All you need is a laptop and a phone line

I was speaking with the engineer who came to fix our heating system yesterday.

As I made him some coffee, he asked me what I did for a living, so I explained a little about what I do.  Afterwards, he said;
“So, you run an marketing business, with clients all over the world, and all you need is a laptop and a phone line? Wow!”

I then replied;
“So, you fix complex electronic control panels for advanced heating systems and all you need is a bag of tools? Wow!”

It takes more than tools

Thanks to the Internet, there are more free or inexpensive marketing tools than ever before.  Anyone can set up an account with; Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, WordPress or Blogspot etc.  However, very few small business owners or entrepreneurs achieve significant, tangible results from their investment in these tools.

Here’s why: They only take step 1, of what is a 2 step process.  Once you have mastered the mechanics of the tools, (how they work), there’s a second step required.

You need to study how to use the tools you have selected, in order to generate bankable results.  Very, very few people have a strategy for transferring; followers, fans, retweets, connections, readers etc, into paying clients or customers.  I include social media gurus here, most of whom seem to rely almost exclusively on speaking at conferences for their income – Few of whom, surely, want to spend so much time away from their home each year.

Sadly, there’s no generic piece of marketing advice I can give you, that will provide you with the correct marketing strategy for your business.  That’s because  your strategy needs to take many factors into account, which are specific to you and your business, in order for it to work.

For example, when a new client joins my marketing service, our entire first marketing session is a fact-finder, where I ask them dozens of questions about their business and what they want to achieve.  It takes hours!  However, armed with that fact-finder information, I can develop a powerful marketing strategy for them, based on taking them from where they are today, to where they want to be in 3/6/9 and 12-months.  Then, I work with them every week for a year to make that happen.  Between us, their competitors don’t stand a chance!

Here’s the bottom line: If the purpose of your marketing activity is to generate bankable results, (rather than followers, retweets and fans, etc), and this is not happening, you must change your strategy.  Don’t become one of the masses, who mistakes movement for progress.  Hard work alone is not enough.

Photo credit: Batega