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Have you done any marketing yet this week? If not, that's
probably because you haven't yet created a marketing habit.
It's a lot like exercising. People who start the day asking,
"Is today a good day to exercise?" seldom lace up their
running shoes. Consistent exercisers have a time and place
for exercise. They exercise at 5:00 a.m., Monday, Wednesday,
and Friday, or after work every night.
The same applies to marketing. To do it consistently, you
need a system you can follow without thinking too much.
Marketing systems are as varied as the individuals devising
them, but they are systems nonetheless.
To develop your own marketing habit, consider the following
systems that my clients have created. Then, select one to
implement regularly over the next month.
- Spend the first 15 minutes of the day on business
development. That's enough time to arrange a lunch,
send an e-mail about a recent development, write a
short note and attach it to an article of interest, ask
your librarian to look for articles about a new
prospect, or list people to call during the next month.
It's only 15 minutes, so you can make the time in your
schedule every day--spending this time day in and day
out will produce results.
- Visit a client in his or her office once a month. One
of my clients uses the time traveling for these visits
as business development planning time and uses the
plane trip home to map out her follow-up for the rest
of the year with the client she has just visited.
- Attend a networking event regularly. If you belong to
networking organizations and enjoy networking, put
those monthly meetings on your calendar and decide
you'll attend them regularly. Then follow up with one
person you see at each event.
- Do lunch on a schedule. Go out to lunch every Wednesday
with a client, prospect or internal referral source.
- Connect by phone weekly. One of my clients calls her
five major clients every Friday, starting at 3:00 p.m.
She finds out how they're doing and if there's anything
they need. She talks about personal stuff, as well. Her
clients are so accustomed to the routine that if she
fails to call on a Friday, they call her.
- Use season tickets. Pick something you enjoy--the
theater, a sporting event, or a lecture series, and
commit to taking one client to each event (and do not
let yourself get away with giving the tickets to your
assistant or the associate down the hall).
- Market when you travel. Have lunch or dinner with
someone other than the person you are traveling to work
with.
- Schedule the time. Devote three hours each month to
business development. Put it on your calendar as though
it were a court date or client commitment.
- Determine a set number of "stay in touch" phone calls
to make each week. Don't go home on Friday until those
calls have been made. (If you find that you never seem
to meet your goal, make your goal less ambitious. One
call a week is 50 contacts a year, which is definitely
better than a few or none.)
Once you've decided what habit you'll develop, make sure
your system can accommodate both your extra-busy and less-busy
times. Break your commitment into smaller pieces, if
necessary, so that you can fit in business development even
when your schedule is completely packed.
At the end of the month, assess how you've done with your
new habit. Did this system work for you or do you need to
try something different? Once you've found a system that
works, stick with it until it becomes automatic.
The key to making your marketing habits work for you is
twofold:
- Determine what you'll do to market yourself in advance;
and
- Schedule it on your calendar and approach it as
seriously as you would time with a client.
Creating and keeping marketing habits is the key to
marketing success, especially when you're busy. Take the
time today to decide what your first marketing habit will
be.
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