Do I need to market?

If you’re selling cures for cancer, and nobody else can do so, then marketing will not be your biggest “pain point”.

However, if you are in an extremely competitive market place, then you MUST HAVE AN ANGLE that others don’t have i.e.:

• bettter,
• faster,
• cheaper

In order to compete and to get a good return.

If you don’t have that, then it’s a race to the bottom.

Marketing

What’s your marketing strategy?

If you don’t have one, then that’s a bad strategy.

If your startegy is paid advertising - then that is ephemeral: e.g. post cards, google ads etc. It is arguably expensive, because it is there one day, and gone the next.

Content Marketing

IMO a better form of marketing is a permanent one:

• giving valuable advice to your client base
• giving advice / training to staff

The benefits are immense:

• instead of paying people to come to you, they will come of their own accord, in proportion to the usefulness of your information,
• the same for staff: they will refer to the firm’s memos and other material as a source of information.

Moreover, it is “free” and permanent. The benefits accrue over time, as your content grows in volume and quality.

Incentives - other people market

Look at every single solo detailer in the industry: they market their wares without fail. Why?

Will a single one of them think that: “it is a waste of time?”

How long does it take them to “market” anyways? A simple screenshot + an explanation does wonders. They might do a few projects every now and again. We do hundreds. We have the scale! Yet they with meagre resources are whipping us on the marketing front.

However, we complete hundreds of projects, have have pittance to show for it.

When clients come to our website, I would wish they could see the depth of the projects we have done.

Here are some examples:

Example 1

Example 2

Example 3

Example 3 is my favourite:

Our incentives

If we cannot incentivise our team to market, then we are not maximising our potential.

Incentives work!

Examples:

• Give them a bonus for bringing in a client via an affiliate link.
• Or any other incentive systems for driving behaviour that you see fit.

….and let the incentive drive the behaviour!

Generally speaking: incentives which drive direct outcomes, are better than those which do not.

For example, a sales commission is a better system of incentives than, for example, paying a salesperson to make phone calls (without results).

The Goal

Let Tek1 become a world-wide resource for knowledge on steel detailing:

• clients will come
• detailers will come
• and both, eventually will lead to better outcomes. You can get get the best staff, and the clients will get the best results.