Blogging Archives - Page 4 of 21 - Jim's Marketing Blog

The death of blogging

By Jim Connolly | January 19, 2018

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.

Shocking news: Your prospective clients regularly read blogs

By Jim Connolly | December 8, 2017

Image: Danielle MacInnes.

It’s true. Your prospective clients visit blogs. And they visit them regularly, too.

I know, I know. They told you they didn’t visit blogs or you assumed they didn’t, but they do. However, they probably don’t even know it.

Allow me to explain.

Blog = website

A blog is just a website: A framework for delivering information. If a website is interesting, people will read it. Your prospective clients don’t care what framework a website is built on. They care about the content of the site.

As the name suggests, Jim’s Marketing Blog is very clearly a blog. However, many other websites built on the same WordPress blogging software I use, have less obvious names.

These include; BBC America, CNN, Time, The New York Post, Variety, USA Today, The Star Wars website, Sony Music, MTV News, The Walt Disney Company website, The Harvard Gazette, The New Yorker, The Mercedes Benz website and lots of other sites, read by hundreds of millions of people… including your prospective clients!

WordPress sites alone account for just under 30% of all Internet traffic. And there are many other blogging platforms. Think about that number for a moment.

What could this mean for your business?

The marketing potential from blogging is huge. And it’s getting better all the time.

Here’s one of the foundations of successful marketing: Be where their attention is. So, where is the attention of your marketplace?

Here are a few of the most common attention grabbers.

Facebook and other social networks. Blogs are designed to be easily shared on social networks. And that’s exactly what happens. Rather than buying Facebook ads, you can let Facebook users share YOUR site with THEIR friends.
Phones, tablets or computers. Modern blogs are designed to look great, regardless of what device you view them on.
Search engines. Blogs, especially WordPress, are designed to be easy for Google to crawl and index – making them easier to find on Google and other search engines.
Email. Blog posts (like this one) can be delivered via email. In fact, massively more people read my blog via email than on the blog itself.

In other words, blogging places you right where the attention of your marketplace is. And the value of that connection is hard to overstate.

For instance, client enquiries from my blog have increased year-on-year, every year, since I started blogging almost a decade ago. And it’s not just me. I work with people every week, who have seen the same pattern of results from their business blogs.

You can do the same

You too could be where the attention of your marketplace is (without spending a penny on advertising). You could be attracting client enquiries, rather than pursuing them. You could be order taking, rather than selling.

Tip: Here are 25 more reasons to start a business blog.

The tricky part?

Although our prospective clients DO visit blogs, they DON’T bother with the typical, dull, small business blogs. We need to be prepared to invest in our blogs the same way we invest in every other key area of our business. And that means taking time to deliver something, that’s as useful as possible, as often as possible. It means learning how to do it right – rather than following generic “how to blog” guides.

It means having a strong commitment to the community we serve.

Questions worth answering

Now you know your prospective clients regularly visit blogs, isn’t it time you reconsidered starting one?

And if, like many business owners reading this, you have a blog that isn’t working for you, is it time to start taking it seriously?

I can’t answer those questions for you. I can only let you know that a marvellous opportunity is staring you right in the face. It’s an opportunity, which increases in value every day. An opportunity, to benefit from the most powerful form of marketing I have ever known.

Do marketing gimmicks work? Yes. Here’s how!

By Jim Connolly | December 7, 2017

I think you’ll find today’s post really useful. I’m going to share some ideas, to help you understand how marketing gimmicks work and how you can use them, to massively increase the reach of your marketing.

How a marketing gimmick went viral

Some years ago, I discovered a business blog. The thing about this blog, was that the author cussed and swore. She didn’t just drop the occasional f-bomb. No. She took every opportunity to swear. It was a marketing gimmick, done for effect.

And it worked. It worked really, really well!

At the time, she attracted a lot of attention and interest. People were talking about her. Back then, it was rare for a business blogger to cuss in their posts. Many people emailed me links to her latest posts, dazzled by her profanity.

