How to turn Marketing into Sales

Welcome to the Thought Follower, the Solopreneur’s #1 source of LinkedIn advice & writing tips, wrapped in a fresh anecdote each week. 

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There aren’t many plants more prolific than the humble dandelion.

They seem to be everywhere. From Spring to early Winter, most green spaces around our house are littered with bright yellow flowers & wispy white seed bulbs.

While they may be the gardener’s worst enemy, I applaud dandelions for their incredible adaptability. Seems they can grow almost anywhere. (Especially on our lawn).

Whatever your perspective on dandelions, nature provides an interesting lesson for Solopreneurs and those focused on growing their business.

Let’s have a quick, semi-scientific look at the dandelion’s reproductive methods.

First, we see a bright, attractive yellow flower. This attracts bees to do their thing, feeding on the sweet nectar & cross-pollinating with other dandelion flowers (this is plant propagation 101).

But dandelions have another interesting feature - they also reproduce by seed. Those fluffy, feathery parachutes that form into a seed head a few days after the flower.

After the flower has done its job with the bees, the seeds develop and are ultimately spread to all corners by a gust of wind or a blow from an excited toddler.

It’s this second phase that enables the dandelion to be so prolific, sprouting up in cracks in the footpath and the smallest spaces where pollination isn’t possible.

Dandelion seeds scattered by the wind and our kids go everywhere. And they’re a very effective method of sprouting a new plant.

Think about your next piece of content like a Dandelion.

First comes the bright pretty flower:

• LinkedIn post

• Email to your list

• Media feature

• Podcast appearance, etc

Job done, right?

Nope.

Your initial piece may attract some bees & some attention. It’s a great place to start for growing your business and absolutely necessary in today’s marketing game.

But you need to turn that flower into a bunch of seeds you can sow, one by one, with relevant people in your network. This is how you get prolific growth.

Here’s what that looks like for your content:

Take the post you wrote, the email you sent or the podcast you recorded.

Distribute it one by one to

• cold leads

• previous clients

• interesting contacts

And see which seeds take sprout.

Below is a real example from my business.

I emailed a lead who went cold after I’d pitched him my Ghostwriting services. I sent him a previous edition of The Thought Follower relevant to his situation & suggested a catch up.

Two days later, after a productive commercial conversation, he booked in a kick-off for my 3 month Ghostwriting program.

That’s great ROI on a single piece of content.

By thinking about your content this way, you give it multiple lives; multiple chances to create a business opportunity. Don’t rely on a single bright flower to attract all the bees. Sometimes you need to add a puff of wind and a bunch of seeds - you don’t even have to make a wish.

Feel free to borrow this message template & adapt it for your purposes:

“I wrote this last week and thought of you.

I noticed you [life event / business challenge] so this might be of interest.

It’s been a while, it’d be great to catch up - I’m free [2-3 days from now] at [time 1] or [time 2] if you’re free then?”

If the ‘let’s meet up’ Call To Action doesn’t fit, leave your message as a simple gift of value. Chances are, it’ll sprout in time.

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