Marketing Curveball

These past two weeks, I have been focused on marketing and business growth. I have a few openings to take on new clients and I want to work with motivated business owners and partners who need to move forward, but are at a crossroads. How do I find them? Like any profession, how do you find your ideal client? Where are they?

In the old days, there were tons of networking events to attend and I'd meet tons of people, exchange business cards, and start to build relationships. I would advertise at trade shows, speak on panels, write articles. Today, I find that there are less events as many people want to network online. Fine. I can do that. So I participate in LinkedIn and Allignable events, make comments on postings, join groups, and reach out to complementary businesses. It is still not enough. I'm building wonderful relationships, but not yet growing my business. Time to shift to marketing mode.

I took the plunge and hired a marketing consultant who is putting together an electronic outreach campaign for me where I am "guaranteed" warm leads of interested parties for business coaching services. I have a lot invested in this and know that this approach works as I get scores of offers each day through the same process. We are positioning the outreach to my target market. I set the tone of the communication, keeping it positioned consistent with my brand and messaging and focused on the clients with which I want to work. I'm looking forward to our success.

Then I was thrown a curveball. Do I want to advertise in print, radio, and online through a university's basketball schedule? Uh, probably not. These schedules will be in bars, restaurants, stores, anywhere around town. Nope. Not my audience. I'm not a landscaping company, bail bondsman, or real estate agent, and my buyers do not pick coaches while throwing back $3 beers. Your company will be mentioned on ESPN radio 20 times. Okay, so what? I find the local sports radio broadcasters on that particular local affiliate to be annoying. And we'll do a Facebook and Instagram campaign too. Again, sounds nice, but how is that going to get me coaching clients? I did not even go to this university and I am not really a college basketball fan! Every reason to say no.

It kept bothering me, not leaving my brain as I kept going through the same set of reasons not to do it. But a couple benefits kept nudging at me, so I asked Harry, my new marketing guru, about the opportunity. Surprisingly, he said YES, go for it! Why? How does this align with the image I am creating? Here are reasons that are not immediately obvious, but ultimately beneficial to short- and long-term success:

• I can build credibility by using this university's nationwide goodwill through affiliation with their basketball program;
• I get visibility and name recognition, so when I reach out to prospects, they will have heard Pivot-TBC already;
• I can now reach out to every other business who advertises this way and have a commonality to start the conversation (lead generation);
• You never know-- someone may even hire a business coach after seeing my ad.

I went ahead and agreed to advertise. I got a nice corner spot so those wearing beer goggles or in a meat coma can see it. I also got to use my creativity and designed an ad that is completely different than any other ad on the schedule. This should create buzz and make more people want to see it. And, I bet on future schedules, others will copy my idea and it will become standard practice.

The point is not only did I trust my gut and not immediately write this off, but I also had to look at it for a different outcome than how the ad salesman tried to sell it to me. BTW-- I yelled at him because he was too desperate to get me on the schedule and was becoming annoying (public service announcement- - I can help with that). But once I clarified to myself how I specifically can benefit from this, thanks to Harry, this low-cost option has its benefits and became a YES.

You never know what opportunity arises and if it makes sense for your business. What I learned from this experience is that tried and true is great (electronic campaign), but looking at all the options is even better. So with the rush of new prospects expected, if you want to work with me, please contact me through this website or at [email protected]. I'll be the one in the bottom left corner!