Jim's Marketing Blog

Marketing tips and ideas to help you grow your business

Marketing 101: Use shorter sentences. Here’s why

By |

Here’s a quick copywriting tip, to help you improve your marketing results.

Your prospective clients prefer to read short sentences. This is especially true when explaining detailed information. For example, how your service works.

I’m not suggesting you use fewer words than required. Far from it! Use as many words per sentence as you need. Don’t remove a necessary word. Just don’t use more words than you need.

Why is that, Jim?

Over-long sentences lack impact and clarity. Those are essential for effective marketing. Most amateur writers tend to write over-long. Learning how to write shorter, helps you avoid that mistake.

Tip: One way to shorten sentences without losing anything important, is to remove extraneous words. Look at the 2 examples below.

Jim Connolly marketing, write short
  • People should exercise on a regular basis.
  • People should exercise regularly.
  • We have no news at this point in time.
  • We currently have no news.

A whole story in 6 words

It’s amazing what can be achieved using fewer words. Ernest Hemingway once wrote a story in just 6 words. It’s a powerful story, too.

“For sale. Baby shoes. Never worn”.

Inspired by Hemingway’s brevity, look for opportunities to keep your sentences as short as required. Aim for clarity. Remove the fluff. And keep sentences confined to one thought.

It’s not as simple as it sounds. But if done correctly, your results will reflect the additional effort.

What they want, not what you want

By |

Marketing focus

Which of these approaches do you find the most compelling?

  1. I wrote this blog post, now I want you to read it.
  2. There’s an idea I believe your business will benefit from, so I wrote this post for you.

And which of these 2 do you prefer?

  1. I recorded a business podcast, now I want you to subscribe to it.
  2. Business owners have some pressing challenges, so I created a podcast to help you.

Your marketplace is far more attracted to the second approach in those examples.

Despite this, almost every small business marketing message is based on the first approach. They market from a self-focused mindset, rather than concentrating on the needs (or wants) of their marketplace. And it loses them sales and client enquiries, all day every day.

Smarter marketing

Your marketing needs to be smarter than that, if you want people to hire you or buy from you.

Remember: Every business exists in order to solve problems. Your prospective clients or customers don’t care about what you want. They care about answers to their problems.

What next?

Spend some time reviewing your marketing. Shift the emphasis of any self-focused material, from what you want to what they want. Show them how passionate you are about helping them. Show them you care. And make solving their problems the cornerstone of your marketing messages.

Attract more clients with The Fine Print

By |

the fine print, marketing, the small print

I have something a bit different for you today. It’s a marketing tactic that helps influence people to buy from you or hire you, by destroying preconceptions about the fine print we often find in marketing messages.

Here’s what we all know about the fine print, before we even read it. It’s going to be some kind of disclaimer, informing us that the product or service they just told us about, isn’t as good as they made it sound.

This got me thinking.

What if my clients were to do something amazing and flip the fine print, so that it was a marketing asset for them?

I developed the idea in full. Then, I tested it and measured the results. Finally, I rolled the tactic out to my clients.

Here’s what happened.

Flipping the fine print

My idea was to create a big and positive impact on their cautious prospective clients [or customers]. The kind of prospects that read the fine print. Those who made bad purchasing decisions in the past, or who just like to be thorough.

Anyhow, what I did was to add fine print to my client’s marketing material. But instead of it containing a disclaimer, it gave their prospective clients an additional, motivating reason to make the purchase.

Think about that for a moment: The prospect is braced for a disclaimer, but they find a powerful benefit of my clients product or service, instead. That’s marketing dynamite!

  • It shattered negative preconceptions that their prospective clients might have had.
  • It was memorable for all the right reasons, with prospects often mentioning that they spotted it and it made them feel more reassured.
  • It built trust in my client’s services or products.

And this all combines and compounds, to make the buying decision that much easier.

Hold that thought.

Your prospective clients

Now, let’s think about your prospective clients.

How do you think they would feel about your services, if you added fine print to your marketing, which contained the same kind of preconception-shattering, motivating benefit?

Could it have a similar, positive impact on how your prospects feel about hiring you or buying from you?

Based on years of seeing it work in my client’s marketing, if you do it correctly, I believe it absolutely could.

Your sales figures. Going up!

By |

elevator pitch

Did you know that you can increase your sales in multiple ways, by using a great elevator pitch? Well, you can. It will work for you online and face-to-face. It will open doors for you and help you get noticed. It will help you be remembered by prospective clients or customers, too.

