Copyright © 2018 Robert Middleton, Action Plan Marketing ...actionplan.com/pdf/Why-Your-Marketing-Sucks.pdf · – How to write a step-by-step marketing action plan And the second

Copyright © 2018 Robert Middleton, Action Plan Marketing. All rights reserved.

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Thanks so much for downloading this e-book.

Sorry to be rude by saying your marketing sucks. Nothing personal.

What I’m trying to say is that your marketing isn’t getting you the results you

want. It’s either underperforming or not working at all. You’d like to make it

better, but perhaps you don’t know exactly what to do or how to do it.

And perhaps awesome marketing doesn’t even seem to be

attainable.

I wrote this e-book to share some of the very best strategies for marketing

professional services I’ve discovered over the course of my 30+ career. When

you implement these ideas, you’ll start getting better marketing results. More

attention, more response. It’s as simple as that.

The first four strategies cover ways to communicate more

powerfully about your business so that you get more attention and buy-in

from prospective clients.

– How to craft an attention-getting marketing message

– How to get more visibility for your business

– How to write a more attention-getting website home page

– How to write a step-by-step marketing action plan

And the second four strategies are all about how to set up your

marketing – both externally and internally to increase your chances of

success.

– How do discover the best marketing activities for your personality type

– How to set up simple systems that increase your marketing productivity

– How to shift your mindset to one that’s more resourceful and creative

– How to get the support to stay in action and keep on track

I put a lot of work into it and I hope you find it valuable.

Cheers, Robert


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You’re a smart, creative, hard-working independent professional You bring a lot of value to your clients. You make a real difference. And

you expect to be rewarded for that work.

You need to attract new clients, but the problem is, your

marketing sucks. It doesn’t get attention, nobody responds to it and your

business is going nowhere fast.

And what’s worse, you don’t have a clue how to get it to stop sucking.

Every attempt you make is worse than the last and sometimes you wonder if

your business is a total loss and that it would be best to chuck it all and go

back to the corporate grind.

First of all , I want to be really straight with you. Growing a business

and attracting new clients is hard work. It takes a lot of time and thinking, and a

ridiculous amount of trial and error.

And – bad news – there are no “Marketing Silver Bullets” that will solve all your

marketing problems and result in a magical flow of new clients.


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However – good news – there are a whole bunch of things you can do to make

your marketing awesome. But you don’t do them, not because you’re lazy or

stupid. Mostly because you just don’t know what they are.

If you do more of the right things more often, you’ll get better marketing

results and more awesome marketing. It’s as simple (and as hard) as that.

Who am I to tell you this?

Well, I’m an independent professional like you. I started my business way back

in 1984. Pre Internet, even pre-email! In my first year I created all my materials

on a rented typewriter. And I didn’t know diddley about marketing.


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And to make things worse, I’m an introvert that wasn’t very comfortable

meeting new people and selling my services. I was hopeless about just about

everything business-wise. And yes, my marketing sucked big time.

But I did have a few things going for me. First, I was unemployable. That is, I

hated working for other people. I was just too independent, creative, and

stubborn to take direction from other people. Sound like you?

Second, I had a real talent for explaining things to people so they understood.

I guess you’d call that “teaching ability.” I could also write a little.

Third, I was ridiculously persistent and no matter how tough things got, I kept

going, trying new things and discovering what worked best to grow my

business and help my clients. If you don’t have this quality, fuggedaboudit.

And with those three qualities (but with very little knowledge) I ultimately

became one of the most highly respected marketing coaches in the world for

independent professionals.

In fact, I jump-started the industry of marketing for self-employed people. In

2000 I wrote my InfoGuru Marketing Manual and sold thousands of copies,

launching a few thousand copycats who realized what a huge need there was

for helping self-employed people to be better marketers.

When it came to marketing my business I tr ied everything. My

middle name was “trial-and-error.” And on the way I read more than 500

books on small business, marketing, selling, and personal growth.

I learned a lot of things and discovered what worked… and what didn’t work.

Over the years I’ve attracted thousands of clients and participants to my

coaching programs. I’ve offered one-to-one marketing coaching, marketing

action groups, my marketing mastery program, and a whole lot of online

products such as my More Clients Club and the Website Toolkit.


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In 1997 I launched the More Clients email newsletter and at its peak I reached

50,000 people weekly, writing more than 1,000 articles over a 20-year period.

Oh yeah, and my clients and program participants have gotten results. Kick-ass

results: More attention for their services, more connections with live prospects,

more meetings, and more closed business.

One of my clients recently told me, “Robert, before I started studying your

ideas I had no idea how to “drive a car.” In fact, I wasn’t aware there even was

a car! Now I not only know how to drive, it’s taking me to new and exciting

places in my business I didn’t even know existed.”

And she’s also gone from having no clients at all to a full practice as a

leadership consultant.

What will you get from this e-book?

In this e-book I’m going to explain to you why your marketing sucks and eight

of the most important and powerful ideas for making it awesome.

