erects walls wherever she can to divert my path so that I don't get hurt. Each brick in her wall is made of solid objections: you may not be able to do it; you may not make it; you might not be successful. She believes that, without her, I will fail and become so crushed that I never get up again.

Of course, the harder Envy and Doubt work to take care of me, the more they get in each others' way. Even as Envy drives me to work harder, faster and longer, Doubt erects walls and obstacles to prevent me from getting anywhere.

This morning I decided to give Envy and Doubt a chance to reinvent themselves and take a stab at putting their energy towards more productive ends. Envy thought that maybe she would like to trade her whip for a pen, so that she can write lists full of good ideas gleaned from other people's success. Doubt thought that maybe her bricks could be used to create a solid path for me to walk on - one that grows day-to-day based on which direction is best at the time.

We'll see how well this new agreement works!