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Follow Through or Foul Up

Written by: Cidnee Stephen

Article Overview: As entrepreneurs, we are usually great at coming up with ideas to promote our business. We know that it's not rocket science, and yet we struggle time and time again getting our ideas off the ground. This isn't really surprising because on top of wearing our marketing hat, we are also wearing our operational, financial, IT and HR hats. Yet when we look at all the different roles we have to play in our businesses, it is truly our sales and marketing hat that can fast track our business to the next level. So how can we ensure that we allocate it the time it deserves? More importantly how do we know that we are fully following through?

Follow Through or Foul Up

I admit it. I am a golf-aholic and unfortunately one who has come nowhere NEAR to making it on the pro-circuit. No surprise then, that I was out whacking balls at the driving range the other night trying my darndest to attain some semblance of consistency. It drives me crazy when one goes left, one goes right, one goes a mile and one goes nowhere! So in an effort to find a happy middle ground, I started running through the various components of the swing (and then proceeded to book my umpteenth golf lesson to boot)! Good news...I discovered I was guilty once again of not following through with my swing.

A funny thing happens when you don't follow through with a golf swing. You end up putting all your efforts into the back swing which causes the ball to head in a million different directions inconsistently.

The same thing happens with our marketing. We can put all our money and time into the preparation and stop short of the follow through.

As entrepreneurs, we are usually great at coming up with ideas to promote our business. We know that it's not rocket science, and yet we struggle time and time again getting our ideas off the ground. This isn't really surprising because on top of wearing our marketing hat, we are also wearing our operational, financial, IT and HR hats. Yet when we look at all the different roles we have to play in our businesses, it is truly our sales and marketing hat that can fast track our business to the next level.

So how can we ensure that we allocate it the time it deserves? More importantly how do we know that we are fully following through?

Here are some tips:

Treat Your Marketing Like Your Most Important Client - You wouldn't miss an appointment with a high income client, would you? Then make appointments in your Calendar with Marketing and do your utmost not to miss these appointments.

Promotions are Only The Beginning - When you decide to advertise, network or mail out a postcard, you are only taking one "big backswing" with your marketing efforts. To leave these expensive and time consuming activities with only a phone number or web address as "leave behinds" is a tragedy. You should make it EASY for them to contact you through a free or trial offering, an invitation, etc.

Think Multi-Channel - What other marketing channels can you tap into to promote the same thing? What about your strategic alliances, peers, friends, clients, the press?

Think Multi-Touch - If you can capture lead information or entice people to "try you out" now you are in a position to stay in contact. Make sure this contact is:

• Timely
• Professional
• Provides Great Quality and Consistency

Review Revise Revisit - Just like my driving range experience. You need to try it, try it again. Measure it. Make some changes and try again.

Remember your marketing isn't about perfection, it's about improvement. Keep trying, measuring, learning and you are already 50% there!

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Article Tags: aholic, appointment, appointments, back swing, balls, consistency, darndest, driving range, funny thing, golf lesson, hats, mail, money, next level, postcard, promotions, rocket science, sales and marketing, semblance, surprise



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