In This Issue...

- FEATURE ARTICLE: How Actively are You Marketing Yourself?

- COACHING
- TELECLASSES
- RESOURCE LOUNGE
- VIRTUAL CONNECTIONS

Today's article is about the difference between passive and active marketing strategies for growing your business. You'll read that I believe both play a very important part in supporting your business. The key is in how you combine them. You want to create a recipe of marketing strategies that work in concert to bring your intentions for your business into reality.

Establishing yourself as an expert in your niche or specialty is one of the most powerful things you can do. It's a way to show how you can help potential clients rather than simply telling them so and hoping they'll believe. One great way to establish yourself as an expert is to write articles on topics of interest to your market.

I am creating a new section for my website which will feature articles and tools developed by those in The Solopreneur Zone community. By contributing an article, you'll help educate your peers on your area of expertise and have the opportunity to establish yourself as an expert in your field. If you'd like to submit an article that you feel Solopreneurs would love to read, please send it to me for consideration at dawn@solopreneurzone.com. I'll reply to your email within two weeks. If your article is selected, we'll include a brief description of your business and a link to your website so that visitors can contact you. Questions? Simply email me!

The Best Time to Market Yourself

When do you tend to market yourself? If you are like most Solopreneurs, you market yourself when you need clients. Logical, right? Sure, except that every time you start a marketing campaign, it often takes several months to get a return from it -- sometimes much longer, depending on the strategies you choose.

"But I don't have time to market myself when business is good", you say. I agree. You don't have time because we all know how much effort it is to get a marketing strategy started. However, maintaining a marketing strategy is much easier, but often overlooked.

Marketing When Business is Good

The best time to market yourself is when you don't need clients. If you've been in business long enough, you'll begin to notice a pattern of clients coming and going. It's tempting to ignore marketing when business is good, but nearly every Solopreneur has woken up one day and realized they only have 3 clients, or 1, or none...

The good news is that marketing when your business is full is easier and requires much less effort. The strategies you use at this time are often more passive strategies which may require a lot less of your time and will keep business flowing long into the future.

Why are You Marketing Your Business?

Dumb question? Not really. There's absolutely no point in marketing your business if you aren't sure what you are trying to accomplish ("to get clients" is not a clear enough goal, by the way)!

So, what is your intention for your marketing? Are you trying to find your first few clients in order to have testimonials? Are you looking to establish yourself in a new target market? Or, are you wanting to establish yourself as an expert in your market so your business comes to you mostly by referral?

Your intention for marketing is critical in helping you decide how to market and which strategies to use. Please don't take another step in your marketing until your intentions are crystal clear. If you move forward without clear intentions, you'll find yourself working much harder than you need to and likely giving up on your marketing strategies before they have a chance to be successful.

I've Got a Great Business Card and My Website is Up, so Why isn't My Business Full?

I hear this sentiment regularly from Solopreneurs. You've got a cleaver business card and you even have a great-looking website up, and yet very few clients or visitors to your website. The problem? These are passive marketing tools.

A website can convey a great sense of who you are and what you have to offer and enable potential clients to learn more about you, but it can't help at all if no one visits it. In order for your business card or website to help market you, people have to know you exist. You need to use an active marketing strategy in conjunction with a website in order to get traffic to your site. Then, and only then, does the content of your site even matter.

What Makes a Marketing Strategy Passive or Active?

Passive marketing strategies are those that need activity from you or your clients in order to be successful. For example, your website needs visitors to attract clients and your articles need readers to bring in business. That is not to say that they aren't effective. In fact, they are highly effective in turning prospects into clients, but they need to be used at the right time to be effective. They also tend to take longer to produce results and require more patience on your part. Examples of passive marketing strategies are: websites, marketing collateral, ezines, article writing, and creating additional products and services.

Active marketing strategies involve you more directly. They are often the fastest ways to get clients because they put you right in front of potential clients. Examples of active marketing strategies are: networking, cold/warm calling and speaking (with speaking, you'll want to have an offer for listeners in order to make it truly active). Even an ezine can be an active marketing strategy if an offer is included.

When Should They be Used?

If you are struggling to get your first few clients, it's best to focus on active strategies rather than passive strategies -- they will bring in new clients faster. But most Solopreneurs tire of active marketing strategies because they can be time-consuming. That's why they stop "marketing" during busy times.

Passive strategies, on the other hand, will take longer to attract clients (think 1-2 years to be realistic), but once you've begun to write articles on a regular basis or have established a popular ezine, they will continue to bring in business with less effort.

Your Marketing Recipe

Every marketing plan should involve both active and passive marketing strategies -- they work best in combination. But your specific marketing recipe will depend on where you are in your business and your intentions for marketing in the first place (see Why Are You Marketing Your Business above).

New Business Start-Up: most new businesses are looking for clients now. Your best bet in this case is to spend the majority of your time on active marketing strategies. However, you don't want to have to do these forever. Starting a passive marketing plan now ensures that it will begin to reap rewards once you've established yourself and want to spend less time on marketing. Look to spend 3/4 of your time on active marketing strategies and gradually increase your passive marketing strategies until they reach 1/3 of your marketing allotment.

First 1-2 Years of Business and/or Establishing Business in New Market/Niche: At this stage, you may want to switch to a 50/50 breakdown between passive and active marketing strategies. The 50% spent actively will continue to bring in business, while the 50% spent passively will begin to grow your reputation in the field.

