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Effective marketing

How to Do Less Marketing and Get More Clients in the Next 30-90 Days

August 28, 2018 by Mary Cravets 4 Comments

You run a business, and of course you want to attract more clients.

Wouldn’t it be awesome if you could cut your marketing activities in half, and get twice as many clients or more? What if marketing could be simple and fun?

Impossible? Well no, not really.

As it is, for most business owners marketing is frustrating. Plus every day you find a gazillion new strategies to follow. The worst thing is when you try to do it all – Facebook ads, speaking, blogging, networking, webinars, podcasting, etc. – and none of them produce the results you want.

The post below is really awesome, but also really long. If you don’t have time to read it, I’ve put together a quick Action Guide that shows you how to use this strategy. It’s free and you can get it when you click this link.

I totally get this… I’ve been there too. I’ve found a solution that I’m going to share it with you. You should know though, I paid a steep price for it – the price of my health.

I have a solid business today, on target to earn multiple six figures, but it wasn’t always like this. In fact, the first two years totally sucked.

I was working to the point of exhaustion, always wondering where my next client would come from. And… I got sick. I no longer had a choice –  I had to stop working all those hours. But I also had to feed myself. Getting sick forced me to figure out how to stop being so scattered. This is when I discovered a system to market less and attract more clients.

Here’s what’s in this epic post:

  1. A 5-step system to create a your marketing plan that will allow you to market less and get more clients.
  2. The most common marketing traps and how to avoid them.
  3. How to leverage your marketing strategies, so your results are multiplied over and over.

Let’s dig into it.

Step 1: Stop the Overwhelm

Let’s think about this… in a medical emergency, one of the first things the doctor will do is get control of the bleeding. Until the bleeding is under control, other treatments won’t do much good.

Similarly, to stop overwhelm in business, we have to get control of the bleeding: the bleeding of your time and energy.

If you were to discover the most brilliant strategy today, but you’re totally exhausted and overwhelmed, it’s not going to do you any good.

One big marketing trap: trying to do it all. Facebook ads, blogging, networking, speaking… and on. We may feel worse when we observe others who seem like they’re doing everything without any problem. It makes us think that we that we have to try to do it all. And even worse, we try to do it all ourselves.

You see an expert promoting a marketing strategy that promises a compelling result – something you really want. Then once you get into the strategy, you realize there is a huge learning curve to mastering this new skill, and frustration sets in.

It happens, and you don’t even notice it while it’s happening. It starts with one opt-in, then another, and another. And before you know it, you’re getting 20+ emails a day, each one pulling you in a different direction. Each one sucking your time, talking you into a new marketing tactic and taking you down another rabbit hole. Not to mention that if you try to implement all these things, they take an enormous amount of time, effort and energy.

And before you’ve finished implementing any of them… BING! Another 15 emails have arrived, with strategies that look way more attractive than the frustrating learning curve you’re currently in, so you jump ship and move on to something new.

You consider unsubscribing… but how do you know which strategies to abandon, and which to keep? By the end of Step 2, you’ll know exactly what to unsubscribe from and I’ll give you a tool that will help you do it in 2 minutes or less.

Remember, like in a medical emergency, we’re going to start by controlling the bleeding first.

Here’s what you do. Create two columns on a piece of paper and in the first column write down:

  • All the marketing activities you do consistently
  • All the marketing activities you do inconsistently
  • All the marketing activities you think you SHOULD be doing
  • All the marketing activities you’re curious about trying

Here is how this list generally looks:

Marketing mess

For most people that list is at least 10 items long. And the problem is that if you are a solo professional or a very small company, and if you are focusing on more than 4 of those activities, chances are you’re not doing them well. If you’re focusing on more than 6, you’re probably totally overwhelmed. If you’re focusing on 6, and trying to learn 6 more… you’ll just go completely nuts.

So now, take a deep breath.

Getting this list out of your head and onto paper is the first step to taking your energy back from being so scattered and worried. At least we’ve found out what’s going on and what overwhelms you.

Now let’s fix it.

