Jim's Marketing Blog

Marketing tips and ideas to help you grow your business

Content marketing: 7 Topics that will grab the attention of your marketplace

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Content marketing, content tips

I write a lot about the importance of being useful with your marketing. A number of you have asked me if I can give you some specific examples, which you can apply to your content marketing.

And that’s exactly what I’ve done in this post. Each example is almost universal and represents something, which your clients and prospects are attracted to or extremely attracted to.

Start off by thinking about the services you provide or your product range. Then, consider the following themes and how you can incorporate them into your content marketing messages.

Each theme ends with a question to help you focus on how it applies to your business.

  1. People have an inbuilt need to feel connected: What are you doing, to connect them with useful contacts? The Wall Street Journal wrote about how I achieved this for one of my clients – 4 Marketing Strategies That Paid Off For Small Companies
  2. Everyone is trying to succeed at something: What are you doing, to help people achieve their targets, goals or dreams?
  3. We all need security: What are you doing, to help people reduce risk or feel secure and safe?
  4. We also share a common need for a sense of belonging: What are you doing, to create a community?
  5. Everyone wants to avoid wasting time: What are you doing, to help people maximize their time, or help them complete certain tasks, faster?
  6. People want to improve and expand their knowledge: What are you doing, to share useful information with them? This is the cornerstone of successful content marketing.
  7. Everyone wants to avoid unnecessary stress, especially now: What are you doing, to help people feel more relaxed and assured?

Are any of those themes missing from your content marketing? If they are, look for ways to incorporate them.

You’ll be very glad you did.

22 Critically important reasons why people don’t hire you

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Marketing tips

It’s a massive source of great frustration.

You’re trying to sell a service or product to a prospect… and they just don’t ‘get it’. They can’t seem to understand the value or why they need it. And it’s driving you nuts!

There are many reasons why this happens. Let’s see how many I can come up with in 10 minutes.

  1. They’re short term focused and you’re selling a medium to long-term benefit. Or vice versa.
  2. You’re assuming too much about what they know, what they think or what they need.
  3. They make decisions slowly. You move quickly. They’re still trying to process things.
  4. They make decisions quickly. You move slowly. They’ve lost interest.
  5. You’re dealing with the wrong person.
  6. They’re under a great deal of stress. Which is really common right now.
  7. You’re connecting to them using the wrong medium. You’re using email instead of sending a letter. A letter instead of a phone call. A phone call instead of video. Video instead of in-person.
  8. You’re using too many words to describe your proposition. This is common.
  9. You’re using too few words to describe it. This almost never happens.
  10. There are too many steps in your process. You’re losing them. They get half way through whatever you’re communicating, and they’re already forgetting the start.
  11. You’re using incompatible marketing ideas, approaches or strategies from a different industry. This is a huge, HUGE problem for service providers.
  12. They can see the value, they do want it, but are lying to you because they’re broke and embarrassed.
  13. Your product or service, if purchased, would force them to admit they failed in some way.
  14. You’re attracting poorly targeted leads, so they lack the need, awareness and / or finances.
  15. You haven’t given them a deadline. Deadlines sharpen the mind.
  16. You’re confusing them, because there’s a disconnect between what you say and what they see. This is very common. The vendor says they’re professional and reliable, yet their marketing gives the opposite impression.
  17. They’re very visual and your marketing or presentation isn’t.
  18. You haven’t demonstrated the value, so they think it’s too expensive.
  19. You haven’t demonstrated the value, so they don’t even know they need what you’re offering.
  20. They’re scared. And your level of reassurance isn’t cutting it.
  21. They’re expecting the approach or marketing from someone in your industry, to look or sound different.
  22. They don’t trust you enough, to lower their guard and let your message land.

The tricky part is figuring out how many of those apply to you. After all, the only reason these problems exist is that you don’t know you’re making the mistakes.

My hope is that some of these suggestions will confirm what you’ve been thinking, but lacked professional advice on (for whatever reason). These areas are worth focusing on.

It’s a start. And you’ll be leaving less money on the table each day than you currently do.

10 Important ways that successful business owners think differently

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Marketing blogs, thrive

Here are some very important ways that successful business owners think differently. I have also linked to additional resources, which you may find useful.