None of these are brand-new breakthrough ideas. But the chances are good

you either don’t know about them or are implementing them poorly. These are

the ideas I come back to over and over again in working with clients and

whenever I launch a new service or program.

These are the ideas that you want to study, internalize, and master. These

strategies are the foundational, essential antidotes to sucky marketing.

So, if you want to stop your marketing from sucking, read this e-book slowly

and carefully. In fact, I recommend you read it a few times and then work at

implementing each of these ideas in your business.

Remember, growing your business is hard work. There’s a good chance you

won’t make it and you’ll have to go back to working for a sucky boss again.


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So you have nothing to lose by giving these ideas a shot. And then make sure

to read the More Clients ezine every week (it comes out on Tuesday mornings).

And keep working to apply these ideas until you start to see positive results.

The first four strategies are about the most important marketing

principles and practices. The last four strategies are how to put your

marketing into action more consistently.

OK, let’s jump in by exploring marketing messages.

Strategy #1. You must develop an Essential Marketing Message that gets attention and interest from your ideal clients.

Look, here’s the first problem of why your marketing sucks: Nobody friggin’

understands what you really do. They are mostly in the dark.

People know what a house cleaner, hair cutter and real estate agent does.

They know what the butcher, baker and website maker does. All of these

services are tangible and easy to understand.


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But as a consultant, coach, trainer, financial planner, etc. nobody really gets

what you do. And even more importantly, nobody understands how your

services can actually help them and provide real value.

Here’s a l itt le test you can do. Send an email to 20 people you know.

This can be family, friends, and business associates. Ask them, “Please explain

to me in your own words what I do for my clients.”

I’ll be astonished if more than two of these people can actually tell you what

you really do. It really is that bad. It will shock and dismay you. Actually do this

now before you read anymore. I’ll wait.

Pretty sucky right?

And it’s not their fault; it’s your fault. Because you are hopeless at

communicating to anyone about what your business is really about. Nobody

gets it. You can’t generate attention and interest because they’re confused.

And you can’t confuse people into doing business with you!

How in hell can anyone make a decision about doing business with you, let

alone paying you a whole lot of money? They can’t. And this is the root

problem of why your marketing sucks so badly.


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This is where a marketing message comes in. It explains, in everyday language,

who your clients are, what their problems are and how you help them.

A marketing message consists of two key components:

1. You must first know and identify your ideal clients

The best way to approach this is by creating an “Ideal Client Avatar” That

describes a person who or a business that would be your perfect client, the

exact client you want to work with.

I hope you already know this. If not, do some thinking and soul searching. The

most important thing in your business is your clients. And if you don’t know

who they are, how can you communicate with them? You can’t!

Big companies spend millions on research to figure this out. As an

independent professional, it’s a little easier and cheaper. Simply write down all

the descriptors of your best kind of clients. Who are they, where are they, what

are they like, what problems do they have? Go deep here. Create a complete

personality profile of the people/companies you want to work with.

Once you’re clear on all this information, disti l l it down into a

concise statement such as:


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“My ideal client is the owner of a mid-sized technology business who is

struggling to hire the most talented people for their company.”

“My ideal clients are training directors in companies who are looking for

training on employee communication skills.”

“My ideal clients are self-employed professionals who are struggling to

attract clients and who need better marketing.” (sound familiar?)

Notice that these statements include both the basic demographic of your ideal

clients and their primary challenge. Think of it this way: If you called one of

your ideal clients and said your client/problem statement, would they say,

“Yes, that’s me, I want to know more!”?

If their answer would be yes, then you’re on the right track. If it would be no

(and you’d be surprised how many independent professionals are terrible at

identifying ideal clients) then you need to go back to the drawing board.

OK, so that’s the first part of your message. Here’s the second part:

2. You must communicate your value (not your process) Marketing is 100% communication, but too often that communication is about

what you do (your process), not about what your clients get (your value).

You need to learn how to speak the “language of results” in order to capture

the attention and interest of your prospective clients. For instance:

“I help my clients find the best and most qualified employees who have a

track record of producing excellent bottom-line results.”

“I provide high-impact communication training for companies that results

in higher productivity and a culture of cooperation.”

“I help my clients attract more of their ideal clients with awesome

marketing that doesn’t suck.”


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Now, isn’t that a lot less sucky? Definitely!

Would your message get a, “I really get it,” reaction or would it get a, “I’ve no

clue what you’re saying,” response? You need to work at nailing down your

message until people get what your business is about in just a few seconds.

1 and 2 above comprise your Essential Marketing Message. Every

written and verbal communication about your business should be an extension

or expansion of this message. And finally, people will start to understand you.

For instance, you’d use this text as your “Audio Logo” when someone asked

you what you did. It would also be the primary theme of the home page on

your website (more on that later) and also the Summary on your LinkedIn

profile. In fact, everything you write for your business, from an email to an

article, from a presentation to a book, should reflect your essential message.

Now, this next step is key and most people ignore it. Don’t be like them.

3. You now need to put this message into action. Almost everyone has a sucky label-based marketing message such as, “I’m a

management consultant” (barf), or “I’m an executive coach (gag). This is what

most independent professionals say because they’re scared of saying anything


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remotely creative or interesting that might get some mild disapproval.

