Jim Connolly Marketing

How to build the business you’ve always wanted

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marketing blogs, marketing advice

Today, I’d like you to think about building the perfect business. A business that rewards you in every area of your life. No compromises!

To start, let’s look at Paul. Paul is 74 years old. He’s still working in the same industry as he was when he was a teenager. He’s still working hard too. In fact, he’s recently created a new project and is working like crazy to promote it.

He isn’t in it for the money.

How can I be so certain? Simple: The guy I’m talking about is Sir Paul McCartney.

Loving what you do

I don’t prescribe to the theory that if you just do what you love, you can make a successful living. My experience is that most often, it’s the other way around. I’ve found that successful people tend to love what they do. The way I built my business is an example of this. And more importantly, you can do the same.

Allow me to explain.

The marketing profession can be REALLY dull

I got into marketing in 1987 and immediately found the profession fascinating. However, working as a marketing consultant for my employers bored me to tears.

  • There were too many dull meetings.
  • 12 hour work days were common. 5 hours a day is more than enough.
  • Lots of time was wasted in traffic and travelling.
  • There were too many boring clients.

I knew there had to be a better way.

So, when I started my own marketing business in 1995, I changed everything. And it worked. Beautifully.

In many ways, I haven’t worked a day since.

  • I hand-pick my clients, so I only work with people I like, who have a business worth marketing.
  • I don’t need to pitch for new clients, I attract client leads and accept the most interesting ones.
  • I work from a high-energy digital studio, rather than a boring office.
  • I start every morning with exercise, so I am energized for the day.
  • I work fewer hours than anyone I know. Way, way fewer hours.
  • I work with business owners worldwide, but let technology do all the travelling.
  • And all of this was possible, because I marketed my business intentionally, to build the business I truly wanted.

That’s why every day, I get to do what I love. If God gives me the strength, I hope to be doing this for the rest of my life.

Redesigning YOUR business model. Improving your quality of life

You deserve to own a successful business, which makes you feel happy, motivated and inspired. On every level!

  • This means picking your clients, not allowing them to pick you.
  • It means earning enough to support the lifestyle you want, not lowering your quality of life to match an income that’s too low.
  • It means having the freedom to spend time with your family and friends every day, not just the weekends.
  • It means truly enjoying life every day, not just when you’re on vacation or retired.

In short, you are free to build whatever kind of business you want. If you want a business that truly inspires you, I can help.

Here’s a proven way to quickly boost your profits

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marketing blogs, marketing help

If you want to generate high quality sales extremely quickly, I have a powerful, proven idea for you. It’s based on a strategy I use with my clients, which has produced amazing results.

It can work for you too. Here’s what you need to know.

It’s based on 3 Facts, plus 1 question

I want you to think about the following 3 facts, regarding your clients or customers:

  1. These good people trust you.
  2. They also have an existing trading relationship with you. In other words, they are used to working with you, receiving invoices from you and paying you. They also know you provide them with an excellent service.
  3. Because of those previous 2 points, making additional purchases from you is seen as low risk or no risk.

Now answer this question:

What additional, useful product or service could you offer to your existing clients or customers?

Here’s why this strategy is so effective

Selling to your existing clients has 2 huge advantages over selling to strangers:

  1. The process is very quick, because of the 3 facts I just mentioned. This makes it perfect, if you want or need to increase your sales, revenues and profits quickly.
  2. By offering more high value services to your clients, you become more valued as a provider. This makes them less likely to switch to an alternative provider. So, as well as making your clients more profitable, you also increase your chances of retaining their custom.

The bottom line here is this: If you’re looking for the fastest and least expensive way to generate far higher revenues and profits, this could be it.

If not, it’s pretty darn close.

Does your work have your signature?

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Does your work have your signature?

Wouldn’t it be useful, if you were able to make your business, product or service stand out?

If you know the work of any famous painter, it’s easy to identify their art. Great artists stand out because their style is almost like a signature. It’s something unique to them.

They may use the same type of paint, brushes and canvas as thousands of others, but what they do with those materials is uniquely them.

Interestingly, we find when studying the work of any successful business person, that his or her work is just as individual as a famous painter. They may use the same business tools as thousands of others, but what they do with those tools is uniquely ‘them’. It’s their signature.

What are you focusing on?

