From Floundering to Fabulous: 3 Tips to Great Marketing That Attracts More Clients

I was out on Saturday evening for sushi after the spa with a girlfriend (it’s a popular Saturday evening ritual), and the savvy waiter (savvy because she knows my girlfriend and I are marketing experts) requests us to take a look at her massage therapy “promotional flyer” and provide our feedback. Well…ask and you shall receive.

'It was to our advantage we had already ordered our meals because the waitress was NOT going to like listening to my feedback,' I think to myself.

One of the biggest and most costly errors I see clients making is spending thousands of dollars on crappy marketing material like flyers, yellow page ads, fancy-schmancy websites that do everything but cook your pancakes for you. While all of the above look really good, they don’t actually engage your audience to take action and pick up the phone and call you to do business.

ENGAGING with you, creating a relationship with you – and ultimately doing business with you – that is what great marketing is all about.

The truth is, most people will grab your expensive flyer and toss it in the garbage along with all of that nice colorful language that took you not hours, not days, not weeks but MONTHS of preparation. Which is yet just another reason to procrastinate NOT getting out there … “I’m waiting for my flyer to be ready.” Procrastination is a whole other mindset topic in itself, so let’s stick to the topic – how to create great marketing.

My friend and I shared with the waitress as politely as we could our feedback on her flyer and could see the excitement drain from her face. Ok, I wasn’t as polite as I could have been but that’s just me – you may not like what I have to say but I am always brutally honest. I can’t help myself when it comes to marketing and sales. I spent 4 years on the road, day in and day out, on the mop stage doing live product demonstrations from store to store, selling THOUSANDS of mops to all kinds of people in all kinds of situations. It’s turned me into a walking talking marketing machine. Some people call it a gift.

1. The bottom line is this…don’t waste your time or your money on expensive flyers UNLESS…you know EXACTLY who your target market is and you spell it out on your marketing material literally on the title of your flyer – you know those online opt in pages when you go to sign up for a free teleclass? Take a look at the top of the pages and you will see something like “Attention: coaches, healers, speakers, authors, etc.” these pages work so well to grab your attention and sign up because they are qualifying the audience. You want your material to do that too, you want to make it easy for your audience to say “YUP that’s me!” and then sign up.

2. Which brings me to another problem I see with a lot of holistic practitioners and solopreneurs marketing material –your marketing is too vague.

I know in the beginning I was guilty of this one too – I think we all are starting out. You need clients – you don’t really know who your clients are yet but you know you need them, so you say yes to everyone and your marketing is some kind of open blanket statement like “Life Coach.” Ok, that isn’t even really a statement, but that’s how most people start out. You want your message to stand out and grab your audience’s attention, and you do that by positioning it in one of these 2 ways:

A. A solution to a problem
For example: Escape the 9-5 work and start your own business
Lose the Last 20 lbs Without Starving Yourself or Yoyo Dieting
Instant Stress Relief Without Harmful Drugs, Side Effects or Medication

B. A benefit
For example: Attract 5 New Clients by Next Week
Look and Feel Fit, Fabulous and Sexy Over 50
5 Simple Keys to Attract Your Soulmate

People are always looking to avoid pain and gain pleasure. It’s instinctual – don’t fight it, just work with it. There is a reason as one of my marketing mentors Adam Urbanski says: “People buy more pain killers like Tylenol than they do vitamins.” And he’s right. When people have an urgent problem, they are looking for someone who can offer them a solution. Position your language and marketing to do that and presto – you’ve created great marketing that attracts clients.

3. Get out there and start making offers to the right audience who can say YES to your offers and then correct your message as you go. Nothing beats getting into action. Most entrepreneurs have this fear of having to be perfect of having to get it right before they get out of the gate but if you study the most successful entrepreneurs, they are those who get out there and test, test and test. Look at the Wright brothers, they failed 100 times before they got the plane off the ground. You have to be willing to test out your message and your offers and self correct as you go. That’s been my secret to success.

And if you enjoyed this article please share the love!
To Your Love, Expansion & Freedom
Vanessa