Jim Connolly Marketing

Marketing tips and ideas to help you grow your business

Discover how the top companies keep getting the best referrals

By

In today’s post, I’m going to show you a powerful way to get more, great people talking about the services you provide. But that’s not all. I’m also going to explain how to overcome a major problem: how to get people to say the right things about you.

KFC image

I’ll even throw in a world-class example of how it works.

Okay let’s go

The starting point, is to decide exactly what you want people to say. Otherwise, you’re relying on them making something up on the spot. And usually, when someone is asked if they can recommend a provider, it will be a generic, weak message.

For example, if you ask someone if they have an accountant they’d recommend, the reply is usually something like; “Sure. We’re happy with the (Whatever) Accountancy Firm”.

That’s nice.

But all it really says, is that this particular person is happy with the service they receive. It’s the bare minimum. It’s vague. It says nothing about the service this accountancy firm provides. And it’s certainly not compelling.

Here’s why this matters to you: It’s entirely possible you’re already being regularly referred or recommended to great prospective clients. But you’re unaware, because, as in the above example, the referral is totally ineffective. And an ineffective referral is close to worthless.

Let’s see how the fastest growing companies overcome this problem.

How to get this right

Okay, let’s look at that accountancy firm again.

Only this time, they were professionally marketed and had already incorporated a short, memorable strapline in their branding. Something like “building stronger businesses”. If used correctly, that 3 word phrase would become an automatic part of their referrals.

So, instead of; “Sure. We’re happy with the (Whatever) Accountancy Firm.”

You get; “Sure. We’re happy with the (Whatever) Accountancy Firm. They specialize in building stronger businesses.”

That second referral is massively more powerful with far greater impact.

Think about it. If someone is looking for a new accountant, they’re clearly not happy with their current one. If we assume their existing accountant isn’t really interested in their business, a trusted referral about an accountant that focuses on building stronger businesses is exactly what they want to hear. Such referrals could be 2X, 5X or maybe 10X more powerful at encouraging people to call the accountant, than a simple “we’re happy with them”.

Here’s the thing: Most businesses make it too hard for their clients, customers or friends to know what to say when referring them. And it loses them a fortune.

Make it easier. Correctly integrate an easy to remember 3 or 4 word strapline into your marketing, so people don’t have to make something up on the spot. When you get it right, that strapline becomes part of the conversations people have about you.

That example took me 30 seconds to come up with. Now let’s look at a proven, world-class example of how this works.

How good is their food?

The marketing team behind Kentucky Fried Chicken wanted to give their diners a simple way to describe how delicious the food was. So, they made it very simple. They placed a short, powerful strapline on all their packaging.

It described their food as, “finger lickin’ good”.

And the rest is history!

Those who ate and enjoyed their chicken, now knew exactly what to tell their friends. Moreover, they were delivering an amazingly powerful, professionally written marketing message.

Regardless of whether you happen to like fried chicken, the mental image created with that message is powerful. The idea of people enjoying their food so much that they licked their fingers, would surely motivate their hungry friends to give KFC a try. Plus, because people who eat at fast-food restaurants know other people who also enjoy fast-food, it was pure, marketing gold.

So, the message spread. Millions or billions of times. Worldwide.

Try this

Take some time to think about want you want people to say about your business or the service you provide. Then, spend as much time as necessary crafting a powerful, extremely short strapline. If you don’t have the time or expertise to get this right, find a professional who will do it for you.

Just don’t keep missing out on great word of mouth referrals or targeted sales leads, because people aren’t recommending you correctly.

Marketing money versus Marketing creativity

By

Ever wondered why I don’t write about how or where to spend your marketing money?

Today, I spill the beans.

creative marketing, creativity

Marketing money

There are a lot of ways you can spend money on marketing. Advertising and promotion is available via thousands of providers. It’s so easy.

  • You pay them the money.
  • They say they’ll get your message in front of X number of prospective clients (or customers).
  • Hopefully, a percentage of these will contact you.
  • And a percentage of that percentage, could spend money with you.

So far so good, right?

It would be, if your competitors didn’t have the exact same options. But they do. And as you know, competing businesses advertise to the same marketplace.

Here’s why this matters: Your ads will always be competing against their ads. Whoever spends most *should* get most of the attention. This is equally true when you advertise on different platforms, as digital advertising reaches the same target groups regardless of where they are.

Buying attention via ads and promotions is also extremely precocious. Your reach will always depend on the marketing dollars your competitors choose to spend. It’s out of your control. It’s also impossible to plan the future growth of your business with confidence.

Why?

A well-funded competitor can, quickly and easily, wipe your visibility out before you even know what’s happening.

Thankfully there’s a much better alternative.

Marketing creativity

I choose to focus 100% on a very different marketing model. It’s a model that is impossible for your competitors to copy, as they can’t see what you’re doing, unlike paid ads / promotion.

