Marketing tips Marketing help

The essential 3rd component of successful marketing

July 28, 2021 by Jim Connolly

Image: Andreas Klassen

One component of successful marketing, is knowing what needs to be done.

A second component of successful marketing, is to put that knowledge into action.

And an essential third component of successful marketing, is to keep on doing what’s required. Once things start moving, they need to keep on moving. Lasting success requires an ongoing effort. Continuous forward movement.

Marketing momentum

Before you know it, you’ve created true marketing momentum. Marketing momentum is where your intelligent activity (doing the right things, correctly) combines, to attract the results you need. For example, an increasing number of; sales leads, sales conversions, client enquiries, new clients, proposal requests, bid requests, client referrals, new subscribers, media requests… exciting times for sure.

Here’s the reason I’m sharing this with you: Once you’ve created marketing momentum, that momentum must be maintained and sustained.

You need to turn up again and again and again.
You need to carry on looking for great opportunities.
You need to keep actioning your ideas.
You need to remain dedicated to improving how your business operates.
You need to keep working your plans.
You need to consistently review and increase your targets or goals, as old ones are achieved,
You need to carry on delighting your clients.
You need to stay on the lookout for people who can improve your business.
You need to repeatedly make big, exciting promises and then deliver.

Doing all of the above is easy at the start, especially if you have an existential need for more clients or more customers. But when all the important marketing numbers are moving in the right direction and things are going great, finding the motivation to keep your marketing momentum moving forward can become harder.

And momentum soon fizzles out when left unattended.

This is something I work on regularly with new clients. Interestingly, very few ever think it will be a problem for them. This is largely because when people hire me, they do so when they’re looking for massive increases in sales and financial results. They’re in the ideal mindset for creating momentum.

But…

As things start to click, with exciting results moving all their important numbers in the right direction, they unconsciously think they’ve arrived. That this new level of success is a destination. Irreversible, so long as they work hard. They forget they were already working hard before hiring me… and it didn’t produce the results they wanted.

Momentum needs to be invested in regularly. You won’t need reminding of this at the beginning. However, this could change when your marketing is taking your business and your lifestyle to a whole new, exciting level.

So today, as your marketing gathers pace and you’re enjoying the fruit of your strategies, set a weekly reminder, to check that you’re still doing the things, which transformed your results.

Quick tip: How to get more prospective clients to say ‘yes’

July 27, 2021 by Jim Connolly

marketing, confusion, clarity

Here is a very quick marketing tip to increase your sales. This works online and also when you’re giving a presentation to a prospective client or customer.

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 your sales presentation content.

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 bundles or different packages you offer, over-long feature lists, the amount of information you require on your 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 a confused mind always says “no!”.

Business success is a decision. Nothing more. Nothing less

July 26, 2021 by Jim Connolly

business success, marketing

This is a tricky subject, which I haven’t covered directly for a while. I hope you find it useful.

I was originally prompted to write this, after taking my friend to his chiropractor. As we arrived, I asked him if he was sure he had the correct appointment time, as the place wasn’t open. “Oh, it is open”, he replied. “It just always looks like it’s closed”. There were no lights visible from outside, the door was closed and the ‘open’ sign was tiny. It looked to all the world as if it was closed.

I was introduced to the chiropractor and as always when I meet a business owner, I asked him how business was. He explained that business was slow. Hardly surprising, as he’s losing the vast majority of the passing trade he’s paying for, by locating his business on the high street.

Like the chiropractor in that example, many small business owners are genuinely unaware of the marketing mistakes that are hurting their business. They wrongly assume their poor results are due to a lack of demand, a quiet period or aggressive competition.

Doing the right things, correctly

In reality, a poorly performing business is paying the price (literally) for the owners decision not to do the right things, correctly.

Instead, they dabble.

Why?

Sometimes they’ve lowered their expectations after years of sluggish growth, so slow growth / no growth is now acceptable to them. Other times, they have no idea what effective marketing looks like or what it does, so they suffer in ignorance. And in some cases they are so used to dabbling with their marketing, that they have a mental block about getting expert help.

A mental block?

Yes.

They 100% understand that experts are required for certain things. But NOT when it comes to marketing. For instance, they insist on using experts to style their hair, yet as they anxiously watch their business spin its wheels, their marketing gets the DIY treatment.

