How do you feel about marketing? Do you love it? Do you hate it? Are you open to it, but have no idea where to start?
Maybe you were taught that cold-calling and pounding the pavement were only ways to get new gigs. Or perhaps you see others successfully using tools such as social media, but feel intimidated by what you don’t know. You may already be marketing yourself, but want to build out your strategy. No matter where you fall on the spectrum, there’s always room to improve and grow. So I put together a 4-part series called The Creative Professionals Guide to Marketing. I’ll be sharing marketing tools and best practices that ANYONE can master and even enjoy (really!)
Before we jump in, let’s get back to basics. Why do you need a marketing strategy? Simply put, the more you market your business, the more clients you get. You can’t help it! Every time you share high-value content, attend a networking event with a great pitch, hold a workshop or speak at an event you build credibility, establish yourself as an expert and increase your exposure and reach. Suddenly you start making connections you would never have dreamed of and people from all over the country (or world!) are learning about you and getting in touch.
As great as that all sounds (and is), there is no silver bullet. You have to be clear and consistent in your messaging. You need to know whom you’re speaking to and what they struggle with or aspire to. Inevitably you will have to overcome fears about putting yourself out there in a bigger way, and let’s not pretend that developing high-value content doesn’t take a lot of time and energy. It does, but the rewards and results are SO worth it.
In part one of this series I’ll share the 8 key elements of a marketing strategy and over the course of the next three articles, I’ll break it down into the ‘why’ and the ‘how’. The most important thing to note is this: you don’t need to do them all at once. In fact, you don’t need to do some of them at all if they don’t work for you. If you get 2 or 3 of these down-pat, you’re going to be rocking your business.
Here are the 8 elements (as taught to me by client attraction expert, Fabienne Frederickson)
The only thing I’m going to ask you to do today is take inventory of your efforts. Write down what you’re doing, how successful it is and where the gaps are. For example, are you really great at networking, but feel out of your depth with social media? Are you great when you’re behind the computer, but turn to jelly at the prospect of talking to a room full of strangers? There are no right or wrong answers. Just data that will help you create a plan that works for YOU!
Tell me: what’s your greatest marketing challenge? I’d love to know! Hop on over to my Facebook page and leave a comment. I’ll be happy to work them into the upcoming posts and answer questions.
See you in a couple of weeks!
