Marketing tips Marketing help

Stop competing for business. Seriously. Stop it

July 18, 2018 by Jim Connolly

In most industries, there’s no shortage of providers. Quite the opposite. There’s a surplus.

There’s way too much choice. And that’s why it’s so competitive.

Imagine this

Tomorrow morning at 9am, all your competitors decide to quit. They literally cease trading. Leaving their clients with no option, but to hire you.

As a business owner, this would present you with a huge opportunity. With no more competition, you would be able to cherry-pick the very best clients. You could choose to only work with clients who are happy to pay a premium fee for a high quality service. You could decide to only work with clients, who gave you the freedom to do your best work.

You’d be free to do things your way.

Now imagine this

Tomorrow morning at 9am, all of your competitors carry on as usual.

If you still decide to cherry-pick the very best clients. To offer a premium service for a premium fee. To only work with clients who give you the freedom to do your best work. To do things your way… you will still have no competition (or very, very little).

Competition is a mindset.

How to achieve more than ever, by doing less

July 16, 2018 by Jim Connolly

One of the best kept secrets in business, is something I call reduction. It’s a strategy I share with my clients and today, I’m going to share some of it with you.

Less can be more

Ineffective business owners strive to do more and more. They focus on productivity hacks, growth hacks, life hacks and short-cuts. As an unavoidable result, they become increasingly busy, increasingly stressed and increasingly frustrated.

The most effective business owners use a different approach. They’ve discovered that the biggest wins come from doing fewer things. Less is more.

For example:

Fewer unfinished projects, equals more clarity.
Fewer social media interruptions, equals more focus.
Fewer repeated errors, equals more progress.
Fewer dodged decisions, equals more respect.
Fewer missed deadlines, equals more trust.
Fewer hours wasted, equals more productivity.
Fewer angry words, equals more happiness.
Fewer broken promises, equals more belief.
And fewer excuses, equals more achievement.

If you find yourself stressed, working long hours and making too little progress, don’t add even more to your workload. All it will do is create unnecessary, additional stress.

Instead, focus on reduction. Because with the right strategy, less can be more. So much more.

P.S. Here’s another reason why you need to stop working so hard.

A marketing tip from the world’s most successful coffee shops

July 12, 2018 by Jim Connolly

What are people hoping for, when they hire you or buy from you? That’s one of the most important questions in marketing.

Think about it.

People visit Facebook, because they hope it will entertain, inform or connect them.
People donate to charity, because they hope it will make things better for others.
People relocate to nice areas, because they hope it will improve their quality of life.
People subscribe to a newsletter, because they hope it will be useful.
People buy big name brands, because they hope it will ensure high quality.
People buy from local providers, because they hope it will help the local economy.

Your prospective clients are just the same. They’re hoping for something. And it isn’t always obvious.

A marketing lesson from coffee shops

Ask the owner of any successful coffee shop and they will tell you, the quality of their coffee isn’t the secret of their success. It isn’t even the secondary reason why people choose them over their less successful competitors.

Instead, these coffee shops thrive because they focus on what people hope for, when they visit a coffee shop. People hope it will provide them with a great place to meet friends, a change of environment, a space where they can relax… and a thousand other non-coffee-related things.

Struggling coffee shops fail to provide the kind of experience, which the marketplace is hoping for. So even if their coffee tastes great, it doesn’t matter. That’s because no business, in any industry, can succeed or even survive, by failing to meet or exceed what people hope for.

As business owners, our task is to uncover what our prospective clients are hoping for. And then make it a foundational element of our service and our marketing. Offering a great service (or great coffee) isn’t enough, by itself.

How to attract great clients or customers. No selling required!

July 3, 2018 by Jim Connolly

I’m going to share a powerful marketing idea with you today. It’s all about how to attract high quality prospective clients (or customers). With no selling required.

These sales leads will come from people who already know you, who already value your work AND who really want to work with you.

Let’s go.

I need to start by asking you a question: How much valuable, free information have you given to your prospective clients this year?

I’m specifically referring to things like newsletter articles, blog posts, videos, podcasts etc., which offer useful, valuable information (rather than thinly-disguised sales pitches).

No selling required. None. Nada!

If you want an endless stream of high quality clients or customers, you need to be front of mind when they have a requirement. You need them to be thinking about you. This means you need to regularly give them something, which they will value. Something useful. Something that makes them interested in what you have to say.

Most small business owners waste their time, trying to get their marketplace excited, using sales messages and special offers. They haven’t figured out yet, that they need to develop a relationship with their marketplace, if they want to attract the best enquiries.

Notice I said attract enquiries? That’s right. When you stop selling and start helping, your prospective clients come to you.

Engage and educate: Don’t just sell

The secret to attracting high quality inbound sales leads, is to focus on engaging your marketplace. Educate them. Inform them. Inspire them. Help with their problems. In short, become a valuable resource.

By engaging in this way, you’ll quickly begin to build relationships and credibility with the people who pay for the exact kind of service you offer. And if you tailor the information you provide, so that it’s directly relevant to your IDEAL prospective clients, that’s who you’ll attract enquiries from. (Note the word attract again?)