Some will progress to saying something about their process: “I help businesses

manage their people more effectively” (ho-hum), or “I work with executives on

clarifying their goals and direction” (yawn).

Notice that none of these really says anything remotely interesting to the

listener. They are boringly sleep-inducing. They totally suck.

Instead, as with the examples I gave you above, they need to be about the

results that your clients are really interested in accomplishing. Something real,

something specific, something that will rock their world.

Now, here’s the big problem. My clients start working on their messages

and take a lot of time refining them, and then show them to me and ask me to

give them feedback.

And I first ask them what kind of response they’re getting when they use their

message with someone. And invariably they say, “Oh, I haven’t tried it yet, I

was waiting until it was perfect.”

Cripes. That’s a marketing methodology that sucks big time. There is no such

thing as perfection in marketing. Perfection would be if your message got a

100% positive response from everyone who heard it.

Not gonna happen. Never.


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Look, I might like it, and it may follow my format for a good message, but I’ll

never know if it really works until it’s tested in the real world. And you can only

test it by trying it with a LOT of real, live people and see what their reaction is.

This, my friend, is called Trial and Error.

And it is the only Ultimate Truth in marketing. Everything else is total and utter

B.S. Until you test it, you really don’t know if it will work or not.

And you should test it until more people (not everyone) respond with some

degree of interest. Mild interest is a good response: “Hmm, that sounds

interesting. How does that work?”

But you don’t want to hear that do you? No, you want a perfect

message that knocks everyone’s socks off: “Oh, wow, you do that??!! I’ve been

looking for a service like that for years! I have an extra $50,000 lying around, so

could we please get started today??!!”

Never. Going. To. Happen. Ever.

No, mild interest is cool. That can lead to another discussion, a meeting, a

proposal, and a sale. One step at a time.

So chill out. Develop a good message, but be relaxed about the process. It’s

about communicating clearly to real people who need your help. You don’t

have to gobsmack them; just engage them with something relevant.

So keep tweaking your message (writing it out and practicing it out loud to

start with) and then start trying it out with people until it’s getting a consistent

“mild-interest-response” and then stick with it.

Once you are clear about your essential message and are

articulating it effectively, you need to focus on the next absolutely

essential marketing strategy:


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Strategy #2. You must be visible to your clients

Ever do business with someone you can’t see or hear? I didn’t think so. No,

you can’t market yourself if you’re invisible.

The second big reason your marketing sucks is because you are (relatively

speaking) invisible. People don’t see you, your ideas, or your messages often

enough. Being invisible when your success depends on visibility is the very

definition of sucky marketing.

Very few prospective clients are thinking about you at any given time. They

rarely wake up with your name on their lips.

And, if you haven’t noticed, the marketplace is crowded with a whole lot of

other business people trying to get the attention of the same prospective

clients. If you’re invisible, they’ll get the business, not you.

A client won’t do business with you unless you or your message gets in front of

them – not just once, but frequently and consistently.

Your type of business will determine the best ways to get the word out, from

networking or speaking to social media or direct emails.

Your marketing visibility plan might include one or more of the following:


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• A regular email newsletter (from once a week to once a month)

• Speaking at professional organizations (once every month or two)

• Attending networking/association functions (twice a month or more)

• Following up with contacts and past clients (every single day)

Everyone asks me, how much visibility do I need? How often should I get my

message out there? Well, every business is different, but my two-part answer

is, “More than you think and enough that they never forget you and what you

can do for them.”

In 1997, I started writing an email newsletter and put a lot of work into building

my e-list. I was successful at building my list to a peak of 50,000 independent

professionals who wanted to be better at marketing their services. Most of

them opted-in on my website, just as you did.

I’ve now sent a weekly article to that list for more than 20 years. And I’ve also

promoted my professional services and programs to that list. That visibility and

credibility, plus my value-laden messages, have resulted in a truckload of

business and success beyond my wildest dreams.

In what ways can you make yourself and your business visible so

that your marketing results are awesome, not sucky? I’ l l explain

more about the how tos of this in Strategy #4.

Strategy #3. You must have an attractive, modern and up-to-date website

Almost every business has a website. But in most cases, those websites suck.

Not only is the content poorly written or contain scant value about how you

help your clients achieve the results they want, your design also sucks.


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Quick Quiz: When someone visits your website, what’s the very first thing

you want them to see?

Answer: You want them to see your Essential Marketing Message, right? They

don’t want a majestic picture of a skyscraper, with a headline that says

something inane like, “Leaders aren’t born, they’re made.”

How does that draw anyone in? Does that speak in any way to who your clients

are and how you can help them? No, it’s just a sucky cliché.

Think for a minute about how many websites you’ve visited and how you don’t

have a clue what their business is really about even after browsing the site for a

few minutes. That is a sucky website. It may be your website!

And often the design is even worse: lousy graphics and layout, type that looks

clunky or too small or too light. It’s hard to read and a pain to look at.

