Jim Connolly Marketing

The stupid game

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get noticed, marketing, AI

You want to get noticed in a non-stop world. Great! I’m going to show you how to get started.

First, I want to share something weird with you.

Did you know that using AI on a task as simple as writing a pretend essay, can negatively impact your brain?

Here’s some background. Plus, why a less mentioned side of AI, contributes to all the look-a-like junk out there… and how YOU can cut through it!

The weird

A scientific study at MIT, scanned the brains of volunteers in a simple test. One group of volunteers was asked to use ChatGPT to help them write an essay. Another group was asked to write the essay without AI. 

Despite how simple the task was, the EEG scans of those using AI for the task showed poorer judgement, reduced brain engagement and memory loss, where they couldn’t remember key parts of their essay.

All of that came from one, easy, zero pressure task.  

Now imagine a business owner, using AI regularly across stressful, important, commercial tasks. Such as: strategy development, strategic planning, project notes, reports for clients, marketing copy, advertising, graphic design, social content. 

I know many, many businesses that rely on AI for all or most of the above. And many more, who rely so heavily on AI, that almost every written word they publish is AI or AI, plus light, human editing. 

The ‘voice’ of businesses like these have been silenced, or are being silenced. Very little human input. No uniqueness. HUMAN SLOP!

Nothing to see, worth seeing.

Nothing to read, worth reading.

Nothing to say, worth hearing.

Why does that even matter? Because our uniqueness is all you and I have!

The stupid game

Everyone’s trying to find the perfect social platform for them to make a big impact.

Everyone’s convinced they need a personal brand, when all that does is make them even less visible. These people conform to a predictable, personal branding recipe. They emerge somewhat synthetic. Lacking their uniqueness. Camouflaged.

Everyone’s using AI.

Everyone’s trying to beat the algorithm.

Everyone’s attempting to create the best prompts.

Everyone’s testing hashtags.

Everyone’s optimizing their content, their photos, their marketing copy, their subject lines, their titles, their message, their timings for mailings, articles and posts.

Everyone’s trying to get noticed… just like everyone else.

Thankfully

Some people are cutting through that cheap, nasty, unhealthy noise.

And they’re actually getting noticed. Ironically, that’s the very thing the busy, directionless, confused masses are working tirelessly to achieve.

How are those people getting noticed?

By refusing to play the stupid game.

Instead.

  • They embrace organic. They make space for analogue. As in, face-to-face human interactions.
  • They refuse to become part of the nonsense, which causes human slop.
  • They keep their minds sharp, by using them.
  • They publish or post when they have something to contribute. Something useful. Something they created.
  • They focus on people. Not algorithms.
  • They build systems for their business, not prompts for their AIs.

You are enough.

And the more people playing the stupid game, the more visible you become.

Just by being YOU. And letting the right people learn who YOU are.

It motivates people to take action, now

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Motivate buyers, buy now, marketing

Here’s the foundation of all successful marketing. In just 7 words.

It motivates people to take action, now.

I’ll break that down into 3 steps. Then, I’ll show you how to put it to work for your business.

  1. It motivates people: It gives them a compelling reason. A reason, which is powerful enough to grab their attention and generate enough desire within them that they’re ready for the next step.
  2. To take action: It makes a direct request. It asks them to; call us, click here, proceed to checkout, visit us, read this, subscribe, etc.
  3. Now: It asks them, whilst their motivation is high, to take the action required. Right now. Straight away. That’s because even if they love what you said and are genuinely interested, their attention will soon jump onto the next thing. This could be a notification on their phone, a delivery person might arrive with a package for them or they suddenly notice it’s time to meet their friend for lunch… and you’ll lose them. They tell themselves “I’ll do it later” and later becomes never.

Small business owners using AI for marketing copywriting will find all 3 of those essential elements are weak or toxic. Weak as in just too generic and not compelling enough.

For the small business owners who write their own copy, you’re usually weak in only 1 of those essential steps. It’s either not motivating enough, lacks a direct call to action or doesn’t generate sufficient urgency. It’s easy for you to fix and will greatly improve your results, when done correctly.

