Jim Connolly Marketing

Targeted marketing

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This post is all about how you can increase your sales and enquiries, by using a targeted approach to your marketing.

A great product or service, with an excellent marketing message, will still fail to generate sales – unless that message is reaching a targeted group of prospective customers.  That’s why it’s so important for you to target the marketing of your services, to the right people.

Targeted marketing

If Bob gets a well-written marketing message in front of 10,000 people, who have no need for his services and no ability to pay or obtain credit – he’s unlikely to make a single sale.  However, if Bob gets that same great message in front of just 10 people; each with a real need for his services and the ability to pay – he’s likely to make a number of sales!

Blogging and targeted marketing

Fortunately, one of the best ways to get an extremely valuable, targeted audience for your business, is either free or very inexpensive.  I’m talking about blogging!

Whilst it takes time to set up a blog and add regular, interesting content – the financial cost of blogging is extremely low. Great news for any small businesses who are struggling financially right now, yet still have time available for marketing.

So, how do blogs attract targeted prospects?

There are two main reasons why blogs attract such targeted prospective customers / clients.

Firstly, there’s SEO
A nicely designed blog, with good SEO, (search engine optimisation) and interesting content relating to your profession, will attract people who are interested in your area of expertise.  Although the numbers will be low to begin with, you can develop a great audience or marketplace for your services over time.

Secondly, blogs are read by bloggers
I read stacks of blogs each day and it seems I am not alone!  I’ve been running a Reader Poll on jimsmarketingblog.com for the past 2 weeks; asking my readers if they own a blog.  Interestingly, around 90% of the 300 or so people who voted, said “YES!”

So, someone reads something of interest on your blog, which they then mention on their blog.  Suddenly, their readership is alerted to your work and you get a stack of new, targeted readers!  Many of these new readers will be bloggers too – helping you reach more and more people.

This kind of targeted readership is ‘marketing gold dust’ for you and your business.  These people are reading your blog because they already have an interest in, or need for, your subject.  So, if they see you as someone with the answers they need in your area of expertise, who better for them to call / email when they want to hire someone?

Targeted readers come from focused content

In my experience, the blogs that attract the most targeted readers, are the blogs that offer the most focused content.  Some blogs suffer from diversifying too much.  As a result, they attract a fractured readership.

Conversely, by blogging about subjects directly relevant to your services / products, you get to attract not only a readership, but a community!  Jimsmarketingblog.com is an example of a community blog. That’s because the blog’s readers, commentor’s and myself all share a common interest in sales, marketing and business development.

How well do you target your marketing?

If you want to improve your sales figures, a great place to start is by looking at how well you target your prospective customers / clients.  If you are a commercial blogger, (blog as part of your business), and you want to attract a more targeted readership, ensure your posts are ‘on topic.’

If you are not already blogging, this might be a great time for you to start! Just make sure you are committed to investing the time required.

Networking and numbers

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One of the biggest mistakes people make when building a commercial network, is that they focus too much on numbers.  However, the size of a network by itself is of limited value.  Building a large, low value commercial network is actually a low leverage activity and counter-productive!

Networking isn’t just about numbers

This is because the value of a commercial network is always based on 3 things:
1. The calibre of contacts in your network.
2. The quality of your relationships with your contacts.
3. Having the right number of people in your network.

The reason for this is simple. Firstly, as human beings we are obviously all of equal value. However, in each industry or profession there are some people who are more influential than others.  If you know these influential people, you can benefit from their influence.  If you don’t know them – you can’t!

Secondly, if you network with a group of people, even influential people, but they don’t really ‘know’ you and you have no real relationship with them; they are highly unlikely to be of any tangible value to you or your business.  People recommend, partner with, support (and buy from) people they know and trust.

Thirdly, you need to be connected with as many of these influential / credible people as required; in order for you to get the help, support or referrals etc you need.  The correct size for your network will depend on the industry or profession you are in and what you hope to achieve.

Twitter and targeted networking

Ironically, by engaging like-minded people (rather than focusing on numbers), I’ve attracted over 18,000 followers on twitter; my primary online network!  Because I tend to keep my conversations around marketing and social media, I have attracted people into my twitter network, who by default are interested in my areas of expertise.

Little wonder that I now regard my network of twitter associates, as one of my businesses most valuable assets.

Over to you!

What are your tips for developing effective networks, either online or offline? Share your tips and ideas in the comments section below.

Trust your instincts

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After running a successful business for 13 years, I have come to understand and appreciate the power of trusting my business instincts.

Trust your instincts!

Whenever I have gone against my natural business instincts, it’s almost always been the wrong thing to do!  Even if I sometimes think on a conscious level that my ‘hunch’ must be wrong – it has an uncanny knack of being right. Interestingly, when you read the biographies of successful businesspeople and leaders, you will often find that they too have learnt to follow their instincts.

I have done some studies into why our instincts / gut feelings can be such useful indicators and it seems opinions are split.  Some people believe it’s a throwback to skills we developed when living in caves. Others believe it’s our brain tapping into something more spiritual.  Whatever you believe, there’s no doubt in my mind that your instinct can be a powerful business development tool; so long as you listen to it.

I experienced the power of my own instincts earlier today.  I was due to start working on a project with someone next week, yet all along I instinctively knew that this person was just a time-waster.  They said all the right things and tried their hardest to appear super-motivated, yet I knew instinctively that they were never going to proceed.  Thus it came as no surprise, when they called me this morning to confirm that my instincts were right.