Following along with the Action Guide will help you get your plan into action faster. Click here to get it now – free.

Step 2: Identify What Works for You

Now you’re going to further focus in the marketing activities that will bring you clients. Great clients.

In the second column, write down the names of your top 10 clients. Only write down the names of clients who are great examples of your ideal client. They are the ones who are easy to work with, appreciate your expertise, and pay you on time without haggling.

It’s important to NOT include any client who makes you cringe or gives you a sinking feeling in your stomach. This personalized plan is going to help you multiply your results many times over, so make sure you’re multiplying the right clients!

When you complete your list, it should look like this:

2015-10-14 07.45.02
Now, consider where each client came from. Draw a line from each client to the marketing effort that brought them to you.

2015-10-14 07.47.53
This will quickly reveal the top marketing strategies you should focus on. Based on my example image, where do you think I should be putting 50-80% of my time?

So, speaking is my most effective strategy. Referrals also brought in several clients, so that will get attention as well. Both of those strategies are working, so it makes sense to focus on doing more of them, right?

List which activities you identified that work best for you.

Now some of you may not have enough clients (or any clients) to do this exercise and come up with results you feel confident with. Here’s what you can do. Take your results from Step 1 and consider the following:

  1. Which marketing activities do you enjoy doing?
  2. Which marketing activities do you know how to do skillfully?
  3. Which marketing activities do you have the highest degree of confidence will work?

The marketing activities that meet all 3 criteria above are the ones that will go on your marketing plan.

One last thing… remember in step one, all those emails that are coming in and pulling you off track? The list you just created of your top marketing strategies will also show you which lists to stay subscribed to and which ones to ditch. Stay on the lists that support and align with your top strategies, and unsubscribe from the rest.

A great free tool to do this is www.unroll.me. You go to one site, enter your email address and password and it detects all of your subscriptions. In about 2 minutes you can unsubscribe from everything that is pulling you off course!

Unroll me

Step 3: Create Your Personalized Marketing Plan

Now you’re going take the top-performing marketing strategies that you identified in the previous step, and get crystal clear about the exact actions you need to take.

Your personalized marketing plan will consist of just 2-4 marketing activities, and how many of them you are going to do each day, week or month.

First, list your most effective marketing strategies and translate them into actions that are 100% under your control. Let me show you what I mean…

Strategy: Speaking engagements
Action: Make inquiries to groups and conferences about speaking

Strategy: Referrals
Action: Ask for a referral

This is an absolutely critical step that can massively change your results. I’ll give you a real-life example of the difference this makes.

I struggled for years to get speaking gigs. Every month I put on my plan, “Book speaking gigs.” And every month, I booked exactly zero.

It was because I put a strategy on my list, NOT an activity. Once I realized this, I changed my plan to “Make 15 speaking inquiries per month”. And immediately started booking gigs.

When you list strategies or results instead of actions, you are setting yourself up to fail, because they are dependent on some outside force (like a group’s organizer saying “yes” to book me). Your plan must outline exactly what you need to do in terms of what you have 100% control over.

Next, decide how many of the actions you are going to take on a daily, weekly or monthly basis. Your basic plan should look something like this:

2015-10-14 13.58.17

How do you decide on the number of actions you should take? Consider a few things:

  1. How many are you doing now?
  2. What results are you currently getting?
  3. What results do you want to get? (i.e. double, triple, etc.)

Let’s say you currently do 5 speaking inquiries per month, and you book 1 speaking gig each month. Your goal is to increase your results to booking 4 speaking gigs per month. You would want to do 20 speaking inquiries each month.

If you don’t have the exact numbers of how much marketing activity you’ve done in the past, then take your best guess. Go on to the next step and you’ll see how to quickly turn your best guesses into great results.

At this point you have a customized plan that is really tight, clear, and ready to implement.

Step 4: Implement and Track

The implementation phase is where things start to really happen in your business… but only if you make implementation a priority. And the truth is, with so many demands on a business owner’s time, it’s easy to let it slip through the cracks. Take this as an example –

A client said recently, “I need more clients.”
I said, “Great. Tell me about the marketing activities you’ve been doing lately.”
Her reply was, “I’ve been so busy, I haven’t been able to squeeze in marketing.”

