Here are the major take aways:     

Fortunately, achieving your goals and creating your version of success is yours for the taking with a little planning, organization and consistent effort. Whether you’re looking for more clients, more visibility or more income in your business, you can reach all of these goals by creating and following through with a marketing plan.

If you've struggled with your marketing efforts in the past, you may be wondering, "Sydni, where do I start?" The answer is simple.

Based on what you’ve accomplished so far, what would you like to accomplish next? And what is the gap between where you're at now and where you want to be? Once you're clear on the gap, then you want to determine exactly what you need to do to bridge the gap. While it’s nice to think “I want to increase my income by $1500 each month” or “I want to attract six new clients,” you’ll never see those goals accomplished unless you’ve got a marketing plan to back it up.

Keep these questions in mind when you are planning your marketing activities for the next year:

• What would you REALLY like to accomplish? Setting clear and SPECIFIC goals for the next year is the first step to filling the gaps in your business. You need to know exactly where you want to be in the next year in order to outline the steps you’ll need to take to get there. If you didn’t reach your goals from the previous year, that can be a good starting point for next year.
• What are you currently doing to market your solutions? Look back over the last year and analyze the steps that you’ve taken. Does your marketing plan support your goals? What kind of results did you get from your marketing activities in the past year? Using your current plan (or lack thereof!) is a good starting point for developing a new plan. You can see exactly what went well for you and what didn’t based on your previous results.
• What will you do differently in the next year? Identify opportunities to make changes in the way that you do things so you can be more consistent and more effective with marketing. For example, you can use a tool like Postling.com to schedule your social media updates. You can create a content calendar so it’s easy to put together blog posts each month. You can hire a Virtual Assistant to take care of some of your follow-up activities or handle admin tasks so you have more time for marketing.

1. Determine what you want to accomplish in your business within the next 6-12 months. Look back to last year’s goals and plan out goals for the next 6 to 12 months. Do you want a certain amount of income? Do you want a certain number of clients? For best results, be SPECIFIC.
2. Analyze your current marketing activities. Are they in line with your goals? If your marketing plan doesn’t support your goals, it's time to make some changes. (You have to take different action if you want different results.)
3. Set yourself up for success! Register for my upcoming "Create Your Money Map" training, so I can walk you step by step through how to create your customized plan. You'll also learn how to set up systems and what specific strategies that you can use in order to market your business consistently to meet your goals.

After I completed my analysis, I found the statistics fascinating:

• 27% of my clients came from FREE Teleseminars I'd hosted or participated in
• 25% came from Online Marketing
• 19% came from Referrals
• 15% came from Networking

The other three areas, speaking (live), webinars and social media all yielded results of less than 10% of my overall client base.

What does this tell me? Exactly where I should be focusing my efforts! Based on the numbers, I should focus my time, energy and resources on the four strategies that yield the greatest return. I should refine my messaging so that it's more appealing and relevant when I am hosting free calls, marketing on the web, encouraging referrals and networking.

What does this have to do with you? That you should do the exact same thing. Set aside an hour to review your client list over the past 12-18 months. If you haven't had a lot of clients, review your prospects list (those who were interested in your offerings but for whatever reason didn't convert) and see where they REALLY came from.  You may be surprised by what the numbers show and now see a clear path as to where you should focus your attention.

With the myriad of marketing options available to us as service professionals these days, it's easy to become overwhelmed. That makes it very hard for us to make a decision about what we should be doing to grow our businesses. So, one easy way to move past the overwhelm is to stop, analyze what's working vs. what's not working and re-group to just focus on the activities that make sense for your business.

I'd love to hear what you discover about your marketing efforts from completing this exercise. What does your analysis show that YOU should be focusing on? Do tell by posting your comments below.

Do you know where you are going in 2011? Have you drawn out a ‘road map’ for the direction you plan to take and assembled all the tools necessary to assure you will reach your business goals in the coming year?

I know people who refuse to ask for directions when traveling. They think they will be able to eventually figure out where they are and where they need to be – and they may – but at what expense? An extra cost in gas? Arriving late to their destination, perhaps missing out an important opportunity? Or at the very least, experiencing more frustration and stress than necessary, potentially spoiling what could have been an otherwise enjoyable journey. Wouldn’t it be easier to just stop, regroup, and ask for help from someone more familiar with the area?

While you alone are responsible for following through on your New Year’s Resolutions – here are some simple strategies for service professionals which are sure to assist in making that resolution a reality:    

The same principle applies to growing your business.  If you want to serve more people, create more profits, and enjoy more freedom in your business, you must make the decision to do things differently than you are currently doing.  And that starts with your mindset.

I find that many service professionals understand this, but struggle to take the first step because their mind is cluttered with ideas, client requests, overdue to-do items, and more.  REALLY- the first step must be to de-clutter and organize your mind, so that you can think clearly, determine exactly what you want to accomplish, and start taking the necessary, strategic action to achieve your goal.

Do you find any of the following details to be cluttering your mind?

You've gotten clear on what you want to accomplish in your business. You've set specific, measurable goals for yourself. You've mapped out a plan and scheduled time on your calendar to take consistent action. What else can you do to ensure that you achieve your goal of consistently attracting ideal clients to your business?

Two things:

1. Determine how to eliminate your goal saboteurs
2. Create a support/accountability system to keep you on track

First, let's address the goal saboteurs. We ALL have them. Overcoming them is simply a matter of acknowledging yours and setting up systems to eliminate them.

The most common saboteur I see is "bright shiny object" syndrome. If you have ever taken small children to a candy store, you may have laughed to yourself as you watched them run around the store trying to taste everything they could put their hands on. There is no focus or logic to their decisions. They just want to try everything.

You don't want to run your business this way, where you're chasing every new opportunity presented to you, without any rhyme or reason. If you have a tendency to always want to try the next "new" thing, recognize that you have to have rein yourself in. From today forward, start making decisions in your business based on which path will get you closest to your specific goals. Setup a support system so that you don't get sidetracked and lose sight of what you're trying to accomplish.

Unfortunately, this is often where service professionals get stuck. If we allow it to, analysis paralysis can set in and we can find ourselves overwhelmed; spinning our wheels, wasting time, and accomplishing nothing. But, those who are successful in business don't stand around waiting for results to land in their lap. They boldly take the first step, even if they're more than a little afraid and haven't quite figured out all the details.

The three most common excuses I hear for not marketing one’s business are:

• "I don't know where to start"
• "I'm too busy and don't have time to market"
• "I don't have the money to invest in marketing"

If any of these thoughts have ever crossed your mind, you may be wondering how to go about breaking through such limiting notions and creating results in your business.

Here are a few suggestions that will help:

Once you are clear on what you'd like to change and just what your baseline is, it's time to start setting some goals.  Setting goals is a critical factor in your business success for the following reasons:

• Setting goals gives you something to work toward.
• Working toward goals allows you to measure your progress.
• When you stay focused on your goals you will be more likely to say no to distractions that could delay your progress.

Setting and achieving your goals will increase your confidence, improve the quality of the services you offer and make you more attractive to prospects.  When defining your goals, it’s important to keep a few things in mind:

I find though, that many service professionals feel that they don't have time to do so.  It can be easy to become so consumed in serving the clients you do have and running your business that your marketing efforts may unintentionally be pushed aside.

If you've ever found yourself having "fallen off the wagon" when it comes to your marketing efforts, you'll be happy to know that a quick and easy tune-up can get you right back on track.