Marketing is like Gardening

If you can grow a plant, you can do your own marketing.

As I tend the heat-wilted flowers in my garden, I am reminded that marketing skills are so similar:

1. If you plant an idea, or a seed, then something will grow once it's tended. If we don't nurture our garden (or business) and keep it watered, keep developing or promoting our services then no one can find us and we'll just wilt. Sometimes it's as easy as a few blogs or networking meetings to 'water' your business and keep your clientele fruitful.

2. Something might sprout that you least expect. I've had a california poppy sprout when I planted basil seeds. I'd not known that there had already been poppy seeds latent in the earth near the basil. Same as launching a business with one service and later realizing clients really need something that was only a 'seed' of the original idea.

For example, I've a client (www.herecomestheguide.com) who writes a book & website about great locations (and certified professionals) for weddings and events. While we originally thought the book was the 'way', it turns out our add-on idea (our latent seeds) offering virtual tours was at least as beneficial to clients as our amazing write-ups.

3. Weed out what doesn't work. My friend, Beth, says a 'weed is just a plant out of place'. But if you've some task, client or even computer program that's not working properly, it's time to weed it out so your business has the room to flourish-exactly like a garden.

I found I'd been resisting getting quickbooks set up to track my financials for years & years, preferring my old excel spreadsheet system. Perhaps I was in denial about finances in my early years, fearing if my business wasn't profitable enough, worried I'd have to get a full time job, yikes. But once I weeded my fear and 'planted' quickbooks, I was able to see a picture of my business that allowed me to understand what to promote and which things were simply taking too much time for too little profit, ahhh knowledge is bliss. Removing old weeds allowed for new growth.

Sell Your Difference, Stand Out

It takes years to deeply gain insight into our differences, our positioning & our branding in business. There are actual stages a business undergoes in this evolution.

1. We launch our company and want to be everything for everyone. We believe we know how to do just about everything in our realm of business.

2. We learn that we can never know it all. We start to hone in our product specialties or services focussing on a few we do really well.

3. After some time, we realize we're much better at one aspect of our business than our competitors, so we focus on selling that. It's at this point we'll start hearing how much better ours is than our competitors. That's when we start finding clients who are a great fit for us, so we get to do more of what we like, less of what we don't. And not so surprisingly, we become more profitable at this stage.

So, how can we get to this point sooner? I believe knowledge is bliss. If we know what our competitors are really not great at doing, perhaps we can partner to help them on those items. In fact, that work for partner competitors can account for 60% of new business for your company. I know because I've done it.

Or perhaps we learn to sell our strengths and position our companies at being really solid in those strengths rather than promoting the same thing all our competitors do. For example, my marketing agency also delivers one-on-one coaching besides the teams to handle creating all promotions. This coaching is how we're different. But it took me ten years to really realize that and start to promote it. Shoemaker's kids, I guess.

I find most companies don't even believe they have competitors. What's up with that? Denial or just a lack of knowledge?

I think these steps will help simplify it: http://www.allisonbliss.com/newsletter/archives/know-thy-competition.html

In my unquenchable thirst for knowledge, I'm always seeking other opinions or techniques.

Getting Results in our Own Time

I've learned this same lesson at least a thousand times.

Good marketing is really allowing clients to get results in their own time, not in mine. When we force it, the result gets muddy.

While I feel it's my job to help clients speed toward results, in fact they have lots of obstacles to balance, new skills to learn while ramping up their marketing muscles and time management magic. I know because I've done it. Several times, in fact. I worked full time in television as a stage manager while working as a marketing director for a film lighting company, because I owned the company with my partners.

One client wrote me today about the hurdle of having two careers--the one I am helping him with and the one he does to pay bills in order to someday retire the old career. He was concerned about splitting his time for radio interviews and his unreliable schedule at his other career.

Fearing he'd not be able to even begin his publicity because he'd have too many radio hosts demanding his time right away for interviews, he wrote me:

"This is the only thing that gets in my way, emotionally. If all I had to do was market my [rear end] off with no concern or thought about another job I would fly through this marketing stuff. Emotionally, I simply get caught up in the juggling act of two careers when it’s time to start promoting something."