But for now, let’s just focus on content. That’s something you can work on

more quickly and turn a site that totally sucks into one that at least speaks to

your prospects in language they can understand.

Let’s look at on your site’s home page – ultimately the most important

page on your site. After all, if they don’t read this, get what you’re about, and


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decide to explore further, you’re sunk. The chances are pretty good they’ll

never come back again.

So, what do you say on your home page (that doesn’t suck)?

I’ve learned that it’s not just what you say, but also the order in which you say

it. That is, the first thing you say should get attention, the second thing should

stimulate interest, the third thing, should spark some desire, the fourth thing

should establish some credibility and the final thing should stimulate someone

to take action – A.I.D.C.A.

This is how it might look on a website home page:

Headline – A concise version of your essential marketing message gets

immediate attention because it speaks to your prospects’ real needs.

“As an HR director are you looking for proven training programs

that increase both communication skills and productivity?”

Problem – In one paragraph talk about the problems/issues your clients are

facing. That gets interest because it addresses a real world challenge.

I.e., “The problem with so many communication skills training programs is

that they aren’t proven to increase productivity (and a sentence or two

more about this problem/issue/challenge).”

Outcome – A paragraph that discusses what the client wants instead. You

might say this is the “mirror image” of the previous paragraph. You’ll generate

more interest because it talks about desired results.

I.e., “Your organization isn’t interested in communication training just to

check off the box that you offered it. No, you want your training dollars to

move the needle, to help your employees be more productive (and a

sentence or two more about the outcomes you want to see).”


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Solution – This is a paragraph or two that explains what the prospect needs to

do to go from Problem to Solution. This helps the prospect to start to imagine

this solution for their issue which starts to build desire.

I.e., “You need a training program that is based on tested approaches to

improve both communication and productivity. To accomplish this the

training needs to include the following essential components…”

Credibility – This is the first time you actually talk about your business and the

successes you’ve had with your clients and it mentions your track record and

the kind of clients you’ve helped. This makes your readers feel more confident

that you can help them.

I.e., “For the past 17 years CommTrain has helped 275 companies in all

industries measurably increase productivity through state-of-the-art

communication skills programs. Our proprietary methodology and unique

training approach doesn’t just work, it guarantees productivity increases.”

This section may also include a client testimonial that shows you’re not just

blowing smoke. This generates more credibility, confidence and desire.

I.e., “In working with CommTrain we’ve seen a dramatic improvement in

our employees’ communication skills which has translated to a 23%

increase in overall productivity.”

Call to Action – This is what you want your reader to do next. Sometimes it’s

an invitation to contact you to learn more. In my case, I don’t expect prospects

to respond right away, so I offer some valuable free information (what you’re

reading right now) and then follow up with information on services later. If you

don’t ask for some kind of action, nothing is going to happen. Nada. And nada

sucks.

This “Executive Summary” style home page for a website answers the key

questions every prospective client has: “What is your business about? Do you


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work with people like me? Do you understand my challenges? Can you help me

solve them? How do your services work? Are you credible? What should I do

next? And, “Is this a business that sucks or rocks?”

You can communicate all of that in a minute or less! And it’s all

accomplished without sucky hype or B.S. Instead, it reeks with value.

On your other web pages, About Us, Services, Free Stuff, etc. you come back

to the core theme from your home page so that your messages are consistent.

Same goes for articles, reports, e-books etc.

The best websites also have a way to capture user information by opting into

an e-list, (just as you did with me) which enables you to stay in touch and follow

up (as I have with my email newsletters and promotions over the years).

Then you want to get a design for your website that is attractive and that

frames the content, making it easy to read. It doesn’t have to be fancy or over-

the-top to be effective, but it should look professional and sharp, not, you

know, sucky like the average website.

One of the biggest mistakes independent professionals make is designing their

own websites. Few can do it successfully. And it can take hundreds of hours

that would be better spent in other marketing activities.

Find a professional designer instead and get a website that looks awesome.

Strategy #4. You must have a plan and it must be written

A vague idea of what you wil l do in your marketing isn’t a plan and

it’s not something you’re l ikely to stick to.

Sucky marketing is random marketing. You know how it goes. You hear about a

great marketing idea and then make a few feeble attempts to implement it.


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But you get halfway through, decide it’s not right for you and give up.

I’ve heard this story a zillion times. And the brilliant conclusion people make

from these half-hearted attempts is that marketing their professional services

doesn’t work at all, but especially not for their kind of business.

How would they know as they’ve never really created a good plan, let alone

followed through with one?

OK, so how do you create a killer plan that doesn’t suck and that gets results?

Well there are two kinds of plans and you need both. The first plan is a general

overview of what marketing strategies you’ll develop and implement:

“I’ll write and publish a newsletter article weekly which I’ll also post on

my blog and social media and I’ll attend one business networking

function, at minimum, each week.”

I mentioned these kinds of plans under Strategy #2 – Visibility.

But how do you even know which strategies to use?

You research, you read, and you study. You might start with articles you find

through a Google search; you should probably read a few a lot books, and if

you really need more guidance, you can take a course or ten.


