Gay Landeta
Choose heartfelt marketing strategies that work for you. Step 1.
Social media, networking, websites, advertising, brochures, ezines, SEO, SEM…. it is pretty easy to find someone sharing advice (from brilliant to not so hot) on how to get yourself known.
The trouble is knowing what will actually work. Many of us tend to try them all and hope for the best. The shot gun effect might work but it uses a great deal of energy and means that we can’t track accurately what works for us. We all have limited time, money and energy and, without a strategy that we know works, we fritter away those precious resources.
With 2014 looming I thought I would share some ideas that might help you determine a plan that could help make 2014 your best yet. Over the years of helping practitioners and other service oriented business owners I have found that each person tends to have a ‘gifted area’ they can market from. If you are struggling with marketing strategies it may be you haven’t yet discovered yours, once you identify it marketing will become so much easier.
Foundations first …. successful marketing relies on three things:
1. Knowing your target market
2. Reaching your target market
3. And doing it consistently.
This series of blogs will explore ways to do this from your gifted place so you can create a strategy that is time, money and energy efficient – and effective.
The first step in building your strategy is knowing who your target market is. Your target market does not necessarily have to be those you see all the time, the clients you want to target here are those you consider your perfect clients. They are the ones you want to work with, those that make your heart sing and that you feel passionate about helping. It can feel decidedly scary to commit to marketing solely to those, but doing so will improve your outcomes and make your work day so much more joyful. Your marketing will become much more focused and the appropriate strategies will start to become apparent.
When you explore your perfect client start by considering the demographics – age, gender, geographical location, income, etc. Some of these things are critical to your successful marketing plan. For example, if you need to be in physical contact with your clients they will need to be in driving distance of your workplace. Your marketing strategies must target them. Seems obvious but you would be surprised.
Then – and this is really important – explore the psychographics of your perfect client – what psychology do they have in common? For example all my clients are very determined to create a bigger and better version of themselves and their life and are committed to their own personal evolution. I would not be much of a match for someone who did not fit that description.
Finally explore the problems they experience and the solutions you offer. Go deeper than the generic solutions your modality or practice or training offers. The more specific you become the easier your perfect client will be able to hear your call.
TIP! Make sure you offer solutions that are broad enough for a narrow niche or narrow enough for a broad niche. Niche marketing is all the rage but some niches can leave you without enough perfect clients to work with.
Step 2 will explore how to apply this information to get more clients.
This article was written by Gay Landeta with the intention of helping you to Create the Life you want to Live. Copyright 2013, All Rights Reserved.
