A few months ago, a client canceled his SEO blogging service with me. He said he was not seeing the immediate ROI. On the one hand, he could walk into a pawn shop, use that money to buy a thing, and then resell that thing, making his money back.
On the other hand, as a copywriter, he couldn’t exactly make money right back off of my SEO blogging. Fair enough, I told him…but what about the sharks you don’t see in the water?
In fact, most of us who spend day in and day out marketing our businesses do not see an apple for apple exchange of what we do. Three hours spent on social media probably won’t convert tomorrow into three hours of being paid by a client.
Marketing Takes Patience for Results
Your efforts over time could land you a huge contract three months from now. It could be a life-changing position three years from now. You just never know who’s lurking in the water, circling you and your brand, waiting for the right opportunity to strike.
Research tells us that most shark attacks occur in less than six feet of water – many in three feet of water. The shark takes it’s time, swimming around you, silently observing, and then, if all of a sudden something looks tasty – like your leg! – bam, they go in for a bite.
Just a bite.
They rip off a chunk to test you out. And then they wait for you to become incapacitated. The best way to fight back, should you be attacked, is to punch them in the gills or jab at their eyes. Hear that?
You need to fight the razor-toothed (10 rows of teeth, actually) monster back by stabbing at him.
Marketing That Goes for the Kill
Let’s take this analogy one step further. If you’ve been thinking, “My marketing isn’t working. I’ll just stop doing it,” that’s exactly where your problem lies.
You want to continue to swim swim swim and wait until things start to come to you. That means:
- Building an email opt-in list
- Developing a social media audience
- Creating your own content regularly
- Sharing the work of others
- Engaging in dialogues regularly
- Having great website (with good conversions!)
Grab your free resource, Is It SEO? A blogging checklist:
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Ok, so now you’ve set up a location where you are going to swim, and you threw chum in the water. And after a few months, in comes a shark (cue Jaws music.)
The shark bites you. He buys one thing. He gets an entry-level package for $250 – not a bad start, yes? What do you do?
You fight back, remember !!!
Do not get scared and:
- Lower your prices
- Stop selling anything else
- Say thank you and give up
Sell that beast something else. Give it a good solid hi-ya right to the gill, and work them further into your funnel with more services. This will vary depending on your business and what you do best. You may also choose to cross-pollinate with referral sources and give those folks your business for a fee.
Let’s look at this in practice; A client comes to you for a Stop the Sugar program. You have them in the program for six weeks.While this is ongoing, you have to weave in elements of what’s next for them with you:
- In the session – Stay tuned for Understanding Carbs
- An email – Can I have your feedback? (and Carbs are next)
- A personal call – How’d things go? (want to join Carbs too)
- On social media – Great sessions. Join the next one.
This progression of multiple pieces working together helps you set the stage to continually bring on new business. And remember that while you might not see the ROI of all the swimming you do right away, you just never know who’s out there…lurking just under the surface.
Elspeth Misiaszek uses her writing and online marketing skills to help vegan businesses, coaches and entrepreneurs increase sales on their websites and blogs. Is it SEO? Get our FREE blogging resource today.