September 2024 Marketing Strategy
Without marketing, the company is sunk. I'll spend 80% of my time in September marketing. I posted a more comprehensive list of marketing and advertising ideas in the General Discussion and a Google Doc in the Cool Tools section. Marketing is a process, as defined by marketer Seth Godin, where you help your prospects discover they have a challenge or problem, and that you can solve that challenge or problem. Advertising (a form of marketing) is just a paid extension of marketing. So once you nail down your message in marketing, then it's ok to advertise. I'm starting with $0. There will be no advertising initially unless I could barter. I do have a good sense of the marketing message due to my past experience but it'll definitely be marketing to start. Here's what I will consider in a week-by-week play on in the month of September: At $0: Social Media Marketing Blogging Blog guest posting Podcast guesting Google Business Profile Door to Door (only for prospects' neighbors...I'm there anyway) Paid referrals (free because the $$$$ comes from any new client they refer) Unpaid referrals (only from new contacts) Cold calling Free PR Adopt a Highway (free w/ signage here) At <$500 (when $$$ comes in): Email marketing (sites like MailChimp are free for first 14 or 30 days) Website Door to door w/ flyers (flyers cost $$$) Sales letters Podcast Networking Posting on Quora, Medium and others (fee involved plus I need to pay for a website) SEO (SEO is free but a website is needed first) Lead magnets (again, website needed) I want to keep this project authentic. There are others I can do for free like unpaid referrals, strategic alliances, marketing to past leads/clients, etc. but that would mean tapping into existing clients, and I won't do that for this project. And I'll stop with the list. I'll adjust on occasion. I'll create a weekly game plan mostly from this list for marketing.