Jim Connolly Marketing

Content creation: Music, coffee and prayer

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marketing ideas

People often ask me if I follow a routine for content creation.

I do. It’s pretty basic. It’s built around music, coffee and prayer.

  • Music: When I write, I always have music playing in the background. I find lyrics distracting, so I listen to instrumental work. Right now, I’m listening to Kind of Blue by Miles Davis. Other writing companions include John Coltrane, Moby, Bach, Skrillix and Tchaikovsky.
  • Coffee: Once the music is on, I grab some coffee. (By the way, most of my blog posts are 2 coffees long). I’ve seen various studies regarding how coffee works on the brain. I’m not sure there’s any neurological benefit whatsoever. I drink coffee because I love the taste. As a type 2 diabetic, I don’t add sugar. Just a splash of cream.
  • Prayer: This is obviously a very personal part of my routine. Before I start, I say a very simple prayer, asking God to inspire me. I used to try and do everything myself and found it a lot harder.

That’s pretty-much it.

Your content creation routine

Obviously, you need to find something that works for you. And one size does not fit all.

For example, many of my friends can’t have music playing when they work, they don’t drink coffee, and most of them are atheist. There are others I know, who have to write from a coffee shop or café, because the atmosphere gets them into a resourceful state.

The key is to experiment. Try different inputs and atmospheres. Keep what works for you. Discard the rest. You’ll be amazed how much easier your content creation becomes, when you have an effective routine.

By the way, a lot of you have told me that you found the 6 Idea Trick extremely useful, for generating content ideas. If you haven’t tried it already (or you read my stuff via Gmail and never saw the post), give it a try.

NOTE: Gmail users typically miss over 40 percent of my posts. Here’s how to stop that from happening to you.

I feel like I already know you

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I’d like to share a short, easy to understand, yet extremely valuable idea with you today. It’s all about attracting high quality leads on a very regular basis.

I was prompted to write this, after some emails I received this morning. As usual, a number of them contained a version of the following statement: I feel like I already know you. These emails were from people I’ve never met. In each case, they were referring to knowing me via the ideas I share, either on my blog or the email version of the blog.

Why am I telling you this?

What this means for you and your business

Now imagine that instead of me receiving those highly targeted, premium quality leads, it was YOU.

You received them. With more tomorrow, the next day and the next. More leads than you need. And all from people who feel like they know you. People who know your work. People whose attention you have. People who already trust you. (Think about that for a moment).

This opportunity is open to you. Wide open. It requires a couple of things.

  1. You’ll need to generously, regularly share valuable information. Information so useful, that people will eagerly want to receive it and share it.
  2. You’ll need to accept that no matter how great your information is, very few people will take notice at the beginning. Which is fine. Because all you need are your first 10 people. They’ll share your stuff with 10 like-minded friends. Now you’re at 100, which becomes 1000 or 10000 or 100000. If you stick with it.

That second part is where most people fail.

They invest time and effort for weeks, sometimes months, and see little audience growth. They get demotivated. Then quit. Largely because they have been given incorrect expectations of how growing an audience actually works. Despite what many content marketing gurus say, building a valuable audience takes time. It requires patience and commitment.

Focus on the 10

The key is to focus ONLY on earning the attention and trust of those first 10 people. Turn up regularly and give them your best ideas (not sales pitches or advertisements). As long as the information you share is useful enough and you turn up regularly enough, your audience will grow. And the growth accelerates as more people subscribe. When I started my blog, it took me an age to get my first 100 readers. Today, I can get that many in 24 hours. So, stick with it.

I hope you found this information useful. But more importantly, I hope it inspires you to build an extremely valuable community.

Agile Thinking: A new mindset for a new landscape

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agile, mindset, thinking, business

Business is changing. Moreover, business is changing fast. This is great news for agile thinking business owners, who embrace the opportunities. However, it’s not such great news for business owners who are working in today’s rapidly changing environment, with an outdated approach to business.

Today, I’m going to share some ideas on how you can benefit from the exciting opportunities that are all around you.

First, I’d like to demonstrate how things have improved and why we need to apply a new mindset, to the new landscape.

A new mindset for a new landscape

Many of the world’s most influential businesses were unknown 20 years ago. Some, such as Facebook and Twitter, weren’t even founded until the early 2000’s.

