Where Are Your People?
Hi, it’s Adele Michal, back with Step 6 in creating a compelling and clear message about your business, so that you get more clients, make more money, and make a bigger difference.
Watch the video or read the article below to learn how to connect with the people you want to serve with your work.
Let’s recap what we’ve covered so far:
Step 1 is, “What’s Your Invitation?”
Step 2 is, “What Problem Do You Solve?”
Step 3 is, “What Is Your Solution?”
Step 4 is, “What Is Your Story?”
Step 5 is, “Who Are Your Ideal Clients?”
Today, we’re talking about, “Where Are Your Ideal Clients?”
Where are your people?
I have to tell you that I have an in-person bias. I rarely, if ever, have hired anyone in the service-based professions that I didn’t meet in person or have a personal reference to.
Online has been an auxillary part of my marketing. It has not been my primary focus, because, for what I do, people need to know me and need to know that they can trust that I can help them get where they want to go.
You can look and see for yourself what is true for you, but I think a lot of us think that being on social media is the answer.
Social Media is not the ONLY answer for a lot of service-based professionals.
If you’ve mastered online marketing, good on you! If you haven’t, then in-person is a great place for you to be.
We start by answering these questions:
· Where are the people that you want to talk to?
· Where are they hanging out?
· Are they in networking groups?
· Are they at events or in classes?
· Can you meet them in one-to-one meetings?
(In-person meetings can be live in person or virtual on video conferencing like Zoom or Skype.)
I live in a medium-sized metro area, and it takes me 45 – 60 minutes to get to some people on the other side of the area. To save time for both of us, I use Zoom video conferencing, and it works great.
More questions to entertain and answer are
· Are your people at school? Are you a mom that helps other moms? If so, then school is great place to meet other moms.
· Are they in churches or synagogues or temples?
· Are they in an organization, like a political organization or a civic organization?
· Are they online? Are they in Facebook groups, or in special interest groups that are online?
These questions are a way to start identifying where your people are, what their interests are, and where they show up.
How do you reach out to your people?
There are a variety of ways to connect with the people who might want to hire you. As you grow your marketing efforts, it’s good to choose up to three of these strategies so that you can do each one of them well.
Of course social media is one way to talk to your people. I include videos, blog posts, and emails in the category of Social Media.
I know there’s a lot of talk about, “Email marketing is dead.” It’s still a viable way to let people know what you’re up to and give them valuable information.
Maybe you do a newsletter. I do one once a week. Maybe you send one out once a month or once a quarter – but a newsletter, an email newsletter can be very beneficial for letting people know what’s going on with you and how you can help them.
I think the Holy Grail that we all want is a referral-based business, which means, you don’t do a whole lot of marketing to the general public and actively interact with your referral partners.
I know it’s possible because I have clients and colleagues that get most of their business through referrals. They put in a lot of work to get there.
It’s not often a fast marketing technique or approach, but it does work. You can get active and intentional about it and create a formalized referral program, if that’s one of the strategies you choose.
Referrals and word of mouth are really excellent for marketing your services, because you know that, if one of your friends said, “Gosh, I worked with Jane and she was great at doing the image styling that I wanted,” you’re going to be much more inclined to want to work with Jane, because your friend did and had such good results.
Affiliates are a more formalized referral network. You might have two or three colleagues that are at your level of business or higher that you cross-promote your programs and products with. They promote your program, and you promote theirs. There’s an exchange of money, depending on how successful their promotion is, or how successful your promotion is.
I know that speaking strikes fear in the hearts of many, but speaking is a great and inexpensive way to get in front of people, to let them know what you do, and to get the attention that you want.
There’re two schools of thought: You can do free speaking, where you can give away a free gift or session at the end or you can do paid speaking. They really are two different animals.
In my business, I do a lot of free speaking. That way, I get to know people, they hear what I do, and they can sign up for a free consultation or a free gift that I offer.
Speaking is a really great way to go, and you can start out small. I started out speaking to about ten chapters of a regional networking group. There were about 5 people to 25 people at each meeting. I got to practice speaking, meet people, and get on their radar.
Networking is very powerful. You can get to know a lot of people that way. You can have one-to-one meetings with the people you meet networking. You can see how you can help each other. Networking can be really, really important in building a successful business.
Choose one to begin now
If you’re not doing any of these marketing strategies, choose one to do in this next month.
Once you’ve chosen one marketing strategy, be consistent with it for at least six months! It’s not going to get great results right away, and you have to let your efforts build traction and momentum.
If you’re not consistent then you show up, and then you disappear. People get confused.
If you’re going to choose a strategy, be consistent with it until you are sure it doesn’t work for you or you decide to do another strategy.
Give a networking group at least six months to start working for you – because it takes a while to build up relationships – and see how you can be helpful to others, and ask for their help as well.
If you’re going to choose speaking, see how often you can get out and speak. If you’re going to do a newsletter or a video, be consistent with that as well.
It takes a lot of effort in the beginning to get seen and to be heard. Consistency will really pay off, and people will know that you are serious, and that you really are in business.
That’s a Step 6: “Where Are Your People?”
Find your people, and start talking to them is the message of this lesson.
That’s it for this week, and I wish you a great week and lots of prosperity and will talk to you next time.
P.S. If you would like to talk to me for a free consult about how you talk about your business, I invite you to schedule a complimentary session with me here.
We’ll talk about
· where you are with your marketing message
· where you are with your business and your sales
· how to get where you want to go and
· how I might be able to help you
Please go ahead and take advantage of this offer if it would be of service to you.