  • They’ll know that you get talked about a lot more often.
  • They’ll also sense there’s a real buzz around your products or services.
  • They’ll notice their existing clients or customers switching to you.

BUT they won’t know why.

That’s because my marketing model is entirely based around creativity, not money.

It’s about attracting attention, not buying attention. It’s about giving your prospective clients something to talk about. It’s exceptionally effective. In fact, The Wall Street Journal came to me for an example of how I achieved massive marketing success for small businesses, using creative marketing strategies – – and NOT A PENNY spent on advertising or promotion.

In short, I don’t write about how to buy attention because it’s a risky, lazy and exceptionally limited way to grow a business. And there are hundreds of better options, which I love to use with my clients.

So now you know.

Contacts for vanity. Relationships for sanity

By

Marketing, business contacts, relationship building

I’d like to ask you a relatively easy question. How many business contacts do you have?

You can easily get an approximate figure by adding together your social network contacts, the contacts in your address book and email lists, etc. For most reading this, the number will be in the high hundreds. For many it will be in the tens of thousands. And hundreds of thousands for some.

Here’s a harder question. How many business relationships do you have?

Business relationships are harder to count. That’s because they are people you connect with on a deeper level. Not just numbers on the social networks you use. Not just names in your address book, who you have no history with.

Contacts = vanity

Building more and more contacts can be intoxicating. It’s often referred to as a vanity metric, because most of these numbers are visible, such as our social network contacts / followers / friends. The bigger the number, the more it strokes our ego.

We can be like the popular kid at school. Look at us. We’re a big deal. Even though we know hardly any of these people. We have the BIG contacts number.

Go us!

Relationships = sanity

Building relationships doesn’t seem as intoxicating. That’s because there’s no publicly visible number attached to it.

Think about it: Who else knows how many people rely on you when they need help? Who else knows how many people trust you or how many influential people you know. And who else knows how many people go to you for advice when they’re faced with important decisions?

Sanity numbers are a lot less public than our vanity numbers, but a lot more meaningful and massively more valuable.

With this in mind, how much time do you dedicate each day, to building and nurturing relationships? I’m talking here about going deeper than contact building.

For example.

Everyone who reads my newsletter can chat with me by simply replying to the email. I see it and reply to you personally. I’ve built countless relationships with people, who went from being a reader (contact on my email list), to being in regular dialogue with me (person I have a business relationship with and whose business I know).

The bottom line, is that business is ultimately all about people. That’s why it’s essential to focus on people and the strength of our relationships with them.

Stop selling

By

Boost sales, no selling required, marketing

It turns out that everybody in your marketplace has at least 2 things in common.

  1. They hate being sold to.
  2. They hate having problems.

The most successful business owners have figured this out. In fact, they’ve taken those pet hates, and used them to develop a powerful, extremely effective growth strategy.

Instead of selling to prospective clients (or customers), they help them solve problems. And they do this via the products or services they offer.

Think about it, your business (and mine) exists in order to solve a problem or a number of problems. Every business does. Therefore, we should be approaching prospective clients as a problem solver.

This means talking to them, instead of pitching to them.

It means listening to their needs, so we get a clear understanding of their problem, then explaining how we can help.

When your marketplace sees you as a source of answers, they’ll regard you as a useful asset. And that changes the whole dynamic of how you do business. You become a massively more attractive proposition. Because we’re drawn to those who can help us or assist us.

In short, doors that were closed to you when you were trying to sell stuff, will fly open when you approach them as a problem solver. And you’ll find people start hiring you or buying from you, without you having to sell anything.

What’s really blocking you?

By

Marketing iPad image

Today, I’d like to share some ideas about what could be blocking you from achieving the results you want. I’ll also help you dispel a couple of common myths, which could be seriously damaging your business.

It starts with a quick look back at yesterday, and what I did in the first 90 minutes of my workday.

I began by reading what I had planned. Next, I replied to some emails. A few of them were from clients. One of which ended with a brief Zoom chat over coffee. The majority of emails were from readers of my newsletter. I then wrote my next article, put the iPad Mini I’d been working on in my bag, left the coffee shop and came back to my studio.

It’s that last sentence, which is the important part!

You have the tools

I did everything I just mentioned, using a cheap tablet device (see above). At a push, I could have done it on a phone.

This means you already have the tools you need to market your business, even if all you have is whatever device you’re reading this with!

It means you have the tools to connect with your marketplace, share your ideas, show your work, make connections with amazing people, demonstrate your value, build yourself a community and engage with them.

So, you have the tools you need.

The right time is now!

Finally, I have a question for you: What exactly is it that you’re waiting for, before you’ll take your business to the next level? If you’re waiting for the right time, unless you have months and years to burn, the right time is now.

So, you not only have the tools you need, you also know that the right time to get started is now.

This means you’re finally free to figure out (or admit to yourself) what your real barrier is.

Yes, I sincerely hope you find these ideas useful, but more importantly my friend, I hope this inspires you to take action on whatever is blocking you.