If I had a pound for every time I’ve heard someone say “I don’t do any marketing and I don’t need to,” I would be so rich that I could retire. Not that I would retire, because I love what I do.

But really? You don’t do any marketing? “None at all,” they tell me.

Because I always dig a little deeper when I hear this, I thought I would share some of my findings with you, in this article. If you’d like to stop doing any marketing – do read on!

Why Don’t You do any Marketing?

Whenever someone tells me that they don’t do any marketing, I like to ask a few questions. Having done that for many years, two interesting points come up. Firstly – that some people don’t consider certain activities to be marketing. Secondly – the important role played by emotional connections.

I’m more interested in the second, so let me quickly tell you about the first, before we get all emotional!

“I don’t do any marketing,” they say.

“Do you have a website?” I ask.

“Yes, but that’s not marketing, is it.” Isn’t it?

“We met at a networking event,” I say. “Is that not marketing?”

“No …” they tell me.

“So where does all your new business come from?” I ask them.

“Referrals and recommendations,” they answer proudly. Hmmmm!

According to the Appletree rules of marketing, having a website, going to networking events and generating referrals and recommendations are all marketing tactics. And if you run a service business, they will all work very well for you. However, recently I heard a comment that really resonated with me. “I don’t do any marketing,” she said “because I just focus on building emotional connections with other people. And that brings me business.”

Bingo! When you provide a service – such as coaching, consulting, training, speaking, juggling, accountancy, building websites that work for marketing, managing projects, osteopathy or anything else that doesn’t involve selling products – then business is ALL about building emotional connections. Connections with potential clients, so they decide to work with you. Connections with actual clients, so they stay with you and so they refer and recommend you to other people.

Get to know what makes other people tick. Understand what makes you and your business tick. When you find a match – boom! That’s when marketing becomes so easy that it feels like you’re not doing anything other than cultivating emotional relationships. That’s when it feels like you’re not doing any marketing!

If you’re not sure what makes your business tick, or what makes your clients tick, you can Take the Test for free on my website. It won’t give you all the answers, but it will give you something to start working with. I’ll look at your results and send you some recommendations. You can even use the secret link in the results email to book a chat with me, so we can go through your results and I can give you some free marketing advice!