Marketing tips, marketing help and advice

Target the unhappy, not the uninterested

January 21, 2021 by Jim Connolly

I want to share one of the foundations of effective marketing with you today. It’s something that can help you dramatically (and quickly) increase your sales or client acquisition figures. It can also help you save time, money and focus your marketing far more effectively.

Are you ready?

It starts with understanding the following.

People who are happy with the products or service they get from one of your competitors, are not looking for whatever your business is offering.

Satisfied people are exactly that. They’re satisfied. They value their current provider. And like you, they ignore marketing messages when they’re not interested in a new (whatever).

This remains true even when:

You’re providing amazing value.
You are less expensive.
You are faster or more reliable.

Despite this, most marketing from small and medium-sized businesses tries to be relevant to as wide an audience of prospects as possible.

Yes, it’s certainly true that you can change someone’s world-view or mindset. But it takes time. Lots and lots of time. It also takes a great amount of effort. Even then, the conversion rate is low.

That’s why I recommend you adopt a more effective approach.

Focus on the unhappy. Avoid the uninterested

Yes, it’s important to build an awareness of how great your product or service is. You need people to know where to go, when they’re looking for whatever you provide.

But what if you need to quickly increase your sales figures or attract new clients? Then my friend, it’s time to adjust the focus of your marketing. If you want to have the full attention of the most motivated buyers, (people ready to make a purchasing decision right now), focus on the unhappy, not the uninterested.

The ‘unhappy’ are actively looking for what you offer.

They’re eager and ready to proceed.
They already have a budget allocated.
They’re highly motivated to take action right now, and buy from you or hire you.

To profoundly increase your sales numbers or client acquisition rate, your marketing needs to talk directly and exclusively to these red hot prospects. And as a bonus, you’ll also attract very few, if any, time-wasters.

That’s the kind of double win that many business owners really need right now.

Highly recommended: A bias for engagement

January 20, 2021 by Jim Connolly

It’s hard to overstate the importance of engagement.

Engagement has tremendous power. It’s the sensation we experience, when someone or something connects with us and captivates us. It creates a bond between us and them. It fosters trust and forms an extremely resilient foundation on which to build a relationship.

And it’s of immense value in business.

Why am I sharing this with you?

Look around you and see just how hard the typical business owner strives to destroy engagement at every opportunity.

They send us impersonal auto reply emails; rather than reply in person when they’re available.
When we call them, we get a call tree (those automated messages with multiple options).
Their social media accounts primarily broadcast famous quotes and sales pitches, but very little inter-personal communication.
And of course, the only time we hear from most prospective vendors is when they’re trying to sell us something… rather than staying in touch with us with useful information, so we know where to go when we actually need them.

The list of engagement-destroying tactics is almost endless.

Choosing our bias

It seems we have a choice to make as business owners.

We can either develop a bias for engagement.
Or we can develop a bias for the impersonal approach.

We can choose to go narrow and deep or wide and shallow. To build meaningful connections with engaged prospective clients or push surface level, automated interactions to strangers.

True, the impersonal approach is cheap and quick. That’s why it’s so popular. But that cheapness needs to be looked at in context.

If we think it’s expensive to take time and engage with our clients and prospective clients, we often haven’t fully considered the cost of being disengaged.

After all, if we choose to disengage from our marketplace, the very lifeblood of our business, we set an extremely low ceiling on our potential.

What exactly are you waiting for?

January 18, 2021 by Jim Connolly

It’s midway through January, in one of the most challenging years ever for business owners.

The opportunities ahead of you are huge. However, you need to get your plans into action in order to navigate the coming months and come out on top.

These evergreen essentials for business success will help.

Don’t wait for permission. You don’t need it.
Don’t wait for the perfect time. The time is never perfect.
Don’t wait for inspiration to appear. Command it to appear.
Don’t wait for the right opening. Create it.
Don’t wait for someone to pick you. Pick yourself.
Don’t wait for the initiative. Take it.

In short: If opportunity doesn’t knock… quit waiting and build a door.

Switch off the autopilot and take control

January 14, 2021 by Jim Connolly

Not long ago, these brands thought they’d arrived.

They were kings of the hill.

MySpace totally dominated social networking.
Blockbuster video owned home video entertainment.
Nokia was the world’s leading mobile phone brand.
And Internet Explorer had 94% of the web browser market.

Here’s what this means to you and your business, as you navigate the coming year.

Business success is a journey

Small and medium-sized businesses are at even greater risk of this threat.

It happens when a business grows to the point where the owner gets comfortable, stops steering wisely and starts to coast. Decisions are made on autopilot.

The hunger for success, when replaced with contentment, causes a business to plateau. And a business that plateaus soon becomes irrelevant, as their marketplace continues to move forward. The business becomes a dot in the rear view mirror. Growth is sluggish and unpredictable. They work hard, yet spin their wheels.

Here’s how to avoid this happening to you.

The art of steering your business successfully

The art of steering a business successfully, begins with accepting that you’re on a journey. And that your task is to navigate your business through the opportunities and threats ahead.

Remember: Even if you want your revenues and profits to remain the same, you still have to develop your business to account for lost clients / customers or new competitors eating into your market share, etc.

