Real Marketing – A Slow, Steady Process

Posted by Mitch Mitchell on Mar 26, 2012

Two weeks ago I started talking about this process of real marketing. I thought it was a good time to give a quick update as to how things are progressing, if they’re progressing. Actually, I tend to believe that any time one is trying to move forward it’s progress, even if one isn’t quite sure that’s what it is.

Over the past 2 weeks I’ve made a lot of phone calls. Some potential clients I’ve called twice. From my initiating things I haven’t landed anything yet, including anyone who even said “Yes, I’d like to talk more”. I did have a couple that asked me to send more information, and I’m taking that as a positive step. I also had one call that I thought would go better than it did, someone I’ve talked to before, and that one disappointed me so much that I not only didn’t make another call on that day, but was encouraged to write a post on my business blog about the disrespect independent consultants seem to get.

Now, what has happened is that I got a call from a hospital in another state asking me to submit a proposal to provide a couple of the services I do in health care, and that’s a good thing. You might not see these things as related but in my mind, when you start taking positive steps positive things start to come your way. Yes, I do believe in the laws of attraction.

Next, let’s talk about LinkedIn. I mentioned how I had reached out to some folks over there, and I’d only heard from one person. I can’t say that anymore. I did finally hear from another person who said that she’d been looking for someone who provides my services because she’s been asked in the past to find someone who does what I do, and that I’d be kept in her files the next time the request comes up. Good news once again.

See, the thing about real marketing is that you might not land the contract immediately, or make a sale then and there, but you start processes that, in some fashion, will get tings going and hopefully will work out in your favor later on. You may have to be patient, but eventually things will work out in some fashion.

Facebook? Lost cause for now, but that’s okay; I’ll keep plugging away at it. How are your marketing efforts going?

Tags: independent consulting, LinkedIn, Marketing, phone calls, real marketing

26 Comments »

Olawale Daniel:

Pretty well Mitchel,

Sharing your personal marketing experiences with us here have a lot of changes to make in our lives as a blogger and I really enjoyed it. Thanks for that

BTW, there is one HTML code that wasn’t closed very well in this post, kindly check it and fix the mistake. You can see it here: “I do believe in the laws of attraction.”

Mitch Mitchell Reply:
March 26th, 2012 at 9:32 PM

Well Olawale, at least you changed the name from Brian to Mitch, although you still spelled my name incorrectly. lol Thanks for telling me about the incorrect code. As for what I’m writing, it’s not always about blogging, and in this case it is about the true nature of making money sometimes and those extra things we might have to do to get it.

March 26th, 2012 | 9:12 PM

mdenise@brochures printing:

I agree – marketing is not all about convincing clients to purchase your products or services. Marketing has to build strong relationships with customers and business partners to sustain support for the business. It’s a continuous process involving consistent but varying strategies.

Mitch Mitchell Reply:
March 26th, 2012 at 10:50 PM

True, uhhh, Denise, Michelle, I’m not quite sure. lol

March 26th, 2012 | 9:42 PM

Carl:

Rarely marketing brings results immediately, it need a lot footslogging, phone calls, emails, etc. Not everything works equally and start up is always difficult as most of the times we can just guess what will works best, after that some of the marketing strategies may even drop. Well I also believe in law of attraction and when I apply that, I feel in my waters as I know that I am the best expert, who looks good and I can talk hours without stopping.

Mitch Mitchell Reply:
March 26th, 2012 at 10:51 PM

Good stuff Carl; the process is always the process, but the rewards, if we’re lucky and persistent, could be wondrous.

Carl Reply:
March 27th, 2012 at 10:21 AM

I was talking about marketing in the morning with friend of mine, actually he is expecting impossible things, rarely one marketing campaign can turn viral and pretty much depends on the business niche. I think only entertainment industry can achieve success in one day for other is always hard work and common sense.

Mitch Mitchell Reply:
March 27th, 2012 at 5:12 PM

Carl, everyone can have a dream and your friend sounds like he thinks he’s going to be the next John Reese; good luck to him, since I think all of us would love to have that happen.

