Hey everyone! So I’m adding a new category to the blog: Marketing. I may as well; you’ll be surprised by how much marketing is a part of your journey whether you’re a business owner or not. Anyway, the first post under this category will be a review of a marketing program I use for my own business, I hope this review helps any of you looking to get out of analysis paralysis and into action mode with marketing your business.

Marketing is one of those words that resonate differently with people. If you went to school or took a business course in the process of becoming a business owner you will have heard something like there’s a marketing mix which consists of the 4 P’s of marketing: product, place, price, and promotion, and while that’s all fine and dandy if you’re a business to consumer selling products say for example specialty dog collars, according to the Harvard Business Review that model may be worth rethinking for other folks. This especially makes sense when your products are more than likely info-products and the majority of your business is giving an intangible value-based service.

So, I began a search for a solution that spoke the language that a service-based business owner could relate to. I wanted to test the strategies in such a solution to see if a “back to the basics” marketing agenda could still bring the right results in this highly technical society and if using such a back to basics model could bridge the gap between traditional marketing, and the marketing of my current specialty, digital marketing. I also wanted to find a solution that made marketing fun, systematic, and could me help my clients see that marketing was so much more than sales, yet show how to market a business authentically, with an end goal of getting a client now!

I came across the book, “Get Clients Now!” A 28-day Marketing Program for Professionals, Consultants, and Coaches! By C.J. Hayden. And I absolutely loved the simplicity of the system, the basic definition of marketing, which according to the book was “telling people what you do, over and over” as well as the flexibility it gave me to make the program work for me and personal marketing style, and of course the many lessons you learn about fear, resistance, and self-sabotaging thinking that keep you from taking action to close the deal.

I purchased the book early in the year and went through the program alone the 1st time, while I did well, I slacked off a bit and moved the program down the priority list, and suffered the consequences. So, The second time around I took the program with my colleague, Donna Feldman who was an amazing group facilitator and coach for the Get Client’s Now program. She really went the extra mile for our group, keeping us on track with our goals, and action steps aka marketing tactics as well as making herself available even after the program was over. She also made it easy for everyone in the group to keep in touch, (always be networking).

So what were my personal results? Well, I got booked for speaking engagements, (speaking was something out of my comfort zone) got more determined to build real relationships with my online network which in turn got me noticed by the media, which in turn helped me attract more prospects, new opportunities, and eventually, new clients.

I highly suggest taking the group coaching program rather than going through the reading and program alone. The peer support and accountability will really help you on days when you don’t feel like working on your program. You also get clarification about concepts from the book from 1 of only 2 of the authors’ leading coaches, (Donna). The networking and the learning process itself are priceless.

This post originally appeared in “Your Marketing Matters” by A & D Media