Jim's Marketing Blog

Marketing ideas to help you grow your business

5 Extremely powerful questions to help your business thrive

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marketing tips, marketing help

Today, I have 5 powerful questions to help you and your business thrive. Each question comes with a suggestion, to point you in the right direction.

1. Are you earning trust by setting self-imposed deadlines?

A great way to build trust is to deliver on a promise.

Think about it: Telling a client that their project will be ready “by the end of the week”, is way less powerful, than telling them it will be ready, “by 9am Thursday”.

Tip: Set deadlines and then deliver. When a client trusts you to deliver on your promises, they are extremely unlikely to seek out another provider. They are also massively more likely to recommend you to their friends. I wrote about this here.

2. Are you taking business advice from a proven expert?

Never take business advice from someone, who hasn’t already achieved what you want to achieve.

For example, avoid marketing consultants who have to attend networking groups, because their own marketing doesn’t generate enough leads. There’s a powerful signal there. Avoid SEO companies, who sell their services via email. It’s a sure sign THEIR OWN SEO isn’t generating enough inbound sales leads. They’re hardly the people to help you.

Tip: Before you take advice from anyone, check their credentials. Unless they can demonstrate that they’ve achieved what you need to achieve, avoid them. This includes free advice online. Incorrect, free advice can prove extremely expensive.

3. Are you attracting daily sales or client enquiries from your website?

If not, you’re needlessly missing out on a wonderful opportunity. My blog generates client enquiries multiple times every day. Your site can be a business generating machine too. However, it needs to have the right strategy behind it. Invest in getting this right or you’re leaving money on the table every day.

Tip: Don’t copy what you see other sites doing. Almost every small and medium sized business blog or website I see, is failing miserably.

4. Are you associating with the right people?

We tend to grow in the same direction as those we associate with. Mix with the wrong people and one day, everything they have will be yours.

Think about that for a moment.

Tip: Get intentional regarding the network of people around you. Choose to associate with those who have either achieved what you want to achieve, or who are committed to the same goals and aspirations as you.

5. Are you learning from past mistakes or repeating them?

For a lot of people reading this, 2017 is already looking a lot like 2016. You deserve better than that!

Tip: If you are facing the same old frustrations, it’s because you’re repeating the same old errors. For better results, you need a better strategy. Find someone with the skills to help you move your business forward. And remember point number 2; only take advice from someone who’s achieved what you want to achieve.

I hope you find these ideas useful. More importantly, I hope something here inspires you to take positive action.

How to massively improve your marketing results, using lists

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content marketing, lists, list building

Ever wondered why so many articles, blog posts, videos and newsletters are based around the idea of a list?

Yes, you’re right. It’s because they’re extremely popular. People love them. And it’s easy to see why.

Lots of ideas. And fast!

List-based content promises a number of bite-sized ideas or suggestions. And fast! So when we see “10 habits of highly successful business owners“, we’re not expecting an in-depth examination of commercial success.

No.

We’re expecting ideas. And we hope that at least one of those ideas will help us in some way. If it does, it will repay the 3 or 4 minutes we invested in reading it.

Does your marketing mix contain list-based content?

If not, I suggest you give it a try. Lists are perfect for sharing, which makes them ideal if you want to expand your reach on social networks. New readers who discover your work through list content, will then get the chance to see your more detailed work. Others will follow you on the networks, where they see your lists shared. Almost all of my most shared blog posts are lists. This list-based blog post has been shared over 27 thousand times.

Lists can also be very powerful, when it comes to increasing your email marketing open rates. Email marketing that has a list in the subject line, can result in massively increased open rates.

Here’s why.

Most small business owners are not expert copywriters. As such, the subject lines they use for their email marketing tend to under-perform. And poorly written subject lines result in extremely low open rates. This means no matter how good their marketing message is, very few people will see it.

Using an average list title as the subject line of a marketing email, will always out-perform an average, regular subject line.

So, I should focus exclusively on lists, Jim?

No. No you shouldn’t. Seriously. Don’t!

True, there are YouTubers making a fortune from creating only list-based videos. And yes, there are sites that attract millions of readers, who rely very heavily on list-based posts and articles. However, relying exclusively on lists is a bad fit for most small business owners. They should be used sparingly.

For example, I could have written this post as a list.

  • It would have taken me half as long to write.
  • It would have been shared a lot more on social networks.
  • And the email version of the post would have been opened by a lot more people.

However, I wanted to dig a little deeper into one thing: the marketing effectiveness of lists. I didn’t want to weaken that focus with “15 Reasons why lists dominate the internet”.

And that’s why lists should be just a part of your marketing arsenal.

  • Sometimes, you need to offer more substance around one subject.
  • Other times, an issue could be impacting your readers and you need to address it.
  • And there are times when you want to share one really useful idea, which wouldn’t work if you broke it down into a list of sub-ideas.

