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One of my clients was concerned about her financial future. As an entrepreneur now, instead of working for an organization, she’s no longer building up her pension. Now it’s up to her to create her own retirement plan.
This is making her susceptible to the hype of marketers who are promising 7 figure incomes. Maybe some of you can relate. I say it all the time -- be wary of signing up for any program that tempts you with high income possibilities. They’re usually expensive, and are often a bad investment. Also, it’s not healthy to be in an environment that keeps prioritizing the dream of huge external rewards: it’s important to understand your own extrinsic vs. intrinsic motivations in business. Still, it is wise to plan for one’s financial future... However, instead of dreaming of huge returns from get-rich-quick schemes, what can we do to make sustainable and realistic progress towards for retirement?
In marketing it is assumed that the goal, the daily effort, is to get more views, more followers, more sales.... always wanting other people to do more of what we want them to do.
In other words, conventional marketing is deeply self-centered, which stems from either insecurity, or ego. “If I don’t strive to get my share of attention, I won’t be able to survive or shine!” The result is the proliferation of questionable marketing strategies and pushy sales tactics, that aim to “grab” more audience attention and action. The real problem is that it seems to work in the short term. The squeaky wheel at first gets the grease... but all that squeaking eventually gets it eliminated and replaced!
I’ve written a lot about the overall strategies needed to grow one’s authentic business audience and clientele. But what about actual, regular actions? In this post, I provide a few questions to guide you.
Let’s start with the most important question. It’s not “what’s your niche?” or “have you set up your email list?” In fact, in my new side business that I started in July, I don’t even have a website, clarified niche, or services yet. All I have done is created content consistently, enough to now have about 2,000 people who have engaged with my content in the past few months. You can read about my new business in this blog category: Starting an authentic business. So therefore, the first and most important question -- no matter if you’re just starting your business, or already have a thriving one -- is this: I love facilitating my client community. We start in January each year and grow together throughout the 12 months, forming new friendships, referral partnerships, and accountability buddies.
Via regular group calls and occasional 1-1 meetings with me, each client receives my personalized guidance for them as they build their authentic business, in addition to enjoying the resources and camaraderie of the group. The community is called MasterHeart, and the application for the 2019 group is officially open as of today.
The next time you hear someone tell you that a marketing or conversion tactic “works”... ask this question:
“OK, it might work to convert 10% of the audience… but does it build trust with the other 90%... or does it feel salesy to them?” Years ago, I used to care only about the small percentage of my audience who converted -- I was all about the sale, getting the transaction. The rest of the audience? I thought of them as “illusory clients” or “tire kickers”. I used to prioritize my own profit timelines, rather than the organic, decision-making process of my audience. I wanted them to buy my program “by the end of this webinar!” or “within 48 hours!” and so I dangled ridiculous incentives, and used “powerful” scarcity tactics to convert the few... yet turned off much of the audience by these pressure tactics. This is called “being salesy.” |
George Kao is a Marketing Coach for small business owners, especially solopreneurs such as Coaches and Mentors. He focuses on ethical & effective ways to grow one's platform and build true livelihood.
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