The More Clients Blog

Synergy Marketing

By Robert Middleton - Action Plan Marketing

For Independent Professionals, there are at least five different types of marketing. Understanding and applying all five of these approaches to marketing can be much more effective than applying just one or two.

Using them all creates marketing Synergy where the whole is more powerful that the separate parts.

1. Passive Marketing

A website may be the most powerful passive marketing strategy ever. It just sits there, 24/7 waiting for visitors to drop by.

The key to this marketing strategy is to develop a high-quality, content-rich website that engages your visitors and enables you to integrate your site with the other types of marketing that I'll mention below.

It's important to realize, however, that most people will visit your website for a just few seconds and then click off to go somewhere else, never to return. And that's a little too passive!

2. Visibility Marketing

Networking and social media are the primary visibility marketing vehicles used by Independent Professionals. Getting seen, being recognized and building trust this way is an important strategy, but you need to tie it to other strategies to be effective.

The weakness with visibility marketing is that it rarely asks for action. Even in networking, most people exchange cards, but the follow-up tends to be pretty inconsistent.

And the flurry of Social Media will get some attention, but it's up to those who see you on Facebook or Twitter to check you out and follow-up. And that never happens enough.

3. Keep-in-Touch Marketing

The most effective keep-in-touch vehicle is an eZine or email newsletter (same thing really). This pushes your information out to an opt-in list of people who are familiar with you.

Of course, email is getting pervasive thee days. It's getting harder and harder to get people to open your emails and actually read what you've sent. But it still works; I've sent an eZine every week for the past 14 years and it still gets me new business.

One of the big keys to keep-in-touch marketing is to use your website to get your visitors to opt-in with their name and email so that you can build your list over time. The bigger your list, the more powerful your marketing.

4. Proactive Marketing

The very best proactive marketing strategy is giving presentations, which include live talks, teleclasses and webinars. As the most potent communication is voice-to-ear, this kind of marketing provides a stronger connection than written media.

But the first three types of marketing can also be proactive. The key is to include a call-to-action in every single marketing vehicle you use.

5. Direct Marketing

For Independent Professionals the best direct marketing vehicle is email, however this marketing is most subject to abuse. You may have signed up for an eZine, but if you start to get an email every single day (or more often) you will eventually start to tune out.

But used judiciously, direct email to your opt-in list is amazingly powerful. You can sign up people for teleclasses and webinars, and also direct them to sales pages on your website to buy various programs and products.

When you integrate all these types of marketing, you get visibility, credibility, word-of-mouth, responses to your marketing and ultimately more of your ideal clients.

Don't just rely on one marketing vehicle, it just won't get you the results you're looking for.

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The More Clients Bottom Line: Start with a great web site. Have an opt-in on your site for an eZine. Send out an eZine at least monthly. Build your social networks. Offer teleclasses and webinars. Send everyone to offers on your website where they can sign up for a taste of your services or actually buy a program or product.

How about video? Glad you asked. I put up a short video covering the material in this eZine that will demonstrate that even a short video can have more impact than the written word.

actionplan.com/mkt-synergy

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What mix of the various types of marketing do you use? Let us know on the More Clients Blog by clicking on the link below. 

Stream of Business Marketing

By Robert Middleton - Action Plan Marketing

I've said a zillion times that most marketing is random.

Most professionals don't have a step-by-step system for attracting clients, despite the fact that this is the only approach that works.

But an organized system can be very free-form in the way you connect with initial prospects. There are probably hundreds of ways to do this.

The name I've given this is "Stream of Business Marketing."

The relates to every connection you make in the stream of everyday business. You might meet someone at a networking event or connect with a couple sitting beside you at a restaurant. You may be having a conversation with an existing client, or you might get a message by email or through Facebook.

The thing all of these stream of business connections have is that every one of them have the potential to be a new client (or a new service to an existing client). The thing is, we don't take advantage of those connections. We might talk, exchange cards or emails, but most don't take the proactive step to move things forward.

In two conversations last week, with members of my Marketing Mastery Program, they told me perfect stream of business stories.

The first one happened when G.G. was at the doctor's office and stuck up a conversation with a fellow patient in the waiting room. One thing led to another and she followed up with the patient, ultimately got a meeting and turned that meeting into a new paying client.

The other one was similar. J.K. met someone at the business center of a hotel and asked him if he was attending the same conference as my client was. The answer was yes, and the conversation continued with learning more about each other. In a few minutes my client had a business card and an appointment the following week.

What's important to note is that both connections were tied together by affiliations. Fellow patients and conference attendees had something in common and struck up conversations that led to new business.

But even more importantly, both of my clients leveraged a random stream of business connection into something more because their "organized marketing system" kicked into action.

Here are the steps:

1. Strike up a conversation and spend more time listening than talking. When you find things in common, the conversation is engaging and you build trust.

2. Ask what they do before they ask you what you do. Be interested, not interesting. Find out about their business. And hold yourself back from talking about your business.

3. When they ask about your business, use a good Audio Logo with "a hook." For instance, "I work with big companies who are missing One Big Thing that's preventing them them from succeeding at an even higher level." The hook almost forces someone to ask what that one big thing is.

