Successful Marketing is All About Commitment and Consistency
No matter what marketing strategies we use, we must be committed to them—and be consistent with them—if we want to see results. Intuitively, we know this is true. But it’s not what many practitioners do in real life. The author shares two strategies that are needed to successfully market services.
No matter what marketing strategies we use, we must be committed to them—and be consistent with them—if we want to see results. Intuitively, we know this is true. But it’s not what many practitioners tell me they do in real life.
Many of you tell me that you start marketing when a low backlog of work makes you so uncomfortable that you feel compelled to do something about it. For many of you, that means dialing for dollars … until the pipeline refills. And then you stop. Until the next low water mark. Rinse and repeat.
I get that not everyone likes marketing. But is the agony and urgency of this off-on cycle worse than putting yourself out there using a few marketing tactics you can commit to, consistently, to maintain a steady workflow?
Commitment
All marketing boils down to communicating by speaking or writing. Speaking creates visibility … writing builds credibility. You don’t have to be good at both, so pick one and stick with it.
Because these are the things I hear:
- I tried that a couple of times, but I did not see results right away—so I stopped.
- I was doing X to market my practice, but then someone suggested Y—so I’m trying that.
- I don’t know if this is the best way to market—so I don’t want to take the risk.
Jay Conrad Levinson, father of the Guerrilla Marketing book series, said, “mediocre marketing, with commitment, works better than brilliant marketing without commitment.” That’s right, one of the all-time small business marketing gurus said we don’t need to be brilliant to get clients, just so long as we’re committed. So:
- Speaking gigs at industry/trade associations won’t land clients unless you follow up with your live audience afterward, usually more than once.
- Networking events (micro speaking) won’t win over prospects unless you return to the same events repeatedly and get to know people there.
- Writing articles won’t raise your visibility if you don’t show up frequently in multiple publications read by your audience of prospects, clients, and referral sources.
- Social media (micro writing) won’t pump up your practice unless you continually expand your network and regularly post valuable content.
And so on. For a marketing strategy to pay off, you need to commit to using it.
Consistency
Once you decide whether speaking or writing plays more to your strengths, the tactics fall into place. Here are some examples:
- To land clients through public speaking, talk about topics of interest to your audience, make sure to capture the names of your attendees with a special offer or giveaway, and follow up immediately and repeatedly with a related call to action.
- To win over prospects by building referral relationships, expand your list of likely referral partners, reach out to as many as possible, and formulate a plan to stay in touch with them over time.
- To raise your visibility through writing, write about topics of interest to the audience in your practice area or industry niche and use a postscript or accompanying bio that leads readers back to your website where they can see more of what you do.
- To build your practice using social media, regularly post high-quality content on a platform used by your intended audience and include calls to action that convert your followers into warm leads.
Note that each example involves a “regularly” or “repeatedly.” Consistency is key to building an audience, so you must also commit to a regular schedule of showing up. And because of that, your tactics should be easy/enjoyable or else you will not do them.
And one last point. Your marketing efforts must have a goal. More clients … how many? More billings … how much? Make sure you establish metrics to measure the progress you’re making towards those goals.
Everyone has a different idea of what a successful practice is. The practice you want is personal because it is based on what “successful” means to you. I help practitioners focus on the strategies, tactics, tools, and tech to build/grow/scale their versions of successful practices. If you want some help with that, e-mail me at rod@rodburkert.com.
