Jim Connolly Marketing

Marketing 101: Total website optimization

By |

marketing seo, optimisation, optimization, seo

There are lots of ways to optimize a web page or blog post. The most obvious and popular is SEO. However, it’s only half the story. In today’s post, I’m going to share another kind of optimization, which is even more important.

As you know, with SEO you optimize your content and site. The idea is to make it rank as highly on search engines as possible, for the correct search terms. It means getting the balance right, with things like:

  • Word count.
  • Image tags.
  • Keyword repetition.
  • The use of bold (and italics) on certain words
  • The use of keyword weighted subheadings.
  • External link building.
  • Internal linking.

Basic SEO is both important and easy. Really easy.

There are software packages, which will show you exactly what to do. As of August 2017, Yoast’s SEO plugin for WordPress alone has over 3 millions active users. And many of Yoast’s users have thousands of pages optimized. There could be hundreds of millions, maybe billions, of SEO’d pages out there. Remember, that’s just one of many SEO packages, on just one framework.

Another way to optimize your website or blog

As well as optimizing for search engines, there’s another area of optimization. It’s something, which gets a lot less attention. That’s because it’s a lot trickier. Plus, you can’t automate it. I’m referring to optimizing your writing for people. For example:

  • Improving the clarity of your message.
  • Summoning the courage to write what you believe, rather than repeat your version of what everyone else is saying.
  • Maximizing the motivational impact of your message, so it becomes utterly compelling and converts readers into clients, customers, sales leads, subscribers, etc.

Be sure to get the basics of SEO right. Make it as easy as possible for search engines to understand what your site is about, so they can offer it as a resource to the right people.

More importantly, when people arrive on your website or blog, your words need to inspire them to take action. So, consistently strive to optimize your writing. Make it as compelling as possible. Every word must count. No fluff.

Because there’s no point attracting people to your site, if they leave as quickly as they arrived.

My real passion isn’t marketing

By |

marketing passion, marketing ethics, ethical

Dave from Perth, Australia, emailed me with a great question. He noticed that my blog is almost exactly 9 years old. In particular, Dave wondered how I have remained so passionate about marketing.

Here’s my answer. I hope you find it useful.

My real passion in business isn’t marketing!

It’s a lot more specific than that. My passion is marketing small and medium-sized businesses. These are the businesses, where my work makes the most difference, in human terms. It’s that last part, the human part, which transforms my work from a job, into a passion.

For instance, last week, Kelly completed her year with me, on my 1 year marketing program. It has been exhilarating. Kelly now attracts the right kind of clients, the right kind of projects and earns the fees her work deserves. Moreover, she has a repeatable process in place, to grow her business exactly the way she wants to, year after year.

The human stories behind the marketing

Kelly can now plan ahead with confidence. She looks to the future with excitement, rather than apprehension. And because she had been working long hours when her business was struggling, she now works fewer hours, which gives her more time to spend with her family.

THAT is what makes me passionate about helping small business owners.

A new story begins

Next week, I start working with a new client. I’m really excited about what we will achieve together. After a couple of days of research, I can already see that their potential is huge. So huge, it makes me tingle inside, just thinking about everything they will achieve. It’s exhilarating to think what their story will be, 12 months from now. I can’t wait.

As well as the work I do directly with my clients, I also get to help thousands of small business owners every day with the free information I offer online. From the emails I receive, I know that in some cases, I get to be a part of their stories too.

Yes, marketing has the potential to improve any business. However, it’s the human stories that matter most to me. That’s where my passion for marketing comes from.

How to attract your ideal clients in just 3 questions

By |

marketing focus, marketing leads, sales enquiries, client leads

I think you’re going to find this extremely useful, so I had to share it with you today.

I have 3 questions for you to ponder. They’re simple questions. However, they can put you on track to attract massively more clients. Not only that, these will be clients who are an ideal match for you and your business!

Attracting your ideal clients

I want you to think about what happens when someone visits your website, sees your social media updates, reads your newsletter or consumes your podcasts or videos, etc.

