Jim Connolly Marketing

Get specific. Really specific

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marketing competitor, competition

As a business owner, there are 2 ways you can choose to market your services. One works extremely well. One doesn’t. And most people are choosing the wrong option. I don’t want that to happen to you.

Here are both options, along with how to make the right choice for you and your business.

  1. Try and appeal to as many people as possible.
  2. Intentionally choose the type of customers or clients you want to service. And ignore the rest.

The first option seems to make sense

The thinking looks like this: If we try and appeal to as wide a range of people as possible, we’ll have more prospective customers. This should mean we’ll make more sales (or attract more clients).

The reality is different. Very, very different.

By trying to be relevant to almost anyone who could have a need for your services, you end up being directly relevant to no one.

Here’s the problem: Only a directly relevant message has the power to motivate a prospective customer to take action.

Vague, diluted, semi-relevant messages are ignored.

Here’s a far better approach

The most successful business owners get specific. They decide exactly who they want to serve. They then intentionally focus on communicating with this section of their marketplace. They learn what matters most to this group. They uncover their main challenges. They then connect with them in a way that’s directly relevant and therefore exceptionally powerful.

That kind of specific, directly relevant marketing is what’s required, to inspire people to buy from you or hire you.

The secret to attracting regular referrals

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word of mouth, referrals

Cindy asked me a great question earlier. She wanted to know the best way to generate word of mouth referrals for her business. Here’s one of the tips I gave her, which you may find really useful.

The key to attracting word of mouth referrals, is to understand the following:

Word of mouth spreads between the people in your marketplace. It goes from person to person. NOT from you to them.

So don’t interrupt people.

Don’t pester people for referrals.

Because you don’t need to!

People love to talk. And they really love to share stories about their experiences. Either face-to-face or online. Your task as a business owner, is to give people a story about your business that’s worth sharing. For example, give them a customer service story, that’s so good they want to tell their friends. I list 9 more examples here. That should give you enough ideas to get you started.

Right now, you’re just 1 story away from having your marketplace buzzing with people who are recommending your business. So, what are you waiting for?

The mindset adjustment that transforms businesses

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How good are you, when it comes to making business decisions?

That’s a really important question.

Why?

Because good decision-making is an essential part of growing a successful business. That’s why today, I’m going to share a very simple idea with you, which I found extremely useful. It helped me become a massively better decision-maker. More importantly, it can help you, too.

Let’s go!

Much of the email I receive from readers, is connected to a problem they have, regarding a decision. Usually, it’s a decision they’ve been wrestling with or procrastinating on. And in almost every case, the fact they’re delaying the decision, is making things a lot worse. That’s to say, their inaction is turning a minor challenge into a major problem.

The idea that improved my mindset

If you or someone you know struggles with decision-making, consider the following fact. It shifted my mindset to decision-making and allowed me to transform my business.

A decision is always made. Because time will make it, if you do not.

Here’s an example of what I mean.

A guy wakes up with toothache, decides to ignore it, take some painkillers and goes to work. He does this day after day. He tells himself he’s busy. He tells himself that if things don’t improve he’ll make a dental appointment. Eventually, he needs emergency dental treatment. It’s now a much bigger problem. Plus, he’s been in pain, unnecessarily, for days or weeks. And the cost of treatment is higher.

That’s what happens, when we allow time to make a decision for us. We end up with a much bigger issue to deal with. The situation is out of our hands. There’s a lot more pain attached. And it’s more expensive.

There are 2 lessons I took from this

Firstly, we can’t avoid making decisions. We can only delay them. And no one procrastinates their way to success.

Secondly, by delaying decisions, we surrender control of the outcomes. Any business that loses control of its outcomes, has extremely limited potential.

In short, once we have the information we need, it’s time to quit stalling and make a decision. This mindset shift inspired me to become a better decision-maker and build a better business. I hope it helps you too.

Bonus — Here are 10 Daily decisions to help you smash your business goals.

The step by step guide to marketing your business

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Lawrence from New Jersey emailed me with a great question. He wanted to know why I don’t provide any step-by-step marketing guides.

Here’s my answer. It contains an exceptionally valuable marketing tip, which I hope you find useful.

