Jim Connolly Marketing

Marketing tips and ideas to help you grow your business

Discover how the top companies keep getting the best referrals

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In today’s post, I’m going to show you a powerful way to get more, great people talking about the services you provide. But that’s not all. I’m also going to explain how to overcome a major problem: how to get people to say the right things about you.

KFC image

I’ll even throw in a world-class example of how it works.

Okay let’s go

The starting point, is to decide exactly what you want people to say. Otherwise, you’re relying on them making something up on the spot. And usually, when someone is asked if they can recommend a provider, it will be a generic, weak message.

For example, if you ask someone if they have an accountant they’d recommend, the reply is usually something like; “Sure. We’re happy with the (Whatever) Accountancy Firm”.

That’s nice.

But all it really says, is that this particular person is happy with the service they receive. It’s the bare minimum. It’s vague. It says nothing about the service this accountancy firm provides. And it’s certainly not compelling.

Here’s why this matters to you: It’s entirely possible you’re already being regularly referred or recommended to great prospective clients. But you’re unaware, because, as in the above example, the referral is totally ineffective. And an ineffective referral is close to worthless.

Let’s see how the fastest growing companies overcome this problem.

How to get this right

Okay, let’s look at that accountancy firm again.

Only this time, they were professionally marketed and had already incorporated a short, memorable strapline in their branding. Something like “building stronger businesses”. If used correctly, that 3 word phrase would become an automatic part of their referrals.

So, instead of; “Sure. We’re happy with the (Whatever) Accountancy Firm.”

You get; “Sure. We’re happy with the (Whatever) Accountancy Firm. They specialize in building stronger businesses.”

That second referral is massively more powerful with far greater impact.

Think about it. If someone is looking for a new accountant, they’re clearly not happy with their current one. If we assume their existing accountant isn’t really interested in their business, a trusted referral about an accountant that focuses on building stronger businesses is exactly what they want to hear. Such referrals could be 2X, 5X or maybe 10X more powerful at encouraging people to call the accountant, than a simple “we’re happy with them”.

Here’s the thing: Most businesses make it too hard for their clients, customers or friends to know what to say when referring them. And it loses them a fortune.

Make it easier. Correctly integrate an easy to remember 3 or 4 word strapline into your marketing, so people don’t have to make something up on the spot. When you get it right, that strapline becomes part of the conversations people have about you.

That example took me 30 seconds to come up with. Now let’s look at a proven, world-class example of how this works.

How good is their food?

The marketing team behind Kentucky Fried Chicken wanted to give their diners a simple way to describe how delicious the food was. So, they made it very simple. They placed a short, powerful strapline on all their packaging.

It described their food as, “finger lickin’ good”.

And the rest is history!

Those who ate and enjoyed their chicken, now knew exactly what to tell their friends. Moreover, they were delivering an amazingly powerful, professionally written marketing message.

Regardless of whether you happen to like fried chicken, the mental image created with that message is powerful. The idea of people enjoying their food so much that they licked their fingers, would surely motivate their hungry friends to give KFC a try. Plus, because people who eat at fast-food restaurants know other people who also enjoy fast-food, it was pure, marketing gold.

So, the message spread. Millions or billions of times. Worldwide.

Try this

Take some time to think about want you want people to say about your business or the service you provide. Then, spend as much time as necessary crafting a powerful, extremely short strapline. If you don’t have the time or expertise to get this right, find a professional who will do it for you.

Just don’t keep missing out on great word of mouth referrals or targeted sales leads, because people aren’t recommending you correctly.

Boost your sales. With Time Wasters!

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deal time wasters, convert time wasters, marketing time wasters

How do you feel about people, who either ask you questions about your service or look around your products… then leave without buying?

Some business owners get angry. That’s understandable. They perceive these people to be time wasters. In doing so, they miss out on an extremely valuable opportunity. They leave a huge business asset on the table, untapped. An asset, which could help them massively improve their sales figures.

The asset I’m referring to, is the feedback that so-called time wasters can provide you with.

Allow me to explain.

You attract time wasters for a reason

If you’re attracting too many of the wrong type of enquiries, there’s a reason.

It’s usually a sign that:

  • Your marketing message needs to be improved.
  • You are marketing to the wrong people.
  • Or both.

It’s very easy to learn which applies to your marketing, so long as you ask for feedback. Armed with this information, you can then adapt and improve your marketing so you attract the right kind of enquiries from the right prospects.

Before they end the call or leave your premises, ask something like: What was it that prompted you to (visit or call) us today? This will give you some outstandingly valuable feedback to work with.

