The Marketing Mix | official blog of the Marketing Mentor community

Growing Your Business with Marketing, Week 26: The view from halfway

This is Week 26 of a 52-week project/experiment in DIY marketing. Armed with nothing but a copy of the 2009 Grow Your Business Marketing Plan + Calendar and my bare wits, I'm applying the skills you need to grow a business in real time, day by day, and reporting on them week by week. See my companion blog, A Virgo's Guide to Marketing, for some more in-depth posts, additional links and other marketing-related goodness.

Crikey! Has it really been six months?! It seems like just yesterday that little Junior cut his first tooth.

Ah, well. I was feeling a bout of reflection coming on, so really, it's perfect timing. (And I hear tell there will be a non-dated version of the Calendar coming out soonish, so maybe this will also be helpful if you're just getting started.)

What I've learned about marketing by doing it every day

1. It adds up. Doing a little here and there may not seem like much as you're doing it. (Or it may seem like a lot—YMMV!) But halfway through the year, I realized I've met a big personal-marketing goal of mine in increasing blog readership. To wit, I've doubled in six months what it took me four years to build in the first place. I credit a number of things: writing daily posts, responding regularly in comments, commenting on other blogs, staying active in social media. (And it didn't hurt that Facebook exploded this year.) I also increased my newsletter list by 50% in six months, while maintaining open rates and click-throughs. This may be a function of critical mass, but I think it's at least in part owing to working my butt off to continually improve the two things I care the most about, output-wise.
2. Pace yourself. Part of the reason I think I crashed so hard three months in is because I worked myself too hard out of the gate. A few people commented to that effect when I confessed how sick I got, and even said they were somewhat relieved to hear I was, in fact, human. I'm still not sure about that, but I've realized that having down time and a life are both important. Remember: blank weekend spaces on the calendar are there for a reason!
3. Accountability helps. A lot! There were weeks I'm certain I would have blown off everything but for the shame of having to admit it out loud here. And I never would have even tried cold calling—no way! Of course, I'm still not as good at it as Deidre, but that's for a couple of good reasons. Namely...
4. Practice makes perfect. Okay, not perfect, but better. It's a muscle, and working it makes you stronger. It also takes away some of the sting and fear. When you don't die enough times in a row, you start to trust that you'll be okay with whatever it is you're afraid of. Most of us don't look forward to cold calling at first, but eventually, you can become like Ilise and Peleg (and maybe Deidre!) who actually look forward to the game of it. I don't yet, and there's another reason as well:
5. All of this assumes you like what you're doing the marketing about. Last week, I confessed to some ambivalence. I'm glad I did (accountability!) because it made me reflect on it more this week. I'm still not 100% sure that I'm either the be-all, end-all of communications consulting (and if I am, I had better find a different way to describe it) or if I'm just meant to write, period (and if I am, I'd better clear even more time to do some "real"—i.e., offline—writing as well). But I'm committed to putting my consulting practice front and center, and seeing where it leads me. I really, really enjoy teaching people what I know, and both consulting and writing (and speaking, too) let me do that.

My goals were very different from Deidre's and probably from yours, if you're a normal business owner. Ilise and I talked very specifically toward the end of 2008 about my desire to focus on increasing my readership. This has translated to more client work, too, but I'm aware that any growth there is a gift, as I wasn't putting my all into marketing my services.

Thanks for keeping me honest so far; I hope you'll stick with me as I move forward.

And hey! Did you know I have a blog and a newsletter you can subscribe to? :-)

Growing Your Business with Marketing, Week 25: Marketing as behavior

This is Week 25 of a 52-week project/experiment in DIY marketing. Armed with nothing but a copy of the 2009 Grow Your Business Marketing Plan + Calendar and my bare wits, I'm applying the skills you need to grow a business in real time, day by day, and reporting on them week by week. See my companion blog, A Virgo's Guide to Marketing, for some in-depth posts, additional links and other marketing-related goodness.

In hindsight, some years or months or weeks seem to take on themes, and this was one of those weeks.

I was a bit hobbled and fuzzy-headed from a cold, but it had cleared up enough by Friday afternoon for me to identify it: support. This week was all about support, both learning the difference it made for me personally, and realizing what a difference it would make if I applied some of the lessons to my own business in general and my marketing in particular.

It's funny, because behavior-as-marketing is a concept I talk about to clients one-on-one and to groups during presentations. (We have an interview with Jonathan Baskin, who literally wrote the book on brand as behavior, both yours and your customers', right here on the Marketing Mix.) I lean medium-hard on the idea before I launch into my new media marketing spiel because I've noticed that in the face of tools as glittery, new and (seemingly) free & easy as social media, we tend to dismiss things like follow-up, thoroughness, kindness and creating a feeling of safety as old fashioned or beside the point. Maybe they are, but I'll tell you, just like getting a heartfelt, handwritten thank you note in the mail—not to mention an unexpected gift—real support is rare and feels amazing.

