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.
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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.
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