Easy steps to marketing yourself today!
Marketing is much more than simply advertising or posting something on your favorite social media site. Let’s take a look at five steps to get your marketing refreshed and ready.
- Fine tune your focus - Know what your strengths are and play to them. Identify the top two or three areas you can focus on and hone your craft. For example, be a financial advisor that specializes in educating your clients. Do not just be another financial advisor.
- Who are your customers? - Since you can’t be all things to all people, not everyone can be your customer. It’s important to identify the types of customers that want what you are selling, that are willing to pay for it, and focus on them.
- Competitive advantage - I’ve sat in a room full of eager insurance agents that are expressing how wonderful their agency is, dozens of times. They have years of experience, the best coverage for the price, and even a story of adequate customer service. And when it’s all said and done, I couldn’t tell you the difference from one to the next. It’s up to you to know what makes your business unique and find a way to express that regularly.
- Marketing message and promotion - Marketing is not doing a lot of different things once. After you have identified what you do and who your customer is, it is up to you to deliver your message. Have a marketing budget that consists of 2% - 8% of your monthly fixed expenses and spend it promoting a consistent message that clearly states who you are, the competitive advantage you offer, the types of customers you work with and the desired result. Email marketing, social media, and networking offer the slowest, but steadiest growth for most small businesses.
- Schedule your activities and track your progress - Schedule the activities and do not let anything interrupt it and then do it!
If you are looking for a good example, check out this real estate agent's video. She identifies who she is working with, what she does, what her advantage is, and promotes it regularly. And the cool thing with video and email is that it is easy to schedule and track.
