Jim's Marketing Blog

Marketing tips and ideas to help you grow your business

Let’s dance

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Marketing ideas

Here are a few of the ideas I shared with a group of entrepreneurs yesterday, on Zoom. They asked me for some insight into areas they should include in their 2021 business development strategy. I thought you may find them useful.

In no particular order.

Dance with it

Crisis precedes change. We’ve all seen changes as a result of the pandemic. People have changed. Priorities have changed. Habits have changed. Outlooks have changed.

Whilst it’s not possible to know what will change in 2021, we can still be ready for it.

How?

I was in business during the last recession and also during the 2000 Stock Market crash.

The most valuable lesson I learned, was the importance of dancing with the certainty of uncertainty: Developing a willingness to adapt as required, in a hard to predict landscape.

It’s easy to slip into a fixed or semi-fixed way of doing things, but it hampers innovation and growth. This is especially the case in business. Even more so in times of great change, when our fixed ideas are no longer appropriate for the tasks at hand. I used this approach with my clients this year and 3 of them achieved their best financial year ever, despite 2 of those 3 being in industries negatively impacted by the pandemic.

There will be outstanding opportunities, for business owners with the flexibility to adapt. And that same flexibility will help them avoid the pitfalls ahead.

Build a better contact network

We all saw how valuable, or otherwise, our contacts were in 2020. Thanks to Linkedin and similar services, anyone with enough spare time can build a huge network of contacts. However, the value of a network is in the calibre and quality of the people you’re connected with, not the size of your network.

The general advice I give business owners is to go narrow and deep. Not wide and shallow. For example.

  • IF MY NETWORK has 10000 people, BUT they lack influence or hardly know me, it will have a commercial value of close to zero.
  • IF YOUR NETWORK has 10 people, BUT they are highly influential, know you and are motivated to help you, it will have a massive commercial value to you.

Here’s an exercise to help you get it right. Draw up a list of the 30 most influential people in your marketplace. These people could include high quality prospective clients or maybe influential introducers; (introducers are people who can recommend you to lots of clients or buyers). Then, put a plan together that will allow you to earn their attention. This targeted approach takes time, but the rewards are enormous.

Get ready for hungry competitors

Your customer base and prospective customers could soon be under attack, from hungry competitors.

With 1 vaccine already approved and lots more due for mass roll-out in Q1 and Q2 of 2021, business owners who have been hunkering down are now ready to aggressively market their businesses. They’re spotting the light at the end of the tunnel. Regardless of what you or I happen to think, that news is the ‘go sign’ that the markets (and many business owners) have been waiting for. Don’t let your competition surprise you.

Be ready.

Get yourself a strategy in place, to retain your customers and attract new, high-quality customers.

Then get the strategy into play.

And don’t forget to dance!

22 Critically important reasons why people don’t hire you

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Marketing tips

It’s a massive source of great frustration.

You’re trying to sell a service or product to a prospect… and they just don’t ‘get it’. They can’t seem to understand the value or why they need it. And it’s driving you nuts!

There are many reasons why this happens. Let’s see how many I can come up with in 10 minutes.

  1. They’re short term focused and you’re selling a medium to long-term benefit. Or vice versa.
  2. You’re assuming too much about what they know, what they think or what they need.
  3. They make decisions slowly. You move quickly. They’re still trying to process things.
  4. They make decisions quickly. You move slowly. They’ve lost interest.
  5. You’re dealing with the wrong person.
  6. They’re under a great deal of stress. Which is really common right now.
  7. You’re connecting to them using the wrong medium. You’re using email instead of sending a letter. A letter instead of a phone call. A phone call instead of video. Video instead of in-person.
  8. You’re using too many words to describe your proposition. This is common.
  9. You’re using too few words to describe it. This almost never happens.
  10. There are too many steps in your process. You’re losing them. They get half way through whatever you’re communicating, and they’re already forgetting the start.
  11. You’re using incompatible marketing ideas, approaches or strategies from a different industry. This is a huge, HUGE problem for service providers.
  12. They can see the value, they do want it, but are lying to you because they’re broke and embarrassed.
  13. Your product or service, if purchased, would force them to admit they failed in some way.
  14. You’re attracting poorly targeted leads, so they lack the need, awareness and / or finances.
  15. You haven’t given them a deadline. Deadlines sharpen the mind.
  16. You’re confusing them, because there’s a disconnect between what you say and what they see. This is very common. The vendor says they’re professional and reliable, yet their marketing gives the opposite impression.
  17. They’re very visual and your marketing or presentation isn’t.
  18. You haven’t demonstrated the value, so they think it’s too expensive.
  19. You haven’t demonstrated the value, so they don’t even know they need what you’re offering.
  20. They’re scared. And your level of reassurance isn’t cutting it.
  21. They’re expecting the approach or marketing from someone in your industry, to look or sound different.
  22. They don’t trust you enough, to lower their guard and let your message land.

The tricky part is figuring out how many of those apply to you. After all, the only reason these problems exist is that you don’t know you’re making the mistakes.

My hope is that some of these suggestions will confirm what you’ve been thinking, but lacked professional advice on (for whatever reason). These areas are worth focusing on.

It’s a start. And you’ll be leaving less money on the table each day than you currently do.

10 Important ways that successful business owners think differently

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Marketing blogs, thrive

Here are some very important ways that successful business owners think differently. I have also linked to additional resources, which you may find useful.