If your website is a sales generating machine, if your contact forms are a regular source of high quality enquiries, if your newsletter is a gold mine, if the profile of your business is rising like a star, if you’re attracting attention from all the right people and if your business is thriving… you’re good to go.

I hope that’s where you are right now.

If not, remember that business success is a decision. A decision to do the right things, correctly.

Nothing more. Nothing less.

Marketing 101: Greed, need or deed?

July 23, 2021 by Jim Connolly

Today, I’m going to show you how to avoid creating an incorrect, damaging impression of your business. This is critically important, so let’s dive in.

You’re a professional. You have a superb business. You offer an excellent service. And you care passionately about your clients.

My question for you today my friend, is this: How clearly does that message come across in your marketing?

Greed, need or deed?

Think for a moment about the marketing messages you receive, from emails and social media updates, to advertisements, cold calls and direct mail, etc. Every marketing message is based on one of the following three motivations.

Greed motivated: I want your money. Buy my stuff.
Need motivated: I need you to buy from me. Please, please buy my stuff.
Deed motivated: There’s something that I believe will help you, so I created it for you.

Greedy marketing repels people. Greed is one of those universally disliked attributes. It’s ugly. It’s selfish. We avoid greedy people and greedy businesses.

Needy marketing also repels people. As soon as the marketplace thinks a provider desperately needs sales or needs money urgently, it sets alarm bells ringing. “What if they’re going broke!?!” These alarm bells make people way less likely to buy from them.

Deed driven marketing attracts people. It makes us feel positive toward the person or brand behind it. It’s an easy message to connect with. Deed driven marketing is about sincerely wanting to help the people in your marketplace with the products or services you provide. It attracts their attention, makes them feel good about you and creates a powerful connection between you.

IMPORTANT: Here’s where the challenge comes in. Many small and medium-sized business owners who are deed focused, have no idea how greedy or needy their marketing looks. And it’s seriously hurting their business.

A couple of very common examples

One common example is the use of freebies, such as free initial consultations. These are widely used by service providers, who dabble with their marketing and have no idea how much damage they’re doing to their reputation.

When you attach zero value to your time, you send a damaging, toxic message to prospective clients. The marketplace knows that the best service providers are busy professionals, who have no need to give their time away for free. So, if they see a provider offering freebies, it tells them that the service provider is under-employed, getting too few referrals, in need (needy) or all three! This keeps the service provider in a negative loop, as the best clients are repelled and freebie hunters (who grab anything that’s free), are attracted to the free consultation like moths to a flame.

Another common example is special offers.

These can also come across as needy or greedy when handled incorrectly. And that’s exactly how the vast majority of small and medium-sized business owners handle special offers. They put their offers together, outside of a professional marketing strategy. In doing so, they can cause the marketplace to think there’s a so-called fire sale going on. Equally, the use of special offers can train your marketplace to wait for the next special offer, which makes it hard to sell anything at the regular price. This eats profits and it’s totally avoidable.

In short, it pays to be highly intentional regarding how you market your business. Always look at the bigger picture from an outside perspective. Make sure you’re projecting yourself as eager to help, not greedy or needy.

You don’t have any clients or customers

July 21, 2021 by Jim Connolly

Image: Juli Moreira

You don’t have any clients (or customers).

You also don’t have any subscribers, contacts or followers.

And neither do I.

We don’t have them. That’s to say, they’re not our possession. Instead, we borrow them.

We need to earn and then re-earn whatever connection / relationship they have with us.

Client retention planning

That’s why a client retention plan is critically important. Yes, delivering the best service possible is essential, but that’s what our clients expect. We retain our clients by exceeding expectations in key areas.

For example.

We need to engage out clients regularly. Many providers only engage with their clients when they’re working together on something or when they invoice a client. But very, very few will maintain regular contact with their clients at other times, such as sharing useful resources with them; articles, event invitations, newsletters, ideas, etc.
We can also connect them with useful people. Very, very few providers will proactively introduce their clients to valuable contacts.
And we can look for opportunities to help our clients develop their businesses. Very, very few providers will proactively recommend their clients to potentially suitable prospects.

Those are just a few examples from what I do with my clients. Obviously, you’ll need to adapt, adjust and develop your own ways to exceed expectations, depending on the services or products you provide. The key is to exceed in an appropriate, valuable way.

The solution?

