There are two basic approaches to marketing as a business owner.
The first is push. You reach out to potential clients, send messages, initiate contact.
The second is pull. You create quality content, build a reputation, and people come to you.
Most business owners I know go back and forth between the two.
“Which is better?” they ask.
My answer: both. But not because you need to do everything — because there’s a time for push, and a time for pull.
In a conversation with someone I’m coaching this week, he said: “Yuval, I’m thinking about starting to post on LinkedIn. But it takes time, and I’m not sure it’ll bring me clients quickly.”
“You’re right,” I told him. “Content doesn’t deliver immediate results. It’s a long-term build.”
“So maybe it’s not right for me right now?” he asked.
“Listen,” I said. “Content is pull. It means you’re building a presence, and people start to recognize you. That takes time. But at the same time, you can also do push — send messages to potential clients, go to networking events, reach out to people in your circle.”
“So I do both?” he asked.
“Exactly. But you do the push now, to get short-term results. And you build the pull in parallel — so that in six months, you have a steady stream of clients coming to you on their own.”
Here’s how I see it:
Push is like fishing with a rod. You cast a line, you try to catch a fish. Fast results — but it takes constant effort.
Pull is like building a fishing net. It takes time to build, but once it’s ready, the fish swim in on their own.
So what do you do?
In the beginning, you do a lot of pushing. Because you need clients now. But at the same time, you start building your pull — content, reputation, presence.
Over time, as your pull grows stronger, you need less and less push. Until eventually, most of your clients come to you on their own.
So if you’re asking yourself: push or pull?
The answer is: it depends on where you are. In the beginning — push. Reach out, make connections, be active. But start building your pull too, because that’s what will work for you long-term. And if you already have some clients, it might be time to invest more in pull — because that’s what will let you stop chasing the next client all the time.