To read about when and where I learned this week's lessons, join me at the Virgo Guide to Marketing.

Growing Your Business with Marketing, Week 24: This one goes to eleven

This is Week 24 of a 52-week project/experiment in DIY marketing. Armed with nothing but a copy of the 2009 Grow Your Business Marketing Plan + Calendar and my bare wits, I'm applying the skills you need to grow a business in real time, day by day, and reporting on them week by week. See my companion blog, A Virgo's Guide to Marketing, for some in-depth posts, additional links and other marketing-related goodness.

In addition to its cumulative positive effect on your business and cashflow, this week, I discovered another reason for doing your marketing chores regularly: you build up stamina!

For whatever reason, on top of a pretty crackling seven days preceding it, this past week was a whirlwind of activity that required heaping scoops of both energy and focus. Granted, the first day was devoted to, um, Disneyland, but believe me, while it was fun, it was a whole new level of exhausting (have you ever spent almost 13 hours with two tweens in the Happiest Place on Earth?).

Growing Your Business with Marketing, Week 23: What does the marketing add up to?

This is Week 23 of a 52-week project/experiment in DIY marketing. Armed with nothing but a copy of the 2009 Grow Your Business Marketing Plan + Calendar and my bare wits, I'm applying the skills you need to grow a business in real time, day by day, and reporting on them week by week. See my companion blog, A Virgo's Guide to Marketing, for some in-depth posts, additional links and other marketing-related goodness.

During a speaking gig I did yesterday at a local Freelancer Meetup, someone threw out the question of measurement, as in, yeah, sure, we can do all this marketing and networking and social media marketing and networking, but how is it converting into dollars? How do you decide how much time to put in, and when (and how) do you decide whether it's working or not*?

A very valid question, and one worth looking at as the mid-year mark approaches. 

Growing Your Business with Marketing, Week 22: Me-time in a crowded week

This is Week 22 of a 52-week project/experiment in DIY marketing. Armed with nothing but a copy of the 2009 Grow Your Business Marketing Plan + Calendar and my bare wits, I'm applying the skills you need to grow a business in real time, day by day, and reporting on them week by week. I do a topline analysis here, for people who like things short. See my companion blog, A Virgo's Guide to Marketing, for in-depth posts, additional links and other marketing-related goodness.

Coming off of a short week (last Monday was a holiday in the U.S.), I have a renewed appreciation for the value of both planning in general and the calendar in particular.

Maybe other people can organize things neatly in their heads and follow through perfectly in real life, but I find that "free" time ends up being very costly in terms of what I'm able to get done—or not, as the case may be.

I managed to get a good deal of "work-work" done this week, but I was a bit dismayed at how much of my regular, ongoing marketing work fell through the cracks. And let's just say that if I really was following the Veterans' Calendar to the letter, my email newsletter would not have launched! (Fortunately, I already have a pretty healthy one, and am learning how to better manage it as I go, thanks to the calendar and my greatest teacher, the experience of being up against the wall too many times, but still—no big, new project of my own got launched last week.)

Interested in finding out more about what I did and didn't do, and how I'm going to move forward? Check out the companion blog for the scoop...and please, leave tips, either there or here. I love helpful tips!

Growing Your Business with Marketing, Week 21: Reasons this week worked

This is Week 21 of a 52-week project/experiment in DIY marketing. Armed with nothing but a copy of the 2009 Grow Your Business Marketing Plan + Calendar and my bare wits, I'm applying the skills you need to grow a business in real time, day by day, and reporting on them week by week. I do a topline analysis here, for people who like things short. See my companion blog, A Virgo's Guide to Marketing, for in-depth posts, additional links and other marketing-related goodness.

As I got back in the saddle, I had a great, productive, FUN week of work and marketing. Since I like to know the "why" behind it, I took some time to reflect on the reasons why. They are...

Reason #1: I felt good

Yes, I can work through pain or fatigue just like anyone else. But I am happier, more productive and more delightful to be around (hence, a better ad for me and my services) when I am healthy. Sleeping well, eating right and, yes, taking time off factor hugely in my attitude and my output.

Reason #2: I was doing stuff I loved, work-wise

The further I get away from design, the more certain I am I made the right move. And my current work continues to evolve as I discover what I'm best at and what people actually need and want to hire me for. Deidre talked about this last week, and I think it's truer than most of us want to think about most of the time.

Reason #3: I challenged myself a wee bit

I didn't make my cold calls, exactly, but I spent considerable time calling to put together consulting work for my July trip to Chicago, and making fundraising calls on behalf of PresentationCamp LA.