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But, for God’s sake, don’t make it up out of thin air! “Oh, I know, I’ll just mail a

brochure to 5,000 companies and wait for the calls to come in.” Great if you

want to burn your life savings, but a really sucky strategy.

The second type of marketing plan is a step-by-step checklist of all things you

need to do to implement a specific marketing strategy. To be successful with

this plan, it must be:

1. Written in great detail

2. Include specific how-to steps

3. Have a timeline

4. Be based on reality, not fantasy

For instance, a marketing plan to give talks to industry groups can entail twenty

or more separate steps, from targeting the groups to developing a speaker’s

kit, from giving the presentation to following up with attendees.

You need to learn exactly what those steps are and how to implement them

successfully. Anything less will give you sucky results.

But once you’ve cracked the code for any strategy, you can then repeat it over

and over again and get consistent results. For instance:


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In 1995, I implemented a speaking marketing plan that successfully launched

my business after moving to a new city. Over a 26-week period, I attracted 26

new clients from those who attended my talks.

And my business never slowed down after that.

Yes, it took a lot of work, time, and trial and error. The key to success was

having a plan, researching the action steps, and then persistently working the

plan. If you don’t want your marketing to suck, that’s what it takes.

One of the biggest mistakes we make is trying to build a battleship when we

need to start with a rowboat! Start with simple plans, work to implement them

one at a time and then work on more complex plans.

At the end of this e-book, I’ll share some resources I offer to learn the many

specific marketing action plans that are proven to attract new clients.

One more thing about plans: There is no one perfect marketing plan or

strategy for everyone. If someone insists on that, they are lying. Period.

Now, how to be successful in putting these ideas into action?

The above four key principles should form the marketing

foundation for your professional service business.

Without a clearly defined essential marketing message, visibility to your

market, a quality website, and a written marketing action plan, your success in

attracting new clients will absolutely suck.

But, these four strategies are actually the easy part.

Your marketing doesn’t suck just because you’re doing the wrong things. It

sucks because you’re doing marketing that doesn’t fit your personality type,

don’t have good marketing habits and systems, aren’t immersing yourself in

positive and creative ideas, and are not getting the support and accountability


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you need to stay in action and on track.

So now let’s look at the four other strategies essential for your

marketing success. Understanding and implementing these strategies will

help you turn your plans into action and keep you keeping on until you see the

light at the end of the tunnel: Lots of great new clients.

Strategy #5. Understand your personality type and which marketing activities will work best for you.

There are many different personality types and each approach

marketing a l itt le differently.

If you’re not aware of your personality type, you’ll end up doing marketing

activities that aren’t fun and successful for you. Marketing won’t be fun,

interesting and engaging.

Instead, it will suck. But it doesn’t have to.

I can’t tell you how many clients have told me that they absolutely hated

marketing. But in almost all cases they were trying to do things that grated

against their personality type. Such as making follow-up calls like this guy.


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Extroverts are usually more comfortable in connecting with people through

groups while introverts are more comfortable with one-to-one contacts.

Here is what you might hear such people say:

“As an extrovert I love networking everywhere and anywhere and I also love to give presentations to large groups.”

Or…

“As an introvert, I prefer to spend time writing articles and making

individual connections through emails.”

Some people are better listeners while other are better talkers. Some like to

hog the spotlight while others prefer to work in the background.

And, depending on your type, you’ll have different challenges in marketing

yourself. Extroverts can be great at getting out there and meeting people but

are often poor planners. Introverts often enjoy planning and strategizing but

can frequently take a long time moving into action.

It helps to know your personality type before you choose which marketing

activities are the best fits for you. A good place to start is at

16Personalities.com where you can learn more about your dominant

personality type. Their assessment is awesome and free.

When you know your personality type you have a big advantage. Then you can

focus on your strengths. Don’t try to be the type you’re not or attempt to

strengthen your weaknesses.

You’l l only end up with a bunch of weak strengths.

I’ve worked with many people who took advantage of their strengths and

found a marketing activity they enjoyed and then did a LOT of it.

For some, it’s been giving presentations and talks.


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For others, it’s been doing a lot of networking.

For many, it’s been writing – emails, articles and books.

I really came into my own marketing power when I started to write much more

in the mid 90’s (as I got more into the Internet). As I said before, I wrote an

email newsletter weekly, published three books, and put a lot of time into

writing very effective promotional emails and sales letters.

As a more introverted type, I find it easy to work alone for hours. I’m in my

zone when I’m alone at the computer, playing jazz in the background.

For you, that might drive you crazy, as you like to interact with people more

frequently. You may be a great listener, speaker or planner. And any of those

strengths can be leveraged to market yourself more effectively.

This whole field of personality types is something I came to understand more

fully later in my career. So I really urge you to learn more about your type and

strengths and adjust your marketing to fit your type as closely as possible.

Wouldn’t it be great if your marketing was fun and it didn’t suck anymore?

Well, working on marketing that fits your type will really help with that.

The next three strategies are big keys to your marketing success.

