Blogging Archives - Page 11 of 68 - Jim Connolly Marketing

How to build a massive and valuable list

By Jim Connolly | February 22, 2018

Hold onto your hat – I think you’re going to love this!

If you want to build a large and extremely valuable content marketing list, today’s post is exactly what you’ve been waiting for.

I was inspired to write this, after a reader emailed me. He explained that he had just read this post. Then he made an excellent point. And it highlights why most small business owners fail to get the content marketing results they want. Here’s what he said, along with my response.

He said that if his newsletter had lots of readers, he’d make time for it. he’d take it a lot more seriously. He’d publish regularly. He’d invest in a professional newsletter distribution service. He’d make it a high priority business activity. But he can’t justify the time now, because his readership is too small.

Overcoming the biggest challenge with list building

Every small business owner with a newsletter, podcast, blog or vlog started off with a tiny audience (or list). Just them and their friends. Mine started off with 6 readers. And one of them was me! However, there’s one massively important difference between those who build a huge list and those who don’t.

Those who build a huge list put the time and effort in, in advance, so that it grows. They do their best work and turn up regularly, when they have just 10 people. Because they know that’s the only way to build an audience of 1,000 people or 100,000 people.
Those who fail to grow their list, also start off with enthusiasm. But their enthusiasm drops, if their list isn’t growing as quickly as they expected. So, they commit less time to it. And things slow down even more.

The cornerstone of building a great list

The only way to successfully grow an audience or list, is to treat your work as if you already had the numbers you wanted. I wrote with as much passion, commitment and energy when I had 6 readers, as when I reached my first 10,000 readers. And I write with that same commitment today.

From day one, you need to invest the time and effort required. Here are some examples of what’s needed, plus a few tips.

Put in the effort. It’s work… not something you fit in around work. Put time aside specifically for developing and publishing.
Turn up often. If you have a newsletter, which you only publish once a month, it will take a lot longer to build your list, than a weekly newsletter. If you have a blog and you only publish once a week, it will take a lot longer to build your audience, than if you publish several times a week.
Learn what kind of information your marketplace needs and wants. A great way to do this, is to look at questions they ask in relevant forums or on social media.
Learn how to become a better (and better) communicator. Whatever content marketing channel you choose, learn from the best.
Make your work easy (and interesting) to read / watch / listen to.
Make it easy to share. This is essential if you want your list to grow.
Never add anyone to your list. Seriously, don’t. That’s not content marketing. That’s spamming. And spamming sucks.
Avoid content marketing tricks. Tricks have a predictable habit of backfiring. Just commit to doing the work. That has a predictable habit of succeeding.

I know what you’re thinking. That sounds like a lot of work. And it is. However, the rewards are disproportionately huge if you’re willing to commit to doing the work.

Here are a few more posts I’ve written on this subject.

How blogging can help you attract new clients.

How to earn trust with your content marketing.

The death of blogging.

Content Marketing: Is this useful?

I hope you find this useful. More importantly, I hope it inspires you to improve your content marketing, so you achieve the outstanding results you’re capable of.

21 Tips to build a better business

By Jim Connolly | February 16, 2018

In no particular order:

