The Marketing Mix | official blog of the Marketing Mentor community

Stuck, or simply content?

Hi, I'm Deidre. In my posts, I talk about my voyage down the road of self-employment as a copywriting partner to designers, my achievements and roadblocks along the way, and what I’m learning as I go (with Marketing Mentor as my guide).

Last time, I talked about not having any big plans for the future of my business. This realization bothered me. Shouldn’t we always be chasing something, striving for something? Is something wrong? Am I stuck?

This past week, I took inventory of my business (hoping to figure out where the heck I want to go).

I’m happy with my clients, the kind of work I’m getting, my process, my pricing, the actual doing of the work. But these thoughts plague me:

• Should I network more?
• Should I create a digital product?
• Should I aim to expand and hire an employee?
• Should I expand my markets?

Other creatives seem to be doing these things—but none of them appeal to me right now.

Self-employment has been so eye-opening over the past 5 ½ years, and I’m still learning from it every single day. It reminds me not to chase things because other people are. It forces me to decide what I really want—and encourages me to make that happen. 

Maybe I’m not stuck? Maybe I’m just content…

I’d like to officially announce, that for now:
I want to keep doing what I’m doing—just a bit more of it. I want to reach my yearly goal for 2013 and exceed it in 2014. I want to sustain the things that are working—and refine what can be better.

As of today, that’s plenty for me.

What about you?

Enroll before Midnight (May 15) to land clients fast

Enrollment for Ed Gandia’s Warm Email Prospecting program is closing tonight at Midnight (May 15). So if you want in on this program (that I wish I'd created myself!), do it now!

Warm Email Prospecting will teach how to finally BANISH the feast-or-famine cycle by:

• Landing clients FAST!
• Taking the fear out of prospecting
• Making prospecting easier (and more consistent)

The program is fantastic. Freelancer, Paula Mottshaw, raved about Ed's Warm Email Prospecting program:

I absolutely hate cold calling, so I needed to find a method that worked for me. Ed’s warm email program is a step-by-step, how-to program focused on how to build relationships and attract clients via email. The program is created in modules and includes short videos, handouts and worksheets; plus lots of actionable tips that cost $0 to implement.

Sending warm emails sets you apart from the crowd. How often do you receive an email that was written especially for you (and not the masses)? -Paula Mottshaw, Communications and Design Professional

Sign up here: http://goo.gl/9iwEW

And let me know if you have questions!

Should I leave a message?

I am constantly asked whether you should leave a voice mail message when following up with a prospect. 

The answer is a resounding YES. Your voice makes you a real human being, rather than one more email message in their inbox.

In this video for Entrepreneur.com, I suggest tips for customizing a voice mail message. In recent videos, I shared 3 steps to close the deal and tips if you’re not talking money up front.

3 Steps to Close the Deal

Are things getting fuzzy when it’s time to close the deal?

Are you submitting proposals and then waiting to hear back?

In my latest video with Colleen DeBaise for Entrepreneur.com, I shared 3 steps to help you navigate deal-closing and land the job instead of being stuck in limbo. Watch it here:

Hate prospecting for clients?

Consider yourself an introvert?

Wish there was an easier way to land great clients?

...then I highly recommend this FREE training series --> "A Faster an Easier Way to Land Quality Clients" from Ed Gandia, who spoke at CFC last year in Boston -- gave an excellent session called "How to Craft a Marketing Plan You'll Enjoy Implementing."

If you missed his CFC talk (or just need a marketing refresher), check out this 3-part series (videos + PDF transcripts) on how to land more (and higher-paying!) clients with very short and simple but highly personalized emails.

He'll show you how to use short and simple "warm emails" to take the fear and hassle out of finding quality clients. Great stuff!

Definitely worth putting in your email address to get access! http://bit.ly/SQ05Fe

Here’s What Happens When You Choose The Right Prospects

Hands down, the most important element in your marketing plan is the right prospects. With that essential piece in place, it is just a matter of timing and persistence before you land your dream project(s).

The right prospects are especially key to finding work via email marketing. And you probably don’t need that many excellent projects to make reach your goals, right?

Stephanie Helline of Strategic Design Studio started doing her email outreach in February. She pulled together (from online research) a small list of hospital administrators who were likely to attend an industry event where she was going to be speaking. 

In her first week of outreach, she sent friendly and personalized email messages to 5 prospects at the hospital systems she considers her ideal clients. Her response rate for that first week was a whopping 40%: although one prospect had no budget, the other asked for a meeting. As I write, she’s waiting to hear back on the proposal she submitted.

Turns out, her timing was perfect for that one hospital. Plus, this contact perfectly fits the criteria for her ideal contact at her ideal client organization: she has 35 years experience and understands what she needs. No need to educate her!