She gained a lot of visibility. Visibility that had the potential to help her attract a huge (and extremely valuable) audience.

And then… she vanished!

No, she didn’t literally disappear. But she did soon vanish from the radar of public attention.

Why?

Well, it turned out that all she had to offer her readership was her cussing. At her core, she was just ‘yet another’ business blogger. So although her marketing gimmick drew people in, once the initial shock value wore off, there was nothing to return for. It was a missed opportunity.

Marketing gimmicks: making them work

Make no mistake, marketing gimmicks work. That’s to say, they can help you to get noticed… and noticed fast, by a huge slice of your marketplace. Plus, if you use a little creativity, it can cost you pennies.

However, there’s a limit to what we can achieve with gimmicks alone. That’s because while a good gimmick can open a door for you, you then need to deliver something useful.

Here’s an example of what I mean.

Imagine you wanted to massively increase the audience for your newsletter, podcast, vlog or blog. You could use a marketing gimmick to get people talking about you, sharing your content and subscribing. But, to benefit from all that valuable attention, you’d then need to offer something of substance… helpful ideas, interesting information, useful insights, etc.

Marketing gimmicks: The bottom line

The bottom line looks like this: Marketing gimmicks will attract people’s attention. Substance will retain their attention.

Before coming up with a marketing gimmick, focus on what you ultimately want to achieve. Then have a process in place, so that the initial gimmick is followed-up with something of value. That’s how to attract people’s attention, retain their attention and earn their trust.

With the ongoing attention and trust of your marketplace, you can achieve great things for your business. Start with a marketing gimmick. But remember that the gimmick is only the start. It opens a door of opportunity. Nothing more.

Tip: If you found this useful, you can get my latest ideas delivered direct to your inbox, for free, right here.

How to build a massively valuable community, without Facebook or any other network

By Jim Connolly | November 20, 2017

What do Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat and Linkedin have in common?

They’re relied on by millions of business owners, as a way to connect with their marketplace.
Plus, these same business owners have zero control over them.

Think about that for a moment.

On Friday, the popular Unilad Facebook Page was removed from Facebook. It has over 34 million likes and reaches billions of people. The page came back after a couple of days, following a huge media outcry.

The whole thing served as a timely reminder. A reminder that outsourcing the communication channel between your business and your marketplace, to an unaccountable 3rd party, is really risky.

Of course, if you or I have our main social account deleted, there’s unlikely to be a huge media outcry. Click… and we’re gone, along with the community we built.

The answer?

The answer is to take control away from social networks.

How?

My recommendation isn’t sexy. It’s not fashionable. It’s certainly nothing new. But it works. And it’s of massive value.

I’m referring to email!

Sure, use social as a way to connect with prospective clients / customers, if you really want to. But encourage those people to give you permission to contact them via email.

Pushing ads isn’t community building

Many small business owners fail with email, because they make their emails little more than a series of advertisements. Every email should contain what I call Independent Value. This means the reader should get something of value, independent of whether they spend money with you.

So no, a series of emails from you all about special offers isn’t going to cut it. That’s advertising, not community building.

Here’s what works: Only contact people when you have something useful to share. Show up regularly. You’ll then be building your very own permission-based community (what Internet marketers refer to as “your list”).

Yes, make it easy for people to get in touch with you, when they want to hire you or buy from you. Just don’t make that the focus of your emails.

Get it right and you’ll never be reliant on any social network.

I don’t have the time, Jim

A couple of interesting things happen, when you no longer need to spend all that time every day, feeding your business’ social networks.

You’ll rediscover the time you lost. This will give you more than enough time to build your own email community. I’m a dad, husband and I run a successful marketing business with clients all over the world. Plus, I work out for over an hour every day. However, I spend less time on social networks than anyone I know. That’s not a coincidence.
You’ll also find it massively easier to focus. It’s difficult to concentrate on anything, when you’re being constantly distracted by social media updates.

These benefits combine to provide you with a far more productive working environment.

