Will Julianne Give Us A Tip About Ryan Seacrest?

Come on Julianne, … are you dating Ryan or not? What a cute couple you would make, and talk about a great age gap (14 year difference). Ah, but she tells Ok! Magazine that she wants us to “listen to the music” she’s created on her latest CD, to get the answer to all our juicy questions!

Well, she may be tight lipped, but we’re spreading the news about getting the most out of your marketing in two easy ways. Here are two fabulous tips that if executed properly and consistently, will have you well on your way.

Tip #1: My number one way I have to tell you and I know you guys have done this and think it is too simple and it’s not too simple is you have to have a blog and your blog has to be very specific about who you’re talking to and that goes back to the target audience thing and the clients you want to get. I am not lying to you when I tell you that I put a blog up (and this is probably like number one secret,) I put a blog up and literally the blog said, “Wanted: Fabulous Halloween Client.” I described this person vividly in detail.

I was like she just loves pumpkins and recognize there are millions of kinds of gore and this is the coolest day of the year to have a party. I really, really spelled it out in great detail. And guess what? This woman called me and said I’m that person. I was like wow and to me it was kind of like magic.

Long story short her budget was $4,000 to $5,000.  Okay head’s up… I think the first year she spent $30,000 or something with me. Now we’re on the 5^th year of doing the party and that client, I don’t want to exaggerate, but we’re probably at the $400,000 mark in terms of business I’ve gotten. This started out with a blog that said, “wanted” and I described basically my ideal client but I also described my ideal client and the ideal event I wanted to work on. So number one is you guys have to be blogging or, in my opinion, I think you have to be blogging.

Tip #2: My second way to get clients even if you have no money to spend is really strategic partnerships. Some of you know we just did a very successful Sex and the City event with another planner from San Diego. Let me tell you I had my eyes open and she was in a class I taught and this is how we learn so much from people at all different stages of the game.

She was in a class I taught and she had this idea, she does these self producing events and I was like what are you talking about? Long story short, she explained it to me and we did this Sex and the City event in LA which was amazing. I got on NPR Radio which played 4 times to 14 million people.  We finally cracked the LA TV market and I could do everything else national but couldn’t do that until I did this collaboration. So that has been the single most, if not right up there THE most important way to land clients is through strategic partners with other people.

So this planner, she was in a different market.  She doesn’t do her own in house décor, so we used her methods and then my connections, and we really landed it. I was just sitting on a plane the other day with a guy who said there are ways to even take ads out, like if you don’t have enough money for ads or you want to joint blog or link to each other with strategic partnerships but find even sponsorship money, anything to get your name out there but don’t think you just have to do it on your own. You can do it with other companies and other companies money and that is a fabulous way to land clients and get tons of business and in my case tons of press.

If you told me that by reaching out to this planner I would have gotten on NPR, people were emailing and calling me from all over the country, all because I was like listen this girl has a great idea and we co-produced that event. It was not a Party Goddess event. It was an event with both of us.

Sound easy? I beg to differ. Blogging takes patience, creativity, consistency, persistence, good editing, and great writing.  Therefore, practice makes perfect. Strategic partnerships takes work. Building the relationship and then maintaining the relationship is just like any relationship–you get out of it what you put in.

Take your time. Be strategic. Most importantly, start the process. Doing SOMETHING toward these two goals daily is better than doing nothing at all.

Much Success,

Marley