Jim's Marketing Blog

Marketing tips and ideas to help you grow your business

How to turn your blog into a massively valuable marketing machine!

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blogging tips, blogs, content marketing

Do you write a business blog, but feel frustrated right now with your results?

I have a message for you: Don’t give up!  The success you want may be just around the corner and the results can be exactly what you and your business need!

Here’s why

Most small business owners need to invest a considerable amount of money each year, if they want to introduce their services to targeted, prospective clients or customers.  They invest in mail shots, radio and print advertising etc.  Every time they want to reach those people, they have to pony up with some more money.  It can be a costly exercise, especially for those small business owners who handle their own marketing and need to reach a lot of people in order to generate enough leads or sales, because they get the typical, crappy, small business owner response rates.

That’s how most small business owners market themselves.  Yes, some attend networking events, hire telemarketing companies or hire PR firms etc, but they all involve spending often large sums of money, every time they need to generate sales or inquiries.

And then there’s business blogging

Most business bloggers, and I include myself here, start off with very few readers.  It’s usually just us and a few contacts, who we share our blog with.  Then, over a period of months the readership increases and if the content is attractive enough, we can build a sizeable, targeted audience.  From this point forward, whenever we want to reach these extremely valuable people, we simply need to publish a post, (like this one.)  There are no additional financial costs involved, for you to reach people and engage with them via your blog.

If we keep our content as valuable as possible to our readers and we focus our content, so it’s of direct interest to our core profile of clients, our audience increases in both volume and value.  Once you have bought a URL (or web address) and some server space, there are no additional financial investments required to get started.  Just a lot of work, creativity and the commitment to learn how to market all that great content.  The rewards, however, are amazing and in some cases, life-changing.

Is it easy?

No!  It requires time and commitment.

Is it worth the effort?

Yes!  The results are easily the most powerful of any form of marketing I have encountered, as a marketing professional with 25 years experience behind me.

Powerful?  Let’s take last week as an example.  One of my blog posts was read by over three thousand people in just 6 hours, with thousands more reading it since.  It was also featured on several websites.  Last week I also did an audit of the financial value of business I generated directly via inquiries involving this blog, and it was over £100,000.  I started this blog just 2 and a half years ago, with a £10 investment; which was the cost of the URL and the hosting that came with it!

Blogging and the law of return

Around 14-months ago, I decided to start taking this blog a lot more seriously, as it was quickly becoming my primary source of new business.  Within weeks, the number of readers / inquiries increased.

Then last year, I invested in a fast, super-reliable dedicated server from WebFusion, who now generously sponsor this blog!  This allowed me to be able to concentrate 100% of my blogging time on creating content, without worrying about technical issues or my server being down.  Again, the numbers increased, in both readers and business inquiries, as I was able to produce more and more content, which people could access reliably.

In other words, every time I have committed more into this blog, I have seen a significant, measurable, bankable increase in my results.

Blogging and the need for speed

Whilst most forms of traditional marketing require a significant financial investment, they tend to reach people very quickly.  As we live in an increasingly “instant” society, people like the idea of immediate results.  It may cost 2k to send 5,000 prospective clients your latest mailing, but those letters can be on their doormats in a couple of days.  Your blog, on the other hand, starts off a lot slower.  Yes, it can be up and running for the cost of a lunch at Starbucks, but you will probably have to work at it for many months, before you can reach 5,000 people each week.

However…

What about when you HAVE managed to build a blog, which reaches 5,000 or 50,000 prospective clients each week?

At this point, you will probably want to improve your blog hosting and buy a nice looking blog theme so your site looks polished and professional, like the one I use here.  I built this blog from scratch, using Headway blog theme software (affiliate link.) From that point onward, so long as you continue to invest the time required to publish worthwhile content and you learn how to make your blog as visible and shareable as possible, you will be building your own, increasingly valuable marketing / media asset!

Think about it:

  • You don’t need to pay someone for advertising, when you own a media asset yourself (your blog), which is read by more targeted prospective clients than their publication is.
  • You don’t need to invest in mail shots, when your marketing is being read by hundreds and then thousands of prospects every day of the week, every week of the year.
  • You may even get featured in The New York Times, just because they find value in what you have to say on your blog.  It’s less likely one of your mail shots or ads will gain that kind of complimentary attention.  The value to your blog of those kind of A-List links can also have an ongoing, positive impact on your Google ranking.  Again, this builds the value of your blog as a media asset.

If you want to take your blog to the next level, here are a few ideas, based on the lessons I have learned over the past couple of years:

  1. Decide in advance to persevere during the initial 6-12 months, whilst your blog gets established.  Your blog should be seen as a medium to long term investment, not a quick fix.
  2. Commit to putting as much highly valuable content on your blog as possible.  When I was posting just once a week, the development of the blog was extremely slow.  If you only publish 1 post a week, it will take you a month to publish just 4 posts.  That’s 4 posts for people to share and 4 updates, to encourage people to return to your blog and check it out again.  Give people a reason to visit your blog regularly, with frequently updated content.  Make reading your blog a part of their routine.
  3. If you find it hard to write more than once a week, you may be trying too hard to make each post perfect.  Blog posts don’t need to be perfect every time.  Give yourself permission to write “as well as you can” on any given day.  The perfection mindset destroys more blogs than anything else, in my experience.
  4. Learn how to Search Engine Optimize (SEO) your blog, so that it is as easy as possible for Google and others to find it.
  5. Learn how to write compelling posts, which people will want to read and share.  The more good quality content you give away, the faster your blog will develop and the more people will value it.
  6. Make your blog as easy to share as possible, using the kind of share options you see at the bottom of this post.  It takes time for Google to start sending you significant, regular traffic; yet you can start getting share traffic immediately, by writing great content and sharing it with your social networks.
  7. Read the top blogs in your niche and learn from them.
  8. Read some crap blogs too and see what they are doing – So you can avoid it!
  9. Ask people to subscribe to your blog, with a prominent subscriber box.  Your subscribers are your most loyal readers and often your most valuable too.
  10. Be relevant.  Focus your content, so that it is of direct interest to your ideal client profile.  Don’t try and write for everyone, as this dilutes the value of your writing.

