Jim's Marketing Blog

Marketing tips and ideas to help you grow your business

Build your ideal business. No selling required. None. Zilch!

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marketing, no selling

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I’m going to share a powerful marketing idea with you today. It’s all about how to attract high quality clients (or customers). With no selling required.

These leads will come from people who already know you, who already value your work AND who really want to work with you.

Let’s go.

I need to start by asking you a question: Over the past 6 months, how much valuable, free information have you given to your prospective clients?

I’m specifically referring to things like newsletter articles, blog posts, videos, Zoom sessions, podcasts etc., which offer useful and valuable information… rather than thinly-disguised sales pitches.

Here’s why that question is critically important to building your ideal business.

No selling required

If you want an endless stream of high quality clients or customers, you need to be front of mind when they have a requirement. You need them to be thinking about you. This means you need to regularly give them something, which they will value. Something useful. Something that makes them interested in what you have to say.

Most small business owners waste their time, trying to get their marketplace excited, using sales messages and special offers. They haven’t figured out yet, that they need to develop a relationship with their marketplace, in advance, if they want to attract the very best enquiries.

Notice I said ‘attract‘ enquiries?

That’s right.

When you stop selling and start helping, your prospective clients come to you. I haven’t sold my services to anyone in over 20 years. But people hire me all the time. And the difference this makes is huge.

Engage and inform: Don’t just sell

The secret to attracting high quality inbound sales leads, is to focus on engaging your marketplace. Educate them. Inform them. Inspire them. Help with their problems. In short, become a valuable resource. And do this before they even need you.

By engaging in this way, you’ll quickly begin to build relationships and credibility with the people who pay for the exact kind of service or products you offer. And if you tailor the information you provide, so that it’s directly relevant to your IDEAL prospective clients, that’s who you’ll attract enquiries from. (Note that word attract again?)

Through the distribution of valuable, free information, you position yourself as an authority in your field. You also build a relationship with your prospective clients, where they naturally think of you as the source of the help they need. This makes you a safe pair of hands. It also makes hiring you or buying from you way less risky when they need a new provider.

Make no mistake, if you embrace this marketing idea and do it correctly, the results can be breathtaking. You can build your ideal business, working with great clients who value you.

And with no selling required.

15 Powerful ideas to help you grow your business

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ideas grow business, marketing ideas business

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It’s said you are often just one idea away from the breakthrough you have been looking for.

So here are 15 powerful business development ideas, to help you achieve the breakthrough results you need.

  1. If you write a blog or newsletter, ask yourself, if you’re building a tribe or simply writing drive-by content? Almost everyone gets this wrong. Here’s why this is so important.
  2. Embrace brevity. People are busy and their attention has never been in more demand. Keep your marketing messages as short and useful as possible.
  3. Do at least one thing each day, which your future self will thank you for.
  4. Remind yourself that the process of giving and receiving starts with giving. Making selfish demands from strangers doesn’t work. It also damages your reputation. Bring your seed, not your need.
  5. Fail more often this week than you did last week. Why? Because if you’re not failing often enough, you’re sticking to things you already know. This means you are no longer growing. This is why Steve Jobs famously reprimanded members of his team, if they were not failing regularly enough. Then, fail more often next week than you did this week… repeat.
  6. Stop aiming for perfectionism. It will stop you getting started, kill your creativity and block your progress. The next time you find yourself blaming perfectionism for your lack of progress, call it out for what it is: a stalling tactic.
  7. Stop doing work purely because it pays the bills. Start doing work that makes a difference. This post explains why.
  8. Get expert help in any area of your business, where you are under performing. Things don’t just change for the better because you hope they will. Hope is essential, but it’s not a business strategy.
  9. Remind yourself that you pick your clients, they don’t pick you. This is true of 100% of the most successful business owners and consultants I know. Pick clients who value you and allow you to do your best work. Build your client base deliberately. Here’s what you need to know.
  10. Get serious about the value of your time. No one ever lay on their deathbed, regretting they hadn’t spent more time watching TV. Throughout the day, ask yourself, is this the best use of my time right now? If it isn’t, go and do something more productive.
  11. Make the decision to do the tricky stuff. Every business owner claims to give their business 100%. What they REALLY mean, is that they give their business 100% of the stuff that they are comfortable with. Decide to get less comfortable with the limitations of your comfort zone. This will help you.
  12. Learn to embrace your inner freak.
  13. Get the most from your creativity. There are hundreds of free, creative thinking ideas here.
  14. Believe that almost anything is possible. No matter how bad things may be right now, with courage, hard work and passion, you can achieve almost anything. This post gives a great example of what I mean.
  15. Build a great reputation by setting deadlines and delivering on them. Think about it: Telling a client that their project will be ready “by the end of the week” is far less powerful, than telling her it will be ready “by 9am Thursday”. Keeping your deadline promises is a superb way to earn trust and build an excellent reputation. I explain this in more detail here.
  16. Give people more than they expect. Don’t under-promise though. Instead, over-deliver.

