Jim Connolly Marketing

Useful tips that every business owner should know

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marketing blogs, marketing help

Here are 7  success tips that every business owner should know.

  1. Be stingy with your time, but not your ideas. Once you give an hour of your time to someone, that hour has gone. If you give an idea to someone, you still have that idea. Plus, you just helped someone. Read this.
  2. Be quick to forgive. While you’re holding a grudge, they’re out dancing.
  3. Exercise regularly and eat well. Running a successful business takes energy and clear thinking. A lot of business owners fail, simply because they lack the energy and clarity required. Here’s what happens to your brain when you exercise.
  4. Learn to become a better decision maker. Remember, the decision to be indecisive is also a decision. Read this.
  5. Look for the gold dust in every situation. It’s always there. You just need to find it. Here’s where some of your gold dust is waiting.
  6. Consider firing your worst clients. Then invest the time you spent with them, delighting your best clients. [I got that tip from Seth Godin. Thanks, Seth.]
  7. Be choosey who you associate with. It’s hard to feel positive or make meaningful progress, when you’re associating with negative people. Spend time with people who are going nowhere, and one day, everything they have will be yours!

I hope you found these quick tips useful. More importantly, I hope you do something with them.

Hurry while stocks last

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how to set prices right, get prices right

Is your business benefitting from one of the most powerful principles in marketing?

You’ve seen it happen again and again. The media reports that something is about to be in short supply. Then, all of a sudden, we see footage of people standing in line… just so they can get it before it runs out.

Whether it’s the new, must-have smartphone or the latest hot Christmas present, demand shoots through the roof as soon as people think they could miss out. It happens because of something Dr. Robert Cialdini calls the principle of scarcity.

So, here’s my question for you:

Is there a product or service you offer to your clients, which has limited availability built-in?

If not, create one now. Otherwise you’re leaving money on the table.

Marketing tip: Finish strong. Always!

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marketing delivery

My friends Colleen and Matt went for a meal recently. It wasn’t a pleasant experience. Matt’s dessert arrived on a dirty plate. They told me that from that moment onward, their dining experience was ruined.

That restaurant could have the best chef. It could use the freshest ingredients and have the highest hygiene standards. Their staff could be top of the pile, too. It doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter because they allowed food to be served to a diner on a dirty plate.

Imagine you decide to send flowers to a loved one. It doesn’t matter that the florist picked the most beautiful flowers and arranged them with amazing artistry… if they fail to deliver them with care and your loved one receives flowers that were damaged in transit.

The lesson here is simple: We can ruin a great deal of hard work and maybe lose customers, if we fail to pay close attention to the way we present the end product.

How to create a successful future for your business

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business development, marketing tips, marketing help

When you look to the months or years ahead for your business, what are the main things you focus on?

I ask you this question, because many small business owners can increase their results and reduce their stress, by making 1 simple adjustment to their thinking.

Here’s what you need to know.

Out of our control

There are some things in business that we can’t control. For example, the arrival of a super-smart competitor. The economy. The next trend.

When faced with these uncertainties, we have a couple of options. We can worry about the things we can’t control or we can focus on the things we can control.

  • Worry is both a waste of time and highly toxic. It’s bad for our health. It’s bad for our business. It leads us into making bad decisions. It damages our confidence too.
  • Conversely, focusing on things within our control is a highly effective, proven approach to business success.

Within our control

By focusing on what you can control, you place yourself in the driving seat. The destination of your business is under your direction. You can then put ideas and strategies in place, to make your business stronger.

You can set your sail for what you want to achieve, whatever the winds of change throw at you.

None of us know what the future holds for our industry, our marketplace or our economy. However, the world’s most successful business owners have shown time and time again, that so long as we focus on what we’re able to control, the future can be ours.

PS: Here are 21 habits behind highly successful business owners.

What you need to know about the stupid people who don’t hire you

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marketing tips, clarity, content

I heard a business owner earlier making an amazing statement. Here’s what he said, along with a massively valuable marketing lesson.

The business owner was being interviewed on local radio. They asked him how his business was doing. He replied that it was really struggling. When they asked him why, he replied:

“That’s simple. The marketplace is too stupid to understand how good my service is, so they hire cheaper providers”.

I guess that’s one way to look at things.

He was wrong. Very, very wrong!

Clearly, when prospective customers are failing to understand the value of the services you provide, it’s your job to build a better, clearer marketing message. Writing the marketplace off as being stupid is… well… stupid. It also shifts the focus away from the business owner [who can fix the issue] to the prospective customer [who can’t].

Some far more useful alternatives

If your prospective customers are failing to understand the value you bring, there are lots of things you can do. Here are just a few.

  • Make sure YOU are 100% clear on the value of your service. Check that you’re offering a compelling reason why prospective clients need what you provide. Demonstrate the extra [whatever] you offer, which they can’t get from a competitor. Note: If you can’t explain why they should use your service over a competitor’s service, you’re not ready to market your service yet.
  • Hire a professional marketing copywriter. This is the least expensive, fastest and most effective option. You pay a professional to style your hair, right? You pay a professional to look after your teeth too. So, pay a professional to create a compelling marketing message for your business.
    Tip: If you think your business isn’t worth hiring a professional for, get a job.
  • If you insist on creating your own marketing message, try being clearer. Cut the fluff from your message. Get to the point. Embrace brevity.
    Tip: Don’t write your web copy for Google. Really. Don’t!
  • Then test that new, clearer message on a selection of prospective customers. See if they have a clearer idea of the message you want to convey. If they understand it, others are likely to understand it too.
  • If they still don’t understand your message, try explaining things using more forms of media. So, if it was originally a written marketing message, add video, images, graphs or audio.

There are more customers and clients out there than you could ever need. Plus, it has never been easier to reach them. This means you never need to settle for a business that’s under performing.

It’s 100% within your control.

Let’s get engaged

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engaged observers

One of the most effective ways to grow a business, is to become an engaged observer. It’s a skill that anyone can learn and the results can be incredible [and fast].

Here’s an example of what I mean.

  • When a typical business owner finds a useful website, they’ll read it and bookmark it.
  • An engaged observer will do the same. However, they will also look deeper into the design and content of the website, to see what makes it so valuable. They’ll then consider if any of the lessons can be adapted into their own site.

Here’s another example.

  • A typical business owner will look through their mail and email, decide what’s worth opening and discard the rest.
  • An engaged observer will do the same. However, they will also spend a little time identifying what made some of those messages look valuable enough to open. They’ll then consider if any of the lessons can be adapted into their own marketing letters and emails.

Engaged observers look beyond the obvious. They’re always studying what works. It’s not about copying. It’s about learning from the success of others and adapting it, so that it works for you.