Nothing of genuine commercial value is ever created on the quick!  A successful business blog is no different.  It takes time and commitment.  However, if you are prepared to invest the time, learn the lessons and keep on keeping on, the results can be simply stunning.

5 of the secrets behind Jim’s Marketing Blog

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As it’s Christmas Eve, I thought I would share a different kind of post with you today.

It’s a list, containing 5 of the motivators that help me write and develop this blog.  These are not things I usually write about, so I hope you find this interesting and maybe learn a little more about me too.  So, here they are in no particular order!

My son

OK, I know I said in no particular order, but that’s excluding this one :)  I am always aware that although my son is only 5 years old right now, one day he will be a man and (hopefully) read some of what I write here.  I want him to be proud of what he sees, which inspires me to try even harder to make the blog as good as I can.

Pure enjoyment

Blogging is enjoyable.  I love writing this blog and meeting people through it.  I receive emails every day from readers, some extremely touching, where an idea I have shared with them has helped them achieve an important breakthrough.  I have also been sent handwritten notes, books and gifts from readers all over the world.  Something else that has happened, is that I have been able to connect with people, who I have admired for years, because of the blog.

Earlier this year I connected with Nile Rodgers (from Chic); whose music has been an inspiration to me for 30 years!  We are now in fairly regular contact, following a post I wrote here.

Green tea

I always start the day with a strong coffee, then drink green tea throughout the day.  Most green tea tastes awful but Mao Feng green tea from Tea Pigs tastes wonderful.  I don’t know if they ship outside the UK and that’s not an affiliate link.  There are all kinds of health claims associated with drinking green tea, and I have no idea which are true and which are not.  However, since adopting green tea as my main drink, I feel better.  When I feel better, I write better too.  That said, I drink this blend purely for the taste.

Music

I almost always have music on whilst I write.  According to iTunes, here are the top 25 tracks I’m listening to right now.  It’s a very odd combination but an accurate picture of what I hear when I’m blogging:

  1. Good times – Chic
  2. Let’s start the dance – Hamilton Bohannon
  3. My philosophy – KRS 1
  4. Clear – Cybotron
  5. Love has come around – Donald Byrd
  6. I shoulda loved ya – Narada Michael Walden
  7. Stomp – Brothers Johnson
  8. Numbers – Kraftwerk
  9. Reach out – George Duke
  10. Metal guru – Trex
  11. Pretty vacant – Sex Pistols
  12. September – Earth Wind and Fire
  13. Money in my pocket – Dennis Brown
  14. Shake your body down to the ground – The Jacksons
  15. Stir it up – Bob Marley
  16. Nightrider – ELO
  17. Le Freak – Chic
  18. Absolute – Scritti Politti
  19. Shine – Motorhead
  20. Bambaataa’s theme – Africa Bambaataa
  21. The same old scene – Roxy music
  22. Biomechanik – Anthony Rother
  23. Love’s theme – Barry White
  24. Absolute beginners – The Jam
  25. My forbidden lover – Chic

Improvement

As a naturally competitive person, I am inspired to constantly try and find ways to improve the blog.  I would like to help three times as many people in 2011 as I did in 2010.  Increasing my readership by 300% is going to take a lot of work, but the challenge is extremely motivating, as are the rewards.  As is so often the case, the more I give, the more I receive.  I am also constantly looking to improve as a writer.  One of the best ways to improve as a writer is to write, so expect a lot more from me over the coming year!

Obviously, there are many other motivators behind this blog.  I just wanted to give you a little insight into some of the less obvious stuff, which keeps me moving the blog forward.

To those of you who celebrate Christmas, I would like to a very Merry Christmas!

Deal with criticism, like Mark Zuckerberg

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If someone got a discussion going, pinpointing what they believed were serious flaws in your service, how would you respond?

Typical reactions to that kind of unrequested, negative feedback, is to either ignore it or attack it.  A less common reaction, is to study the critique with an open mind and look to see if there’s something you can learn from it.

Mark Zuckerberg and the critic

That second, less common reaction is exactly what Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg did recently, when an employee of Google, a major rival of Facebook, critiqued Facebook.  Zuckerberg’s reaction to this public criticism of Facebook, is a lesson in how successful businesspeople deal with feedback.  Not only did ‘Zuck listen to what the critic (Paul Adams) had to say, he took the ideas on board and worked with them, creating what we now know as Facebook Groups.  Yesterday, it was announced that Zuckerberg had hired Adams!

When dealing with negative (or positive) feedback, it’s important to consider the source and the intent.  In the above example, Zuckerberg listened because the critique came from a member of Google’s User Experience team.  In other words, it was informed criticism. It also came with a solution to the problem, suggesting the critic was genuinely trying to contribute, rather than snipe.

