By Michael Port, Guest Blogger
Let me tell you something: you’re a GREAT marketer.
Now, admittedly, I might not know you personally, but if you’re a student of this stuff, then you already know what marketing is, and how you’re supposed to do it.
You’re already doing a lot of it.
•You post regular social media updates that are designed to engage and attract people to find out more about you.
•You host webinars, and you make videos.
•You email your subscribers.
•You keep in touch with your friends and clients and past clients by dropping them personalized notes.
•You make an effort to bring new people into your network by going to local events and asking for referrals.
•You can speak with authority about what you know and you’re a compelling and humorous speaker.
•Your website is expensive and responsive and “on-brand.”
In short? You know your marketing.
But you’re not quite getting the results you’d like or deserve.
For some reason, people don’t pick up the phone every time you say “call me” and your calendar for sales appointments is looking a bit sparse.
If you listen to traditional wisdom on fixing this type of issue, you’ll hear two things:
1. That you need to get in front of more people. You need more eyeballs on your business, more traffic to your site.
2. That you need to improve your conversion rate.
(Your conversion rate is the percentage of visitors that become leads, or leads that become clients.)
And both of those are true. But there’s one single thing that you can do to immediately and drastically improve both of those things in one fell swoop. And it’s not what you might think.
The single thing that you can do is build a rock-solid and immovable foundation for your business.
Because businesses, like buildings, can only soar if their foundation is deep and firm.
You wouldn’t think about building a house without hiring an architect and a contractor to put a foundation down first, so why would you do the same with your business?
Doing effective marketing without a solid foundation is like building a house on quicksand: it’s impossible.
So what does this foundation look like? And how can it help increase your conversion rates and make your marketing soar?
It looks like this:
1. A Red Velvet Rope Policy
This is a filtration system that only allows the very best people into your business. Don’t work with just anybody. They’ll lower the tone, scratch the furniture and leave you exhausted. You won’t be able to do your best work.
Hand pick your clients and you’ll magnetically attract more of your best people.
2. A clearly defined target market
If you don’t know WHO your marketing is for, WHAT they need and want, HOW (specifically) you give it to them and WHAT they get out of it, then you won’t communicate this in your marketing messages.
I’m not being unkind when I say that one of the two big reasons your marketing isn’t converting like you want it to, is because it’s met with a big “so what?” from the people you’re targeting.
3. A strong personal brand identity
The second big reason that your marketing isn’t converting is because you’re not attractive enough.
Now that doesn’t mean that you have to get your teeth fixed and your suit pressed (although that can certainly help!) But it does mean that you have to crystal clear about what you stand for and why.
When you have a strong personal brand identity, you get to define how you’re known in the world. The right people will then gravitate towards you. Your conversion rate will increase.
4. You’ve got to be able to talk about what you do
But more than that, you’ve got to be able to talk about what you do in a concise and understandable way. You don’t have the luxury of being boring or confusing or “samey” if you want your marketing to convert into dollars.
When you fix your foundation, your marketing will convert better – almost immediately. You’ll find that more people are naturally attracted to who you are and what you have to offer the world.
So stop marketing right now. Focus on your foundation. Then you’ll fly.
