Flying By The Seat Of Your Pants Will Always Result In A Crash Landing

I know what it is like to just be ready to go when you're starting something new in business or starting a new business all together. You know you have good products &/or services that are worth the money you want to charge for them. You know that you need and deserve the money that would come from the sale of those products and services. It's only natural to want nothing more than to jump at each and every chance to make those things start flowing out of your field of view so that the money you receive for them can start flowing in. I've seen it be done over and over again though, where company after company and individual after individual either motivated by excitement or by fear or anxiousness, jumps into selling without a real plan &/or without sticking to the plan they may have created.

ALL SUCCESSFUL COMPANIES HAVE THE FOLLOWING AS A MINIMUM:

1. A planned marketing focus that goes as far out as possible on their calendar
2. A play by play plan on how/when they are going to market each of the items on that marketing focus set out on a timeline as time moves forward
3. A checks & balances system to insure that their promotional efforts are accurate, of good quality and aesthetically pleasing to the potential customer's eye. Paying attention to the details is very important.
4. A priority list & plan for what steps to take if/when things change due to unforeseen circumstances
5. A requirement that anything new that is added to the plan does not hinder that which is already in process and in place

WHY ARE THESE THINGS IMPORTANT?

I want you to imagine, for a moment, how things work in nature. If a particular species wishes to continue along in the world without becoming extinct, those capable of reproducing must take certain steps. A male cardinal, for example, must first begin doing the work of attracting his mate by eating properly, learning how to build a sturdy nest, getting the proper exercise, choosing a suitable location from which to attract his mate. Only after accomplishing those things will he be successful at attracting her. Once he has done all of that, he then begins to seek out the perfect female to produce with - it takes a bit of time, but eventually he will find a match and you can guarantee there will be no lack of competition, which is why his first steps will come in handy.

Upon choosing his target mate, he must then begin going step by step through the processes that will attract her to him above all others. He must, under all circumstances, stay focused upon that one target mate if he is to succeed. If he allows his focus to waiver, even for a moment, that is the moment his competition steps into the space he provided and takes the attention of his target. If he decides that his focus is on promiscuity and fun, rather than on spreading his product, then he becomes easily distracted by every female cardinal that flies by while he is in the midst of his mating ritual & in the end the likelihood of him having the chance to spread his product will be nothing more than a 50/50 toss-up between being a complete failure or merely a lucky fluke. The only logical time for that male cardinal to take his focus off of his primary target is either when he reaches the extreme of failure or success. Only then must he move on to the next target. If he focuses on too many things at once, he will never have the time or energy to complete them all with any sort of success.

This is exactly what you must do in your own online marketing situation. Prepare yourself for attracting your target customer/niche. Get a website up, Create a way to collect email addresses, Create an email distribution schedule to communicate with those on your list, Know your audience and plan relevant topics to share with them, Create a blog, Create Facebook pages, Twitter accounts, LinkedIn accounts & pages, YouTube Channels etc. and plan exactly what will best attract your target customer/niche on each of those channels. Stay focused on your plan and your niche only changing when your target niche changes or when an unforeseen circumstance occurs where you have no choice but to cancel your focus.

There is a certain maturity that customers expect when working with someone in business & more than that, it is the logical and linear flow of nature that we must follow a plan in order to continue with success. When I consider those who are just living life without a solid plan that takes priority, those who are easily distracted from one thing to the next based on not much more than a goal of finding the quickest path to being satisfied & happy - the first thing that comes to mind is the image of a toddler crying over their mom leaving them at daycare and their caregiver dangling a toy in front of them. The speed at which they lose their focus on keeping their mother there, is a direct reflection of just how quickly their mom is willing to leave. In business no one wants to be a toddler - our goal is to be mature in business and proceed with a linear, logical approach to a focused plan. I urge you all to set a clear plan & keep yourself informed on the time & energy it may take for you or your staff to complete that plan with any success before allowing yourself to be distracted by everything that someone dangles before you as a potentially satisfactory tool.

The Blah Blah Blah of Online Sales

How many times have you been sitting at dinner when the phone rings and you pick it up only to hear a sales pitch being blasted in your ear? We all know how it starts - the peppy introduction, the insincere "how are you doing?", the lame "I'm a regular guy just like you" joke and then..... THE PITCH. What do we do? We keep telling them no - do they listen? NO. They keep going and going and going & eventually you simply tune them out until you find the opportunity for another no and a take me off your list.

