Jim's Marketing Blog

Marketing tips and ideas to help you grow your business

How to have inspiration, ideas and answers on demand

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marketing ideas, marketing inspiration

How would you like to have access to inspiration, ideas and answers whenever you need them? That’s what this brief post is all about.

I found the above note in an old Apple Notes file. I think it was part of some research I did, for a blog post I never published. Anyhow, discovering that note this morning reminded me why I take (and keep) lots of notes and how extremely valuable they are.

I thought you might find it useful, so I’ve decided to quickly share it with you.

Now, as you can see, that note by itself is just a snippet of an idea.

But that note isn’t by itself. It’s part of a massive body of ideas I’ve jotted down over the past 20 years. They’re mostly pen and paper notes, though I also have thousands of digital notes, like the above example.

It’s this stack of ideas and observations, in note form, that’s extremely valuable for anyone involved in problem solving; which is every person reading this.

Inspiration and answers on demand

As a marketing professional, I can’t ‘wait’ for inspiration to arrive. When work starts, I need to command inspiration to appear. If I’m more than one coffee into my day and I’m struggling to get into the flow, that’s where the notes come in.

I grab a notebook or search my digital notes and usually within 5 minutes, my brain is in a highly creative state.

An old note with a nugget or two of information, soon points my thinking in a massively more productive direction. That new direction helps me focus on new ideas and new solutions, which I couldn’t possibly have accessed otherwise. I use these to help my clients build great businesses, develop new products or services and spot windfall profits they never even knew existed.

More importantly, just think how valuable that kind of asset would be for you and your business. Imagine you were able to know in advance, with confidence, that you could tap into a powerful source of inspired ideas and answers.

Start by collecting ideas. The sooner you start, the sooner your stack of ideas will grow. And don’t just collect your own ideas, but ideas from others (like this one). And definitely spend more time on ideas from outside your industry. Grab ideas from books, movies, artists you love. Don’t limit yourself. Collect your ideas in a format that’s easiest for you.

And most importantly, make it a daily habit.

Bring me your problems

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bring me your problems, marketing blog

There’s real power in the following 4 words: Bring me your problems.

Why?

Because everyone has problems. And nobody wants them. That includes your prospective clients. What they want (and need) are answers. They want to get unstuck. They want to free themselves from frustration. They want reliable service providers, who they can trust. And this is extremely important to them.

In short, your prospective clients are highly motivated to get their problems solved.

Okay. Hold that thought for a moment.

Now let’s look at the service you provide

Your service is the answer to a problem. Or a series of problems. How do I know this? Simple. Every service provider is a problem solver.

So, I’d like you to answer a question: When was the last time you asked people to bring you their problems?

Sure, every service provider markets the services they provide. They have them listed on their websites, they mention them when they speak with prospective clients, they may even mention them in a newsletter, blog, vlog, podcast or on social networks, etc.

But that wasn’t what I was asking.

My question was a lot more literal than that.

In very literal terms, when was the last time you used these four words [bring me your problems] in your marketing?

Bring me your problems is a powerful, direct request. It bypasses all the fluff. It cuts right to the chase. It strikes at the core of what your prospective clients want and need. And this is especially the case when those 4 words feature prominently, in the right place.

Here’s how it works

It looks a lot like this.

  1. Your prospective client has a problem.
  2. She finds your website (or any of your marketing assets).
  3. She can see that the services you provide are related to her problem.
  4. She then sees a direct request, asking her to bring you her problems.
  5. Boom! Your message has engaged with her needs like a laser.
  6. You’re now massively more likely to have motivated her to contact you and hire you.

Easy?

Absolutely.

But no one said that powerful marketing had to be complicated.

1 Essential word your marketing needs. Plus 1 you absolutely MUST avoid

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business growing, how to

Here’s a very quick tip, to help you improve the sales effectiveness of your marketing. It’s all about a word you use regularly, which is negatively impacting how people feel about your business.

That word is change!

People are hard-wired to fear change.

We know that change, good or bad, is a source of stress. Even something as positive as the change that comes from getting married, buying a new home or setting off for a week in the sun, is a cause of stress. In short, change is a trigger word, which places the prospective client or customer in a suboptimal state.

Because of the negative way people feel when confronted with change, it makes sense to remove the word from your marketing. Don’t worry, I am going to give you a massively more powerful, motivating alternative!

