Market From The Inside Out

"Do not follow where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail." - Robert Frost

Marketing, promotion, visibility - our businesses would wither away way without it. Some of us are natural-born marketers; for others, it's a learned skill.

Most business-owners with an on-line presence are familiar with the multitude of methods to drive traffic to their web sites. Some write articles, some join affiliate programs, and other focus on search engine positioning or pay per click technologies. Buying ads and exchanging links are all common strategies.

Other businesses focus on an off-line approach: networking, leads groups, public speaking, and word of mouth referral. Others use a combination of an on-line/off-line approach. The marketing possibilities are endless.

When deciding on the right marketing strategy, we often tend to examine what will work externally out in the marketplace, and overlook what works internally for us. What are the marketing strategies that are in harmony with your inner purpose?

Here are some points to ponder before you take action:

• Get clear about who you are and what you have to offer. In other words, know your inner purpose. Once you're clear about your inner purpose, it can take many external forms.

Perhaps your inner purpose is to create beauty in the world. This could take a host of external forms - designer, artist, florist, architect - just to name a few. If your inner purpose is to help others become more self-aware, you could be a coach, a writer or a minister, for example. Maybe you're clear that you want to help others create businesses that support not only their bank accounts, but their lifestyles as well. Or your inner purpose is to make people's lives easier and you do that by creating innovative technologies.

• Notice your energy levels. For example, I recently received a phone call from an author and business owner who had read one of my articles online. During our conversation, he made the statement that "public speaking is where the money is." For him, maybe. For me, though, the money is in doing what I love: writing and coaching.

Why? Because doing something that doesn't energize me drains energy away from the marketing practices that do energize me. In a cost-benefit analysis, it costs more than it benefits.

• What's right in front of you that you aren't seeing? Sometimes opportunities are so close to us we can't see them. The good news about this is that others around you can usually see what you are myopic about. Ask others for honest, clear feedback about your purpose and how it's reflected in your marketing.

• Don't forget low-hanging fruit. What's a quick, easy, fun marketing step you could take right now?

The most effective marketing starts with who you are and branches out from there. That doesn't mean that you don't read books, consult with experts or try out the hottest techniques. What it does mean is that you need to market from the inside out. Look at your inner purpose and notice the ways it shows up in your business. What makes you do what you get up and do everyday?

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