Guacamole, Curry, Kung Po Chicken & Marketing Mind Blowers

Welcome to Week 43 of my adventure of following the Start Up Grow Your Business Marketing Plan + Calendar and Week 6 as a member of the Marketing Plan Group. In my posts, I talk about my voyage down the road of self-employment as a website copywriter, my achievements and roadblocks along the way, and what I’m learning from my group experience.

Last week, I was in Lanzarote (one of the Canary Islands) on vacation. The trip was 7 days long, and I relaxed and had a therapeutic, fun time for 4 of them. After that, I was dying to get back to work. Not because I was stressed about what I was missing, but because I was excited to get back into the swing of things. While away, I realized a few things:

1. I love what I do. I missed it and couldn’t wait to get back to it. I’m so grateful for that. I also realized that the longer I’m self-employed, the more I adore it and the more I want to work towards being able to do it, successfully, for many years to come.
   
   
2. I don’t want to eat Eggplant Parmigiana at a Mexican restaurant. In the touristy resort town of Lanzarote, all types of food are available: Spanish, Indian, Chinese, Italian, Steak, Seafood, Mexican, Greek. Yummy, right?  Here’s the problem:  All of these cuisines are available at all of the restaurants. You can order Curry in the Italian restaurant, Pizza in the Chinese restaurant, and Paella at the Indian restaurant. Interestingly, none of the food was very good!  Lesson: As self-employed people, we can’t fill every niche in the same way these restaurants can’t satisfy every palate.  If I want Eggplant Parm, I want to go to an Italian restaurant that really knows how to do it right. If I want a Fajita, I want to go to a Mexican restaurant that really understands the spices. Experiencing this lack of specialization in the restaurant world made the dire need to specialize even more apparent in ours.

Marketing Plan Group Mind Blower #1

This week, my Marketing Plan Group got a lesson on the 10-word blurb. (This is what you say when someone asks you what you do.) I’ve heard a lot about the 10-word blurb and thought I had a good grasp on the concept, but then Ilise shared something that kinda blew my mind.

She said it’s all about the language. You can really draw in and attract your ideal clients by carefully choosing your words. Makes sense, right? But check it out in action. Here’s just one example:

I’m a fundraising copywriter.

OR

I can write a sales letter that will make your donors open their wallets.

It’s so short, but when done right, the 10-word blurb can be way more powerful than I thought.

Marketing Plan Group Mind Blower #2

We’ve also begun to compile information about where our prospects go, which groups they belong to, etc.  (I’m totally blown away by how many resources are out there for finding prospects!) Anyway, one of my group members found an event she wanted to attend but it was very pricey.

Then Ilise blew my mind again.

She said, “If you’re working with a small budget – why not volunteer at an event you want to attend? It gets you there, it’s free, and it gives you a reason to get involved with the other attendees.”  Seems obvious and perfect, but it simply never occurred to me.  Now you know… in case it didn’t occur to you either.

Have you learned any marketing lessons lately? We're always looking for guest posters. If you'd like to submit a post, send us an email!