Here’s how you and your business can benefit mightily from this powerful, often misunderstood marketing tool.

It’s not actually a pitch

There are lots of variations, but a common definition of an elevator pitch will go something like this.

A sales pitch that can be delivered in a short period of time [the time it takes to ride an elevator].

That is incorrect. It’s a narrow, literal interpretation of what an elevator pitch is. You are never going to sell anything of value to a stranger in 20-30 seconds. What you absolutely can do, is give a compelling introduction to someone, which will motivate them to want to know more.

In other words, an elevator pitch is a pre-pitch. It’s a short, well-crafted message that inspires the person(s) listening to become interested. Interested enough to give you more time, where you can actually pitch your service or products.

Why you need an elevator pitch

Here are the core business benefits of having a short, well-crafted sales message.

You’ll create a great first impression, fast

When you connect with a prospective client for the first time, you need to be able to make a positive impact quickly. This is true whether it’s face-to-face or online. A motivating elevator pitch will allow you to do exactly that. People are busy and your pitch will ensure they hear what they need to know, with clarity and without delay.

Preparation

It takes time to develop a great elevator pitch. By the time you have it down, you’ll know it by heart. And because it’s a short message, it’s also an easy message to remember. That means it will stick. It also means that whenever you’re in a situation, where someone asks you about your business, you’ll have the perfect answer to hand.

And that’s not all. The feeling of being prepared and knowing you have a powerful message to share, boosts your confidence. And that confidence is then transmitted to whoever is listening, which makes your message vastly more compelling.

How to write your elevator pitch

I strongly recommend you don’t write one from scratch by yourself. Instead, find a free one from a credible source online and refine it, so that it’s directly relevant to you, your services or products. There are hundreds of free examples and templates for you to choose from via your search engine of choice.

Why refine an expertly written elevator pitch, rather than write your own? The toughest form of written marketing is what’s known as writing short. Even professional copywriters struggle with writing short. That’s because you have very few words and every one of them needs to count. You’re trying to motivate, educate and leave a powerful first impression, within those tight confines.

If at all possible, find an industry-specific example to refine. That’s because a different approach is required for every industry. Here’s what I mean. The pitch used by a family law firm will need to be different from that of an oven-cleaning franchise. The pitch used by that oven-cleaning franchise will need to be different from that of a private school.

It’s reasonably easy to create an effective elevator pitch and the benefits massively outweigh the time it will take you. Start with a good quality example or template to work from and you’ll be good to go in no time.

Content marketing topics to grab your prospect’s attention

By |

content marketing topics

I write a lot about the importance of being useful with your marketing. A number of you have asked me if I can give you some specific examples, which you can apply to your content marketing.

And that’s exactly what I’ve done in this post.

Their needs and your products or services

Start off by thinking about the services you provide or your product range. Then, consider the following topics (or theme ideas) and how you can incorporate them into your content marketing messages.

People have an inbuilt need to feel connected: Share ideas to help your prospects connect with useful contacts. The Wall Street Journal wrote about how I achieved this for one of my clients – 4 Marketing Strategies That Paid Off For Small Companies.

We also share a common need for a sense of belonging: Share ideas to help your prospects feel like an integral part of your business. I do this with my newsletter. From day one, I focused on building a reader community of prospective clients. And every day, readers contact me with questions, ideas, updates and concerns… knowing they will always receive a reply from me.

Everyone is trying to succeed at something: Share ideas to help your prospects achieve their targets, goals or dreams. Obviously, as with pretty-much every topic here, if you offer a specific product or service that can help them in this area, incorporate that into the content.

We all need to feel safe and secure: Share ideas to help your prospects reduce risk or feel safer.

Everyone wants to avoid wasting time: Share ideas to help your prospects maximize their time, or help them complete certain tasks faster, etc. I’m not a time management expert, but I’ve shared tons of ideas in this area, based on decades of running a successful business, without working crazy hours. The response is always excellent. So don’t be put off sharing from your experience.

People want to improve and expand their knowledge: Share your industry knowledge, sure. But ALSO share your experience with them. For example, if you’re an accountant, don’t just focus on tax, profit and loss or the latest business news. They can get that anywhere. Tell them the common factors you’ve identified in successful businesses. And the ones you’ve identified in those that flounder or fail. Your experience is extremely valuable.