  1. They surround themselves with motivated people. They know that you can’t build a successful company with pessimistic, fear-focussed team members.
  2. They have the courage to back themselves, rather than wait for the blind to see their vision. Steve Jobs launched the iPhone, despite senior voices telling him Apple wasn’t a phone company and the marketplace was saturated.
  3. They invest more in their professional development than their competitors do. They know that their business success today is a direct reflection of their strategies and ideas up to today. And for their business to improve in 2020, they’ll need to improve.
  4. They proactively look for interesting, valuable problems to solve. Successful business owners know that the bigger the problem you solve, the greater the potential of your business. You’ll have fewer competitors and command higher, more profitable fees.
  5. They create a story around their business that’s worth sharing. If no one is talking about your business, it’s because you’re doing nothing worth talking about. Successful people understand this and get creative. The average business owner looks for excuses and complains.
  6. They listen to their marketplace and build value around what they hear. Social media gives every business owner an insight into what their marketplace wants and needs. The most successful business owners get this. They listen. The average business owner uses social media just to broadcast marketing messages.
  7. They commit to go the extra mile. And then do it! Conversely, the average business is exactly that. Average. They charge average fees and work with average clients, on average projects. That’s not going the extra mile.
  8. They refuse to surrender their focus to the never-ending stream of interruptions. The most successful business owners understand that whatever has their attention, is influencing what they think. They only pick their phones up to use them, so the phone is working for them. The average business owner checks their phone notifications regularly throughout the day. So, their attention is continuously interrupted and their focus constantly off-balance.
  9. They use fear as their compass. Successful business owners know that meaningful progress is always preceded by fear. That same fear stops the average business owner in their tracks. This makes meaningful success impossible. Ouch!
  10. They are willing to make tough decisions. Opportunities are a little like groceries: they come with a use-by date! The business owner who waits for fear-focused colleagues to see the opportunity, before taking action, is already too late. They’ll find that the opportunity has either gone, or at best, that they were too slow to fully maximize the opportunity. A casual approach to leadership causes casualties.

Embrace the low risk and maximum potential mindset

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marketing blogs

It’s impossible to completely eliminate risk from your business. But you can have the best of both worlds, with low risk and maximum potential.

Let’s start by looking at risk and why you can’t (and shouldn’t) totally eliminate it from your business.

Think about it: Even if your results are fine right now, and you decide to just carry on with whatever you’re doing, you’re at enormous risk.

Really?

Yes, really!

You risk losing clients (or customers) to your agile competitors, who continuously seek to improve and target your client base with compelling offers. Sure, small and medium sized business are the most vulnerable, but even massive brands can be wiped out by the just carry on attitude. Remember; Blockbuster Video, Toys R Us, My Space, Palm Inc?

The question is, how do we get the best of both worlds; less risk and massively more potential?

I’m glad you asked.

Mastering the risk / potential balance

In seeking to eliminate risk, you also block yourself from every great opportunity. That’s because every genuine opportunity for your business comes with an element of risk.

So, no risk = no progress.

Therefore, rather than regard risk as something to avoid, consider the potential pluses as well as the potential minuses. Research the positives as well as the negatives.

And challenge your beliefs!

Challenging your beliefs is critically important, as one of the biggest barriers to your success are your inaccurate preconceptions. This is a perfect example. And I see equally damaging thinking with business owners all the time.

A well-balanced approach to risk and opportunity is behind every successful business. It reduces your exposure to risk, whilst simultaneously allowing you to fully benefit from the genuine opportunities your business must have, in order to grow.

With the right mindset for 2021, you’ll put yourself in the best possible position to benefit from the new opportunities next year will bring.

I’m really confused

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marketing tips, marketing advice

I’m confused.

Really confused.

Here’s why.

You say you provide a great quality service, but your fees are pretty close to average. You give various reasons to hire you, but your services look a lot like your competitors. And the wording on your website reads just like all the others I’ve checked out in your industry.

Obviously, I’m not reviewing your marketing. But someone is. And that person is (or was) a prospective client.

Today, anyone can check you or your business out in a matter of minutes. It has never been easier for the marketplace to build a picture of you. That’s why it’s critically important to make sure our promises are matched by our marketing.

The instant a prospective client senses a disconnect between what we claim, and what they experience, we lose them. Even if we get a second chance, it’s a huge struggle to repair a bad first impression.

If you’re working hard to provide a high quality, professional service, it’s essential that your marketing is equally as professional.

It’s an easy win.

It’s a huge win, too. Because those people who currently can’t ‘see’ that you’re exactly what they’re looking for, will start hiring you, as soon as your marketing has opened their eyes.

This 3 letter word can destroy your sales results

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When it comes to creating a powerful marketing message and attracting new customers, ‘new‘ is overrated. It can also destroy your marketing results.

There are 3 core reasons for this.

  1. The newest product or service is always a riskier bet. At best, it’s a bigger gamble than the trusted incumbent. At worst, the customer feels like a paying guinea pig.
  2. The newest product or service is seldom the best. It lacks the improvements that come from years of feedback. It lacks the robustness that comes from stress-testing.
  3. New doesn’t last for long. This makes it a short-term marketing message. Anything that’s new is only new for now.

A dozen better alternatives

Instead of relying on new, offer your marketplace something more compelling. More motivating. More attractive. For example, instead of offering them a new way to do something, offer them:

  1. A faster way.
  2. A more enjoyable way.
  3. A greener way.
  4. A proven way.
  5. A stylish way.
  6. An original way.
  7. A premium quality way.
  8. An ethical way.
  9. An exciting way.
  10. A safer way.
  11. A more reliable way.
  12. A cost effective way.

In short, be extremely careful about how and where you use the word new, as you put your 2021 marketing strategy together.