March 26th, 2012 | 9:56 PM

Roger Madison:

What I have learned most of all about marketing is that there are some metrics that define each marketing strategy. For example, direct mail responses are less than 1%, yet my mailbox at home still fills up with ads and flyers and creative envelopes that look like checks to get me to open them. Most of them go into the trash without a close look.

Similarly, there are metrics for email marketing, and cold calling by telephone, or in person. What is important is to understand the metrics in your industry.

My focus is primarily online email marketing. I know that each industry segment that I enter for a client has a different open rate, click through rate, and conversion rate. Knowing this means that I can reasonably predict the level of response for my clients. Many of them who engage my services have much higher expectations, and want increased results.

The way for me to get those increased results is to increase the “top line.” The metrics stay about the same over time. A good open rate is around 15%. A good click through rate is around 6% of the opens. Most efforts yield something less than the top numbers mentioned here. So, the way to get higher results is to increase the number of subscribers. One million subscribers will yield a higher absolute result than 100,000. It is always a numbers game.

When you understand the metrics for the type of marketing that you are doing. You can predict the results. When I was a new account sales rep many years ago, our mantra was “Calls plus demos equal sales.” The goal of our calls was to increase the number of demos. And the goal of the demos was to close sales. The key to outstanding results was always more calls.

The top line is the key to success in marketing. I think that is true for which ever method that is used — email marketing, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, phone calls.

Mitch Mitchell Reply:
March 27th, 2012 at 5:09 PM

Great stuff Roger. The only problem I have is that I don’t know any specific figures for my industry, though I’ve heard the general figures for industry overall.

I also know that if I had real capital there’s some things I could do that might get me in the door, but they’re also kind of sneaky. I know a guy who used to do what I do about 15 years ago. What he and his partner did was hire a couple of pretty young ladies right out of college, train them enough so they could represent what the company did, then sent them on the road to visit hospitals. They ended up with a 65% visit rate just by stopping by because most of the folks they needed to talk to were males, and once they got in they were able to close 40% of the deals. Talk about learning that sex sells! lol

Anyway, that’s why with the phone calls I’m not trying to land a sale as much as get a true introduction and hope that they’ll at least allow me to send something to them to help remind them of what I do so that if something comes up I’ll at least have the chance to bid on it. Of course that’s only in one industry; I need to look at some other industries I work in to see what can be done there.

March 26th, 2012 | 11:05 PM

Nicola Croft@ how to get a baby asleep:

Thanks for sharing your experience Mitch. It’s amazing to see that although your marketing efforts hasn’t brought tons of success you still stay so positiv. I must agree with Carl, and mdenise; marketing is not just about making a quick sale and should be considered a journey instead of a destination. Once you stop learning you start failing. I hope you can stay as positiv in the future and I bet success will find your way (or you will find success )
Nicola Croft recently posted…How to get a baby asleep – 9 Tips on how to get a baby asleep

Mitch Mitchell Reply:
March 28th, 2012 at 2:21 AM

I guess we’ll find out Nicola; it’s definitely not one of the easiest journeys in my life.

March 27th, 2012 | 4:27 AM

JamesW:

Great post Mitch, and there is so much truth in it.
It’s not easy to get new clients and any type of marketing can be stressful.
For now I’m good, but last month my efforts were useless, it seems that sometimes that law of attraction is just not working . thanks for sharing.
JamesW recently posted…Play Games And Earn Real Rewards

Mitch Mitchell Reply:
March 28th, 2012 at 2:20 AM

James, that’s just how it seems to go sometimes. Right now I’m fair to middlin’, but I’ll keep plugging away at it.

March 27th, 2012 | 10:09 AM

Laura:

I think only you can do your own business marketing, not an independent consultant. For some reason, I have never trusted someoune “outside”. I have heard so many weird things about outsourcing SEO activity for instance, in some cases, they have caused more damage than gain…
Laura recently posted…Hair loss and hair replacement

Mitch Mitchell Reply:
March 28th, 2012 at 2:09 AM

Actually I’m not so sure Laura. I think if you have the money you can hire someone else to do your marketing for you. As a matter of fact, I know of some business that do that very thing. I made a suggestion to someone on how they could make a lot of money if they did a few things, someone who said he was a master salesman; he just decided to do something else. For the right person though, it could be lucrative.

