Jim's Marketing Blog

Marketing tips and ideas to help you grow your business

Here’s why you need vigorous, written marketing

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vigorous writing, vigorous written marketing

Most of the written marketing I see is at least 75% too long. Overlong marketing lacks impact. It also lacks clarity and totally fails to motivate prospective customers or clients.

I want to help you avoid this expensive mistake.

And it starts with maybe the best-known quote on the subject.

Vigorous writing is concise. A sentence should contain no unnecessary words, a paragraph no unnecessary sentences, for the same reason that a drawing should have no unnecessary lines and a machine no unnecessary parts. This requires not that the writer make all his sentences short, or that he avoid all detail and treat his subjects only in outline, but that he make every word tell.

Professor William Strunk Jr. – The Elements of Style.

The vigorous writing referred to here, is writing that is strong and full of energy. That’s the kind of writing that moves people to take action; to contact you, buy from you or hire you. It’s the kind of writing that gets the results you need.

How can you and your business benefit from the power of vigorous written marketing?

The answer comes from understanding why the problem exists.

Google usually gets the blame

That’s because Google’s search algorithm needs overlong, written content. It prefers 2500 words to 250. So, for over 20 years, online marketing writers have been rewarded for high word counts.

But Google isn’t responsible for the wider problem.

Email marketing and off-line media is just as ruined by overlong content. Neither of those formats have ever required the writer to dance the Google dance.

The problem exists because most written marketing is composed by people who lack sufficient training. It’s either written by business owners who ‘dabble’ or by below-par marketing writers.

The solution?

The business owner wishing to switch to the vigorous written marketing they need, has two options.

  1. Learn how to do it effectively.
  2. Pay someone who already knows.

How to decide?

  • The cost (in time) of learning is considerable. It’s one of those subjects where you never stop learning. However, you’ll start seeing improvements relatively quickly.
  • The cost of hiring an expert is lower. And it’s a lot faster.

Of course, the price you pay for starving your business of vigorous written marketing, is massively higher than either of those options. So pick one of them and run with it.

7 Content topics to grab the attention of your marketplace

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content marketing tip

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.

Their needs and your products or services

Start off by thinking about the services you provide or your product range. Then, consider the following 7 topics (or theme ideas) and how you can incorporate them into your content marketing messages.

  1. People have an inbuilt need to feel connected: Share ideas to help your prospects connect 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: Share ideas to help your prospects achieve their targets, goals or dreams. Obviously, as with pretty-much every topic here, if you offer a specific product or service that can help them in this area, incorporate that into the content.
  3. We all need to feel safe and secure: Share ideas to help your prospects reduce risk or feel safer.
  4. We also share a common need for a sense of belonging: Share ideas to help your prospects feel like an integral part of your business.
  5. Everyone wants to avoid wasting time: Share ideas to help your prospects maximize their time, or help them complete certain tasks faster, etc. I’m not a time management expert, but I’ve shared tons of ideas in this area, based on decades of running a successful business, without working crazy hours. The response is always excellent. So don’t be put off sharing from your experience.
  6. People want to improve and expand their knowledge: Share your industry knowledge, sure. But ALSO share your experience with them. For example, if you’re an accountant, don’t just focus on tax, profit and loss or the latest business news. They can get that anywhere. Tell them the common factors you’ve identified in successful businesses. And the ones you’ve identified in those that flounder or fail. Your experience is extremely valuable.
  7. Everyone wants to avoid unnecessary stress, especially now: Share ideas to help your prospects feel more relaxed and assured. If there’s a specific product or service you offer, which can assist them with this, incorporate that into the message or idea.

Are any of those topics missing from your content marketing? If they are, look for ways to incorporate them. Because this kind of useful, relevant information is the cornerstone of successful content marketing.

You’ll know you have the balance right, when your content marketing is SO USEFUL that people would really miss it if you stopped.

Google: The long and the short of it

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google indexing, google keyword, google repitition

Hundreds of the posts on Jim’s Marketing Blog have been excluded from Google’s index. Close to a thousand.

I’m told that Google’s algorithm needs me to write longer posts. It also needs me to unnaturally repeat key phrases and key words, over and over. Otherwise, no indexing.

I suggest I don’t need to change how I write.

I suggest Google needs to radically improve its horribly limited search algorithm.