They wil l help you turn your goals and your plans into reality.

Strategy #6. Establish new marketing habits and systems that will last for your whole career

Often the biggest challenge I see with independent professionals

trying to market themselves is a lack of consistency and follow-

through.


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It’s not unusual to try a certain marketing activity for a while, then get bored or

discouraged with it and move on to something else. Motivation fades and your

good intentions go nowhere.

These are the most banal of marketing challenges: Being scattered, not

organized, not following through, procrastination, avoidance, and not

completing marketing projects.

These may seem like small things, but they can kil l your

productivity and creativity.

Look, most of us struggle with this. We have all of these issues, but we also

have the capacity to be astoundingly organized and productive.

It starts by not making any more excuses. If you don’t want your marketing to

suck, you need to take responsibility for getting things done, for making things

happen, for being persistent in trying different things, and being resilient when

things don’t go well.

But how do you do that and make it fun? In his book, Barking Up the Wrong

Tree, Eric Barker sites a ton of studies that shows the most effective thing to

keeping a challenging project on track is to make it a game.


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When you break it down, a game entails small wins that take you to the next

step or level in the game. Each level you achieve is a new win that keeps you

motivated and excited and eager to get to the next level.

In my business I turned marketing into a game and called it “Marketing Ball.” I

used the metaphor of baseball to move prospective clients around the bases

until you score a new client. You can learn more about this is the Free Stuff

section of my website.

In this short e-book I can’t give you a complete system for being more

productive and staying on track, but I can share one very potent tip that works

better than setting big aspirational goals.

As I mentioned earlier, I’ve sent out an email newsletter every Tuesday for

more than twenty years. People always ask me how I’ve been able to do that.

Everyone thinks it’s about inspiration and creative talent. As far as I can tell it

has nothing to do with that. I’m just an average writer and don’t think I have

more brilliant ideas than the typical businessperson.

What made this relatively easy for me wasn’t goal setting, motivation or even

brilliant ideas. The key was that I scheduled a few hours every single Monday

to write. I made it a habit, a repeatable system.

A few years ago I wanted to write a second book. But every time I thought

about an idea, I’d process it through my brain and every time I’d reject it as not

good enough.

After about five years I got sick of that and just decided to write. I set up some

time over the Christmas Holidays and made a simple plan. I sat down and

wrote for four hours every day. That was my brilliant system.

I wasn’t sure how it would go or how it would turn out. But the simple act of

committing to sitting and writing was all I needed. I finished the first draft of


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the book in 19 days (on New Years Day, in fact!)

If you want to be more productive in your marketing, this is the action I

suggest you take:

Schedule the same time every week to work on your marketing. It doesn’t

matter what you’re working on. It might be outreach calls to those in your

network to set up appointments, developing a presentation, or writing a

newsletter. The key is scheduling the time on your calendar.

For me, I always do my writing for my email newsletter on Mondays. I call it

“Marketing Mondays.” And instead of dreading, avoiding, or agonizing over

my marketing, I just work on it every Monday without exception.

Don’t schedule anything else on your marketing day. Don’t set up client

appointments, do errands, or any other activity not directly related to

marketing your services. That’s just more avoidance.

You can also do your marketing research, reading and study on your marketing

day. Take an hour or two for that and the rest for planning, developing, and

implementing your marketing strategies, whatever they are.

Make it an unbreakable habit, a “sacred marketing ritual.”


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But realize it will take some time and commitment to get into the flow of this.

Don’t expect you’ll be able to write a book in 19 days or an article in an hour or

two or set up five speaking engagements in a day.

And whatever you do doesn’t need to be perfect. In fact, it can suck. That’s

OK. Let it suck. As long as you’re working on something, sooner or later it will

get better. Before after awhile it will start to be awesome.

At this point you might be thinking. “Oh, shit, this is going to be so much

work, it will be so hard, I’ll never be good at marketing even if I know the right

things to do. It’s hopeless!”

But here’s some good news. You’ve gotten this far in this e-book. Most

won’t. Most gave up after four or five pages and just made up some lame-ass

excuse such as: “Oh I’ll do it later, it won’t work for me, I tried that before, I

don’t have the time, or it seems like too much work, I’ll try to find a silver bullet

instead.”

What they’re saying, without admitting it is, “I’ll settle for my marketing

sucking, it’s just not worth the effort.”

Know what the most popular marketing strategy is? It’s called the Prayer

Strategy: Do great work for your clients and pray for referrals.


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Live in fantasyland if you want, but don’t you honestly want to make a real

impact with your business, make a difference in the world, make a great living

doing so, and live happily ever after? So get real.

Why your marketing gets stuck…

Marketing a business is challenging. And when something doesn’t work it can

be frustrating. It’s easy to get negative or ambivalent about marketing.

And that makes your whole life suck, not just your marketing. You end up

playing half-ass with everything, never going all in and just hoping that things

will get better some day. Dream on.

Even if you’ve gotten this far in the e-book I’m willing to bet I’ve triggered a

few limiting marketing beliefs and fears in you. You might be excited about the

possibilities I’ve outlined here but you are not quite ready to jump in with both

feet. You’re breathing heavy and your pulse is racing.