March 27th, 2012 | 12:47 PM

Michael Belk:

Mitch, as a publisher myself I can identify with your marketing issues. My efforts are very similar. I can appreciate your honesty and candor. Marketing is tough on us all, but we can help each other more.
Michael Belk recently posted…Can workplace relationships be harmful?

Mitch Mitchell Reply:
March 28th, 2012 at 2:13 AM

Michael, it’s something that I, and my friend Beverly Mahone, talk about often, helping others, promoting others in some fashion and the like. It’s one reason I’m doing my Friday series, because it’s just that important to me, whether they need the help or not.

March 27th, 2012 | 2:52 PM

Steve Borek:

Direct mail marketing is popular again.

For example, I have a client that’s sending out mail boxes with the prospect’s logo embossed on the side. Inside the mail box is a personalized letter. This particular industry has a long sales cycle so they’re looking to build rapport.

Will this guarantee you a sale or a meeting? Unsure. One thing that is sure is they’ll remember you.

I had a respectable sales career over a span of 24 years. It’s about genuinely caring about the clients success and building a long term relationship.
Steve Borek recently posted…Is Your Boss A Jerk?

Mitch Mitchell Reply:
March 29th, 2012 at 11:42 AM

Steve, direct mail doesn’t work for me, or at least hasn’t. I wrote about it either here or on my other blog, but I did a test last summer where I sent 3 letters out 3 weeks in a row, with a slightly different message each time. In the 3rd letter I said I was going to be following it up with a call. Then I called each of them, and only one even remembered receiving the letters, and that was only because we shared the same last name. To me that’s a slam dunk fail.

Steve Borek Reply:
March 29th, 2012 at 11:46 AM

A letter isn’t memorable. What else could you include with your letter so they’ll take your call and remember you?
Steve Borek recently posted…Is Your Boss A Jerk?

Mitch Mitchell Reply:
March 29th, 2012 at 11:49 AM

I’m not really sure Steve. Actually, it’s my bet that the letters probably aren’t even opened, or are opened by an assistant who’s been told what types of letters to get rid of and what to keep. I have to admit I did that the few years I had a secretary, so there’s no telling what I didn’t get.

March 29th, 2012 | 10:01 AM

Beverly Mahone:

Mitch,
This is a good post followed by some very interesting comments. For me, marketing is an ongoing and long process and it’s more than marketing your business–it’s about marketing YOU. You have to build relationships because people are more inclined to do business with people they know, like and trust. Sometimes, it’s not a FAIR process but I am a firm believer that if I continue to do what I do to the best of my ability, those who want my services or products will come to me. I also believe there’s enough business for everyone but you have to put yourself in a position to be on the receiving end when someone is looking.

I also believe that promoting others is always a win-win because you never know who knows who. Why do you think I connect people on Twitter with my “weekday Twitter crews”? Because it’s my way of opening a door for you. You must choose whether you want to walk through it or not.
Beverly Mahone recently posted…Trayvon Martin Could Be My Grandson

Mitch Mitchell Reply:
April 1st, 2012 at 1:17 PM

Good stuff Bev, and you’re right, we all have to be willing to grab those bulls by the horns when they come running by. Most people might not have seen it but I want to give you a shout out for having the lawyer for the Trayvon Martin family coming up on your show tomorrow; you’re living the dream for sure.

April 1st, 2012 | 12:39 PM

peter davies:

Hi Mitch

Im about to follow a not too disimilar route to you with someone else shortly though our offerings will be narrower focussed and not necessarily pure marketing, more setting up the delivery processes and mechanisms for the customer to benefit.

This could be websites, SEO, email lists etc but the key I think is to be able to stress the tangible benefits they are likely to see as a result of your efforts.

Defining your offerings etc is therefore the most important part to gaining those customers. I’ll share more when I start using my IM blog again
peter davies recently posted…Normal Everyday Ingredients That Help Prevent Anti Aging

Mitch Mitchell Reply:
April 8th, 2012 at 9:13 PM

Good stuff Peter, and I wish you great luck with it. I also hope you write about it so I can learn some things from you.

April 8th, 2012 | 4:47 AM

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