You don’t have any clients, customers or subscribers. They’re not yours. You simply borrow them. This means there’s no room for complacency. You need to earn and then re-earn their custom, attention and trust.
People buy what they want. Not what they need.
People buy for their reasons. Not yours.
The word ‘Webinar’ carries a huge amount of negative baggage. It’s purely toxic. If you want to use video marketing, call it something less sleazy.
When you want to generate high quality cash flow fast… find new products for your existing customers. It’s far quicker and a lot more profitable, than finding new customers for your existing products.
Your brand is either working for you or against you. Tip: If you haven’t intentionally created a brand for your business, it’s working against you. It’s losing you money. Fix it. Fast.
Low quality customers or clients are the unavoidable result of bad marketing.
Keeping your promises is a proven way to build a great reputation.
Everything your business does, is marketing. The way you answer the phone, your payment terms, the suppliers you choose, they way you reply to emails, your location, the way you write, the design of your website, your prices or fees, your guarantees, your social network updates… it’s all marketing.
Build an email list of prospective clients or customers. Don’t rely on Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter or any 3rd party, for your communication channel. It’s like building a house on rented land. Attract people via 3rd party platforms. Then, encourage them to subscribe to your email list.
A confused mind always says no. So keep your marketing as brief and clear as possible. Fewer options. Fewer words.
Businesses with a small marketing budget tend to go broke. They dabble with DIY marketing, whilst their savvy competitors eat their lunch.
The most powerful marketing is permission based. When people subscribe to your list, your message is treated very differently, than an unsolicited email from a stranger.
Don’t lower your prices or fees. Increase your value. Here’s how.
Stop waiting for the right opportunity. Make it happen. Create it.
Learn how to make your marketplace curious. Why do prospective clients call you or email you? It’s because they need to know something and their curiosity motivates them to get in touch. So, you get a sales lead or client enquiry. And a chance to convert them into a new client or customer. Don’t explain everything in your marketing, unless you want very few sales enquiries.
The more your services or products resemble what your competitors offer, the less visible your business is.
Embrace brevity. Shorter messages are more powerful. Most marketing I see is at least 75% too long.
Avoid using buzzwords. Those who don’t understand them will be confused. Those who do understand them, will cringe.
Tell the truth. It’s the easiest, least stressful way to build a great business and your marketplace will respect you.
If your business isn’t attracting regular sales leads or client enquiries, your marketing is broken. The very thing that feeds your business isn’t working. It’s costing you a fortune. Needlessly. Why are you allowing this to happen? Think about that for a moment.

The death of blogging

By Jim Connolly | January 19, 2018

Photo: Shutterstock.

I’d like to share something with you, which has greater potential to improve your marketing, than anything I have ever known.

Imagine you were able to communicate with your prospective clients. Not through advertising. Not through pestering them for attention. But through building a relationship with them, where they value your expertise. So they look forward to you communicating with them. And they want to hear from you.

Does that imaginary scenario remind you of anything?

Here’s a clue: You’re reading this. You’re a business owner. I provide services to business owners.

Blogging isn’t dead

Every year since I started blogging, people have claimed that blogging is dead. It isn’t. In fact, it’s vastly more effective today than it was 10 years ago, when I wrote my first marketing blog post. And back then, it was already the most powerful marketing tool I had ever known.

Blogging is so much more powerful now.

Why?

Here are just a few reasons.

1. People are eagerly looking for blog posts

There are close to 2 billion people using social networks. Many millions of them are actively looking for relevant information to share with their friends. And that’s exactly what they do. If a post is interesting and marketed correctly, it will be shared.

This sharing increases your reach, as new people subscribe to your blog. And not just “people”, but new people who are interested in what you do. Yes, prospective clients and customers!

2. The power of email

Email distribution of blog posts allows people to have a one-to-one communication channel with the blogger. If you’re reading this via email, hit reply and your email will arrive in my inbox. Readers do this every day. Think about that for a moment.

How useful would it be for your business, if prospective clients were reaching out to you every day?

And how valuable would it be, if you had a growing email list of thousands of prospective clients, who eagerly want to hear from you?

3. Your prospective clients or customers read blogs

People wrongly assume THEIR prospective clients don’t read blogs. And they’re wrong. (I wrote about this here.)

Did you know, Wordpress blogs alone account for almost 30% of ALL INTERNET traffic? Well, it’s true! Here are some you may have heard of: CNN, Time, The New York Post, Variety, USA Today, The Star Wars website, Sony Music, MTV News, BBC America, The Walt Disney Company website, The Harvard Gazette, The New Yorker, The Mercedes Benz website… all these sites (and millions more) are built on the same WordPress blogging software as mine.

If you’re serious about growing your business today, you need a blog and a darn good blogging strategy. Otherwise you’ll miss out on the world’s most powerful marketing tool.

How to regularly attract motivated clients

By Jim Connolly | January 18, 2018

I shared a proven success factor with you in my previous post, which is common to every successful business owner (read it here). Today, I’m going to share another.

This tip is very easy to use. And the results come extremely quickly. Let’s go!

The basics

One of the absolute basics of marketing, is that people buy based on feelings rather than logic.

It’s often said that the decision to buy a house, the largest purchase most people will ever make, is based on the way they feel about the house in the first 60 seconds!

This begs the question: How can YOU make people feel that way about your business?

The feel good factor

Unsurprisingly, people are extremely attracted to things that make them feel good. We call this the feel good factor.

