Jim Connolly Marketing

Within seconds

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first impressions, decision making, creative marketing

Think about it.

Many important decisions you make, are well on their way to being made within seconds.

  • Enter any store and within seconds, you’ll get a feel for whether the place is likely to be expensive, inexpensive, thriving, quiet, independent, national chain, aimed at a certain age-range and so on.
  • Open an email and within seconds, you’ll decide if it’s important or an instant delete.
  • Read the title of an article or newsletter and within seconds, you’ll decide to read it or scroll past it.
  • Read the marketing messages of any company and within seconds, you’ll have a good idea if their product or service is suitable for you.
  • Talk with a service provider and within seconds, you’ll start deciding if they’re professional or not.
  • Return a faulty product to a store, and within seconds you’ll know how helpful or accommodating they’re likely to be.

In the same way that you and I start to form our opinions within seconds, so do our prospects. That’s why we need to create a strong first impression.

Here’s a useful way to get started

Take some time to consider what you want your prospects to feel about your business, in order for them to buy from you or hire you. Universally, you will need prospects to feel they can trust you.

Other feelings will vary depending on things like your industry, the type of prospects you seek to serve and the way you’ve positioned your business. For some of you that will be exciting, creative, cutting edge and dynamic. For others that will be safe, consistent, secure and established.

Then think of all the places where your prospects are likely to encounter you or your business. The places where initial opinions are formed in seconds. For example; on your website, at your premises, on your social media accounts, at a networking group, through an advertisement, on a webinar, at a conference or event, etc.

Make a list. Write it down.

At this point you know how you want your prospects to feel, and the places where they’re likely to encounter you.

It’s now time to check out how consistent your business is with those feelings, in those places. Anything that’s inconsistent needs to be removed, or replaced with a consistent alternative. As you go through this process in each of the relevant places, you’ll make it easier and easier for prospects to choose your business. 

Your prospects will form their initial impressions of you
and your business, regardless. So, take control!

Help them to feel that you’re exactly what they’re looking for. The best fit. And the obvious choice.

The difference is huge. No. Bigger than that

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creative marketing, small business, Jim Connolly

You can tell a massive amount about a business by looking at its client list.

  • When you look at successful small businesses, you’ll find they are very selective regarding who they choose as clients.
  • When you look at the typical small business, you find their clients choose them!

The difference?

When you are selective regarding who you accept as a client, you get to work with people who value you and what you do. You get to work on projects that inspire you. You get paid on time, every time. You also do your best work under these conditions, resulting in happier clients and more referrals.

Plus, because birds of a feather flock together, the referrals from these high-value clients are likely to be high-value too.

When you are less selective, you end up with too many low-value clients. Too many bland projects. Too many past due invoices. Too few referrals. 

Whilst it may be tempting to accept whichever clients come along, there’s no medium or longer-term benefit. Yes, if you’re 30 days away from not being able to pay the rent, take it. But get selective as soon as you can.

How do you attract the best clients for your business?

I’m glad you asked.

Go deep and narrow

Focus on the very best prospective clients. And only focus on a limited number. In other words, build a list of fantastic prospective clients, which is deep enough for you to be able to study. You can then get to know more about them and what’s important to them.

How narrow? If you would smash your current revenues, profits and general growth goals with 20 more fantastic clients, focus your efforts on 40.

Targeting

Target your marketing, so that it reaches the right people. Use your inner Sherlock Holmes to discover who your ideal prospective clients are.

Okay. You don’t need to be Sherlock.

Simply use your preferred search/answer engine and look for clients who get great reviews from their own clients or customers. There’s often some valuable clues there. Also, do a bit of digging in the social platforms their industry tends to use.

Be just what they wanted

Next, craft your marketing messaging, so that it’s exactly what your ideal profile of client wants to hear. If at all possible, don’t use AI to copywrite your marketing messaging. If you do use AI, get someone who knows more about marketing than you, to review it. AI is okay(ish) for content, but ineffective for copywriting, which is a lot trickier.

Note: You’re not saving money by refusing to pay a local copywriter a few hundred dollars to write this properly.

Finally: Provide the substance

Our prospective clients are a lot less trusting than they used to be. It makes sense. We live in the age of fake news, deep fakes and amazing AI images. Any service provider can claim anything and look the part, too.

This is why it’s essential to provide substance to any promises and/or claims made in our marketing. We can be sure that before any prospect decides to contact you, they will do a degree of research first. This has always been important.

But in 2026 it’s essential.

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.