Jim Connolly Marketing

Make AI grow your business

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AI grow your business, beat AI, small business AI, AI marketing

If you work as a consultant or advisor, and your business isn’t growing like crazy, you’re probably selling the wrong thing.

However, with a shift of focus, you can make AI greatly increase the value of your services AND drive up demand.

This will sound weird, but it isn’t. 18-years ago, I built a service that’s not only AI-proof. AI is making it increasingly valuable.

Here’s what this means to you and your business in June 2026 (and for years to come).

Your AI opportunity

I’ve written quite a bit over the past few years, about the impact of AI on small marketing agencies. The services these agencies offered, included; SEO, copywriting, AdWords, social media marketing, content marketing, graphic design, ad buying, flyers, social media management, marketing plans, etc.

For a few years now, all those services have been offered faster, cheaper (or for free), by AI providers. As a result, small and medium-sized marketing providers suffered massively.

The same problem impacts almost every type of business consulting. Including consultants in management, strategy, SEO, branding, productivity, systems design, PR, HR, business development, operations, compliance… you get the idea.

Here’s the thing: your prospects are up to their eyeballs in low-quality information, telling them how to do what you currently charge people for.

Your prospects need something different

What your prospects urgently need is.

  • Your expert judgement.
  • Your industry experience and expertize.
  • Your ability to stop the information overload that’s paralyzing their decision-making and costing them in lost time and missed opportunities.
  • Your decision-making.
  • Your emotionally-intelligent support.
  • Your proven ability to guide them in the right direction.
  • Your skin in the game. They know AI takes zero responsibility for its frequent, expensive mistakes.

In short: without you, all the information your prospects are drowning in is worthless and stressful.

How I solved this problem 18-years ago

When I created my Marketing Mentor program, it was intentionally designed to provide everything a client needed to get the results they want. This included all the support they need.

Not most of it.

Not some of it.

ALL of it.

From day one this has included unlimited access to me. It’s always been built around their unique situation, resources, needs and wants. And it’s always included explaining why (and how) they will benefit from each idea I share with them. They always have the full picture, because I always provide total clarity.

They benefit from my expertize and my experience. I help with their decision-making. And I work alongside them to implement everything. I don’t give them an idea, explain it and leave them to it. We make it work.

You and YOUR business

Friend: that’s the type of service I recommend you to offer.

Why?

Because that’s a fully-complete service with massively valuable benefits, which AI simply cannot provide.

It’s a service where demand increases, as more and more of your prospects switch to AI.

It will allow you to benefit from AI the way I do, rather than watch AI ruin your business.

If you want to know more about the Marketing Mentor program click here.

Photo by Tara Winstead on Pexels.com

It motivates people to take action, now

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Motivate buyers, buy now, marketing

Here’s the foundation of all successful marketing. In just 7 words.

It motivates people to take action, now.

I’ll break that down into 3 steps. Then, I’ll show you how to put it to work for your business.

  1. It motivates people: It gives them a compelling reason. A reason, which is powerful enough to grab their attention and generate enough desire within them that they’re ready for the next step.
  2. To take action: It makes a direct request. It asks them to; call us, click here, proceed to checkout, visit us, read this, subscribe, etc.
  3. Now: It asks them, whilst their motivation is high, to take the action required. Right now. Straight away. That’s because even if they love what you said and are genuinely interested, their attention will soon jump onto the next thing. This could be a notification on their phone, a delivery person might arrive with a package for them or they suddenly notice it’s time to meet their friend for lunch… and you’ll lose them. They tell themselves “I’ll do it later” and later becomes never.

Small business owners using AI for marketing copywriting will find all 3 of those essential elements are weak or toxic. Weak as in just too generic and not compelling enough.

For the small business owners who write their own copy, you’re usually weak in only 1 of those essential steps. It’s either not motivating enough, lacks a direct call to action or doesn’t generate sufficient urgency. It’s easy for you to fix and will greatly improve your results, when done correctly.

The solution

Take a look at all your marketing messages and check you have all 3 of those steps fully covered. Try to be as open-minded as possible. Make sure it’s motivating, action driven and urgent. If you think any of those areas can be improved, improve them. Repeat this process until you have fully maximized everything.

And remember, one of the most powerful forms of marketing right now, is to allow those things that make you unique, to shine through. 

