PROMOTE YOUR BUSINESS EFFECTIVELY
NOVEMBER 2012
by Lisa Maki
Once you have established your business, ministry, product, or services, the next phase will even be more challenging. This is the promotions part where a lot of your investments of time, money, and effort will go.
Promotions should form part of your business plan. You should have thought about it even before you launched your business. You should have created your strategies and have identified how much time, money, and effort it requires. If you have done your homework on this, I want to commend you. If you haven’t, you still have the chance to work on it now. The key is to have your plans ready before you even start promoting; otherwise you will just be wasting your time.
What I want to share with you here is how to be successful in your promotions. You may have the best plans in the world but still fail. What I will also share with you here are successful promotions, the Biblical way. One of the biggest privileges that we Christians have is that we have the Holy Spirit to help and assist us in everything we do. We also have our ministering angels around us. Another point that I want to share with you is how to promote cost-effectively. There are numerous ways to promote, free of charge.
To be successful in promoting your business, ministry, product, or services, you need to have a plan and you have to be organized. Your plan should begin by identifying your market niche or your target market. The next step is to find out where they are. You have to build your customer base and have a list of who these people are. From here you can plan your methods. Are you going to use mailers, email campaign, social networking, networking groups, telemarketing, billboards, or flyers? Whatever methods you decide to use, plan which methods you will utilize more than others. Calculate how much time these methods will take and the frequency of promotions you will do.
Before we go any further, don’t forget the two basic “must-have”: business card and website. Don’t expect to be successful in your promotions without having these two.
One Biblical Scripture that can be the basis for successful promotions is Proverbs 16:3 …
Roll your works upon the Lord [commit and trust them wholly to Him; He will cause your thoughts to become agreeable to His will, and] so shall your plans be established and succeed.
God wants to be in charge of our business and ministries. In the first place, we are just stewards. Our businesses and ministries are God’s tools for fulfilling His plan here on earth. He knows where the target market is. He is the One who is going to stir up people to pay attention to what you are offering. He is the One who is going to lead those who have been foreordained to support you. This should be the mindset of every Christian trying to promote something. Outside of this, all plans will fail.
I have seen a lot of Christians get disappointed or so exhausted with their lack of success in promoting their cause. I have seen so many musicians rely on their music as their bread and butter … their only source of income. They try so hard promoting it and selling their stuff. They barely make ends meet. Why is this??? I will tell you why. It’s because they have taken over instead of allowing God to run everything for them.
I am not saying that we shouldn’t do anything and just wait for God to move. What I am saying is if we focus on what God has called us to do, instead of focusing on making money out of what we are doing, then we release ourselves from the pressure and stress.
Believe me, I would want to be financially blessed with this magazine, and I know that in God’s time, I will. However, I am not focused on that. If I am, then I will be distracted in doing what God has called me to do. I want to be a blessing to other women and that is what I am focused on. I am the same way with my business. I rely totally on God to send me the right clients. I do my part in promoting it and I trust God to do the rest. And He always sends me clients at the right time.
One thing that you have to avoid is “pressure selling”. This is what happens when you yourself get pressured. You pass on the pressure to someone else. Persistence is one thing; being naggingly irritating or annoying is another thing. It turns people off and you lose your chance to even build a relationship with them. You see, it’s all about building relationships.
Another example of pressure selling is begging people to avail of your offering. I’ve had several people message me privately on facebook, begging me to like their page or to support their ministry. First, these people haven’t even built a relationship with me. Next, it really turns me off and it will never work. Remember, God will lead the right people to you. Begging them or forcing them is a lack of trust in God.
What I’ve also noticed is, more so in social networking such as facebook, everybody is promoting something. I’ve seen groups where every post is a promotion of something and there is hardly any interaction or fellowship. I mean, if everybody in a group is just promoting something, then who is even looking at what is being promoted? It’s like selling in a market where all the people are the vendors. This is not what promotions is all about. As I’ve said, it’s all about building relationships.
When you roll your works unto the Lord, which means you give everything to Him, He will cause your thoughts to become agreeable to His will. He will lead you what to do. This is what He has done for me over these years … from the writing and publishing of my book, to my business, and to God’z Gurlz … He is the One who keeps leading me. It seems like there is a voice in my mind telling me what to do and where to go. And, the greatest part is … He always leads me to free stuff or the cheapest and most economical means.
There are so many free stuffs you can avail of: websites, social networking, networking groups, email is free (of course you pay your power and internet provider, but then the library is there), press releases, etc. You have to explore. More than this, you need to be sensitive to the voice of God telling you where to go.
One last thing I want to impart to you is this: When you promote, think about “service”. You are there to help people. You are there to serve them. So instead of saying, “I want to offer you this”, you can say “Let me be of help to you”. Instead of saying, “Buy my CD”, you can say, “Let this CD be a blessing to you”. Instead of saying, “Support my ministry”, you can say, “Let me know how our ministry can be of help to you”. See the big difference? This is when you focus on service more than yourself.
