don’t do any marketing until you’ve done these two things

My name’s Adrian Fleming and as a cross-media marketing expert as well as an entrepreneur, I appreciate that these things are closely related…

…and that some people realise on day one where as others take a while to appreciate that…

…leads, which some marketers especially those online, call traffic, is critical to a business.

There are various ways to generate leads, from paid for advertising online and in traditional media like newspapers, magazines and direct mail…

…there‘s also the “holy grail” and that’s free traffic, but the reality is even with PR and SEO this actually costs you money…

…but that’s a completely different story for another time.

The critical thing is that a large amount of focus tends to be on this idea of traffic generation, paid for or free…

…getting people to visit a website, come in to your store, call you up, even follow you on Twitter or like you on Facebook, but this shouldn’t be your priority.

In fact it’s only third in my list of priorities as an entrepreneur and if you’re a smart entrepreneur too I want to share my reasoning with you…

…that way you can apply what you learn in the next few minutes and get the results you’ve always wanted because…

…a couple of simple changes is all it takes to radically, and I mean radically, improve your results and most importantly, profitability.

So let me just share a couple of assumptions with you for now as I know this will help.

First is, you actually have something to sell or plan to in the near future, it doesn’t matter what it is, just that you have a reason to generate leads and traffic.

Makes sense, but I’m just making sure.

Next is that most people, yourself included, aren’t lucky enough to have an unlimited flow of new customers visiting you and buying each and every day…

…so you need to do some sort of marketing and promotion.

And finally, you are an entrepreneur according to my definition, which is…

…somebody who moves the game on, not just runs or owns a business.

If you want to know more about this then just check out my videos on this at my website as I know it will add incredible value to you, what you do right now and in the future too.

Ok, so we have those things set out, now let’s start with what’s first on my list of priorities and that’s having something that people want to buy.

Now, wanting and needing to buy are two very different things and as an entrepreneur you need to go out to market with certainty that…

…people want what you have, this way you can generate sales…

…but if you don’t have this then it doesn’t matter how much traffic and how many leads you generate, the result will be the same – low or worse still, zero income.

You’d be surprised how many entrepreneurs have this problem, even though they are convinced they don’t.

So if you’re not making as much as you want, then this is the number one place to look first for a solution and even if you think you do have this part right check because…

…what you think may not be right, I should know as I used to make this mistake and waste literally £1,000s a month…

…trying to convince a market that what I did was something that they actually should want and buy, which was a big and expensive mistake.

So on to number two in the list of priorities and that’s have the right system in place so that when you do decide to generate traffic and leads you are not wasting them.

There are so few people who actually get this right and it’s crazy because it’s something that costs very little to do…

I’m not just talking here about a name and email capture service you use online, I’m talking about how you collect and manage contacts online…

…in person at your place of work or on the phone and also the systematic way you start building up a rapport with them to, as they say…

…get them to “know, like and trust you”.

So then, and only then, is when you should start driving traffic and leads in to your business because if you haven’t got those first two things right you are…

wasting time..

money and effort

It doesn’t matter how much you spend, how good your copy is, how great your photos are or anything else.

So make sure that no matter what you’re doing right now to generate traffic and leads, no matter what you sell, where you sell and to whom…

…you just take a few minutes to make sure that you’ve got your priorities right and by that I mean…

…making sure you’re selling something people want to buy and that when they make contact with you, however that may be…

…you can convert that traffic and the lead to make the most of if it.

Then and only then you should be looking at creating ads, doing PR, attending trade shows, sending out direct mail…

…or any other thing you can do to build that steady, predictable stream of customers to your business.

By the way, I don’t want to leave without giving you some advice on the traffic and lead side of things too because it’s still really, really important.

So when you have the first two priorities right and you are generating traffic and leads the number one mistake people make is…

…not measuring, monitoring and reacting to what’s happening enough and therefore…

…not optimising the results they can get from the same amount of or less time, money and effort.

Traffic and leads are only great when they are profitable and too many people don’t make enough profit.

So don’t just work on generating traffic and leads, master the ability to generate quality traffic and profitable leads…

…no matter whether you are doing so online or via traditional marketing methods like print.

So that’s it, I really appreciate you investing your time. If you enjoyed this then be sure to subscribe and tell a friend about it too.

And if you want free books, hours of video, actionable training material, checklists and more in the areas of entrepreneurship and marketing visit me at…

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Until next time just remember, the only things you need to do if you want to be a successful entrepreneur are embrace change, care about what you do and connect with your marketplace.