MARKETING SKEPTICS, BEWARE!
Last week I received an email from a client of mine for whom we had recently done a Marketing Makeover. When he first contacted me, he had a million questions, such as "Will all this marketing stuff really increase my response? Does sending out articles really create more business? Don't people just throw your stuff away like junk mail?"
I love questions-especially from a "marketing skeptic." Skepticism is good. I encourage everyone to be a marketing skeptic. Skeptics don't just believe what they hear. They look for hard scientific evidence-they want proof something works.
So why do I love skeptics so much? Because the look on their face is so amazing when I prove to them that good marketing works.
This skeptical client of mine was reluctant to have his marketing made over. He was concerned-and rightly so-that the cost would not justify the return. I understand this feeling. Good marketing is expensive. The worry over spending money on marketing has been the cause of many a sleepless night.
But he eventually bit the bullet. He was dissatisfied with his current results and signed up for a makeover. I could tell he was still nervous, but I admire his courage in committing to DOING something, rather than continuing to do what he has already proven doesn't work to bring in a steady stream of clients.
We gave him a new look, a sharper design, and set him up with the Safari Club articles. All he had to do was just send them out to his database in a new format with his picture and new designs. Now, of course, the articles are written by me, but his clients never know this fact. And there's no deceit involved-he doesn't claim he wrote the articles himself. They're just good, solid information that every homeowner should be aware of.
So, back to where I started. I get an email from him this week that said,
"Denise, I've only sent out two articles, but you would not believe the response I've received!"
And not only did he get a good response, he got a listing! This one listing will MORE than pay for his entire Marketing Makeover.
Why is it we find it so difficult to make a decision to redo our marketing? Is it that we don't believe it will work? I think it's more than that, because there's more than enough proof out there that it does work. I believe it has more to do with confronting the fact that your old stuff isn't working.
It takes a lot of effort and courage to look at your business and truly see what's going well-but more importantly to see what needs to change. You may love everything you've created so far and can't believe that you're not getting the results from something you've put so much time into. But if it's not working, it's not working. Period.
It's a hard truth, but you may as well face it and change it-no matter how much money you invested in getting to where you are. Everything in life-and in business-needs to change when necessary.
Making over your marketing can also mean changing your own philosophy of doing business. When agents come to me to have their materials made over, they are forced to think about what they really do as an agent. By the time they've gone through the process, they often are liberated from old processes and thoughts that were hampering them. And they get excited about implementing the new plan.
It's not just about the marketing itself. It's where the marketing makeover takes you. It's hard to do yourself, but when you have an outsider probing into your business, you see so much that you couldn't see before.
Many agents never go down this road of self-observation. It's very hard to judge yourself. But when someone else asks you the tough questions and forces you to see yourself from an outside perspective, you become a better agent. The process of making over your marketing can be a life-changing-or at least business-changing-experience.
I was so thrilled because I was able to "convert" a skeptic into a believer in the true power of marketing.
(Oddly, I find that MEN-yes, men!-have a hard time with having well-designed materials. The male agents I know have more difficulty believing that beautifully cohesive and colorful marketing materials make a difference. Is there a psychological reason for this? I don't know, but all I'm here to do is to give you what works, so if you're a guy lose your skepticism and give it a try.)
Skepticism can be a mean bug, because it often keeps us from acting. But used properly, it can act as the very proof we need to take the hard step of confronting our business and ourselves-which when done properly propels us to the next level of success.
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