Most people are looking for a magic bullet when it comes to raising your company’s income. Wouldn’t that be nice? While there is no “magic bullet” there is the amazingly simple anatomy of raising your company’s income. Watch the video below where I detail how to do this. Below the video are some more tips for you.
As I said in the video, the best way to raise your company’s income is to never stop marketing. I know that sounds cliché coming from someone that owns a marketing agency, but it is the truth.
In all of our time helping small business owners, we have found this to be true for us, and we’ve seen it to be true for our clients.
Businesses that consistently market over time see higher profits, more “stickability” and stronger market share. They are the ones that out-market their competition.
There’s a secret to it (and it’s not that secret), which is you need to look at marketing as an investment in your business.
A lot of people have the mistaken idea that marketing is an expense. If times get tough they cut that expense (which is like cutting off your arm, by the way) just like they would cut payroll by letting people go or trimming the fat in other areas of their business (supplies, memberships, software, inefficiencies, etc.).
This is a mistake. Marketing is an investment. It’s an investment back into your business. It’s like fueling your car if you want to drive somewhere or feeding yourself if you want to have energy to move.
I’ll share a personal experience with you. The year was 2010. It was a year after I first started my business (way before I had employees). I landed a retainer client that paid me very well. Very very well. He also kept me extremely busy. The entire year slipped by and without realizing it, and I had stopped marketing my business. My pipeline had totally dried up. This wasn’t a problem for me since I had this nice cushy retainer client. Until the day after Christmas in 2010, my retainer client decided to shut down his business and reinvent his life. Great for him. Disastrous for me and my family. Overnight, I had zero income and zero prospects. My husband, a contractor, had also stopped working in his business so he could help with the kids. I had been so busy I needed the extra help, and he was happy to be able to be there for the kids more.
You can imagine, the year following that was the worst year in my history of being in business. The economy was still in a slump, and here we were, having to essentially start our businesses from the ground up again. It took us four years to recover from this financial mistake. And it was all because I relied on one client for all of my income (one is the deadliest number in business–one client, one computer, one anything).
I’m not alone. I have seen this happen to countless other businesses. People who relied solely on the Yellow Pages to advertise and didn’t catch up with their competitors until it was too late. They weren’t marketing anywhere else and dried up their pipeline.
I learned three extremely valuable lessons from 2010:
- Never rely on just ONE thing or person for my business or financial success.
- Never stop marketing.
- Never let my customer or prospect pipeline dry up — no matter how busy I may be.
So, how did I turn my business around and create a thriving marketing agency in just a few short years after that? I marketed my butt off! I pounded the pavement, networked, sent real letters in the mail, joined my local Chamber of Commerce and various other groups, put ads in the local paper, blogged like a maniac and hired a great team to help with everything we now do. My team and I are all responsible for helping to market the business each month because it’s not just a one-woman show. They understand that their pay is derived from a profitable business and happy customers. But you can’t have happy customers if you don’t have any customers at all; so it all starts with marketing. See?
So if you want to raise your company’s income and you want to grow your business, never ever ever stop marketing. Be EVERYWHERE. Author and Marketing Expert, Dan Kennedy, refers to this as the strategy of OmniPresence: Being everywhere at once.
“It’s best to be visible to your target audience as much as possible, as often as possible, in as many places (media) as possible.”
This doesn’t mean you have to advertise in some glossy magazine or some giant billboard. If times are tough, or you have a limited budget, there are so many ways to market that only cost you your time. You can look at the most cost-effective ways to market so that you are at least getting something out there daily.
Just consistently market. Do something every day to gain more visibility or market share.
- Send some emails to prospects (or send an email newsletter with tips to your entire list).
- Connect with potential prospects or referral partners on LinkedIn.
- Publish a blog post sharing some tips and a great call to action.
- Post to social media.
- Attend a networking event.
The important thing is to deliver the same message to the right audience over and over and over again. Sometimes it takes three times to get that message to click with somebody. Sometimes it takes seven times. Sometimes ten. Sometimes even twenty times before the message really clicks with that person.
You never know when that moment will be, but if you’re marketing every day, then you increase your chances of hitting them up at the exact right moment when they’re ready for your product or service.
Just keep your message and your marketing consistent, look at it as an investment in the future of your business and never stop!
Not sure where to begin? Let’s do coffee!