Marketing your services can quickly start feeling like an exercise in perpetual motion.  It’s easy to believe that you have to keep going at all costs, keep working at it, keep trying.

After all, if you don’t keep pushing, it seems obvious that the momentum will slow to a stop.

To some extent, of course that’s true.  However, even as you keep pushing, it’s wise to keep an eye on where you’re pushing and how you’re pushing.  Especially if the pushing feels like hard, painful work, it’s worth taking a look around to see if you’re going off track somehow.

Yet taking the time to step back and see what’s happening usually seems like exactly the wrong thing to do.  It’s that perpetual motion thing again:  must keep going, or everything will come crashing down! 

Nonetheless, sometimes doing what feels counter-intuitive is exactly the right thing to do. 

Here are some thoughts to consider. 

Stop!

When you’re moving fast, in a hurry to get somewhere, it’s hard to see what’s happening.

Stop.  Just for a moment, stop.  Stop planning, stop doing, stop thinking.  Stop, breathe, and just let yourself rest for a moment. 

What comes into view when you stop and let yourself see?

Is it a struggle?

Working really hard at marketing can quickly become a struggle with what you think is the right way instead of allowing your customers and your intuition to lead.

If you feel as if you’re working hard without the sense of inspiration and fun that comes when you’re in the flow and enjoying what you do, it could be time to re-evaluate how you’re applying all that effort.

There’s no rule that says marketing has to be a hard, grinding slog.  It can be invigorating and exciting when you’re confident in your message – and in how you’re delivering that message.

Don’t assume you know

Don’t assume you know what your customers want – even if you think you’d be your own best customer. 

Ask.  Observe.  Send out a one- or two-question survey.  Find out what your best clients would most like you to offer or do differently. 

Even if you only talk with a few, you’ll still know more than when you’re stuck conversing with the inside of your own head.

Evaluate your results

What results are you really, truly experiencing from your marketing efforts?

What answers did you get to the questions you asked your customers, whether it was an actual survey or a few informal conversations?

If you’re not getting the results you want, and if the answers from your customers weren’t what you expected, please don’t discount them.  It’s easy to think up any number of reasons why distasteful results are invalid, but the simplest answer is usually the most accurate:  you might need to rethink your marketing strategy!

Get an external opinion

Ask a few friends or colleagues for their thoughts.  They’re looking from the outside in, so they’ll have a whole different perspective to offer.  Even if – or perhaps especially if – they have no idea what you do, their ideas will be fresh and potentially intriguing.

Of course, their ideas may or may not be feasible.  I’m remembering a friend who worked for a company assisting realtors with their marketing.  He was sure the practices he taught would work for me.  Despite my skepticism, I tried a few things he suggested.  They didn’t work – real estate is a very different market with a very different approach – but was good to move out of my comfort zone and habitual ways of thinking.

Take a break

Creativity and ideas need space to breathe and grow.  No matter how much you may feel you have to stay on top of the to-do list, working 24/7 smothers your ability to do anything at all.

I’m always astonished at the creativity that surges through me when I’ve really taken a break and disconnected for a few days.  In fact, this article and the upcoming associated blog posts sprang almost full-formed, word for word, into being after I took a weekend with the computer turned off, working in the garden, sitting quietly, and taking long walks.  (And this whole week has been like that.  Stay tuned for more fun, exciting stuff to come!)

If everything in you is screaming that you don’t have time and you couldn’t possibly disconnect for a whole weekend, that’s even more of a sign that you really need to.

Don’t just do something…

Most of all, please don’t confuse action with progress.

It’s painfully easy to fall into that trap when you’re feeling pressured – perhaps by financial concerns, perhaps by your deep desire to succeed, or perhaps by the pull you feel to help the people who need you.

What are you doing? 

Is it getting you where you want to go, and do you feel the way you want to feel?

If not … don’t just do something, stand there! 

In other words, stop, breathe, take a look around, and re-evaluate your strategy. 

It can’t hurt, and it just might be the best thing you ever did for your marketing – and your business.

“There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at all.”  Peter Drucker, 1909-2005, American writer, management consultant, and self-described “social ecologist.”