From an outside perspective, it’s easy to see the error in the thinking here, but the reality is that this happens all the time in the life of an entrepreneur.

Here are two suggestions to make sure you get your marketing done…

First, set appointments on your calendar to do your marketing, and have a “no matter what” attitude about using this time get your marketing done. Turn off your email during this time, and your phone if at all possible, and don’t reschedule the time!

Blog screen shot

Good to note: To get a jump start on my marketing plan, I always book more time in my calendar for business building activities on the first week of the month. The calendar image is an example of how I block my time on the first week of the month only. The rest of the month I only need to do about 1 hour of activity per week.

Second, track your progress. Tracking is a motivator, because it shows you what you’ve accomplished. Plus, it shows you what is still left to do, so you can schedule accordingly. And from your tracking, you can develop a very accurate formula for how to get all of the clients and income you want.

So what should you track? At the most basic level, you want to track activities and results.

  • Activities. These come directly from your marketing plan you created in steps 1-3. Keep a tally throughout the month so you aren’t trying to remember or recreate your numbers at the end of the month.
  • Results. The key to tracking your results is to find a balance between tracking enough information so you can get good data to analyze, but not so much information that you’re spending all of your time tracking numbers! Here are some things you may want to track:
    • Income and/or revenue
    • New prospects (or prospect appointments)
    • New clients
    • Website hits
    • Website inquiries
    • Speaking gigs booked
    • Referrals received

When in doubt, track a little more than you think is necessary. It’s better to have the option to dismiss some data as irrelevant than it is to wish you had more data.

For those of you who did the first steps and got a clear direction for your marketing based on past successes, tracking keeps you on track with actually implementing your marketing plan and growing your results.

For those of you who had to make your “best guess” for your marketing plan, tracking is just as important. Over time, tracking will give you a crystal clear path to follow because it shows you exactly what works and what doesn’t.

It’s easy to confuse being busy with being profitable. Or being well-known with being profitable.

But that’s the great thing about tracking and numbers: they are unemotional. They tell you the truth. They will clearly tell you if you’re on the right track, or need to change something.

After just a few months, you’ll have a formula that will let you know exactly how to plug a certain number of activities into your calendar, and have a predictable number of clients each month.

For instance, let’s take the plan I developed earlier in this blog where the marketing plan is to simply do 15 speaking inquiries and 30 referral asks per month. Let’s say I implement the plan for 3 months and (because I’m tracking my results) I know I’m booking 3 gigs per month, receiving 2 referrals per month and earning on average $8,000 per month.

If I want to double my results, I can simply double my activity levels. Triple my results? Triple the activity.

Creating a formula to accurately predict and control your results is pretty great, but I bet you looked at the suggestion to double or triple your activity and realized that, at some point, you’re going to run out of time.

You’re right. That’s why there is one more step to further multiply your results with less effort.

Step 5: Multiply Your Results

To multiply your results, every activity you do needs to be systematized and connected with your other marketing activities. And when this is in place, the results from your efforts will skyrocket.

Here’s how the multipliers of leverage and systems my top marketing strategy – speaking:

Multiplier #1: Systematize the booking process.
Booking speaking gigs can be very time consuming, so I implemented a powerful 3-step process to quickly identify and book gigs. This saves a ton of time, and results are fantastic. (by the way, in my upcoming webinar, I’m going to share this 3-step process for getting all the local speaking gigs you want … it’ll knock your socks off so keep your eyes peeled for it!)

Multiplier #2: Leverage speaking events to create multiple business-building outcomes.
The presentation is a structured system that leverages the speaking opportunity to get the following results:

Book more speaking gigs. The presentation include an opportunity for the participants to give referrals to other groups who need guest speakers.
Build list. The presentation structure also ensures I get every contact in the room, every time. After the gig, I have systemized follow up so no contacts ever fall through the cracks.
Generate leads. Even in groups where they don’t allow an overt sales offer, the presentation structure I follow generates leads from every audience. And again, the follow up system is in place so no leads are lost.