Here are a couple of suggestions.

Learn to identify the danger signs. This might include: Too many months or quarters of weak growth. Too long a gap since you last introduced a new product or service to your portfolio. Too few referrals. Too little awareness of new competitors or new trends.

Learn to spot genuine opportunities. This might include: Identifying gaps in your market. Finding ways to increase the value of your service. The introduction of new products for your existing clients. Seeking out new markets for your existing products. Improving your overall marketing strategy.

My first business mentor used to say that the reason so many businesses fail, is that failure is incredibly subtle. It’s seldom the result of one cataclysmic event or decision, but lots of small, daily errors repeated.

The way to avoid this is to grab the wheel of your business and embrace the art of steering. Fire your autopilot and take control.

Marketing 101: From what to what?

January 13, 2021 by Jim Connolly

marketing tips 2021

One of the many ideas I gave to a new client on yesterday’s Marketing Mentor Session was so well received, he suggested I share it with you. He’s a long-time reader, so I took his advice.

The following is a shortened version if the idea, edited to make it of wider relevance then his specific situation.

It starts like this

Every business provides a product or a service.

That product or service solves a problem for the customer.

It creates a change. The customer changes from (something) to (something).

For example.

From board to entertained.
From confused to clear.
From worried to confident.
From struggling to succeeding.
From discomfort to comfort.
From vulnerable to safe.
From lonely to connected.
From loss to gain.
From ignorant to informed.
From broke to wealthy.
From stressed to relaxed.
From lost to guided.

You need to figure out the change your prospective customers are looking for. Their ‘from what’ and their ‘to what’.

Warning: The biggest danger here is believing the answer is obvious.

It usually isn’t!

Seriously.

For instance, the best coffee shops don’t take you from thirsty to quenched.

They change you by creating an attractive atmosphere. An atmosphere, where you can go from stressed to relaxed, or from tired to restored, or from lonely to connected, from stuck to creative or from bored to entertained.

The world’s top coffee shops know this. It’s what their marketing focuses on. It’s why we see very little emphasis placed on the coffee beans used, yet huge emphasis placed on the welcoming, positive atmosphere. The improvement this makes is impossible to overstate.

The world’s most expensive restaurants understand this. They don’t focus on taking you from hungry to full. You can go down the street and get the same number of calories from a burger joint for pennies. Instead, these restaurants focus on their exclusivity. They take you (and your guest) from feeling normal to feeling like a star.

How this relates to your product or service

Determine what change or changes your prospective customer is truly looking for. On the client session, we worked this out together. All I can do here, is ask you to use the coffee shop / restaurant examples as a guide.

Next.

Focus on the ‘from what’ part. Your marketing message needs to meet them right there. It needs to talk to their current situation. It needs to address the discomfort they’re feeling. This means your message will be on the very same wavelength that they’re on. This dramatically and profoundly increases the sales impact of your marketing.
Then focus on the ‘to what’ part. Your marketing needs to illustrate how your product or service transitions them to their end point. To the very thing they desire.

I’m not sure how useful that will be, without the conversations and answers around it from yesterday’s client session. However, I believe there’s enough there to at least get you thinking more effectively about the focus of your marketing.

Exposed: The biggest lie in marketing

January 11, 2021 by Jim Connolly

The biggest lie in marketing is almost certainly not what you’re expecting.

Here it is.

If you ask the average, struggling business owner about marketing they will tell you the following: “I don’t have enough time for marketing”.

That’s a lie.

And here are 30 examples to prove it

Whether these business owners know it or not, they are marketing their business all day every day. That’s because everything in business is marketing.

Here are 30 examples.

The eagerness you demonstrate for helping your clients or customers.
The cleanliness and age of your company vehicles.
The way you speak: From the words you use to the warmth of your welcome.
The experience you give your clients or customers, which they share with their friends.
The way you handle phone calls.
The causes that you or your business publicly support.
The prices or fees you charge.
The type of offers you use to attract new clients.
The range of services you provide, especially in relation to how similar they are to what your competitors offer.
The confidence you inspire in others when you connect with them.
The way you respond to email enquiries, both in the speed and tone of your response.
The content you use on your website.
The places you choose to advertise.
The type of advertising messages you use.
The groups your business belongs to.
The energy you have for your business.
The way you connect with people on social networks.
The time it takes you to make a decision.
The quality of the photos and other graphics you use.
The type of clients or customers you choose to work with.
The type of clients or customers you choose not to work with.
The leadership you demonstrate.
The guarantees you offer.
The flexibility you show, when a client or customer has a unique challenge.
The professionalism of your marketing copy.
The working atmosphere you provide.
The way you communicate with your clients or customers.
The way you handle problems, both internally and external (client) problems.
The regularity with which you achieve deadlines.
The way you and your team dress.

It’s all marketing

Everything your business does (or fails to do) is marketing.

That’s to say, it’s giving people a story about your business. It’s setting their expectations. It’s building confidence in your services or creating doubt. It’s telling the world what your priorities are.

In short, if you run a business, you are already engaged in marketing. And you’re doing it all day, every day.

So the question is never if you market your business or not.

The question my friend, is whether you’re doing it effectively or not.