Networking – The Dating of the Business World

The role of a Marketing Director can be very lonely – particularly if you are not part of an agency.

Creative minds can often feel stunted when they cannot share and bounce ideas off other creatives. If you are the marketing mind for your company, you can often be the only one.

Networking is here to help

Those who don’t understand often presume all of those networking lunches are just an excuse to legitimately skip work. However, it’s not just free food. Networking is a golden egg for your company.

The key to turning prospects into clients is building strong relationships with others to build trust and make them want to work with you.

How do you make relationships in your social life? By getting out there and meeting new people.

How do you do that for your business? The exact same way.

Marketing will only get you so far if you fail to leave the office. A relationship won’t go from strength-to-strength if you go to a networking event once; you need to keep making the effort until it pays off.

In marketing, it is known to take around seven points of contact before someone is likely to buy from you. It is all about recognition and familiarity, so you become the obvious choice.

Does this not all sound like dating?

You put yourself out there. You might exchange numbers or at least hope to see each other again. You meet up a few times, get to know each other and after a while, you may forget all other potentials and make it serious.

Even if you don’t find your perfect match straight away, with each event you’re building up confidence and finding out who you want and where to find them.

You may not necessarily be meeting your future clients, but you could meet future affinity partners who act as your gateway to them.

Either way, just getting out there and having conversations with people you wouldn’t necessarily meet can provoke thoughts and ideas you would never have thought of alone.

So get networking; get those creative juices flowing and get bonding.

If you are a Head of Marketing looking to network and engage with fellow marketers, please join us at The Marketing Forum – hosted by Intergage and Interaction Recruitment. For more information, please email Katy Mason at kmason@intergage.co.uk or call 01202 684 009.