That kind of global growth was previously unthinkable.

What’s more, billion dollar companies that lead their industries have been started by relative unknowns, in very untraditional ways.

Here’s a great example. Writing in Techcrunch, Tom Goodwin summed up the new age of agile business:

“Uber, the world’s largest taxi company, owns no vehicles. Facebook, the world’s most popular media owner, creates no content. Alibaba, the most valuable retailer, has no inventory. And Airbnb, the world’s largest accommodation provider, owns no real estate. Something interesting is happening.”

Tom is right. Something interesting is happening. None of those achievements or business models were possible until very recently. The game has changed. And it has changed for ever.

The age of agile business

When I look at small businesses, they tend to fall into one of the following 2 broad categories: They are either dinosaurs or agile operators. That’s to say their approach to the agile business landscape means they are facing extinction or facing unparalleled success.

Armed with a laptop and an idea, there’s very little an agile business cannot achieve.

  • The new business landscape allows an agile small business owner to have an idea in the morning, and put that idea into play before the end of business that same day.
  • Using social networks, we can listen to what our marketplace wants and provide that want. No more guess work. No more focus-groups. You can get it right every time. And in a fraction of the time.
  • Instant access to data, means research that took weeks or months can now be done in days. And at a fraction of the price.
  • With a great marketing email and some email software, a struggling business can generate a fortune in sales…  and fast!
  • With the correct strategy, anyone can develop their own community. I reach thousands of people every day, many of whom are prospective clients, without spending a penny on advertising. You can too.
  • If you have a great business idea, you no longer need a bank loan. Today, you can use crowdfunding to get the investment you need. People are doing this all day, every day.

Make no mistake, this is the golden age of business, which people have dreamed about for decades.

Yet, in spite of all this potential, almost all small business owners operate their businesses with a 2000’s mindset. They lack agility. This places them at a huge disadvantage.

For example:

  • They still take just as long to make a decision, even though they can get the feedback they need in a fraction of the time. As a result, their agile competitors have already eaten their lunch.
  • They use social networks to follow the crowd, rather than lead their marketplace.
  • They have a website that’s almost an online brochure, when it should be and could be, a lead-generating machine for their business. If you didn’t start work today with leads from your website waiting for you, you should have. Fix it. You’re leaving money on the table.
  • They waste money advertising, when they should be building their own platform.
  • They waste time, money and energy attending networking groups, like people did in the 1970’s, rather than build their own community.

No matter what industry you are in. No matter where you are. Your potential right now is limited only by your willingness, or otherwise, to embrace agile thinking.

What an opportunity. Grasp it with both hands.

The most incredible article about headlines you’ll ever read

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Here are some ideas, which you can use to dramatically improve the results of all your written marketing.

It’s all about the marketing power of headlines.

Your headline has to capture the reader’s attention

Headlines are important. Really important.

You see, it doesn’t matter how great your message is, if too few people read it. That’s where your headline (or title or subject line) comes in. The headline’s primary job is to attract attention, gain interest and then motivate the reader to carry on reading.

Think about it:

  • The headline is what inspires prospective clients to open your marketing email.
  • It’s what motivates them to read your blog post or article, when someone shares it on a social network.
  • It’s what compels them to listen to your podcast or watch your video.
  • It’s also what grabs their attention and interest when they see one of your advertisements.

Advertising legend David Ogilvy was in no doubt regarding the importance of headlines. He famously said:

“When you have written your headline, you have spent 80 cents out of your dollar.”

Treat your headlines with the importance they deserve. Give yourself plenty of time to craft the best headline possible. The following tips and examples will help you get the balance right.

Your headline should accurately reflect your content

Because headlines play such a huge role in getting your content noticed, it’s tempting to over exaggerate them. (Yes, the headline of this post is a tongue-in-cheek example of what I mean).

Sometimes called clickbait, these attention-grabbing headlines are proven to generate traffic. The reason I strongly recommend most people reading this not to adopt that headline strategy, is this:

Your headlines make a promise, which your content MUST deliver on.

Make your headlines as compelling as you can. Use words that will compel people to read what you have to say. But make darn sure that your content backs up the promise of the headline. You may be able to fool someone once or twice with clickbait. But unless your content delivers on the promise of the headline, people will quickly learn to ignore you.

