I think there are a couple of stumbling blocks many people face when they’re considering implementing a marketing program.

Most are psychological, but one is more technical in nature. Let’s see what we can do to make neither of them a big hurdle that prevents you from actually implementing the marketing system you know you need in 2011.

(Because, as you well know, relying just on word-of-mouth and referrals for all your new business invariably leads to the “feast or famine” business cycles that just kills your peace of mind-and eventually your business.)

OK first the psychological. It’s a litany of mental-road blocks that will probably sound familiar. Here are the big ones:

It’s too complicated.
I don’t have time.
It will cost too much money.
It might not work.

There are probably some others, but those are the Big 4.

Now on one hand these might not sound psychological at all. After all, isn’t “not having enough time” a real and practical issue?

Not really.

The truth of the matter is that we make time for the things that are truly important to us. “Not having enough time” is used as an excuse for not doing all sorts of things.

Nope, the reality is that all of these are psychologically based, and the biggest one is, “a marketing system just seems too complicated”.

That’s is a real issue, so lets uncomplicated it. Let’s set up a very simple marketing system for you.

Basically it boils down to 2 things. (But don’t worry I’ll fill in the obvious gaps as we go along.) However, by recognizing that there are really only two elements to this, it should make it a lot simpler to implement.

The two steps are:

Step 1: Get people into your circle of relationships by offering them something for free.

Step 2: Once they’ve opted-in and raised their hand, then send a series of messages that are design to build trust, credibility and convert them into paying clients.

That’s it. But let’s take this to the next level and talk about HOW we actually do this. Again, let’s keep it simple. (But don’t confuse simplicity with effectiveness. This works as an amazingly powerful client-attraction magnet if you actually implement it.)

Step #1: Focus on a very specific niche market. You may have multiple niches that you do business with and that’s fine, but for the purposes of a marketing campaign we want to be laser focused on just one target.

Step #1A: If you have multiple services you offer, you’ll want to select one for the purposes of this marketing campaign. Again, the way we attract new prospects is by having our marketing very focused.

It’s far better to have multiple marketing campaigns, each micro-targeted, than it is just one general marketing effort. I know if would be easier if we could just create one message and have it resonate with everyone, but unfortunately that’s not how the world works. If you go down that road, you’ll just be ignored by those who you are trying to attract.

Step #2: Answer the following questions: (This is what’s called the “mental heavy lifting” of marketing. Your campaign will live or die based on how you answer these questions.)

• What is the biggest problem this target market is facing?
• What are the consequences if they don’t address the problem?
• What are the other options they might consider to solve this problem?
• What is your solution?
• What results do you get? (You also want to collect some testimonials.)

Step #3: Write a short article incorporating the answers to these questions.

Step #4: Create a one-page micro-website that will be used to get prospects to request the article you’ve just written and opt-in to your circle of relationships. You can see some examples HERE

Step #5: Write the first 3-5 messages that will be sent out by your autoresponder to build trust, credibility and motivate your prospect to become an actual paying client. Don’t have an autoresponder? The one we use and recommend is HERE.

Step #6: Drive targeted groups of prospects to visit your site with online advertising, direct mail, email marketing, social media or any of the other dozens of ways you can use to generate traffic.

If you follow these six steps in order, there is absolutely no reason why you cannot have a very effective marketing system up and running, generating consistent streams of brand new clients for you, inside of 45 days.

***OK that takes care of the psychological issues. I think you’ll agree with me that these 6 steps are pretty straightforward and that pretty much anyone can do them.

But there is one potential hurdle.

SETTING UP THE WEBSITE

This becomes a really stumbling block for lots of people. Either you just don’t know how to set it up so you quit at this point (which is a huge shame)…or you hand it over to a website designer who decides that what you really need is some sort of Taj Mahal…or you use one of those do-it-yourself sites that make it sound easy, but aren’t really that simple when you’re trying to make the thing do what you want it to do.

Remember all you need is a simple one-page site to make this whole system work for you, and if you’d like, I’ll do it for you. Not very expensive, we’ll even do all the writing for you, set up the autoresponder…you fill out a questionnaire and we do the rest. Takes about 10-14 days. No muss. No fuss. You can go HERE and order it if you’d like.

But the point is…you really should have a marketing system in 2011. If for no other reason than the labor-intensive marketing you’re doing now will eventually pay off (which is good news) but that means that you’ll have no time to continue marketing (which is the bad news), which leads to the (you guessed it) feast or famine cycles.

Just remember the two basic elements and you’ll be fine.

Let me know if I can help.

Talk with you soon,
Mark
RELATED LINKS
**Let us create a micro-lead capture website for you
**This the autoresponder that lets you put your stay-in-touch on autopilot