90% Of Marketing Is Reminding People You Exist
I’ve built up a lot of maxims, mantras, and slogans over the years. I started writing these articles to quantify, clarify, and share them for posterity. Also, when I exited Lullabot and started focusing on my Business Coaching work, I wanted a way to share what I’m thinking about and give potential clients an idea of the person I am. My ideas might not resonate with everyone, but that’s actually a good thing. I can filter out the bad-fit clients from the good-fit clients before I even talk to anyone.
I’ve done a lot of “putting myself out there” over time. I’ve written lots of articles and led a lot of podcasts about everything from web development to remote work and — these days — business leadership, culture, and strategy. Prior to all of this, my career was writing songs, recording, and performing music — a career entirely defined by resonating with your audience.
But while I prefer to think of all of this effort as “connecting,” “sharing,” “putting it out there,” or “resonating,” the cynical truth is that this is “marketing”. Even worse, most of what I’m talking about here is “content marketing” — a term that has become synonymous with vapid say-nothing do-nothing content which exists purely to promote.
Worse yet, the majority of people won’t actually read what I’m writing. They won’t watch my videos, listen to my podcasts, or hear my music. While the title of this article will get to people via my newsletter or social media, the majority of those people won’t read the sentence you are reading right now. But that’s okay. They will see that I’m writing things. They might trust that this is a thoughtful article. They will be reminded that I’m still thinking about this stuff. And most importantly, they will be reminded that I exist. I will be present in their lives for some fraction of a second. They might see my picture. They might read the title. Hopefully, I’ll find a good image for this post and maybe that will draw them in. They might click to read. Or they might not. But that’s okay. I have been successful in reminding people that I exist.
I am a Business Coach. Most of my clients come through my network and word-of-mouth. People think of me because they remember that I exist. They know that I am passionate about this work because I keep posting my thoughts. They may delve deeper and hopefully, my ideas will resonate.
But 90% of marketing is just reminding people that you exist. It’s easy to get caught up in the details of our content. Your content should have a point of view and a purpose. It should have value and, hopefully, express your authenticity and passion. But the truth is that consistency and quantity are more important than specificity and accuracy.
With that in mind, keep your marketing simple and manageable. I try to keep my posts around 500 words — a manageable size both to write and read. I try to post once or twice a month. I’ll post a link on Facebook and people that I went to high school with will read the title and think to themselves, “Jeff Robbins is still alive. Still writing his things.” Bam! I did it! I’ll post it on LinkedIn and Twitter and send it out to my newsletter. Maybe it will stimulate some immediate opportunity. But if I’m simply reminding people that exist, then I’m doing what I need to be doing.
Do you have customers or clients that you want to remember you? What are you passionate about that you can share? How can you design a workflow so you can share consistently? And knowing that most of your target audience won’t actually read your content, how can you keep from getting caught up in perfection and details?
Jeff Robbins is a business coach, mentor, and virtual business partner who works one-on-one with company owners and leaders to help them build vision and direction for their companies while building productivity, stability, and happiness for their employees and themselves. You can work with him too. Reach out to set up a free consultation session.
