Are You Reinventing The Wheel In Your Marketing?

When I first got serious about filling my marketing programs, I knew it was going to require me to (gasp) talk to people, live and in person, or at least on the phone. (You out-going types may not see the problem, but my fellow-traveling introverts understand what I’m saying. And truth be told, even the most sociable business owner can suddenly become tongue-tied when faced with a “selling conversation.”) Well, I knew that playing it by ear wasn’t going to cut it. I needed to create a template to follow so I could be certain to touch on all the important points that would lead a prospective client to see the value of my offer. Template, blueprint, guide, model – whatever you call them, I’m a big believer that templates are the smart entrepreneur’s solution to leapfrogging your way to your business goals. There’s a mistaken belief floating around that using a template is cheating or will come off as “canned.” But think about it this way – is it cheating for an architect to use a blueprint, or for a chef to use a recipe, or for a tailor to use a dress pattern? Hardly! It’s just common sense. Templates are truly an essential tool for doing business well. Just like with the architect, chef and dressmaker, they make your work easier by: * Giving you a ready-made starting point
* Providing a framework for personal creativity
* Offering predictable results Here are my top three ways to use templates most profitably. . . 1 – Don’t prove your creativity by reinventing the wheel Since they’re naturally creative, many heart-centered entrepreneurs resist the idea of using templates because they want to do everything from scratch - thereby creating a whole passel of extra work for themselves! But let me tell you, reinventing the wheel is never a good use of an entrepreneur’s time. I began offering the Passion for Profit Intensive (a step-by-step blueprint for how to get your programs developed and filled) precisely because I saw so many well-intended business owners spinning their wheels, trying to figure out all the steps on their own. There’s no dishonor (or lack of creativity) in building your car around someone else’s wheel. 2 – Understand the framework well enough to improvise When I teach clients how to put together their online marketing campaigns we talk about specific actions and exact wording. But even more importantly, I make sure they understand the structure of a successful launch campaign so they can duplicate their results time and time again, even when the offer, the timing and the price have changed. Whether it’s a promotional email, a preview teleseminar or a one-on-one selling conversation, having a solid grasp of how the whole thing fits together means you can get as creative as you want with the content and still follow the outline. 3 – Make sure it leads to your desired outcome A template isn’t an end in itself. It’s only useful to you if it supports the accomplishment of your goal. For example, there are lots of great templates out there for how to have a warm and fuzzy conversation with prospective clients. But unless your business goal is to have lots of friendly conversations, that kind of template does you no good because it’s not leading the client to ‘yes.’ That’s why I made sure to incorporate friendly persuasion into my What to Say If You Hate to Sell template. So any blueprint, template or model you follow has to not only fit your style and values, it has to effectively get all the results you’re after. Templates Give You Freedom and Security At the Same Time I’ve developed an assortment of templates to help me with the selling conversation, marketing campaigns, promo emails, sales letters, teleseminars, even developing program content. In fact, following a business mentor (something I advocate to all serious entrepreneurs) is an example of a “live” template for success. The savvy business owner recognizes that using templates is a time-saving path to accomplishing your tasks, creatively, reliably and easily. Here’s my coach’s request: Pick one area of your marketing where you’re either not getting consistent results or you’re avoiding it altogether, and find or create a template. Then you can simply follow it to great results.