Last week, I was speaking to a group of entrepreneurs on the topic of evergreen lead generation. I was sharing my process for creating content for my business, and how I keep myself on schedule with my marketing activities. This, surprisingly, was a topic of great interest, as most people in the audience admitted to focusing on lead generation only sporadically.
They also admitted to keeping track of their metrics even less.
At one point in my talk, I asked, with full and open heart, this question: “If you don’t have enough clients, and you aren’t finding time to do the marketing that would bring you clients, where the heck are you spending your time?”
And, even though this was, perhaps, a bit pointed, I really wanted to know.
I get it- sometimes the discipline of marketing escapes us. Sometimes we don’t know what to do first, or we aren’t sure that what we’re doing is effective anyway.
However- if you need to make money in your business- you need to market.
There is no dearth or lack of marketing advice and wisdom- you can market your business in all kinds of ways- and no one way is inherently better than any other.
You can become an expert at Facebook, or LinkedIn, or at blogging, or email marketing, or speaking – or all of the above- or even of something else entirely.
The most important part, though, is that you take regular, and consistent action towards the business you want.
It doesn’t matter, as much, what you do, as long as you select some things and complete them consistently.
Those who are disciplined and dedicated to their marketing are the ones who make the most money.
As I talk about in my book, it’s important to select marketing avenues that you will actually complete, and then to make completing these a core focus of your work, especially when you don’t have as many clients or opportunities as you would like.
It’s too easy to spend our time in learning new technology, hanging out in social media, or filling our days with other kinds of chores and activities which are not directly related to profitability.
However, the problem with this- as you may know- is that none of this brings in money, and so none of this pays the bills.
The constant stress of not-enough-money need not be a given in our businesses.
One of the best ways to reduce the cycles of business feast and business famine is by setting up a marketing plan and working it consistently.
Then you will have a really good sense of where they heck you’re spending your time.