Here’s the thing. I write for people, not a poorly-programmed, easy to fool algorithm. This means I write short whenever I can.

Whilst writing short drives Google nuts, people like it.

  • It’s people whose problems I seek to solve.
  • It’s also people who hire me and people who recommend me.

The next time you have to plough through thousands of unnecessary words online, for a couple of hundred words worth of information, you’ll know why the writer did it.

Publish the process: Field Offices

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field offices, change scenery,

In the early days of the blog, I’d often share a look behind the scenes at my working day. It’s something I call publishing the process and today it’s back!

Just as before, I’ll share ideas I’m working on, the tools I’m using, useful new resources, the way I collect ideas… as well as things like sources of inspiration, etc.

Let’s kick things off with: Field offices

Lots of readers have asked me about how and why I use field offices. It’s something I’ve mentioned in passing in recent blog posts and newsletter articles. But never in any detail.

It’s a relevant topic to start with, as I sit in a field office right now; sipping espresso, with my MacBook Air finally connected to the coffee shop’s WiFi.

“[…] We get into ruts at work by following strict routines. That’s the problem! […]”

Dr. Todd Dewett

How many times have you had a great idea or flash of insight, when you’re in the shower, or when you’re at the gym or stuck in traffic?

It happens to all of us and it happens a lot.

One reason for this is that the change of scenery disrupts your routine and provides you with multiple, different inputs. Fresh sources of stimulation. And each of these influences how we think and feel, to a lesser or greater degree.

Like thousands of others, I’ve found that the same thing happens when I deliberately choose to break the routine of working from a non-traditional working environment.

Field offices offer 2 major benefits

  1. Field offices provide you with the same valuable, fresh / different ideas and insights, that often come randomly in the shower. However, by deciding to deliberately kick-start the process, you have far greater control over when it happens.
  2. Because you’re equipped with the tools you work with, for me it’s a laptop or a notebook and pen, you can capture the idea or insight and instantly get to work on it.

I also find it helps to use multiple different locations and settings. Here are the ones I’ve used recently.

  • A bench on a the Chesterfield Canal.
  • A coffee shop (in the above photo).
  • The grounds of Lincoln Castle and also Conisbrough Castle.
  • My garden.
  • Sherwood Forest.

As with anything like this, some people will find it extremely useful, others will find it a lot less useful. I strongly recommend you, at least, to give it a try. See it it helps and how it helps.

How it helps?

Yes.

Field offices work in different ways for different people.

I find that they’re of most use to me when I’m stuck with an idea. Other people I know, find field offices most useful when writing reports. Whilst others, still, use them exclusively when they’ve spent too many days at a desk, and feel they ‘just need’ a change of scenery.

I hope you found this look at field offices useful. Moreover, I hope it inspires you to give it a try the next time you’re looking for a creativity boost.

Discover the NEW way to destroy your sales results

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marketing tips

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 2022 marketing strategy together.

Get more client enquiries by being approachable

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marketing approachable

How easy is it, for your prospective clients or customers to get in touch with you?

I’m not talking about how visible your phone number, email address or contact form are. I’m referring to something that is just as important and yet seldom written about: How approachable you seem to be, to a prospective client or customer.

For example.

  • When a prospect is reading your newsletter, how approachable do you sound to them? The best newsletters are written, so that the author comes across as friendly, informed and interested in helping you. The least effective are written by people who come across as impersonal, distant and only interested in what’s in it for them.
  • When a prospect reads your comments on social media, how approachable do you sound to them? Some business owners can appear patronising or sarcastic when people dialogue with them or ask questions. This is a really, really bad move, if you want prospective clients to feel comfortable contacting you.
  • When a prospect reads the about page on your website, how approachable do you sound? Many small business owners write their about page in the 3rd person, rather than speak directly to their reader. Instead of saying; ‘Hi, thanks for stopping by. My name is Jack and…’ they start with ‘Jack has worked in web design since 2012 and… ‘

Why does this matter to you?

Here’s what we know for absolute certain: The less comfortable someone feels about approaching a potential service provider, the less likely they are to contact them.

By building the human touch into your marketing, you start to nurture a positive relationship with your prospects long before you ever speak with them. This helps them feel far more comfortable contacting you, hiring you or buying from you.