Creative Entrepreneurship Basics: Time for Marketing with a Personal Touch

I don’t know how I managed to do this, but I totally forgot to add this important goal to my list of to-dos during the winter break 2-week goal challenge, which started yesterday. You can read all about it in last Friday’s blog post, entitled “Blogging Truths Be Told” Hiatus for Goal Setting and Achievement Time!

It’s so weird how I managed to leave this “this” off of my list, since it’s been high on my list of priorities even before the challenge started. And I even went so far as to get started on this goal and then totally left it dangling. 

Bet you’re wondering what the “this” is right about now. Aren’t you? Or, maybe you simply took a note from this blog post’s title and will go with a guess of something to do with marketing, perhaps? If so, you’re absolutely right and so on point with your context clues.

Yes, I have some marketing efforts in store during this 2-week goal challenge I’m currently participating in. But more specifically, I’ve decided to go with marketing with a “personal” flair. It’s really time to do something a little different than I’m used to doing — something that will totally take me out of my comfort zone but needs to be done nonetheless.

I’m going to prep for the good, old-fashioned, one-on-one, door-to-door (kind of), word-of-mouth, direct marketing strategy. It’s time to broaden my horizon and make way for this effort that will go against my innate, natural tendency to “soft” market from a distance. This entirely new marketing scenario will pit me up against the whole cold calling — no . . . actually, cold visiting strategy where I’ll actually go to a place of business or organization that can utilize my products and services, introduce Degrees of Maternity, and leave my promotional packet with the person I visit with.

Now, I’ve done promotional packets in the past. In the last 30-day goal challenge I participated in, in fact. But I delivered those promotional packets by email; and to this day, I’m not aware that any of the packets made an impact of any sort to my business. At least, no one from those entities, receiving my packets, personally reached out to me in any form of communication. But you never know. Maybe visits to my different platforms occurred and/or purchases happened because of those emails. I just don’t know with any certainty that an impact was made.

And since I can’t assess the results from that past marketing effort, I’ve decided to get up close and personal. Now, Covid was out there, which is one of the contributing factors for why I initially opted to go for the email contact with businesses and organizations. And we’re still battling Covid today. But I think I have to be willing to get out and make those personal connections with those I’m seeking to do business with, even in face of the challenges presenting themselves. I have to develop relationships that put a face and voice to the name and bring who I am and what I do to an audience in the “live” version.

It just makes sense for this time and place in my creative entrepreneurial journey. Word-of-mouth, direct marketing with a personal touch — Jana-style. (“Jana-style” is code word for not pushy and annoyingly salesy — just simply a friendly “dropping off of this packet of information to let you know these products and services are out here if you need them, and here’s a little sample of what I have to offer and how you can reach me if you’re interested.” That’s my vibe.)

And I’ll tell you this much. I’m not looking to make those direct contacts during the 2-week challenge. No, definitely not. The actual visits will have to come after the winter break that most will be experiencing over the next couple of weeks. Schedules during this period will be a little wonky with a lot of places being closed and people on vacation during this time — especially since my potential clientele will tend to be daycares, schools, and tutoring centers.

So, I’ll just concentrate on all of the prep work for my visits, which will include determining the places I will visit and getting all of my promotional packet items ready to go for the “GO LIVE” dates of delivery. Yes, the prep work will be all I can handle, along with everything else I want to work on during this short goal challenge stint. 

Oh, and I’ve already started on the updated promotional packets based on the previous promotional packets that I used during my email campaign. Indeed, I’m finding it necessary to update just about everything in that previous packet to fit what my business is looking like today. And the promotional packets consist of:

• a welcome to Degrees of Maternity letter.
• a business card.
• a thank you card.
• a product sample sheet.
• 3 different promotional product flyers.

Well, I just wanted to make sure and let you know that my personal marketing effort has been added to my goal challenge to-do list. Honestly, it should have probably been #1 on the list from last Friday’s blog post I mentioned at the beginning of this discussion. Come January 2022, my plan is to start making those visits to the daycares, schools, and tutoring centers a reality. When I get to that part in my journey with marketing “cringeyness”, I’ll make sure to let you know all about it. You’ll get what I mean about my cringey relationship with marketing by reading this and this.