One challenge I
have in advocating effective construction marketing ideas is that they only can work in context of your overall business and personal circumstances and values. No matter how hard I try, I won’t be able to help you to market and advertise effectively if you simply don’t believe in advertising or marketing. My choice is to convince you of the “folly” of your ways or accept that you simply are responding rationally to your own experiences and values.
Tonight, for example, I read a fascinating thread on contractortalk.com from Tim Garrison, an engineer seeking guidance from other forum members on how to market and promote his book on Green Framing. Not surprisingly this posting caught my attention as within a few days I’ll be sending the image files for the new Construction Marketing Ideas book to the printer. Despite all my years of experience in writing and marketing, I’ve never produced a book nor attempted to sell one before.
Other posters in response to Garrison’s thread suggested that he had under-priced his book and that the best approach to marketing it may be to make sample free chapters available by PDF. I’m planning that strategy and, in a few weeks once I know I can deliver the book in a timely manner, readers who have requested the free chapters will receive them. (As well, the readers who have purchased the book and made the $5.00 deposit will of course receive their hard copies.)
I won’t comment about Garrison’s website and blog — others are probably more capable than me — but these observations in one of his blog postings caught my eye.
It seems that every marketing tip these days includes a screaming imperative for some sort of Internet-based social media. It’s so boggling I’m not even sure I said that right.
Rule number 1 in all business is you survive only if you sell things. Goods or services, it doesn’t matter; money only flows in when the register goes cha-ching. I found out a long time ago that selling is impossible without marketing. In the old days it was easy, you paid for ads. Nowadays you’d better be computer and internet savvy or you’re sunk. Right?
If you believe marketing experts, that’s right. My experience, however, bears a different conclusion.
Fearful that I might miss a sales opportunity, I’ve thrown myself into Internet marketing with a zeal reminiscent of a dog pack at a kill. I built a website. Actually, I’m on my fourth or fifth (I’ve lost count), and actually I didn’t build them, I paid others to. The words “paid others” is a wretched recurring theme in this whole worldwide web business.
When blogs came into vogue I shot onto that bandwagon and got myself one. Wasn’t sure why. Heck, I wasn’t even sure what a blog was, but the experts shouted that I needed one, so by-golly, I paid others to set mine up.
Right after that people started inviting me to join them at LinkedIn. And Facebook. And Twitter. And MerchantCircle. Marketing experts howled that I must join! Fearing the next great gold rush might pass me by, I flailed about setting up accounts and accepting invitations. A few of the people who invited me I actually knew.
I could go on, there’s more. Especially the “paid others” parts. But what’s interesting is that sales of my software and books have been absolutely immune to all of these gyrations. I’ve tracked sales through each Smoking Hot Internet Marketing Revelation and can report with certainty that they don’t work worth a hoot. At least not for me.
Garrison has a point but of course I’ve seen many examples of contractors who advertise effectively, get results, and understand the marketing basics. They tend to respond most actively to the ideas and advice in these pages. The contractors who need the most advice about marketing, alas, don’t seem to want to listen.
This is normal behaviour, of course. Why do most people follow in the path of their parents, community, and values they acquired from their childhood? Change is difficult. We rarely venture out of our comfort zone and usually want to return to the safe place as soon as we can. A great engineer will generally think like a great engineer rather than a great marketer. Great consultants, meanwhile, know how to make their clients feel they are getting real value from their expert advice even though they (wink wink nudge nudge) know that most of the money the best clients spend will be wasted as the clients will rarely really implement the consultant’s advice unless the ideas already are in line with the clients’ existing assumptions and values.
I will throw you a lifeline, however, if you know things aren’t working well and you know you need to change your model but are not sure how. My advice is to correlate your desired changes to your strengths and your values and then connect with others to make the changes happen. In other words, listen to yourself while you listen to the experts. Then, perhaps, change will happen because you will actually enjoy the process and won’t be fighting against your values.