marketing epiphany: signs

June 2, 2007 by Mary Wynne-Wynter 

I think more about marketing when the weather is good. I’m out more, I see and meet more people, and I find people a lot more curious and receptive when they’re not freezing their butts off and dealing with Boston/Cambridge snow and ice.

So a couple weeks ago I looked over all the marketing ideas and advice that I’d collected over the winter, most of it from the well-known marketing bloggers and gurus.

Marketing advice and tips included:

  • write an e-book and offer it for free
  • get a group together for a monthly idea-sharing workshop
  • put up a page(s) on a social networking site about things different from what’s on your existing web site(s) so that more people see you and you can maybe earn some tiny residual commission income
  • get into search engine advertising and optimization
  • do some public speaking to educate your target market about industry changes

I attempted all of it; none of it was for me. In fact, most of it made me totally miserable. Then I had the “generalist’s epiphany”. Why add more and more? I know what business I’m in. I work directly with clients. Sure, I’m a good enough writer to do an E-book and a good speaker and can do all the stuff on the above list..and then some. But why? Would I get a return on the time and effort expended (the “experts” always understate both, IMO) and the opportunity costs sunk? I don’t see it. But even if this stuff does work for marketing the solo professional service firm (psf), why do what everyone else is doing?

So I went against the marketing status quo, re-focused, got noticed, enjoyed it! And now, I have another “package” that I can offer clients. And get paid for it. I’ll leave the free eBooks to the marketing “experts”.

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