Your headline needs to be written for your target market

Your marketing message is intended to connect with a very specific group of people: Your prospective clients or customers. The headlines you use should do the same. This means speaking their language and addressing their concerns and opportunities.

Here’s why this matters:

  • By focusing your headlines around the interests of your target market, you help your marketing message to attract the attention of the right people.
  • Conversely, by using headlines that attract the attention of a wider group of people, you cease to be directly relevant to your target market.

In other words, use headlines that are directly relevant to your prospective clients.

Your headlines should match your medium

If you’re writing a headline that’s intended for a print magazine, newspaper or flyer, you have certain freedoms, which you don’t have when writing for the internet.

For example, if you want your internet article’s headline to be fully displayed in search results, you need to use around 60 / 65 characters or fewer. Going beyond that will see your headline cut short.

If your headline is intended for email marketing, you need to take other things into consideration. For example, if you include exclamation marks!! in your subject line, along with a number and maybe a word that’s in ALL CAPS, it’s highly likely to end up in a lot of spam or junk filters. Email software looks for certain common factors used by spammers and if it sees them in the email headlines you use, it could wrongly treat your marketing as spam.

In short, you need to adapt depending on the medium you’re using.

The only 2 types of headline that matter

There is a lot of debate among marketing professionals, regarding the correct way to use headlines.

They take entrenched stances, each insisting that their approach is the only strategy that’s professional or effective. In almost every case I have seen, they totally miss the point!

When it comes to the headlines you use in your marketing, there are just 2 broad categories worthy of your attention.

  1. Headlines that work for you and your business goals.
  2. Headlines that are failing you and your business goals.

You need to find the correct balance for what you want to achieve. And it will differ depending on your brand, your industry and your business model.

For example, BuzzFeed has grown into a very successful media business, initially relying heavily on a controversial, yet powerful headline formula. Many labelled their approach as being linkbait or clickbait. And they were wrong. That’s because the quality of the BuzzFeed’s content was consistently compelling, so their readers returned. In fact, they returned and re-shared, which helped the readership grow even faster.

In summary

Experiment until you find what works best for you. Test and measure your headlines, titles and email subject lines. Just make sure that your content delivers on the promise they make.

Get this balance right and you can dramatically and measurably improve your marketing results.

There’s only two ways to grow a business. You need to choose one

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marketing help, marketing advice

It’s becoming harder and harder to sell the average product or service.

Why?

Because when something is average, the lowest price wins. And there will always be someone lower priced than you. Plus, your prospective customers can find these lower priced alternatives, on Google or Amazon, in seconds.

There are only two, proven ways to build your business today. Here they are.

Option one

You can decide to try to cut your costs back to the bone and undercut the competition. Lower prices attract attention. Lower prices get people talking. Average products or services do neither.

And if you can get the efficiency savings right, with a significant increase in sales, you can make a very nice profit. This guy sold a UK retail outlet where everything cost just £1, for £50,000,000.

Option two

Alternatively, you can decide to turn your back on average. There are more, wealthy customers out there than ever before. And they want to be treated differently. They’ll very happily pay for that premium difference, too.

That’s why luxury brands thrive in every industry and profession.

The important thing my friend, is to decide.

Either aim for low profit, high turnover or aim to be a premium provider. Then market your business accordingly. Don’t position yourself somewhere between the two. Because it has never been harder to succeed in the middle-ground, than it is today.

We need to talk about your entitlement mindset

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content marketing, trust

There’s a very common mindset among small business owners. It’s the entitlement mindset. And almost NO small business owner is aware of it, until it’s explained to them. That’s what this post is about, along with lots of ideas for how to put things right.

What does the entitlement mindset look like?

The mindset tells the small business owner that they’re entitled to success. They think they can be average, yet still succeed. They believe they can just keep on doing the same ineffective stuff, and over time, things will “somehow” just improve.

It’s little wonder the vast majority of small business owners fail, and the vast majority that survive are going nowhere. Spinning their wheels. Waiting for the break they never earned, to arrive.

The wake-up call of our age is this: We’re not entitled to anything! We have to earn it. And that includes the attention of our prospective clients. They call it paying attention for a reason.

Remember when I shared this with you?

Your blog doesn’t have subscribers, your newsletter doesn’t have readers, your Facebook Group doesn’t have members, your podcast doesn’t have listeners and your Youtube channel doesn’t have viewers.

