How to Connect Effectively with Your Audience with Tim Fitzpatrick
Brought to you by Salim Omar and the Straight Talk About Small Business Success Podcast.
Who is Tim Fitzpatrick?
Tim Fitzpatrick has been in the marketing and business for over 20 years. Fitzpatrick has owned three businesses in his lifetime. He became interested in business when he completed college and got involved with his father's wholesale distribution company.
"I thought it was going to be short-term. I ran the company and it grew about 60% a year. Nine years later, we sold the company," says Fitzpatrick.
After a short stint in real estate he transitioned into marketing, which is what Fitzpatrick does today.
Tim Fitzpatrick can be reached at rialtomarketing.com and at www.growthmarketingplan.com. You can download tools, instructions and sample marketing plans for the 90-day marketing plan to better your business.
What Are Some Important Marketing Principles For Small Business Owners To Understand For Business Growth?
Fitzpatrick says that with marketing, it's common for people to skip the fundamentals. The reason for this is that there are so many different channels and tactics that people want to get in and start taking action immediately.
Fitzpatrick describes this as building a house without a foundation. It is a road that will inevitably lead you to wasting time and money on marketing that doesn't work.
"It's not that the tactics don't work, it's that there is no fuel for the vehicles that they're trying to use," says Fitzpatrick.
This is where the fundamentals come in. He calls these the 'marketing strategy trilogy.' This includes
- Your target market- Who are you serving?
- Your message-What message are you going to communicate to attract and engage with these people?
- Your strategy-What is your plan to get your message across to your target audience?
"Without these three things, you're just throwing spaghetti up against a wall and hoping something sticks," says Fitzpatrick.
Advice For Small Business Owners Who Know Their Target Market
According to Fitzpatrick, the vast majority of businesses only think that they understand their target market, but in actual fact they really don't. They've only scratched the surface. Business owners need to hone in on who their ideal client is, in order to see real success.
Some factors to consider when finding your ideal client include:
- What's their headspace?
- What are the common problems that they have?
- What results or outcomes are they looking for?
As a business owner and marketer, it is essential to understand these things.
"Even when you niche down or start to specialize in an industry you will realize that every client won't be a good fit. There are definite attributes that are going to make your ideal client. Owners need to understand what these attributes are, so that they can communicate to them in a way that's going to attract them," says Fitzpatrick.
How Does A Business Owner Identify Their Ideal Client?
"I always recommend people that have been in business for a while start with their existing and past client base," says Fitzpatrick.
According to Fitzpatrick business owners should ask themselves these 3 questions:
- Who do you enjoy working with?
Identify the clients that you love working with.
- Who are their most profitable clients?
If you're going to stay in business, we need to make money.
- Who do we get great results for?
"If you can work with clients that you love working with, they're profitable, you get great results, your business is going to be in very good shape," says Fitzpatrick.
Creating The Right Message For Your Audience
According to Fitzpatrick, once you understand who your audience is, you can begin to create the right message. The message needs to resonate with your audience.
Two of the biggest mistakes people make with messaging are-
- Talking too much about yourself.
"Customers don't care about you, they care about what you can do for them. Your message needs to focus on the problems your ideal clients have."
- A message that lacks clarity.
"The last thing you want to do is confuse your audience. Confused people do not buy your product or services," says Fitzpatrick.
How to Plan and Strategize To Get Your Message Across
'With marketing planning, you've got to keep it short."
Fitzpatrick says that businesses evolve quickly and with a market that is constantly changing, it is a waste of time to create a year-long marketing plan. Things change quickly and marketers need to keep things simple.
He suggests that owners create strategies and marketing plans that are "90 Day Sprints."
"It is long enough to start seeing traction and it's a short enough period of time to determine if your strategy is working. From this point on you can make corrections, changes or updates to your strategy," says Fitzpatrick.
- Understand what your budget and resources are.
- Be willing to understand where you are currently at.
- Outline what your priorities are and what you will focus on in the next 90 days.
- Understand what metrics you're going to track.
Three things to pay attention to-
- Have your ideal clients and your message dialed in.
- A website- Everything you do, from a marketing standpoint, drives people back to your website.
- Focus on what's already working in your business. You don't need to go into a new marketing channel until you fully optimize what's already working.
What's The Biggest Mistake That Fitzpatrick Sees Entrepreneurs Making?
"I've made a lot of mistakes. The biggest mistake that I've made is avoiding asking for help. There's plenty of people that are out there that want to help. It took longer for me to get where I wanted to go because I did not ask for help," says Fitzpatrick.
Fitzpatrick is currently in a 15-month mentorship program, where there's coaches there to ask questions to.
"There's a curriculum, there's templates and there's all kinds of support tools within this mentorship program that made it very easy for me to ask for help," says Fitzpatrick.
Final Words of Wisdom from Tim Fitzpatrick
"Business and marketing is a marathon. It is not a sprint. Business owners need to make decisions based on the long term, even within their 90 day plan. The day you stop learning is the day you die. When I'm learning, I feel like I'm making progress. I'm building momentum. This inspires me and gives me energy," says Fitzpatrick.
Closing Statement
Straight Talk about Small Business Success podcast is brought to you by Salim Omar, CPA. Straight Talk CPAs is a firm which provides individuals with tax return preparation and tax planning. If you are a business, we have a unique approach when providing Virtual CFO, Accounting services, and Tax Planning and Tax Preparation services. Contact us today.
Tim Fitzpatrick is a successful entrepreneur, a business and marketing coach who has been in the industry for over 20 years.
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Salim is a straight-talking CPA with 30+ years of entrepreneurial and accounting experience. His professional background includes experience as a former Chief Financial Officer and, for the last twenty-five years, as a serial 7-Figure entrepreneur.
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