Think about all these things I’ve shared with you and reflect on what you have been doing with regards to promotions. If you have to rewrite your plans and redo your ways, then go ahead and do it. Let the Holy Spirit lead you.
Promotions should form part of your business plan. You should have thought about it even before you launched your business. You should have created your strategies and have identified how much time, money, and effort it requires. If you have done your homework on this, I want to commend you. If you haven’t, you still have the chance to work on it now. The key is to have your plans ready before you even start promoting; otherwise you will just be wasting your time.
What I want to share with you here is how to be successful in your promotions. You may have the best plans in the world but still fail. What I will also share with you here are successful promotions, the Biblical way. One of the biggest privileges that we Christians have is that we have the Holy Spirit to help and assist us in everything we do. We also have our ministering angels around us. Another point that I want to share with you is how to promote cost-effectively. There are numerous ways to promote, free of charge.
To be successful in promoting your business, ministry, product, or services, you need to have a plan and you have to be organized. Your plan should begin by identifying your market niche or your target market. The next step is to find out where they are. You have to build your customer base and have a list of who these people are. From here you can plan your methods. Are you going to use mailers, email campaign, social networking, networking groups, telemarketing, billboards, or flyers? Whatever methods you decide to use, plan which methods you will utilize more than others. Calculate how much time these methods will take and the frequency of promotions you will do.
Before we go any further, don’t forget the two basic “must-have”: business card and website. Don’t expect to be successful in your promotions without having these two.
One Biblical Scripture that can be the basis for successful promotions is Proverbs 16:3 …
Roll your works upon the Lord [commit and trust them wholly to Him; He will cause your thoughts to become agreeable to His will, and] so shall your plans be established and succeed.
God wants to be in charge of our business and ministries. In the first place, we are just stewards. Our businesses and ministries are God’s tools for fulfilling His plan here on earth. He knows where the target market is. He is the One who is going to stir up people to pay attention to what you are offering. He is the One who is going to lead those who have been foreordained to support you. This should be the mindset of every Christian trying to promote something. Outside of this, all plans will fail.
I have seen a lot of Christians get disappointed or so exhausted with their lack of success in promoting their cause. I have seen so many musicians rely on their music as their bread and butter … their only source of income. They try so hard promoting it and selling their stuff. They barely make ends meet. Why is this??? I will tell you why. It’s because they have taken over instead of allowing God to run everything for them.
I am not saying that we shouldn’t do anything and just wait for God to move. What I am saying is if we focus on what God has called us to do, instead of focusing on making money out of what we are doing, then we release ourselves from the pressure and stress.
Believe me, I would want to be financially blessed with this magazine, and I know that in God’s time, I will. However, I am not focused on that. If I am, then I will be distracted in doing what God has called me to do. I want to be a blessing to other women and that is what I am focused on. I am the same way with my business. I rely totally on God to send me the right clients. I do my part in promoting it and I trust God to do the rest. And He always sends me clients at the right time.
One thing that you have to avoid is “pressure selling”. This is what happens when you yourself get pressured. You pass on the pressure to someone else. Persistence is one thing; being naggingly irritating or annoying is another thing. It turns people off and you lose your chance to even build a relationship with them. You see, it’s all about building relationships.
Another example of pressure selling is begging people to avail of your offering. I’ve had several people message me privately on facebook, begging me to like their page or to support their ministry. First, these people haven’t even built a relationship with me. Next, it really turns me off and it will never work. Remember, God will lead the right people to you. Begging them or forcing them is a lack of trust in God.
What I’ve also noticed is, more so in social networking such as facebook, everybody is promoting something. I’ve seen groups where every post is a promotion of something and there is hardly any interaction or fellowship. I mean, if everybody in a group is just promoting something, then who is even looking at what is being promoted? It’s like selling in a market where all the people are the vendors. This is not what promotions is all about. As I’ve said, it’s all about building relationships.
When you roll your works unto the Lord, which means you give everything to Him, He will cause your thoughts to become agreeable to His will. He will lead you what to do. This is what He has done for me over these years … from the writing and publishing of my book, to my business, and to God’z Gurlz … He is the One who keeps leading me. It seems like there is a voice in my mind telling me what to do and where to go. And, the greatest part is … He always leads me to free stuff or the cheapest and most economical means.
There are so many free stuffs you can avail of: websites, social networking, networking groups, email is free (of course you pay your power and internet provider, but then the library is there), press releases, etc. You have to explore. More than this, you need to be sensitive to the voice of God telling you where to go.
One last thing I want to impart to you is this: When you promote, think about “service”. You are there to help people. You are there to serve them. So instead of saying, “I want to offer you this”, you can say “Let me be of help to you”. Instead of saying, “Buy my CD”, you can say, “Let this CD be a blessing to you”. Instead of saying, “Support my ministry”, you can say, “Let me know how our ministry can be of help to you”. See the big difference? This is when you focus on service more than yourself.
Think about all these things I’ve shared with you and reflect on what you have been doing with regards to promotions. If you have to rewrite your plans and redo your ways, then go ahead and do it. Let the Holy Spirit lead you.
