Gone Fishing. Fishing offers a great analogy for marketing, communicating, and growing your business, and provides valuable marketing lessons. Patience, knowledge, and working smart are the best ways to put a fish on your plate for dinner, and to add more customers to your growing client list.

1. You can’t catch fish if you don’t have a line in the water.
Aside from those crazy carp you see on Youtube, fish don’t just jump in the boat. All lines in the water. Businesses that operate with a “build it and they will come” mentality won’t reach potential.

2. The more lines in the water, the more fish you are likely to catch.
Don’t just do more. Do more of the right stuff, and integrate your approach.

3. The bigger the bait, the bigger the fish.
You can’t land Moby Dick with a worm. If you’re up for catching the big fish, do what’s necessary in your industry to attract them and land them.

4. If you don’t fish where the fish are, you catch zilch.
You need to go to them. Don’t wait for them to come to you. They may never come.

Gone fishing 5. If you fish with the wrong bait, you catch zilch.
They might be down there. But if they don’t like what you’re offering, you’re not going to get them to take action. Understand what your marketplace values, and give it to them.

6. It’s up to the fish to dictate when they’ll get caught. You can’t force it.
Some days nothing works right no matter what you do. Pack up, go home, and regroup. Tomorrow’s another day.

7. You can chum the water and fish will gather.
Chumming is scattering cut pieces of bait in the water. With chumming, you will attract more fish. Just not necessarily the one’s you want to catch. Control your own destiny by targeting your ideal customer, and put your business in the best position to attract them.

8. Just because you can see a fish doesn’t mean you can catch it.
You know they’re there. You can see them. But unless you can engage, then nothing happens. Know what you need to do to pull them in.

9. You can use sonar, the latest technology, and the most expensive gear to be successful. Or you can use a hook tied to kite string with a corn nibblet on the end.
The simple approach might be less sophisticated, but not necessarily less successful. Understand what works for you, and do it.

10. You can catch a big one with your feet planted firmly on shore.
We have limitations, in life and work. Sometimes we don’t have the resources to get out on a boat. If we know how to successfully work within those limits, then we can succeed.

11. You can catch a big one in a shallow inlet.
The big ones aren’t always out of reach. Sometimes they’re closer than you thing. If you do your work and know how to attract the big fish, regardless of where they’re supposed to be, then you’ll be surprised at the results.

12. If it were easy, it wouldn’t be called fishing. I’d be called catching.
“Just do it” doesn’t mean you’ll succeed. You must work hard, smart, consistently, and keep market need firmly in the forefront, then your “doing it” will pay off.

Happy marketing. Keep your boat pointed into the waves, and your lines in the water. With determination and hard work, you’ll land the fish you want to catch.