Multiplier #3: Leverage other marketing channels to generate future clients.
The contacts generated from speaking gigs aren’t always ready to buy right away, so I nurture them by including them in my e-newsletter list where they receive sales offers and valuable content. The content comes from my blog, so now the blog content is doing two jobs – 1. It keeps my website alive and gets some organic search engine love and attention, and 2. Serves to build long-term relationships with the contacts I get from speaking.

This system takes very little time to implement, and smoothly integrates and leverages several marketing strategies.

To multiply the results of your personalized marketing plan, for each activity ask yourself:

  1. How can I systematize this so it takes less of my time?
  2. How can I make connections between my marketing strategies so they leverage each other and multiply my results?

Now that you’ve got this great new tool, it may feel a little strange and unfamiliar, and it will probably take a little bit of practice. If right now you are in massive overwhelm and following a gazillion different strategies, it may take you anywhere from a few days to a few weeks to untangle yourself from some of those activities. But don’t worry. At least now you have a plan to follow. This gives you a way to laser focus on just the 2-4 marketing activities that actually work.

Making these changes may be uncomfortable, but you have a choice: you can either continue with your overwhelm by chasing after whatever strategy your email spits out today, or you can do what successful entrepreneurs do… they focus, identify what’s working, and then follow it religiously.

To get started right away, download my Personalized Marketing Plan Action Guide to help you implement the 5 steps right now.

Filed Under: Income Generation, Marketing, Strategy Tagged With: attract high-paying clients, avoid marketing mistakes, client generation, Effective marketing, marketing, six figures, time management

Digital Marketing: Get Ready for 2018!

October 4, 2017 by Mary Cravets Leave a Comment

Contributed by guest writer, Margaret Brown, SocializeLA

It’s my honor to give you some simple and strategic tips to get your digital marketing in gear for 2018. You’ll also find three ways to connect with me for more info (hint: 2 FREE options, and 1 Premium).

Let’s get started! Here’s what you should consider for your 2018 digital marketing:

What is successful digital marketing- and what ISN’T successful digital marketing?!

Successful Digital Marketing IS about building relationships. It ISN’T incessant selling. It IS a great place to funnel people into your Customer Journey. It ISN’T something that happens overnight. It IS a strategy of content, calls-to-action, and multiple layers.

What does successful digital marketing look like for your business?  

Successful digital marketing looks like your social media, email marketing, blogs, webinars, and/or ads are converting to new clients. Or, your social media, email marketing, blogs, etc. are growing in engagement (LIKES, Number of followers, Shares, sign-ups, etc.). It can also look like website traffic is increasing, consistent content (planned and published strategically), and multiple layers working together: website, landing pages, webinar registration, video, email marketing, blogs, and social media.

What is a Customer Journey, and how do you use it in your business?

A Customer Journey is how you lead your audience to learn more about you and ultimately become a client!  The journey is also known as a funnel. It can look something like this:

  • A social media post with a call-to-action
  • The call-to-action leads to a landing page
  • The landing page is a series of text, images, video, calling people to either sign up for a webinar, purchase a product, or some other option in addition to an instant sign-up or buy.  A call-to-action could be a value carrot of sorts to prompt the viewer to download the freebie and in turn signs up for your email marketing campaign.

The Customer Journey can be simple or intricate. You can start small and grow from there.

When is it time to review your digital marketing strategy, and how do you conduct a self-audit?

To determine when to review and how to self-audit, re-read the section on what success looks like.  Are you seeing this? Do you have a Customer Journey in place? You can also utilize this Free Self-Audit Download inside The Plan the Year Course (FREE) for more information!

What other questions should you consider for your digital marketing?  

Some other questions to consider are:

  • How much time should I spend on my social media?
  • Why isn’t my current plan working?
  • How can I make my current plan work more effectively?
  • Is this relevant to my business/industry?
  • Where should I turn for help?
  • How much should I spend in ads?