If you found these ideas useful, remember to subscribe using the box below to get new updates direct to your inbox.

Help required

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marketing risk progress

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Every successful business is built on a foundation of help.

  1. The help you provide to your clients or customers, through your services or products.
  2. The help you require in order for your business to thrive.

If either of those areas are neglected, the business suffers.

  1. If the quality of help you provide is matched or overtaken by your competitors, your business will stop growing and then shrink.
  2. If the help you require in order to thrive is missing, your business will stop growing and then shrink.

Most small business owners are very good at offering help. But they’re lousy at asking for it. This holds true even when they are 100% certain they need help. For some, the block is a financial one.

But for most it’s the inability to emotionally understand the difference between a cost and an investment.

  • On an intellectual level they know the difference and they can see that they have a problem that needs investing in.
  • But on an emotional level, they freeze.

As we face the months ahead, our thinking must be intellectually and emotionally aligned. That’s because knowing what to do is pointless, if we fail to do it.

A proven starting point is to examine the excuses we tell ourselves, in order to self-justify why we’re refusing to do what’s needed. Then consider where our inaction will lead us. We find it’s like wanting our flowers to grow, yet starving them of the water and sunshine they need.

Ultimately, when we work against what is right, it keeps going wrong. We know this to be true.

The next step is to believe it.

You’ve been lied to for years

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marketing style

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The following statement will sound counter-intuitive. That’s because you’ve been lied to for years. Okay. Here goes.

In marketing, there’s a case for style over substance.

It’s a strong case, too.

Just think about this for a moment:

  • The top political commentators get paid a ton of money, to deliver their take on the news for major networks.
  • The also-ran commentators get paid peanuts, to deliver their take on the news, for small, local networks.

Here’s the thing. In both cases, the news (substance) they comment on is the same. Here’s why one of them is earning 10 times or 50 times more than the other. It’s their style. The style with which they work.

For example:

  • Their courage, when choosing to take (or avoid) a controversial stance.
  • Their vocabulary.
  • Their energy.
  • Their ability to communicate with confidence.
  • Their effectiveness when injecting their personality (style) into their work, so that it’s truly theirs.

Here’s my point. When it comes to business, the substance should be there by default. Every qualified consultant, coach, lawyer, whatever… knows what their service (substance) is and how it works. It’s their style that makes all the difference. It’s their style that sets them apart from the crowd.

Style over substance in marketing

The newsletters, blogs, vlogs, podcasts, Facebook groups, Medium publishers, etc., that people take notice of, all have their own style. The same is true of the most successful email marketing, advertising, marketing campaigns and copywriting.

And the ones that fail to grow, fail to get noticed, fail to make an impact… well… they don’t.

Instead, they follow the cookie-cutter approach to marketing. They bought into the lie. The lie that says, “Just do things this way and it works. Follow the steps. 1-2-3”.

That’s bullshit.

It doesn’t work. In fact, it can’t possibly work. Because your style can’t be found in a book.

You can certainly learn substance that way. However, your style, the very thing that gets you noticed, by default, can’t possibly be learned from a marketing seminar, a course, a book or any other generalized form of information.

Why?

Because your style is all about you.

Where are you right now?

Okay, I already know that you totally understand your subject. So the substance is there. It’s taken care of. That’s covered. You’re good.

But what about the style?

When it comes to your marketing, when it comes to the story behind your service, are you telling it from your perspective? Are you sharing the substance of your knowledge, using your voice, your stories and your experiences? Because it’s your style that people connect with.