We also want to avoid unnecessary stress, especially now: Share ideas to help your prospects feel more relaxed and assured. If there’s a specific product or service you offer, which can assist them with this, incorporate that into the message or idea.

Aim for unmissable

Are any of those topics missing from your content marketing? If they are, look for ways to incorporate them. Because this kind of useful, relevant information is the cornerstone of successful marketing. You’ll know you have the balance right, when your content marketing is SO USEFUL that people would miss it if you stopped.

Unleash the power of vigorous, written marketing

By |

vigorous written marketing

Most of the written marketing I see is at least 75% too long. Overlong marketing lacks impact. It also lacks clarity and totally fails to motivate prospective customers or clients.

I want to help you avoid this expensive mistake.

And it starts with one of the best-known quotes on the subject.

Vigorous writing is concise. A sentence should contain no unnecessary words, a paragraph no unnecessary sentences, for the same reason that a drawing should have no unnecessary lines and a machine no unnecessary parts. This requires not that the writer make all his sentences short, or that he avoid all detail and treat his subjects only in outline, but that he make every word tell.

Professor William Strunk Jr. – The Elements of Style.

The vigorous writing referred to here, is writing that is strong and full of energy. That’s the kind of writing that moves people to take action; to contact you, buy from you or hire you. It’s the kind of writing that gets the results you need.

How can you and your business benefit from the power of vigorous, written marketing?

The answer comes from understanding why the problem exists.

Google usually gets the blame

That’s because Google’s search algorithm needs overlong, written content. It prefers 2500 words to 250. So, for over 20 years, online marketing writers have been rewarded for high word counts. That’s certainly not what’s needed for vigorous, written marketing.

But Google isn’t responsible for the wider problem.

Email marketing and off-line media is just as ruined by overlong content. Neither of those formats have ever required the writer to dance the Google dance.

The problem exists because most written marketing is created by people who lack sufficient training. It’s either written by business owners who ‘dabble’ or by below-par marketing writers.

The solution?

The business owner wishing to switch to the vigorous, written marketing they need has two options.

  1. Learn how to do it effectively.
  2. Pay someone who already knows.

How to decide?

  • The cost (in time) of learning is considerable. It takes years of practice. However, you’ll start seeing improvements relatively quickly.
  • The cost of hiring an expert is lower. And it’s a lot faster.

The price you pay for starving your business of vigorous, written marketing is far higher than either of those options. So pick one of them and run with it.

How to get more prospects to buy from you

By |

get more prospects to buy from you, people to buy you

Here is a very quick marketing tip. It works online and also when you’re giving a presentation to a prospective client or customer. I’m going to show you how to get more prospects to buy from you.

It’s based on one of the foundations of successful selling: 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’ or walk away, rather than risk making a bad decision. And you, the business owner, are the one who pays the price for that lack of clarity.

Clarity sells

With this in mind, I’d like you to think for a moment about all the different options or choices your prospective clients are faced with.

Here’s why it’s critically important for you to get the balance just right.

  • The more options you put in front of someone, the more choice they have.
  • The more choice they have, the harder it is for them to decide.
  • The harder their decision-making process is, the less likely they are to hire you or buy from you.
  • They move on.
  • You lose a prospective client or a sale, to a less confusing competitor.

We don’t want that to happen to you.

The marketing power of clarity

I’d like you to take some time to go through all your marketing materials, especially your website. Then review the content of your sales presentation; what you say when pitching to a prospect.

Now, look closely for all unnecessary confusion.

Some good places to start (depending on your industry) may include.

  • The number of service levels you provide.
  • Your various pricing options.
  • The number of different bundles or packages you offer.
  • Any over-long feature lists.
  • The amount of information you require on your enquiry / contact forms.

You get the idea.

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

In short, aim for maximum clarity. Because clarity will help you get more prospects to buy from you.

Small adjustments. Low risk. Amazing sales results

By |

From a sales and marketing perspective, which of the following do you think gets the best results?

  • A sign on your customer entrance that says “We’re open”, or a sign that says “Come in”?
  • A message in your marketing, which gives your “opening hours”, or a message in your marketing that gives your “drop-in hours”?

The second option in both those examples almost always performs better (sometimes by factors of hundred’s of percent) in tests.

There are 3 important points from that short exercise.

marketing, small changes, low risk, work, fast

1. Small adjustments can produce massive improvements

Minor adjustments to your sales or marketing can create breakthrough results.

