Patrick McFadden is the owner of Indispensable Marketing, and today we discuss the importance of effective marketing and how it can make your sales process easier, or harder depending on how effective it is, and why advertising and sales are sub-sets of marketing.
Advertising is often confused with marketing because it is the most visual part of marketing, but marketing is all about building trust, and your trust is always on trial, so good marketing can build trust, whereas poor marketing can erode it.
Awareness & Education
How often do you hear someone say, “I didn’t know they did that”? These comments show missed opportunities for the business owner, and it is a sure sign they need to focus more on awareness and education.
Online Searching & Content
People search online because they know they have a problem. Therefore we need to educate them on how we can help them, and it needs to be linked back to your solution. When you write a blog or shoot a video, you need to keep this in mind. Always create content based around the problem and give a solution.
Without you knowing, people are consuming information and determining who their provider will be, and this happens way before you know you’re part of the selection process.
This is why you need to jump into the conversation early, not late, and write articles your patients are interested in. If you’re going to spend time creating content, make sure it counts.
Tactics & Strategies
Many business owners think about tactics first and strategies second, but it should be the other way round. When you see your doctor, they first need to make a diagnosis (Strategy) before they can prescribe any medication (tactic). You cannit give someone medication without first knowing what is wrong with them.
The Ideal Strategy
If you think about your ideal client/patient, do they also have an ideal problem, for which your business has the solution? You need to design your tactics around the ideal problem to attract the ideal client/patient or customer.
If you’re not getting the ideal client/patient, there’s a problem with your message.
It’s a three-step process:
- Identify your ideal Client/patient/customer
- Do they have a problem worth solving that is profitable for your business?
- Find a way to communicate your message (the solution)
Different Tactics
If you want to target different clients/patients, you must change your tactic. The same tactic that works for one business will not work for you if your ideal client/patient is different.
Once you identify your ideal client/patient, you then need to find where they hang out so you can get more of them. For example, using hardcopy surveys for your ‘A’ clients/patients. I used these tactics in my own podiatry business and use to get 90% of my surveys returned, far better than if I used email surveys.
Email me if you’d like to know my strategy using hardcopy surveys at
Marketing amplifies what you already have. – Patrick McFadden
Getting Started
- You need to diagnose where you are right now, assess where you want to go and look back at where you’ve been.
- What have you tried in the past that did not work? The tactic may have been fine but was it poorly executed. It could have been the wrong message, wrong call to action, or even something as simple as poor colour choices.
- Constantly tweak what you’ve done. You need to adjust your approach. Yellow Pages ten years ago may have been viable, but now it may not connect with your ideal client/patient.
- You need to separate your ideal client/patient from your non-ideal client/patient.
There are two key characteristics you should be looking for in an ideal client/patient:
- Are they profitable for your business?
- Are they talking about your business with other people (referrals)
Some only fit into one of these characteristics, making them good, but not ideal.
The Past
Think about what drove your business when you didn’t have a marketing budget. Sometimes you need to go back to basics. Go back to those activities that you know worked before you got too busy.
The next piece of content you create could be the one that lands you somewhere you never thought. – Patrick McFadden
Your next video, graphics or blog article could be the one that gets you an appearance on TV, radio or a major magazine interview.
How to Create Content
- Map out content themes and objectives for the month
- Share photo opportunities with what you’ve been doing in your business
- Ask for reviews and share them socially
Tactics to Keep Your Marketing Top of Mind
- You need to have weekly meetings with your team
- Create projects you’ll want to complete. Don’t just write an article because you have to do it, think long-term. Can you create an e-book in the next 90-days using the articles you write each week?
- Think about repurposing your content – Videos, blogs and graphics.
Monday Morning Tips
- Work with gratitude every day.
- Make sure you always have a way for people to sample what your business can offer. Do you have informative videos, free screenings and samples?
You need a way to date your client/patient before you put a ring on them – Patrick McFadden
If you have any questions about this episode, please email me at
Or you can connect with Patrick McFadden via his website, indispensablemarketing.com or Twitter @patmmarketing and Instagram @pmcfadden7
If you liked this episode you’d also enjoy:
- FMF037 – Marketing The Invisible
- INS043 – Sales Won’t Save Your Business with Super Joe Pardo
- INS033 – 4 Pillars of Marketing with Rem Jackson
Dave Frees MASTER CLASS – CAIRNS
On the 17th of August 2018, Dave M. Frees will be running a one-day MASTER CLASS on ‘Communication, Persuasion and Influence’. Bookings are NOW OPEN, and for more details, please visit https://www.tysonfranklin.com/it-s-no-secret-business-conference (Limited to 50 attendees)
Dave has been a guest on my podcast twice:
- INS002 – Communication, Persuasion & Influence
- Bonus Episode – Force Multipliers: Getting More Juice From The Squeeze
I will be the MC for the day and also be doing a presentation ‘How To Use Audio In Your Business To Increase Sales And Make More Money’.
FREE DOWNLOADS:
First 16 Pages of My Book – It’s No Secret There’s Money in Small Business.