Marketing and science

Marketing is a very scientific process, based around testing and measuring. We know that if we do the correct things in the correct way, we can get a very predictable response. However, I believe there is also real value in listening to your gut feelings, hunches or instincts too!

Over to you!

Do you trust your instincts in business or do you think it’s a waste of time? Let us know, with a comment below.

A new year or the same old year over again?

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For most businesses, the first week in January is not the start of a New Year – It’s simply the chance to live the same old year over and over and over again!

They carry on investing their time and money in all the wrong places and thus, they get the same kind of results.  Such businesses reach a plateau after a few years and tend to stay there.  Like a truck that’s stuck in the mud, the harder they try the deeper they seem to get trapped.

The owners of these businesses complain about their lack of results, but fail to make the changes required for success. This fear of change is what psychologists refer to as The Homoeostatic impulse.  It’s best demonstrated in the human desire for things to “be the same – but better.” However, as we all know, improvement can only come as the result of change.  Things don’t “just magically get better” – we have to make them better.

If you always do what you have always done, you will always get what you have always got!

So, as we enter the first full working week of 2009, let’s embrace the opportunity to learn from what we did in 2008.

Marketing in a recession

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Last month, I interviewed some business owners, who not only survived the last recession but actually grew their businesses; whilst those around them saw their businesses shrink or go broke.

I wanted to know what their secret was, so I could share it with you!

It became apparent very quickly that there was a single, common thread, which was shared by each of the successful businesspeople from the last recession.

Here’s what they told me

The successful businesspeople continued to invest in the key areas of their business, whilst their competitors stopped investing in those same, key areas!

Marketing lessons from past recessions

During the last recession, many of the businesses that went backwards or went broke, decided to invest as little as possible in anything.  They chose to hunker-down and wait for the recession to finish. As a result, they cut back on things like service contracts for their cars, office equipment etc.  They also stopped most or all of their marketing.

Even in a good economy, a business with creaking infrastructure and no marketing is really going to struggle. In a recession, that approach is going to make it almost impossible to survive!

Recession marketing

During the recession, your prospective clients / customers are looking for the best value for money possible.  This requires super-effective marketing, as you will need YOUR message to stand out and then convince people, more powerfully than your competitors, that YOURS is the best value for their money!

Your existing clients / customers will be hurting financially too.  They will be looking for better deals and for ways to reduce their outgoings.  You need to make sure they don’t go to a competitor or simply drop your service, thinking it will save them money.

This is clearly not the time to forget about your marketing.

Marketing opportunities

I believe 2009 will present some amazing opportunities.  The months ahead will be a time of great change and those with the vision and courage to adapt to these changes, will get the rewards.

Use the challenges of the year ahead to position yourself in your marketplace as a provider of answers. During times of flux, people want answers and we are attracted to those who we believe have the answers we need.

Listen to what your marketplace is saying to you.  Keep in regular dialogue with your clients / customers and also your prospective clients / customers.

Find ways to match the benefits of your products or services to their changing needs and ensure that you and your business are an essential resource for them!

Your marketing map!

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In this post, I am going to show you a very simple way to make your marketing massively more powerful.

Most small business owners / entrepreneurs have only a vague idea of what they want from their business.  They tend to be highly-motivated and launch themselves like a rocket into their work.  However, with a little more forward planning, it’s possible to totally transform your sales results!

marketing planImagine setting off on a journey; from where you live to an unknown destination 300 miles away.  How would you prepare for that trip? You would probably check the route on a map, so you knew where you were going and how to get there.

You might also check the weather and traffic conditions and ensure you had enough fuel.  With all this in place, you stand a 99.9% chance of getting where you want to be!

If that journey had been ‘planned’ ahead the way most small businesses plan ahead, it would have been very different!

There wouldn’t be a clear destination, so it would have been impossible for them to plan a route.  In other words, they wouldn’t even know if they are heading in the right direction or not! With no idea of where they’re going and no route to follow, they could end up anywhere.

Marketing and planning

If you study any successful business, you will see that they deliberately plan what they want in advance.  As a result, they can spot immediately if they are on target or heading in the wrong direction.  They are also able to anticipate potential hazards and even identify the people; whose help they will need in order to succeed.  Because they know where they are going, every step takes them closer and they can plan ahead with far, far more confidence than the average business.

How to smash your sales targets with a little planning!

Here’s a quick way to find exactly what you need to do, in order to reach your annual sales target. It also gives a quick insight into the power of using firm figures.

List your desired turnover & profit figures

You need to know what you are aiming for in real terms. This means writing down what you want to ‘get’ from your business financially.

List the number of sales needed in order to hit those figures

Once you know how much money you want to earn, you need to identify how many sales you must make in order to reach that figure.  This then becomes your annual sales target.

List the number of enquiries needed to generate 1 sale

How many meetings, calls, emails, letters from prospective clients / customers do you need on average, to generate a sale? If you need 100 sales to hit your sales target and each sale requires 3 enquiries, your initial focus should be on generating those 300 enquiries as inexpensively and quickly as possible!

Divide the number of enquiries needed by 12

In the above example, you would need to generate 25 enquiries a month in order to hit your annual sales targets.  This means you would now have a very clear picture of the kind of marketing activity you need to invest your time / money in, if you want to succeed.

What next?

Now that you have a good idea of ‘the numbers’ required for you to hit your sales targets, you need to start generating those sales / enquiries! To help you, here’s a list of 10 of the most effective forms of marketing for small and medium-sized businesses that I know.

Over to you!

What forms of marketing have you found to be most and least effective for your business? Please share your experiences with us and leave a comment below!