They didn't teach you marketing when you learnt your trade.
But they should, considering its the first thing you do before pricing, product and services...
So why the hate? Let's bust some myths...
MYTH NUMBER ONE
"I don't do marketing."
I can't tell you how many times I heard this one.
Unless your business is dead and buried yes you do. Only badly.
Btw, word of mouth is a form of marketing.
Referrals are marketing.
"My quality of workmanship speaks for itself" is a form of marketing.
MYTH NUMBER TWO
"I don't need to advertise."
Are you Google? Are you Microsoft?
Heck even Google spends 12% of their annual revenue on advertising.
(That's $30.8B that Google spends on marketing every year and growing, a small chunk of change to say the least)
Look, the reality is, you're advertising right now.
You're advertising that you don't advertise.
You're trying to sell me on the idea that you're this special unicorn business that doesn't need to do marketing.
Every business does marketing and advertising, some just do it better than others.
MYTH NUMBER THREE
"Marketing doesn't work."
If marketing didn't work Google wouldn't be increasing its marketing budget 24% each year...
Marketing does work, but you don't work it long enough to see results.
And you probably don't spend enough.
Take off the training wheels and hit the gas.
MYTH NUMBER FOUR
"Marketing is salesy and basically the devil."
The used car salesman, the real estate agent. Negative stereotypes abound.
What if I told you it was your duty to do marketing?
That your trade helps people, and with marketing you'll help FAR more people than without...
Marketing is attention.
Don't let the pencil necks tell you to it's only about pushing a bad product into people's hands.
Marketing is about helping a good product find more and more people it can serve.
This is a tool for good, not evil.
MYTH NUMBER FIVE
"Marketing is hard."
Many find it hard to "get it right". Welcome to the real world, ain't nothing perfect.
Any marketing, however bad, will produce positive results if done long enough.
And it isn't actually that hard to get someone's attention.
Go to a street corner and start screaming "HEY! HEY! LOOK AT ME!" to people.
See? Wasn't that hard now was it?
Fortunately we don't have to go to the extreme of screaming at people to get attention.
As a tradie you have so many marketing tools available to you.
Site signage, vehicle signage. Word of mouth. Google. Social media.
Use these tools for good.
Become better.
Provide for yourself, your family and your customers.
KEY TAKEAWAY:
Stop viewing marketing as the boogieman and realise it is vital to your survival.
If you are in business, you are already doing it to some degree. It's unavoidable.
Embrace it, love it, hug it, kiss it,
Use it properly, and use it to help more people!
P.S.
If you haven't already, join my mailing list so I can send you offers about marketing that can actually help you.