Established Business: Once your business is established, you can spend more time on maintaining your passive marketing strategies such as writing, speaking, creating products, maintaining your newsletter, etc. If you've been doing the same things consistently for 1-2+ years, business will begin to come in consistently based on your reputation in the market. You might aim for 2/3 of your time spent on passive marketing strategies and 1/3 spent on active marketing strategies. This will keep you from letting marketing fall off the radar during strong business times which means you won't have to put in energy to "prime the pump" up again if business slows.

Passive or Active, You Still Need a Plan

Whether you are pursuing passive or active marketing techniques, you always want to have a plan. Just because a strategy is active, doesn't mean it can do the job alone. You'll want to create a marketing plan that outlines how each strategy will be implemented. Because passive strategies take longer to show results, having a plan will help keep you motivated during those times you are doing a lot of work and seeing few results.

With any marketing strategy, being consistent and persistent will get you the farthest. If you've got a plan, you can plan for that consistency instead of trying various marketing strategies "shot-gun style" and getting frustrated. If you follow a strong plan, eventually your business will have fewer floods and draughts and you'll notice you're spending a lot less time on marketing. And isn't that why we all market now anyway -- in hopes that one day we won't have to market ourselves that much anymore!

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Have questions after reading today's article? Don't forget that you can stop by the Virtual Water Cooler to ask questions of me or your peers to help you move forward with your business. That's one hour of *free* coaching every month! Our next call is Thursday, April 29 from 3-4pm ET. For details, visit http://www.solopreneurzone.com/WaterCooler.htm

Have you been considering The Solopreneur Zone's new Coaching Membership Program? I will be taking a sabbatical from July 1 through the end of the year to finally write my book. You can still join the membership program between now and then and be in a totally different place in your business two months from now.

Members have access to me during my open coaching hours, access to a growing group of business advisors (marketing/PR, web design, virtual assistance, etc) and hours of recorded and live teleclasses and group coaching opportunities. All at a cost that won't break the budget: only $150 per month!

Sound intriguing? Here's a link to the details about the program to learn more http://solopreneurzone.com/Membership_Home.htm.

Teleclasses

One-Hour Teleclasses: the best way to spend an hour...

MAY

Establishing Yourself as an Expert in Your Niche/Specialty Wednesday, May 19, 2-3pm ET

JUNE

Marketing Your Business Virtually Wednesday, June 9, 2-3pm ET
Taking Vacations & Sabbaticals as a One-Person Business Wednesday, June 16, 2-3pm ET

Each 1 hour teleclass includes worksheets and access to the teleclass recording via Real Audio.

Cost: $25, Members: Free

Successful Self-Employment through Multiple Profit Centers

What if You Were Paid to Exercise?

To listen to these classes now, visit http://www.solopreneurzone.com/Teleclasses_Free.htm.

Get Clients Now: A 28-Day Marketing Program for Professional and Consultants- C.J. Hayden.
This classic marketing book for professionals will help you create your own personalized recipe for successfully attracting clients. Some of the strategies you have to choose from are active and others are passive, but Hayden bundles them together to help you create a cohesive plan to get unstuck from your current place in your marketing. If you want to get clients sooner, get this book!

Getting Business to Come to You: A Complete Do-it-Yourself Guide to Attracting all the Business You Can Enjoy- Paul and Sarah Edwards.
This 678 page book (really!) is an incredible bargain at only $18.95 (less at Amazon.com). The authors describe nearly any active or passive marketing strategy ever used and describe in detail how to use each. Better yet, they take into account your personal style of communicating and help you choose the marketing strategies that suit your personality. No need to be overwhelmed by the size of this book -- it's very easy to read just the chapters you need and skip around through the various topics.

For a complete list of books we love (growing weekly), visit the Resource Lounge at http://solopreneurzone.com/Resource_Books.htm

DISCUSSION GROUP: Have you signed up for The Solopreneur Zone's Yahoo Discussion Group?

This discussion group was created to support you in trading questions, ideas and tips with other Solopreneurs. Why go it alone, when you can build your business more easily with the support of others? Questions, thoughts and ideas should be directed to the entire membership. I will read the messages regularly and contribute my thoughts to the discussion when appropriate.

The group will be moderated by Angee Robertson, Administrative Consultant for The Solopreneur Zone, to make sure you only receive messages from members who want to be an active part of this community.

Join Today, by visiting our home page at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/solozone

* Check out The Virtual Water Cooler...It's a free monthly community teleconference call where you can share ideas and questions with peers from around the globe. Have a quick business question? -- you can also pop onto the call to ask Dawn a quick question -- and begin making progress on growing your business again.

Join our next call on Thursday, April 29 from 3-4pm ET (the call is always the last Thursday of each month at 3pm ET). For details, visit http://www.solopreneurzone.com/WaterCooler.htm

DID YOU LIKE THIS PUBLICATION? Please forward it to your friends and associates and anyone else who you think might appreciate it. Thanks for your feedback and encouragement.
PRIVACY POLICY: The Solopreneur Zone never sells or gives out subscriber names or email addresses.

SUGGESTIONS? Want to CONTRIBUTE to future issues? Send an email to info@solopreneurzone.com

Copyright 2004 Dawn Nichol, All rights reserved. You are free to use material from the Solo Flyer publication as long as you keep the entire publication intact.