Have you ever noticed that strategically accomplishing small things, one after the next, can quickly lead to much more than the sum of its parts? By taking baby step after baby step, you notice that soon you have a long trail of major successes and accomplishments behind you.
The same is true about raising your profile and increasing your visibility (generating buzz about your business). If you have the marketing basics down and are now working on elevating your profile in your industry, you will want take some take baby steps to include the following three strategies into your marketing mix.
Public Speaking
Public speaking is by arguably the best way to spread your message and attract your ideal clients and partners in a very big way. Why? Because you are able to be in front of a room full of your ideal clients listening to what you have to say and what you have to offer. If you currently have public speaking in your marketing mix, I urge you to look for bigger opportunities. For example, if you have been speaking at local chamber breakfasts and so forth, how about applying to be a breakout session leader at some annual association conferences? Or even keynote speaking?
Beyond the basics of using public speaking to spread your message, you also can use these opportunities to quickly build your list of followers by telling the audience how to get your free report on your web site. In addition, many venues will allow you to place marketing collateral at every seat promoting your business or an upcoming program. Other venues will allow you sell your items at the back of the room. There are many way to maximize your public speaking engagements, and adding these small steps will move you toward dramatically increasing your visibility.
Writing
Writing is also a great way to get in front of large groups of your ideal clients and partners. Writing articles for your ezine and repurposing them on your blog and for article marketing is a super-smart strategy to increase buzz about you and your business. If you are not a writer, consider other options like hiring a ghost writer to write articles for you or recording yourself speaking and having your recording transcribed for you to edit. Showcasing your expertise in written format make it easy to build a resource library of your tips, tools and techniques that you can reuse for special reports, white papers, ebooks, teleseminars and even topics for public speaking.
Partnership Marketing
Partnering with other businesses who serve your target market in a different way is the third way to really move your business forward quickly. I call this Partnership Marketing. It’s a win/win/win situation. By that, I mean that you have a win, your partner has a win and your clients have a win. Everyone gets something that they need. What could be better than that?
Partnership Marketing happens when you join forces with another business for a mutually beneficial outcome. The outcome can be to build your list, to sell a product or service or to increase awareness of your business. Because there is a mutually beneficial outcome, it is critical to very carefully select partners that share your target market and offer a complimentary service. Many businesses share the same kinds of customers and clients and can greatly benefit by combining their efforts into one synergistic move, versus each of them performing their marketing alone. For example, If you own a spa, you could become an affiliate for a local fitness facility. You both share the goal of helping others look and feel great.
If you are already doing these things, look at how to maximize each one. There is always room for improvement. Just because something is working well does not mean that there is not room to better our efforts. Keep doing, keep learning and keep implementing new baby steps that will lead you to bigger and better outcomes.
© 2009-2010 Meredith Liepelt, Rich Life Marketing
Meredith Liepelt, President of Rich Life Marketing, offers a free report called “101 Ways to Attract Ideal Clients, Build Your List and Raise Your Profile,” which can be downloaded immediately at www.RichLifeMarketing.com.