Of course, it’s essential to check the source of feedback, before you act on it.  Not all criticism is well informed.  Just as you would not go to your doctor for legal advice or your lawyer for medical advice, you shouldn’t act on criticism from people who don’t know what they are talking about.

In my experience, when we receive criticism from a well informed source, even if we don’t LIKE what they have to say, we are foolish to just ignore it or attack it.  It’s worthy of review at the very least.

PS: You might find this post about how to deal with different types of criticism useful!

Hundreds of great marketing blogs on 1 list!

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adage power 150

Today, I would like to share a wonderful source of marketing information with you:  The AdAge Power 150.

The AdAge Power 150

There are hundreds of thousands, (maybe millions) of sites that cover marketing.  Many are written by people who call themselves experts, yet who have little if any marketing expertise.  It’s simple and inexpensive to create a professional looking site and just as simple to attract thousands of social media followers, using software.  The end result is that for a very small investment, it’s easy to produce fake “social proof”, that someone is a leader in their field.  The AdAge Power 150 was developed, to help people find sources of marketing information they can trust.

Advertising Age, who produce the AdAge Power150 list, is not some new Internet business.  It is an industry respected publication, which was founded in the 1930’s and which I have been a reader of, since entering marketing over 20 years ago!  Their list is an index of the world’s leading marketing blogs, based on a number of metrics, including things like the number of times a marketing blog has been linked to and how many readers it has etc.

The Adage Power 150 List: Who’s on it?

Some of the blogs in the list will be very familiar to you, such as; Seth Godin’s blog, search engine land, copyblogger, problogger, SEOmoz spinsucks and the brand builder.  I’m proud to say that Jim’s marketing blog is now in the AdAge Power 150 too.

I can’t promise that you will like every blog on the list.  Equally, I know there are MANY wonderful blogs NOT listed.  However, I believe that if you want to quickly discover some great new marketing and social media blogs, the AdAge Power 150 is a terrific place to start.

Let’s work together and grow your business. To find out more click here!

Get more inquiries from your site

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When was the last time you updated the sales / services pages on your website or blog?

I ask this, because many people write the key pages of their websites or blogs when the sites are first built, and then they are left alone.  Even though the marketplace is changing faster today than ever before, many small business owners have not updated their services pages for months or years.

I was prompted to write this, after I rewrote my own services page.  I wanted to better reflect how I work with my clients and clearly explain what they get from having me personally looking after all their marketing for a year. I was able to get the core benefits of working with me across in fewer words, making it easier for prospective clients to get the information they needed quickly.  I also renamed the page to “Let’s Market Your Business” to make it as clear as possible that I work hand-in-hand with my clients on their marketing.

Some ideas on improving your sales or services pages

One of the best ways for you to ensure that the changes you make to YOUR site’s copywriting, is to base them on reader feedback.  For example:

  • Do people contact you via your site, with an incorrect assumption about the range services you offer?
  • Do you attract inquiries from your site, from people at the wrong end of the market?  In other words, if you offer a premium-priced service, are you getting inquiries from people looking for a budget-priced service?
  • Do you get enough inquiries from your site, in relation to the number of visitors your sales / services pages get?  If you are attracting visitors who are finding you using the correct search phrases, but they leave that page without purchasing or making an inquiry, your marketing messages are clearly not motivating them to take action.

Change, purely for the sake of change, is a pretty low leverage activity.  Thankfully, with online marketing we are able to test and measure exactly how a website is performing and make changes that lead to progress.

My 500th Blog Post – Thank You!

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As this is my 500th post here, I just wanted to thank a few people (in no particular order,) who have helped me develop the blog.

Gregor Spowart:  Gregor is a Partner with Mass Media Design and he’s the guy I go to when I need technical assistance here.

WebFusion:  It took me 2 years to find a hosting company that delivered on all their promises, and that company is WebFusion.  Since moving to their hosting service in September, I have enjoyed 100% up time.  This reliability means I can focus on writing posts for you, without worrying if the blog is working or not.  Moving forward, I’m delighted to announce that the guys at WebFusion will be sponsoring my hosting too.  This helps me cover the cost of all the FREE information I provide here for my readers.

The guys at Twitter:  Before Google decided to start sending me targeted traffic, Twitter was my primary source of new readers.  Twitter helped me develop my initial readership here and has put me in touch with some amazing people.

Finally and most importantly – The reader community here: The community here on the blog is what it’s all about for me.  The emails and comments are where I “meet” the readers and it’s what transforms the blog from a broadcast, to a discussion.  Many of my current clients started off as commenters and I also have a number of friends, who I initially met here on the blog.

I believe that blogging has been the best commercial decision I ever made and my commenters are the most valuable part of the blog – That’s how important you and your comments are to me!

My commitment to providing you with marketing and business development ideas has never been stronger and I look forward to being of more service to you in 2011.

Thank you for your encouragement, your ideas and your inspiration!

Email subscribers: What every blogger ought to know!

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Where do you read this blog?

If you read it directly from jimsmarketingblog.com or a feed reader, like Google Reader, it’s possible you are wondering why I am even asking the question.  You may assume, as many people do, that almost EVERYONE either reads blogs directly from the site of from a feed reader.  If you do, here’s a statistic that you might find interesting.

If you write a blog or are thinking about writing one, what I am about to share with you could be enormously valuable too.

Over 60% of my subscribers now subscribe via email!

How easy do YOU make it, for people to subscribe to your site via email?

