Revisiting an old marketing strategy may be just the answer to finding customers right now.
Are you running out of ideas for how to find customers? Have a think back to the way you got your first customers. I bet it is different to how you get them now! Sometimes though the best marketing strategy for you could actually be the very same one that got your first customers.
I recently was conducting a workshop on Turning Your Passion into a Business. One of the participants was a really impressive young man who had recently started his own cleaning business. He impressed me with his work ethic and willingness to learn new things. In the class room his drive, determination and enthusiasm made him stand out from the crowd. I thought – this guy will definitely go places. In fact I was so impressed with his attitude if I’d had a job going I would have offered it to him straight up.
Anyway what’s this got to do with marketing I hear you saying. Well there are a couple of key issues here.
- Firstly you can learn different tactics and techniques for marketing but sometimes having the personality and a can do attitude is what can make the difference.
- Secondly the ability to try new things and see them through is sometimes the secret ingredient to marketing that is effective versus marketing that isn’t.
Joe’s Story
And this is where our impressive business owner comes in. Let’s call him Joe for convenience. Jo came to the first workshop and said that he was looking for new customers. In the second workshop when we were checking in with how everyone’s week went, Joe said he had a great week “I’ve picked up three new customers!”. We all congratulated Joe and then I asked what did you do to find your three new customers? Joe explained, “the week before I knocked on 10 doors and I didn’t get any customers. So this week I ended up knocking on 50 doors and I got 3 customers”. I was so proud of Joe because knocking on doors is not easy and it would have been tempting to just say after the first week – I tried knocking on doors and it didn’t work. Instead he just decided to do more until he got results.
Getting the right marketing for the resources you bring
- The great thing about his story is that now Joe has a bit of a bench mark for what he has to do.
- If he wants more new customers then if he knocks on 50 doors he should get around 3 customers.
- The other really important take home message in this story is that this form of marketing was the best marketing that Joe could do right now and it worked. You see, Joe did have a lot of money (after all in he was a start up) so advertising was out of the question at this point. He did have a lot of time (as he only had a couple of customers) and door knocking takes a lot of time. Being at the start of his business journey he was very enthusiastic and that would have worked in his favour. Most people love to give a job or business to someone who truly wants your business.
- So what works for Joe right now may not work for him in another couple of months. Hopefully he will be have gained some more customers and may not have the time for all that door knocking. The good news is that if work every gets a little quiet and he has time on his hands he can resort back to the very marketing technique that got his business going in the first place.
If you are wanting to get your marketing track, you might like to check out AP Marketing Works’ latest online course Marketing Mayhem to Marketing Maestro a 12 Step Marketing Mastery Program.