Test and measure

If you haven’t already used list-based blog posts, articles, videos, podcasts or newsletters, give it a go. Experiment. Test different types of list. Measure the feedback. Check things (metrics) including; sales, leads, open rates, social shares and new subscribers.

In short, if you’re not embracing list-based content, you’re missing out on a huge opportunity.

Can you guess what’s inside the box?

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marketing blogs, marketing help

Today’s post is a little different. However, it will explain how to create a cycle of ongoing, repeat sales.

Let’s begin.

I want you to imagine you have a very special box, which you place on a table in front of a prospective client or customer.

  • You explain that the contents of this sealed box are of great value.
  • You tell them that once they have it, they will wonder how they ever managed without it.
  • You then tell them that other people are using it, and they love it so much that they recommend it to their friends.
  • You finally blow them away, when you explain that the price for what’s in the box, is way below what it’s worth.

You then ask them, “Would you like to see what’s in the box?”

Their eyes widen as they lean forward and say, “Yes please!”

So, what’s inside the box?

As a business owner, your job is to develop a product or service that fits inside that amazing box.

In order for it to fit, your product needs to be able to deliver on those promises you just made. So when a prospective client sees it, they want it. Really want it!

The most successful business owners constantly look for ways to add value. To exceed expectations. To give their clients something they want to buy and their marketplace something they want to talk about.

Get this right and you will create a cycle of ongoing, repeat sales.

Why?

It will give you 2 vital things your business needs.

  1. It will massively increase the number of sales you make, because of all that added value.
  2. It will simultaneously generate ongoing word-of-mouth publicity.

The word-of-mouth publicity then creates even more sales leads (or client enquiries), which results in even more sales. The cycle continues.

Content Marketing: Here’s why your readers are already your clients

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Thank you for being such a valued client. Yes. I’m talking to you!

Consider this for a moment: A client is someone you provide a service to, who pays you. I provide you with a service (ideas to help you grow your business). And you pay me. You pay me with your attention. That’s why they call it paying attention.

So, I’m the service provider and you’re the client.

What this means to you and your business

I have a question for you. It’s simply this:

How would your newsletter or blog improve, if you already regarded every reader as a client?

Well my friend, for starters, you would treat your content marketing as a top level business activity. You’d also aim to be as valuable to your readers as possible, after all, you want to retain your clients. And you’d strive to be helpful too, because your content marketing would become part of your overall customer service.

Sometimes, a simple change of perspective can lead you to massively better results.

Your choice: Act now or react later?

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marketing tips, marketing blogs

Imagine this:

  • Imagine a business, which provides a unique range of services, rather than the same generic range of services as it’s competitors.
  • Imagine a business, which invests time every week on improving itself.
  • Imagine a business, which has a dedicated customer retention program, so that it seldom loses a client or customer.
  • Imagine a business, which uses professional, highly effective marketing strategies, so it attracts the best clients or customers.

Now, imagine what would happen if that business moved into your area, targeting your clients and your future clients.

Do it first

Before something like that happens to you, I have a suggestion: Do it first! Tick off every item on that list and watch your business grow like never before.

Most business owners wait until their business is under a sudden, external threat, before they seriously up their game. As a direct result, their business achieves a tiny fraction of its true potential. All because they waited for something negative to happen, before they took action. That’s the price you pay for being reactive rather than proactive.

Sometimes a super smart, agile competitor comes to town and takes chunks of their market share. Other times, a business owner will lose a major client and see their revenues suddenly drop dramatically. In either case, the business owner is driven to improve as a reaction.

Don’t wait for something negative to happen, before you learn just how high you can fly. Act now my friend.

How to crush the competition

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marketing blogs, marketing help

Joe emailed me with a very direct and important question yesterday. Here it is, along with my answer.

Hi Jim. What’s the best way for me to crush my competitors?  I’m going to lose my business soon unless I turn things around and I’m sick of losing out to competitors that are no better than me!

I think crush is a strong word, but it certainly gets Joe’s point across.

Think about it.

  • You can outsmart your competitors. This means spotting or creating opportunities before they do.
  • You can out care your competitors. This means showing the marketplace that you care enormously about what matters to them.
  • Alternatively, you can out manoeuvre your competitors by doing both! By outsmarting them and out caring them, you leverage 2 enormously powerful strategies.

If someone turned up in your marketplace today with the out manoeuvre mindset, they would eventually attract many of the best quality clients or customers. They would crush the competition.

That someone could be you. No… that someone should be you. Is it easy? No. Is it worth it? Absolutely.

Let’s grow your business!

I can help you build a more successful business, increase your sales, attract more clients and boost your profits.

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