Jim Connolly Marketing

Marketing has changed. Have you?

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marketing change

Before social media became mainstream, marketing was all about what you said.

Today, marketing is all about the way you operate. That’s because the service you provide, and the promises you keep, create a story. And in a connected world, the providers with the best stories win. They get the referrals, the word of mouth recommendations, the free publicity and the repeat clients.

If you’re attracting too few clients or making too few sales, don’t just improve your message.

Instead, look for meaningful ways to improve what you do. Because when you give your marketplace a story worth sharing, they’ll share it.

How to make your marketing massively more effective

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content marketing, trust

Take a quick look at the following 2 statements. Which of them do you find the most appealing?

  1. I wrote this blog post, now I want you to read it.
  2. Business owners often struggle with this challenge, so I wrote this quick tip to help you.

Unsurprisingly, your marketplace is massively more attracted to the second statement. Despite this, the majority of small and medium sized businesses use the first approach in their marketing.

Rather than focusing on the wants and needs of their marketplace, they focus on what they themselves want. And it’s costing them a fortune in missed sales opportunities or client enquiries.

I received one such email earlier today. It started off with; “We’re delighted to announce our summer 2019 range is in stock and available to order”.

Let’s unpack that headline and see what message it sends to the reader.

  1. The vendor is excited.
  2. The vendor has an announcement.
  3. The vendor has new stock.
  4. They want me to order it.

As you can see, they’ve given me (I’m an existing customer) very little motivation to do anything. Their message is all about them and what they want. By switching the focus to their customers, they could have built a more compelling message. Instead, they’ll be wondering why that email’s response rate is so low.

The lesson here

The lesson is pretty obvious when you see an example broken down, like the one above. But sometimes in our eagerness to market our products or services, we can unintentionally make similar mistakes.

This is why I recommend you deliberately check, to ensure the focus of your future marketing is always about “them”. Also, review your existing marketing and shift the emphasis of any self-focused material, so that it’s them-focused… their wants and needs.

Show them how passionate you are about helping them. Show them you care.

And make solving their problems the cornerstone of your marketing.

Are people holding you back? Here’s what you need to know

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biz dev, professional development
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There’s a pattern for success that seems to repeat itself again and again.

I’d like to share it with you.

It’s simply this: Successful people are very selective, regarding who they associate with.

The reason this is so important, is that everyone we give our attention to influences us. Think about it. When you spend time with an optimistic person, your attitude and overall mood improves. Conversely, when you spend time with a negative person, your fears and doubts increase.

One of my mentors once gave me the following advice. “If you hang around with people who’re going nowhere, one day, everything they have will be yours“!

Thankfully, the opposite is also true.

Get around the right people

By associating with successful people, you’ll massively increase your own chances of success. The conversations and inspirations you’ll expose yourself to will be consistent with progress and achievement. Their expectations from your successful associates will also be greater, causing you to raise the bar.

This all combines to improve how you think. As your thinking improves you will find yourself making better decisions. And as decisions precede your actions, your results will improve.

This sets a positive cycle in place, which creates unstoppable momentum. It’s one of the least discussed professional development strategies, yet it’s also one of the most powerful.

We don’t live in a bubble

Life is complicated. As such, there are some people we need to be around from time to time, who are negative. This could be a family member. It might be the person next who’s going through a tough situation. That person in need could be you or me one day, and we wouldn’t want people turning their backs on us!

It’s not about avoiding people when they require help.

It’s about balance.

This simply means not spending unnecessary time with people who have a damaging impact on us. And proactively associating with those who inspire us to be the best people we can be.

The cookie cutter guide to destroying your business

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marketing, cookie cutter

Today’s post comes with a warning. Don’t rely on general advice to solve a serious, specific problem.

I’m writing this, following a surge in emails from readers who’ve wasted time and money making the same mistake. I want to help you avoid this common and expensive error.

Let’s start by looking at the best way to mass produce cookies!

Cookie cutters are highly effective. They let you create lots of identical looking cookies, really fast, based on an identical template.

Of course, this means they’re of no value whatsoever, if you want to create individually hand-crafted cookies.

Why am I telling you about cookie cutters?

Simple. The marketplace is packed with cookie cutter guides to marketing. These marketing seminars, books and online courses are designed to deliver step-by-step instructions, which anyone can use to produce ‘marketing’. They’re strikingly similar and extremely general.