That’s one more solid prospect in her pipeline than she had before she did her outreach.

I’ve got my fingers crossed to see what happens. But this is what’s possible when you give some thought to whom to target and do it in a simple yet personal way.

The reason this technique works is because you’re reaching out to people you’ve qualified, carefully selected. If you want to learn how to do this for yourself, I highly recommend you watch these FREE training videos (w/ transcripts) from my excellent colleague, Ed Gandia, a CFC speaker last year and the brains behind International Freelancer’s Day.

Ed will show you exactly how to choose the right people and how to approach them. Check it out here. 

Going towards results, or just going?

Hi, I'm Deidre. In my posts, I talk about my voyage down the road of self-employment as a copywriting partner to designers, my achievements and roadblocks along the way, and what I’m learning as I go (with Marketing Mentor as my guide).

When I jog, I like having somewhere to go. And I go farther if I have an actual destination. Yesterday, I set my sights on my parents’ house, 6 miles away. I huffed and puffed, but I made it. Even if my destination is 7-11 to buy a bottle of water, it’s more exciting and rewarding to get somewhere specific.

But in business, what is my destination? Where am I trying to get to? I honestly haven’t thought about it much. Sure, I have a yearly financial goal. I know the clients I want to work with. But where the heck am I going? I really don’t know.

Perhaps some outside inspiration will help?

That’s why tomorrow’s destination is In Good Company in NYC—where Ilise will be doing a session called Marketing Up: Finding Clients with Real Budgets. If you’re in the New York area, maybe I’ll see you there?

What’s your destination? How did you pick it?

Is your LinkedIn title landing you clients?

In his latest post for the International Freelancers Academy, Creative Ways to Land Freelance Work from Social Media, Ed Gandia shares how 12 successful self-employed professionals have used social media to land new clients.

I contributed one section about Karen McElmoyle, a Charlotte, NC-based designer who specializes in law firms, who was awarded a $10,000+ web design project from a law firm that found her on LinkedIn — all because of her title, that tiny line under her name. Here it is:

#12: Craft a Powerful Title for Your LinkedIn Profile

Her LinkedIn title reads, “Helping Law Firms & Financial Services Companies Elevate Their Brand & Bottom Line.”

These lawyers didn’t search Google for a local web designer. Like many professionals these days, they used LinkedIn as a search engine. And they chose someone who understands their business, rather than a generalist.

Because Karen positioned herself well, her expertise was communicated clearly in her title and even more thoroughly in her profile.

If her title had been generic, such as “Owner of KM Design,” or worse, “Graphic Designer,” those lawyers wouldn’t have seen her profile, much less chosen her.

That’s one reason why that tiny one-liner is the most important element in your profile.

Here’s another: Unless someone clicks on your full profile, your name and title are the only things visible on LinkedIn lists, such as the list of "People Also Viewed" and “People You May Know,” as well as when you accept someone’s invite to connect. So your title had better do a good job of saying what you do.

Does yours?

See how 11 others are using social media to land work.

If you’re not talking money up front….

Many creatives are wasting time with prospects who can’t afford them. Are you having lengthy conversations or writing proposals without talking money first? To get a budget and find out if the prospect is a good fit, try these 3 steps that I shared with Colleen DeBaise in this video for Entrepreneur.com.

What to say … when a client says, “How much is a logo?”

How much is a logo? How much is a website? How much is a brochure? It’s easy to be a bit perplexed when posed these questions by prospects. After all, every logo, website and brochure is different, and so is each situation. 

This is how Laurel Black, from Laurel Black Design in Port Angeles, Washington, handles it:

I often get new people who call up and say things like “How much is a logo?”

That used to take me aback until one day I got fed up and said (to a car dealership owner), “Well, I don’t know – how much is a car?”

Big pause – then the caller started laughing. But he got the point, and we were able to create a range as Deidre described in the guessing game post. If the prospect had been a real estate agent, I would have asked: "How much is a house?"

When a client is really dithering and hard to pin down, I roll out the Floor/Ceiling analogy.
I say, “Okay Mr. Client, here’s the deal: you have a budget ceiling over which you can’t go, and I have a floor under which I can’t get your work done. If your ceiling is under my floor, we will need to figure out how we can tailor your project to get it between the two.”

This usually gets the conversation back on track, unless their ceiling is not realistic and they won’t budge it (which is a clear sign that they are not my client). It also helps to depersonalize/lighten the conversation.

What tips do you have for dealing with the numbers game?

If money matters leave you searching for words—the Creative Professional’s Guide to Money provides great language and guidance for a number of money-related situations.