Do you have a large, clearly visible email sign-up box, or a tiny email RSS icon hidden away on your blog’s sidebar?  With 62% of my subscribers now reading this blog via email, I could be missing out on thousands of extremely valuable readers, had I not made it super-easy for them to get the blog delivered to their inbox.

One of the most important elements of blogging, is to develop a subscriber list.  Your subscribers are of enormous value to you.  Not only are they your most loyal readers, they are also the people who you will still be able to reach, if Google decides to stop sending you traffic or your other sources of new readers slows down or stops.  The fact that these wonderful people were good enough to subscribe to you, means that if you keep up your side of the deal, by providing great information, they will continue to read your content.  Your email subscribers have the ability to unsubscribe at any time, so it’s not enough just to gain their subscription, you need to look after them too!

Which software to use?

The software I use for delivering my email is called Mailchimp, though there are lots of alternatives. The service is relatively easy to use, though there are lots of videos on YouTube, which show how to set your account up, if you get stuck.  Once you have your account up and running, it’s time to let people know!

Attracting new subscribers

In my experience, the best way to encourage people to subscribe to your blog, is to ask!  Many bloggers use a simple signature file under each blog post, which asks people to subscribe to their blog.  If someone sees that reminder, at the point where they have just read something really useful, it can be a powerful motivator.

If you have never subscribed to a blog via email before, here’s how it works.  It’s extremely simple and takes seconds.  For example, to subscribe to this blog via email, you click this link (it then opens a box) where you enter your email address.  That’s it! Once you reply to the confirmation email, you will get future posts delivered to your inbox, ready for you to read at your leisure.  What I love about this process, is that unsubscribing is just as easy too, so the subscriber is always in total control.  That’s important.

As well as asking people to subscribe to your blog via a signature file added to your posts, I also strongly recommend having a BIG, easy to find email sign-up box on your blog’s sidebar.  This does the same thing as that link I just gave you, but it’s very visible (as you can see from the top right hand side of this blog.)

It’s also extremely important that you let your subscribers know that you respect their privacy (and therefore will never share their details with anyone, for any reason.)

So, if you want to increase your readership based on quality as well as volume, make it as easy as possible for your readers to subscribe to you.  Your subscribers are the most passionate members of your blog’s community and in many cases, they are your future clients and customers too.

In my experience, any time invested in developing your subscriber base is time well spent!

Let’s work together and grow your business. To find out more click here!

Show them what you know and who you are!

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Someone just emailed me, to ask what were the commercial benefits of writing a blog. He wanted to know why I spend so many working hours giving useful information away, for free.

I want to quickly share part of my answer with you, because it’s extremely valuable. It’s based on a blog post I wrote a few years ago. I recalled a reader asking a blogger if he was in as high demand before he started blogging, as he is today.

Here’s the gold dust!

In one sentence, the answer sums up one of the most valuable reasons for business blogging. It went something like this:

“No one gave a rats ass about me, until they could see what was inside my head.”

Share what’s in your head

Your business blog gives you the opportunity to demonstrate what you know, what you stand for and who you are. It’s a way for people to check you out and determine for themselves, if you “get it” or not.

If you really know your subject and have the desire to share what you know with prospective clients or customers, there is no better way to showcase your talent than blogging.

PS: If you’re still not convinced, here are 25 reasons to write a business blog.

A 60 second check, to help you improve your business results

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Do you want more from your business in 2011 than you had in 2010?  If you do, then I have a quick test for you, which will set you on the right track!

On a scale of 1 to 10, where 10 is the highest, I want you to score the following people, who supply your business with your key services:

  1. Your accountant.
  2. Your marketing advisor.
  3. Your lawyer.
  4. Your IT consultant (hardware/software or Internet.).
  5. Your bank manager.

The cost of average advice

If your scores were 7 or below in any of those areas, you need to ask yourself why you are wasting your time, taking advice that is average or little better than average.  Just as you can tell a lot about a person, by looking at the kind of people they hang out with, you can also predict how successful a business will be, based on the quality of the people it calls upon for advice.  Unless you want an “average” business (and you don’t, otherwise you wouldn’t be reading this blog), you must avoid taking average advice.

Surrounding your business with average providers is never a good idea, but as we progress through the worst economy in living memory, it’s a recipe for trouble!

The value of great advice

Interestingly, you do not always have to pay more, to find a better quality advisor or provider.  Some low quality providers charge too much for their services and others seem to undervalue just how great they are.  So, why not spend some time reviewing the people you rely on for advice, support and guidance.

Look particularly for new people in the areas where your business is weakest, as those advising you currently in that area, are clearly failing you!

This relatively straight forward process can help you massively improve your business results very quickly!

The secret to becoming a prolific blogger!

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Do you find it a little challenging, writing regular content for your blog or newsletter?  If you do, here are a few ideas to help you increase the quality and volume of your creative written output.

Is the 15 minute blog post a lie?

Most of the prolific bloggers I read, state that it takes them around 15 or 20 minutes to write a blog post.  When I was writing half a dozen posts a month, I found those claims a little hard to believe.  Today, I write posts every day and tend to get posts written in around 20 minutes myself, sometimes half that.  This glass half full post from Monday took less than 10 minutes to write up.

So, what’s the secret behind prolific bloggers?

It’s simply this: The more you write, the easier it becomes!