For example

  • If people often say they were looking for a low-priced whatever, (yet your prices are average or above average), you need to review your marketing message. Take a look and see if you are overstating how low your prices are.
  • If you are not overstating how low your prices are, then you could well be targeting your marketing message at people with too small a budget.

You get the idea.

The key is to get as much feedback as you can from those who fail to hire you or buy from you. It will help you improve your marketing message, improve your targeting and generate more (lots more) business!

So, reframe how you think about time wasters. Speak with them. Listen. Learn from their feedback. Then, make the necessary adjustments and improvements to your marketing. Don’t just assume that someone is a time waster and therefore of no value to your business.

Their feedback could be commercial gold dust.

In fact, it usually is.

Marketing that sticks, is marketing that sells

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marketing that sticks sells, marketing spreads sells,

Marketing that spreads does exactly that. It spreads from one person to another. And by itself, it’s a total waste of your time, energy and focus.

REALLY?

Yup!

That’s because marketing that merely spreads isn’t necessarily marketing that produces bankable results. Clickbait headlines, cute / outrageous / funny videos, provocative images, newsjacking, etc., can all be used to make a marketing message spread like fire.

Without generating anything of value for your business.

Marketing that produces bankable results; (creates sales, attracts new clients, grows your market share, boosts your revenues and profits), is marketing that spreads AND sticks. Most business owners pay way too little attention to that last part.

Marketing that sticks?

Marketing that sticks makes the prospect pause to take action, before they spread it. If it’s online, at the very least, they’ll bookmark it or save it, so they can go back to it later.

Otherwise, they’ll place the order, make the enquiry, fill in the form, call the number… and THEN pass it on.

Yes, marketing that spreads is marketing that sells, but only if it sticks. So be sure to include a direct marketing request (or call to action) in all your marketing. And especially anything designed to ‘go viral’ or be passed around.

You should use information marketing. Really. Do it!

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Content marketing, information marketing

Today, I’m going to share the power of information marketing with you. It has the potential to sky-rocket your sales results. Actually, it has vastly more potential than that!

I was prompted to write about this, when answering a very common question from one of my readers. They wanted to know, how I find the time to write so many newsletters and articles.

It’s all about my information marketing strategy. And now you’ll see why you really need to start using it!

Let’s go!

Finding time or making time?

A business owner doesn’t need to find the time to go to work, or find time to look after their clients / customers. When a task is important to us, we make time for it. The time for it is set aside, in advance. It’s in our calendar. It’s high on our to-do list. And as a result it gets done.

Marketing is a top-level business activity for me. Not just for me, but for everyone serious about growing a successful business. I know that the information I create, (free marketing tips, ideas and advice) doesn’t always look like marketing.

But it absolutely is.

Some would call it content marketing, but content marketing is extremely limited in comparison.

I call it information marketing

And here’s what it does.

  • It reminds those who choose to follow my work, who I am and what I do.
  • My newsletters, website articles and social media updates showcase my knowledge.
  • My content also provides people with a checkable body of work, which proves that I show up regularly with helpful information AND that I’ve been doing this for decades.
  • This means people know who I am. They know my work and that I’ve reliably provided it for a very long time.
  • The marketing pay-off is that I’m earning their trust, long before they even contact me. And they’re sharing my work with even more prospects!

Now, imagine your prospective clients already had that kind of relationship with you and your business. Consider how much more likely they would be, to buy from you or hire you.

THAT’S what makes information marketing so effective. It provides you with a regular, predictable flow of exceptionally high quality new clients or sales. It also means you never have to sell your services to a stranger again. Because they will already know all about you and your services or products. Information marketing works beautifully.

Okay, now let’s look at just how easy it is.

Information marketing is ongoing

All successful marketing is an ongoing business activity. It’s about becoming, and remaining, visible to your marketplace; so your name, company name, branding, logo, face, etc., is familiar to them.

Almost every small business and many medium-sized businesses get this wrong. They tend to only market their business when there’s a problem; like when they’ve lost a major account or they’ve seen a worrying drop in new clients.

They then, suddenly start marketing to their prospects… even though they’re total strangers to these prospects. It’s extremely ineffective.

And it’s avoidable when you use information marketing.

information marketing, content marketing

It requires way less money than you think

Actually, information marketing takes less money AND less time than you think.

Allow me to explain.

Less money than you think?

Yes. If you market your services the way I do, you don’t need to buy ads. I haven’t paid to advertise my service in over 20 years. Not a penny.

