Lucid Ninja Manifesto - The art of freelance marketing
I think most of this will migrate over to my about page, but I thought I’d share in a blog post the idea behind the new name and focus.
lucid (lū’sĭd) adj. Translucent or transparent.
Authentic in message but cunning in deployment. Yeah, that’s the ninja part. The way I see it, there are two really big problems with most web 2.0 marketing strategies.
- They don’t ask for the sale.
- They take up to much time.
I’m all for transparency in message. I think it’s vital. But that doesn’t mean you should wait for clients to come running to you with wallet in hand, just because you’ve shared everything you possibly can with them online. The first lesson I learned in sales is that you don’t earn a sale unless you ask for one. Many web 2.0 marketing strategies fail to ask for the sale, and that’s the main reason I think they fail.
In addition, web 2.0 marketing can be extremely time consuming. Larger companies are realizing this, and hiring Social Media Gurus, Evangelists, or even… Ninja. That’s great for a company like Zillow or Trulia, but what about freelance marketers?
Wait, what the heck is a freelance marketer?
Freelance marketers, as I define them, are independent sales agents who effectively market in a social media environment.They could be self employed, or head a small business. Or, they could work for a large company, but be on there own when it comes to marketing their services. Real estate agents are the perfect example of a freelance marketer. One could work for Keller Williams, or John Smith Realty. It doesn’t matter. Each agent really works for themselves.
Freelance marketers can’t hire a ninja, they have to be the ninja.
Moving forward, Lucid Ninja will explore how successful freelance marketers are operating in a web 2.0 environment. I’m still going to interview real estate agents, as they’re the epitome of success in this vertical. But I think that’s just the tip of the iceberg. More details to come. I don’t plan to post much more than once a week. We’ll see where this goes.