  1. They surround themselves with motivated people. They know that you can’t build a successful company with pessimistic, fear-focussed team members.
  2. They have the courage to back themselves, rather than wait for the blind to see their vision. Steve Jobs launched the iPhone, despite senior voices telling him Apple wasn’t a phone company and the marketplace was saturated.
  3. They invest more in their professional development than their competitors do. They know that their business success today is a direct reflection of their strategies and ideas up to today. And for their business to improve in 2020, they’ll need to improve.
  4. They proactively look for interesting, valuable problems to solve. Successful business owners know that the bigger the problem you solve, the greater the potential of your business. You’ll have fewer competitors and command higher, more profitable fees.
  5. They create a story around their business that’s worth sharing. If no one is talking about your business, it’s because you’re doing nothing worth talking about. Successful people understand this and get creative. The average business owner looks for excuses and complains.
  6. They listen to their marketplace and build value around what they hear. Social media gives every business owner an insight into what their marketplace wants and needs. The most successful business owners get this. They listen. The average business owner uses social media just to broadcast marketing messages.
  7. They commit to go the extra mile. And then do it! Conversely, the average business is exactly that. Average. They charge average fees and work with average clients, on average projects. That’s not going the extra mile.
  8. They refuse to surrender their focus to the never-ending stream of interruptions. The most successful business owners understand that whatever has their attention, is influencing what they think. They only pick their phones up to use them, so the phone is working for them. The average business owner checks their phone notifications regularly throughout the day. So, their attention is continuously interrupted and their focus constantly off-balance.
  9. They use fear as their compass. Successful business owners know that meaningful progress is always preceded by fear. That same fear stops the average business owner in their tracks. This makes meaningful success impossible. Ouch!
  10. They are willing to make tough decisions. Opportunities are a little like groceries: they come with a use-by date! The business owner who waits for fear-focused colleagues to see the opportunity, before taking action, is already too late. They’ll find that the opportunity has either gone, or at best, that they were too slow to fully maximize the opportunity. A casual approach to leadership causes casualties.

Embrace the low risk and maximum potential mindset

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marketing blogs

It’s impossible to completely eliminate risk from your business. But you can have the best of both worlds, with low risk and maximum potential.

Let’s start by looking at risk and why you can’t (and shouldn’t) totally eliminate it from your business.

Think about it: Even if your results are fine right now, and you decide to just carry on with whatever you’re doing, you’re at enormous risk.

Really?

Yes, really!

You risk losing clients (or customers) to your agile competitors, who continuously seek to improve and target your client base with compelling offers. Sure, small and medium sized business are the most vulnerable, but even massive brands can be wiped out by the just carry on attitude. Remember; Blockbuster Video, Toys R Us, My Space, Palm Inc?

The question is, how do we get the best of both worlds; less risk and massively more potential?

I’m glad you asked.

Mastering the risk / potential balance

In seeking to eliminate risk, you also block yourself from every great opportunity. That’s because every genuine opportunity for your business comes with an element of risk.

So, no risk = no progress.

Therefore, rather than regard risk as something to avoid, consider the potential pluses as well as the potential minuses. Research the positives as well as the negatives.

And challenge your beliefs!

Challenging your beliefs is critically important, as one of the biggest barriers to your success are your inaccurate preconceptions. This is a perfect example. And I see equally damaging thinking with business owners all the time.

A well-balanced approach to risk and opportunity is behind every successful business. It reduces your exposure to risk, whilst simultaneously allowing you to fully benefit from the genuine opportunities your business must have, in order to grow.

With the right mindset for 2021, you’ll put yourself in the best possible position to benefit from the new opportunities next year will bring.

This 3 letter word can destroy your sales results

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marketing tips

When it comes to creating a powerful marketing message and attracting new customers, ‘new‘ is overrated. It can also destroy your marketing results.

There are 3 core reasons for this.

  1. The newest product or service is always a riskier bet. At best, it’s a bigger gamble than the trusted incumbent. At worst, the customer feels like a paying guinea pig.
  2. The newest product or service is seldom the best. It lacks the improvements that come from years of feedback. It lacks the robustness that comes from stress-testing.
  3. New doesn’t last for long. This makes it a short-term marketing message. Anything that’s new is only new for now.

A dozen better alternatives

Instead of relying on new, offer your marketplace something more compelling. More motivating. More attractive. For example, instead of offering them a new way to do something, offer them:

  1. A faster way.
  2. A more enjoyable way.
  3. A greener way.
  4. A proven way.
  5. A stylish way.
  6. An original way.
  7. A premium quality way.
  8. An ethical way.
  9. An exciting way.
  10. A safer way.
  11. A more reliable way.
  12. A cost effective way.

In short, be extremely careful about how and where you use the word new, as you put your 2021 marketing strategy together.

How to be in high demand and earn the highest fees

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workaholic, love work

We know why the most successful businesses and freelancers are always in high demand. Its the same reason they command the highest fees.

They provide something of value, which is in short supply.

We also know why the average business isn’t in high demand. It’s because they provide something, which is in abundance.

Here’s the thing. It’s not enough to work hard, work smart and care about your clients. Most of your competitors already do that. To think otherwise is to underestimate your competition. And that’s a big mistake.

To be in high demand and earn the highest fees, you need to embrace the tricky stuff. The things that are in short supply, because they’re too challenging or uncomfortable for most business owners.

This includes a willingness to:

  • Set higher standards than your competitors.
  • Do work that’s meaningfully different.
  • Initiate.
  • Be there for people when they need help.
  • Encourage others.
  • Connect people.
  • Treat different customers differently.
  • Make promises and keep them.
  • Inspire your customers, your team and your marketplace.

Is this easy? No, of course not!

Here’s a better question: Is it worth it? Yes, absolutely!

You see my friend, the very fact it’s so challenging is why it’s so rare, in such high demand and so valuable.