That’s an important question. For example, millions of business owners use email marketing, yet their message is predictable and lacks their unique signature. Millions of business owners use social networks, mostly in a very predictable way, with no unique signature.

Success comes from stepping away from the masses and doing things your way. For example.

  • If you want more followers, do something worth following. Don’t copy what everyone else is saying.
  • If you want more word of mouth referrals, do something worth talking about. Don’t copy what everyone else is doing.
  • If you want to attract higher fees, do something worth paying more for. Don’t copy what everyone else is offering.

Dr. Seuss was right when he said, “Why fit in when you were born to stand out?” Your uniqueness is your greatest asset. Be yourself. That’s all you need to be.

How to build a remarkable enterprise

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Marketing blogs, marketing help

Today, I’m giving you a super-effective strategy to help you build a truly remarkable business.

Its all about seeking inspiration from the very best companies in the world.

Business owners tend to measure their business, products or services against whatever their competitors are doing. That sets a low ceiling on their potential.

Here’s a better strategy

Think how much higher your business could fly, if you decided to:

This strategy will inspire you to think on a far higher level. It will motivate you to expect more from your business. It will set you apart from all your competitors.

And that’s a powerful way to build a remarkable enterprise.

7 tips to turn your blog into a lead generating machine

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marketing blogs, content marketing

Here are 7 tips to help you get massively more sales leads from your business blog.

Blog Tip 1: Have something to say that’s worth reading

People have never been busier than they are today. Equally, there has never been so much choice regarding what they can read. For a blog to attract readers and then retain those readers, it needs to offer something, which is meaningfully different. The majority of blogs don’t do this. They are predictable. They have no distinct voice. They simply add to the noise.

The key is to tell us what you think. Give us your opinion. Not an echo of what everyone else is saying. Allow your personality to shine through your words. Only by embracing your unique perspective can you hope to stand out, grab people’s attention and then inspire them to keep coming back.

Blog Tip 2: Show up regularly

We can’t expect people to return to a blog, even a well-written blog, if there’s seldom any new content for them to read.

If you want people to visit your blog regularly, publish new content regularly. Keep your blog fresh. The more often you publish useful content, the faster your readership will grow.

Bonus: When a new reader arrives on a blog, which has been regularly updated over a period of months or years, they get a powerful message. They can see that the blogger can be relied upon to stick with a project. Before a new client speaks to me, they already know I can be relied upon. This helps build trust. It makes the decision to hire me a great deal easier. Think about that for a moment.

Blog Tip 3: Create a powerful initial impression

It has never been easier or less expensive to have a professional looking blog. Despite this, many small business owners use ugly, outdated blog themes. As a result they look amateurish. People tend not to treat information on amateur looking blogs very seriously. We expect professionals to look professional.

Publishing useful ideas on an ugly looking blog, is like a restaurant serving you a delicious meal… on a dirty plate.

Think about it: There are only 2 reasons why a business would operate behind an amateur looking blog:

  1. They think it’s OK to allow poor quality work (design) to represent them and their values.
  2. They can’t afford a professional looking blog.

Neither of those options reflect well on the blog owner.

If your blog looks tired or dated, invest in a new blog theme. One that creates a powerful, positive impression. This sets a professional tone for what your visitors are about to read.

This leads on nicely to the next point.

Blog Tip 4: Be visible on mobile devices

An increasing number of people view the internet using their phones or tablets. If a site is hard to read on their mobile device, they leave. Despite this, an alarming number of business blogs are still not mobile friendly. In other words, they are hard to read or navigate when using a mobile device.

Almost all modern blog themes are mobile ready. However, if your theme is more than a few years old, it’s worth checking how it looks on phones and tablets.

If your blog doesn’t perform well on mobile devices, you will lose visitors before they even start reading what you have to say. Depending on your industry, you could be offering a bad user experience to 80% or more (and growing), of your potential readers!

Blog Tip 5: Stop selling

Most small business bloggers turn almost every post into a sales pitch. Instead of being interesting and offering useful information, these posts read like a series of thinly-disguised advertisements. The challenge with that approach is that people are not interested in reading ads, linking to ads or sharing ads with their friends.

Instead, focus on contribution. Be generous. Provide answers.

Remember that the process of giving and receiving, starts with the giving part. Offer valuable information, which people will want to read, link to and share. Then, when they need to hire an expert, they already know who you are. They’re also massively more likely to hire you, because they’re familiar with you and your expertise, via your blog posts. 

