Let me guess, marketing isn’t your favorite thing and if you were being honest, you would admit you’d prefer not to do it.
Ask me how I know.
It’s marketing’s fault, not yours. You can’t be blamed for wanting to “just do your work” and not be smothered by mountains of information and endless lists of things you have to do.
Marketing is vitally important, and it can be challenging, but it shouldn’t hurt.
You should be able to be easy about it, do what you want to do, and do it at a comfortable pace.
Marketing should be an extension of who you are and what you do. It should feel natural, easy almost, and never be something you dread.
And it can be if you focus on the basics.
The basics?
Internally, that means serving your clients well, making sure they know what else you do, and staying in touch with them. It means building relationships and getting to know the people they know.
Repeat business and referrals. Just like Dad used to do it.
What about externally? With people who don’t yet know, like, and trust you?
Also the basics.
Get your name in front of people. It doesn’t matter whether you do that via ads, blogs, networking, public relations, producing content, social media, or anything else—it’s all good.
But whatever you do to get your name in front of people, build a list so you can keep your name in front of them.
You don’t have to do everything. One or two “reaching out” strategies can be enough. Find something you’re good at and enjoy and do that.
And do yourself a favor. Don’t worry about everything the experts tell you is a “must do”. In a perfect world, they might be right, but in the real world, a lot of what they say will simply distract you from the basics.
Unless you want to do more, stick to the basics and keep it simple.
And do something every day.
Make a call, write an article, send an email, learn something, meet someone.
Do what feels right for you. Don’t force yourself to do anything that doesn’t.
And don’t worry about getting everything perfect.
You can be “sloppy” and build a big practice. As long as you get the basics right.
