Jim's Marketing Blog

Marketing tips and ideas to help you grow your business

7 Hard truths about marketing your business

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marketing 2020

Photo: Shutterstock.

  1. Embrace brevity. Your marketing content is almost certainly 50% to 75% too long. Fix it. Your prospective clients are being bombarded with emails, texts, social media updates, phone calls. Their time (and attention) has never been under so much pressure. This will become an increasingly bigger issue in 2020. So get to the point. And fast.
  2. Be cautious of anyone offering tricks or short cuts to marketing success. Short cuts to success are seldom short cuts and they never lead to success.
  3. Avoid general marketing advice. Why? Because it’s extremely risky. Your marketing problem is specific to you and your unique situation; your industry, budget, location, size of business, competition, mindset, assets, etc. And your specific situation requires a specific strategy.
  4. In business, everything you do is marketing. Yes, everything. From the way you answer the phone, reply to emails and the design of your website… to your ability to meet deadlines, the customer service you offer and your opening hours. It’s all saying something about you. Either positive or negative. Nothing is neutral. It’s making you money or it’s losing you money.
  5. Don’t expect professional marketing results from amateur marketing. Marketing is the life-blood of your business. So stop treating it like some DIY project or you’ll run out of money, time (or both).
  6. If you need to attend networking events, to try and get people talking about your business, you have a major problem. Ask yourself “why”? Why aren’t people automatically talking about your service? Spend more time fixing the problem. Spend zero time pestering strangers at networking events for leads.
  7. You will never be one Facebook Live ‘event’ or online course away from marketing success. Ever.

1 Word that can destroy your marketing, plus 12 better alternatives

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Marketing words, power words

Photo: Shutterstock.

When it comes to creating successful marketing, the word ‘new’ is overrated. Moreover, it can critically damage the effectiveness of your marketing, losing you sales or client enquiries in the process.

There are 2 main reasons this happens.

  1. A new product or service is always seen as a risky bet. Untested. Less robust. At best, it’s a bigger gamble than the existing solution. At worst, the customer feels like a paying guinea pig. Ouch!
  2. A new product or service is seldom, if ever, the best. It lacks the improvements that come from years of customer feedback.

Yes, when you have an announcement to make, (like moving to new premises), people expect to see ‘new’ and they understand the context.

The challenge comes, when a key part of your marketing message is that you offer a new way to do something. Even some big brands struggle to sell ‘new’ to people, despite multi-million dollar marketing campaigns.

Thankfully, you can totally avoid this problem.

Use better alternatives

Instead of relying on ‘new’, offer your marketplace something more compelling. More secure. More attractive. More motivating.

For example, rather than offering them a ‘new’ way, look at the core benefit of your product or service. Then, market that benefit to them instead.

So, instead of a ‘new’ way, you could offer them one or more of the following 12 alternatives.

  1. A faster way.
  2. A secure way.
  3. An enjoyable way.
  4. A greener way.
  5. A stylish way.
  6. A stress-free way.
  7. An original way.
  8. A premium quality way.
  9. A proven way.
  10. An ethical way.
  11. A guaranteed way.
  12. A cost effective way.

So, use words that paint better mental pictures. Pictures that build trust and inspire people to take action.

For almost 25 years, I’ve helped business owners worldwide to achieve their best results ever. Today, I’m offering you the same opportunity, on my Marketing Mentor Program. Read this. It’s the most popular and the most valuable service I’ve ever offered.

3 Ideas to help you create content, which your marketplace will love

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content marketing

Photo: Shutterstock.

If you’ve ever wondered, how some people are able to regularly produce effective content marketing; (newsletters, blog posts, articles, podcasts, etc), and how you can do the same, this post is for you.

1. Is this useful?

There’s a sign on the wall in my studio. It’s a small sign, containing just 3 words: “Is this useful”. That’s the mark I set for everything I create. Nothing gets published unless I believe you’ll find it useful. I don’t try and be clever. Just useful. And as long as I think you’ll find an idea or observation useful, I share it.

Some small business owners are put off creating content, because they try and make everything as close to perfect as possible.

The thing is, your prospective clients or customers want something useful, not perfect.

Once you stop aiming for perfection you’ll find it a lot easier. You’ll also get massively better results.

2. Don’t let crappy ideas block you

If you’re anything like me, you’ll find that most of the ideas you get are pretty average. But maybe 1 in 5 or 1 in 10 are good enough, to be turned into a valuable piece of content marketing.

The challenge is that in order to get that 1 useful idea, you need to allow yourself to have the crappy ones… without getting disheartened.

The way I overcame this, was to deliberately give myself permission to think of lots of crappy ideas, knowing that something useful would come from it.

