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What is your main marketing challenge?

I’m always looking for ways to increase the value you get from this blog. That’s why I would really value your feedback to the following question:

What is your main marketing challenge?

Please let me know by leaving a comment here.

This is your chance to influence what I write about and help me to focus on the areas of marketing, which are most relevant to you and your business.

Thanks in advance for your help!

About Jim Connolly: I help small business owners grow their business, make more sales and boost their profits. To see how I can help you and your business, read this.

November 29, 2012 /

Business Development, General Marketing

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58 Comments

  1. Jim Barker

    November 29, 2012 at 19:03

    Persuading people that what I do has value.

  2. Jackie Marks

    November 29, 2012 at 19:08

    Hello Jim,

    I’d like to know about attraction marketing getting leads from interested prospects, please.

  3. Doug Wojtczak

    November 29, 2012 at 19:56

    Hi Jim,

    My main marketing challenge is that I am not a marketing person. I do not have the comfort level or the confidence in my sales abilities to sell my services.

    I do not feel that I am a marketing or salesperson at all.

    Thanks

    Doug

  4. Gina Russell

    November 29, 2012 at 20:12

    I’d like to know more about blogging for my business. I’m thinking of starting but most blogs I see from local companys seem to have very little engagement.

    Thank you Jim.

    Gina X

  5. Troy Claus

    November 29, 2012 at 20:19

    Hey Jim,

    I think a great post topic for the readers is “Cutting through the noise”.

    Where do you listen? Which books are valuable and which ones are subpar? Where should people source their info? This question comes up a lot. Are the people coming up on the first page of Google really viable sources, or just good at working seo?

    I guess what I’m trying to say is, how can someone start to develop a filter for vetting the right resources, blogs, books…etc?

    Cheers,

    Troy

  6. Ruth Barringham

    November 30, 2012 at 00:13

    I like the first comment of Jim Baker “Persuading people that what I do has value.”
    I guess another way of looking at it, for me anyway, is that I’m not very good at blowing my own trumpet.

    I can market the heck out of other people’s products as an affiliate, but I shy away when it’s my own stuff. It’s not that I don’t want to promote what I sell, I just can’t see all the value in it myself, even though I know it’s valuable. Even people giving me testimonials see things that I didn’t.

  7. Olivia W

    November 30, 2012 at 06:27

    I’d like you to cover blogging and more often please. I start my blog in January and would love to learn from you.

  8. Jim Barker

    November 30, 2012 at 09:57

    Just following up my first comment with a bit more specific information – I specialise in cartoon artwork and I have trouble a) convincing people that cartoons can be a great asset to their marketing message because, i a country raised on Beano and Dandy, many people still see them as “kids stuff” b) persuading them that they’re worth paying for when it’s so easy to just lift an image from the ‘net

    • Jim Connolly (Post author)

      November 30, 2012 at 10:23

      Thanks Jim. You make an excellent point about people still assuming that if an image shows up in Google image search, it’s theirs to use, for free.

      No it isn’t – artists and image right holders own that work!

  9. Alex

    November 30, 2012 at 11:12

    Finding the most suitable cost, effective marketing medium to get a good amount of leads!

  10. Jeremy Edwards

    November 30, 2012 at 11:41

    As IFAs we want to change our marketing model from one that depends on initial personal contact with unwilling people to one where self-selected willing clients contact us from the website and ask for an appointment to discuss the issues that they want answers for. For an IFA firm this is a radical change; almost all commentators say that financial planning has to be SOLD, and is not sought.

  11. Martin Cowley

    November 30, 2012 at 12:04

    I’d like to know more about social media marketing please.

  12. Rajasekar

    November 30, 2012 at 12:06

    Hi Jim,

    Take this opportunity to first thankyou on behalf of others for
    providing your valuable time on sharing some important info.

    There are n number of ways to market. But how to choose the proven
    method which will give good results according to the line of business.

    One important learning was it depends on resource who are involved in doing the marketing. (Other Challenges – finding the right resource, capital planning or budget,alternative proven methods in marketing, resource training, customer support and payments)

    Also suggest to start a seperate column, where entrepreneurs can
    share some of the business case studies and the results which will
    benefit many users. (ie. Success and failures learning’s)

  13. Thomas A. Knight

    November 30, 2012 at 12:21

    The main challenge I face is finding the right audience. Writing on a blog is easy, but doesn’t do me any good if I can’t attract the right audience. It’s much harder to create content that will attract the right people. Ideally, everyone would buy my books, but I know that’s unrealistic. I know hitting the right target would boost my sales, but I’m just not sure how to hit it.

  14. Mike McKinley

    November 30, 2012 at 12:43

    My biggest challenge is generating a decent volume of creative and valuable content around a product that is pretty simple and ‘unsexy’ (namely window blinds and curtains for educational establishments).

    We continue to rely heavily on the ‘old’ marketing methods of mailshots etc. as there doesn’t seem to be sufficient web traffic for our market to rely mainly on attraction marketing.

    • Jim Connolly (Post author)

      November 30, 2012 at 12:52

      Some interesting pointers there, Mike. Seems to be a lot of interest from readers, in finding out more about attraction / inbound marketing.

  15. Jim Connolly

    November 30, 2012 at 14:31

    Shinny stones.
    My challenge is sorting through all the “opportunities” and focusing on the ones that will yield a return.

  16. sarah

    November 30, 2012 at 17:46

    Jim,

    How to create action from potential customers after viewing the website. Does the website do/say enough to entice? How to encourage new clients when they find it easier to leave contacting me for another day?

