Happy Thursday!
Let me share a story with you…
A client of mine recently received this text:
“Hi Sara! I wanted to call and give you my credit card information today so we can start working together. Will you be around?”
The punch line? Sara had no idea who the text was from.
I hope you get a text like this sometime, because it’s a crazy good feeling to have so many prospects that you start to lose track of them. Now how did this happen?
We created a very specific plan of action for Sara’s marketing. It includes about 4-5 low- (or no-) cost activities that she implements consistently. They all work together to leverage her time and effectiveness so she is spending a minimum amount of time possible on marketing activities that work, and zero time on marketing that doesn’t work.
(Cool, right? Wasting NO time on activities that won’t bring results!)
Because of these key factors – specificity, implementation and consistency – she is consistently getting clients. She puts the work in, the results show up.
With her focus squarely on the actions, rather than worrying about when or how the results show up, she is experiencing a pretty sweet flow right now.
This is how marketing actually works for the majority of small business owners. You put effort in. You put more effort in. And, if you’re doing the exact right efforts, results show up.
The challenge of course is that there is a time delay between putting in the effort and getting results. Which is why people often fall prey to marketing tactics that claim to produce “overnight success.” Understand that client generation does not work this way.
Ok, sure, it can work that way sometimes. Sort of.
Imagine you peak at a conference packed with your ideal clients. You place Facebook ads. You enter into a joint venture with someone with a big list. Sounds almost effortless, right? But let’s look at what those examples actually require to create these “overnight” successes:
1. The perfect conference. Investments can include making dozens of speaking inquiries, filling out many speaking applications, creating a speaking video, creating a product or program, practicing speaking and selling, hiring coaches to perfect your speaking skills, and the time to accomplish all of this.
2. Facebook ads. Investments often include hiring a graphic designer, copy writer, virtual assistant and social media strategist, cost of ads to test out which audience will respond to your ad, ongoing advertising spend, and the time to accomplish all of this.
3. Joint venture. Investments include creating relationships with successful people willing to market your product for you, writing a lot of copy for a landing page, email marketing and social media posts, preparing videos or webinar content, getting affiliate software, and the time to accomplish all of this.
Did you notice that, in these examples, you still experience a time delay between putting in the effort and getting results?
And regardless of which path you take – the specific, consistent plan or something more like the overnight success examples – you can speed up your results by investing in:
- Being crystal clear about who your ideal client is
- Making sure your marketing messaging (the copy on your website, 30-second intro, etc.) makes your ideal client say “I need that!”
- Creating a specific marketing action plan
- Consistently implementing those actions
- Tracking and evaluation of those actions
- Aligning your whole business with your strengths, goals and what you value most
The moral of the story: get clear that there will be a delay between your efforts and your results, but do everything you can to make that delay as short as possible!
