If I had a dime for every designer gave up on their marketing efforts just before a client was ready to sign on the dotted line, I’d be lounging on a warm, sunny beach, sipping umbrella-adorned drinks.

The story goes something like this. A designer decides to do, say, a postcard mailing. The have their nifty cards designed and printed up. Let’s say it’s a series of four cards. They mail out the first and wait. Nobody calls. The next one goes out. They check the phone to make sure it’s still working. On to number three and four. Zip. Zilch. Nada. Not even a peep from a prospect. So, our business owner decides that postcards don’t work and gives up.

There’s a couple of fairly obvious problems here. First, the business owner didn’t make follow up phone calls. If you mail anything - a postcard, letter of introduction, brochure, etc. - and don’t follow up, you’re pretty much throwing your marketing money away. Second, doing a four postcard mailing isn’t enough in most cases. Sure, you might luck out and hit a prospect at the right time with the right offer. But, research shows that it takes several points of contact before a sales is closed. The National Sales Executive Association, in the US, did a study that found 80% of sales are made during the 5th-12th contact. Here are statistics from their survey findings:

• 2% of sales are made on the 1st contact
• 3% of sales are made on the 2nd contact
• 5% of sales are made on the 3rd contact
• 10% of sales are made on the 4th contact
• 80% of sales are made on the 5th-12th contact

What this means is that you’ll need to have a system in pace to reach your prospect from several angles. Those can be an intro letter, a direct mail piece with a specific offer and a strong call to action, a phone call and perhaps setting up a lunch meeting. Lather, rinse repeat.

It also means not putting all your marketing eggs into one basket. At any given time, you should have several marketing, promotional and public relations activities going. Over time, review what’s working and what’s not. Toss the bad ones and try something new, but only after you’ve given the activity a reasonable amount of time to bring in some results.

Until the next
Marketing Minute
all the best,
nt

When you’re in business for yourself there’s going to be ups and downs. It’s the nature of the beast. Implementing your marketing plan will go a long way in helping to avoid the notorious feast or famine syndrome, but none the less, there are still times when you can’t seem to buy a gig.

So, what’s a creative to do? Double up. Or, even triple up. Look for ways to generate multiple streams of income. For instance, I do three things - graphic design, writing and marketing consulting. When a design scene is lean, writing and consulting fill the gap and vise versa.

The trick here is to avoid the trap of boxing yourself into “I’m a designer,” “I’m a copywriter,” or “I’m a photographer,” thinking. Odds are, you’ve more talent than you give yourself credit for. With a wee bit of creative thinking you can come up with ways to either adapt what you do to generate additional income or do something completely different.

A graphic designer might consider whipping up some delightful designs and start a CafePress shop. Same goes for photographers. Perhaps some of your imaginative images would look just peachy on a coffee mug or mouse pad. And then there’s always stock photography for all those out-takes sitting on your hard drive. Maybe you’re a copywriter. Have you considered stringing together some nouns and verbs and write an article for a magazine?

Another idea (that I’m currently working on behind the scenes) is to create marketing materials that generate some dough rather than just costing you. Information products - reports, e-books and such - can not only help to position you as an expert but can also rake in some coin for you. As a matter of fact, well-known copywriter and author, Bob Bly, recently wrote the book on it – The White Paper Marketing Handbook. It’s a good one to pick up to get you on your way. Another one is Fred Gleeck’s Selling Information.

It takes some time and effort, but it can really pay off in the long run. Go a little whacky and spread your wings. It can make that long walk to the mailbox a whole lot more fun when the checks outnumber the bills.

Until the next
Marketing Minute
all the best,
nt