The Story About Marketing You Were Never Told
A $32,000 Strategy You Can Implement Free
Do you ever feel lost in the maze of marketing options, like you’re drowning in a sea of tactics without a clear strategy? Are you struggling to make your business thrive despite making money?
What if you could discover the secrets behind marketing that genuinely works for solopreneurs like you?
We’re about to unveil the truth about marketing tactics, the importance of a marketing strategy, and a $32,000 strategy you can implement for free.
Get ready to shift your perspective and take your solopreneur journey to the next level.
It’s time to understand how to attract the RIGHT leads, define your structure, and build a marketing strategy that’s as solid as a rock.
More Money, More Problems
While waiting for my partner to return with our mower out of the shop, a gentleman named James approached me, asking how long I had been in the lawn business.
“8 Years going on 9 in a few months.”
“Man, that’s cool. I’ve been doing it for the last four years, but I’m struggling. I’m making money but have nothing to show for it.”
His accountant told him he made $144,000 last year. Sadly, he had no idea and didn’t see the massive change in his lifestyle that one may expect from making that kind of money.
“I have 100 accounts and three men on my crew. Two of them work with me every day.”
“What is your biggest struggle right now,” I asked him.
“I don’t know how to price my business.”
He said that whenever he gets a new customer, who usually comes from another lawn service, he tells them he will do it for whatever price the previous company was doing it for.
“They could lie to you, man; they could have paid a higher price, but now they’re telling you something much cheaper than you just agreed to.”
“I know.” He dropped his head a little, feeling the weight of this tactical approach to business hitting him dead in the pockets.
That is the issue I see across the landscape with solopreneurs who want to grow their businesses. Social media villains(internet gurus) teach tactics over strategy. Taking a tactical approach like James’ to business growth leads you to do what everybody else does. Which means you get stuck in the same box as everybody else in the market. Or worse, your business isn’t profitable.
Tactics aren’t all bad, and they do serve a place. It’s just that solopreneurs aren’t looking at the bigger picture regarding their marketing efforts. Marketing your business is more than filling your inbound leads. It’s doing your best to fill it with the RIGHT leads that fit your entire business structure. Solopreneurs are failing to pre-qualify customers that fit THEIR pricing strategy, THEIR project strategy, and THEIR goals.
Our buddy James took a pure tactical price strategy, costing him thousands of dollars, time, and energy.
Which leads me to the next point about your favorite social media villain.
The Truth About Marketing That Most Gurus Make You Pay For
They hook you with the tactic while emptying your pockets for the strategy.
Let’s define further what a tactic is. A tactic is a specific action you’re taking to grow your business.
For example, posting content daily is a tactic.
Commenting on a bunch of profiles is a tactic.
Going to network events is a tactic.
I once read an IG Guru’s email giving seven steps to creating an eye-catching viral reel. Doing seven things beyond hitting record to make a simple IG Reel is a tactic.
Tactics work so well to attract solopreneurs who want to grow their business because it’s easy for the social media villain to sell you on metrics that don’t matter–Followers, likes, comments, etc.
And that makes you feel like you’re doing something.
We were sold and bought into this notion that those metrics mean we are building a successful business.
The lack of strategy for marketing is why many people went viral during the pandemic, from some guru tactic, but didn’t know what to do, what to say, or how to capitalize on the new attention they got for themselves.
The way I see it. If a social media platform can erase your entire business by hitting the delete button on your profile. Then you don’t have a business at all. Businesses insulate themselves from the destruction of outside forces.
I’ve seen creators lose everything overnight because they didn’t have an email list or another way to maintain customer data beyond a follower name.
So, where do tactics fit within your business world?
And what is a strategy that you can start implementing today?
A $32,000 Strategy you can implement for free
Marketing is about structure and following specific principles within that strategy.
First, we’ll discuss the principles; then, I’ll give you a detailed overview of the principles in action within my lawn business. My partner and I started a lawn business in February 2023 and have averaged over $8,000 monthly since June 2023.
As I see it in my experience as a lawn business owner, solopreneur growth strategist, and real estate investor, the marketing principles are these three things.
- Psychology — If you don’t understand your market, you’ll never connect
- Listening — If you don’t know how to listen, you’ll never know what to say.
- Clear Communication — If you can’t communicate, they’ll never know you can help them
Extra point — within your marketing strategy, focus on one service you want your market to engage in.
Now that you have the principles, next is the marketing strategy. The marketing strategy that you’ll use markets not only who you are for but the right people you want that will fit these three things within your business:
- Customer Standards — Clarity on what you expect from your customers helps you, and them know if it’s a good fit or not. I can’t stress enough how critical this part is in your marketing message/strategy.
- Pricing Structure — The more you know about your pricing, the easier it’ll become to attract quality customers. Deep psychology around charging higher fees, which curates better customers. Dan Kennedy discusses this in his book about marketing to the affluent.
- Schedule Structure — Solopreneurs are stressed and overburdened with work because they build their schedules around the wishes and whims of their customers. It’s the other way around. If they want to work with you, they’ll find a way to ensure their schedule aligns with yours.
So, how do we put this into play for our lawn business?
- The one singular service we focused on — Routine Grass Cuts
- Psychology — There are many things I could put here, but I’ll share one. What we understood about our market is their MANY frustrations with their current lawn company — communication, language barrier, poor service.
- Listening — The only way we understood our marketing was by conversing with potential customers at network events and reading other comments people posted online.
- Clear Communication — “If you’re tired of looking at your grass and thinking I still have to do that, or you’re frustrated that your lawn company only comes when they want money, then do XYZ.” — This is a simple example, but you get a general idea. We put everything together that we understood to attract the right person.
- Pricing Structure — We have a minimum price we charge for weekly and bi-weekly grass cuts. This is based on our wants, needs, and desires for business growth. Our prices are generally higher than most of our competition.
- Schedule Structure — We work Monday — Friday. We are in a particular area of our coverage zone on certain days. And on those days, we do quotes within that specific area.
This was our strategy in a nutshell. At least a very simple version of it. Otherwise, this post would be insanely long.
With a strategy in play.
NOW, the tactics can come and move the strategy forward. This is where tactics are essential. To shift your marketing strategy towards your business goals.
Tactics are being taught backward. Very few, if any, internet gurus are talking about growth from this angle.
What tactics did we use to grow our lawn business?
- Local SEO
- Local Networking
- Social Media Content Post
- Simply doing a damn good job on every property.
Final Word
The marketing world can often seem like a labyrinth of tactics and strategies, leaving solopreneurs feeling overwhelmed and uncertain about the path to success.
Many have fallen victim to the allure of quick-fix tactics that promise followers, likes, and comments, but these metrics alone don’t build thriving businesses.
Instead, the proper foundation of successful marketing lies in understanding the psychology of your market, listening to your customers, and communicating your unique value.
A well-defined customer standard, pricing structure, and schedule structure can attract quality clients who align with your business goals.
Take a page from our journey in the lawn business, where we focused on routine grass cuts and applied these principles to achieve remarkable growth.
Remember, tactics have their place, but the strategic approach sets the stage for lasting success in the world of solopreneurship.
So, as you embark on your marketing journey, consider this $32,000 strategy — it won’t cost you a dime, but its value is beyond measure.
