The Marketing Mix | official blog of the Marketing Mentor community

Growing your business with marketing, week 52: Year in review

This is Week 52 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 the Project Companion Blog, A Virgo's Guide to Marketing, for in-depth posts, additional links and other marketing-related goodness.

Made it! Made it! Made it! Did it work? Would I do it again? Join me on the Virgo Guide where I spill all the dirty details.

And hey—have yourself a merry little Christmas, while you're at it, if you do that sort of thing.

Growing your business with marketing, week 51: The pain of not scheduling

This is Week 51 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 the Project Companion Blog, A Virgo's Guide to Marketing, for in-depth posts, additional links and other marketing-related goodness.

Second-to-last week, but never too late (or too painful) to learn a really valuable lesson. Curious? Join me on the Virgo Guide and I'll share what I've learned I never want to do again!

Growing your business with marketing, week 50: Where opportunity hangs out

This is Week 50 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 the Project Companion Blog, A Virgo's Guide to Marketing, for in-depth posts, additional links and other marketing-related goodness.

At Week 50, a few events occurred that had me taking a long look back at where they came from. The answers speak strongly to the benefits of social media; read all about them at the Virgo Guide.

Growing your business with marketing, week 49: Growing pains

This is Week 49 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 the Project Companion Blog, A Virgo's Guide to Marketing, for in-depth posts, additional links and other marketing-related goodness.

Week 49 brought some serious and unexpected lessons: one bitter, one very, very sweet. Read all about them (and weigh in on what you've learned) on the Virgo Guide.

Growing your business with marketing, week 48: Thankful

This is Week 48 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 the Project Companion Blog, A Virgo's Guide to Marketing, for in-depth posts, additional links and other marketing-related goodness.

Week 48 was a rare week off—from marketing, anyway. Read the story on when and why that can be a good idea (and what makes it possible, at least in part) on the Virgo Guide.

Growing your business with marketing, week 47: Marketing is talking to people

This is Week 47 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 the Project Companion Blog, A Virgo's Guide to Marketing, for in-depth posts, additional links and other marketing-related goodness.

Week 47 found me continuing my two-week tour of the Pacific Northwest, combining (marketing) work with pleasure in a way that had me questioning what's really work, and what's really marketing.

Read the full story, along with this week's round-up of tasks completed, at the Virgo Guide.

Growing your business with marketing, week 46: Chill marketing

This is Week 46 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 the Project Companion Blog, A Virgo's Guide to Marketing, for in-depth posts, additional links and other marketing-related goodness.

46 weeks into this venture, I can say with surety that the best kind of marketing doesn't feel like marketing at all.

Hop over to the Virgo Guide for the skinny on how vacations can be profitable, how work can feel more like vacation and how none of it ever has to feel like marketing.

Growing your business with marketing, week 45: Getting here from there

This is Week 45 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 the Project Companion Blog, A Virgo's Guide to Marketing, for in-depth posts, additional links and other marketing-related goodness.

As it turns out, a busy week of no real marketing-marketing turned out to be the perfect opportunity for reviewing the role that my marketing machine had on bringing the events that made the week so busy to fruition

Visit the Virgo Guide for the thoughts on the importance of relationships, details on how I got here from there, and of course, this week's recap of marketing-related activity.

Growing your business with marketing, week 44: Cumulative marketing

This is Week 44 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 the Project Companion Blog, A Virgo's Guide to Marketing, for in-depth posts, additional links and other marketing-related goodness.

During a week of zero networking events but several one-on-ones and (too?) many blog post, I suddenly had the whole issue of "regular" marketing reframed for me: not only is it a marathon, not a sprint (and cumulative, in a most excellent way), it allows for all kinds of adaptive implementation.

Visit the Virgo Guide to see what I'm talking about in explicit detail, along with some other insights and a schedule for the week.

Growing your business with marketing, week 43: Odds & ends

This is Week 43 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 the Project Companion Blog, A Virgo's Guide to Marketing, for in-depth posts, additional links and other marketing-related goodness.

It was one of those chugging-along weeks for me.

I managed to get a lot done, when I looked back at things, but the week didn't feel particularly special. I guess what happens when you make marketing a conscious part of your daily life is that it does feel more natural and less weird. I'll still get a weird twinge when I have to put out a specific marketing message—I definitely enjoy the ongoing/building/organic style of marketing best—but overall, it's starting to feel as normal as brushing my teeth twice daily, and sometimes, as fun as a lunch out or a Netflix treat between jobs!

Visit the Virgo Guide to see the list of what went down, how I'm starting to deal with travel networking a bit better, and a few other odds and ends.