Through the distribution of valuable, free information, you position yourself as an authority in your field. You also build a relationship with your prospective clients, where they naturally think of you as the source of the help they need. This makes you a safe pair of hands.

It also makes hiring you or buying from you way less risky when they need a new provider.

Make no mistake, if you embrace this marketing idea and do it correctly, the results can be breathtaking. And with no selling required.

5 Tips to help you build a massive, valuable newsletter list

June 29, 2018 by Jim Connolly

Here are 5 tips, to help you build a valuable newsletter readership or list. I used each of these ideas when growing my first newsletter, which had over 45,000 subscribers when I published the final edition in 2008.

Let’s go.

Newsletter Tip 1: Go easy on the pitches

Make sure it’s a newsletter and not a badly disguised advertisement. Here’s the thing: People avoid advertising. We skip the commercials on TV. We pay developers to remove the ads from the free version of their apps. We see advertisements as unwelcome interruptions.

If your newsletter reads a little too much like a sales pitch, it will be largely ignored. This leads nicely into the next point.

Newsletter Tip 2: Be useful

The more useful your newsletter is, the more your readers will value it and share it. Your ultimate goal is to build a large, targeted reader community, who become either clients, customers or advocates. None of that can be achieved with predictable, pedestrian content.

Useful content is what gives your newsletter wings. It’s what inspires people to subscribe, stay subscribed, share and make purchasing decisions. So, before you hit send on a newsletter, make sure it’s packed with valuable, useful information. Offer answers to your reader’s problems. Share useful tips. Point your readers to useful resources.

The more value you pack into each newsletter, the more your readers will value it… and the more they will value you. Think about that for a moment.

Newsletter Tip 3: Get the design right

Even if your content is wonderful, people won’t take it seriously if the design looks poor. The first bite is with the eye.

If your newsletter provides valuable information, but the design looks amateurish or outdated, it’s like serving them a delicious meal on a dirty plate.

So invest in the best design or newsletter template you can. Because whether your newsletter looks cheap or is presented professionally, it all reflects back on you.

Newsletter Tip 4: Ask readers to share

Even if readers think your newsletter is great, it may not occur to them to share it. People are busy. Really busy. By reminding them, you plant the idea of sharing the newsletter in their mind. Moreover, you do this at the exact point, where they have just read it and enjoyed it. I used to have a section at the bottom of my newsletter, which said:

“If you have found this newsletter interesting, please share it with your friends”.

When I added that short message to my newsletter, the results were immediate and measurable. It’s amazing what a simple reminder can do.

Newsletter Tip 5: Help it spread

Convert people who had your newsletter forwarded to them, into subscribers.

Imagine your friend had just forwarded a great newsletter to you. You’d want to get a regular copy, right? You don’t want to have to rely on your friend, remembering to forward each edition to you. So, I added the following sentence to the above message:

“If you have had this newsletter forwarded to you and would like a regular copy, click here.”

Never underestimate the power of a subtle, non-pushy reminder.

Make no mistake — newsletters can be an extremely powerful marketing asset. It’s why I make my blog available in newsletter format. And it’s why I ask you to take your newsletter seriously and invest in it accordingly. Give it the time and effort it needs. Because the rewards for getting it right are huge. No. Bigger than that.

Don’t miss this: How to build a subscriber list that builds your business.

Is your dream big enough for your business?

June 26, 2018 by Jim Connolly

Every great business story begins with a dream. An inspiring, exciting and motivating dream. A dream that propelled the business owner AND those around them, to make amazing things happen.

Steve Jobs famously motivated top people to work for him, by sharing his dream with them. The most famous example was when he asked John Scully to leave Pepsi and join Apple. Jobs said:

“Do you want to sell sugar water for the rest of your life or do you want to come with me and change the world?”

It’s hard to reject an offer like that! That kind of compelling dream literally changes how people feel. Feelings are what precede actions. As such, it massively increases the chances of people wanting to take action and invest in you, hire you or buy from you.

Just think about that for a moment.

The power of a compelling dream

In contrast, the dream behind the typical small business is predictable. It’s pretty average. Here’s the thing: an average dream won’t attract the best clients, customers, investors or partners. It won’t compel people to want to share a business’s vision or talk about them, either.

You end up working just as hard, but without the power of a compelling dream, the ceiling on your potential is unnecessarily limited.

This begs the question; how do you know if the dream behind your business is motivating enough? In my experience, there are 3 very good indicators.

One way you know, is by how enthusiastic and driven you feel regarding your business. Compelling dreams bring energy and optimism. Average dreams bring frustration and pessimism.
Another powerful indicator is the way people react when you share your dream with them. If you’re on track, people will sit forward. Eyes wide open. Focusing on what you’re saying.
And finally, you’ll find that other people pester you to become a part of your dream. They want to be on your team. Either as a customer, client, investor or advocate.

If your business isn’t energizing you, or isn’t attracting the people or attention it needs, check how compelling your dream is. Look at how motivating your plans are.

It’s hard to overstate the value of a massively motivating dream. I see it in action every day with my clients and it improves everything.