Getting ideas for blog posts

As blogging became a regular part of my life, I started getting ideas for blog posts more and more frequently.  It’s a little like when you buy a new red car and suddenly start seeing new red cars everywhere.  The cars were always there, it’s just that you never noticed them before.  When you start blogging regularly, you begin to notice ideas for blog posts that would have passed you by, before you had an outlet for them.  Currently, I have over 200 ideas waiting to be turned into posts.  I capture these ideas using a digital voice recorder.  It’s faster and a lot more practical than using a pen and pad, as I tend to get my best ideas when I am out walking or cycling etc.

Turning your ideas into blog posts

Here’s how I do it.  I tend to write early in the mornings, before my wife and son wake up.  I start by listening to the audio notes I have and find a topic that feels right.  Then, I begin writing.  My posts tend to start by asking you a question, occasionally they begin with a statement.  I then write the core points that I want to share with you.  Next, I flesh them out a little and then place them into order.  I usually end a post with either a question or a suggestion.

Like many people, I have found that the actual writing process speeds up, the more often I write.  I didn’t try to write faster.  It just happened naturally, as I wrote more and more often.  I’m not talking about my typing speed, that’s always been pretty fast.  I’m talking about the time it takes to get an idea out of my head and into readable text.

The mechanics of blogging

I tend to keep things really simple.  I use the WordPress blogging platform and find that it is extremely easy to work with.  This means that once I have a post written, it usually takes just a minute or two, to get it formatted and ready to publish.  I write posts in advance and then use WordPress to schedule when they are published.  This post was written on 11th November.

It’s a fact: Some people are better writers than others.  In my opinion, your task should always be to become the best writer or blogger or content provider that YOU can be.  By studying the craft, practising it regularly and seeking to improve all the time, you can make amazing progress.

The unhappy 2%!

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I was recently reading a post over on Seth Godin’s blog, where he talks about the 2% of people who will complain or disagree whenever you do anything that gets their attention. Now, I’m not sure that number is 2%, in my experience it’s a lot lower than that, but Seth’s point is correct.  Whenever you make any change, even a vast improvement, there will be people who complain and these people are usually noisier than the other 98%.

As a small business owner, it’s important not to make the mistake of allowing the noisy 2% to stop you making decisions and taking action. You see, as soon as you make that 2% happy, the changes you made to appease them, will often cause a different 2% of people to complain!

Even those well known brands, which you LOVE and tell all your friends about, will have people who vocally dislike those same things that you think are great.

By perfecting what you do, you may get that 2% down to 1%, but there will always be people who disagree with whatever it is you do.  If you introduce a new service and 2% of people tell you it’s stupid, but 98% love it, go with the 98%!  Even if that 2% is vocal, and it often is, listen to what they are saying, learn from it, but allow it to influence your decision making by just 2%.

As Jim Rohn used to say; “Don’t major on minor things!”

The bottom line: You can’t please everyone, every time, with everything.  Don’t allow the noisy 2% to stop you making progress.

Let’s work together and grow your business. To find out more click here!

Internet Marketing for Smart People

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Very rarely, something comes along that I absolutely have to share with you.  I’m delighted to say that today is one of those days!

Internet Marketing for Smart People Radio

brian clark, copyblogger, radio showToday, I want to recommend you go and check out Brian Clark and Robert Bruce’s new Internet radio show: Internet Marketing for Smart People.  The show is just 2 editions old and the content is, as you would expect from these guys, marketing gold dust.

If you click the link above, there’s information on how to subscribe to the show on iTunes and also a link, so you can download the mp3.

When you’ve done that, I strongly suggest you take a look around the rest of the site!

Brian Clark & Copyblogger

In case some of you don’t know who Brian Clark is, Brian is one of the best in the business at what he does: Content marketing.  Brian’s blog, copyblogger.com, is best in class, in my opinion and contains regular posts from the extremely talented Sonia Simone, as well as a variety of guest contributors.

I have been a Copyblogger subscriber for years and strongly recommend both the blog and the new radio show.  It’s essential information for anyone interested in marketing, copywriting and how the two work together to create results.

Let’s work together and grow your business. To find out more click here!

A new look at Jim’s Marketing Blog!

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As part of my ongoing effort to make this site as easy to read and navigate around as possible, I have made some subtle changes to the overall look and feel.

The main content area is slightly wider than before.  The light blues have been replaced with less distracting shades of grey, to make it easier on the eyes for those who read lots of content here.

As is always the case with design, some will like the changes and others will not.  The focus for me is to ensure the site is easy to read, easy to navigate around and fast to load.  From the testing I have done over the past 2 weeks, it seems that the new design helps with the first two, whilst the recent investment in a super fast dedicated server helps with the third.

I’ve actually invested thousands of pounds in the hosting and development of this “free” blog over the past 12 months alone, and I will continue to invest whatever is required, to help you and your business with practical, effective marketing and business development ideas and advice.

Thanks for your continued support, your comments, emails and for sharing what you find here with your friends and helping me grow our community.

The 4 step process behind every commercially successful site!

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No matter how wonderful your SEO is or how much you spend on advertising, great content is essential if you want to transform your site’s traffic, into commercial success.

Why is content so important?

When people find interesting or valuable information on a site (great content), they are likely to take 4 steps.  These 4 steps are what’s needed in order to develop a commercially successful site.  Here’s what they do:

  1. They look around the site for more things to read.
  2. They return to the site regularly / subscribe to it’s RSS feed; so they don’t miss any new posts.
  3. They recommend the site to their friends and share it via social networks.
  4. Over a period of time, they will make an inquiry, information request or purchase (depending on the site’s business model.)

