I recently reviewed my client list over the past 18 months to see where my clients had come from so that I could fine tune my marketing efforts. You see, Smart Simple Marketing is not about doing more. It’s not about doing the “latest and greatest thing”. It about doing what works and doing that consistently.
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.
