As you can imagine I talk to a lot a business owners who are looking to grow their businesses. I ask them about the type of marketing they do to generate increased sales and most list two or three marketing channels, most commonly word of mouth/referrals, website and possibly networking too.
Individually each of these have merit; for instance referrals are a great way to grow your business, but in most circumstances they tend to be a passive way to generate sales and you can’t predict when they will happen. The challenge with only having 2 or 3 different marketing channels in use for your business is that you will suffer from being a well-kept secret. Does that feel familiar? The key to successfully marketing your business is to use multiple marketing channels, ideally 8-10, not 2-3!
Let me place a caveat on this before I continue. It won’t matter how much marketing you do if your message is not correct, or if you are marketing yourself in places where your ideal clients are not looking. So if you’re are reading this and saying “well I’ve tried loads of different marketing and it hasn’t worked”, then please revisit your marketing message and strategy.
Let me also dispel a classic marketing myth…marketing doesn’t have to be expensive.
The key to getting it right is to:
- Have a great message that’s tailored to your ideal clients and expresses the value you deliver.
- Think very carefully about where to find your ideal clients in reasonable quantity and inexpensively.
- Implement multiple marketing channels.
- Consistently take action.
Here are so many ways to market your business that I’m not going to list them all but here are the most common ones:
- Referrals
- Networking (offline & online)
- Strategic Alliance partners
- Direct mail & email marketing
- Telemarketing
- Social media
- Website & online marketing
- Speaking & exhibiting opportunities
- PR
My challenge to you this week is to think about your ideal clients and where you can find them in large numbers & inexpensively. Once you have that list work out an additional marketing channel you can implement to bring you more. My advice here is to add additional channels on slowly. Start 1 new one and embed it so you are using it consistently before you add on another one.
In the coming blogs I will explain what Strategic Alliance Partners are as these are a great, and very cost effective, way of growing your business.
The rate of your business will grow comes down to how well you get your message out there. Don’t limit yourself by restricting your marketing. Re-read my blog called “Be Brave” if you are nervous about getting out there in a bigger way.