SEO & Content

No matter how great a site’s SEO is or how much traffic it attracts, it will not cause people to take any of the 4 steps above, unless the content of the site is powerful.  SEO will help people find you, but when they find your site, it’s the quality of your content that will cause them to keep reading, revisit regularly and recommend you to people.  Before someone will click your links, call you, email you or place an order, your content needs to inspire, compel or motivate them into action.

I described the importance of site content recently, by comparing it to what you find, when you check out a new TV channel that you see advertised.  If you tune in and quickly see that the programming is dull.  What do you do?  You go and find something interesting to watch.  You don’t simply keep watching just because you landed on that channel.  Equally, you don’t set your DVR to record it’s shows and you don’t recommend the channel to your friends either.

The bottom line: No matter how well content is advertised or optimized, it’s what people find when they arrive that determines whether it succeeds or not.

If you are getting targeted traffic from your SEO, but these are NOT converting into customers / clients / inquiries, it’s time to rethink your content strategy.  Spend some of that SEO time, or your SEO budget, on either hiring a local copywriter or learning how to write compelling copy yourself.  Of course, as the quality of a site’s content improves, more sites are likely to link to it, which helps enormously with your SEO anyway!

The balance we are always looking for, is to be as easy to find as possible, by people with a need for our services; whilst ensuring that when they arrive, they value what they find enough, to take those 4 steps.  Don’t be like the majority of small business owners, who focus most of their efforts on chasing traffic, retweets, diggs, stumbles etc – Whilst neglecting their content.

It’s all about getting the balance right, with effective SEO and great copy.  That’s how you transform your site into a business generating machine.

Here’s why I don’t give reviews, but why you may want to

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I have had many people ask me why I don’t provide book reviews here, so I thought I would quickly answer the question in this post.

Like many well read bloggers, I was sent a review copy of the excellent, new Tony Hawk book a few weeks ago, along with the opportunity to interview Tony, which I certainly would have done, if I had decided to write a review.  The book, How Did I get Here? the ascent of an unlikely CEO, is a great read and I have no hesitation in recommending it to you (look, no affiliate link!)

I am extremely happy to personally recommend the book and I will be sharing some ideas inspired by Tony’s book with you in future posts, but as a marketing guy, writing book reviews is a very low leverage use of my available blogging time.

Equally, it’s my experience that this is not the best way for YOU to discover the best new books either!

Here’s the simple 3 step process I use, to discover great new books:

  1. I look out for recommendations, especially if they come from people that are not being paid, directly or indirectly, to recommend the book.  I have already bought 2 copies of Tony’s book for Christmas presents.  That’s a powerful, unpaid recommendation.  If I saw an endorsement like that, I would go to step 2.
  2. Because these are business books, I always look for 2 or more reviews from professional book reviewers / literary critics.  I’m talking about the kind of highly skilled people, who have the ability to read, digest and communicate the REAL core of a book, without missing a thing.  These guys have read everything and usually specialise in books within a certain business niche.  Yes, some may be biased pro, or against, certain authors, but that’s the reason for checking out several professional reviews and for taking the next step.
  3. Finally, I check out independent reader reviews on sites like amazon.com.  Time and time again, independent reviews are cited by people as one of the most influential motivators, when researching a purchase.

By running a book purchase via those 3 filters, I have discovered some amazing books and missed a lot of the crap, that paid reviewers often rave about.

I am a marketing professional and not a literary critic.  As such, that 3 step process is just my way to discover the gold dust on the bookshelves.  This is not the right way and it’s not the best way  – It’s just the way I filter out a lot of the cleverly marketed dross.

As a result, it would be wrong for me to offer book reviews, knowing that I myself wouldn’t be swayed by the kind of reviews that I would be writing!

Yes, I could be a hypocrite and pump the blog full of reviews (and money-spinning affiliate links), but that’s not part of the business plan here.  This blog’s business model is to offer you free access to marketing and business development ideas and thus position myself as a marketing resource, when you need professional marketing help.

By the way, if you have an affiliate business plan, then there is a solid business model behind joining the review circuit; so long as you have the targeted traffic required.  Affiliate income can be very significant.  Just because this does not fit into my business model, does not mean it isn’t a great idea for others.  I know of people making thousands a month, working the affiliate income model (yes really!) It’s about deciding what you want to achieve and allowing that to guide your decisions.

Let’s work together and grow your business. To find out more click here!

How NOT to get what you want!

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It was 5:15pm on a Friday evening when I received his call.

He told me his name, then said;

“Hi Jim, I read your blog and have a site which I would like you to link to.”

Now, he seemed like a nice guy, but I had no idea who he was – Just what he wanted from me.  I have no idea what his site was about, whether it was packed with malware, filled to the brim with viruses, overflowing with inaccurate content or even if it was legal.  There was clearly no way I would link to it.  All I know is that he called me, at the end of business, on a Friday and completely unprepared.

A little forward planning goes a long way.

  • If you want link exchanges from strangers, it’s probably best to go to spammy looking sites that are already full of links.  (BTW: NEVER link to people you don’t know!)
  • If you want someone to listen to you, it’s probably best not to call them at end of business, on a Friday evening.
  • If you want someone to understand your message, it’s probably best to plan what you are going to say in advance; rather than call them with a poorly targeted request that is 100% guaranteed to fail.
  • If you make your first communication with a stranger, a direct request for them to give you something, you will find a lot of doors closing in your face.