You don’t own anyone’s attention. It’s borrowed. You have to earn it. Then re-earn it.

As this blog approaches it’s 10th birthday, this is something I’m focusing on a great deal. If I decide to commit to an 11th year, I will also need to commit to digging deep, to find ways to re-earn your attention. Again and again. That means I need to be as useful as possible to you. Knowing that if I fail to be worthy of your attention, you’ll take your attention back.

In other words, your attention is not something I am entitled to.

Okay. [Imagine dramatic music in the background] Now the bad news!

The same is true of your marketing

Sorry. But if your marketing fails to offer something worthy of your prospective client’s attention, they’ll take it elsewhere. You only have their attention on loan. And if you lose their attention, you’ll also have lost the opportunity to do business with them. You can’t afford that. It’s low leverage. It’s unsustainable.

In short, once you’ve earned the attention of a prospective client, it makes way more sense to work on retaining it. This is how you build a spectacularly valuable communication channel with them.

So share ideas, stories and suggestions with your prospective clients, which THEY will find useful. 99.9% of small business marketing doesn’t do this. It’s self-serving, from the entitlement mindset. It doesn’t attract attention and it certainly doesn’t re-earn attention. It’s usually a dull series of thinly disguised sales pitches and special offers.

They think they are entitled to the attention of people, when in reality, they’re not entitled to shit!

A quick look at the way things were

Old school marketing was all about interrupting people. It was about sales pitches. It was about big brands paying fortunes to get their ad in front of you while you were trying to watch TV or listen to the radio. The huge problem with that model, was that you had to start from scratch every time. It was expensive. Really expensive. This put it beyond the reach of small businesses. However, it was the backbone of the highly lucrative advertising industry for over a century.

The advertising industry today is undergoing a huge change. Brands are embracing the value of earned attention. They’re shifting from demanding your attention, to commanding it. They’ve moved from pestering you, to sharing stories with you.
Read this» Demanding attention versus Commanding attention.

The anti entitlement mindset alternative

Focus on what matters to your prospective clients. Then, use your marketing to share useful ideas with them. Here are just a few suggestions.

  • Show them how your product / service can save them money.
  • Show them how your product / service can save them time.
  • Show them how your product / service can help them attract more customers.
  • Show them how your product / service can make their life easier, less stressful or both.
  • Give them useful industry insights.
  • Give them useful tips, which have worked for others in their industry (or situation).

This model turns your marketing into a valuable asset for your marketplace. Guess what? That’s the kind of marketing that people share and talk about. It’s the kind of marketing that builds trust and generates sales. It’s an anti-entitlement approach to marketing.

It’s also the kind of marketing you need to embrace.

Why?

Because pushing sales pitches at prospective clients, who are already suffering from information overload, is less and less effective.

And unlike the past, your prospective clients have technology today that lets them block you, filter you from their inbox or unsubscribe from you.

What about marketing to your existing clients?

You’re not entitled to the repeat business of an existing client or customer, either. You need to re-earn it, again and again. So a similar, them-focused approach is required. Only this time, create marketing that’s useful for your clients, which includes (but isn’t limited to) how to get more from your products or services.

Apple provides us with a world-class example of how to do this right. Their dedicated Apple Support YouTube channel doesn’t sell stuff. Instead, it adds value to the Apple products you already own. This makes you more inclined to stay with their brand.

Here’s why this works so well.

Let’s assume you’re an iPhone user. When you fully understand how your iPhone works, via those helpful videos, you’ll get more value from it. This makes it massively more likely your next tablet will be an iPad, (which uses the exact same operating system). And with an iPhone and iPad, the Apple Watch makes more sense than buying a different, less compatible brand.

Can you see what Apple are doing? They’re marketing to existing customers, sharing useful information, because they know they’re not entitled to the repeat business of their customers.

Apple are the most valuable company on the planet. However, unlike the average small business owner, Apple does not have an entitlement mindset.

In summary

Your business and mine share one thing in common, my friend. Neither of them are entitled to anything. It’s when we accept this reality, that our mindset to marketing shifts from entitlement to earned attention. And when that shift happens, it manifests itself with a totally different approach to marketing.

So get out there and contribute to your marketplace. Bring radical value. Be as useful as you can as often as you can. And take absolutely nothing for granted.