When you are out fishing and only have one line over the side, you limit the number of fish you can catch in the time available. The same applies when marketing your business. Use only one marketing channel and you still may catch a customer, but if your channel goes unnoticed, you can come up empty handed.
The answer, just like when you are fishing, is to use several baited hooks in your marketing. Also, make sure the bait is enticing and kept fresh.
When I ask business owners, “where do your leads come from?”, many are very pleased to say “I get ALL of my business from word-of-mouth!”. There is no doubt about it. Word of mouth (WoM) marketing is the most effective lead generation source there is. The only trouble is that you don’t control it. It relies on other people remembering you and hopefully telling their friends, and hopefully those friends reach out to you. There is a lot of hope in that process and no way for you to control it.
Certainly have WoM as part of your lead generation process, but I recommend you have half a dozen other strategies to complement it. This means when one channel isn’t working for you, you have a few more that may be. Some may be fairly passive (signage) and some may be a bit more pro-active (social media). Some may cost some money (new website) and some may may take your time, but less money (networking). I have a list of FIFTY different lead generation strategies you can pick from. Many won’t be appropriate for you, but several will be. It’s a matter of choosing what is most appropriate for you, your business and your target client and then making sure the message is consistent across all the strategies and implemented in a planned way.
If you want a copy of my lead generation strategy list, email me at andy@tradescoach.co.nz and I will send it to you.