Jim's Marketing Blog

Marketing tips and ideas to help you grow your business

Email marketing doesn’t work

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marketing

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A reader shared an interesting observation with me.

She told me she had “found out the hard way, that email marketing doesn’t work”.

She asked me for my thoughts. I said I’d share them here, as I’m sure some of you will find it useful.

Email marketing works

In fact, it works extremely well. It works predictably, too. Just ask any business owner who’s using it correctly. What doesn’t work is ineffective email marketing. That’s because ineffective email marketing can’t work.

Here are just a few, very common examples of how small business owners get email marketing wrong.

  • A poorly written email won’t work. It will fail to motivate the reader to take action; to call you, email you, visit your website, whatever. And almost all small business marketing emails are DIY attempts, not professionally written.
  • A professionally-written email, sent to the wrong people, won’t work. It will fail to reach those with a demand for your services.
  • A great email, sent to the right people, with the wrong subject line, won’t work. No one will open it.

You get the idea. In short, before you reject any form of marketing as being ineffective, make sure you’re using it correctly.

Stop using buzzwords in your marketing. Really. Stop it

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marketing buzzwords

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One thing in business is certain. There’s no shortage of buzzwords and phrases. Here are just a few that I’ve seen in use recently.

  • Intersection.
  • Deep-dive.
  • Disrupt.
  • Ruckus.
  • Knowledge transfer.
  • Ideate.
  • Pragmatic.
  • Wheelhouse. (As used in “that’s in my wheelhouse”)
  • Paradigm.
  • And all those compound words, ending with ‘hack’ or ‘hacking’

Those buzzwords and countless others, are used by people in an effort to appear informed or fashionable. Interestingly, buzzwords have the total opposite effect.

Here’s how they work against us (and our marketing).

  • Buzzwords make informed people cringe. Not only is this embarrassing, it’s a terrible idea if we want our peers to take us seriously or recommend us.
  • Buzzwords confuse the uninformed. And that’s the last thing we need, when we want people to understand our message.

In short, buzzwords not only add nothing positive to our marketing, they actively weaken it. And because they’re 100% unnecessary, we can remove them with no negative impact.

Remember: One of the keys to effective marketing is to always aim for clarity.

Why?

Because clarity sells.

Is too much choice destroying your marketing results?

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marketing confusion

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How many different levels of service or pricing options do you offer?

That’s a really important question. Because if, like many business owners you offer too many options, it’s needlessly ruining your sales results.

Allow me to explain.

Here’s what happens when we offer too much choice.

  1. The more options we put in front of someone, the more choice they have.
  2. The more choice they have, the harder it is for them to decide.
  3. The harder we make their decision process, the less likely they are to hire us or buy from us.
  4. So, they move on. And we lose a client enquiry. Ouch!

In short: Clarity sells.

Too much choice and ‘toxic complexity’

Too much choice adds what I call toxic complexity to a marketing message.

Toxic, because it causes confusion.

Complexity, because it makes our message too complicated for a prospective client to easily understand.

One of the oldest sayings in marketing is, “A confused mind always says no!”. In other words, when faced with a buying decision, a confused prospective client will not proceed. They’ll say no. And we are the ones who pay the price for their lack of clarity.

The solution?

Seek out unnecessary complexity. I recommend you look at the number of service levels, pricing options and packages you provide. Remember to take into account how many items are listed within each option or package.

Then consider whether you actually need to offer so much choice, so much complexity, so much potential for confusion. And if not, reduce. Everything that needs to be there should remain. But nothing else.

By simplifying the decision making process for your prospective clients, you make it easier for them to hire you or buy from you. And when that decision is easier, more prospective clients will become actual clients.

Copywriting Warning: Using an asterisk can ruin your results

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marketing, disclosure

Photo: Shutterstock.

You’re reading about a product or service.

It sounds amazing.

Then you spot it!

You spot the dreaded *asterisk. And your heart sinks.

You know you’re about to be disappointed. You’re about to discover the caveats, exclusions and conditions, which means that offer isn’t as good as they said it was.

They could have told you the truth without hiding it behind the asterisk. However, they deliberately chose not to. They intentionally concealed it from you. And in a split second, they’ve totally changed how you feel about them.

