When you think of marketing, what usually comes to mind?
Most of us think of spreading the word about our coaching.
We think of the activities we do—networking, speaking, writing articles, etc.
But why is it so often that we do all of these things–attend a networking event, do a presentation, send out a few emails—but we don’t get as much response as we’d like?
It likely is because your marketing is built on sand.
Just getting out there and doing marketing activities without having an overarching strategy is like building a house on sand. It might work ok for a while, but the structure will probably be shaky, and you just kind of “pray and wait.”
Without having “marketing bedrock” holding up all of your marketing activities, they won’t make the impact you want, won’t be very memorable, and won’t consistently get the attention and response you want
Here’s a scenario that will show you how to get more attention
Let’s say you’re a life coach. What do you say when people ask you what you do?
It’s probably something like this, “I’m a life coach and I help people grow and achieve their goals.”
Or maybe sometimes you say, “I’m coach people to help them learn how to achieve their faster” or wax artsy and say, “I help people paint a vision of their future and then work to achieve their dreams.”
What do all these responses have in common?
None of them are memorable. They’re ethereal. They have no foundation. And worse yet, they really don’t do much for our bottom line.
You need to dig a little deeper to hit bedrock.
To find it, you need to ask yourself questions like:
1. Who are your ideal clients? Who are the ones you really love to work with, that are fun, and you can see yourself making good money with?
2. What’s the big problem your clients are struggling with? What’s keeping them up at night? What’s driving them bananas?
3.What do you ultimately produce for your clients? What do they really get from working with you? What’s the ultimate end-goal that all of your ideal clients want?
Back to our life coach scenario. As you explore these questions, the following picture surfaces:
- You primarily coach women in mid-life.
- The women you coach are typically struggling with feeling discontented and unhappy.
- You improve fulfillment in the areas of contentment, happiness, and self-worth.
- You realize that in nearly every case, your clients have become content, happy, and fulfilled in all aspects of their life within 6-months.
Tie all that together and you get something powerful…
Ok, now you have something to build your marketing activities on. So you come up with the following marketing mantra:
“I help women in mid-life who are struggling feeling discontented and disconnected, become content, happy and fulfilled with life in 6 months or less.”
Boom! You’ve hit bedrock. This has all of the elements of a powerful marketing mantra: a clear target, a common problem, and clear results in a time frame.
But even more than that, it makes a promise.
…that you can use in all your marketing
Now that your marketing has a foundation, you can work this into every marketing activity you do. You are able to communicate your message with a clarity and impact that you couldn’t before:
- When you’re networking and someone asks you what you do, you use this as your answer.
- You write an article and give it away on your website on “The Six Secrets of Being Content, Happy and Fulfilled Regardless of Your Circumstances.”
- You give a 6-series teleclass on “The Way to Become Fulfilled, Happy and Content No Matter What, in 6 Months or Less.”
- You start the homepage of your website with, “Women in mid-life: Are you struggling with feeling discontented, disconnected, and generally not worth much?” and then “This website can help you find contentment.”
- You write a bi-weekly eZine called “Get Fulfillment” which focuses on practical tips and techniques.
- When someone wants to know more about how you work with clients, you tell them a real success story about how one of your clients went from feeling unhappy and discontented to feeling completely fulfilled in 4 months.
Oh, does that seem a bit repetitive? Not to women in your target market.
It has a theme that repeats itself. And that’s exactly why it works. It sticks to one core message that powerfully conveys what you do. It talks directly to your ideal clients over and over. It speaks to what they want, what they’re struggling with.
Now how does this picture stack up to the real you?
If you don’t have that bedrock to your marketing, a consistent marketing mantra that you communicate in every single marketing activity you do, you won’t see the results you could. You’ll be inconsistent, you won’t get much attention or response, and you won’t get as many clients as you could.
If you don’t have a marketing message like that, you’ll want to get on it.
Don’t try to market more, just market smarter by getting that bedrock firmly installed in your marketing. You’ll soon see that you’ll get much more attention, response and excitement from people you’d love to turn into clients.
Mary Henderson helps self-employed coaches attract more clients and market themselves more easily. Her site is a great resource for any self-employed coach. Download Mary’s free “5 Keys to Attracting High-End Coaching Clients” guide right now at http://www.henderson-marketing.com