The thing about cookie cutters

Cookie cutters are extremely effective when you’re making cookies. They let you produce lots of identical looking cookies, very fast.

Conversely, a cookie cutter approach to marketing is of very little value.

Why?

Because by using the same marketing approach as your competitors, your marketing becomes identical to theirs. You become camouflaged. This makes it very, very hard for prospective clients to find you. And when they do find you, you’ll seem way 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.

Throwing away the cookie cutter

Successful marketing is about standing out. It’s about being noticed by the right people and giving them a compelling reason to hire you or buy from you. And for that you need an individual approach.

  • You need marketing that sets you apart from your competition, so you are the one who gets hired.
  • You need marketing that gets you noticed for all the right reasons, by all the right people.
  • You need marketing that’s specific to you; your unique business, your unique situation and your unique goals.

However.

The marketing guides available via blogs, websites, seminars, webinars, and books, etc., are designed to be used by a wide range of business owners. This means you end up with the same generic marketing ideas as everyone else.

That’s the recipe for how to be ignored! It’s also the total opposite of what you need. And it explains why I don’t provide step-by-step guides.

Instead, I strive to encourage you to stand out. To get specific. To take your marketing seriously. Because that’s the only way to get the attention you need, the sales you need and the results you need.

There’s only two ways to grow a business. You need to choose one

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marketing help, marketing advice

It’s becoming harder and harder to sell the average product or service.

Why?

Because when something is average, the lowest price wins. And there will always be someone lower priced than you. Plus, your prospective customers can find these lower priced alternatives, on Google or Amazon, in seconds.

There are only two, proven ways to build your business today. Here they are.

Option one

You can decide to try to cut your costs back to the bone and undercut the competition. Lower prices attract attention. Lower prices get people talking. Average products or services do neither.

And if you can get the efficiency savings right, with a significant increase in sales, you can make a very nice profit. This guy sold a UK retail outlet where everything cost just £1, for £50,000,000.

Option two

Alternatively, you can decide to turn your back on average. There are more, wealthy customers out there than ever before. And they want to be treated differently. They’ll very happily pay for that premium difference, too.

That’s why luxury brands thrive in every industry and profession.

The important thing my friend, is to decide.

Either aim for low profit, high turnover or aim to be a premium provider. Then market your business accordingly. Don’t position yourself somewhere between the two. Because it has never been harder to succeed in the middle-ground, than it is today.

I’m getting enquiries from idiots

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marketing advice, marketing help

I was emailed by a service provider recently, about a problem he has encountered with his marketing. It’s something a lot of business owners struggle with. So, I’m sharing it with you along with my reply.

Here’s part of his email, published with his permission.

“I needed to boost traffic to my web site and the number of people who read my newsletter. […] I was advised to start using attention grabbing headlines and dumb down my content so it was more inclusive. It worked in a way because I get more traffic but now I’m attracting enquiries from idiots!”

Before I reply…

Enquiries from idiots?

Up front, let’s deal with his use of the word idiot. I’m extremely uncomfortable about the use of that word, in this context. If your marketing attracts the wrong type of people, this doesn’t make them idiots.

It means your marketing sucks!

That type of inaccurate labelling of people disavows your responsibility. It passes the blame from you, to them. It’s extremely unhelpful.

Okay. Now we’re free to look at the actual problem.

The cause

In order to increase the reach of their work, build their list or get more social media shares, many people swap meaning, for clicks. Before they know it their message is no longer resonating with the right people.

It’s being seen. But by using mass-appeal, clickbait headlines, their marketing is no longer attracting the right people. And when you combine that with a message that’s “more inclusive”, you end up with a toxic mix of the wrong people and the wrong message.

In short: Poor targeting + Poor content = Poor results.

A better approach

Focus on the right thing.

If you want to get more traffic or build your list, there are thousands of places offering ways to do it. Most use a version of what the guy who emailed me described. And if you’re selling ads on a website based on clicks, this may prove (somewhat) useful.

However.

If you want to attract more clients, you need a strategy designed to attract more clients. First, you determine exactly who your ideal client is. Next, you focus like a laser on being as useful as possible to this niche. Then, make it extremely easy for them to hire you or share your work. It works. Really, really well.

Just don’t confuse the two. Because those 2 different challenges require 2 very different strategies.