Jim Connolly Marketing

Marketing 101: Pick a frequency

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marketing 101, pick a frequency, content marketing, frequency

Here’s a content marketing tip, to help you attract the attention of prospective customers AND motivate them to buy from you or hire you. It’s all about one word that has two extremely useful meanings. That word is Frequency.

Allow me to explain.

I was prompted to write this after 2 emails I received.

  • The first was from a long time reader. Sophie got in touch to find out why I hadn’t published quite as many newsletters recently.
  • The second email was from a former reader. Rick emailed to say he’d unsubscribed from the blog, because I publish too often.

There’s a powerful lesson here for anyone who wants to grow their business.

Frequency

Clearly, I’ll never be able to keep everyone happy with the frequency of my newsletter. For some it will be too little. For others it will be too much. If I keep Sophie happy, I lose Rick. If I keep Rick happy, I lose Sophie.

So, here’s what I do.

Rather than try and get the frequency right for everyone, I use a different kind of frequency. A frequency that works. Every. Single. Time!

More importantly, it’s the kind of frequency, which you can use to attract more clients or customers and build your business.

The other type of frequency

There’s another kind of frequency. The kind radios use. If you tune your radio into the same frequency as a radio station, you receive their signal. You’re (literally) on the same wavelength as them.

When you’re on the same wavelength as your marketplace, you’re in harmony with them. And they’re in harmony with you. Sophie and I are on the same wavelength. If you’re a long time reader, you and I are on the same wavelength, too.

In short: I only write for you and Sophie.

Now, that won’t be the right frequency for everyone. But I don’t write for everyone. And there’s a very good reason why. It turns out you can’t keep everyone happy. And the harder you try, the weaker your signal becomes. Before you know it, no one is on your wavelength.

Though I used the example of newsletters / blogging for this post, the exact same strategy works for every kind of content marketing.

Supercharge your marketing

If your marketing isn’t resonating with your marketplace, it’s entirely possible your signal is too weak. This happens when you try to be relevant to as many people as possible.

You land in the middle. In my earlier example, you’d be too infrequent for Sophie and too frequent for Rick. Lose, lose.

By landing in the middle, you become directly relevant to no one. This means your marketing message will lack the motivation it needs, to inspire your prospects to take action. Only clear, directly relevant marketing has that kind of impact.

So, pick a frequency.

Shun the masses.

Embrace the community you wish to serve. Focus only on them, their needs and their wants. Be generous. And be generous as often as you can.

Pretty soon, you will have a community of people on your wavelength.

  • People who will value what you do.
  • People who will miss you when you’re not there.
  • People who will hire you.
  • People who will recommend you.
  • People who will talk about you.

Just imagine how valuable that will be for your business.

Get noticed: Make a difference, not a noise

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get noticed, make noise, make difference

It’s hard to get noticed today. And there’s a really good reason why.

The world has a social media megaphone. Everyone can now tell everybody about everything.

To compound the noise pollution, thousands (and thousands) of influencers and brands are encouraging their flocks to amplify the noise.

Here’s the thing: As the noise from this chatter has increased, we’ve become better and better at ignoring it. Yes, technology let’s us filter the notifications and reduce the noise somewhat. But we ourselves are paying less attention to the chatter. It tends to wash over us.

Getting noticed

And that’s really, really important for business owners to know.

Why?

Because now that talk is cheaper than ever, our actions have spectacularly more impact.

  • People don’t notice the noise. Certainly not beyond a surface level.
  • They notice the difference we make. And this is especially true, when we make a positive difference to them or something they care about; their business for example.

In short, to earn the attention and trust of our prospective clients, we need to look for ways to demonstrate the value we bring, which they’ll find useful. If it’s useful (to them) it isn’t noise. So, they pay attention.

Get noticed above the noise

Rather than having a ton of social media accounts and filling them with noise (automated retweets, funny images and GIF’s, sharing famous quotes, etc), go for quality. Make a difference.

