We often think about business marketing in epic terms, like coordinating a six-figure launch, or undertaking a massive Facebook advertising campaign.
In fact, most stable, enduring businesses grow one small seed at a time.
One helpful Tweet at a time.
One presentation to a small audience at a time.
One prospective client call at a time.
One exceptional demonstration of customer service at a time.
Unmarketing’s Scott Stratten describes this as the little things that makes a company truly awesome in his excellent 50 minute keynote at DMA 2012 .
In order to know which seeds to plant, you need to do a little pre-planning.
When I spoke at the San Francisco and Phoenix Spark & Hustle events produced by Good Morning America’s Tory Johnson, she suggested having a list of your 50 top prospects at all times.
Every day, reach out to someone on your Top 50 list.
If they flat out say no, take them off the list. If they turn into a customer, take them off the list and replace them with a new prospect.
Focus on planting small seeds in the right places every day, and you will see real, sustainable business growth.
Your seed planting homework
- Identify a core offer that you want to sell in the next two quarters
- Create a list of your top 50 prospects for this offer
- Define a simple and comfortable set of steps (or “seeds”) you can implement right away. For example:
A. Send email of introduction, including specific things you enjoy about the person or their brand
B. A bit later, send a piece of useful information (an article, a productivity hack, a book)
C. Identify their 2 main channels of communication (ie Twitter and LinkedIn)
D. Interact with them on their channels of communication
E. Pay attention to what they need
F. Help them get what they need
G. If what you have to offer is part of what they need, awesome! - Plant two seeds every day.
This was incredibly inspiring for me! Great advice – a support network is something that people have to build for themselves but so often, we become complacent and just wait for things to happen for us, and we forget that we need to make things happen!
It always amazes me how incredibly powerful the simple things are! A list of 50 prospects. A list of 50 people with whom you wish to build a business relationship. A list of 50 people you can help.
Really useful stuff. Thank you.
Pam,
Thanks for breaking down the obvious! I have been working on growing a business, but I keep looking at it as a bigger picture and that can be overwhelming. This makes it feel manageable.
Claudia
Love this post Pam and will implement first thing Monday morning (as I’m heading away shortly for a long weekend!).
I’ve always really struggled to work out ways to grow my business without a big launch to promote or publicise. Thank you!
Glad you related to it Jen! I am becoming a huge fan of the “many seeds” philosophy of marketing. There is a time and a place for a launch, but it does not have to be the only part of your marketing strategy.
For your biz, I would think that really focusing on referrals would be a great way to grow.
Awesome and SO true, Pam! It is the small steps that help you to make a journey of a thousand miles..
It makes the journey so much more enjoyable to do a little seed planting each day!
Even if we plant 1 seed every day, that is more than 300 in a year.
So true Faisal!