"What's wrong with my marketing?"
A very common question when clients aren't coming in as quickly as we'd like. My response is well, let's look at what is working. While exploring what's not working can be very helpful, focusing on the positive is far more productive to begin with. What we focus on expands and so looking for what is working means more of the same.
So here are 3 important questions to ask yourself to uncover valuable clues on how to improve your marketing.
1. Where did your last few clients come from?
Look over the past year and examine where your clients came from. Were they referrals? Did they find you through social media? Or through your website? At a networking meeting? Through an advert? Did they hear you speak? Or was it a casual meeting like at a party? Perhaps you cold called?
Once you remind yourself of the source, go over the trail of events that led them to becoming your client. Do this for all of them and notice if there any patterns. If so, then these would be very good places to concentrate your marketing energies right now.
I know from my own research that the majority of my clients have come from direct referrals or indirectly to my E-zine, and then on to work with me. That's why I spend time every week, writing the article, sorting out the photos, creating the introduction, and so on. It is a proven marketing tool for me and is exactly why sending out a newsletter/e-zine is one of the first things I recommend to all my clients.
2. How did you get your best clients?
So we know how it feels when clients come to us easily and effortlessly, no quibbling about fees, turn up on time, do the work, and are happy with the outcome. And then there are those that want us to jump through hoops to get their business and keep them.
Once again, it's about looking at your best clients and look at where they came from and what you did to retain them as a client. Is there a pattern that you can repeat? It might not be so much about where they came from, but what your attitude was when they became a client.
I have a client who when she first started out used to speak to everybody and anybody about what she did, she wanted to help the whole world and she probably would if she could which is great, but what happened in reality was that she brought on new clients after spending hours persuading them that it was in their best interests, reducing her fees so that they would work with her, throwing in extra bonuses galore, even taking deposits from them, and then finding they either cancelled the appointments or just didn't show up. After experiencing it one too many times, she made the decision that she was only going to work with clients who really WANTED to work with her and no more reducing the fees, and now she gets to work with just those clients.
3. What marketing activities feel most comfortable and natural to you?
With so many marketing tools and strategies available to us today, it is easy to get into overwhelm. My advice is always to go for those that feel most natural to you. It's no good trying to follow the latest fad if it has you tied up in knots and feeling frustrated because that frustration is going to be felt by your potential clients on the other end of it and more than likely push them away. So choose just a handful of marketing strategies that you actually have a DESIRE to do.
I have another client who is great on a one to one basis and a very good writer too. She was worried about not getting out there and networking, public speaking and doing the social scene. Once she realized and accepted that it was perfectly OK for her to base her marketing plan around these 2 skills, she relaxed and hey presto, started attracting in the clients she desired.
So if you're looking for facts on what's working for your business, go through these 3 questions now. You might be surprised at what turns up and for a guess, it might not be quite as complicated to market as you are perhaps feeling. Follow the trail and whatever works for you, do it again! And again! And again! Until it doesn't - it's what's called in marketing jargon, rinse and repeat!
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