    • Jim Connolly (Post author)

      November 30, 2012 at 17:53

      Thanks for that, Sarah!

      • Lauren

        November 30, 2012 at 19:57

        I am using social media, the big three: Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.
        What I would like is to increase my reach. I have a monthly newsletter and a blog.I have Google analytics set up on the blog and Emma is my newsletter host so I have metrics there. My challenge is understanding all that information to expand and gain more readers. I believe my messages are informational, interesting, some fun and always helpful to my targets.

  17. Andre Guerreiro

    November 30, 2012 at 19:59

    Hi Jim. The biggest marketing challenge we face is to create a culture of e-commerce in a market in crisis: printing.
    The e-commerce for printing is called web-to-print (W2P), a concept already well diffused in European countries and the United States. In Brazil, the provision of printing services is greater than the demand for such services, printers are facing a crisis and I believe this is the ideal time for the W2P is seen as an important competitive edge.

  18. barb

    November 30, 2012 at 20:13

    Our service is in a small centre in the Cowichan valley where ‘buying local’ is the mantra, although people are hesitant to change their USA providers as it’s ‘too much work’ and they take our prices and go back to the other guys and because they are ‘big American companies’ they can go very low pricewise..we can’t being a small business. so our main marketing challenge would be convincing the mainstream to buy from us.

  19. annette

    December 1, 2012 at 02:32

    Hi jim,
    I have moved to my 4th beauty salon, out of the large busy shopping centre to a remote quiet location.You would think this amount of salons I should know how to get the clients to fly through my door.Yes I have a great client base but the local town mmm I have doubled my marketing budget,news letters,pamphlets,local papers ect So now I need social media which I need to know more please.
    Regards Annette.

  20. Nick Kunai

    December 2, 2012 at 08:52

    Hi, I owned a business specialises in selling Cleaning Products. I am having problem in marketing and getting new clients. I need your expert advise and tips how best I will market my business to potential clients. Thankyou and your prompt reponse. Best Regards, Nick Kunai.

  21. Lheana

    December 2, 2012 at 22:18

    My current challenge is to move into email marketing.

    • Jim Connolly (Post author)

      December 3, 2012 at 08:30

      Hi Lheana. Email marketing has never been more powerful or relevant than it is today. I will definitely be covering this more, in future posts.

      Many thanks.

  22. Lauren

    December 4, 2012 at 05:17

    Dear Jim,
    My thoughts regarding email marketing vs.social marketing which are both on the list now:
    There is email marketing which is direct reach to a collected and interested database of opt in consumers. Then, there is social marketing which is more like serving relevant information to a potential audience on places like Facebook, Twitter etc., where your information is controlled by that entity and much harder to quantify any direct ROI.Your thoughts? Or anyone else?

    • Jim Connolly (Post author)

      December 4, 2012 at 12:01

      Hi Lauren. Thanks for the feedback. I see both email marketing and social media marketing as permission based.

      Where email is so strong, is that you own the list (or reader community) and not Facebook / Twitter etc. With Facebook now charging brands to post an update, if they want all their ‘friends’ to see it, it’s easy to see the pitfalls of outsourcing your community.

      With email, you and the reader have an intimate conversation, which they can remain part of until they decide to unsubscribe. It’s you and them.

      Hope that helps, Lauren.

  23. matthew bivens

    December 4, 2012 at 15:07

    Hey Jim,

    As a marketer, I have tons of data coming my way all the time. Website traffic numbers, sales numbers, email newsletter open/click/subscriber rates, social media likes and comments and follows….it can be very overwhelming. Especially when you want to measure progress and plan new, smart initiatives using the data you’ve collected.

    How would you recommend filtering out the noise and focusing on the numbers and information that truly matters? In your opinion, what data should we all be paying attention to and what is not as urgent?

    I work in e-commerce and I am the do-it-all marketing guy at my company, if that helps at all.

    Thanks Jim!

    Cheers,
    Matthew Bivens

    • Jim Connolly (Post author)

      December 9, 2012 at 16:58

      Hi Matthew. I missed your comment until now, so sorry for the late reply to an excellent question.

      The most basic information I’d recommend you paying attention to are actually ‘off’ the analytics report.

      As a service provider, I suggest you start at the end and work backwards. I suggest you start by digging into the marketing inquiries you are getting from your site.
      Then, check them for quality, for example:

      Are they asking you for a service, which you provide?
      Are they from the kind of people you want to work with?
      Are they from people, who are too fee sensitive?

      It’s after that point, that you start to drill into the analytics to see what is creating your current feedback.

      Look for the kind of words people use, when looking for you from search engines and check if these are correct, for what you want to achieve. Look at the social networks that bring you the most targeted traffic, so you know which networks that work best for you and those, which need to be improved or eliminated from your social media marketing mix.

      That’s just the start – I could write 10,000 words on this and still only scratch the surface.

      In short, focus on what drives the results you need; sales leads or sales. Then, work backwards.

      I hope that helps a little, but this is a huge subject.

  24. Lauren

    December 4, 2012 at 17:36

    Thank you Jim. Yes, my thoughts but better expressed.
    Matthew, good point. I have analytics set up on all my marketing email but what to consider important is getting more and more confusing.

    • matthew bivens

      December 4, 2012 at 18:25

      @Lauren, yes it is.

      I’m using Google Analytics to report data on my website (both visits and sales); I have MailChimp set up to for my newsletters, which reports all sorts of data about open rates, click rates, subscriber rates, etc; and then there’s Google Adwords and all that info; oh, and of course Facebook Insights!

      I’ve found it difficult to nail down key performance metrics for each, and keep my list manageable.

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