Most businesses rely on just a few ways of marketing to generate their enquiries. The classic ones are referrals and their website (although their website probably isn’t doing much for them!), with most also doing some networking too. These are all lovely ways to grow your business but if your sales funnel isn’t filling at the speed you want it to then it sounds like you need to turn on some additional marketing channels.
To put this into perspective I consistently use ~8-10 different marketing channels and that keeps my level of enquiries nice and steady. Even if I’m away on holiday that only pauses 3 of those channels as the rest will carry on working even though I’m not (and I simply love that!).
You are reading this because you want to grow your business. I’m also pretty sure there is room for you to do more marketing and to break out from being a well-kept secret.
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 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.
There are so many ways to market your business that I’m not going to list them all but here are the most common ones:
- Strategic Alliance partners
- Direct mail & email marketing
- Referrals
- Social media
- Website & online marketing
- Speaking opportunities
- Exhibitions
- Article writing
- PR
- Affiliates
So what action are you going to take this week to turn up your lead generation system and break out of being a well-kept secret?
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