Now answer the following 3 questions:

  1. Does it tell them who you are?
  2. Does it tell them what you stand for… the things that really matter to you?
  3. Does it give them a reason to switch from their current provider to you?

The majority of small business marketing fails on not one, but all three of those questions. It fails to tell us who they are, what they stand for or why we need to leave our current provider for them.

And without those essential questions answered, there’s nothing whatsoever to motivate anyone to give a rat’s ass about them.

You have a personality. Your business has one too: a way of working, which is your way of doing things. You have things you care passionately about. These are also reflected in the way you work. You have, or can find, powerful reasons why someone should hire you or buy from you. And it’s that mix, which sets you apart, helps you stand out, attracts attention and inspires people to hire you.

So don’t keep it a secret.

Look at your marketing copy. Review your blog, newsletter, social media, podcast / videos… whatever. Then make sure they communicate all that’s meaningfully different about you. In other words, give your marketing your DNA. Your fingerprint.

When you do, your marketplace will have something to connect with. And those in your marketplace who value your message, will be drawn to you.

That’s right: You won’t just attract enquiries. You’ll attract enquiries from people who value the very things, which you and your business value. These are your IDEAL prospective clients or customers. Just think about that for a moment.

Tip: If you’d like to know how and why to stand out, even in an extremely competitive marketplace, read this.

Content Marketing: Is this useful?

By |

Scale business success

I originally hoped to publish a post today. The challenge was, I couldn’t think of anything useful to share with you. And when I can’t think of something you’ll find useful, I leave it.

Then it hit me… that message, in itself, is pretty useful.

Allow me to explain: It’s useful to know that the only time you should publish a newsletter, podcast, video or blog post, etc., is when you have something useful for your audience.

Otherwise, it’s all about you

Which is fine if you’re a celebrity and people want to know all about you. But if you’re just a regular business person, like me, people want something they can use. An idea. A tip. A quick insight. Whatever.

So, before you hit publish, ask yourself: Is this likely to be useful or is it just adding to the noise? If you believe people will find it useful, publish.

Nothing we publish is going to be useful to everyone. But if we start off from the useful mindset, we’re less likely to write stuff just for the sake of it.

Prepare for your website or blog to go viral

By |

business growing, how to

Something interesting happened on Saturday.

At around 8am, I published this blog post.

By 9am, I was experiencing a massive surge in traffic. To qualify that, the traffic was so heavy that I initially thought my site was under a DDoS attack.

But it wasn’t.

It was real people, visiting Jim’s Marketing Blog, in massive numbers… from Apple!

It turned out that the folks at Apple had decided to feature that post very prominently, in their Apple News app. So, for the next 24 hours, my work was being seen by wave after wave of people, who had never heard of me before. And it generated a record-breaking number of new client enquiries, for a weekend.

More importantly…

What does this mean for you and your business?

Business owners work hard to attract traffic to their sites. You may be one of them. If you are, how well prepared are you? What would actually happen, if your website or blog was featured in the news or went viral?

Well, if you’re like the vast majority of small business owners, within minutes, your site would become inaccessible! That’s because the typical hosting packages most people use, are not capable of handling the very success, they want their site to achieve.

Most basic hosting would grind to a halt if 100 people, let alone 1000’s of people, tried to use a site simultaneously. And with your site inaccessible, you’d lose all those prospective client enquiries or new readers.

Yes, the investment required for reliable, robust hosting is significantly higher. However, it means when your site hits the jackpot, you’ll be ready to reap the rewards. In short, if you’re serious about building a high traffic website or blog, invest accordingly.

Update: People have asked me what my hosting set up is. I have a dedicated server (Heart Internet), plus an additional service, which provides extra security and a way to deal with traffic surges (Sucuri).

What you know about link building is probably wrong

By |

marketing links, marketing advice, attract sales leads, attract clients

And it’s not your fault.

Here’s the thing: When it comes to marketing your business, there are 2 types of link, not 1 as many people seem to believe!

  1. There’s the type of link you already know about. This is where a website links to your website or blog. This is sometimes called a backlink.
  2. However, there’s another type of link, which is seldom mentioned. This link has just helped me attract a wonderful new client. And it has nothing to do with hyperlinks, link building or backlinks.

