Quick Fix Marketing - It's a Good Thing
The term "quick fix" has come to have negative connotations but
this bad rep is partially undeserved. It's true that quick fixes
that aren't thought through or don't have solid "craftsmanship"
behind them can actually turn out to be more costly in the long
run. However, very often when people tell you that things will
be long and arduous, they may be more interested in getting your
money that in giving you what you need.
The fact is that some things take a long time and some things
don't. Marketing, despite everyone's attempt to convince you to
the contrary, is not rocket science. There are a few "quick
fixes" you can use to start seeing exponentially greater
results. In this article, you'll learn about the top ways to
impact your bottom line with "quick fix marketing."
Quick Fix # 1
Help me get what you do!
As your prospect, I have a lot of things vying for my attention.
Besides the laundry and overflowing pot on the stove, I've got
reality show commercials, ads about how fat I am and articles in
my new news magazine about the end of life as we know it on
Earth. I'm busy. I'm not going to spend a lot of my time
figuring out your nuances... at least not at first.
When I tell clients to get very clear about who they work with,
what they sell and have this product/service helps people and to
do it fast and pithy, a few raise the objection that they don't
want to "dumb things down."
An important distinction needs to be made here. There are
several levels at which you'll interface with your prospects.
"Fast and pithy" will mark your first level interaction, the
"hook," the moment when you catch their eye. After that you can
move on to the levels of impressing them with your expertise,
the importance of your programs, etc. At this point, remember
they'll be asking themselves this question, "How is this going
to help me?"
Read more about how you can get big results in a short time in
my Success Map Mentor Session page.
Quick Fix # 2 Figure out where your prospects are congregating.
Hunting down prospects one by one is exhausting and not the best
use of your time. So where are they hanging out in droves? This
is where you figure out whether you've defined your market
narrowly enough. If you can't figure out what association,
conferences, publications, online newsletters, discussion groups
and other points of convergence your prospects are using, your
market is not specifically targeted enough. It's not that you
can't help lots of people - you can - but each prospect needs to
see herself in what you write or say. So it's important to
narrow the field of who you work with for clarity's sake (you
can always expand laterally later).
Quick Fix # 3
Capture a high percentage of website visitors.
One of the biggest wastes of time and effort is sending
prospects to a site that doesn't capture them as mailing list
subscribers. Most people will not buy on a first visit to a
website, particularly if all you're selling is services
(products may sometimes be bought on a first time visit). Once
they visit it and leave, chances are HIGH that you'll never
"see" them again. If you've gone to the trouble of having them
make their way to your site, you'd better engineer your site in
a way that captures as many of them as possible as subscribers
to some kind of list. How? Offer them great goodies for signing
on and an e-zine (or e-course) that is carefully targeted to
them and their needs. For concrete, real-world examples of how
to make this work on your site, get my Websites That Work report
here
Why do you want to "capture" people as e-zine subscribers?
Putting out a quality e-zine is one of the best marketing
techniques you can employ. People get to trust you, understand
what you do, pass around your information to others and are much
more likely to buy from you once they know you.
So concentrate not on building web traffic alone but on making
sure that a high percentage of your web traffic gives you
permission to contact them again.
Quick Fix # 4
Do what you're good at doing.
So many bright, talented, smart solo-preneurs are stuck in "I'm
working all the time but I'm not seeing results" limbo. When
questioned more closely, you'll find that about 70% of what
they're doing either a) they're not good at it or b) it depletes
them. This 70% is taken up by things like web design, formatting
documents into pdfs, making cold calls, figuring out scheduling,
writing (bad) sales copy, etc.
What are you really good at? If you're like most solo
professionals, you're good at the "art" of what you do -
accounting for accountants, coaching for coaches,
"chiropracting" for chiropractors. The business and
administrative stuff probably isn't your strength. So while of
course you're the one responsible for making sure it gets
handled, that doesn't mean YOU have to handle it.
This is a business you're running. If you decided you were going
to build a factory that builds widgets and you're a brilliant
widget designer, you don't say, "Hmm, I know my strength is
widget design, but we need some people down on the manufacturing
floor so I'm going to put on a hardhat and work on the assembly
line for a few hours." No! The widgets need to get built, but
you hire people to do that. You stay in the widget design area,
dreaming up fabulous new ideas.
Your first order of business is seeing you ARE in business.
While you're stuck in the rut of "I need to do everything
myself" you can't grow, can't be a visionary, can't get out
there and be the champion for what you do. One of the strongest
things you can do for your marketing is to not deplete yourself
with the stuff you're not good at but instead do what you ARE
good at - speak to people about your business, meet influential
leaders, go on speaking engagements, write, etc.
There are "quick fixes" in life, and especially in marketing.
Spend your time on what will leverage your skills and give you
the most return, and you'll see greater results more quickly.