You’re a safe bet.

A reliable option.

So, hiring you becomes an easy decision!

I place a call to action below each post, welcoming readers to get in touch if they’d like me to help them. However, selling my service is never the subject of the post. It’s all about offering useful information to the reader. Always.

Blog Tip 6: Make blogging a high priority business activity

Most business bloggers regard blogging as a low-level marketing activity. So they starve their blog of the resources it needs, in order for it to be a lead generating machine for their business.

They’ll happily spend time every day using Facebook or Linkedin, yet they invest very little time building their blog. As a result, their blog never gets the momentum it needs.

In addition, business owners will often place their blog on a cheap hosting account. This can lead to lots of down-time. Cheap hosting usually causes blogs to run slower too. People won’t hang around for a blog to load. So get the best hosting you can afford.

Treat your blog as a high priority business asset. Invest in it correctly and you’ll end up with a powerful marketing asset. One that grows in value all the time.

Blog Tip 7: Play the long game

A key reason why so many potentially great blogs fail, is that the owner quits too soon. Their expectations are unrealistic and it’s not always their fault.

The internet is packed with content marketing gurus, spreading bullshit. They say that if you use their “system” or buy their latest piece of junk, you can turn your blog into a goldmine in weeks. It’s snake oil… snake oil designed to exploit people, who don’t know better.

Even if you are doing everything correctly, it takes time for you to attract (and keep re-earning), the attention of a sizeable, growing readership. Business blogging is not an overnight success proposition, so play the long game.

I hope you found these tips and ideas useful. More importantly, I hope they inspire you to get the most from business blogging.

Tip: You can get my latest ideas delivered direct to your inbox, for free, right here.

Here’s what to do, when they say you’re too expensive!

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marketing, too expensive

If you are sick of talking to fee sensitive prospective clients, you are making 1 or more of 3 marketing mistakes, which I am going to share with you right now — along with the solution.

Let’s get started!

A quick look at value

I want to start by looking at the way your prospective clients think about value:

  • It’s always too expensive, when the price or fee is considerably greater than the value.
  • It’s always great value, when the price or fee is considerably lower than the value.

To get that price / value balance right, we have 2 options:

  1. We can pump more value into the product or service.
  2. We can lower the price.

The race to the bottom

Most small business owners focus on lowering prices or fees, in order to make themselves appear better value. This is why we often see competing businesses in that dreaded race to the bottom. The race to the bottom is where business owners race to out-discount one another. It’s a low leverage, low profit and totally unnecessary way to run a business.

  • Here’s the thing about slashing your prices: Your prospective customers will still be able to go to Google and find 20 lower priced alternatives to you, in minutes.
    • Note: The bargain-shopping clients who put “cheap” before everything else are the worst clients to work for. They’re the least profitable, plus they dump providers as soon as a cheaper alternative comes along.
  • Here’s the thing about increasing your value: High value providers are rare. Rare value comes at a premium, which the right clients are happy to pay for.

3 questions you need to answer

Firstly: Have you put so much value into your product or service, that the price or fee represents great value? As every quality brand will confirm, we can always sell a superb product or service for a great price. However, we are fooling ourselves if we expect prospective customers to pay a premium, for something that’s average or close to average.

Secondly: If you have created a product or service that represents outstanding value, is that value clear from your marketing? In other words, when a prospective customer reads your marketing or talks with you, can they easily see a clear reason why your services are of great value? Use the best copywriter you can afford, to make the value obvious, attractive and crystal clear. I find the vast majority of small business owners get this wrong and use DIY copywriting, thinking they are saving money. In reality, it’s losing them a fortune… every day!

Finally: Is your marketing attracting the right type of leads or enquiries? You can provide an amazing service, offered at a wonderful price, but if the people responding to your marketing can’t afford it, you’re wasting your time.

For example: A diamond ring that’s worth a million dollars, would be amazing value if offered for sale at $10,000. However, if you’re trying to sell it to someone, who knows the value, but is broke, they can’t buy it.

Getting your value balance right

Lowering a price is easy. It can be done in seconds. However, it locks you into a race to the bottom. It also acts like a magnet to fee sensitive clients and customers.

Instead, look for inconsistencies between what you charge, what you offer, how you market it and who you are marketing to.