In today’s post, I’m going to share how you can make that second type of link work for you and your business. Let’s start with a little clarity.

The type of link you already know about

You’ve been told a million times about the value of getting a link, from a highly respected website to your site. In short, if your site has lots of links pointing to it, especially from high quality websites, it will rank higher on search engine results pages. This kind of link building is the backbone of SEO.

  • It’s why infographics are all over the internet (they usually have link code embedded in them).
  • It’s why people will write guest blog posts for popular websites like The Huffington Post and Forbes, without payment, in return for a link.

Those links are valuable. However, they’re not the only type of link that’s of value to you and your business!

A very different type of link

I was contacted by The Wall Street Journal a while back. Business Editor, Chris Gay, wanted some help with a marketing article. I was happy to contribute. More than anything, I was delighted to have been approached for my expertise, by someone from such a respected publication.

You can read the article here: Four Marketing Strategies That Paid Off for Small Companies.

Marketing help, link building

Yesterday, Grant emailed me. He wants a place on my Marketing Mentor Program. In his email, he explained how he first discovered my work because of the Wall Street Journal article.

Although there are no links pointing to me from that article, he was impressed enough with the idea I shared, that he searched for me. He found me and then subscribed to Jim’s Marketing Blog. Fast forward to this week and he decided he is ready to invest in my services.

That article didn’t have a traditional link to me or my website. Nothing for Google to follow. Nothing for Google to index. Nothing for Grant to click.

However, it DID provide a highly valuable link, which turned Grant from a stranger into a client.

Links and the power of association

Never underestimate the value of having your name or brand positively referenced in an A-List publication, even if they don’t link to your website.

Grant is a Wall Street Journal reader and he trusts what they have to say. Though The Wall Street Journal didn’t say they endorsed me, they did use my work as a positive example of a marketing strategy that paid off. Grant was then able to naturally associate [or link] my name, with the article and the source of the article — The Wall Street Journal.

That kind of link is powerful. Really powerful.

The combination of Grant valuing what I said in the article, with the trust he has for the publication, inspired him to go to Google and find out more about me and my work.

My point here is simple: When your name or brand is positively referenced by a trusted source, people will feel positively about you.

You need to be visible on search

Of course, had I been hard to find, Grant would never have visited my blog and subscribed.

To benefit from having your name mentioned in a publication that doesn’t link to you, you need to be easy to find via search engines. The same is true when you’re mentioned on radio or TV. Naturally, this is where SEO comes in. It’s why lots of good quality backlinks are important.

Grant is based in California and searched Google for Jim Connolly marketing. Anyone doing that search within The U.S. today, will find me listed as the first few search results; (either my blog, Facebook Page or my Twitter account). If people search for you after reading about you, they will have your name and they will almost certainly figure out your industry. Your job is to make sure you’re easy to find when people do that. This is easier for some people than others. You may have a very popular name and work in a huge industry.

I suggest you search for yourself, using your name and a 1 or 2 word industry category. If you’re not happy with what you find, make sure you optimize your website, blog and social networking accounts so you’re visible. If you are not sure how, get expert SEO help. It’s worth it.

Why none of this would have worked without a blog or newsletter

Think about it: When Grant visited my site all that time ago, he wasn’t in need of my services. He was curious. That’s all. Because I write a blog, he was able to subscribe and receive regular email updates.

This means I had a way to maintain regular contact with him, through my posts. It also allowed him to learn my approach to marketing and the value of my ideas.

Note: If Grant had initially found just a website, with no blog or newsletter, I’d have lost him.

Think about that for a moment. This will help!

SEO matters

It really does. And backlinks are essential if you want your SEO to work.

The point of this message is simply that you shouldn’t ignore opportunities to promote yourself online, just because there’s no backlink to your website.

If a highly respected publication asks you to contribute to an article AND they position you as an expert, you will be linked mentally in the mind of their readers, to a publication they trust.

That’s of huge value to you and your business.