Are You Tired To Do Marketing Without Reaping The Rewards?
For most home based business owners and entrepreneurs, marketing is and should always be a priority but often they are so tired of using the same methods over and over again that neglecting this all important strategy becomes a fact.
My question to you today is:
“Do you know WHY you are marketing your business?” If your answer is a positive Yes, I assume you are marketing your business …
- To fulfil your passion
- To identify your ideal client, and
- To go above and beyond
FULFILLING YOUR PASSION
When you find out what your passion in your career path as a Virtual Assistant (or any other industry) is, your whole perspective will change. Skills can be learned and acquired, but your passion is a very important part of who you are and what you really want to do.
When you decide to find your passion, you are actually saying to yourself: “I will be finding and doing the things in my career that I truly enjoy” and that is an enormous commitment to yourself.
The truth is. When you have a true passion for what you are doing, your whole attitude changes and work become something you’re looking forward to.
Fulfilling your passion is to live your dreams. It is to do what makes you happy, what inspires you, what excites you. It will fill you with inspiration, love, dedication and commitment to FOCUS on achieving your dreams.
IDENTIFYING YOUR IDEAL CLIENT
I know what is popping into your mind right now. How on earth can I do marketing to find my ideal client?
Well, allow me to share something with you.
I had an eye-opening experience when I visited Maputo last Tuesday. I disembarked from the Sinfonia at Maputo harbour and was ready for an interesting day in the once known “playfield of the riches”. The moment I step foot into the streets of Maputo I was sort of “attacked” by people wanting to sell their goods. Although I understand that these people are in need to sell their merchandise in order to survive, I could not help but wondering whether we as VAs are not making the same mistakes. The one guy made such a nuisance of himself trying to sell sunglasses without even noticing that everyone in the group was wearing sunglasses. The bottom line is that this poor fellow did not make a sale.
On the other hand, when returning to the ship the first thing I saw on the TV screen was a mouth-watering cocktail. And guess what, almost everyone in the lounge was having a cocktail because they were exhausted and drenched from being in the “heat of the day” in so many ways.
GOING ABOVE AND BEYOND
Andrew Carnegie said that the secret of his early success was not in asking “What must I do for my employer?” but, “What can I do?”
Please allow me to rephrase it to suit this post. The secret is not in asking “what must I do for my customers?” but “what can I do to their benefit?”
The old saying, “Do what you love, the money will follow” is a true perspective of my experiences above.
I really think Sinfonia created the perfect illusion that the bar-tenders on the ship love making cocktails and the waiters and waitresses love serving people. They do it so well that I think almost everyone of the 2000 guests on the Sinfonia had a cocktail or three (or maybe more) during the trip.
The reason … these mouth-watering cocktails were advertised in such a way that one could not resist. When relaxing in the lounges, dining, sunbathing on the deck, attending the shows, walking in the passages, going for a massage in the beauty parlour … actually everywhere you see TV screen adverts with bar tenders making and waiters walking hence and forth serving cocktails … the one looking more attractive than the other.
The result: In my view, I think they’ve perfected their marketing campaign and sold more cocktails during the trip than any other alcoholic drink.
On the other hand, I truly believe that if the “sunglass fellow” knew more about marketing he would have been able to do more sales. (My heart really goes out to the people of Maputo trying to make a reasonable living)
CONCLUSION
- Dig down deep to find your passion and tell yourself that you will not stop until you’ve found it. Then use that passion in order to decide on your niche market and start developing you marketing strategy around it;
- Identify your ideal client by looking at your passion and start digging for the needs of your niche market clients and supply them with a solution that they cannot resist;
- Go beyond and above in your marketing efforts (as per the cocktail example above) to make sure you reach your ideal clients and at the same time fulfil your dreams, and
never take your eyes off your competition. Know what they do and how they market their serivices in order to outperform them with passion.
