Marketing for Dummies?

[DolomitesDonkey]

hello

I'm really struggling with marketing (& as a result, sales).

I've been using marketingdonut and have picked out some great advice, although I clearly have no natural aptitude for marketing.

Can anyone suggest any great sites/books/tips or anything to really help get me started? I'm just hopeless and it's not something I can throw any serious money at right now. Tax returns (in a foreign language I might add) are a walk in the park, my service/product I'm happy with - I'm just utterly useless at this.

In a nutshell I need to market a service which most people will not think they need because they probably already think they do it pretty well if that makes sense! It's only when someone steps in and says "actually, whilst that's "great", what would really be great is if you were to x, y and z".

I'm a freelance marketing lecturer. I could probably suggest some resources if you explained a bit more about what challenges you face e.g. Are you struggling to find ways to reach potential customers? (who are you trying to reach?), etc.

In my experience money is not the route to successful marketing. It's being able to empathise with the customer, keep you and them happy, and keeping in touch. That takes time and thought. Not money.

Hello

I really like blog.hubspot.com/ they do loads of great free e-book downloads. They are more focused on online/social media though. They do a daily email with a few links of their latest blog posts.

I'd agree with freelancemama you need to focus on your audience.

• What do they want? (ie what problem of theirs are you solving)
• Where are they? *How will you find them?/How will they find you?
• What will you 'say' to them?

I am a marketing freelancer, and like you, people do not need my services, but they will benefit if they use them etc.

I have found what works for me;

*focusing on my niche - I tried the general networking and was disheartened by meeting so many of the "wrong" type of potential customer - not their fault obv, mine for going but it took up time etc.

• my network (I try to grow it using - the right type! - of networking, being helpful to others and then also using LinkedIn)

• producing content - I do an e-newsletter each month, v v soft sales & I use Twitter a lot

• being proactive when I see a promotional opp/creating promotional opps for myself

I would also look out for local networking events that have a marketing speaker, a number near me seem to. A cheap (sometimes free) way to hear directly from a practioner? Ask some questions etc.

If you are more specific on here I am sure we can help you.

HTH
Good luck
WS

Thank you both for taking the time to respond.

I had a bit of a turnaround over the weekend and I found a site called "duct tape marketing" or something like that and took a pen and paper and wrote down all the advice/tips which I feel apply to me. I've implemented some of them - and some of them are things which I'm not quite ready to do "yet", but are in my calendar for 2/3/4 etc. months time.

I was struggling with my copy too, but my creative brain came in to action a bit and it's come together a bit more. I think I was sounding a bit too formal iyswim, when I need to be personal because I am the service.

I have turned my attention away from Twitter, albeit perhaps temporarily, because I was attracting as you say watersign, the "wrong" customer. I will probably persue that avenue again when I've identified how to appeal to my customer. Not even sure they'd be looking in that direction.

I need to network and thankfully have someone (fellow service provider) who's very good at this so I'm going to try and convince her to come along with me one day so I can see how she shmoozes with style. I'm thinking of going to the business show at Olympia in November I think it is - because I need to meet the "right" sort of client, and I think somewhere like that will be ideal.

I feel a lot more confident in my product now and I asked my friends to complete an anonymous survey about my top 3 qualities - and although they've given me the answers I kind of expected, having them re-iterate who/what I am has lent itself again to more fluid & personal copy and it's also helped cement another stream I was interested in, in fact more interested in - and actually I think attracting clients to this will be easier (I hope!).

I need a total website re-design because the thing I've got now is clunky & doesn't flow well. But I've identified the wordpress template I want and will set it up later in the week with my sparkling new copy.

I've also re-worked my SEO to try and be a little more exacting with whom I'm attracting rather than taking a scattergun approach.

I figured out what I'm going to do in the way of content (free e-book) and the upsell options with this.

So right now I'm feeling a lot more confident. :)

PS Hubspot is AWESOME!

Wow - you are on fire! Well done.

All sound really positive. I forgot about Duct Tape, I love his stuff too!

I can identify with 'selling you', somebody gave me that advice early on, yet I still wrote a website in the third person and then changed it later on, when I realised doh I was selling me!

I have been learning more about conversion marketing ie how to take a website visitor to a customer and somebody suggested I look at this bunch - www.conversion-rate-experts.com/blog/ and they have some interesting case studies. Free e-book downloads seem the way to go.

If you want tips on networking I really like Heather Townsend. joinedupnetworking.com/category/featured-posts/ I think practice is the best way to get better at it and wine is the way to make it more bearable!

Sounds like you'll be awash with clients in no time! Here is to your success!