They have to be. Because they’re designed to be sold to as wide a range of business owners as possible.

This model works EXTREMELY well for those selling online marketing seminars, marketing programs and digital marketing products. Why? Because production costs are low and it scales to infinity! They create a generic product once, which can be sold unlimited times at an enormous profit. That’s why we’re seeing more and more of these products being sold.

However, it doesn’t work for the end user. I see this confirmed in increasing numbers, from readers who’ve wasted time, lost money and missed opportunities to grow, by following general, unspecific marketing advice.

Think about it: When your marketing is similar to everyone else who’s using these general marketing ideas, your marketing becomes camouflaged. Lost in an ocean of businesses, doing extremely similar things.

  • This makes it way too hard for prospective clients to find you.
  • And if they do find you, you’ll look too similar to your competitors, so there’s no reason to contact you.
  • Oh, and if they do contact you, they’ll be price sensitive, because you seem like all the others. When providers look similar, prices or fees are used to determine value.

My advice to you?

Ignore the cookie cutter!

Successful marketing is always specific. It’s about getting noticed by your prospective clients and giving them compelling reasons to hire you or buy from you. It’s about developing marketing that’s focused on your unique business and your unique goals. It’s about identifying the exact type of clients you want to attract, then making your business irresistible to them.

So, ignore the cookie cutter.

Get intentional.

Rise above the noise of all that generic marketing, which is currently making you invisible to people who want to hire you or buy from you.

That’s the only way to get the attention you need, the sales you need and the results you need.

Marketing Tip: How to hide stuff in the fine print

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marketing lies, liars

Have you noticed something about the fine print we find in marketing and on packaging?

It’s printed really small.

And there’s a reason for that. They would rather we didn’t see it. So, they do their best not to make it stand out. It’s one of the reasons I hate sales and marketing.

The fine print is where they hide caveats. It’s where they bury disclaimers. It’s where they tell us that the promises in their marketing are grossly inflated. Or that their product doesn’t look as good as it does on the packaging, etc.

This got me thinking: Surely there’s an ethical, positive way to use the fine print?

So, I had some coffee.

Then I went for a long walk.

I came back to the studio, had another coffee, put “A Love Supreme” by John Coltrane on… then it came to me.

Imagine this.

  • How would you feel, if you read the fine print and discovered that it actually confirmed the product to be just as good as they said, in the LARGE print? Maybe even adding an additional benefit?
  • How would your prospective clients feel, if your fine print confirmed your marketing claims and reiterated you were being totally honest with them?

That’s the kind of eye-popping surprise that people remember. It helps build trust. And it’s also the kind of story, which people like to share with their friends.

I’m here for you

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kindness, business, contribution

If you’ve ever been an a difficult situation, you’ll know there’s amazing power in those 4 words. Just knowing someone cares enough to want to help us, by itself, can improve things.

What does this have to do with business?

Here’s the thing: Not every business owner reaches out to help others. This includes many business owners who have a kind heart and feel they ought to do more commercially, to help others in need. It’s understandable. By default, business owners are busy people. They have problems of their own to deal with. And they have employees and customers relying on them. Too few hours in the day, etc.

Of course, the same is true of all those business owners, who DO offer to help. If anything, they’re often even busier than the business owners, who tend not to reach out and help.

Is there a business case for genuine kindness?

I don’t know.

Maybe looking for a commercial angle renders the whole thing pointless. It ceases to be an act of kindness, and instead, becomes a calculated tactic, disguised as kindness. And once the target learns that someone tried to profit from their difficult situation, any good faith is destroyed.

Here’s what I do know.

Business is all about people, so it tends to reflect life in general. Just as selfish people usually have fewer friends, business owners who are perceived as selfish tend to have fewer business contacts, who feel motivated to recommend them and their selfish approach.

Since starting my business in 1994, here’s what I’ve found, time and time again: Business owners who are contribution focused, are regularly talked about for all the right reasons. They have zero problem with referrals, as people eagerly recommend them. Think about it… it’s more rewarding and less risky, to recommend someone who’s known for their kindness.

So, maybe there is an unintentional benefit from operating our business from a contribution mindset.

That’s worth considering, if you’re a business owner, with a kind heart, who wants to help, but finds it hard to justify the time required.