The Top Five 2004 Required Marketing Tips Needed to Succeed

When marketing your practice, as well as designing yourbrochure, web site, business card, flier, advertisement, orother marketing effort, we recommend investing the time andeffort needed to effectively address all these tips. Notone of them can be omitted.

Tip 1. MARKET FOR YOUR DESIRED PROSPECTS, NOT YOURSELF

What looks good to you is not necessarily effective for yourdesired audience. This is the biggest mistake I see peoplemake over and over again. They come up with an idea, theythink it’s great, a few friends, family or nontarget marketpeople give them the thumbs up and they run with the ball.When it doesn't work, they just can't understand why.

Do market research and test your strategies on your targetmarket. Big companies do lots of market research beforelaunching a product or service. The little guys don't havethe resources to match this but that doesn't mean you omitit. Even if you are an independent professional, youneed to do marketing research. And market research isn't aone-time deal. It needs to be incorporated into yourmarketing system and it needs to be ongoing.

Tip 2. YOU MUST ANSWER THESE FOUR CRITICAL MARKETING QUESTIONS

Question 1: WHAT'S THIS ABOUT?

Is it immediately clear to the reader what is being offered?Any opaqueness, confusion, or question marks in their mind,even for a second, and they have moved on. Don't be cute orclever. Make it simple and clear. Cute and clever has areference point now with S*P*AM or hype. Don't let themplace you into that category.

Question 2: WHAT'S IN IT FOR ME?

The big benefits are very clear and directly stated... notimplied; the reader doesn't have to guess. The listenerdoesn't have to guess. They come to you from alldifferent stages of readiness and desire levels.

How do you handle each one when they arrive makes whatoccurs afterwards critical? It isn't what you perceive thatthey want, it is what they perceive what they want. Stopguessing just because you are too lazy to do the legwork.Start asking and don't ever stop.

Question 3: CAN I TRUST YOU?

How do I know you are safe and credible? Can I find outeasily enough if I want to? Is your photo and contact infoprominently displayed so I can build a relationship withyou? Put your photo on every web page. It doesn't matterif they are different pictures.

People don't trust any more especially if all your contactinformation isn't on your web site. Put your phone numberand address on ever page. It says you are credible. Putthem in every ezine, in fact, add them twice -- beginningand end.

Create a safe place for them to be -- a comfort zone. Ifyou offer a complimentary session, realize that people don'timmediately sign up for these because they aren'tcomfortable yet. It doesn't matter if you think you aresafe, it’s what they think. Step them through becoming safewith you.

People are either boulders or blue birds. Blue birds areeasy to convert to clients. Boulders need to know that theyhave a safe place to roll to before they will move.

Question 4: DO I FEEL GOOD ABOUT THIS?

Do I WANT to engage you? Do I feel COMPELLED to click orpick up the phone (or whatever the call to action is)? Do Ifeel good about myself in deciding to engage you? Can Itrust that I'm making the right decision? What's mymotivation? Am I being motivated by fear, shame, or beingempowered to make a good choice? Am I so excited that I wantto tell all my friends?

Lots of questions need to be answered to deliver theemotional needs people have before they buy from you. Don'tleave these out.

Tip 3. ALWAYS INCLUDE THESE THREE KEY ELEMENTS IN YOUR MARKETING MESSAGES

Element 1: POWERFUL HEADLINE

This grabs their attention and lets the reader know what youcan do for them; the big benefit. Say what the biggestbenefit is up front. Make it about them. Use attractivewords that rock their boulder so they read more.

Element 2: COMPELLING CALL TO ACTION

Your desired result is to motivate your ideal client to actimmediately to engage you directly or indirectly andgenerate a prospect by getting their contact information.What do you want people to do? E-mail, phone, what? Whatwill compel them to take action?

Element 3: OFFER THEM MULTIPLE CONTACT METHODS

Offer a choice between e-mail, telephone, web site, etc, soyour prospect can choose what is most comfortable to them.I have visited many web sites where I had to search for fiveminutes to find their contact information. I am apersistent person and I know that most others who have leftafter 30 seconds. Can visitors to your web site find yourcontact information in 30 seconds? Put the information onevery page.

Tip 4. CREATE A SYSTEM

Design a marketing system that you can implement repeatedly.Make it as automatic as possible. Ask the most valuableseries of questions to yourself, "And then what do you wantthem to do? And then what? And then what? Etc."If they visit your web site ask, "And then what?" If theysubscribe to your ezine ask, "And then what?" And then whenthey do that, ask "And then what?" Keep challengingyourself to come up with the answers.

No, I didn't say it was going to be easy. When I work withclients, sometimes it takes months to create a system. Mostpeople give up to easily. Once you have it set up and itruns automatically, you will understand.

Don't waste your time, effort, and money with one-shot dealsor fragmented marketing activities. Leverage everything.If you use writing for publicity, don't just write anarticle once for your ezine, ask "And now what?" Send thearticle to past clients with a "just in case you didn't seethis yet."

Tip 5: FOLLOW UP, FOLLOW UP, AND FOLLOW UP AGAIN

Following up is one of the biggest areas independentprofessional fail to do. Set up a follow up system that isa part of your overall marketing system. Make it asautomatic as possible -- so that I can run while you are onvacation.

If you want to always have that "personal touch" witheveryone, hire a virtual assistant as part of your system.Always have the next step planned and let your prospectsknow of future opportunities to engage you.

Working with many independent professionals this past year,including coaches, insurance agents, real estate agents,engineers, too many medical practices to mention, I foundthey never asked the challenging question I mentionedearlier, "And then what? And then what?" Etc. They didspeaking engagements and there was only one "And then what?"and they stopped there.

Remember people are at different levels and need to buildtrust with you. Give them the ladder and the rungs to dothat and they will.

Always contact your leads within 24 hours of receiving them.Contacting them a week or two later, they people have movedon. If they had an issue they need to solve that you had asolution for they had most likely already found someone andby-passed you.

Always follow up by e-mail, telephone, etc, multiple times.Yes, it’s true, 80% of sales are made after five or morecontacts.

These elements will make all the difference in the worldbetween struggling to get clients and becoming wildlysuccessfully in marketing your services. They are worthinvesting your best efforts and getting the support you needto implement them effectively.