Those are the main takeaways; for the full story (plus a bonus piece on what I learned about newsletters), please do check out my companion blog, communicatrix | markets.

Growing Your Business with Marketing, Week 20: Unsticking yourself

This is Week 20 of a 52-week project/experiment in DIY marketing. Armed with nothing but a copy of the 2009 Grow Your Business Marketing Plan + Calendar and my bare wits, I'm applying the skills you need to grow a business in real time, day by day, and reporting on them week by week. See my companion blog, A Virgo's Guide to Marketing, for additional links and other marketing-related goodness.

My health continues to improve, albeit slowly, and while I wasn't able to make the bigger networking event I'd planned for this past week, I managed to get out twice for productive (and sanity-making) meetups with colleagues.

One of the nice things about sharing openly with people is that you start seeing how we all have our struggles and blind spots. And, of course, one of the other things that's great about sharing is that you can end up with some great help seeing where your own blind spots are, and getting some good advice on how to get out of them. (This presupposes that you're hanging out with bright, with-it people, but hey—if you're reading this, of course you are!)

Additionally, there have been two great discoveries I've made as I've about my business at a reduced capacity.

Growing Your Business with Marketing, Week 19: Lessons from maintenance mode

This is Week 19 of a 52-week project/experiment in DIY marketing. Armed with nothing but a copy of the 2009 Grow Your Business Marketing Plan + Calendar and my bare wits, I'm applying the skills you need to grow a business in real time, day by day, and reporting on them week by week. See my companion blog, A Virgo's Guide to Marketing, for additional links and other marketing-related goodness.

I hate to disappoint you—believe me, I do—but my physical recovery is happening much, much more slowly than I'd like (for the record, what I'd like is "immediately.")

This means I'm doing pretty much everything on less of an as-needed basis than a "how much is this on fire?" basis, which from a marketing standpoint translates to:

• Minimum blog postings I can get by with I'd been posting 5x/week on my blog, plus once weekly here and at the Virgo Guide (a double-posting, but a little bit of work to reformat for WordPress).
• Minimal 2-way social media involvement I'm still checking in with everything—in fact, because my energy is so low, I'm probably checking in more than usual—but I'm posting less stuff on Twitter and Facebook. When my energy is this low and I'm feeling punk, I'm loathe to post much, since I'm pretty sure it won't be up to my usual standards.
• Swapping in-person for online contact where I can I've missed two weeks of in-person networking events in a row, which really bums me out (especially since one had been paid for!). But the wear and tear on me is too great to do much mingling in the real world, plus I tend to turn into a pumpkin at around 7pm these days—no kidding! I'm getting 10 hours of sleep per night, but those hours are coming out of somewhere.

I did manage to get my monthly newsletter out last week, catch up on podcast recordings, and consult with a colleague on best practices for mounting an unconference. (Have I mentioned that while I was still feeling pretty good, I volunteered to help organize the first PresentationCamp here in L.A.? It's gonna be great: check it out and buy your tickets now!) And I've definitely been catching up on my reading, since it (and sleeping, and watching old episodes of the Rockford Files on Hulu) is about all I've got the attention span for these days.

Lessons I've learned from this? I'm really, really grateful that I already had some kind of marketing machine in place.

In the same way that having products or books for sale can keep earning you money when for whatever reason you're unable to take time work, having a machine in place means that there's still stuff out there pulling in new people: blog posts, newsletter archives (two years as of this month!), articles, presentations and podcasts. I've been at this long enough that I feel like having to cut back to half- or quarter-speed won't have me starting from zero when I finally feel better.

That said, while I'm going to keep a closer eye on my work-life balance in the future, I'm really looking forward to feeling up to doing all that in-the-trenches work I sometimes groaned about in the past. In the same way that I'm storing up recipes for food I can eat once my insides are up to it, I'm quietly stacking away ideas for projects I can't wait to hit when my energy is back.

Growing Your Business with Marketing, Week 18: Full stop

This is Week 18 of a 52-week project/experiment in DIY marketing. Armed with nothing but a copy of the 2009 Grow Your Business Marketing Plan + Calendar and my bare wits, I'm applying the skills you need to grow a business in real time, day by day, and reporting on them week by week. I'll provide a topline of my experience here every Monday; see my companion blog, A Virgo's Guide to Marketing, for the full story, additional links and other marketing-related goodness.

I sincerely hope, for everyone's sake (and especially mine) that this is the last post I make to this series with this particular flavor.