That’s because when you publish useful tips, ideas and advice, which your marketplace will value, they’re attracted to it.

And you’ll be really easy for them to find.

Here’s a quick look at how that works.

  • If you write an article like this, or even something as short as a tweet, your prospects can find it on a search engine. Yes, tweets are findable via Google. Just be sure that when they find your information, it’s very easy for them to contact you and subscribe to your newsletter list. That’s really important.
  • If you write a newsletter (and you REALLY should), people will share it. This is especially the case when you answer common problems for people in your target market. That’s because people tend to know lots of similar people; (those who live in the same area, or are in the same profession, or have the same type of problems, or are in a similar income bracket). So, your initial subscribers will share your newsletters for you, and you’ll be organically building a bigger and bigger, targeted list.

That’s right.

You’re not only connecting with a growing number of prospects. Your growing number of prospects are sharing your work, for free, with even more prospects.

That kind of personal recommendation is massively more effective than an advertisement.

information marketing, get noticed, content marketing

Less time than you think?

Oh yes. Way less time.

Whereas content marketing is known for being about producing a high volume of often low-quality ‘content’, information marketing is focused way more on the quality of information you share. This means you have zero need to ‘pump stuff’ into every social network on the planet every day.

Note: I only use Twitter, my website and my newsletter. That’s it!!!

The information marketing strategy I use with my clients, allows most of their work to be used in multiple ways. So, you invest time creating one piece of useful information, and it can provide you with multiple marketing opportunities.

For example, if you write a useful article for your website or a blog post, it can be:

  • Published as a newsletter. Longer pieces can be published as a 2 or 3-part newsletter series.
  • Published on Linkedin.
  • Published on your Facebook Page or in your Facebook Group
  • Published on a forum your marketplace uses.
  • Extracts can be published as short-form content.
  • And visuals can be published on sites like Instagram, Pinterest and Twitter.

So, you create once and yet produce many, many marketing *assets. (*Things you can use, to attract, help and engage your prospects).

Some all-new information marketing material takes minutes to create. It can be as simple as taking a photo, related to the prospective clients you want to work with. For example, photos of events you’re attending, or photos that show people how you work. These help your prospects to better understand what you do, and they make you more ‘real’ to them. These photos can be really interesting and shared on multiple platforms.

But that’s not all.

After a very short time, as you become more used to creating and sharing useful information, you’ll notice the process takes less and less time.

Information marketing isn’t a time suck

Remember, you don’t need to share something new, multiple times a day, or even every day, as with content marketing.

Information marketing is about producing information that’s useful enough, for people to share your work for you.

It’s all about quality, not quantity. Value, not volume!

You could create just one useful article like this, every 10 – 14 days. By using it in the various ways I explained a moment ago, this would give you something useful and new, to share every 2 or 3 days for a few weeks, to attract the attention of new prospects and start building a valuable connection with them.

Consider again the marketing potential of growing your very own, huge, targeted audience, of extremely high quality prospects. Then measure it against the effort required for information marketing.

If you can see the full potential, you’ll want to get started.

What next Jim?

The best time to start information marketing: building this kind of connection, relationship and trust with your prospects is 10 years ago. But the second best time is now.

If you’re not already marketing your business, by sharing useful information, which you know your prospective clients value, please give it some serious consideration. I have used this model since the 1990’s. And I’ve helped countless business owners transform their sales results with their own information marketing strategies.

I’m telling you, not only does information marketing work better than any form of marketing I have ever used or studied, it works better today than ever before.

Photo: Shutterstock.

How to get immediate marketing results

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immediate marketing results

That title is not a play on words. You absolutely can get outstanding, immediate, marketing results and there are many ways to do it. I’m going to share some examples with you right here, right now.

Oh, and none of them require paying for advertisements.

Okay. Let’s do it!

Immediate marketing results from your website

Improving the call to action messaging on your website will provide you with immediate results.

For example, recently, on my first marketing session with a new client, I suggested a quick improvement. He implemented it during our session. Before the session ended, he was already looking at a higher percentage of people taking the action he required. That’s what I call immediate, measurable marketing results.

And from your email marketing

Improving the subject line on your marketing emails will massively improve your results, from the moment your emails reach your prospective customer’s inbox!

Bonus: You can see equally fast results, if the copy used for your offer in the email content is improved.

Double bonus: Those two improvements will compound when used together, which can result in spectacular marketing results. So, do both!

