In the very beginning stages of building my business, my own coach at the time shared with me his version of how to best market a coaching business. He called it a Marketing Pie, and each slice of the pie represented one type of marketing tactic. His advice was to create something similar for my own business to keep a steady stream of clients and customers in my funnel.
I followed his advice and still do today. It's the simplest method to follow and it works.
Here's how to create your own Marketing Pie:
1. Think about and research all the ways you can reach your niche and make a list of them.
2. Take a sheet of paper, draw a big circle in the middle, and draw 4 lines to create 8 slices.
3. Write in one marketing tactic in each slice of the pie.
4. Give each tactic a schedule to follow.
5. Start implementing each slice, one at a time.
Here's an example you can follow:
When working with my private clients, I have them create their own marketing pie on a worksheet I give them that has a big circle with 4 intersecting lines across, which creates 8 slices of the pie.
In each slice, I ask them to write in one marketing tactic they currently use. For example, 'speaking' might be one, or 'writing and submitting articles' might be another, or 'holding free teleseminars' may be another. For any leftover slices, we fill in those with marketing tactics they are both interested in implementing in their business and that speak to their strengths (like doing a live presentation v. a written interview).
A client's marketing pie could include:
- networking via online discussion groups comprised of people in their niche- writing and submitting articles of interest to their niche- networking at offline events where their niche 'hangs out'- holding a free intro teleseminar for people in their niche- holding a live free introductory talk for people in their niche- be a speaker at events that their niche attends- Publish an ezine for their niche- Be a guest expert on podcasts/radio shows for your nicheThen for each of the slices, we attach a schedule to it. So, for example, if my client wants to publish an ezine, we may decide they will send it out once a week. If they decide they want to give a free intro talk, we may decide they will offer it once a month.
The trick to any marketing is consistency. You can't just do something once and expect to reap rewards from it - at least not consistent, long-term ones. That's why putting your slices on a repeated schedule is so important.
Once you start following this method, try not to get comfortable only implementing one or two slices of your marketing pie, even if they seem to work for awhile alone. The best way is to start with one or two, and once those are working well for you, add another and another, until you have all your slices working for you simultaneously. If you do that, you'll enjoy a have an abundance of clients and customers all the time!
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