You wonder what else they’re hiding from you.

And if you only discover afterwards that you’ve been duped, you won’t be happy!

Eliminate the asterisk risk

If a business owner feels they need to hide something behind an asterisk, there are better alternatives.

The easiest is to make the product or service as good as you said. Thus removing the need for an asterisk. This will simultaneously pump more value into your offering, making it more attractive.

Another powerful alternative is this: State, in honest and clear language, exactly what you’re offering. And include whatever would have been behind the asterisk, explaining why it’s there.

For example, imagine it’s an introductory deal, offering your service at a reduced price for the first 3 months. Rather than quote the introductory price (and hide the fact it increases after 3 months, behind an asterisk), tell them. Let them know that you’re so confident they’ll love your service, you’re offering it at a super-low discount, so they can discover for themselves, why it’s outstanding value for money, at the regular price.

Social networks give the marketplace a powerful voice. That voice can either be used to tell everyone how great a vendor is, or how bad a vendor is. Thankfully, business owners get to choose the kind of experience that’s being shared.

That’s why the smartest brands aim for honesty and transparency at every opportunity. And why they refuse to hide the truth behind an asterisk.

It’s time to get emotional. Yes. Really!

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marketing close

Someone recently asked me why her business needed a story. She thought it was, “a load of trendy nonsense”.

When I answered her question, she emailed me back to say it had changed her perception completely. She said it would improve her approach to marketing forever.

So today, I decided to share my answer with you. I hope you find it just as useful.

Why your brand needs a story

My answer begins with a quote from advertising legend, David Ogilvy.

“There isn’t any significant difference between the various brands of whiskey, or cigarettes or beer. They are all about the same”. “[…] The manufacturer who dedicates his advertising to building the most sharply defined personality for his brand will get the largest share of the market at the highest profit”.

That message isn’t new. It was written decades ago, as you can tell from the examples he uses. But it’s even more valid in 2018, than when Ogilvy shared it.

Think about it: Apple’s iPhone is the best selling mobile phone in the world, despite being one of the most expensive. It doesn’t have the best display, the best camera, the best signal reception or the best battery life.

But it does have the best story.

Emotions drive decisions

Your prospective clients or customers are motivated by emotions, far more than logic. The way they feel about you and your brand, is what will drive their decision to hire you, buy from you and recommend you. And it’s your story, which determines how they feel about you.

Build a story, my friend. A story that people will embrace and share.

Is it easy? No.

Is it possible? Yes.

Is it worth the effort? Absolutely!

Content creation: Music, coffee and prayer

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marketing ideas

People often ask me if I follow a routine for content creation.

I do. It’s pretty basic. It’s built around music, coffee and prayer.

  • Music: When I write, I always have music playing in the background. I find lyrics distracting, so I listen to instrumental work. Right now, I’m listening to Kind of Blue by Miles Davis. Other writing companions include John Coltrane, Moby, Bach, Skrillix and Tchaikovsky.
  • Coffee: Once the music is on, I grab some coffee. (By the way, most of my blog posts are 2 coffees long). I’ve seen various studies regarding how coffee works on the brain. I’m not sure there’s any neurological benefit whatsoever. I drink coffee because I love the taste. As a type 2 diabetic, I don’t add sugar. Just a splash of cream.
  • Prayer: This is obviously a very personal part of my routine. Before I start, I say a very simple prayer, asking God to inspire me. I used to try and do everything myself and found it a lot harder.

That’s pretty-much it.

Your content creation routine

Obviously, you need to find something that works for you. And one size does not fit all.

For example, many of my friends can’t have music playing when they work, they don’t drink coffee, and most of them are atheist. There are others I know, who have to write from a coffee shop or café, because the atmosphere gets them into a resourceful state.

The key is to experiment. Try different inputs and atmospheres. Keep what works for you. Discard the rest. You’ll be amazed how much easier your content creation becomes, when you have an effective routine.

By the way, a lot of you have told me that you found the 6 Idea Trick extremely useful, for generating content ideas. If you haven’t tried it already (or you read my stuff via Gmail and never saw the post), give it a try.

NOTE: Gmail users typically miss over 40 percent of my posts. Here’s how to stop that from happening to you.

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