Con artists thrive on the “fast fix”. If you want to lose weight, take a pill. To get rich quick, purchase an e-book or attend a seminar. Although the con artists who operate on the correct side of the law put the necessary disclaimers (often in very fine print) somewhere on their promotional materials, the implication is that you don’t really have to work very hard to achieve great results if only you will pay them for their magic cure or solution.
Of course, if you can really offer a reliable and effective solution, you have a marketing opportunity for your own business. But this posting focuses on the businesses and organizations selling you their marketing opportunities: the leads services, advertising reps, and search engine optimization services which seem to offer you a quick and simple answer to your problems: Pay them a fee, and just wait for the great new clients to arrive out of the woodwork, all ready to pay your price and all buying your services seemingly without any special effort on your part.
Alas, it doesn’t work that way, with one exception: If you can find ways to enhance, encourage, and leverage your word-of-mouth and repeat business you will achieve significant results relatively quickly and at virtually no cost.
This solution only of course is effective if you have repeat and referral business already. If you don’t, then you have other challenges because you need to fix your business to the point that the repeat and referral opportunities start arising naturally. But if you already have this type of business (and most successful contractors do), then your number one marketing priority is to systematize and encourage more of it!