So, be yourself.

Your uniqueness has never, ever been more attractive to your prospects. 

Photo by Ann H on Pexels.com

Give your best ideas away for free. Here’s why

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content marketing

What I’m about to share with you may sound a little counter-intuitive. It isn’t. In fact, it could help you achieve breakthrough results.

Allow me to explain.

I come across the following problem a lot. Mainly from service providers, who are struggling to attract new clients with their content marketing.

Their primary concern looks something like this.

I know I need to provide good, free advice via my content. But surely if I give my best ideas away for free, no one will pay to hire me?

I’ve already explained why you should be stingy with your time, but not your ideas. However, there’s another, excellent reason why you should provide outstanding, free advice.

And it’s this

Think for a moment about the alternative.

Imagine you publish newsletters, videos, a blog or a podcast. Now let’s also imagine that instead of sharing great advice, you share weaker information. Average stuff. Nothing special. Nothing that really stands out.

Guess what?

You’ve just given your marketplace a weak, low-impact insight into your work. You’ve painted a lousy picture of how good you are.

So, not only will people be highly unlikely to hire you, they’ll also be unlikely to share your newsletters, videos, podcasts, blog posts or subscribe to you. 

That’s a huge lose, lose.

No. It’s actually a lose, lose, lose, because you’ll also be damaging your reputation as a knowledgeable professional. Ouch!

Here’s what really happens when you give great free advice

Firstly, we have the freebie hunters
Yes, freebie hunters will gobble up all your free advice. It’s what they do… acting like a vacuum cleaner, sucking up anything that’s free. 

But that doesn’t lose you a penny. 

Why? 

Because freebie hunters were never going to hire you anyway. These people are the dabblers. The DIYers. So, they were never a prospective client. 

Secondly, we have the givers
These are a subset of genuine, prospective clients. Yes, they’ll take your free advice and do the work themselves… but unlike the freebie hunters, they appreciate the value you bring. So, when they value your work. They will subscribe. They will share your work with their contacts. That’s how the most successful content marketing successful spreads. Also, I know from experience that many of them will later hire you.

Thirdly, we have professionals, who respect their time
They love the peace-of-mind that comes from getting expert help. They value professionalism. These prospective clients will hire you, so you can do the job properly for them. 

How do I know with 100% certainty that this works?

Simple: it’s how I grew my own business.

When was the last time?

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Small business, marketing tips, Jim Connolly

Photo by Fox

When was the last time you tested different pricing models?

When was the last time you asked a customer or client, why they chose you rather than a competitor?

When was the last time you were contacted by a media outlet, for your professional opinion on a story or editorial they’re writing?

When was the last time you tested a new marketing tactic or strategy?

When was the last time you did something radically different from your competitors?

When was the last time you undertook detailed competitor research, so that you know what you’re actually competing against?

When was the last time you received a great referral from one of your customers?

When was the last time you updated your marketing materials?

When was the last time you took the lead in your industry?

When was the last time you took an idea that’s common and successful in a different industry, and applied it to your business?

When was the last time you seriously challenged one of your long-held business beliefs?

When was the last time you partnered with another business on a project?

When was the last time you updated your business goals and targets?

When was the last time you added a new product or service to your portfolio?

When was the last time you looked for better ways to solve problems, for your customers and prospective customers?

When was the last time you seriously asked yourself, if your business is growing as fast and as profitably as it could be?

When it’s been too long

If it has been too long since you last did, or experienced, some of the above, now would be a great time to put that right.

Make a list. Then work your way through it. Some of these will be more challenging than others, but all of them are important enough to invest the effort required.

The secret sauce you were looking for, is here

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Secret sauce, secret sauce success, secret sauce business, what is the secret sauce

Photo by Walls.io on Pexels.com

A while ago, I was hired by the owner of an office supplies company. He told me that for years, he had been trying to figure out why his main competitor was so successful. He wanted to know what he referred to as their secret sauce: the secret ‘something’ that led to their ongoing success.

He found it. And I’m going to share it with you. Why? Because it applies to all small businesses, including yours and mine.

After years of wondering what his main competitor’s secret was, he discovered it by accident! One of his small team retired, and was replaced by a guy who used to work with his super-successful competitor. He then discovered the root of their success. It wasn’t any one thing or secret sauce, which made that competing business so successful.

