Ending Your Struggle With Marketing2 min read
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Why I’m writing my newsletter as poetry, I have no idea. (See last week’s here) But this idea popped into my head when I woke up this morning and I went with it! It points to something that’s both obvious and easy to miss.
My clients often work with me because
They feel marketing is a struggle.
And they want to learn how to make it easier.
If you learn what to do that works,
And then implement what you learn,
You’ll attract more clients.
But, if only it were as simple as that!
What happens is that marketing gets difficult.
It takes time, energy, and attention.
And it usually doesn’t work on the first attempt.
Marketing is like going fishing all-day
And coming home with no fish.
And that can be really discouraging.
As I said last week, if you keep at it, you’ll succeed.
You’ll get better, slowly but surely,
And you’ll learn from your mistakes.
You’ll learn what gets attention and what doesn’t.
You’ll learn what engages people or bores them.
You’ll learn how to make a persuasive case.
But when you don’t get attention,
When you fail to engage people or
They are not persuaded by the case you make
You often take it personally.
You feel that your services are not good enough,
That prospective clients don’t like you,
That what you are offering has no value.
And then a conversation starts in your head that
Takes you to a place that is worthless.
This conversation undermines and doubts you.
It berates and blames you.
Or it blames others and you become a victim.
When this happens, effectiveness ends.
Any possibility for creativity and resourcefulness ends.
And your marketing efforts stop dead in their tracks.
But what really stops you is arrogance –
The arrogance that you should be perfect –
The arrogance that people should like and accept you.
Why on earth should they?
Why should people care about you, listen to you?
Why should they buy your professional services?
Your prospective clients owe you nothing.
They are only interested in how you can help them,
Solve their problems, and help them achieve results.
So, when you don’t get their attention,
When they don’t respond to your messages
It’s not personal at all.
All it means is that you failed to say
Something relevant to them.
You failed to put the right bait on the hook!
Forget about building your self-esteem.
Forget about thinking positive thoughts.
Forget about being a helpless victim.
Instead, work to understand what they really need.
Work to understand their pains and struggles.
Work to communicate clearly, simply, and honestly
Exactly how you can help them.
It’s not about YOU.
It’s all about THEM.
And when you truly get this
The struggle to market yourself diminishes greatly.
Cheers, Robert
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