How to multiply the value of your marketing by seven

If you want to get the best possible return on the time and the money you invest in your marketing, here's the secret.

You need to harness the power of leverage.

Take the example of Bob Parsons, CEO of domain name provider godaddy. He gave a thoughtful answer to a question one morning at a breakfast seminar and didn't realize what he'd started.

Having been asked for some tips for someone starting out in business, he listed his rules for success. These rules later became the most visited post on his popular blog and are now available to buy as a poster.

However the big marketing lesson is the way he used the power of leverage.

Leverage is where you multiply the impact of a relatively small activity to get more out of it.

In this example, the answer could have been given just to the people who attended that breakfast seminar. However, Bob quickly saw the potential to do more with it.

Even if you're not the CEO of a global business, you can still use the power of leverage.

Suppose you are giving a talk to the local Chamber of Commerce, here are 7 steps you can take to get maximum return for the work you will put in to creating it:

1. Invite your contacts to attend: Asking prospects, customers, business partners, friends and associates to your talk is a great way to let them experience you and what you have to say in an informal way. It's a low-risk way of building relationships.

2. Use the preparation of your talk as a pretext for contacting people: People are usually willing to give you their time to answer questions and often will take an interest in what you are working on. They may also suggest others you can talk to.

3. Issue a press release announcing your talk: The media may even show up and interview you on the spot, or they may contact you afterwards. They might only put the release on file for future reference. It's still a great opportunity to promote your message.

4. Issue handouts, notes or a summary of your talk: These are all great ways to make sure you remain in people's minds after the talk. Remember to include your contact information on anything you hand out.

5. Use the talk as the basis of a magazine or newsletter article: Many organizations which you speak for will be delighted to publish your talk in their newsletters, which benefits their readership with valuable content and gets you additional exposure to their audience.

6. Use the talk content as the basis for a workshop: The content can easily be developed as a workshop - perhaps even as a follow-up for some of the people who attended your talk. You can charge a fee or just use it as an opportunity to get to know them better.

7. Customize the talk to other audiences: Once you have given the talk once, you can make small changes to make it work with different organizations.

Of course, there are many more ways you can leverage one activity. Using this as an example, consider how you can get more leverage from your existing activities.

You don't have to find seven ways but two or three additional activities - even just one - still gives you something extra for relatively little additional work.