I recommend you consider developing a simple, client retention plan. I’ve used them for years and they’re invaluable. Start simple. Set reminders for each client; to collect and share useful, helpful and insightful resources and connections with them. This is a powerful and proven way to go far BEYOND what’s expected, so you get the opportunity to re-earn the privilege of serving your clients.

I’ve spoken to countless hard working business owners, who have lost clients purely because of unintentional complacency. They worked hard to do everything the client expected. They genuinely believed that would be enough. They then discovered it wasn’t.

In short, without a deliberate plan to retain our clients, even the best businesses and brands can become a little complacent. And as they say, a casual approach causes casualties.

How to create a niche for your business with literally no competition

July 13, 2021 by Jim Connolly

You’re going to love this!

One of the things I work on with many of my clients, is the development of a valuable niche for their business. A highly profitable niche, with literally no competition.

Here’s a quick look at the approach I use, plus some ideas you can adapt into your own business.

The niche model I use is based on the strategy I developed for my own business. Here are 3 of over 70 processes I’ve developed.

Enriching my competitors

Instead of focusing on crushing the competition, I focused on enriching the competition. When I started out, my strategies were so different from other providers in my industry, they were no longer competitors. This gave me the freedom to enrich, elevate, connect and promote their marketing businesses. That remains to this day. Marketing providers are by far, the biggest market sector I serve.

The following is from a previous article I wrote on this subject – the full article is here.

“I chose to proactively seek out opportunities to help my competitors flourish, to open doors for them, to share new ideas and strategies I’d developed with them, to connect them with useful people, etc. I was in my twenties at the time and many in the industry said I was young and naive. I saw things very differently…”

Tip: If you found that interesting, I strongly recommend you read the full article.

Closing sales replaced by opening relationships

Instead of focusing on closing sales, I focused on opening relationships. It has always struck me as odd that good salespeople are referred to as good closers. So I decided to focus on opening instead of closing.

Opening relationships, to be precise.

Whilst sales closers have a toolkit of psychological closing techniques, I didn’t. Instead of seeing the sales process as a game of chess, pitting me against the prospect, I wanted to be on the same side of the table as the prospect. In their corner. Looking out for their best interests, exactly as I would if they were already my client. This transforms initial meetings with a prospective client. It switches things 180 degrees, from the usual chess game.

Yes, it does mean being willing to openly, honestly tell a prospective client if you don’t think you can help. When this happens, you’ve still planted some amazingly positive seeds.

You’ve just demonstrated to a prospective client that you can be trusted. You’ve also demonstrated that you offer an exceptionally professional service. In my experience, these same prospective clients often go on to become regular sources of high quality referrals.

This approach has set me apart and allowed me to further develop my reputation as a trusted adviser. That’s because it’s in such stark contrast to the usual strategy, of closing tricks and needy follow-up emails.

Building an influential network, not a big network

People in the marketing industry are known for the size of their networks. They’re at every networking event. They’re amongst the most active people on Linkedin. I took a very different approach. Instead of focusing on growing a large contact network, I focused on growing a small, but influential network.

Even when I was starting out, I never saw the value of what’s usually thought of as ‘networking’. For example, I think I had my last lot of business cards printed around 2002/3. Oh, and I’ve never had a Linkedin account or had any need for one.

Why?

Business is all about people and the depth of the relationships you have with them. I chose to intentionally develop strong, meaningful relationships with people who I believed to be the best fit.

Initially my main focus was senior media people, marketing experts and mentors. I was 29 when I started my business, no one knew who I was and I needed to be around people who were able to help me get known and develop. If you followed the link I shared earlier, you’ll have seen how my first 6-months in business went.

As with every person I have shared this selective networking approach with, I too have found that you automatically get many of the benefits of a large network. Such as massively expanding the reach of your work, your opinions and your ideas.

For example, you’ll find that from time to time, your influential contacts recommend you and your work to their audience. An audience that respects their endorsement. Another example is media coverage, something I have professionally benefited from enormously. Lots of journalists have known me for years. They trust me and are comfortable enough to contact me, and cite me, when they need expert opinion.

Tip: One way to get started is to think who would be really useful for you to know in 12-months or 18-months time. And today, start to look for ways to earn their attention and then their interest. It’s not by cold emailing them or pestering them. It’s about being useful to them. Gently. Over time.

I hope that quick look at 3 of the 70+ processes I’ve developed, has encouraged you to seriously consider a more niche approach to the growth of your business.