Marketing tips, marketing help and advice

The serious marketing problem that no one talks about

August 4, 2020 by Jim Connolly

I was in a coffee shop once, when a guy with a very obvious hairpiece came in. He had natural, thick brown hair around his ears, with a jet black wig on top. Of course, no one mentioned it to him. People just smirked when he wasn’t looking. Whether this guy needed the hairpiece for vanity or medical reasons, it’s entirely possible he has no idea that his wig is so poorly matched to his natural hair.

A very similar kind of silence happens regularly in business. And when it does, it costs you a fortune.

Allow me to expand on that.

We check out the Facebook page, Linkedin or Twitter account of a potential vendor. We notice their updates are mostly just a series of desperate sales pitches and quotes from famous people. We don’t tell them they put us off by looking so needy and bland. We silently move on.
We start reading a poorly-written piece of marketing and quickly discard it. We don’t email the company and tell them their content is losing them business. We silently move on.
We go to a website to check out a potential service provider. We then see that their site is amateurish and decide not to consider them. We don’t call them to let them know their site created such a bad impression. We silently move on.

So, faced with all this silence, how do you figure out if what you’re doing is working for you? Simple. You ‘listen’ to what your results are telling you. That’s where the most accurate signal is.

For example.

Your website should be a 24-hour, business generating machine. If it isn’t, it’s telling you something. It’s telling you that it urgently needs to be improved.
Your newsletter should regularly attract sales, sales leads or new clients. If it isn’t, it’s telling you something. It’s telling you that you need to quickly improve your strategy.

The lesson here?

Don’t wait for someone to tell you your marketing sucks. Because they won’t. Your friends don’t want to upset you. Your competitors don’t want you to become a threat. And strangers don’t give a rat’s ass.

Instead, listen to what your results are telling you. Follow the direction of travel and see if you’re happy with where you’re likely to be next month, next quarter and next year.

Then act accordingly.

This is unreasonable, right?

August 3, 2020 by Jim Connolly

I’ve had an idea that could help your business in multiple ways. It’s an unreasonable idea. Yes, I know that sounds weird.

Allow me to explain.

If a product or service is only reasonably good, it’s nothing special. It’s just okay. It’s certainly not good enough to motivate people to buy from you, hire you or tell all their friends about you.

So… this got me thinking

The opposite of reasonable is unreasonable.

What if someone decided to embrace an unreasonable mindset to their business and the services they provide?

I believe it could lead to some significant improvements. Improvements that would encompass their whole business. Here are just a few examples of what an unreasonable approach might look like, which immediately came to mind.

A business owner could choose to:

Be unreasonably committed to customer service and the total happiness of their clients or customers.
Show unreasonable persistence when it comes to delivering projects on time and keeping their promises.
Have an unreasonable attitude to life long learning and developing their potential.
Set the bar unreasonably high on the quality of work they’re willing to ship. (This will help you) get it right.
Have an unreasonable passion for helping others to succeed.

Surely, any business operating from that kind of unreasonable mindset, is going to get noticed. They’re going to retain their clients for longer, too. And yes, they’re going to give their clients and their marketplace something interesting to tell their friends about. That’s a lot of important boxes checked, as a natural consequence of being unreasonable.

In short, if being reasonable isn’t working for you, you now have an unreasonable alternative to consider.

4 Proven ways to quickly attract more customers

August 2, 2020 by Jim Connolly

How easy do you make it for prospective clients or customers, to spend their money with you?

That may sound like an odd question. After all, every business owner should be making the purchasing process as effortless as possible. As you know, this is often not the case. In fact, we regularly encounter challenges that stop us from choosing a particular vendor.

Thankfully, it’s not that hard to significantly improve your sales (or client acquisition numbers), by paying attention to the following 4 areas.

1. Make it as easy as possible for people to contact you

A common mistake most business owners make, is to require too much information on their contact forms. When someone is making an initial enquiry via your website, you need their email address, name and message. That’s it. Just the most basic details so you can contact them.

Every additional piece of information you’re asking for, loses you enquiries from prospective clients.

Ask for the minimum amount of information to get the maximum amount of enquiries.

It makes absolutely no sense to have unnecessary hurdles in the way, which are reducing the number of enquiries you get. And as you know, fewer enquiries means fewer clients. Remember, you can get whatever information you need, after you’ve connected with them. At this point it’s a lot more comfortable for the prospective client.

You’ll get everything you require, without losing all those valuable enquiries.

2. Be open for business when they need you

Most businesses copy the opening hours of their competitors. A better model, is to base your opening hours on the needs of your marketplace.

If you’re available when your marketplace needs you, but your competitors are not, you win. Being available doesn’t mean using a call-handling firm to take details. It doesn’t mean having an AI bot on your website. It means having a member of your team available, who can provide an informed, human connection.

Sounds like a bit of a pain, right?

Exactly!

That’s why your competitors aren’t doing it. And why the opportunity to gain a huge advantage could be staring you in the face.

3. Provide flexible payment options

I’m often amazed at the limited payment options offered by small businesses. That’s never a smart move, but during a global economic crisis, it’s a potentially fatal error.

Thankfully, it’s totally avoidable.

Thanks to services like PayPal, it has never been easier for small business owners to accept payment via credit card, debit card and charge cards. And if you factor the payment fees into your prices correctly, all those additional transactions needn’t cost you a penny.

Important: If you use a lesser-known payment provider, because they’re a little cheaper, be aware that many (and I mean many) prospective customers won’t trust them. Consider the cost to you in lost sales, against the gains you make from lower transaction costs. There’s almost always a significant trade-off, in my experience.

