Marketing tips and ideas to help you grow your business

How to delight your clients and build a worldclass reputation

March 29, 2017 by Jim Connolly

Today, I’m going to explain how the best service providers keep their clients happy, generate valuable referrals and build a great reputation.

It’s all about the difference between delivering what a client wants and delivering what a client needs.

Wants and needs

Think about some of the most powerful commercial logos. Apple, McDonald’s Nike, Adidas, Facebook and Target, etc. All of these designs are super simple. A child could reproduce any of them in a few seconds.

Now, imagine for a moment what happens when a business owner hires a great designer to create their logo. The designer then gets back to the client with a smart and simple design.

Because the business owner is not a design professional, they want MORE for their money.

More lines.
More colours.
More detail.
More complexity.

If the designer gives the client what the client wants, the client ends up with a confusing piece of junk.

If the designer gives the client what the client needs, the client ends up with an effective, professionally designed logo.

How the best service providers get this right

The best service providers use education, to help the client understand what the client needs.

When the service provider does this correctly:

The client ends up with what they want and what they need.
The service provider ends up with a happy client, who has a great piece of work. That’s the kind of client who provides valuable referrals and the kind of work, which helps you build an excellent reputation.

Your clients deserve your very best work. And so do you.

Tip: Here are 4 Powerful words that attract clients like a magnet!

Are you making a noise or making a difference?

March 27, 2017 by Jim Connolly

All marketing fits into one of the following two groups. It’s either making a noise or it’s making a difference.

Here are examples of both and how they impact your marketing results. You’ll identify them instantly.

Making a noise

Most marketing is noise. Irritating attempts to grab our attention.

Spam emails.
Pop-up boxes.
Cold calls.
Banner advertising.
Pre-roll videos.
Junk mail.
Social network spam, etc.

Those tactics are unwelcome. They don’t command our attention. They selfishly demand our attention.

What do we do? We block them!

We either use software to block them or we mentally block them. But we block them.

This means business owners using those pestering tactics, are seeing worse and worse results. So they then spend even more time and money, to push their message ever harder. And even more people learn to block them. That’s why there’s so much noise out there.

Here’s a much better alternative.

Making a difference

We pay attention to the marketing that makes a difference. It doesn’t demand our attention. It commands our attention. It stands out for all the right reasons.

Valuable tips and ideas from a YouTube channel, podcast, blog or newsletter we subscribe to.
Useful updates from our service providers.
Trusted recommendations from our friends.
Targeted, valuable offers from vendors we trust, who know what we enjoy.
Eagerly anticipated communications from groups we’re members of.
Amazing service, which motivates us to return to a vendor again and again.

These tactics make a positive difference. So we value them. We pay attention because they’re useful. They don’t even feel like marketing. They’re focused on helping us rather than pestering us.

The big question is…

Which group are you in?

We know the good intentions behind our marketing. We know we’re professional and that people would love us, if only they knew how great our service is. So when we add them to our email list or call them at work when they’re busy – we think that it’s okay.

But it isn’t. The same rules apply to us. If it’s unwanted, it’s noise and if it’s noise, it’s working against us.

Everything you do to market your business is either training the marketplace to ignore you or training them to embrace you. It’s working against your business or working for your business.

So whenever possible, instead of making a noise, make a difference. And it’s always possible to make a difference.

These 4 business owners show how easy it is to stand out

March 25, 2017 by Jim Connolly

It’s not hard to make your business stand out and attract lots of great clients.

Some examples.

The accountant, who set up a network just for her clients, so they can connect with one another, help one another and buy from one another.
The dentist, who provides sessions for people who have an irrational fear of dentists.
The coffee shop owner, who offers customers poetry evenings and creative writing events.
The gardener, who not only keeps your garden looking great, but also provides all the garden consumables you need and delivers them to you.

The challenge isn’t that it’s hard to stand out.

The challenge is that it’s easier not to.

Marketing Tip: Focus on the edges, not the middle

March 24, 2017 by Jim Connolly

The middle ground feels safer. That’s why it’s so crowded. However, it’s very hard to stand out, when you embrace the middle ground. The real value comes from pushing what you do to the edges.

There isn’t an area of your business, which you can’t edge.

Here are some examples to get you started:

Push your copywriting to the edges, so it motivates people to take action.
Push your quality to the edges, so your brand becomes a byword for excellence.
Push your communication skills to the edges, so people feel motivated when you speak.
Push your leadership to the edges, so people follow you.
Push your creativity to the edges, so you can find the answers and ideas you need.
Push your courage to the edges, so you do what’s right rather than what feel safe.
Push your commitment to the edges, so your business gets the resources it needs.
Push your service to the edges, so it’s different from your competitors and of unique value to people.
Push your customer service to the edges, so people tell their friends how well you looked after them.
Push your visibility to the edges, so prospective clients can find you.

Let others cling onto the middle ground. Let them offer average services, to average people, for average fees. You deserve batter than that!

Embrace the edges, my friend. Embrace the edges, stand out and let your prospective clients see just how remarkable you are.

Salt looks a lot like sugar

March 22, 2017 by Jim Connolly

Even close up, salt and sugar look very similar. So, how come we don’t accidentally add salt to our coffee or tea? How come we don’t continuously have salt and sugar related accidents?

And… what does this have to do with the way you market your business?

It’s all to do with packaging and marketing

A salt cellar looks very different from a sugar bowl. We never select a salt cellar and expect sugar. The external packaging is what we use to form our decision. Of course, we use this same strategy all day every day.

We choose the vegetables at the market that have the best symmetry, even though the oddly-shaped ones will taste just as good.
We are drawn to books that have attractive covers, even though we tell ourselves we can’t judge a book by the cover.

Here’s the thing: No matter how great your service is, prospective clients will judge you based on the effectiveness of your marketing and the image it creates.

If you place your sugar in a salt cellar, people will expect salt. You need to be smarter than that.

This means taking your marketing seriously. Really seriously. Your prospective clients are going to form an impression of you regardless of what you do. So it’s your job to ensure that the image you project creates the right impression. A powerful impression that builds trust, credibility and confidence.

Why this is critical to the success of your business

If a prospective client had never heard of you, what impression would they have, based on the way you package your business? Does your business look like it’s the best and safest option for what they need, when compared to your competitors?

If it does, then you’re already attracting sales leads every day.

If it doesn’t, fix your marketing. And fast.

Why?

Because business has never been more competitive than it is today. Think about it. Google lets your prospective clients (and your current clients) find 10 alternative providers to you, in seconds.

If your marketing doesn’t create a better impression than these competitors, they get the sales leads and the new clients. Not you.

As a result, marketing has never been more important than it is today.

Now, I haven’t had the pleasure of speaking with you yet. So I have no idea whether you dabble with marketing or have expert marketing help. What I do know, is that today’s digital landscape allows those with expert marketing to see their message spread.

They claim a massively disproportionate slice of their marketplace.

They reach more people.

They attract more enquiries.

They make more sales.

Whilst those who dabble, at best, stand still.

This is great news for you

That’s because today, it’s still a minority of small and medium-sized businesses, which are marketed correctly. This presents you, for now, with an excellent opportunity.

An opportunity to surge ahead, whilst the majority of your competitors dabble.

As the clock ticks, more and more of your competitors are investing in their marketing. This means the opportunity becomes smaller, the longer you delay. The best time to have invested in expert marketing help, was the year you started your business. The second best time is now.

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