Now that you have an overview of how to kick off your 2018 digital marketing, please take advantage of these offers from myself and The SocializeLA.com Team! Join our Facebook Group for fun virtual co-working sessions, training, and more! You can also Sign up for a FREE call with Margaret, or Book a Discovery Session $97, with code MARYCRAVETS (Valued at $500). The Discovery Session includes:

  • 1.5 Training/Brainstorm Session with Margaret
  • Professional review of your current digital marketing efforts
  • SEO review and more!

I hope these tips sparked an idea and action for you to improve your digital marketing.  It’s essential to your business in 2018.  Be ready!

Filed Under: Blog, Guest Blogs, Marketing, Strategy Tagged With: Effective marketing, marketing strategies, smart strategies, success

Don’t Miss the Easy Close

September 5, 2017 by Mary Cravets Leave a Comment

Recently I attended a presentation and decided I’d like to speak with the presenter about possibly hiring her.

I said, “I’ve been thinking about hiring someone like you, can I get your information?”

She said, “Why don’t we just get together to brainstorm over coffee?”

I accepted her offer, but it’s important to note that if she had told me that the next step was to have a conversation about options for working together, I would have said yes. Or if she’d said that the initial consultation is $500, I would have given her my credit card.

She missed an easy close.

Running a business is hard enough some days, so make sure you’re prepared to take the easy wins when they come your way!

Here are a few do’s and don’ts to help you when these excellent opportunities come your way:

DO be prepared for a prospect who is ready to hire you now. Have an abbreviated sales process ready to go for this opportunity!

DON’T skip the process altogether. Ready buyers become the best clients when you take a little time to clarify their goals and expectations.

DO move quickly. If someone says, “I want to hire you,” let them! Find out their timeline and then get terms sorted out – yes, that includes payment – ASAP.

DON’T bog down the process by worrying that before they hire you, a prospect needs to know more about how you do what you do. Or they need to know all the program options and pricing. Or they need the history of your company and how it’s different from other companies. They have a need, so simply recommend the best option, and get hired.

DO have an easy way for them to pay you immediately. Once someone has made the financial investment, their commitment is solid. Delaying this is one of the top reasons a hot prospect fizzles out.

DON’T be afraid that you’re rushing a prospect who wants to hire you quickly. You’re only rushing if you’re trying to push your agenda over theirs. Trust yourself. Moving fast to serve a prospect’s immediate need is not rushing them; it is serving them at the highest level.

And you want to know the best part? Now that you’re aware this can happen, and you are clear about how to successfully navigate them, you’re going to start noticing these opportunities popping up more often.

You’re welcome!

Filed Under: Blog, Income Generation, Marketing Tagged With: Effective marketing, getting clients, getting income you deserve, simple techniques, smart strategies

Ever Hesitate to Promote Yourself?

July 11, 2017 by Mary Cravets Leave a Comment

Do you ever hesitate to promote yourself to your email list? If you’re concerned that you’re being too salesy by promoting yourself, don’t panic! I learned something very interesting lately that might help you step up and make offers with less fear.

For some quick insight on striking a balance between promoting yourself and offering valuable content, enjoy this video!

Filed Under: Blog, Marketing Tagged With: Effective marketing, grow your business, simple techniques

#1 Way to Get Clients (HINT: it’s low-tech and cheap)

April 19, 2017 by Mary Cravets Leave a Comment

The #1 way that coaches and most other service professionals get client is… drum roll please… referrals!!!

Admittedly, referrals have an image problem.

Referral generation sounds downright dull compared to “ultimate digital content planner” and “master Facebook ads in 5 days” or “the underground playbook for building your company online”.

It’s easy to get distracted by shiny new promises, but consider this: to generate referrals, there is almost no cost to you (awesome!), the technology is limited to email and phone so there’s no learning curve (yay!), referrals are warm prospects so the sales process is easier (yes!), and those referred prospects generally invest in higher level packages (cha-ching!).

Did referrals get just a tad more attractive?

Sweet!