In the above examples, tiny changes to the text were made. However, by increasing the number of prospective clients (or customers) who take action, those changes can result in a very tangible, positive impact.

For instance, a recent client of mine made a change I suggested, live on our first Zoom meeting. He was able to see a clear, measurable improvement with a tiny textual change to a call-to-action button on his website that same day. He then rolled it out to all his relevant pages the following day, with equally outstanding results, but this time across his entire range of services. We tested, measured and adjusted until he squeezed out close to a 175% increase in the click-through rate (CTR) from those pages, to his sales pages.

Test, measure and adjust?

Yes.

If you’ve followed my work for any period of time, you’ll know that every marketing adjustment you make needs to be tested and measured.

  • Tested: Put into play in a real world setting.
  • Measured: Results compared against past performance. If it improves things, you keep it and then seek to further improve it with your next adjustment.

That process is then repeated until you see no further measurable improvement. Then, you move on to the next marketing element to adjust and improve.

2. Low risk

The type of subtle adjustments I’m referring to here, either cost nothing or very little for you to put into play. This means they can be deployed quickly.

So you now have the freedom to make adjustments to each part of your sales and marketing. In fact, that’s exactly what EVERY professionally marketed business already does.

3. One size does not fit all

Different marketing adjustments, tactics and strategies work differently in different industries. And even within the same industry, there are dozens and dozens of things that will determine how effective any change to your marketing will be, for your specific business.

Some of the most common factors include.

  • The profile of client you sell your products or services to.
  • Your pricing; whether it is higher, lower or around average for your industry.
  • How well (or poorly) any changes you make, work alongside your current branding.
  • Your location.
  • The effectiveness of your competitors.

Small, low risk adjustments that are specific to you

You don’t need to make major changes.

You don’t need to spend major money.

But you do need to find out what works best for you and your business.

You can waste a massive amount of time focusing on the wrong things to adjust. You can waste even more time, making the wrong adjustments. And in both cases, you’ll be leaving a potential fortune on the table.

This is one of those areas of marketing where it makes no sense to dabble with it yourself, unless you absolutely have to. So, if you can afford to invest in expert marketing help, do.
[Note: I explain why in more detail here.]

When done correctly, this strategy will give you a huge spread of improvements that will combine to increase your sales. It’s a proven, low risk, highly effective and exceptionally robust way to grow your business in any economy.

Write short. Be understood

By |

write short, copywriting tip, marketing

People’s attention spans have never been shorter. This includes your prospective clients or customers, which is why your writing needs to get to the point. Fast. This is something known as, writing short.

Writing short

As you’ll know if you’ve followed my work for a while, I’m an advocate of learning how to write short. (Roy Peter Clark introduced the phrase to me). It’s not for everything you write. Just for those times when space is limited or you want to get an extremely focused message across.

Here are some specific examples, where writing short is essential.

  • Email subject lines.
  • Tweets.
  • Event hand-outs.
  • Store signs.
  • Elevator pitches.
  • Messaging on products / packaging.
  • Political slogans.
  • Headlines.
  • Banners.
  • Advertising copy.
  • Social media profiles.
  • Flyers.
  • Vehicle signage.
  • Website buttons.
  • Calls to action.

That kind of thing.

So, what’s the problem?

By default, most business owners write long and see no reason to write short. And it’s perfectly understandable why this happens.

Think about it.

The internet provides you with endless writing space. You can add an unlimited number of pages to a website, with an unlimited number of words on each page. Your newsletter or marketing emails can be as long as you wish. In other words, you have far more space than you need.

So on the face of it, you have very little motivation to use fewer words than you currently do.

Except you really have.

Write short: The rewards are huge

That’s why I strongly recommend you learn to write with as few words as necessary. It’s a great way to improve your email open rates, get better advertising results, improve your click through rates, get prospects to take action and lots, lots more.

To get you started, here’s some tips on how to write short, from the best writers in the world.

Capture. Focus. Urgency: How to massively boost sales

By |

Capture, focus, urgency, sales, deadlines

When it comes to marketing, deadlines are extremely powerful.

Here’s why.

  • They capture attention.
  • They focus the mind.
  • They create a sense of urgency.

People hate to miss out. They want to get it before it’s gone. So, when they know they have to take action before it’s too late, it significantly increases how urgently they treat the message. It’s why deadlines are used by every successful brand.

So, look for opportunities to add a deadline date to your marketing messages. Then see how all that increased attention, focus and urgency improves your response rates.