Although this was an extreme example of how not to get what you want, I see many people make at least one of those errors every day.  If we want our requests to be taken seriously, we need to be a lot more measured and professional in how we approach people.  No one really gives a rats-ass what YOU want, which is why we can’t just demand our way to success.  We need to work WITH people.  We need to form relationships.  We need to show OUR willingness to help and support others.

Then maybe, just maybe, people will feel that they want to help us too.

Let’s work together and grow your business. To find out more click here!

Is guest blogging right for you?

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I’m often asked why this blog does not have guest bloggers; usually by people who want to write here.  I would like to share the answer with you, because I think it may be useful to those of you who are wondering whether to have a multi-authored blog or not.

The first thing to say, is that there is no universal right way or wrong way to run your blog.  Single authored blogs and multi-authored blogs can both work extremely well.  It all depends on what you want to achieve.  Let’s start off with why this blog is a single authored blog.

Guest bloggers: Why I don’t use them here

This site is what’s known as a positioning blog or authority blog.  It’s purpose is to help me build a relationship with you, where I give you lots of free marketing and business development ideas.  Then, when you decide you would like professional help with your marketing, you already have a relationship with me, where I am positioned as someone that you can trust for effective marketing results.  Through the blog, you get to see the quality of my work on a regular basis and also connect with me with comments and emails.

Whilst some positioning blogs DO use guest bloggers, I find that this often makes the quality of the content erratic.  Equally, because there is no relationship between the guest blogger and the readership, readers can be left wondering if the guest blogger is qualified to give them advice.

If I go to Seth Godin’s blog, I know exactly what to expect and I trust the information 100%.  That’s the model I use here and it works extremely well for me.

Guest bloggers and multi-authored blogs

Most of the world’s best read blogs are multi-authored.  These blogs are owned by people with a very different business model to my own.  They are not interested in selling the services of the blog’s owner as a specialist.  Instead, they have a business model based heavily on the sale of advertising.  For these guys, it’s all about page views and click-throughs’.  Pete Cashmore’s mashable is a great example of this, as is Michael Arrington’s techcrunch; which was sold to AOL last week for tens of millions of dollars!

Many smaller blogs use a similar multi-author approach, but for slightly different reasons.  Whilst sites like mashable and techcrunch need lots of authors, because they report on the news and are updated many times each day, smaller sites will bring in guest bloggers as a way of building their reader numbers and adding variety to their blog’s content.  This can be extremely effective and many respected sites use this approach.  One very successful example is problogger, which has built a massive, targeted readership using a variety of guest bloggers.

Unlike the big multi-authored blogs, these smaller ones tend to be owned by people who DO sell their services via the blog, but who also offer affiliate products and/or advertising.  In order to make their affiliate programs work, they need to get their blog in front of lots of new readers, on a regular basis.  This is because only a subset of their readers will buy their affiliate products, and once this percentage has been reached, the blog owner needs new readers.  As affiliate fees tend to be relatively small, sites that rely heavily on affiliate income need a regular supply of new visitors.

Good guest bloggers can bring this kind of targeted traffic with them.

Guest bloggers almost always have their own blogs and their own social networks, followers and fans.  Typically, when a blogger writes a guest post, they will tell their network, many of whom will go and read it.  If the guest blogger is well connected, the traffic they bring with them can be huge.  This provides an immediate traffic boost for the person, who owns the blog they are guesting on.

So, the guest blogger gains access to the blog owner’s readership, whilst the blog owner gains access to a subset of the guest blogger’s readers and contacts.  This strategy is extremely common and is an alternative to being an associated blogger, for those who prefer to be independent.

As you can see, it’s all about matching your approach to what you feel comfortable with and what you want to achieve.  You can use either route very successfully and as I said at the start, there is no right or wrong method.

What works best for you?

Which style of blogging do you use and what do you see as the benefits?  Please share your feedback with your fellow readers and myself.

Let’s work together and grow your business. To find out more click here!

How to write marketing messages that really work!

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Marketing messages that inspire people to take positive action are what every business person needs, if they want to massively increase their sales, revenues and profits.

Here’s a simple idea, which can help you quickly improve your marketing messages and your marketing results.  It’s all about becoming a collector and a student.

Marketing collection

Look through your inbox, RSS reader, mail etc, for any marketing material that inspired YOU to take the kind of action you want others to take, when they read YOUR marketing messages.  So, collect the; emails, blog posts, letters, advertisements and anything else that you read, which inspired you to take action.

Marketing study

Next, study each message and see what you can learn, from the way it was written and presented.  For example:

  • What kind of headlines (sometimes called straplines) did they use?
  • What kind of calls to action did they use?
  • How long was the gap, between each of their marketing messages.  For example, did they email you once a week or three times a week?
  • What kind of promises did they make?
  • What kind of guarantees did they offer?
  • How many words did they use?
  • What kind of carrier did they use?  (In other words, what kind of envelope did the letter come in, what type of theme did the blog use, what style of template did the newsletter / email marketing use, etc.)
  • What was it that they said, which caused you to believe you could trust them?  How did they win your confidence?

In short: Keep a copy of everything that has inspired you to take the kind of action, which you want others to take regarding your business.  Then, study what you have collected and look for the gold.  Apply what you have discovered into your own marketing and see if you can replicate the magic!

By the way, if you found this useful, please subscribe to the blog for free and never miss another post!

6 things I wish I knew before I started blogging!

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This blog was 2 years old last month and in that time I have learned many, often expensive lessons.  In order to help you avoid some of the costs and frustrations that I went through, here are 6 things I wish I knew before I started blogging.