The message you’re reading right now is an example of what I mean. By taking a little time this morning, I’ve produced this information, which I believe some of you will find useful.

  • I do almost nothing on Facebook.
  • I don’t even have a Linkedin account.
  • I share ideas, like this one, and I use Twitter.

That’s it.

And every day, amazing prospective clients reach out to me.

Here’s the thing.

It’s increasingly hard to get noticed on social networks. Millions of business owners, marketing people and agencies are using the same, so-called tricks and tactics. And in doing so, they become camouflaged by the millions of others, who are doing the same thing.

We need to step away from the noise, my friend.

If you find you’re not getting the results you and your business need, focus on making a difference. Find something you can do, which will have a positive impact (be useful) to your prospective clients.

It’s less time consuming than adding to the noise, and massively more effective.

You should use information marketing. Really. Do it!

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Content marketing, information marketing

Today, I’m going to share the power of information marketing with you. It has the potential to sky-rocket your sales results. Actually, it has vastly more potential than that!

I was prompted to write about this, when answering a very common question from one of my readers. They wanted to know, how I find the time to write so many newsletters and articles.

It’s all about my information marketing strategy. And now you’ll see why you really need to start using it!

Let’s go!

Finding time or making time?

A business owner doesn’t need to find the time to go to work, or find time to look after their clients / customers. When a task is important to us, we make time for it. The time for it is set aside, in advance. It’s in our calendar. It’s high on our to-do list. And as a result it gets done.

Marketing is a top-level business activity for me. Not just for me, but for everyone serious about growing a successful business. I know that the information I create, (free marketing tips, ideas and advice) doesn’t always look like marketing.

But it absolutely is.

Some would call it content marketing, but content marketing is extremely limited in comparison.

I call it information marketing

And here’s what it does.

  • It reminds those who choose to follow my work, who I am and what I do.
  • My newsletters, website articles and social media updates showcase my knowledge.
  • My content also provides people with a checkable body of work, which proves that I show up regularly with helpful information AND that I’ve been doing this for decades.
  • This means people know who I am. They know my work and that I’ve reliably provided it for a very long time.
  • The marketing pay-off is that I’m earning their trust, long before they even contact me. And they’re sharing my work with even more prospects!

Now, imagine your prospective clients already had that kind of relationship with you and your business. Consider how much more likely they would be, to buy from you or hire you.

THAT’S what makes information marketing so effective. It provides you with a regular, predictable flow of exceptionally high quality new clients or sales. It also means you never have to sell your services to a stranger again. Because they will already know all about you and your services or products. Information marketing works beautifully.

Okay, now let’s look at just how easy it is.

Information marketing is ongoing

All successful marketing is an ongoing business activity. It’s about becoming, and remaining, visible to your marketplace; so your name, company name, branding, logo, face, etc., is familiar to them.

Almost every small business and many medium-sized businesses get this wrong. They tend to only market their business when there’s a problem; like when they’ve lost a major account or they’ve seen a worrying drop in new clients.

They then, suddenly start marketing to their prospects… even though they’re total strangers to these prospects. It’s extremely ineffective.

And it’s avoidable when you use information marketing.

information marketing, content marketing

It requires way less money than you think

Actually, information marketing takes less money AND less time than you think.

Allow me to explain.

Less money than you think?

Yes. If you market your services the way I do, you don’t need to buy ads. I haven’t paid to advertise my service in over 20 years. Not a penny.

That’s because when you publish useful tips, ideas and advice, which your marketplace will value, they’re attracted to it.

And you’ll be really easy for them to find.

Here’s a quick look at how that works.

  • If you write an article like this, or even something as short as a tweet, your prospects can find it on a search engine. Yes, tweets are findable via Google. Just be sure that when they find your information, it’s very easy for them to contact you and subscribe to your newsletter list. That’s really important.
  • If you write a newsletter (and you REALLY should), people will share it. This is especially the case when you answer common problems for people in your target market. That’s because people tend to know lots of similar people; (those who live in the same area, or are in the same profession, or have the same type of problems, or are in a similar income bracket). So, your initial subscribers will share your newsletters for you, and you’ll be organically building a bigger and bigger, targeted list.