No.

It was the combination of lots of little things, which prospects were attracted to and customers remained loyal to. Small adjustments in important areas. Minor differences that compounded to create a major impact.

As he said at the time, ‘Jim, I wasted years looking for a mountain, and totally missed the molehills that made them successful’.

What can we learn from this?

We live in an era, where success is marketed to be just one hack or AI prompt away.

We have influencers selling the dream of a tactic that they claim earned them (for example) $100k in 30-days. Often more. And let’s be honest, who doesn’t want to know what that magic is? In the current economy, these $100k in 30-days type videos are watched by millions of small business owners looking for hope. After all, even if it was possible for the hack or AI prompt to make $20k or $10k fast, that would be very useful for many of our fellow small business owners right now.

The core lesson here is that real, genuine success isn’t the result of a trick or secret tactic. It comes from doing lots of small things, correctly. Doing lots of small things correctly IS THE SECRET SOURCE.

What next, Jim?

Bear with me. Every edition of this newsletter is read by thousands of people in almost every industry, and its readership is worldwide. This means as always, I am forced to answer using broad brushstrokes.

This is a basic, almost universal framework you can use.

  • List every element of your sales, marketing, customer service and other key areas of your business.
  • Select the first one that you believe can be improved. Even if it’s only a small improvement. This is really important. Minor improvements of only a few percent, applied to multiple elements of your business will have a compounding effect. Think of it like compound interest. The returns on that compounding is what causes the kind of top competitor effect, which I mentioned earlier.
  • Then, look for the next, and the next, and the next, applying an improvement to each one. Repeat the process.

Don’t let the simplicity of this idea cause you discard it. It isn’t buzzy. It doesn’t promise you a fast fortune. But it is logical. And it is proven.

As always, I hope you find this useful.

A few things worth learning, from the top small businesses

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Photo: Shutterstock.

Here are 10 tips to help you grow a stronger business. Along with links to some useful articles.

These are based on 20-years of experience, helping clients build top-performing businesses, on my Marketing Mentor Program.

Simplify the next step
Don’t just tell prospects about your product or service and how wonderful it is. Show them very clearly what they need to do next. One specific action. Make it as easy as possible for them to move forward, from prospect to paying customer.

Turn up consistently
In uncertain times, consistency builds trust. Be the business that turns up, follows through, and keeps its word even when others go quiet. This is called Turning Upism. This tip will help you get it right: Turning Upism and your business.

Stop waiting. Start creating
The perfect time doesn’t exist. Decide to build the opportunity you are looking for. This article shows you a example you can follow: Don’t miss your win, win, win opportunity.

If you fit in, you’ll disappear
If your products, services or marketing looks like your competitors’, you will camouflage yourself and fail to stand out. This tip will help you. How to get your business noticed.

Guard your online reputation
The vast majority of buyers will check you out quietly, before they buy from you. They’ll primarily do this by looking at your social profiles, your website, by searching for your name and/or the name of your business. Make sure everything they discover builds trust and confidence in you.

Everything you do is marketing
And I mean everything. The way you answer emails. The people who work for you. Your level of enthusiasm for your business. How you follow-up when a prospect contacts you. Your prices or fees. It’s all marketing and it all matters. This article will help you get it right: 30 examples of marketing.

Use curiosity in your marketing
Give people just enough information to make them curious. Think about it, every sale you ever make starts when the prospect contacts you for information. Most small businesses provide way, way too much information on their website. And it’s losing them sales every day. This will help you get it right: How you generate enquiries.

Use fewer words
Most marketing copy I see is 70% too long. Yes, you should use as many words as required. But use no more than necessary. Cut to the chase before they lose interest. My friend Roy Peter Clarke, known as ‘America’s writing coach’, is the best in the world at this. I recommend his best-selling book: How to Write Short: Word Craft for Fast Times. It’s available from all major bookstores.

Don’t lower your fees
Always make your product or service more compelling by pumping more value into it. Not by lowering your prices. This will help you: Sell more, earn more, without lowering your prices.

Clarity sells
There’s a wonderful saying that assures us: a confused mind always says NO!. When a person isn’t clear about what you’re offering, they will say no!, rather than risk making a mistake. Always keep your marketing clear. And never offer too many options. When faced with too many options, prospects won’t choose any!

And…
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