Marketing Tips from Tyler Durden
I am Jack’s marketing genius.
I am Jack’s unhappy bank account and sales sheet.
I am Jack’s eagerness to grow my business.
Sound familiar? I hope it does because these articles in the “Marketing Tips From” series are meant to help you grow your business, build better marketing ideas and make your bank account a bit larger in the process. Oh, and I hope you got the Jack reference from Fight Club (if not, you really need to watch Fight Club – just sayin’).
So what can we learn from the great Tyler Durden when it comes to marketing and building our business? A lot, actually. Below are some marketing tips from the legend himself – I hope you enjoy it and learn something in the process.
Only focus on the important stuff
Spending your day focusing on your business is a great idea, but are you really focusing on what matters? I bet that the funny youtube videos don’t matter. I bet facebook and twitter don’t matter. I can also bet that reading 20+ website’s updates in your google reader every day doesn’t matter.
What does matter is cash in, product out. If you’re not bringing in cash and pumping out product (ie: the service you offer), you’re going to fail and your business will never grow. Focus on that for a while and see how big of a shift you see in your business.
“No fear. No distractions. The ability to let that which does not matter truly slide.” – Tyler Durden
Find your own niche and grow it
When Tyler built his fight club, he didn’t know what he was going to call it, what it could turn into or if anyone else was even interested. He created his own niche, carved his own space and when people started following him, he grew it beyond belief (hello, Project Mayhem?!?!).
With your business, are you just sliding by, looking like everyone else out there and trying to do things the same way your competition is doing it? Or are you taking a stand, standing out and growing your own audience?
I am growing my own audience here on Guerrilla Freelancing by giving out advice that the other big freelance blogs don’t, and writing in a way that’s completely different than they do it – and guess what? It’s working. You’re responding to the straight forward writing and enjoying the content, which is what I am aiming for at the end of the day. Try it with your own business and see how it works for you.
Time is not on your side – deal with it
We’re all going to die – it’s a fact of life. I know you think that you’ve got time to create that next big project. I know you believe that next month you’ll be able to build the business that will support your family even when you’re gone. But guess what? Sometimes, shit happens and you’re hit by a car. You might get caught in a store robbery and accidentally shot or you might die in your sleep by accidental suffocation. You never know what tomorrow brings, or if it is even coming at all, so make the most of your time here now and build a business today.
Right now.
Stop reading if you have to and go do something important. I won’t get mad, I promise
“This is your life, and it’s ending one minute at a time.” – Tyler Durden
Being perfect doesn’t matter as much as you think it does
When Tyler Durden mentions that he “doesn’t want to die without any scars”, he means it. The same should be said for you and your business. Being perfect isn’t all its cracked up to be and those of us who aren’t afraid to admit it can openly say that we’ve got some scars from our past.
By using these past experiences to our advantage and showing that we’re unique (unlike the countless Ikea offices out there – I’m talking to you), we can better brand ourselves and stand out from the crowd.
Never settle for what you have and where you are currently at
When you’re booked solid with work for the next two weeks, month or more, don’t settle and stop marketing. When things are going good, you’re experiencing the feast part of the freelance cycle, so being aware that the famine part of the cycle is right around the corner will help you stay sharp and keep your business pushing forward. Never settle.
When you’re marketing during your busy times, you’ll be able to start reaping the benefits of those marketing efforts later on down the road when the potential clients start writing you or calling. They might not bite right away, but they’ll come around and that will give you enough time to get your current work done and get more work lined up for when you’re not so busy.
“I say never be complete, I say stop being perfect, I say let’s evolve, let the chips fall where they may.” – Tyler Durden
More from this series
This is the sixth installment of our “Marketing Tips From…” series. You can read the previous articles below, listed in order of when they appeared on this blog.
