Recently I was working with a woman, who, like the rest of us, knows she needs to market but resists doing it.

This is causing her a lot of pain. She doesn’t bring in enough work, which creates severe financial stress. It also causes her to feel bad about herself. (”I know what I need to do. Why in the *&^^&%$## don’t I do it? What’s wrong with me?”)

So I asked her, ”If you do your marketing, what will happen?”

Here’s what she said:

1. I’ll be overwhelmed with business that I can’t handle and everyone will get mad when I drop the ball.

2. Marketing will create too much work for me and I’ll collapse in exhaustion because I don’t have enough people I trust to help me when I can’t do it all myself.

3. I don’t really like this work I’m doing and I don’t want more of it.

In this client’s mind, doing the marketing would actually cause MORE pain than not doing it. To her, this seems perfectly logical.

Can you relate?

If you aren’t doing your marketing regularly, it’s time to find out why. Understanding the nature of your resistence is the key to doing your marketing.

Now that my client knows what’s driving her behavior, she’s in process finding trustworthy help and shifting her perspective about her business. Her work is not what she wants to do for the rest of her life, but rather a stepping stone to better things. She’s made the commitment to regular marketing because she knows that making this business consistently profitable is how she’ll fund her next venture.

Marketing can actually be enjoyable, especially if you use social media.

Here are the links to get you started on LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter. (Warning: profanity alert on the Twitter link).

But before you jump in, ask yourself the question above, and really listen to the answer.

Our marketing case study this month is Donna Maria Coles Johnson, founder of the Indie Beauty Network; a for-profit membership group that supports people who make handcrafted cosmetics, soaps and other natural products. Don’t miss Donna Maria’s brilliant marketing system (more like  a weekly cycle)  that she describes below.

IBN is the Internet equivalent of a television station, as you’ll see below when you read about her marketing activities. Donna Maria began by broadcasting information through special interest groups and Listservs in the early days of the Internet. Although her legal, business and marketing skills are still the cornerstone of her business, the way she makes them available to her members has shifted dramatically as the Internet has changed.

Her broadcasting has grown to include information posted on Facebook, Twitter, her blog and her weekly newsletter. You can read the complete article on my blog; whether you do that or not, don’t miss her system that I describe below for using Facebook, Twitter, her blog and newsletter, and her radio show to work the Indie Biz marketing magic.

What marketing did you start with?

Indie Beauty started at the beginning of 2000 with a free weekly newsletter that I sent to people I had connected with through e-groups on Yahoo and AOL, answering their questions about the business side of making cosmetics and aromatherapy products. I then self-published a book about how to make aromatherapy creams and lotions, which established me as a credible voice in the community.

At first I gave away everything I did. I was fortunate that people began joining me, and companies wanted to act as sponsors because they wanted to reach home-based cosmetics crafters. Membership was free until April of the year I started, then all the information went behind a membership website and I started charging people a membership fee to get access to everything.

It was obvious to me that I needed to behave like a media outlet (i.e. I broadcast all kinds of helpful information to members through as many outlets as I can, and members pick and choose what they want to get and when they want to get it). Creating this media outlet created credibility, which in turn attracted new members, as well as sponsors.

What marketing do you do now?

My free, weekly newsletter is in its 10^th year of publication. I have also have had a weekly internet radio show, interviewing business people, authors, and other people who can help our membership succeed, since 2005. I post the interviews on i-Tunes (they’re free), blog almost every day, post tweets on Twitter daily, and use my Facebook fan page. This is a lot of work, but also backed by a great deal of help from the members. They make it work. I provide the platform.

Here’s an example of how this marketing system works. Every Friday is Facebook Friday on the fan page. Every week we talk about how members can use their Facebook fan pages more effectively for their own clients.

I post a question or tip on the Indie Biz fan page, and that starts the discussion. Other people post questions and comments about what works and what doesn’t, so we share a lot of information with each other.

Over the weekend I do a blog post based on the questions and answers from Facebook Friday.

Monday, the newsletter goes out. Each week I feature a member of the Indie Biz Network in the newsletter, which encourages the person I feature to share the newsletter with their own network. I help the member by featuring her, and she in turn helps the Indie Biz Network by sharing the newsletter with her people.

On Wednesday we go back to Facebook for Workout Wednesday. Since the business of crafting products is sedentary, we share what we do to stay fit, eat right and stay healthy.

I put out tweets on Twitter all week about the person I am interviewing on the radio and the information we share on Facebook Friday and Workout Wednesday. I meet new people on Twitter, and also use Twitter to mobilize my followers to advocate for our interests. I recently mobilized a group of Indies (who were also some of my followers on Twitter) to make their voices heard in the Colorado legislature, when it was considering passing a bill that would have been detrimental to us. Interestingly, I’m using social media more and more in the advocacy work I do for the Network.