Why is that? Why do we hold back, hedge our bets, or just stop cold?

It’s all about our comfort zones.

The big payoff for not taking action is that we get to stay comfortable. After all,

we’re familiar with where we are now, even if it sucks.


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If we did something different, if we really worked hard to achieve something

new, it would upset our equilibrium. It would make us uncomfortable. And this

pull to stay comfortable can outweigh (in our minds) any possible benefits we

might gain from taking action.

Better to be comfortable with sucky marketing than trying something new and

fall flat on your face. Or even worse, for some, to succeed and then have to

live up to the pressure of being a badass marketeer.

Hey, if that’s where you are, I certainly understand. Nobody’s immune to

getting sucked into their comfort zone.

Remember, you don’t need to be perfect. You could risk a little and actually

make some progress. I promise you’d survive that.

After all, any progress, however small, is still progress. And once you take a

few steps you might find that the next steps are a little easier.

The next two strategies are about shifting the way you think about

and approach marketing – and that can change everything.

Strategy #7. Regularly immerse yourself in positive and creative ideas

Have you asked yourself, “How can I be more productive, creative, effective?

How can I get past my limiting beliefs, my fears, my avoidance, my small

thinking, and my tendency to always fall back to my comfort zone?”

How many motivational, psychological, and spiritual ideas, systems, and tools

have you tried, looking for the Silver Bullet, that one breakthrough strategy,

that “one magical tree in the forest” that would propel you into action?


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Maybe you’re missing the forest for the trees!

The truth is that there is no single perfect idea or strategy out there. There are

a zillion ideas and strategies. What you need to do is consistently expose

yourself to a wide variety of smart, positive, creative, ideas on a regular basis.

How often? Every. Single. Day.

This is how it works:

If your brain is anything like mine (and I think it is), you have an endless flow of

associations that are triggered by previous associations. Who we are is our last

thought, our most recent negative attitude or brilliant insight.

Since associations are going to be triggered anyway by random thoughts and

events, why not trigger them intentionally with positive, creative, useful ideas

that can make our lives and businesses better?

From where? From positive, creative, thought-provoking articles,

books, videos, and courses.

As Grace Slick of the Jefferson Airplane said in the song, While Rabbit, “Feed

Your Head.” Maybe she was talking about drugs, but I’m talking about ideas.


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Neurological research has proven that when we read, the brain does not make

a real distinction between reading about an experience and actually living it.

Whether reading or experiencing it, the same neurological regions are

stimulated.

That means when you read about success, creativity and yes, even marketing,

your brain processes it as if you were being successful, creative, and good at

marketing. And you start to feel more creative and successful.

Just notice how much differently you’re starting to think and feel about marketing

now compared to when you started to read this e-book. Aren’t you feeling a little

more excited and hopeful that your marketing could stop sucking?

What if you could start every day with a positive, creative, resourceful mindset?

You’d already be half the way to success. Then tackling your marketing

challenges would become a whole lot easier.

What I do every morning (usually before getting out of bed, on my iPad) is to

read something that stimulates this kind of positive, creative thinking.

This is the easiest, fastest, cheapest way to shift your mindset from

Blah to Yeah!


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Trying to jumpstart your own brain (or mindset) when it’s caught in the inertia

of negativity, boredom, or hopelessness is like trying to start a dead battery

with another dead battery.

You need to tap into a fully charged battery instead. And reading positive,

stimulating, thought-provoking ideas is that battery.

Where do you find these highly charged ideas?

You’ll find an endless supply of these kind of ideas in articles on the web or on

the wonderful website, Medium.com.

My favorite articles that seem to best recharge my positive and creative energy

are by these authors: James Clear, Mark Manson and Eric Barker. And there

are tons more you can discover for yourself. Make Google your partner.

These authors are smart, fun to read, and address the important topics of

success, productivity, balance, habits, fulfillment, and making a difference.

And each article only takes a few minutes to read. You can find the time.

I also have more than 100 marketing articles on my blog that will also help to

jumpstart your marketing thinking.

Sure, you can read books on similar topics, and you most definitely should, but

by starting with a thought-provoking article each morning you’ll reset your

mindset and get on the right track in only a few minutes.

Bookmark these authors’ blogs on the web, pick an article and read it.


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Five or ten minutes later you’ll be out of bed and thinking in a more

resourceful, productive, creative way. Bookmark now. Start tomorrow. It’s the

very first thing you can do to help your marketing. Sure, it might take awhile for

this to kick in, but give it a month and see what happens.

By the way, I know this sounds too simple. But often the simplest ideas are the

best: Feed your head. Rinse, repeat.

If reading doesn’t work or you, find something else. It might be meditation,

exercise, affirmations, or watching TED talks, but it’s almost never reading or

listening to the news! That’s what to consume if you want your day to suck.

Get your news later in the day, if you must, but as the first thing in the morning

it’s equivalent to a dose of psychic poison. It tends to trigger worry, uncertainty

and fear. That’s a sucky way to start your day.