I remember seeing the cartoon below in a book when I was a kid and thinking "that's how I feel when my dad is talking to me". This all too familiar scene is the same whether it's a parent and his teenage daughter or a person in an online social media platform trying to convince everyone to purchase their product. Keep this in mind when you are about to pitch something and remember that no one wants to hear sales language whether on the phone or when they're reading it online.



What is sales language?... Simple - It's any language that includes a pitch of some sort - sales, marketing, campaigns, verticals, leveraging etc. These are all examples of things that use sales language. Sales language generally serves only to alienate your potential customer rather than actually sell them, & the only time it really succeeds in this day and age, is when the net is cast so wide that it simply can't help but to scoop up a few fish as a default of the numbers game. We all have an inner lie detector that goes on immediately when we know we are being pitched to, that has us seeking out the thing within the pitch that makes it too good to be true. When that "too good to be true-o-meter" goes off (which happens quickly) you've lost your audience, and have become just like that time share salesman who looks up after talking for 2 hours, only to realize that no one is in the room and he's been talking to the dust mites.

Just remember, online marketing in social media is all about engagement, interaction and value. Those things don't come from you posting your events, products and services out the wazoo on your pages, and they surely don't come from you blocking people from commenting or posting on those same pages. Your level of interaction and sincere engagement with your potential customers about things of value related to your niche, is going to be directly reflective of your level of success with social media marketing.

Always remember that the person who posts their own views without interaction with others, or the person who's only emails to people are about their own products, events and services is no different than the telemarketer with the lame joke on the end of your phone during dinner. Just like you tune that telemarketer out - your followers and friends will do the same to you - that's why FaceBook has the option to hide people from your news feed and many other platforms have similar capabilities. Don't be deluded into thinking that because you are posting everyone is reading what you have to say. If you are just posting sales lingo posts and/or are blocking people from engaging your page, you're most likely like the time share salesman who looks up to find he's talking to the air because I can guarantee you that most people are simply hiding your posts from their view.

Good Things Come To Those Who Wait

We all want our products and services to just fly off the shelves as people from all around visit our website seeking just what it is we have to offer. Is that what is happening for you? Probably not. Regardless whether or not you're using standard marketing, social media marketing or a combination of both there is generally a time gap between the marketing and the sale. So just how long does social media marketing take for you to see a return on your investment (ROI)?

For me, it took at least 2-3 years before I ever made any money worth mentioning via social media. That time frame isn't necessarily the standard for every person or product but it is a good time frame to keep in mind. Just last week, I listened to/watched two separate social media webinars. One of them was hosted by HubSpot and the other by David Riklan of SelfGrowth.com . Both of these people/groups are very well known and both of them referenced how both the general social media statistics as well as their own experience don't show a significant profit from social media until around the 3 year mark. Why is that? Part of the reason for that is because there is almost always a learning curve & the other part is because social media is a different kind of marketing than other marketing routes. So what is the reason for a person to make a go at social media?

First - everyone is moving toward social media and all of the experts are predicting that any company that is not consistently doing a portion of their marketing on social media within the next 5 years will not be lasting.

Second - social media is a perfect, tangible symbol of the spiritual concept of how we are all connected. I believe that all people are seeking that deeper connection and that quest to find a deeper connection is what pulls them toward social media like an moth to a light.

Third - Social media provides a lower cost of sale. With a properly functioning plan being put into effect, social media can be very cost effective in comparison to the cost of standard marketing. Whether you do your marketing on your own, hire a full time employee to take care of it all for you or hire an outside company, you are still spending less money than you would on comparable standard marketing endeavors.

Fourth - Social media provides you with the opportunity for longer client retention. In social media marketing, you are literally creating a relationship with your customers/potential customers and it is relationships in combination with a good product that creates loyalty in the hearts and minds of those customers. Social media is all about a personal, trust-based business relationship & it creates a feeling between the business and the client that is much like the small mom & pop shop where the owners knew everyone who came in & were willing to help them with much more than a simple sale.

That relationship and that connection is what social media is all about, it's what makes social media work, it's what attracts your customers and potential customers to it like moths to flames. In fact, even if marketing and making money are not the focus, I don't believe it makes sense for the spiritual community to not connect and inspire the world via social media. The general spiritual community believes that there is a deeper connection that unites us all & the world is seeking that connection through social media..... so why not you?

I'd like to share another video with you - This one was shared with me by one of you who receives my newsletter and it happens to go perfectly in line with the video you already watched in the article above. Where do you fall on the bell curve?