Marketing tips Marketing help

Stop explaining everything. Really. Stop it!

By Jim Connolly | June 15, 2023

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.

A powerful lesson from Apple and Starbucks

By Jim Connolly | June 9, 2023

apple marketing, starbucks, marketing advice

Is your business both focused and flexible?

Those words almost sound like opposites. They’re not. In business, they work together beautifully.

It’s essential to know what you want to achieve and to stay focused on it.
However, you also need to remain flexible regarding how it happens. Then, as new information and opportunities come along, you can adjust your approach.

So, you remain both focused and flexible.

You couldn’t buy a cup of coffee from Starbucks

It’s true. Starbucks had already been in business for several years, and opened its first 5 stores, before you could buy a cup of coffee from them. Until then, you could only buy their coffee beans. Originally, customers were offered a free cup of coffee, in order to sample the beans.

Starbucks then started selling the coffee and the rest is history. Flexible thinking allowed them to identify a new opportunity. (I wrote a useful post about a marketing lesson from coffee shops, which can be applied to every business, including yours).

Starbucks’ focus remained the same: to build a successful coffee business. However, their approach changed.

And Apple only sold computers and software

Apple’s surge to being the world’s most valuable company started with a pivot. Initially, Apple was exclusively a computer company. Steve Jobs decided to enter the music industry, with the iPod and iTunes. Then, Apple pivoted again, creating the iPhone. Based on June 2023 data, if iPhone was a company by itself, its revenues would be $394.33 billion; that’s hundreds of percent higher than Coca-Cola and MacDonald’s, combined! Flexible thinking transformed The Apple Computer Company Inc, into the world’s most valuable brand.

Apple’s focus remained the same: to create beautifully designed technology and software. However, their approach changed.

Learn from the success of others, my friend. Remain focused on what you want to achieve, but be flexible on how you achieve it.

P.S. For more ideas on how to make this work for your business, I’ve written this:
Agile Thinking – A new mindset for a new landscape.

The marketing power of ‘Style Over Substance’

By Jim Connolly | June 7, 2023

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 ability to communicate with confidence.
Their vocabulary.
Their energy.
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 of an experienced service provider should be there by default. They know their what their service (substance) is, how it works, etc. It’s their style that sets them apart from the crowd.

Style over substance as marketing

The newsletters, podcasts, blogs, YouTube channels, social media accounts and podcasts, which people take notice of, all have their own style.

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 market your stuff this way, like everyone else, and it works. Follow the steps. 1-2-3’.

That’s bullcrap.

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, you obviously understand the services you provide extremely well. So the substance is there. You know what you’re doing. You’ve got the substance part covered.

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 perspectives and your experiences? Because these help form your style and your style is what people connect with, hire, purchase, recommend and advocate.

It’s your style that sets you apart.
It’s your style that makes you approachable.
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 want to hire you or buy from you specifically.

And none of that can be copied from a book, seminar or course. Because it’s you.

In fact, with so many competitors trying to get the attention of your prospective clients, your style is the most powerful tool in your arsenal.

Photo: Shutterstock.

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

By Jim Connolly | June 6, 2023

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.

Photo: Shutterstock.

7 Essentials for business success

By Jim Connolly | June 1, 2023

In just a few weeks time, we will be half way through the year. So, how’s things? Are you on track to hit or smash your 2023 goals?

If you would like a little help, you’ll find this useful. It’s something I’ve shared with thousands of fellow small business owners over the years. It’s 7 essentials we need to regularly remind ourselves of, if we want to build a successful business.

Don’t wait for permission. You don’t need it, so you’re free to get started.
Don’t wait for inspiration to appear. Command it to appear.
Don’t wait for the right opening. Create it.
Don’t wait for someone to pick you. Pick yourself.
Don’t wait for the perfect time. The time is never perfect.
Don’t wait for the initiative. Take it.
Don’t wait for opportunity to knock. Go and build a door.

All 7 of those essentials can be compressed into 1. It’s simply this: Don’t wait for things to happen. Decide what you want to achieve, then get moving.

That’s the only way to take control of your results and get from where your business is right now, to where you want it to be.

The question is, what exactly are you waiting for?

That isn’t a rhetorical question. If you’re not enjoying the level of success you want, there is definitely something that’s blocking you. This is guaranteed to help you find it. And fast!

There’s a world of opportunity out there, which is yours (yes yours) for the taking. So get moving.

Your future is as bright as you think it is

By Jim Connolly | May 16, 2023

I’ve been working with a lot of small business owners, who are prospering mightily right now. Today, I’m going to share a common factor that worked for all of them, and can work equally well for every small business owner reading this.

Yes, including you.

It can be summed up in 2 steps.

1. A shift of focus

We started each time, by helping them to focus on a bright, prosperous future. This sounds obvious, but it absolutely is not! Many small business owners, probably the vast majority, are in survival mode.

The problem with survival mode?

There are many.

The most obvious problem with aiming for survival, is that if you miss your target, you literally fail to survive. Another problem with aiming for survival, is that it’s very hard to succeed in a small business, when your motivation is based on fear. Fear motivation is destructive and exceptionally stressful.

2. A proven plan that they’ve never used before

Once the business owner was focused on knocking it out of the park, we built a clear, simple plan for them to prosper.

Then, we followed the plan.

How?

The small business owner examples I’m sharing with you, all came to me with an urgent need to improve their results. Their industries are all under pressure. Nothing seemed to work. Their sales pipelines and funnels were dry.

So, I used a superfast strategy.

We looked at business ideas from other industries, which are thriving right now. We then adapted them into my client’s small business. Their businesses NOW have a unique proposition to offer prospects. It improves everything. Even though in real terms, they’ve hardly changed! This works in every industry and profession, even the most strictly regulated ones. And it works amazingly fast. I’ve been doing this with clients for decades and I cannot understand why more small business owners aren’t doing it. (Note: That’s just one of the dozens of strategies I use).

Plan for survival and if you hit your survival goal, your ‘prize’ is another year treading water.

Plan to prosper mightily instead. Because your future is as bright as you think it is.