The solution

Take a look at all your marketing messages and check you have all 3 of those steps fully covered. Try to be as open-minded as possible. Make sure it’s motivating, action driven and urgent. If you think any of those areas can be improved, improve them. Repeat this process until you have fully maximized everything.

And remember, one of the most powerful forms of marketing right now, is to allow those things that make you unique, to shine through. 

So, be yourself.

Your uniqueness has never, ever been more attractive to your prospects. 

Photo by Ann H on Pexels.com

Is your business one of the 50% that prospects now avoid? Probably!

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Anti AI, Avoid AI business, Business AI content, AI pushback

Photo by Polina Tankilevitch on Pexels.com

Are you getting fewer and fewer customer enquiries? Did you assume it’s mostly down to the economy? 

It’s entirely possible that most, or almost all of this, is because half your prospects are now eager to avoid you.

This is big.

Let’s go!

As everyone reading this will have noticed, posts on LinkedIn have started to sound increasingly familiar. The same is true of the messages you see on social platforms and even in flyers. 

As you know, this is down to the mainstream use of AI for content and copy. Most of you will be using it, as small business owners were very early adopters.

I recommend you stop.

Here’s why.

Deep, dangerous camouflage

Regular readers will know that when small business owners in the same industry offer a similar range of services, charged similar prices, etc., it camouflages them. In short: they sound so similar, that none stood out.

THIS IS SO MUCH WORSE!

Around a year ago, the camouflage became even worse for their business. And in the past few months, it’s become full-on dangerous.

That’s because just as you quickly spot content written by AI, so can your prospects. You no longer offer similar(ish) services, prices, etc., to your competitors you offer them with an AI voice, just like they do.

Danger?

No. DEEP danger!

You, your business and your services have now relocated into the AI bucket. This bucket contains businesses of every stripe, which consumers identify as sounding familiar to each other. You’re in there with pest control, accountancy, roofing, web design, bars… everything giving off that familiar messaging signal.

Why is this massive problem getting even worse?

50%, (and growing) of prospects will avoid you

For around a year, AI marketing messaging was a minority thing. As usage increased, people started to look out for it. Now, we’re unconsciously looking for ‘tells’ whenever we read content. We’re spotting it, without even trying.

We’re also witnessing a huge, and growing, AI pushback. In March, an AI survey from Gartner found 68% of people frequently wonder whether the AI content and information they see is real! Your prospects simply do not trust it.

And in that same survey above, 50% of people said they prefer NOT to give their business to brands using it. This number is growing.

As I wrote recently, on it’s own, AI content (not copywriting) looks okay. It reads fine, too. That’s why millions and millions of small business owners use it daily. And no one ever thinks THEIR AI copy looks like AI. After all, they edited it. Probably unaware EVERYONE edits it.

Here’s the thing: AI copy is everywhere, always with that familiarity… it’s putting your business into a group that’s being avoided. It’s causing prospects to consider if what you’re saying is even real.

It’s your decision, but I recommend you get out of that group.

Keep your messaging human.

Use AI where it works for you, turning a 1-hour boring task into a 10-second breeze.

But for goodness sake, make your connection with your marketplace human and trusted. That’s where the GROWING demand is.

Give your best ideas away for free. Here’s why

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content marketing

What I’m about to share with you may sound a little counter-intuitive. It isn’t. In fact, it could help you achieve breakthrough results.

Allow me to explain.

I come across the following problem a lot. Mainly from service providers, who are struggling to attract new clients with their content marketing.

Their primary concern looks something like this.

I know I need to provide good, free advice via my content. But surely if I give my best ideas away for free, no one will pay to hire me?

I’ve already explained why you should be stingy with your time, but not your ideas. However, there’s another, excellent reason why you should provide outstanding, free advice.

And it’s this

Think for a moment about the alternative.

Imagine you publish newsletters, videos, a blog or a podcast. Now let’s also imagine that instead of sharing great advice, you share weaker information. Average stuff. Nothing special. Nothing that really stands out.

