Coach Business Building Secret -- Marketing Momentum

John, a business coach, had been "dabbling" in his marketing. When I asked him why he was "dabbling" and not "turning this thing on" he said he was hesitant to turn it on fully because he felt that his marketing seemed to be a bit expensive.

When I asked him, "How many calls, signups, or whatever it is that you want a prospect to do, for every marketing campaign? What percentage of number of people you reach out to touch actually do what you want them to do?"

He didn't really know. So, he wasn't in control of his marketing.

I'm not going down that path of marketing response rates right now, that wasn't the point I wanted to make As long as he was getting a decent marketing response rate, 0.5% to 1.0% is consider the national average, however, I shoot for 5% to 10%. So, if you are getting 1% or greater you shouldn't be "dabbling" at your marketing. If you are getting less than that, then "it's time to fix it." Don't EVER fall for the myth that "it takes time to build a business" and continue "waiting for your business to happen." If it isn't happening now, it won't happen later, or over time, just because you've done it for a long time.

One-time Marketing Has a Fixed, Repeatable Response Rate -- Repeated, Consistent Marketing Explodes to Another Level

But, here's my original point, if you are getting a response rate of over 1%, or close to it, then "don't continue to dabble!"

John was not consistently sending out his email blasts to his list, nor consistently sending his postcard mailer invitation to his workshops, in fact he was doing a workshop only every few months instead of monthly. He also was working his networking rather sporadically. He was trying a little of this and a little of that and when he would get "a little interest" he'd say, "Well, that didn't work very well" and back off.

When I had started coaching him, one of the first things we talked about was for him to speak to various business and social associations on a weekly basis. He had tried it once or twice, one this month, another a month or so later. When he didn't get any calls from the first one, he was rather disappointed, and so he wasn't anxiously going after others. In fact, the second one was on my insistence for him to get with it. He did get one from the second one who wanted to talk, but that one didn't buy so he got gun-shy about trying it again.

Marketing Momentum Occurs When You Consistently, Repeatedly Market Yourself at the Right Level and Beyond

There are a couple of reasons why we should be consistent. John won't get better until he's tried it, and fine tuned it. But, beyond that, there is a thing called "marketing momentum."

When you do "a little marketing" here and there, yes, there is a response rate that you should be able to consistently depend on. What you say, how you say it, (your marketing message) and who you say it will have a somewhat consistent response rate. So, if you sent out 1,000 postcards for your monthly workshop and get a really powerful message that connects with that target market it shouldn't be hard to get 5% to 10% of that market calling you (50-100) to attend your workshop.

However, if you "dabble" in that but sending it out once every few months you are falling short of "marketing momentum."

Critical Mass

In the atomic bomb, there is a thing called "critical mass." All of the atoms in the bomb are bouncing around inside, hitting each other and generating more atoms to break down and also go out and hit another and another and another.

But, below a certain level of atoms, the activity continues to die down. Fewer and fewer atoms are moving around all of the time. However, when the number of atoms in the bomb are above "critical mass" every time, that's a certain amount of atoms and activity, one atom hits another and generates 5 or 10 times more coming out, and each of those hit another and generate 5-10 times more coming out, the whole thing gets bigger faster, so fast in fact, that the bomb explodes in a huge rather impressive explosion.

Critical Mass of Your Marketing

Marketing can work somewhat the same way. Yes, as I said, doing your marketing once, or sporadically here and there, will have a response rate based on your message and whether it connects to your market. Now you've got the content that COULD explode your market. Dabbling in your marketing, a little here and there certainly can get you "hitting some atoms" or getting some calls from your market. But, there is a point of "critical mass" where, once you're doing it consistently at or above that level, suddenly it starts expanding throughout your market like the bomb that just barely reached critical mass.

That's when your market "starts calling you," where your phone is wringing with people that not only attended the last speaking engagement, saw your last mailer, ran into you at a networking event, and they had all heard of you from before. Your message has been running around the community, around your market on it's own, bouncing off of lots of people, and when they hear you speak for real, or experience you and what you say (in marketing or speeches, or whatever) it FINALLY compels them to call you.

Above Critical Mass Is Where You Make a BIG Impression on Your Market . . . Maybe Even on THE WORLD

But don't stop at just barely reaching "critical mass" that's where it just barely starts sustaining itself. Go way beyond. There is a difference between a 5 kiloton bomb, and a 100 megaton bomb. One impacts a 1 mile radius, and the other can impact half a continent. Which do you want to impact.

And even, if your goal is not "worldwide" but just local, you want to make a BIG impression in your market. So find the critical mass and go beyond where YOU are the impressive coach around that market. Don't make a little pfft -- make a big, big impression on your market.

I challenged John to "reach critical mass" with the amount of his marketing. He turned his speaking up to slightly over once a week. He turned his monthly workshops up and spread the word at his speaking engagements. He added a couple of tele-seminars a month and also spread the word throughout his other marketing activities.

After the first few, he had only a few interested people, so we fine tuned his message to raise the response rate. And when he was getting 1-2 calls from every activity, you could see that spread throughout his market. He announced a simple mastermind group at 3 networking events a week for 3-4 weeks, and suddenly he was getting calls from all over the nation from his local marketing.. Get your marketing message right so you've got the right message that will impact the most people, and then get that message out there to beyond critical mass.  

John told me that it was exciting when your phone starts ringing and keeps ringing consistently even between marketing activities.

Alan Boyer

 816-415-8878
alanboyer@leaders-perspective.com
http://www.leaders-perspective.com