How do you stay consistent with your marketing?

I do the same thing every day for marketing. I have systems in place, so that 70% of my marketing is a set routine.

Any advice for us?

Big companies re-use the same content in different media outlets. All small businesses must figure out how to do this as well; people are trying to find us in all different outlets and if we aren’t there, they’ll go somewhere else.

You also have to be willing to experiment, even if technology intimidates you, and you have to be willing to stick with things because sometimes results don’t appear immediately.

There is a lot about the Internet to be wary of, but if you aren’t on it in a way that makes you available to your customers, you can’t survive. If people find you on the Internet but there’s no activity on your website or Facebook page or Twitter account, they’ll think you’re doing nothing, even when you are.

I have a member who is persnickety and who emails me every time she sees something she thinks is wrong with the Indie Business site. At first, I found this annoying. As part of our ongoing conversations I tried, and finally succeeded, in getting her to put up a Facebook fan page for her business. Her criticism used to drive me nuts; but I spent 30 minutes going through her fan page and saw who she was as a person. It made all the difference.

This is the power of social media on the Internet. My final advice is this: you have to take the time to understand social media and how it can help your business. Your clients are looking for you. You need to help them find you.

How is your marketing working for you? Got any good ideas to share? Post them below.

Now that you’ve thought about your marketing (read the last post for more info), and maybe even talked to some of your clients and asked them how they want you to talk to them, what’s the next step?

Finding a Way to Talk to Your Clients that also Makes Sense for You

The best marketing sports two simple features: it communicates to your customers and prospects in a way they understand and is convenient for them, and it actually gets done.

For it to get done, my theory is, you need to enjoy doing it. For this to happen, you need to know some things about yourself: Do you get energy from being with people, or get energy from being alone?

If You Get Energy From Being with People

If this is you, your marketing needs to include interacting with people directly: networking, joing groups, visiting your people face to face or talking to them on the phone; perhaps speaking to groups.

If You Get Energy From Being Alone

Your marketing must include some alone time. Blogging, Twitter, or updating your Facebook business Page, all in the quiet and solitude of your home or office, will give you the opportunity to recharge your batteries while you are communicating with your clients.

A Secret

If you get energy from being with people, you are an extravert. If you re-energize by being alone, you are an introvert. To find out which one you are (plus a lot of other useful information), take this test. Once you know your personality type, here are some marketing suggestions based on what type you are.

I Invite Comments

1. What is your personality type?

2. What marketing has worked best for you?

3. Are you going to try some different marketing, now that you know more about your personality?

Revolutionary Idea

What if you picked a marketing activity you enjoyed doing?

What might that activity be?

Luckily for us, the Internet has expotentiallyexpanded our marketing choices. You can blog, tweet, have a Facebook fan page for your business, arrange in-person groups via MeetUp, write articles showcasing your knowledge, link with other business contacts on LinkedIn … but where’s an overworked business owner supposed to jam all this activity into our already over-scheduled days?

A Different Way to Think About This Problem

Instead of fretting about which kind of marketing to do, take one step back and come at the question from the opposite direction.

Since marketing in its purest form is nothing more complicated than communication between your business and your clients and prospects, ask yourself: how do your clients want you to talk to them?

Better yet, ask your clients.

Comments I’d love to read:

1. You talked to your clients and here’s what they said.

2. You talked to your clients and here’s what you’re doing as a result.

If you’re already on Facebook, you know what it is and how addictive it can be.  If you already know your customers also use Facebook, you can use it to market your business for free.  Of course, since we know there’s no free lunch, “free” means that they will run ads next to your page; so if it’s okay with you that Oprah’s Acai diet advertises itself next to your business page, go for it.

Here’s the thing.  A lot of people who are savvy Facebook users have comingled their personal and business information on their Facebook Profile (Profile is the Facebook word for your personal Facebook page).  You don’t want to do that; search engines can’t see your Profile page; only your friends can.  Not to mention the weird mixing of the personal and business on one site; you might like to get more personal with your friends and more businesslike with your customers, but you can’t do that on your Profile.

The solution is to create a separate Facebook Page (Page is the Facebook word for your business page).  Go to Facebook and type Page into the search function.  It’ll tell you how to do it.  But before you do, go look at some other Pages, especially ones that people have put up who are in your same business.  And also make sure you can devote the time.

Having a Page for your business is an E Ticket (for those of you who went to Disneyland in the ’70s) to the wild amusement park that is social networking, with all its transparency and interactivity between your and your beloved clients.  Be sure you’re ready.

2.  There is a website called Ning that will let you set up your own private social network.

More to follow after I figure out how to set up a social network around doing business plans.  I hope I’m not the only person who thinks this is the best idea ever.