Guess what?

You’ve just given your marketplace a weak, low-impact insight into your work. You’ve painted a lousy picture of how good you are.

So, not only will people be highly unlikely to hire you, they’ll also be unlikely to share your newsletters, videos, podcasts, blog posts or subscribe to you. 

That’s a huge lose, lose.

No. It’s actually a lose, lose, lose, because you’ll also be damaging your reputation as a knowledgeable professional. Ouch!

Here’s what really happens when you give great free advice

Firstly, we have the freebie hunters
Yes, freebie hunters will gobble up all your free advice. It’s what they do… acting like a vacuum cleaner, sucking up anything that’s free. 

But that doesn’t lose you a penny. 

Why? 

Because freebie hunters were never going to hire you anyway. These people are the dabblers. The DIYers. So, they were never a prospective client. 

Secondly, we have the givers
These are a subset of genuine, prospective clients. Yes, they’ll take your free advice and do the work themselves… but unlike the freebie hunters, they appreciate the value you bring. So, when they value your work. They will subscribe. They will share your work with their contacts. That’s how the most successful content marketing successful spreads. Also, I know from experience that many of them will later hire you.

Thirdly, we have professionals, who respect their time
They love the peace-of-mind that comes from getting expert help. They value professionalism. These prospective clients will hire you, so you can do the job properly for them. 

How do I know with 100% certainty that this works?

Simple: it’s how I grew my own business.

AI is wiping out your competitors. Now take their market share

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AI Marketing, AI mistakes, small business marketing

Photo by Tara Winstead

Today, AI is causing a lot of anxiety for small business owners. I’d like to help you eliminate this anxiety, and equip you to wipe the floor with your AI heavy competitors.

Here’s the thing: from a marketing perspective, where AI is useful, it’s useful. But where AI is terrible, it’s really, really terrible.

The useful: AI can write content for social media posts and LinkedIn that’s better than the average business owner. AI has made it quicker and easier to get an image for your marketing. It’s also very useful for making social media cards.

The terrible: AI has critically serious problems when it comes to marketing. 

How serious? 

This serious!

Any business using AI for all or most of its marketing, that doesn’t have an experienced marketing professional overseeing everything, is in danger of wiping itself off the map. And the heavier they lean into AI marketing, the faster it will happen.

In fact, that’s what inspired me to write this for you. Members of the newsletter community have emailed over the past month, wondering why AI marketing doesn’t work for them. It’s not a coincidence. Several said trialing AI marketing was a New Year’s resolution. This is about the time I’d expect them to start struggling. 

Here’s how AI struggles with marketing

AI has no intuitive understanding of the realities of the physical world, which humans take for granted

What does this mean? AI sounds like a world-class marketing expert. It will sound this confident, as it suggests a marketing tactic, that cannot work when it comes into contact with reality. It will then work hard to convince users it’s a great idea. And AI is trained to be very convincing. To a user with just a basic understanding of marketing, the tactic will sound like a winner. 

It will be deployed. 

It will fail.

Every day, people are losing their reputations, their clients, their businesses, their contacts and their money as a result.

AI gives you answers and ideas, based on biased training information

Why is that a problem for your marketing?

It’s a massive problem, because the training data always contains the biases and goals of the AI provider.

We’ve all seen examples in the news, of politically biased answers, especially during the run-up to an election. We’ve seen examples of answers that trend toward recommending you use a certain product or service. And examples where if you ask it about the CEO of the AI, it will provide a doctored answer, based on what it’s been trained to say.

AI is blind to all non-obvious marketing opportunities

As you know, the best opportunities are never obvious. The problem? AI can’t spot a non-obvious opportunity. Why? It cannot make a move that seems to go against the data. This inability on the part of AIs, means those leaning into AI for their marketing will miss all the biggest wins. 

AI can’t take ownership of the risk

This is something one of the newsletter community mentioned in their email to me. And it’s a big deal. AI cannot absorb financial loss, fix reputational damage, accept legal liability,etc.