When you view lower-value ideas as essential steps in the development of better ones, they switch from being disheartening to highly motivating.

3. Give your work the respect it deserves

We often overestimate the ideas of others and underestimate the value of our own. Here’s a great example of what I mean.

A business owner told me how she was taking some files off a computer for archiving, when she discovered an old documents folder. It contained loads of articles, which were really interesting. She looked to see who wrote them and found they were all her own work, from 6 years earlier!

She didn’t publish them at the time, because she thought they weren’t good enough. It was only when she thought they were written by someone else, that she saw them for what they really were. Your work is almost certainly way, way better than you think.

So get it out there.

In short, if you’re looking to improve your content marketing in 2020; focus on being useful, see your average ideas as necessary steps to your useful ideas, and give your work the respect you deserve.

Copywriting Warning: Using an asterisk can ruin your results!

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marketing copywriting, copy writing

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 exclusions, restrictions 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. Your guard is up. You’ve switched from eager buyer to sceptic.

Eliminate the asterisk risk

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

The most effective alternative, is to make the product or service as good as you said. This eliminates the need for an asterisk. Plus, it simultaneously pumps more value into your offering, making it more attractive and giving you a huge competitive advantage.

Another powerful alternative is to state, in honest and clear language, exactly what you’re offering. And include whatever would have been behind the asterisk, out in the open.

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 up front. Let people 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 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 disappointed they are by a vendor. 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.

1 Word you absolutely must remove from all your marketing

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marketing content, copy

What is the main reason someone should buy from you or hire you?

That’s a question, which many small businesses struggle with. And it hurts their marketing. It means they are unable to provide their prospective clients with a clear, compelling reason to buy from them, rather than a competitor. And as I mentioned yesterday, clarity is essential.

The thing about solutions

This is why we see the word solutions used in amateur marketing all the time, to describe what a business does.

Note – If you’ve already, clearly stated the value you bring, it’s okay to use the word. I’m talking about when business owners use solutions instead of being specific.

For example:

  • HR solutions.
  • Email marketing solutions.
  • Cost effective solutions.
  • Training solutions.
  • Or “we offer a range of solutions”, etc.

They’re telling us nothing.

Their message is weak. There’s no reason for us to contact them. So their marketing is largely ignored. And it loses them a fortune.

I don’t want that to happen to your business, my friend. So here’s a far more effective approach.

The alternative is to get specific

Determine the core value you bring to a prospective client. Then, communicate it with impact and brevity.

For example, instead of saying you, “offer a range of email marketing solutions”, get specific. Tell them, “We can help you increase sales and boost your profits, with professional, proven email marketing.”

Back in the 1980’s, business owners were advised to develop an elevator pitch. The idea was to create a compelling 5 or 10 second business introduction. Commerce today, online and offline, is like a series of elevator pitch-type interactions. Your prospective clients are busy. Really busy. They’re being bombarded with emails, calls, social network updates, text messages… it’s relentless.

They don’t have time for long or vague marketing messages. They want answers. Fast! That’s why a specific, brief and well-crafted message has never been more important or more effective.

So get specific.

Look for the core reason why a prospective client should hire you, rather than a competitor. Look for the tangible value your service offers. Then, communicate it in a compelling way. It’s far more powerful than claiming to offer a non-specific “solution”.

What keeps your prospects awake at night?

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marketiing, motivated clients

Do you need to attract more highly-motivated clients or customers? If you do, here’s (part of) a strategy I use with business owners that consistently produces fantastic results.

It starts with a question.

What keeps your prospective clients awake at night?

There are 2 broad answers to that question.

  1. The things they’re worried about. Their fears, apprehensions or concerns.
  2. The things they’re excited about. Their goals, dreams and the opportunities ahead of them.

Here’s the thing

Anything that keeps them awake at night is a super-high priority to them. It’s where their urgent attention is. Make no mistake, these are red-hot, prospective clients.

In order to help them and benefit from this opportunity, your task is twofold.

  1. You need to determine exactly what they’re worried or excited about.
  2. You need to clearly demonstrate how your service will help them in that key area.

Most marketing doesn’t do this. Instead, it focuses on how great the provider is. How happy they are to help. How their clients or customers love them. And it’s totally ineffective.

You need a better strategy. Like the kind I develop for my clients. Their marketing speaks directly to the need of their prospect.

It addresses that thing, which is keeping their prospect awake at night. Only after that, does it position my client as the answer. Get this right and it attracts enquiries from super-motivated people, eager to take action!

Take a look at the various marketing assets you use. Do they focus primarily and directly on the needs of your prospective client or customer? If not, you’re needlessly leaving money on the table and missing out on a massive opportunity.