November 19

November 19, 2023

How To Not Be Annoying… Yet Still Be Effective

You’ve been staring at the phone for the past 20 minutes. you pick it up and put it down. But, you can’t get yourself to actually call someone out out of the blue and talk to them. And yes, these days, there isn’t much to fear by reaching out and calling someone because chances are – they won’t be there anyway. Yet, still… cold calling is tough. The phone can weigh 10,000 pounds.. and honestly, “smiling and dialing” is not usually the best way to get clients for your coaching business anyway. The people on the line don’t know you, don’t trust you and the probably don’t like you because you just interrupted whatever they were doing.

A lot of my clients over the years start by trying cold calling… then they graduate to traditional funnel marketing (which is takes time to build) before finally realizing that there has to be a better way of reaching out to prospects and scheduling sales conversations.

Why Smile and Dial Doesn’t Work

People do business with people they know like and trust. And… these days whole generations of customers really hate taking unscheduled phone calls. I certainly do! Yet, personal contact (via a Zoom or phone call) is still the most effective way to make a sale – because it gives people a chance to meet you and develops the relationship. The key is not to rush the process and let the relationship build. The good news is that just 10 -15 minutes of consistent effort each day can change the trajectory of your business.

15 Minute Marketing Habits That Make A Difference

Marketing habits are regular activities that you undertake to attract and retain customers. These can be as simple as regularly posting on social media or sending out emails to your list. Like any habit, the more you do them … the easier they become 🙂

Before we dive into specific 15 minute habits – let’s review the three basic steps of the journey from stranger to sale.

  • Prospecting. This is the list of people that don’t know you yet – but who you think might be good fit to work with you. You’ll be a lot more effective if you can reach out to people before they actually need you – so that you can educate them and be there for them when they are ready for what you offer. The key to success here is beginning to build trust with your prospects through consistent
  • Outreach. Once you’ve identified your prospects – the next step is to reach out and start to build your relationship. The key mistake people make here is to reach out for a sale. The goal is to reach out to make a friend.
  • Nurture. The final step of the process is to offer. a connection call and if it’s a good fit – move to a sales call from there. Continue to keep in touch with your prospects even after the phone call.

Once you have identified these components, you can begin building a set of habits that will help you consistently execute them.

Start Here: Your Daily 100

The first step in developing good marketing habits is identifying people who you want to reach out to. Who are the people who would benefit most from your products or services? What problems do they need solutions for? Who are people who can help you reach your target audience. These two groups together comprise your Daily 100.

The Daily 100 Method of lead generation is a simple yet effective strategy to consistently generate new leads for your business. It involves dedicating a specific time each day to engaging in lead-generating activities, aiming to connect with 100 potential customers in that time frame. The connection can be over email, over social media, in person…

Here are some benefits from developing a Daily 100 habit:

  1. Consistency and Persistence: The daily commitment to reaching out to there top 100 ideal clients and partners fosters consistency and persistence in lead generation efforts. By consistently putting in the effort, your momentum and chances of making a sale increase.
  2. Increased Outreach and Visibility: Spending time intentionally engaging with your Daily 100 will lead to increased visibility for you overall.
  3. Improved Lead Quality: The focused approach of the method can lead to improved lead quality. By carefully selecting the individuals to reach out to, you’ll have a better chance of connecting with perfect future clients.
  4. Get Off the Lead Roller Coaster: By having systematic method of finding and engaging with prospects, you’ll also have a consistent stream of enrollment calls.

Once you have your Daily 100 system in place, the next step is to spend time creating content to provide value to your leads and prospects.

Spend 15 Minutes Growing Your Daily 100 Lists
✅ Add 5 Names to Your Daily 100 Sheet
✅ Spend the rest of the 15 minutes connecting with people on your Daily 100 list via social media.

Step 2: Creating Valuable Content

Creating valuable content is one of the most critical components of effective marketing. By providing useful information to your prospects, you establish yourself as an authority in your field and build trust with potential customers.

You want your social media home – whether it’s LinkedIn or somwhere else to show that you are “involved” in your topic and willing to share good resources with others. In other words, you want to become an “authority” on your topic by developing a habit of regularly posting blog posts, videos, infographics, or other materials that address your target audience’s needs.

You can easily do this in less than 15 minutes a day by focusing on reposting other people’s content. The ratio that seems to work is 80% sharing other people’s work and 20% your own. Include posts that do more than just promote – you want to create engagement through posting videos, discussion posts, longer form posts as well as sharing valuable information from others.

Spend 15 Minutes Creating Valuable Content
✅ Search You Tube for videos related to your topic.
✅ Use answerthepublic.com or another keyword tools to see what your audience is searching for
✅ Post interesting content to your social media channels of choice.
✅ Write posts that answer your audience’s questions

Step 3: Reach Out and Keep In Touch

Once you’ve identified your top 100 targets, and spent some time creating valuable content for your audience, it’s time to reach out regularly to start to develop a relationship. Email is an easy way to reach out to your prospects. You could also reach out via social media messages.

This works just like real life networking – don’t immediately jump into the product or service you have to offer. Start with offering some value and asking questions to learn more about your prospects. Once you’ve send a few warm up messages – just send keep in touch messages every few weeks to a month.

Spend 15 Minutes Sending Outreach Messages
✅ Spend 15 minutes sending messages to your Daily 100 list
✅ Keep track of the messages you are sending to each prospect (so you aren’t sending messages to often)

Step 4: Analyze and Tweak

Analyzing your marketing results is the final crucial component of effective marketing habits. By regularly reviewing the effectiveness of your marketing efforts, you can identify what is working and what needs improvement.

Develop a habit of tracking key metrics such as social media engagement, email open rates, number of phone calls scheduled and closing rates.. Use these metrics to understand what’s working in your sales and marketing efforts. It is often just one small tweak that makes all the difference.

Spend 15 Minutes Tweaking and Improving
✅ Which messages are getting lower open rates? How can you change the subject lines to improve them?
✅ Which social media posts are getting the most engagement? The least?
✅ How many calls are you scheduling a week? How can you schedule more?

How to Stick With Your New Habits

Here are some additional tips for developing good marketing habits:

  • Start small – focus on one or two new habits at a time until they become routine.
  • Stay organized – use tools like calendars or project management software to help keep track of tasks.
  • Hold yourself accountable – set goals and deadlines for each habit and hold yourself accountable for meeting them.
  • Get support – enlist the help of a colleague or mentor who can provide guidance and accountability along the way.
  • Be patient – building good marketing habits takes time, but the results are worth the effort.

Developing good marketing habits is essential to consistently growing your prospect list. By identifying your target audience, creating valuable content, consistently promoting your brand, and analyzing your results, you can establish long-term growth for your business.

About the author 

Meredith Eisenberg

Meredith Eisenberg - CoFounder and lead solo biz hacker - I love to scour the internet for new strategies and ideas - and then experiment to see which ideas really work. I am tech nerd when it comes to marketing!

For the past 15 years, I have been helping entrepreneurs tame the tech overwhelm and create businesses that works for them. From basic strategy to simplifying funnels, to building relationships, I’ve done it all.

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