4. Use Risk Reversal

I do this with my Pick My Brain service and people love it. It works like this. If someone uses the service and doesn’t believe it’s worth the fee, I offer them an immediate, 100% refund. It means they can hire me with total peace of mind. No one has ever requested a refund, but the offer shows how confident I am, that I will provide massively more value than they pay for.

Clearly, this type of risk reversal doesn’t work for every business model. However, if you think it could work for you it’s definitely worth exploring.

Take a moment to review the suitability of those four options for your business. Any one of them could potentially bring a significant improvement to your business.

10 Proven ways to get free publicity for your business

July 31, 2020 by Jim Connolly

Here are 10 motivators, which inspire people to spread the word about you. See which ones you can adapt and apply into your business.

People will share your message, if it’s baked into your product or service. When you see someone using a laptop in public, the logo is visible on the lid.
People will share your message, if it makes them look clever. This is why social networks are packed with Einstein quotes.
People will share your message, if they care about you and they believe sharing your message will help you.
People will share your message, if they want you to notice them.
People will share your message, if it makes them appear generous to their friends.
People will share your message, if they think it will make them look ahead of the curve or cutting-edge.
People will share your message, if it’s remarkable. Extremely satisfied customers tell their friends when they receive an amazing service. Read more here.
People will share your message, if they are part of your community and want others to join them.
People will share your message, if it says something they aren’t brave enough to say for themselves.
People will share your message, if they believe it’s of great value and that their friends need to know.

Here’s an additional tip.

Think about the last time you freely gave positive publicity about a company, product or service. Now consider what it was about your experience, which motivated you to spread the word. Then, spend some time looking for ways to adapt and incorporate your version of that motivating factor, into your own products or services. This can be really effective, so give it the time and effort it deserves.

With the unique challenges facing business owners right now, the ability to generate earned publicity, rather than paid, has never been more valuable.

Stay strong my friend.

How to get massively better results from your advertising

July 30, 2020 by Jim Connolly

Here are 3 tips to help you get massively better results from your advertising.

Tip 1: Discover the media your customers consume

You need to uncover what your prospective customers read, listen to or watch. This will be easier for some of you than others. If, for example, you sell exclusively to a certain industry, it’s easy to identify the most popular media aimed at that industry. The same is true if you sell to a particular community, such as those interested in cycling, cars, boats, cooking, etc.

For those who sell to a less well defined group, you’ll need to talk with your customers. A simple survey will help. Then look for common threads within the survey answers. For example, they may be interested in a wide spread of things, yet a high percentage may be within a certain age group. This would help you find radio, podcasts, blogs, magazines or TV aimed at them… or at least a useful subset of them.

The more targeted you get your advertising, the better. No matter how great your product, service or offer is, people can’t buy from you if they don’t see your ad.

Tip 2: Learn how your customers consume media

Next, you need to know how your prospective customers consume their media. This will help you reach the right people, correctly.

For example, radio advertising can be very effective if you want to build brand awareness. However, it will be far less effective if you want to get people to take direct action and call you or visit your website. Many radio consumers listen whilst they drive, are at the gym or are in the shower, etc. In each example, they can’t easily write down a phone number, URL or social media handle.

So, you need to make sure you use the correct form of media, for the kind of ad you want to run. If you choose radio or podcasts for advertising, it’s worth investing in an easy to remember phone number and web address.

Tip 3: Do they pay attention to the ads?

Finally, you need to know if people are engaging with the ads.

The Game Informer magazine is read each month by over 7 million people. It’s an American video game publication and it contains lots of advertisements. Here’s the thing: The ads in the magazine actually add to its value. It would be less valuable to the readers if the ads weren’t there. That’s because video game enthusiasts WANT to know about the games, events and hardware being advertised.

Now compare that to websites that pre-run video ads, when you’re trying to read an article. Do these intrusive ads make the site more valuable to the user?

The point I’m making here is that there’s a difference between advertising where people want to hear what you have to say, and advertising where your message is seen as an annoying intrusion.

In closing

Be where your prospective customer’s attention is. If they are paying attention to what you have to say, and your advertisement is well produced, advertising can make you a fortune. So choose wisely.

The marketing power of ‘why?’. Plus over a dozen examples

July 29, 2020 by Jim Connolly

My first business mentor shared something with me, which I will never forget. He explained that the most successful business owners think in a similar way to young children.

I asked him what it was.

He said:

“They’re always asking why?. But unlike children, their why questions are focused. They’re specifically seeking ways to improve their business”.

With that in mind, here are some marketing ‘ why?’ questions you might find useful. They’re in no particular order.

Why do too few people know how amazing my business is?
Why isn’t my business a lot more fun?
Why doesn’t someone from the top media outlets come to me, when they need expert opinion for a news story?
Why am I still working for some clients, even though they’re assholes?
Why are some of my competitors doing so much better than I am, during the coronavirus?
Why isn’t my website a sales generating machine (or super effective lead magnet for my services)?
Why haven’t I created a premium version of my service, so I have something great to offer the most valuable clients in my marketplace?
Why do I rely on an expert to repair my car or style my hair, but rely on DIY when it comes to growing my business?
Why do I charge my current prices or fees?
Why do I leave my best ideas unused?
Why aren’t more people talking about my business?
Why don’t more of my clients recommend me?
Why am I using a similar marketing strategy during this economic crisis, to what I used when the economy was a lot more stable?

Your questions will obviously depend on your unique situation, but hopefully something there got you thinking. If it did, don’t just brush it off. Take some time today to answer the question. Then, take at least one step to putting your answer into play.

Remember, it isn’t what we know that determines our success, but what we do with what we know. In business, the winners get moving.