The flavor of the week was Despair, a complex and unappetizing blend of illness, exhaustion and mental anguish—both over being ill and exhausted and being pulled from my work. (See? Cra-a-azy Virgo.) This, on top of last week (which was no party), did nothing to brighten my outlook about my marketing plan, my business or life in general. Outside of one highly productive day full of things I'd committed to and couldn't renege on, I spent the entire week trying to dig my way out of a flare-up of Crohn's disease; mostly, this meant getting ridiculous amounts of rest (10 - 12 hours per day of sleep) and eating whatever food I literally could stomach.

I even missed a day of blogging on my main site, communicatrix—something I don't think I've done yet this year. I cancelled anything else non-essential, and rescheduled it for a later date.

There's stuff to be learned even from a bad week like this, and here's what I took away:

• Store up for winter "Winter" being anything from illness to a crush of work you really want to take. I can't believe that I've been blogging for four years and have nothing in the pipeline ready to go in case of emergencies, but there it is. That's one of the main rules for a successful blog that my friend, Chris Guillebeau talks about in his fantastic free downloadable PDF, 279 Days to Overnight Success. No wonder his blog has been such a stunning success!
• Find backup The great thing about partnering up is that there's someone to pick up the slack for each other. I started co-hosting my monthly Biznik event here in L.A. with my friend, designer Heather Parlato, because I thought it would be fun for both, and be good for her to get more involved. As it turned out, it was great for me that she was involved: I was able to secure the venue and prep from the phone, and she handled the event with such aplomb, I wasn't missed! (Well, they say I was missed, but we'll see next month, won't we!?)
• Your marketing plan is missing Saturday and Sunday for a reason You heard it here first: I'm officially human; I can't work seven days per week. At least, not pushing 50 with a chronic illness. Nor, have I discovered this week, do I particularly want to. I'm sure that it's not going to be completely smooth, this transition to a more balanced lifestyle, but it's imperative, if for no other reason than I cannot work at all when I become ill or exhausted.

So this week, while I scan the Calendar against my calendar and what, realistically, I think I can accomplish, I'm soliciting advice on balance: what do you do? And how do you do it?

Growing Your Business with Marketing, Week 17: Failing to plan (and other lessons from the road)

This is Week 17 of a 52-week project/experiment in DIY marketing. Armed with nothing but a copy of the 2009 Grow Your Business Marketing Plan + Calendar and my bare wits, I'm applying the skills you need to grow a business in real time, day by day, and reporting on them week by week. I'll provide a topline of my experience here every Monday; see my companion blog, A Virgo's Guide to Marketing, for the full story, additional links and other marketing-related goodness.

Careful readers will note that this weekly update, which typically posts of a Monday, is posting instead on a Wednesday.

This is due to circumstances which were completely within my control, but which I failed to accept as such. I assumed that there would be time and energy to write this post when we arrived at our destination motel on Sunday night, after a full day of driving. I assumed that there would be high-speed Internet (we only stay at the cheapest motels, which seem to be much better about delivering the goods than the ritzy, business-traveler ones). I assumed that if, for some reason, there was not, I'd be able to use my boyfriend's high-speed travel modem as a backup.

You all remember that Odd Couple episode where Felix shows the group what happens when you A-S-S-U-M-E: you make an ass out of "u" and...

This week—week 17, just over a third of the way in—was FAIL week. Failing to write, failing to post, failing to plan. While we're at it, other than the most basic of marketing duties—following up with prospects, posting to my regular blog, maintaining a minimal presence on Twitter and Facebook—this week was also a big FAIL. I'll be honest: in my panic to get as many things as I could out the door before I left for a five-day road trip (at least it was to some kind of networking event), I did not even crack open the calendar.

Ilise and I gave a webinar on cold calling this Tuesday—one of the many things I was racing to finish prep on before heading for the desert and its spotty, spotty 3G reception—and something struck me during the course of the call: it is so easy to throw in the towel when things don't go well. Just as Deidre was grappling with things a couple of weeks ago, this week, during many stretches on the drive home, I listened to MP3s of Joe Frank radio shows and let my thoughts drift to fantasies of a Stupid Day Job that would leave me with time and energy to just write. Or be a Buddhist nun. (There's a lot of Jack Kornfield in those episodes.)

But I was reinvigorated by today's call, and today's results. Despite not feeling well or energetic, as I'm very much under the weather, I managed to have a useful and productive day. Not the best-planned of days, but that's good, too: it's helping me to see the value of planning.

I hope you're chugging along with your calendar. I intend to get back on the horse tomorrow, and make sure I'm well-rested for my monthly Biznik meetup in the evening. And I intend to make some of those calls and chip away at a page or two on the website I've been meaning to update.

And then, I intend to use this next weekend's trip for rest and reflection—a pre-mid-year look at where I'm at, where I've gone off the rails, and what I want the rest of the year to look like...realistically.

How are you doing? And if you're going strong, I'd love to hear what you're doing (besides reading these updates!) to keep yourself in the game and motivated.