Pull Marketing: How to get business to come to you

Do you find clients, or do clients find you?

It's a simple question: By and large, do you have to go looking for clients or do you get sufficient business from clients looking for you?

If you're in the latter category, you don't need to read any further.

If not, you might want to consider whether your default definition of marketing has become a focus on pushing your service, instead of a system for clients to find you.

Before you dismiss the possibility of changing how you get business, consider the key differences between the two approaches.

When you focus entirely on finding clients for your services, the following invariably apply:

= Each set of actions tends to form a separate campaign, sometimes without any overall connecting strategy.

= Most outbound marketing involves “delivery costs” – printing and post for direct marketing, space or time for advertising – and to make it worse, much of the audience which is reached is not your market.

= If a tactic is repeated it means repeating the costs, even if the details remain identical.

= If you decide to adapt a campaign for another market or delivery mechanism, this will involve additional costs for the adaptation and more for the delivery.

When you focus on developing a system for clients to find you, the following tend to apply:

= You base your marketing around the messages you want to get across – using different channels of communication, but keeping the core messages the same.

= Because the most effective communication channels are free, you tend to use them and there are fewer “delivery costs”.

= Your message-based strategy means your efforts are self-targeting, so there’s less waste.

= Adaptation for different communication channels is easier. Repetition is usually possible with minimal cost.

With lower per-unit expenses and higher conversion ratios, costs-per-sale compare favourably.

With comparisons like this, you’d think all service businesses would market themselves this way. The reason they don’t is because it is not obvious, and because “push” strategies seem easy.

It can be difficult to understand the perspective which prospects might have of the questions which your service provides an answer to.

It can be more difficult to develop strategies and material to attract potential clients, qualify their interest, and encourage them to respond. But the effort is worth it in the end.

For more information about the difference between marketing to find clients and marketing for clients to find you, ask for the special report “Pull Marketing – what it is and how it works”.

If you want to apply this yourself in your business (with expert guidance), find out how Individual Coaching with The Marketing Coach can help you achieve success for less than the cost of a junior, part-time office assistant.