As the reader discovered, when advice or recommendations fail, all real-world impact falls on you. She explained how AI talked her into a $200 Google Ads investment. It wrote the ad and explained exactly what to do. The ad failed. The AI immediately said this was useful feedback and it now knew exactly what to say to make it work. She tried another $200. Again, it failed.

It’s only $400, you might say.

But $400 when her business is fighting for survival is a lot of money. 

Your opportunity today is huge

Right now, a lot of your competitors are wasting a lot of their time and missing a lot of new customers or clients. They’re gifting you a rare opportunity to own their share of the market. 

How? 

By not reacting to AI as a threat. 

It isn’t a threat to you. 

It’s your friend.

Yes, if you have a good eye, use AI for graphics.

Yes, if you need research for your marketing, let AI handle it. [Important: make sure you insist on a checkable source for everything, and tell AI to avoid anything on Reddit].

Yes, if you find writing for social media challenging, tell AI who you’re trying to reach and what you want your post to achieve; an enquiry, to subscribe to your podcast, to book a discovery call with you, etc. And let AI do it!

Your big win in May 2026 comes when you get smart!

Use actual, real world, proven, trusted, skin-in-the-game marketing. It works better today than at any time in my business’ 30-year history. 

Think about it: without even knowing it, lots of your competition is self-sabotaging today, to leave you with doors wide open all over your marketplace. How exciting is that! (no that’s not supposed to be a question mark, it’s supposed to be a motivating exclamation mark!). 

I’m really excited to help readers wipe out their competition. Not all of it, just enough to improve your life. So, what are you waiting for?

Powerful words for your marketing toolbox. Part 2

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marketing words, powerful words, words that sell, small business

Here’s another bunch of words you should use, to make more sales from your marketing. The previous list is here → Powerful words for your marketing toolbox.

As before, these are in no particular order. 

Ready? Let’s go!

Discover

Discover creates a sense of curiosity and opportunity. It suggests there’s something the reader doesn’t yet know, which is worth knowing. Compare ‘Find the secret that unlocks your potential’ with ‘Discover the secret that unlocks your potential’. 

Find makes the next step feel dry. Discovermakes it feel like an adventure.

Results

Results is a word that cuts to the chase. It’s the bottom line. The outcome. Prospects don’t buy products or services. They buy outcomes.

When you use the word results, you’re speaking directly to what they actually want. ‘You’ll see results in just 30-days’. It’s powerful.

Immediately

We live in an impatient world. When your prospect knows they’ll get something immediately, a lot of the hesitation disappears. Immediate access. Immediate results. Immediate peace of mind. So, if your product or service delivers something fast, say so.

When I showed small business owners how to get immediate marketing results, it went viral. Why? Because it delivered on the promise. It genuinely shows lots of ways that you can immediately enjoy results. It remains one of the most popular pages on my blog, and has been updated for 2026. 

Because

Because is a word I use regularly in my own marketing copy. And it’s always been effective. Why? It answers the question your prospect is already asking themselves: ‘why should I care about this?’ 

When you give people a reason, they’re far more likely to take action. I used this in my previous newsletter right at the end, when I said ‘Talk about the future as if it’s worth looking forward to. Because for a well-run business, it is’.

The word by itself, sets the reader’s expectation that a justification is coming. And people find that reassuring. This encourages them to read on.

Imagine

Imagine is a remarkable word. It does something powerful, which most marketing words do not. It moves the prospect’s focus from the present moment into the future. ‘Imagine what your business could look like in six months’. 

When you ask someone to imagine something, you’re not simply painting a picture, which by itself is powerful. You’re also inviting them to see their desired outcome. Very few words are more persuasive.

Now what, Jim?

Here’s the thing: the difference between a marketing message that converts and one that doesn’t is often tiny. A single word, well placed, can change the tone from distant and low impact, to NOW and high impact. 

Take a look at an underperforming piece of marketing you’re using. Look for a suitable place in the copy, where you can swap one of the words, for one of the options above. 

Want to make more sales in these fast-moving times, and enjoy the process? 

Well, you can. So let’s chat.