Two ways to promote a business but only one way to be successful!

This morning I was teaching a class on marketing (in the ELEVATE membership *which is now The Mastermind Course Library), as I often do being one of my favorite topics, and I was presenting my premise that there are two ways to market a business (online or offline). 

1. Paid advertising, costs money, may or may not work.
2. Free promotions, costs time, may or may not work. 

There are no guarantees in marketing! How things work or don't work are part of the learning and part of the journey. They are both hard work, paid advertising needs to be set up correctly, watched, tracked, tweaked.

Free promotions like guest blogging, interviews, and collaborations take time and effort, and you may have little control over the final outcome. 

Personally, I use a combination of paid advertising and actively looking for ways to collaborate with others and taking advantage of every opportunity that I can. It feels pretty busy sometimes, but it's also doing things that I enjoy, like writing, teaching, and talking with other entrepreneurs. 

Marketing is a long game, and in my experience, there are no shortcuts. Sometimes it feels like everything you touch turns to gold and other times it feels like nothing is happening!

I set the intention that everything that I do is planting seeds, when they will grow I don't know and I'm too busy creating and working on the next project to monitor them all. I stay in creating mode and that keeps me out of scarcity mode. :)

Just today I had two colleagues in the Massage and Spa industry reach out to me about opportunities, one free and one paid. I also had someone reach out to me for marketing advice, which inspired this newsletter topic. 

The key to success keep going, actively look for opportunities, ask for opportunities, provide opportunities for others, and try everything! You will find what works for you, and what doesn't along the way.