Build your own marketing muscle
“I’m really bad at marketing.”
It’s as though my business were a confession booth.
“Forgive me, Stella, for I’ve sinned. It’s been 4 months since I sent my last newsletter. And I’ve had secret thoughts about getting a job.”
What you keep telling me is that you aren’t good at marketing. And that you’re doing “alright”… but you want more.
More clients, more word-of-mouth, more of your cash register singing. A business that’s more like a moveable feast, and less like eating fast food in a parking lot in your car.
Yes, good marketing can make magic happen in your business.
But there seems to be confusion about what makes marketing “good” or “bad.”
You know Stella’s a big fan of style and substance. Putting those aside for a moment (that’s a whole other post). Good marketing is simply marketing that works. That brings you business. That serves you up your favorite clients. That gets folks buzzing about you.
So, the more accurate statement might be:
“My marketing isn’t getting me the results I want.”
A-ha! NOW we’re onto something. Because “being bad” is a dead end. You’re bad. (Really bad, apparently). If you keep repeating that to yourself, as we humans do, you are beating yourself down. Where’s the fun—and the joy—in that?
Sharing your playfulness, curiosity and joy will go a lot farther in attracting you clients than hiding behind what I call “the myth of looking professional.” (What’s this need to prove that you’re competent really about, anyway?)
When you acknowledge you ARE doing something to promote your biz, you honor where you’re at now. It’s a fine place to be, actually. You just want more, you ambitious little firecracker, you.
This gives you more space to maneuver. And more room to say “okay, so I want people to email me to sign up for the program I talk about in my newsletter. That’s not happening. What else can I try?”
This is what I call putting on your “marketing goggles.”
And I see too many smart business owners leaving their goggles on the nightstand these days. But the fact is, you need to build your own marketing muscle. You need to develop the capacity to read the results you’re getting, and make a decision about what to try next.
You’re not bad at marketing. You’re just in the beginning stages of thinking more strategically about your marketing. (Promise me you intend to think strategically about your marketing, okay? If you’re not sure how to do this, I’ll teach you.) Don’t let the word “strategy” freak you out here. It’s just a fancy way of saying “a way to get the results you want.” Be tender with yourself, and seek out quality opportunities to develop your marketing know-how.
Join Stella Orange live for a dazzling 60-minute seminar on “Genius Marketing: How to express your genius so your ideal clients flock to you like moths to a flame, and you have more fun marketing and making money than most business owners have on vacation” this Thursday, October 13th at 7pm ET. For more info and to register, visit: http://bit.ly/ot7tsa. There is no cost to attend.
Mighty thanks to clocksforseeing’s flickr photostream for the writer.