They also “gift” you the additional time and clarity required, to create useful content for your email community.

Business and personal

An important distinction needs to be made, between business and personal use of social networks.

I’m not suggesting you stop connecting with family and friends.

Far from it! I myself use Twitter socially. The vast majority of my contacts and tweets are not connected to my business. It’s a leisure activity for me, which I really enjoy.

My point is the importance of building your business community on a platform, which YOU control. It’s about highlighting the risks of handing the main communication channel between you and your marketplace, to a 3rd party, over which you have zero control.

How effective can building an email community be, when a small business handles it correctly? Well, despite Jim’s Marketing Blog being one of the most popular blogs in its niche, 12 times MORE people read the email version of the blog. My email readership is also, easily my biggest source of new clients and enquiries.

Outsourcing the communication channel with your marketplace, to any social network, is extremely risky. It’s also 100% avoidable.

Here’s what you need to know: This is a proven example, which shows you how to get it right. It includes how I helped a client build a massively valuable reader community. You can read it here.

How to get your marketing in front of people at exactly the right time

By Jim Connolly | September 27, 2017

When is the best time to market your services to someone?

That’s what today’s post is all about. I’m going to show you how to get your marketing message in front of people at exactly the right time. It’s based on my newest client.

I was prompted to write about this, after Jennifer joined my Marketing Mentor Program. Jennifer’s experience shows the importance of timing. She explained how she’d reached a tipping point. She wasn’t prepared to waste another year, working hard and making too little progress. So, she decided to get in touch with me on Friday and hire me.

There’s a lesson here for you and the way you market your business. And it becomes obvious, as you look behind Jennifer’s actions.

What does this have to do with timing?

Jennifer’s desire to own a better, more profitable business is what motivated her to take action. However, in order for her to consider me as the obvious choice, I needed to be where her attention was, at the point where she was motivated to take action.

You need to do the same. You need to be where your prospective client’s attention is, when they need what you have to offer.

Most small business owners only market their services intermittently. There’s usually weeks and often months between their marketing efforts. And because of the importance of being there precisely when their prospective clients need them, this stacks the odds against them.

If you’re getting low response rates from your marketing, you’ll already know exactly what I mean. Because no matter how great your services are, if you catch people at the wrong time, they won’t hire you.

Thankfully, this doesn’t need to happen to you ever again!

Here’s a proven, extremely effective alternative.

It works like this

Instead of seeing marketing as something you do occasionally, start treating it as an ongoing part of your business. This is how you ensure your name is front of mind, when a prospective client needs you. This is critically important, if you want people to hire you.

For example, Jennifer had been a reader of mine for months, before she hired me. She already knew who I was and she knew my work. So, she trusted me. Then, one of my posts landed in her inbox at the point when she was looking for help.

I became, in her words, “the obvious choice”.

Be there when they need you

Quit marketing like it’s a decade ago. Instead, turn up often, with something useful… not just a series of ads, offers and pitches. Consider newsletters, vlogging, blogging via email, podcasting etc, to share your expertise with your prospective clients. Demonstrate your knowledge. Share your passion. Build a connection with your marketplace.

If you do, you’ll be where their attention is, when they need your services.

IMPORTANT: None of those marketing suggestions cost you a dime, unlike; print ads, mailing lists, mail shots, networking groups, Facebook ads, Google pay-per-click, adwords etc.

In other words, so long as you do the right things correctly, there’s no financial barrier to continuously marketing your business. There’s no barrier to being where your prospective client’s attention is, at the point where they’re actively seeking the services YOU provide.

Think about that for a moment.

Is it easy? Yes. Once you know what to do and how to do it correctly, it’s extremely easy.

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10 Ways to create unstoppable momentum for your business

By Jim Connolly | September 12, 2017

Today could be just another day for you. Alternatively, you can decide, right now, to create some real momentum for you and your business.

Here are 10 ways to get started.