That’s right.

You’re not only connecting with a growing number of prospects. Your growing number of prospects are sharing your work, for free, with even more prospects.

That kind of personal recommendation is massively more effective than an advertisement.

information marketing, get noticed, content marketing

Less time than you think?

Oh yes. Way less time.

Whereas content marketing is known for being about producing a high volume of often low-quality ‘content’, information marketing is focused way more on the quality of information you share. This means you have zero need to ‘pump stuff’ into every social network on the planet every day.

Note: I only use Twitter, my website and my newsletter. That’s it!!!

The information marketing strategy I use with my clients, allows most of their work to be used in multiple ways. So, you invest time creating one piece of useful information, and it can provide you with multiple marketing opportunities.

For example, if you write a useful article for your website or a blog post, it can be:

  • Published as a newsletter. Longer pieces can be published as a 2 or 3-part newsletter series.
  • Published on Linkedin.
  • Published on your Facebook Page or in your Facebook Group
  • Published on a forum your marketplace uses.
  • Extracts can be published as short-form content.
  • And visuals can be published on sites like Instagram, Pinterest and Twitter.

So, you create once and yet produce many, many marketing *assets. (*Things you can use, to attract, help and engage your prospects).

Some all-new information marketing material takes minutes to create. It can be as simple as taking a photo, related to the prospective clients you want to work with. For example, photos of events you’re attending, or photos that show people how you work. These help your prospects to better understand what you do, and they make you more ‘real’ to them. These photos can be really interesting and shared on multiple platforms.

But that’s not all.

After a very short time, as you become more used to creating and sharing useful information, you’ll notice the process takes less and less time.

Information marketing isn’t a time suck

Remember, you don’t need to share something new, multiple times a day, or even every day, as with content marketing.

Information marketing is about producing information that’s useful enough, for people to share your work for you.

It’s all about quality, not quantity. Value, not volume!

You could create just one useful article like this, every 10 – 14 days. By using it in the various ways I explained a moment ago, this would give you something useful and new, to share every 2 or 3 days for a few weeks, to attract the attention of new prospects and start building a valuable connection with them.

Consider again the marketing potential of growing your very own, huge, targeted audience, of extremely high quality prospects. Then measure it against the effort required for information marketing.

If you can see the full potential, you’ll want to get started.

What next Jim?

The best time to start information marketing: building this kind of connection, relationship and trust with your prospects is 10 years ago. But the second best time is now.

If you’re not already marketing your business, by sharing useful information, which you know your prospective clients value, please give it some serious consideration. I have used this model since the 1990’s. And I’ve helped countless business owners transform their sales results with their own information marketing strategies.

I’m telling you, not only does information marketing work better than any form of marketing I have ever used or studied, it works better today than ever before.

Photo: Shutterstock.

List building: How to build a list that builds your business

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list building, build a list

Photo: Shutterstock.

People often ask me for tips on how to build a bigger list. They want more subscribers, more readers, more listeners, more viewers, more followers, etc.

The short answer is simple. It’s this.

Create useful content, which is worthy of people’s attention and make it really easy for them to subscribe.

If you do that, you’ll attract more people and because your content is useful, many of them will subscribe. Think about it. That’s the exact process, which motivated you to subscribe to every list you’re on. Something attracted you, you found it useful, you subscribed.

This begs the question: If the answer is so simple, why is it so darn hard to build a large and valuable list?

Here’s the slightly longer answer.

The advice is simple. The process is tricky

There’s some tricky stuff between you and that massively valuable list you want.

If you just churn out the same content as others in your industry, you won’t attract subscribers or retain them. This means you’ll need to be willing to do some research. You’ll need to become a regular note taker. A collector of ideas. It’s interesting work, but if you’re not already someone who takes notes, it may be a while before it becomes a habit.

