“Eighty percent of success is just showing up.” –Woody Allen
If you’ve been running your own business for any length of time, you know this certain truth: You’ve gotta keep going…and going…and going to build the business you’ve dreamed about.
You may remember the NY Times bestseller by Tim Ferris: The Four-Hour Work Week, and I’ve got two copies on my shelf. What’s *very* interesting about the story behind that book (I’ve heard some of the inside scoop), is that Mr. Ferris worked VERY hard to promote that book.
It sure wasn’t four hours per week!
But what we SHOULD be doing is working our butts off to create systems which will eventually get us to that point. That’s true in my biz, and it’s true in yours.
And it’s true in life too, right? You just can’t stop.
My wife and I have faced our share of obstacles in our adoption journey. Almost 20 months of bureaucratic hell (when many others in Ethiopian adoption finish their process and bring home kids in under 9 months)…and last week, those kids became ours. Persistence paid off, and we’re going to travel there quite soon to bring them home.
(Incidentally, to celebrate, I’m going to do something special…I’ll let you know more next week.)
But this all brings me to the point of my Strategy Note for this week…it has to do with your marketing. Read on…
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Are You SURE Your Message is Getting Through?
The big digital TV switchover finally happened last week; I understand about 2.8 million homes were filled with clueless Americans left without a television signal – even though the government announced the change over 4 years ago, delaying the original date by months embarking on a massive $2 billion ad campaign warning everyone (it seems) about the impending change.
They even offered $40 coupons so that everyone could get the antennas needed to handle the new digital signals!
I suspect that there were millions more that didn’t know about the change, but were unaffected by it because they already were subscribers to cable or satellite TV.
Personally, I don’t really watch TV. I catch the news while I’m on the treadmill at the gym, or online. Even so, if I did happen to catch something, I couldn’t help but notice the seemingly constant messages scrolling across TV’s informing and warning us about the change.
This is a huge marketing lesson for you…
Never underestimate the enormously difficult task that you have of first, capturing your clients’ and prospects’ attention, and second, getting them to take action. I’ve read that each of us is exposed to well over 3,000 advertising or marketing messages every day.
Friends pay attention to friends and rarely pay attention to strangers. That’s why it’s so important that you start to develop a close relationship with your clients and prospects so that you can get your message across to them when you need to.
From a monthly print newsletter, to a weekly email, to your other marketing efforts (online and offline) … all of these are “tools” designed to keep YOU “top of mind” with your clients, so that when they have a need, you’ll be more than just another solution for them. They’ll either know you personally or feel that they know you.
You see, your clients and prospects are being bombarded with ‘noise’ all the time. Family issues, work issues, the economy, the war, their 401K’s have been plummeting, job losses, the credit crunch, the housing market, cell phones, text messages, email, TV, radio, mail, billboards, newspapers, voicemail, magazines, internet, fax, etc. – often battering them ALL AT THE SAME TIME!
How do you expect to cut through all that clutter in order to get your very important message across to them if you’re just sending them a letter, post card, or ad every once in a while? That kind of marketing just doesn’t work anymore.
This is a brand new economy with brand new challenges and the same old marketing stuff just ain’t going to cut it anymore. Time to roll up your sleeves and get to work revamping your entire marketing plan. (Paying attention to my messages every week is going to help a lot too!)