Find a decision you have been avoiding and take action on it. Indecisiveness leads to stress and destroys progress.
Start an idea journal. Capture your ideas and give yourself a set amount of time, every day, to focus on them.
Start reading a book today, which will educate you or inspire you.
Eat right and exercise. Building a successful business takes clarity and energy.
Set some exciting goals. Then take action on at least one of them.
Publish something on a blog, vlog or social network today, which will be useful for your marketplace and showcase your expertise.
Demonstrate leadership. Take the lead on something that matters to you.
Connect people. We live in a connection economy.
Invest in something today, which you know your business needs.
Encourage people. By encouraging others, you become the source of encouragement. Think about that: You become the source of exactly what you need, in order to achieve all your own goals and targets.

To keep the momentum going, do something progressive tomorrow. Then repeat.

Tip: Read this for lots more marketing tips.

Marketing 101: Total website optimization

By Jim Connolly | August 19, 2017

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 Jim Connolly | July 31, 2017

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 Jim Connolly | July 11, 2017

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:

Does it tell them who you are?
Does it tell them what you stand for… the things that really matter to you?
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.

What you know about link building is probably wrong

By Jim Connolly | May 3, 2017

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!

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.
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.

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.

A powerful email marketing lesson from Google

By Jim Connolly | April 28, 2017

When Google wrote to me recently, they chose to use traditional mail. Paper, an envelope and a postage stamp. It got my attention. I opened it, read it and acted on it. More importantly, here’s why Google contacted me via traditional mail and what you and your business can learn from it.

The problem with email

It’s free. There’s no barrier to entry. As a result, anyone can interrupt us with unwanted email. Also, because it’s free, too little thought is given to the quality of the email or how well it’s targeted. Hence the huge spam problem. It costs nothing to put a low value email together, click send and pester 1000 or 1000000 people with it.

Spammers have trained us to ignore email that looks like it could be spam. This includes promotional emails. The exact kind of emails that legitimate business owners use for marketing.

With spam filters and junk mail filtering, your prospective clients see maybe 1 marketing / promotional email in every 10. They may open 1 in 10 of those they see.

Based on these very rough numbers, this gives you a 1 in 100 chance your email will even be opened by a prospective client. If the email’s subject line is not expertly written, open rates will be even lower. (Tip: Here’s how to write better headlines.)

But don’t worry. In a few moments I’ll show you how to make your email marketing extremely effective.

The value of traditional mail

It isn’t free. However, the price creates a massive barrier to entry. This is why we receive a fraction as many marketing letters via traditional mail as we used to.

When we receive a correctly addressed letter in a regular envelope, we have to open it in order to see if it’s something important, something interesting or junk. The key thing here is that we open it. Open rates for marketing letters, addressed correctly, sent in regular (plain) envelopes are around 98%.

(These numbers only drop, when the letter is sent in a promotional envelope. Otherwise, the envelope must be opened by the recipient, so they can tell if it’s of interest or not.)

As you’ll see in a moment, I’m not suggesting you send all your marketing mail via traditional mail. However, it’s well worth considering for some mailings. Especially when your message is important enough, your list is high quality and you want to ensure almost everyone on the list will read it.

The important thing here, is to make sure you are using the correct tool for the job. Here are some options, based on email / traditional mail.

Permission email marketing

Email becomes super-effective, when you have permission from the recipient and you know your emails are getting into their inbox.

For instance, the email version of Jim’s Marketing Blog requires people to double opt-in. In other words, after entering their name and email address on my blog, they receive an email asking them to confirm their subscription. Only then can they subscribe. This gives me permission to send them my latest blog post. It also proves they can receive my emails. The exact same approach works equally well for newsletters.

The cost is low, especially if you have fewer than 1000 people on your permission list. I recommend using a professional emailing service even if you only send a small number of emails. They make it easy for you to track open rates, clicks, etc. That means you can see how your content or marketing message is resonating with your readers.