And from your store

Improving the messaging on your store’s window display can also have an immediate, powerful impact. For example, my friend’s wife owns a lighting store on a local high street. He asked if I could give her a few marketing tips, as things had been a little too quiet lately. One tip took just 5 minutes. I asked for a piece of card and a Sharpie pen. I wrote on the card, and asked if I could place it in her store’s front window.

Before I left, a new customer came in. He said he’d walked past her store lots of times, but ‘for some reason’ he decided to come in today. The marketing results were immediate. A more permanent version of that same message is still there, and still working today.

Those were examples based on improving your existing marketing.

That’s absolutely great.

However, by ALSO introducing new, high-return marketing tactics into your strategy, you can achieve even more. And the possibilities are only limited by your imagination.

Here are some ideas to get you started. In no particular order.

Immediate results from Joint Ventures

The following examples (I could give you dozens), come from just one marketing tactic! I’m referring to Joint Ventures. As you’ll see, when you make them a part of your marketing, and do it correctly, you’ll regularly enjoy immediate, measurable results.

What is a Joint Venture? It’s an agreement between you, and a person or company whose products or services are complimentary and non-conflicting with your own.

What does complimentary and non-conflicting mean? I’ll use my business as an example.

  • I provide marketing services to business owners and marketing professionals, but I don’t provide web design services.
  • I connect with a web designer who builds websites, but doesn’t provide marketing.
  • I write a newsletter that’s read by business owners and marketing professionals.
  • The web designer also writes a newsletter that’s read by business owners and marketing professionals.
  • Each of us could recommend the other in our newsletter, because our services are complimentary.
  • And because neither of us sells what the other one sells offers, there’s no conflict.

The following examples are designed to explain how to use Joint Ventures (JV’s) in your business.

Look at the process being used, NOT the sector / industry of the example. JV’s are applicable to pretty-much every industry.

JVs provide outstanding results, when used in conjunction with public speaking. Here’s an example. I was contacted by the CMO of an accountancy practice. He wanted help with client acquisition. I suggested they put on a Zoom talk for their clients, and invite someone from a complimentary, non-conflicting company to speak. They identified a company that did business with their exact profile of client. I wrote an email for my client, to introduce the opportunity to the potential JV partner. They agreed to give it a go. Two talks were lined up. Each of them had a chance to speak to the other ones audience. It worked really well. Another example of immediate marketing results.

One of the most popular uses of JV’s, is when YouTubers or podcasters invite other YouTubers or podcasters onto their show. The invited person gains exposure to their host’s audience, which can dramatically, and quickly, increase their own audience numbers. They then do the same for the person who hosted them. Both of them see immediate, measurable marketing results.

Once you understand how JVs work, you see opportunities everywhere.

That’s why you need to forget about the industries I’ve mentioned here and the type of JVs used, and focus only on the process to create high-performance JVs.

When you do, you’ll see how companies that install new windows and doors can do Joint Ventures with home security providers, just by recommending one another. In the same way, veterinarians can do Joint Ventures with artists who specialize in pet portraits, or pet photography. And sales trainers can do Joint Ventures with communication trainers. And tree surgeons with grass cutting companies, and locksmiths with carpenters…

You get the idea.

Immediate marketing results. No paid ads

Notice anything about the examples throughout this article? That’s right! None of them required you to buy advertising. You don’t need to buy the attention of your prospective clients or customers, AND ads are way less effective than the 100 plus tactics I use.

So, get your thinking cap on. With a the right planning and some creativity, you never know what kind of immediate marketing results you too could achieve.

Stop explaining everything. Really. Stop it!

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Jim Connolly marketing, Curious

One of the most common marketing challenges facing business owners is also one of the most serious. I’m referring to a lack of regular client enquiries (or sales leads).

Today, I’m going to show you a key reason why this happens, and how you can overcome it.

I need to start by asking you something: Why do prospective clients call you, email you or ask you questions?

The answer can be summed up in just one word. Curiosity.

It’s their curiosity that motivates them to get in touch with you. This means it’s their curiosity that provides you with business enquiries. So, if you want more enquiries, your task is to make them more curious.

Hold that thought for a moment.

Now, do a quick review of your marketing materials and just look at how many questions you answer about the services you provide. This is really, really important.

Why?

Because with each question answered, you reduce a prospective client’s curiosity. You make them less likely, then unlikely, to contact you with an enquiry. You proactively lose yourself the super-valuable sales leads your business needs.

The balance you want to strike, is to give them ‘just enough’ information to make them curious. Just enough information to motivate them to contact you for answers or advice.

Just enough information, so you get all those sales leads or client enquiries that you’re currently missing out on.