I thought him so wise to realize it was emotional--the fear and confusion of juggling both jobs rather than his marketing ability (since he has my help, after all). Once I reminded him the PR groundwork would take some ramp up time he could do on his own schedule, it was so simple to begin. No overwhelm, no fear, in control of one's own time management. ahhhh. It's just all about the knowledge, the perspective. Once you know what to do, you can relax.

After all, knowledge is bliss.

In my unquenchable thirst for knowledge, I'm trying to learn how to shake loose these patterns without doing actual 'marketing therapy' like a shrink, but using it to speed past issues for easier results.

Or maybe things just happen in their own time. My favorite example of that is the 15 [seemingly simplistic but really salient] point summary at this blog: http://civpro.blogs.com/civil_procedure/2005/12/15_things_13_th.html

Marketing Issues That Reduce Earning Potential

Having started my career as a musician, then an actor, director & stage manager, it took a debilitating car accident to get me into marketing. I'd always managed businesses during school so thought I'd finally use what I learned to help worthy companies get more business.

It's funny how we get pulled to solve our own issues in life. My issue was essentially disrespecting the bosses I had at the many jobs where I worked. I always felt I could do it better. (honestly, I think that is common to most of us entrepreneurs). To survive, I was forced to learn self promotion & clarity--both of which I resisted as hard as I could. I had to overcome never having enough time to do what I wanted (yes, time management is a marketing issue) and learn some new beliefs so that I could increase my earnings.

I didn't know how I specifically helped people, just that I did. It was that lack of clarity that held me back for years--just as I find with my current clients. And I soon learned that every business owner I helped had marketing 'issues' to overcome before we could reach their true earning potential.

For example, common issues are the fear of rejection in sales, the fear of overwhelm in outreach, the lack of experience enabling one to hone products (or services) to generate clarity in what they're promoting, or believing that marketing is despicable (which I used to until I learned better) rather than a tool to allow one to find those who need what we offer.

I've explored this in many articles on my website and found a method that resonated with me to dispel my hatred of marketing: http://www.allisonbliss.com/marketing-as-a-spiritual-practice.htm

While it doesn't work for everyone, it just might change one's perspective enough to bust out of those self-sabotaging beliefs that prevent our full earning potential. And the simple truth is that it's so unbelievably easy for a marketing coach to help others with their issues while ignoring one's own issues. I should know--I'm a master at waiting til the absolute last possible minute to ask for help. Like most of us entrepreneurs I feel I should be able to solve these problems for myself. WRONG.

In my unquenchable thirst for knowledge, I'd like to know what other issues marketing coaches are on a quest to solve.

How to Write a Company Profile

Many entrepreneurs find that when they're first ramping up their company, it's so difficult to write a company profile. They're not sure what to say or how to say it so people will understand their value, so the media has proper information, or so their company shows the credibility required for funding.

In fact, I think it's quite difficult to write a profile until you have a pretty clear idea of what your company offers, which takes time to sort out. Many of the students I teach try to write a profile before they've actually set pricing for their services, or figured out who their real market will be.

It's a catch 22 situation: you need a company profile for potential clients to find you, but until you've tried out your offerings on lots of clients, you haven 't really honed your products (or services) to be able to clearly describe who you are and what you offer. And hiring a writer can cost upwards of $1000.

That's why I've outlined steps to writing a profile in this article: http://www.allisonbliss.com/newsletter/archives/how-to-write-company-profile.htm

I'd like to know the resources people are using to help them since my thirst for knowledge is unquenchable. Ideas welcome!

Biggest Entrepreneurial Asset: Marketing Coach

What is it that an entrepreneur needs help with the most once their service or product is developed? I've found that it's marketing--getting their baby out the door.

It took me 10 years of helping business owners start up and grow their businesses, before I realized what they truly, desperately needed was an ongoing marketing coach to guide them through huge changes.

With a 50% failure rate, I'm hoping more entrepreneurs will succeed knowing how to find a marketing coach in this article on sideroad's expert interviews:

http://www.sideroad.com/2007/08/what-is-marketing-coach.html.