3 Pillars of Effective Marketing

What does it take to grow a successful business? That’s a question I receive regularly from my clients – solo and small business service professionals, who are great at what they do but struggle with the “business” aspects of running their firm. My lawyer clients are great at legal work. My real estate clients are excellent at finding homes for buyers and selling houses. My consulting clients are fantastic at getting measurable results for the companies they work for.

Yet, all of them share the same questions – how do I get clients? How should I market my business? Which marketing strategies and tactics should I use? Why is marketing so difficult? How can I bring in enough clients this month to pay the bills? And even, does marketing really work?

Honestly, I can relate to them. When I started my business seven years ago, I was really good at developing websites and getting listed in search engines – I’ve been doing that since 1995 – but completely clueless about how to run a business. I knew how to do the day-to-day tasks to complete a project, but I didn’t know how to manage my finances, leverage my resources, or get clients to come to me.

I was under the impression that all I needed to do was to advertise in certain publications, put up a website, or send out a handful of postcards and suddenly, business would come flooding in. Boy, was I wrong. Nothing seemed to work.

Like me, many small business owners mistakenly think that marketing is just advertising or sales. They think that if they can just imitate the big guys – Fortune 500 companies who do lots of snazzy advertising – they’ll get people to buy their products and services. And most absolutely hate the concept of sales. How can they, as upstanding service professionals, stoop to the sleazy tactics of snake-oil salesmen?

Through trial and error – and then going back for an MBA – I slowly learned that my approach to business and my perception of marketing were the problems. For starters, I learned that I wasn’t in the design business. I was in the marketing business. Marketing was my lifeblood. It was what brought clients and therefore cash in the door. The same philosophy holds true for any profession.

But not just any marketing will work. One-step marketing – that is, you do one event like advertising in a newspaper or sending a mailing or putting up a website – doesn’t work. Most people won’t remember you after just one encounter with your marketing materials. In fact, it can take 7-10 contacts before prospects even start to remember who you are and a little about you

An Ethical Definition of Marketing

Think of it this way. Your clients are your bread and butter. They are what bring in cash to pay your monthly bills. Without clients, you don’t have a business. You have a money pit. That means that marketing and sales – or business development or rainmaking, if you prefer – are fundamental to your business. They aren’t simply something to do when you need clients. They aren’t one time events. They are activities you must do weekly to ensure that you always have a stream of clients coming in the door.

Why are marketing and sales so important? Because without them, no one would know who you are or what you do. Being good at what you do isn’t enough. Providing excellent client service and doing a good job isn’t enough. You must also educate prospects, clients, and referral sources what it is specifically that makes you different from others and why they are getting tremendous value by working with you.

Every person you meet will have a different frame of reference and different expectations. Simply because you say you’re a “lawyer” or a “business coach” or a “real estate agent”, they will form a picture in their minds of what it is they think you do. Most likely, however, that perception of what you do differs dramatically from what you actually do. It’s up to you to bridge the gap by educating prospects, clients, and referral partners in each interaction you have with them.

That’s marketing – there’s nothing sleazy or unethical about it. Think of it as “helping others” because that’s what it is. You’re educating prospects on what the best solution to their problems would be. You’re not “selling others on services they don’t need” – or even “selling yourself” – but genuinely trying to help them make more money, feel better about themselves, or eliminate some pain in their lives. We all feel good about helping others. If you can help someone live a better life, why wouldn’t you share what you know?

3 Pillars of Effective Marketing

Since much of marketing involves educating prospects on who you are and what you do, you must find ways to educate them. And “educating” prospects is more than simply “getting your name out”. It’s about finding ways to share your knowledge with those who might have a need for your services. How do you do that?

The short answer is that means you must be doing at least one – if not all three – of the following activities: writing, speaking and networking. All other marketing activities are secondary to these three key components. And this holds true in the online world as well as the offline world.

Think about it – how do you communicate and build relationships with people? You might do it by:

• Writing articles, answering email, sending letters, blogging, answering questions in forums, sending a regular newsletter.
• Holding seminars and talks, calling people on the phone, or having conference calls or teleseminars.
• Having lunch or coffee or playing golf with prospects, seeing highly targeted prospects regularly at seminars and events, calling referral partners up to say hi, or asking past clients for a referral.

In other words, you take an active role in understanding who they are, what they do, and what’s going on in their lives. You don’t hold up a megaphone and shout at the top of your lungs that you are great and they should feel privileged to talk with you. (That may sound silly, but that’s what many people when they advertise or send mailings.)

Instead, you get to know them – and you allow them to get to know you. As you communicate more often with prospects – even if it’s simply by blogging or a monthly newsletter – they start to feel as if they know you. They start to take notice of the valuable information you provide them to help them grow their business. And they start to like you as a person.

And in business, all things being equal, people choose to do business with those they like and trust.

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• The 3 Most Effective Ways to Market Your Business