1.  Everyone starts from scratch

Most blogs start off with no readers, no subscribers and no comments and things don’t change much for months. Yes, Seth Godin started off by writing his first blog post, sitting next to his Stanford friend, Google founder, Sergey Brin — but that’s not how most of us begin.

It took me 2 years of blogging here, before Google starts delivering targeted, unique visitors each day. I had 400 posts published and almost 20,000 back-links, before I had my first 1000 unique visitors in a day from Google. However, an effective social media strategy can really get things moving whilst the search engines get their act together.

2.  SEO is less and less important

Google is fickle. It changes the rules so often, that SEO has become less relevant. Today, you’re better off investing your time on social networks, than messing around trying to keep Google happy.

3.  Some will use your comments section to sell rather than engage

As soon as you start to develop a large readership, people will try and tout for business in the comments section of your blog. I switched comments off in June 2013, because people were spamming the crap out of the comments. Also, unlike when blogs were invested, today we have social networks as a powerful way to comment on what we read.

4.  The price of a blog theme is usually the least expensive part

Well-known bloggers tend to use blog themes that have been professionally redesigned and had a lot of custom code added to them. Sadly, this includes those bloggers who make a big deal of selling the theme on their sites, but a much smaller deal of explaining that their site is not an accurate example of what a typical user, who doesn’t write CSS or HTML, will get when they try and use that theme on their blog.

So, you see a great looking blog from a blogger you trust, you buy the theme they recommend and learn VERY fast that the look you fell in love with, had almost zero to do with the theme. This is often the start of an expensive, frustrating process; for those of us with no interest in learning how to write code.

Find something you like right out of the box or hire a blog designer. The latter usually works far better, unless you want a blog that looks just like thousands of others. It’s hard enough to stand out, without looking like a clone of other blogs, using the same theme.

5.  Most plugins suck

Most plugins add very little value to your blog. They are also a primary source of tech issues and they s-l-o-w your site down too. I started off with around 20 plugins. Today, I have just 6. You can often massively increase the speed of your blog, simply by removing unnecessary plugins. The first plugin I install on a new WordPress blog, is always the Akismet spam filter.

6.  If your blog is commercial, invest in professional grade hosting ASAP

When you pay $10 a month for hosting, you get $10 worth of service and speed. However, when you spend $50 a month, you still get a very similar service to that $10 a month provider. If you are serious about the commercial value of your blog, get it onto a dedicated server or if money is tight, get on a cloud-based server as soon as you can afford to.

The increased speed, reliability and 24/7 one to one tech support is worth every penny.  When the BBC put a link to my blog on their homepage last year, instead of me gaining a stack of new readers, my site went down under all the traffic.  Today, it would keep working.

Finally, I recommend you either start a business blog or start taking your blog seriously. The rewards are huge… but only if you give your blog everything it needs.

Growing pains? No, not at all!

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As some of you may have noticed, I didn’t publish a post here yesterday.  That’s because I’ve just had this blog moved from it’s former hosting, to what’s known as a dedicated server.  In other words, this blog now lives on it’s own hardware with only my sites on it.  The new server is extremely high spec and will hopefully allow me to continue to grow the blog, without the need to keep upgrading.  I outgrew my “old” server, in just over 4 months!

2 lessons from my experience

You get what you pay for: This is the first time that this blog has been hosted on a dedicated managed server (rather than a shared server, VPS or cloud).  Not only is the hardware massively better, the service level is too.  Of course, all this comes with an increased price tag, but that cost meant that this was a 100% hassle free exercise for me.  I didn’t need to do a thing and the whole exercise had a dedicated project manager handling it, who kept me updated throughout.   I have full, 24/7 direct telephone access to the server engineers for the lifetime of my contract and these engineers are located in the same building as my hardware.  It’s total peace-of-mind.

The time to upgrade is before you are forced to: The new service agreement and hardware specifications are massively more than I needed even 12-months ago, and to have upgraded to something as comprehensive as this, back then, would have made little commercial sense.  However, I have always believed that when it comes to web hosting, you should upgrade before your site becomes slow or unreliable, too often.

I started out 2 years ago on a wordpress.com hosted blog, which was free.  I then graduated through $10 a month hosting providers, to $50 a month providers, to Virtual Private Servers and cloud providers – Right through to dedicated hosting with my current provider.  Because of the costs involved, and the fact that many small business bloggers operate with a pretty low budget, it makes sense to upgrade carefully.  If your current provider is working well for you and you are happy with the service you have, stay where you are.  Upgrade only when you know you should.

Of course, if you are seeing a significant increase in visitors to your blog, it’s worth thinking ahead and figuring out your next step.  There are some very good offers out there, but also some shockingly unreliable providers too.  Do your research and find who is offering the best deals – NOT the lowest price, but the best match of hardware, service and price.

For example, if your site is a key part of your business, you won’t want to have to raise a support ticket, with a 24-hour response time, if you notice your site has a serious problem!  That’s what many providers at the lower end of the market offer.  In that scenario, you will want a dedicated, tech support phone number, that actually gets answered by someone who can help.  Conversely, if you are building up a new blog and getting a moderate volume of visitors, there’s little point spending hundreds each month on hosting.  It’s all about balance.

If all goes according to plan, you won’t notice much of a difference with my sites; as I moved them before they were under too great a load, too often.  However, the move should now allow me to focus on developing content for you, without too many hosting-related distractions.

Most importantly – THANK YOU for your support over the past 2 years!