Strategy #8. Get support and accountability to keep you on track

As independent professionals, we are great at going it alone

(autonomy and self-determination). We are the lone wolves out there creating

our own goals and destiny. And there’s nothing wrong with that.

But going it alone all the time with only your existing experience and resources

is extremely limited. Even wolves learn survival skills from the pack before they

ever go out on their own.

Yes, these days you can find the answers to just about everything online. But

we don’t know what we don’t know. It’s easy to get caught in a rut and not

realize all the other possibilities that are open to us.

I ’ve worked with a few coaches to help me in my business.


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The first one was a very creative marketing coach who really got me way

beyond my comfort zone and gave me permission to take on big projects and

charge more for my services. In a couple years I had more than tripled my

income with his help.

And that paid for his services many times over.

Many years later, when going through a transition in my business, I hired a

coach to help me rethink my business model and the services I offered. In the

first two months of working with her, she turned me on to five amazing books

that shifted the whole way I looked at my business and myself.

And then she asked questions and pointed out things that I had never even

considered before. My work with her completely changed my perspective and

attitude about my business.

Over the years I’ve also been a part of several business support and

mastermind groups. They all helped me look with fresh eyes at my challenges,

learn new ideas, and discover valuable resources.

Are you doing that? Are you getting support and coaching to widen your

horizons and possibilities and that keep you on track?


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Yes, you should try, to the best of your ability, to understand and apply the first

seven strategies in this e-book if you want to have success in attracting new

clients.

However, if you really want to take things to a whole new level of success, the

best investment you could possibly make in yourself and your business is to

hire a coach or join a group program.

There are many different kinds of professional coaches, depending

on your needs.

I call myself a marketing coach and work with self-employed professionals on

developing the best marketing activities for their personality type and then

supporting them in implementing their plans to attract more of their ideal

clients. I help keep them on track and accountable for taking action.

As a coach, I also work on these kinds of things:

• Clarifying your goals, priorities, and motivations

• Expanding your perspective about those you work with

• Communicating with more confidence and impact

• Being a sounding board for your ideas and plans

• Facing fears and resistance and getting beyond your limitations

• Finding the best resources (books, services, etc.) that can help you

deepen your understanding

• Building your self-confidence and leveraging your talents

Clients who work with me see bottom-line marketing results. They come up

with better marketing messages and written materials. They start implementing

marketing activities that work for them, and they make more connections and

get more meetings with prospective clients.


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And ultimately, they attract more of their ideal clients and increase their

income faster than before our work together.

Champions hire Coaches

All champion athletes have coaches. There are no exceptions. And the

same is true for successful business people. Over the course of your career you

may hire various coaches for the different challenges and opportunities you

face, just as I have.

It’s a great strength to identify and admit your weaknesses. If you think you

know it all, how can you ever improve? If you’re not open to growth, you’re

committed to stagnation.

If you’re really committed to growing your business and improving your ability

to market yourself, I highly recommend hiring a marketing coach to guide you

in making the right choices, developing viable plans, learning essential

marketing skills, and taking consistent actions.

Am I that marketing coach? Only you can determine that. You now

understand my approach to marketing for independent professionals and what

I feel is essential in developing a strong marketing foundation.


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I invite you to explore my website and learn more about me and my approach

and read about the various programs I offer to help independent professionals

be very successful marketers of their services.

My mission is simple: No more sucky marketing!

I offer a do-it yourself membership program called the More Clients Club

that includes several step-by-step tutorials to help build your marketing skills.

Later in 2018 I’ll be offering a group-marketing program that offers

marketing skill-building and support to implement your marketing plans.

And I also work individually with a limited number of clients.

You can contact me these ways:

Action Plan Marketing Website

[email protected]

831-338-7790

Thanks so much for reading this report. I look forward to helping you

with your marketing in one way or another.

Please keep your eyes open for my email newsletter, More Clients, which I

send out every Tuesday morning.

Cheers, Robert

P.S. I’ll also be sending you a limited series of emails to highlight some of the

most important ideas in this report and help you move them into action.

You can read my brief bio below:


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About Robert Middleton

Robert has been helping self-

employed professionals with their

marketing since 1984. He was one of the

very first marketing coaches that worked

exclusively with self-employed professionals.

After the publication of his online bestseller,

the InfoGuru Marketing Manual, marketing

coaching for independent professionals

became a “growth industry” with hundreds of

coaches and consultants now offering services to this growing group of

business people.

Over the years, Robert has worked with hundreds of cl ients

individually and with thousands through group programs and

workshops.

His email newsletter, More Clients, is one of the most read marketing

newsletters online, reaching tens of thousands of people each week.

Robert combines his understanding of both marketing and personal growth to

help his clients discover the best marketing approaches for their type and grow

their professional businesses with more confidence.

Robert lives with his wife, Saroj, and dog, Meera, in the Santa Cruz Mountains

in California amongst the giant redwoods, with a river in his back yard. He

works with people all over the world, but rarely travels far from home.

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