Improve, rather than change

Whenever possible, use the word improve, rather than change. Improve, is a positive word. It’s an attractive word too, because we are always looking for something better.

For example, look how the phrase below becomes far more powerful, when change is replaced with improve.

“This copywriting tip will change your marketing results.” (It could make them worse)

“This copywriting tip will improve your marketing results.” (It will make them better)

Your prospective clients or customers fear change, but want things to improve. So, stop offering them what they fear and give them what they want.

The serious marketing problem that no one talks about

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marketing tips, free marketing, marketing advice

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.

Business development seldom exceeds professional development

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content marketing

I was just going through some notes I took, following a talk I gave to a group of entrepreneurs. I spotted something, which they found extremely useful on the day. So, I thought I’d share it with you.

It’s based on my answer to a great question. Someone wanted to know why over a thousand articles on my blog are tagged as professional development, when it’s a marketing blog.

Here’s a shortened version of my reply.

The reason I focus so heavily on professional development, is that without it, NONE of the information a business owner receives is of any value to them. I then shared one of the foundations of all business success:

Business development seldom exceeds professional development.

In other words, we can’t give our business something, which we don’t have. Here are a few of the examples I used.

  • We can’t avoid mistakes if we fail to see them coming.
  • We can’t benefit from opportunities if we’re blind to them.
  • We can’t enjoy a bumper crop if we harvest too soon.

I then explained how that’s only 50% of the problem caused by a lack of professional development.

Here’s the other half. And it’s a biggie!

Even if you give a business owner the exact answers they need, if they lack professional development… they’ll ignore it. That’s because when you lack professional development, REAL improvement always, always sounds scary.

It looks like this.

  • Improvement = change.
  • Change = risk.
  • Risk = fear.

Every business starts to grow after it launches. Then, the business reaches a certain point and hits a plateau. Some plateau in the first 12 months. Others don’t plateau for a decade.

And it doesn’t matter! Because it’s what happens when they reach that plateau that makes all the difference.

Business owners tend to fall into one of the following two, broad groups.

Group one

Business owners in this group need additional professional development. They are deliberately targeted by marketers, who exploit the business owners eagerness to grow their business. They entice them with webinars, Facebook Lives, growth-hacking secrets, and countless online training products; all promising “too good to be true” results.

That kind of advice sells. It’s all gain, with no real effort. And those testimonials are always so inspirational. It’s easy money too, because there’s an endless stream of business owners… hoping that THIS motivating promise, MAY finally be the one that works.

Of course, it fails.

It has to fail.

Why?

Because as we know, in business, meaningful improvement only comes after making meaningful improvements (meaningful changes). If you do what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you’ve always got. Business, like everything else in life, works on the law of cause and effect.

Now for some great news.

Group two

Every business owner in this group, (including me), started in group one. Then, at some point, they figured out they were wasting a lot of time and making very little progress. So they jumped ship into group two.

They now insist on expert advice from proven professionals. Professionals who will look at their unique situation and provide the unique roadmap or solutions they need. It’s why business owners in group two thrive.

Think about it. There’s a really good reason why:

  • Literally every successful business owner makes important decisions based on trusted, informed, targeted advice.
  • Literally none of them make important decisions, like how to grow their business, based on the toxic junk that business owners in group one rely on.

That’s why I focus so much of my content on professional development. I try and educate business owners, so they avoid the stress and wheel-spinning of being in group one. I strive to inform business owners who are trying to get the help they need, but looking in the worst possible places.

I hope you found this useful. Moreover, I hope you do something with it.

I have some news for you

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It’s the 12th anniversary of Jim’s Marketing Blog.

But this one is very different from the others.

Previously, I’ve had to think whether to commit my time and money for another year. It’s a big commitment. The time I spend each week creating free content for my readers, significantly reduces the hours I have available for fee-paying clients. And with thousands of pages of content online, the blog would still attract more client enquiries than I need.

However, this year, the decision to carry on was easy.

How easy?

I’d forgotten about the annual renewal decision until literally 20 minutes ago!

The impact of the coronavirus on small and medium-sized business owners, has motivated me more than ever to try and help. I’m working on ideas all the time. My goal is to be as useful as possible, to as many people as possible. The best way I know to do this, is through the free information I provide on the blog and email version of the blog.

So, I plan to be here for at least another year.

By the way, if you want to say hi or just see what I’m up to, you can catch me on Twitter @JimConnolly. Look for the verified tick to ensure it’s me.