Plus, professional email providers give you all the tools you need in order to manage your reader lists. They also stop your email server’s ip address from being blacklisted. I’ve known this happen to lots of business owners. It can stop you from being able to send regular business emails to clients, suppliers and contacts until you get it resolved.

Many email providers, such as Mailchimp, offer a free service to people with a small list. The prices only become significant when your list is in the tens of thousands.

With massively lower costs than traditional mail, permission marketing via a professional email provider is exceptionally effective.

Email marketing to strangers on lists

This is less of an option and more of a warning! Buying so-called permission lists and then emailing them, is usually a waste of money. These are lists, which are sold on the understanding that the people on the lists gave permission for their details to be sold.

In 99.9% of cases, these people simply forgot to uncheck the box that says “send me emails with offers from partners”, when they downloaded a freebie from the internet or subscribed to a free service.

The key thing is that the people on those lists did not opt-in to receiving emails from you!

Conversion rates from such lists are terrible. That’s because those on the lists are getting bombarded with spam, from the thousands of people, who buy the lists they’re on. So they either use extremely powerful spam filtering, have white-list-only email or have switched to a new email address.

Traditional marketing letters (direct mail)

This can be an extremely effective way to get your marketing message in front of your prospective clients. The exceptionally high open rates (so long as you take the measures I mentioned earlier) make it a very attractive proposition.

It also allows you to purchase a high quality list, from a reputable list vendor, with the correct contact details and get great results. Remember, the prospective client has to open the envelope to determine the value. This is faster than earning permission, so can be useful if you need quick results.

Of course, even if 100% of people open your mailshot, it won’t matter unless your message is professionally written. Most direct mail from small businesses is written by the business owner and is simply ignored.

Tip: If you’re prepared to pay for a mailing, pay an expert to write it… someone who knows how to motivate the reader to take action.

So, there are a few thoughts on the merits of traditional mail shots and permission-based email marketing. In short, each has its place and each can be spectacularly effective, if handled correctly.

P.S. I recommend you read this. Does email marketing work? How I helped Irene make over $32,000 in 9 days.

3 Proven ways to quickly attract more clients

By Jim Connolly | April 26, 2017

Your service is better than most of the other providers in your niche. And it’s far, far better than many.

This begs the question: Why don’t more clients hire you?

The challenge is that offering a great service, by itself, isn’t enough. (I explain why here). And telling people you offer a great service in your marketing isn’t enough, either. After all, that’s what every business claims to offer.

To attract the quality and quantity of clients you deserve, you need a better approach. So I thought I’d share a few ideas with you. I hope you find them useful.

1. Make it easy for people to tell their friends about you.

Some services are massively easier to recommend than others. As a result, they get the word of mouth recommendations, when their equally good competitors don’t.

Here’s why: The best-marketed businesses understand that clients need help, when it comes to spreading the word. The rest just work really hard, provide a great service and wonder why they get so few client referrals.

Rather than try and cram what you need to know into this section of this post, if you’re not getting the referrals you deserve, I recommend you read this.

2. Publish a podcast, blog, vlog or newsletter.

Then showcase your knowledge by answering relevant questions. Don’t leave your prospective clients wondering how knowledgeable you are. Show them! Remember: Actions speak louder than words.

This approach gives you a valuable, added benefit too. If you turn up regularly with answers, for a long enough period of time, you also demonstrate your reliability. You show the marketplace you can be relied upon to start a project and stick with it.

That’s marketing gold dust! Why? Because it helps you build trust in the mind of a prospective client, before they’ve even spoken with you.

3. Get your stars out.

If you have any awards, notable media mentions or quantifiable achievements, don’t keep it a secret. Put them where prospective clients will see them. I use my blog’s About page.

Some business owners struggle with this. They don’t want to appear boastful. And I totally get it.

However, you need to look at yourself through the eyes of a prospective client, who has never heard of you. This person will arrive on your website and immediately start building a picture of you in their mind. They won’t know you’re being humble when you fail to mention any meaningful achievements. They’ll simply build that picture, with those key, trust-building facts missing.