  • It’s your style that sets you apart.
  • It’s your style that causes people to return for more.
  • It’s your style that makes you approachable.
  • It’s your style that gives you a voice.
  • It’s your style that inspires people to share your message.
  • It’s your style that gives value to your substance.
  • It’s your style that motivates people to hire you or buy from you specifically, rather than a cheaper alternative.

And none of that can be robotized. Or automated. Because it’s you. It’s your authentic experience. It’s your greatest marketing asset. In fact, with so many competitors out there, with so many people trying to get the attention of your prospective clients, your style is the most powerful tool in your arsenal.

So, give your style the oxygen it needs.

2 Powerful tips from marketing that stinks!

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marketing that stinks

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I’d like to share an example of shockingly bad marketing with you today. In fact, you could say this marketing stinks! However, there are 2 powerful marketing lessons to learn from it, which you can apply directly into your business.

Here’s what happened.

I’ve used the same brand of deodorant for years. Recently, my brand wasn’t in stock, so I looked for another brand and noticed for the first time that they all claim to offer 48 hour protection.

Think about that for a moment.

Thankfully, there are very few people who only shower or clean their body every 2 days; whose armpits remain unwashed for 48 hours. And if you’ve ever stood close to someone with such bad hygiene habits, you’ll know these people don’t buy deodorant!

Here’s the thing: The ridiculous 48 hour claim on the packaging has nothing to do with deodorant. It has everything to do with ineffective, uncreative marketing.

Allow me to explain.

Here’s how it happened

The marketing team behind one of the brands decided to use a bigger number on their product (48 instead of 24), to make it look like better value.

The other brands followed suit. So, the number remains, even though it’s now meaningless and totally ineffective. No one needs 48 hour protection and having that number no longer generates additional sales, because they all use it.

As a marketing tactic, it stinks. It fails on every level.

There are 2 useful tips here

Firstly, if you want to make your product or service stand out from the competition, make it meaningfully different. Provide something that adds genuine value. Something your marketplace will get additional utility from.

Secondly, if you want to really stand out and stay in front, get creative. Because the first deodorant brand simply moved the dial from 24 to 48, every competitor could easily follow suit. Any marketing advantage was wiped out super-fast. So, choose something that’s harder for others to copy.

Better still, consistently strive to keep improving the value you bring. It’s hard to beat a business that operates from that mindset.

Does your business pass the Steve Jobs test?

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marketing, steve jobs

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Every great business story begins with a dream. An inspiring, exciting and motivating dream. A dream that propelled the business owner AND those around them, to make amazing things happen.

Steve Jobs famously motivated top people to work for him, by sharing his dream with them. The most famous example was when he asked John Scully to leave Pepsi and join Apple.

Jobs said.

“Do you want to sell sugar water for the rest of your life or do you want to come with me and change the world?”

It’s hard to reject an offer like that! That kind of compelling dream literally changes how people feel. Feelings are what precede actions. As such, it massively increases the chances of people wanting to take action and invest in you, hire you or buy from you.

Just think about that for a moment.

The power of a compelling dream

In contrast, the dream behind the typical small business is predictable. It’s pretty average. Here’s the thing: an average dream won’t attract the best clients, customers, investors or partners. It won’t compel people to want to share a business’s vision or talk about them, either.

You end up working just as hard, but without the power of a compelling dream, the ceiling on your potential is unnecessarily limited.

This begs the question; how do you know if the dream behind your business is motivating enough? In my experience, there are 3 very good indicators.

  1. One way you know, is by how enthusiastic and driven you feel regarding your business. Compelling dreams bring energy and optimism. Average dreams bring frustration and pessimism.
  2. Another powerful indicator is the way people react when you share your dream with them. If you’re on track, people will sit forward. Eyes wide open. Focusing on what you’re saying.
  3. And finally, you’ll find that other people pester you to become a part of your dream. They want to be on your team. Either as a customer, client, investor or advocate.

If your business isn’t energizing you, or isn’t attracting the people or attention it needs, check how compelling your dream is. Look at how motivating your plans are.

It’s hard to overstate the value of a massively motivating dream. I see it in action every working day with my clients and it improves literally everything.