6 Ways to Get More from Your Marketing

What’s on the iPod: Cruel and Beautiful World by Grouplove

Want the highest return on your marketing investment? A recent survey of Chief Marketing Officers at Fortune 1000 companies showed that in-person meetings and events delivered the highest return on investment than any other marketing effort. One place to find a concentration of potential clients is the conference.

That’s the focus of my newest self-study course,
8 Steps to Conference Marketing Success. Broken out into easy-to-follow sections, the course shows you every step in the process of marketing at conferences. You’ll learn how to choose a conference, when and what to communicate with potential clients, and how to turn that dialog into sales. Click here for more info.

It’s been a busy week, but not too unruly. I had two projects handed to me Monday that I was able to devote time to yesterday. I had my car back, so I was able to run some much-needed errands in the afternoon, with time to get back to the page.

As I’m putting together a plan for marketing some things over at About Writing Squared, I’m looking for ways in which Anne and I can get the most impact from our communications. Here are some methods I’ve used in my own marketing that has created more impact:

Practice regular communication. Can’t say it often enough — if you want to create the opportunity, you should be getting in touch regularly. Set up your schedule now. If you’re using email, plan for follow-up notes before you even send out the first message. Every two to three months is a good number, depending on the response your prospective clients give.

Show up with a game plan. Know what they need before they know what they need. Do a bit of research into what’s visibly being done from a communications/marketing standpoint before you reach out. In fact, let them know in that initial letter just what you see (or don’t see) and how you’re the person to deliver that to them. I’ve converted people who weren’t even sure they needed a writer. How? By showing them they did.

Show up prepared. You can almost guarantee the same questions with every new client: Do you work in my space (and have samples) and what do you charge? Know the answers before they’re asked. Even if you don’t have the writing samples, you’ll have something close enough, or you’ll know what to say to convince them that writing, like many skills, can transfer into many other areas quite easily.

Present like a pro. When a client asks me for a rough idea of how I’d handle an article or what I’d charge for a particular project, they don’t usually get just an email back — they get a formal proposal or outline. “Rough” doesn’t help the non-writer understand how you’ll handle it. I give bullet points and an overview of what is/isn’t included in the price. For instance, last week a client asked me to summarize some ideas we’d batted around. They were handed a Word document with outlines of exactly how I’d approach each article idea. That extra step makes the difference — clients want to know their money is being spent with a writer they can trust.

Sell to those who have already bought. This is probably the oldest piece of advice around, and it’s still the most valuable, in my opinion. If you’ve sold to the client, they’re already sold on your skills. Try approaching them with more ideas or suggestions.

Know your worth. For some reason, writers have a tendency toward understating just how much their skills are worth in the market. Even if there are clients who don’t value writing, there are many more who do. That’s because writing isn’t something everyone can do well. If you specialize, it’s even more valuable to a client in that particular field or genre. Present yourself as the professional you are and don’t accept anything less than you deserve.

How do you ramp up your marketing efforts?