Marketing Is A Long-Term Relationship
Article courtesy https://www.FreelanceDesignMarketing.com.
Many freelance designers fail to realize that marketing their small businesses takes time. Essentially, marketing is like a building a long-term relationship—rather than a one-night stand!
If you market your services to prospective clients one time and then quit, you’re not building relationships, you’re not thinking long-term. By sending your marketing message out once and expecting results, you’re marketing yourself via one-night stands.
Building a relationship with prospects is like building a relationship with someone you want to date (and possibly marry). You must get to know them and they must get to know you. It takes time, it takes repetition.
It’s not showing up one time and saying, “You don’t know me, I don’t know you, but let’s get married.” You would fail miserably if you did that, yet that’s what too many freelance designers do with prospects and clients.
When you send out one marketing piece, one time, you say to prospects, “You don’t know me, I don’t know you, but give me your business.”
No wonder it fails.
Repetition Is Key
One of the fundamental ingredients of successful marketing is repetition. Repetition will enable you to build long-term relationships with prospects. Marketing over and over, again and again is also how successful businesses maintain long-term relationships with their clients. And it’s how successful freelancers build the income and business of their dreams.
To market your freelance design business for the long haul, think in terms of frequency. How many times will a prospect need to see your message before deciding to buy? How much repetition is enough?
According to research, prospects need to see your message at least nine times before deciding to use your services. It might take eleven, it might take thirteen, it may even take thirty times. But the point is, it takes more than one or even a couple of exposures to your message for prospects to take action.
Most freelance designers grossly underestimate the number of times they need to send out direct mail, sales letters, or flyers. A lot of them send their mailing out once and expect results, and if they don’t get them, they throw their hands up and think, “Marketing doesn’t work.”
Well, they’re half-right: Marketing one time or just a few times doesn’t work. Marketing over the long term does.
Your prospective clients are way too busy and way too distracted to remember much of anything after seeing it just once. This is true for me and you, too!
No matter how memorable or sensational you think your message is, no matter how kick butt your portfolio of work is, no matter how many design award you have won, you should still plan to market it as frequently as you can.
Start by planning your marketing activities for at least six months, bare minimum. Twelve months would be even better. This means planning ahead to send your message out to the same list of prospects at least once a month for a minimum of six months.
But if you’re marketing to prospects that have never heard of you or your business, you’ll need six to twelve months to build a relationship with them — possibly even longer. We need to banish the one-night stands!
You may be able to market to your house list (current and past clients who know you) slightly less frequently, but repetition is the only way to maintain the relationships you’ve worked hard to establish.
Imagine if the only times you talked to your friends or loved ones was when you needed to borrow money. That’s how a lot of freelance designers treat their clients and prospects, and it is no way to build and establish a relationship.
Marketing designed to build relationships isn’t always easy, and it doesn’t come for free, either. You must stay committed if you want to succeed, and the commitment involves investing both time and money. There is no other way to successfully market your design business than by building and maintaining relationships through repetition.
If you want your business to succeed, you must find a way to afford it, and you must make the effort to plan ahead and commit to the long haul. It’s just like building a relationship with a significant other: Commitment and building the relationship over time yields fruitful results and success.
Copyright © 2009-2010 by Jeanna Pool. Jeanna is the Founder & President of the Freelance Design Marketing Association. The FIRST and ONLY association of its kind, anywhere in the world dedicated to teaching freelance graphic designers and web designers how to market their services successfully, attract clients consistently and build the business and income of their dreams. Visit www.FreelanceDesignMarketing.com to test drive the association risk-free for 30 days.
This article was last modified on July 11, 2023
This article was first published on February 18, 2010
Commenting is easier and faster when you're logged in!