But there’s another problem…

Most people don’t know how to generate referrals intentionally. It seems like it’s a random thing, with no stability or consistency. So even though you KNOW referrals are great, knowing isn’t enough.

Luckily, it’s easier than you think to get referrals rolling in. Let me show you what I mean:

  • In 2015, I took a few consistent steps each month and generated dozens of referrals equaling tens of thousands of dollars.
  • In 2016, I got so busy with clients and speaking that I stopped taking those steps and generated… one referral. Ugh.
  • In 2017, I (my team, actually) started taking these steps again and am back to receiving referrals every single month.

To generate referrals consistently, there are really only 3 steps:

  1. Identify everyone who is in a position to refer you. Remember that not everyone crosses paths with your ideal client, so even though your mom or neighbor might think you’re great, if they never encounter your ideal client, they can’t give you referrals.

The key to making this step work: Only invest time nurturing referral relationships with people who are in a position to, and are willing to, refer you

  1. Ask these people for a referral to your ideal client.

The keys to making this step work: First… before you say, “But I don’t want to be pushy,” let me assure you that people LOVE to help. They LOVE to contribute and be a part of your success. And second, make sure your “ask” is crystal clear: know who your ideal client is and describe them simply in your request for referrals.

  1. Repeat step #2 monthly to nurture your list. This is the step that makes all of the difference. Asking once doesn’t work. People are busy. They are interacting with dozens of people a day and your first ask gets lost in the shuffle in their minds.

The key to making this step work: Make this a priority every single month by scheduling an appointment in your calendar to connect with your list.

Now for confession time: as amazing as referrals are for a business, I still struggled to do the actions necessary to generate them. So if you find this challenging, please don’t beat yourself up.

Here are a few things that help to melt resistance and get results:

  • Script your referral asks to boost your confidence
  • Create simple contact lists to keep you organized
  • Schedule time in your calendar dedicated to referral generation
  • Customize your approach for your ideal client, industry and personal style
  • Get accountability

And remember to ask for help. Adam (the expert on my team who grew my referrals exponentially) has a variety of ways to help you succeed with referral generation. Contact Adam here to explore how he can help you build your business through referrals.

Filed Under: Blog, Marketing, Networking, Strategy Tagged With: Effective marketing, Get great clients, getting clients

Speaker at Bell Gardens Chamber of Commerce

November 17, 2015 by Mary Cravets Leave a Comment

TOPIC: Simplify Your Marketing: Create More Leads & Income by Doing Less  

Is your business running you? With so many marketing options, it’s tempting to try to do it all… but that only leads to frustration and overwhelm, NOT results. The good news? By doing LESS, your marketing can be MORE effective. Embrace the practice of simplifying, and you will get great clients and customers AND keep your sanity intact! Participants will learn:

  • How to identify the best marketing strategies for your business so you can stop wasting time on complicated schemes (ones that ultimately don’t work anyway!)
  • Why doing less marketing will give you more results, faster
  • The costs of making the most common marketing mistakes and how to avoid them
  • Significantly reduce or even eliminate resistance, wasted time, and learning curves in your marketing efforts

With more than a decade of entrepreneurial experience to her credit, Mary Cravets is a highly sought-after presenter who makes everyone feel like she is speaking directly to them with her engaging, down-to-earth style. She delivers practical topics that provide participants with simple, actionable ideas, plus the clarity and motivation to put them into action right away.

Mary is a Business Coach and Speaker who works with ambitious entrepreneurs who are too busy to grow, and helps them double their incomes and get their lives back. Mary’s entrepreneurial journey includes successful careers in Real Estate, Direct Sales, business-to-business Networking Events and now Business Coaching.

Recently a health crisis forced Mary to completely start over and revamp her business, and from the systems she created to weather the storm, she tripled her income while cutting her work hours in half. She teaches audiences and clients the same systems she credits for her current success.

Speaker at Bell Gardens Chamber of Commerce

Tagged With: avoid marketing mistakes, Effective marketing, eliminate resistance, Get great clients, Get great customers, Keep your sanity intact, marketing strategies, more results faster, simplify your marketing

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