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Patience Is A Virtue in Marketing

patience is a virtue in marketing

It is highly important to realize that marketing takes time. Nothing happens overnight. It’s not just a question of one big ad here or there or one promoted Facebook post. People need to go through a certain process and you have to reach them a number of times before they’re going to be ready to buy from you. If you want to know more about that marketing process, check out this blog post here.

According to sales guru Brian Tracy it takes five sales calls before the customer is ready to buy. Those are sales calls and a very expensive way to sell. You have an expensive employee going there and they’re spending time with the customer at their office. They’re in the same room, they’re speaking to them face to face for at least a few minutes.

So if it takes five of those sales call for the customer to buy, you can imagine how much more often you reach your prospects through marketing methods before they’re ready to buy. (You may think that makes marketing less effective, but trust me, it doesn’t. Marketing can be scaled much more affordably than sales calls ;)

I’m going share one of my favourite marketing quotes with you to illustrate this point.

This one is from Thomas Smith:

  • The first time a man looks at an advertisement, he does not see it.
  • The second time, he does not notice it.
  • The third time, he is conscious of its existence.
  • The fourth time, he faintly remembers having seen it before.
  • The fifth time, he reads it.
  • The sixth time, he turns up his nose at it.
  • The seventh time, he reads it through and says “Oh brother!”
  • The eight time, he says “Here’s that confounded thing again!”
  • The ninth time, he wonders if it amounts to anything.
  • The tenth time, he asks his neighbor if he has tried it.
  • The eleventh time, he wonders how the advertiser makes it pay.
  • The twelfth time, he thinks it must be a good thing.
  • The thirteenth time, he thinks perhaps it might be worth something.
  • The fourteenth time, he remembers wanting such thing a long time.
  • The fifteenth time, he is tantalized because he cannot afford to buy it.
  • The sixteenth time, he thinks he will buy it someday.
  • The seventeenth time, he makes a memorandum to buy it.
  • The eighteenth time, he swears at his poverty.
  • The nineteenth time, he counts his money carefully.
  • The twentieth time he sees the ad, he buys what it is offering.

This underpins what I have been saying about “repeat, repeat, repeat, repeat, repeat”. People have to see you a number of times before they’re ready to buy. What is even more interesting is that Thomas Smith wrote this in 1885!!! So this is not new.

Marketing really does take time. Thomas Smith realised this ages and ages ago!

You need to repeat yourself, you need to be consistent and you need to be talking about the same things to start filtering through and owning that place in the prospects mind.

Are you repeating yourself enough – or have you perhaps given up too early? ;)

Customer Relationship Nurturing With Online Groups

customer relationship nurturing with online groups

We have all heard that it is easier to keep your current customers than to get new ones. And this is very true. However, we tend to forget this and neglect the customers we already have, whilst we offer the world to new customers and give them all our attention.

For a while now I have been thinking how best to remedy this in my business and find ways to better maintain my relationship with my “older” customers. So I want to share with you what I am getting up to, and perhaps this is something that you could use in your business.

I buy a lot of online courses. I have bought courses on Facebook marketing, LinkedIn marketing, Pinterest marketing, email marketing, SEO etc. etc. I love this way of learning for so many reasons. I don’t need to be at a specific place at a specific time, I can always go over things again if I need to, and they provide easy step-by-step instructions. Very often these courses are accompanied by closed, members-only, Facebook groups where participants can interact, ask and answer, discuss and just in general help and support each other. The instructor is also there regularly to answer questions and take part. This means that you not only have constant access to the materials but you always have someone you can look to for help. Of course you can’t just take, take, take, you must also give in the form of helping others and answering questions ;)

Another thing that a group like this does for the instructor of the program is that they can keep in touch with their customers and thereby continue to build the relationship with them.

I had been thinking for a long time about this as a way to keep in touch with my customers before I did it. So I decided to invite my current and “old” clients, that have gone through my training program, to join. I wanted to build an active and lively group of great people that want to master marketing for their business, support each other and share advice and ideas. Something much greater than I can provide on my own. People have really liked the idea and most of my clients have joined. This has been just great. There are useful and lively discussions and exchange of information, and I myself am do my very best to make it so by checking in regularly, answering questions and taking part.

How could you use something like this to continue building your relationship with your customers? Here are a few ideas. [Read more…]

Can You Say No?

can you say no

Most of us are good people. Most of us would be happy to do things for other people and that is, of course, a very good thing in many ways. However, when it comes to your business, it can be a deadly sin. What?! I’ll tell you why.

What are you good at? Why? Usually you are good at what you enjoy doing, and enjoy doing what you are good at. The two go together – it’s a kind of a chicken and egg thing. Then you set up a business to do what you are good at. And it is not easy. There are a lot of things to think about and it takes a lot of time to build a business. You are bound to be very conscious of the fact that you need to have an income. This won’t really work if you don’t make any money. So you start to sidestep. The graphic designer who wants to specialise in brand identity does a few pamphlets for a low cost store. The dress maker who wants to do evening dresses takes on a few jobs of fixing suites. The marketing director who loves to work on strategy and branding concedes to assisting with some Facebook marketing and AdWords campaigns.

And what happens? [Read more…]