I hope you found those ideas useful. More importantly my friend, I hope they inspire you to take action and start achieving the results you deserve.

The answers you need are all around you

By Jim Connolly | April 24, 2017

Hard work is not the secret to success. If it was, our grandparents would have been millionaires. Instead, we know that success comes from doing the right things, correctly.

This means a business owner who wants to improve their results has just 2, relatively easy challenges ahead of them.

1. Acceptance

We need to accept that our current business development strategy isn’t working. Or at least that it isn’t working the way we want it to. Our current strategy may feel comfortable. It’s certainly familiar. However, if it isn’t leading to the results we want, we must accept that we need to move on.

Until we accept the need to improve, we’ll simply carry on wasting time. We’ll carry on working hard, for too little reward.

2. Adopt a proven strategy for success

Once we’ve accepted the need to improve, we’re ready for the second challenge. This challenge is easier than the first. We need to find a strategy that will work for us. A strategy for success.

And thankfully, success leaves clues.

We are surrounded by examples of successful businesses. Everywhere we look, there are businesses that are getting it right. Every area of our business development that needs to improve, is already working spectacularly well for another business. The answers we need are out there. We just need to follow the clues.

Your task here, is to do the research. Look at what the businesses that are succeeding are doing, which you can adopt into your own business.

Here’s an example of what I mean. If your business needs to improve its marketing, what might you learn from the following success clues?

The last service you used, which impressed you so much you told your friends.
The last marketing email you received, which persuaded you to take action.
The last blog post you read, which you were inspired to share.
The last social network update, which motivated you to take action.
The last advertisement you encountered, which compelled you to make a purchase.
The last newsletter you received, which you were motivated to forward to your friends.
The last website you visited, which impressed you with its professionalism.

Once you have done that, it’s time to look below the surface.

Don’t just copy what you find. Instead, consider how you can adapt what you discovered, so that it works for your business.

Make no mistake, the answers you need are out there. Success leaves clues. And the clues are all around you.

Are you making a noise or making a difference?

By Jim Connolly | March 27, 2017

All marketing fits into one of the following two groups. It’s either making a noise or it’s making a difference.

Here are examples of both and how they impact your marketing results. You’ll identify them instantly.

Making a noise

Most marketing is noise. Irritating attempts to grab our attention.

Spam emails.
Cold calls.
Banner advertising.
Pre-roll videos.
Junk mail.
Social network spam, etc.

Those tactics are unwelcome. They don’t command our attention. They selfishly demand our attention.

What do we do? We block them!

We either use software to block them or we mentally block them. But we block them.

This means business owners using those pestering tactics, are seeing worse and worse results. So they then spend even more time and money, to push their message ever harder. And even more people learn to block them. That’s why there’s so much noise out there.

Here’s a much better alternative.

Making a difference

We pay attention to the marketing that makes a difference. It doesn’t demand our attention. It commands our attention. It stands out for all the right reasons.

Valuable tips and ideas from a YouTube channel, podcast, blog or newsletter we subscribe to.
Useful updates from our service providers.
Trusted recommendations from our friends.
Targeted, valuable offers from vendors we trust, who know what we enjoy.
Eagerly anticipated communications from groups we’re members of.
Amazing service, which motivates us to return to a vendor again and again.

These tactics make a positive difference. So we value them. We pay attention because they’re useful. They don’t even feel like marketing. They’re focused on helping us rather than pestering us.

The big question is…

Which group are you in?

We know the good intentions behind our marketing. We know we’re professional and that people would love us, if only they knew how great our service is. So when we add them to our email list or call them at work when they’re busy – we think that it’s okay.

But it isn’t. The same rules apply to us. If it’s unwanted, it’s noise and if it’s noise, it’s working against us.

Everything you do to market your business is either training the marketplace to ignore you or training them to embrace you. It’s working against your business or working for your business.

So whenever possible, instead of making a noise, make a difference. And it’s always possible to make a difference.

Get out of your own way