4. If they show some interest, continue the conversation, still avoiding talking too much about your services. If you do talk, the best thing is to tell a success story or two: "A recent client started to apply that one big thing and went from no profit to 20% profit in less than a year."

5. Now the big key: Don't just exchange cards and hope something will happen. No! Set it up so that you can follow up later. And the best way to do that is by offering an article: "I wrote an article about this called, 'The One Big Mistake Companies Make and Seven Ways They Can Correct It.' Can I send you a copy?"

6. Then follow up a few days later: "Hey, this is Robert, I sent you that article on the One Big Mistake. I wondered if there were some things in that article that you could relate to your business?" Then continue the conversation to see if this person is a qualified prospect or not. Then, finally...

7. Offer them a "Complimentary Big Thing Strategy Session" where you'll explore their current situation, their goals and vision and the challenges they are currently facing. And of course, you'll also let them know about your services that help companies with that One Big Thing.

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The More Clients Bottom Line: Turn random connections into meetings with qualified prospects by following this step-by-step strategy. To make this work, you need to be prepared with listening skills, an Audio Logo, an article, a call-to-action and a Strategy Session.

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What do you do (or fail to do) when you meet a prospective client in your everyday stream of business? Let us know on the More Clients Blog by clicking on the link below.

10 Foolproof Ways to Repel Clients

By Robert Middleton - Action Plan Marketing

I've just written a new article as the new giveaway for new subscribers to More Clients.

I thought you'd enjoy a copy.

This is how it opens...

Successful marketing is overrated. It means a lot of hard work and aggravation, and can eat into the precious time you’ve set aside for reality TV and watering the plants. What to do?

Fortunately, most self-employed professionals are already pretty good at repelling clients. Call it a gift. But why not get even better? The ten time-tested strategies in this article are designed to drive away prospective clients in droves.

The good news is that most of the strategies are fun and easy to implement; they take virtually no effort on your part. The key is to keep avoiding any kind of marketing activity at all. Before long, you’ll achieve the lofty aim of repelling all your prospects. Think of the freedom!

If you'd like to read the rest of the article, just click on this link to get the PDF version.

http://actionplan.com/free-article

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The More Clients Bottom Line: The bad news is that we are doing a lot of things to repel clients each and every day. So it's useful to know exactly what those things are. This might even give you some ideas about how you could attract more clients. I know it's a long-shot, but it could happen!!

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What do you do to repel clients? Let us know on the More Clients Blog at by clicking on the comments link below.

One Big Thing

By Robert Middleton - Action Plan Marketing

This past week I led my 3-day workshop for the current Marketing Mastery Program. Twenty attended and we all dove in head first to fathom the mysteries of marketing.

One thing I was sure to do was supply limited information.

Workshops are not a great way to disseminate information; you can do that much more efficiently through reading, listening to audios and watching videos.

When you get people together in a workshop, you want to build skills and confidence. And to do that takes both preparation and practice.

The preparation can be the hard part. After all, most people just want to show up for a workshop and "have it done to them." As a past associate of mine once said, "training and workshops are dip and pray. You dip them in the information and pray that some of it sticks."

But that won't do if you have people traveling from half way around the world. So preparation has always been a key part of every workshop I've given. I ask people to study information before the workshop. In the Mastery Program, I even look at and give feedback on their assignments before they show up.

That way, the practice in the workshop has a solid foundation.

The majority of the workshop was on practicing marketing conversations and selling conversations. I wanted to see all of the participants in action and give them feedback that would move them forward.

This went even better than I had imagined, because in addition to preparation and practice we added participation. I just didn't give feedback, everyone else did as well.

It was an amazing process seeing two people sitting at the front of the room delivering a portion of the selling process based on hours of study and preparation.

And the feedback was amazing. They were as committed as I was that each participant get maximum value - that they leave with a new understanding and deep insight into how to have powerful conversations that convert prospects into clients without manipulation.

Why am I tell you all this?

Well, at the beginning of the workshop we had a session called "Just One Thing."

What is the one thing you must do in your business to be successful? What is more important to focus on above everything else?

No, it's not good marketing and selling. As important as they are, they are not the One Big Thing.

The One Big Thing is an absolute commitment to your clients' success.

Everything else ranks a distant second. Doing all you possibly can to help your clients succeed should be a priority above every other business goal as an Independent Professional. The way you conduct your workshops or seminars is all part of this. You can't let yourself be satisfied with a fun workshop or a good workshop or even an information-packed workshop.

You need to give workshops that dramatically increase the chances of client success. And to do that takes preparation, practice and participation.

Don't settle for less.

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The More Clients Bottom Line: The success of your clients needs to be your ultimate business goal, the One Big Thing. And for this to happen you need to look at every single thing you do for your clients and ask how you can do it better and with more impact. If you succeed at this, your marketing will get results beyond what you currently can imagine.

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What do you do to ensure the success of your clients? Let us know on the More Clients Blog by clicking on the Comments link below.