How is marketing like blacksmithing?

Marketing and blacksmithing?

How can they be alike?

There have been blacksmiths in my family for at least the last 200 years and I was fortunate to learn the basics from my Dad when I was a teenager. I still remember the thrill I got the first time I heated a steel bar to red heat and reshaped it by smiting it with a hammer.

I learned almost immediately that applying the heat in the right way and bringing the temperature to just the right shade of red made it easy to reshape that iron bar. If it was too cold, my energy was wasted. If it was too hot, the oxygen would burn the carbon out of the steel and leave it worthless.

Blacksmithing has a rhythm that must be observed. You have to take the time to let the heat soak into the steel - it can't be rushed.

Apply too much heat or too much pressure and whatever you are making can be ruined.

Apply too little heat or too little pressure and you can't reshape it.

When conditions are just right, you can reshape obdurate iron almost as easily as sculpting clay.

(Of course, you don't want to do it with your bare hands!)

There are a couple of important principles that must be observed when smithing iron:

* Strike while the iron is hot.
* Don't have too many irons in the fire.

You also have to apply the appropriate heat and pressure to the job at hand. It takes a very different approach when reshaping a one-inch steel bar than it does when patiently creating a steel rose that never wilts. The heat necessary to reshape the iron bar would destroy the rose. The thousands of gentle taps necessary to create a rose petal from a wrecked car's body panel wouldn't even make a dent in a large steel bar.

Each item must be analyzed and the appropriate methods must be applied to bring your vision into our shared reality.

So, what does this have to do with marketing?

You have to focus on what you are intending to accomplish. If you spread yourself too thin, you'll never get anything done. If you have too many irons in the fire, you'll burn some of them. If you are working on too many projects, you'll get confused and won't be able to prioritize. You'll lose time and energy and waste valuable opportunities.

Confusion causes procrastination and that kills your momentum. If you aren't moving forward, your business starts to die.

You have to promote your products and services when your prospects are ready. If you apply too much pressure (promotions and marketing) when they are too hot or too cold (ready to buy now or just starting to get interested) your efforts will be wasted. You have to meet your prospect at the proper heat - when she is ready for more information or ready to complete the deal.

Just as applying heat too fast will burn the steel, applying too much in-your-face marketing will destroy your chances of converting someone into a customer.

You have to let them absorb the information you are presenting at their own speed, just as you have to take the time to let the steel soak in the flames.

How is blacksmithing not at all like marketing?

Never hit your prospect with a hammer!

Act on your dream!

JD