Would you like to develop a marketing app that could raise your visibility, strengthen your credibility, and generate more leads? “Sure,” you may be saying, “but I wouldn’t know how; I’m not a ‘techie.'” Well, to build a perfectly functional marketing app, you don’t have to understand technology. You just have to keep doing the work you’re doing on a daily basis and process it through three simple steps.
But let’s back up for a minute and define what we mean by “marketing app.” An “app,” or application, is a computer software program designed to perform a specific task. These days, the term usually refers to an app designated to run on a mobile device. (Think of the small icons on your smartphone or tablet.) When we talk about a marketing app, however, we mean the simple, reliable process for getting more business in the door.
A key characteristic of a mobile app is that you can rely on it to do the same thing every time it’s opened. You can count on the fact that it will follow the same process every time and generate the results you expect. The marketing app we’ve been talking about does that, too. And like any good app, it’s simple; in fact, it involves only three steps: packaging, leveraging, and repurposing. The best part? You don’t need to buy any software and you don’t need to be a techie. You simply build on the work, thoughts and ideas you generate every day and just follow the following three steps.
Step one: Packaging. Whether you know it or not, you already have marketing material. It shows up in many of the things you do every day. For example, it might be an insight gained from hearing the same novel question from several of your clients. Or it might be an article idea that occurs to you while you’re writing a brief. Or it might just be thoughts that come to you while participating in a panel discussion at an industry event. All of this is input for your marketing app— you just need to sort it out and package the potentially lead-generating ideas, rather than let them dissipate. The more you think about how things in your daily work flow could be turned into viable material (input) for your marketing app, the easier it becomes to identify those with the potential to generate leads.
Packaging means capturing your ideas and putting them into a tangible format such as a bylined article, a webinar, a media pitch (with the goal of being quoted), or a tweet that your followers will want to retweet. All of these materials help substantiate your status as an expert. You know you have expertise in your field, but you need to continuously remind your target market of this fact by familiarizing prospective clients and referral sources as often as you can with your name and the value and knowledge you possess. Then, when the need for your services arises, your name is the first that comes to mind, and referrals follow.
Turning your ideas into shareable material is a terrific first step, but you can get even more business development mileage out of that material with the second step in your marketing app: Leveraging.
Leveraging means taking the results of step one—being quoted in the media, presenting a webinar, having an article published, etc.—and letting the world know about it via other avenues. You republish the article on your website. You post information about the webinar on LinkedIn and share it via other social media platforms. You mention the media interview in your newsletter and link to your most recent article in your email signature. All of these marketing and public relations activities take time and effort; leveraging the results of those efforts maximizes your investment in them.
The third and last step in your marketing app is: Repurposing. Think about the material you’ve created and how it could be further used. For example, could the webinar you spent so much time on a few months ago be adapted into an article or into a media pitch? Might the article you wrote be expanded into a white paper? Is there potentially another publication that would be interested in the article if you refocused, shortened and reworded it?
Once you have your original material—article, webinar, etc.—repurposing doesn’t require much more work; mainly, some creative thinking. Plus, repurposing need not end, and really shouldn’t end, after only one round; you can repurpose material multiple times, leveraging after each round, to get maximum use out of the core content.
In today’s digital world, there are so many channels you can use to extend your reach and contribute to the edifice of expertise you are building. Strategic marketers today know that relevant material (content) targeted to the right people and delivered through multiple channels is an enormously successful way to develop new business and to obtain additional business from current clients. As with the apps on your iPhone, your marketing app, developed with this premise in mind, is designed to consistently produce results.
Think about how much traction you could get out of just a couple ideas by putting them through this process. Consider the visibility and familiarity you could create for you and your firm. You don’t have to purchase or license this marketing app. It’s there for the taking. All you have to do is take the valuable thoughts that go through your mind and come across your desk every day and Package, Leverage, and Repurpose them. When you do, you will attract the appropriate audience to ultimately drive profitable customer referrals and business to you.
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