fast marketing vs. slow marketing

Three months ago, I wrote a blog post called Slow Marketing.

It was all about how it’s okay (even important) to slow down our marketing.

This is a wonderful philosophy but what if you need money yesterday? What if you’re so broke and you can’t afford rent? All of a sudden, the slow approach while philosophically satisfying, doesn’t cut the mustard. So, what do you do when you resonate with a slow approach but you need fast results?

This was a question in my mind when I got on skype with my colleague George Huang (pictured left) of http://freedompreneur.com/. Years ago, George created an income of over $10,000/month in 73 days.

And he did it without most of the things we’re told we need to have.

Note: I’ll be releasing the eye opening transcript of this call for sale soon (at a very affordable price I think you’ll like a lot).

To be clear, he did it without a big list, a Web site or a blog, a bunch of social proof and client success stories, a business card, referral sources and huge hubs, social media, an ethical bribe or free gift, a huge sales funnel with ten levels to it, a million ways to market himself or a business plan.

What did he do?

He did what all of us need to do when we need results fast. He focused and he hustled.

When you need income and clients fast you need to laser in on one project + one marketing method and work it.

George printed out a little poster for a workshop he was planning. And, after wasting a month on trying to get clients with free consultations (which he didn’t know how to do properly) and then two more weeks on a website and blog he went to every morning business networking meeting he could. Each participant had one minute to introduce themselves and he stood up with his little poster and plugged the workshop. He got 19 people to go to his workshop (some for free others paying $25).

At the workshop, he offered a free session to anyone who resonated with his perspective. 13 people took him up on that and then four people became private clients at $1,500 a month. Within 73 days of conceiving of that event, he had seven private clients at $1,500 a month. That adds up in U.S. dollars to $10,500 a month.

This entirely echoes my own experience of creating a lot of money fast. Pick one thing and work it.

When you need money and clients fast what you most need to do is pick a single project focused on a single niche and work it hard.

Once you’ve got the basic project, divide it into steps.

In his case there were three steps . . .

step #1: fill the workshop by using a marketing strategy that played to his strengths. Do you love speaking? Do that. Networking? Do that. Writing? Do that. Don’t worry about doing everything. Just get out there.

step #2: lead the workshop. Give people lots of value and a clear sense of what your point of view is. Let them meet you and get a sense of who you are and how you see things.

step #3: lead the free sessions and, where it felt like a fit, offer his monthly coaching package. Creating a compelling ‘free session’ can be powerful if you avoid the three big mistakes most people make (although George does exclusively paid intro sessions now and can teach you how). You can use that free consultation to figure out (on both sides) if it feels like a fit to explore working together in a more committed way.

Come up with some sort of ongoing package. Some people will do a series of six sessions. Others will set up an annual contract for 12 sessions, one per month. Others will set up an ongoing monthly session with no end date. But invite them to make a larger commitment to their journey and offer your help on it. It’s okay if they say ‘no’ to you. They might just say yes.

But  this whole model would have been a huge waste of time and money if George had left out step three.

Most service providers get stuck in a cycle of Step One and Step Two and then end up broke.

Figure out what you can offer than will bring more financial sustainability into your life and more value and progress into theirs.

Slow Marketing is the long game (and there are three big things you need to do to build that up). But Fast Marketing is the short game – and, being real, sometimes you need to learn how to play it. You need to learn how to drive the golf ball long, but also how to putt. It’s not the tortoise vs. the hare – it’s the tortoise AND the hare.

Let me restate something: he did this without a big list, a Web site or a blog, a bunch of social proof and client success stories, a business card, referral sources and huge hubs, social media, an ethical bribe or free gift, a huge sales funnel with ten levels to it, a million ways to market himself or a business plan.

Let me put this another way: those things are all useful in the long game but irrelevant for your short game.

Stated another way still: focusing on those things will, very likely, not bring you any money in the short term.

If you need money fast, stop trying to grow your business as a whole for a bit (put only 10% of your efforts there) and start focusing 90% of your efforts on the most lucrative and exciting possible project.

Slow marketing is designing and building your dream home. Fast marketing is building one of the rooms in it.

And then, when you’ve got some financial space from the amazing success of your project, slow down and go back to work on your foundation. You’ll thank yourself for it later.

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