Finding the time to create content is also tricky. You’re already busy, right? Developing content around all that interesting material you have, takes time… even in 2026 where AI can be a real help. That time is easy to justify when you have a huge list. It’s harder to justify, when your hard work is being consumed by just a small number of people. You’ll need to push through the tumbleweed and crickets of the early stages. And I know from personal experience, that can be a real challenge.

Summoning the courage to publish your stuff is also tricky. Why? Because if you do it right, you’ll attract critics. Someone once told me that we have a choice to make. We can either be criticized or be ignored. If we’re being ignored, we’re invisible. That’s not good for any business.

The alternative is to not only expect criticism, but to welcome it as a positive sign that we’re no longer being ignored. Don’t set out to attract critics. Set out to be useful and worthy of attention. But see criticism as an inevitable part of becoming visible and successful.

Note: Here’s why people criticize you and how to deal with it.

Once you know what’s involved, building a valuable list is pretty easy.

And the rewards are huge

Picture this: just imagine what a difference it would make to your business, if you were in regular contact with thousands of prospective customers. Not via advertising, which is usually seen as an unwelcome interruption. But via a subscription to your content, which people proactively requested because they WANT to hear from you.

It’s almost impossible to overstate just how valuable your subscribers are.

The opportunity is amazing. And it’s right in front of you. Right now.

A list of business experts you absolutely must avoid

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marketing stop

In life there are certain people who you absolutely need to avoid. The same is true in business.

Some are easy to spot

  • The web designer whose website is a piece of crap.
  • The marketing expert, who embarrassingly needs to pester people on Linkedin because their own marketing doesn’t work.
  • The consultant or adviser who claims to be in high demand, yet offers free consultations.
  • The self-proclaimed leadership guru, who clearly isn’t leading.
  • The copywriter whose content is poorly-written and lacks impact.
  • The creativity expert who’s just like all the other creativity experts. (Think about that for a moment).

Others are trickier to spot

  • The marketing consultant, who used tricks to attract a million social media followers.
  • The accountant who understands numbers, but can’t clearly explain what they mean to their client’s business.
  • The strategist whose own strategy is failing.
  • The business development adviser who has never built a successful business of their own.

Protect your business from bad advice

The personal recommendation of a trusted friend is usually the least risky way to find an expert provider. Just make sure the friend has recent, first-hand experience of the quality of the provider’s work.

Another option is to hire someone whose work you’re already familiar with. For example, if you subscribe to a provider’s podcast, YouTube channel, blog or newsletter and they regularly share useful information, they’re giving you some powerful clues.

  • The fact they have turned up consistently, demonstrates a degree of reliability. This is especially the case if they have many years worth of material available.
  • You get to experience first hand, how knowledgeable they are from the quality of information they provide.
  • In addition, you’ll know in advance if they share information with the clarity you need.
  • You also gain an insight into their personality and mindset, which can help you determine if they’re the kind of person you work best with.

With an attractive looking website and some testimonials, anyone can claim to be an expert at anything. And that’s why you need to look deeper.

Because the cost of taking bad advice is far, far higher than the person’s fee.

Google: The long and the short of it

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google indexing, google keyword, google repitition

Hundreds of the posts on Jim’s Marketing Blog have been excluded from Google’s index. Close to a thousand.

I’m told that Google’s algorithm needs me to write longer posts. It also needs me to unnaturally repeat key phrases and key words, over and over. Otherwise, no indexing.

I suggest I don’t need to change how I write.

I suggest Google needs to radically improve its horribly limited search algorithm.

Here’s the thing. I write for people, not a poorly-programmed, easy to fool algorithm. This means I write short whenever I can. This post is 32 words long. That’s all it needed.

Whilst writing short drives Google nuts, people like it.

  • It’s people whose problems I seek to solve.
  • It’s also people who hire me and people who recommend me.

The next time you have to plough through thousands of unnecessary words online, for a couple of hundred words worth of information, you’ll know why the writer did it.