The iPhone is a great example of the power of the feel good factor. It explains why so many people on low incomes go without things they need, in order to own the latest iPhone. They feel good about ordering the iPhone. They feel good about collecting their new iPhone. They also feel good about people seeing them with their iPhone.

As a result, this luxury item broke sales records every year, during the last economic recession. Think about that for a moment. It makes no logical sense. After all, fewer people could afford it. Yet more and more people bought it.

In fact, they not only bought iPhones in record-breaking numbers, but they started upgrading their phone every 12 to 24 months. Previously, people replaced phones when the phone became unreliable or stopped working.

That’s how powerful the feel good factor is. And why your business needs it.

Creating your feel good factor

Clearly, there are some very good reasons for you to create a feel good factor, around your business or brand. When I work with a client, I give them very specific advice on exactly what to do and how to do it, based on their industry, marketplace etc.

However, this post will be read by business owners from over 100 countries. So, here’s a very general strategy, based on just one element of the feel good factor.

The feel good factor is fuelled by positivity. When we hear good things and see good things coming from a business, it quickly improves how we feel about them. You’d assume every business owner knows this. Yet, when you look at the dialogue coming from them, you see it’s usually neutral or negative.

Look at the typical small business website, blog, newsletter, social networking accounts, etc. The messaging is bland. It’s predictable, low energy, lacking in personality and devoid of passion. As such, it totally fails to fire-up the marketplace with a feel good factor. It’s woefully ineffective. It’s easy to ignore.

Businesses that benefit from the feel good factor are very, very different.

Their overall messaging is based around the positive things happening in their business and their marketplace.
They build a picture of a business that’s productive, happy and helpful.
When you speak with people from these businesses, their energy and passion is infectious.
When they talk about their business and their plans, it leaves you feeling so motivated, you wish you were involved.
People want to work there. And it shows. It really shows.
When you visit their website, blog or read their newsletter, you quickly feel that theirs is a business that’s thriving.

It’s no wonder that these feel good businesses earn the attention of their marketplace, get people talking and attract the best clients.

I’d like to leave you with a couple of important things to ponder. Firstly, is there a powerful internal and external feel good factor around your business? And if there isn’t, what do you plan to do about it?

As my clients have discovered, getting this right doesn’t just increase your revenues and profits. It also makes business massively more exciting and enjoyable, too.

Turn your website into a client generating machine

By Jim Connolly | January 1, 2018

Is your website a sales generating machine for your business? Well, it should be and it could be! Here are 3 things to focus on, if you want to quickly improve your results.

1. Does your website look professional?

When people arrive on your website, what they see is either building trust in your business or destroying trust.

Think of it like this: A powerful marketing message on a poorly designed website, is like a beautiful meal served on a dirty plate!

Your website is creating a powerful, immediate impression in the mind of your prospective clients. Get it right and prospective clients will hang around long enough for your content to connect with them.

2. Did you write the marketing content of your website?

I’m talking primarily about the sales pages, where you want people to take action; to hire you, buy from you, call you, email you, etc.

If you did write these pages yourself, I have some great news and some bad news for you.

The great news is you can improve your conversion rate by hundreds (or thousands) of percent, by hiring a professional copywriter to write your marketing pages correctly.
The bad news is that it’s losing you a fortune in missed sales or client enquiries, every day that you delay.

If your site gets visitors, but very few convert into customers or clients, the answer is simple. Hire a proven professional to make your marketing message as irresistible as possible.

Problem solved.

3. Do you sell, sell, sell on your website or blog?

If you do, stop it. Seriously.

Here’s why: If your website is largely just selling, people will regard it as one big advertisement for your business. And people don’t like ads! That’s why we skip through the ads on TV. It’s why people pay apps like Spotify to remove the ads.

Instead, use YOUR website to build trust. Use it to provide education, related to your services or products. Use it to provide useful information.

In other words, use your website to position you as an authoritative expert… by showcasing your knowledge, experience and the value you provide.

Tip: Put the marketing pages of your site where they can be seen. Link to them from pages or blog posts, which provide free, useful information (like I do in the final paragraph of this post).

Finally, I hope you find this information useful my friend. More importantly, I hope you make 2018 the year you get serious about the potential of your website.

Make no mistake, it can be a sales or client generating machine for your business, so long as you market it correctly.