Today's small businesses and solo professionals live in an
exciting time for marketers. Never before has it been
possible for small and mid-sized companies without lavish
budgets to utilize the same marketing tools as major
corporations. Social media is equally accessible to "mom
and pop" companies, one-person firms, and huge
organizations. Over the course of a year, I interact with thousands of business owners whose companies are at all levels of growth, from promising startups to established and mature
firms, but all are looking for effective promotional tools that are also cost-efficient. Though social media is one of the most exciting new communication tools to emerge in the
last twenty years and can provide effective and cost- efficient marketing, it's also one of the most misunderstood mediums.
As I travel around North America speaking to business and
professional organizations, and as I lead teleseminars and
online group coaching programs with participants from
around the world, I notice that one question seems to
dominate the conversation: "How can I use social media to
really make a difference for my company?" These very busy people want hands-on advice with practical results, and
they feel overwhelmed by the choices and the perception
that it would take a huge time commitment to make social media pay off for them. This blog is designed to help you create a strategic social media platform for your business, focused on reaching your best target audience in pursuit of your top business goal. Only you can determine your level of success, through
consistent application of the tips and strategies I'll share with you in this blog. Here's how I define success: being in
the right places to meet with the people who are interested
and able to purchase your products or services, engaging
in a dialogue that meets your prospects' needs, and
encouraging those prospects to become your customers. Now it's time for you to take the plunge into strategic social media. I hope it becomes a powerful tool to help you
achieve your dreams. Now it's time for you to take the plunge into strategic social media. I hope it becomes a powerful tool to help you
achieve your dreams.
This blog is dedicated to helping you rethink, reenergize, and restart your social media marketing in 30 days or less.
If you're a coach, consultant, author, speaker, solo
professional, or owner of a small or home-based business, and you can't afford to waste money or effort on social media marketing programs that don't produce results, this blog is for you. This blog is dedicated to helping you rethink, reenergize, and restart your social media marketing in 30 days or less.
If you're a coach, consultant, author, speaker, solo
professional, or owner of a small or home-based business, and you can't afford to waste money or effort on social media marketing programs that don't produce results, this blog is for you.
If you've never done social media marketing before, this is a great way to make sure you are starting off your marketing program on a sound footing. If you're using
social media marketing but it hasn't delivered the outcomes
that you want, this is a great way to retool your program. If
your social media marketing is chugging along but not breaking records, this approach can rekindle and
reenergize your efforts.
Let's get started!
First, the "guided tour." This blog is designed with the busy professional in mind. The information is provided in bite-
sized post that can be consumed like a daily vitamin
for your business. Each day's "bite" covers one key step to
reshaping your social media marketing in 30 days. Along with this important information, you'll also get:
- Results Reminder tips on how to do it better.
- The Rule of 30 approach to tap into a free source of marketing power.
- Exercises to help you apply what you're learning
immediately to your own situation.
The RESULTS Approach
The RESULTS approach stands for:
Recommit to marketing.
Expect success.
Seek partners.
Understand your audience.
Look for win-win scenarios.
Take strategic action.
Stay visible.
The first step is to recommit to marketing. I've found that many companies that are disappointed in the results their marketing generates never actually made a full commitment
to the activities needed to produce success. Half-hearted
efforts produce disappointing results. In order to make this guide work for you, you must fully commit to putting the
ideas into action.
The second step is to expect success. Your expectations
shape reality, and they influence others on a subconscious
level. Even if you put the ideas I'll share with you into action,
if you do so without believing that they will actually work, that doubt will undermine everything you do. You will be
preparing to fail. Having an expectation of success means
that even if your first attempt doesn't produce the results
you want, you will discover a better way to move forward
from the lessons learned.
The third step is to seek partners. No one succeeds alone. Partners can take many forms. A partner can be a
significant other who is invested in making your venture
succeed, a virtual assistant, or a helpful ally. The most powerful partnerships are those you make formally and
informally with other companies that are already serving
your ideal target audience in non-competing ways.
The fourth step is to understand your audience. Many marketing efforts fail because they are focused on what the
business wants to sell instead of what the target audience
needs to solve an urgent problem. Once you align your marketing with the problems that are keeping your prospects up at night, you will be on your way to producing
results.
Step five is to look for win-win scenarios. This means developing collaborative projects with your marketing
partners to grow your business and theirs. For example, a
certified public accountant (CPA) and a lawyer specializing
in small-business law might team up to present a series of educational seminars on hot-topic issues involving money and law for small companies. If each firm already has an
established opt-in e-mail list of clients and prospects, they
could write articles for each other's newsletters. The firms aren't competitors because they don't provide the same
services, but they do serve the same audience. Each firm
wins through the cross-promotion, and the clients and
prospects also win, assuming the information provided is
valuable.
Step six is to take strategic chances. This book can't guarantee results. It can only share a system that has worked for me and for my clients during the last 25 years. Your effort is the only thing that can move results from a
possibility to a reality. Results require risk. Your firm might grow larger, creating new management problems. Your book could become a best-seller-and then what? Demand
for your product might exceed your current capacity to
supply. More people are held back by a fear of success
than by a fear of failure. (Reread that and try it on for size
before moving on.) In order to really get results, you must be willing to take a chance. Your first attempt might not get off
the ground, but the second try could be spectacular. Or you may succeed your way into a whole new set of problems. Either way, you have to take a risk to get results.
Finally, stay visible. Too many companies take the "prairie
dog" approach to marketing, popping their heads up at
random intervals and then disappearing again. Customers buy when the need is urgent for them, not when it's
convenient for you. That's why you must stay visible through
a consistent, ongoing program of marketing and publicity, not a few sporadic outbursts.
Marketing isn't mysterious. It's not difficult to understand the
essentials, but it does take work to get results. You may have the good fortune to be able to delegate some of that work, or your checking account may dictate that, at least for now, you are a oneperson show. Either way, as the
company owner, practice principal, speaker, or author, you
are and always will be your own most valuable marketing
resource. This blog will show you how to harness that power so that you can be efficient and effective and get the
results you desire.
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