Jim Connolly Marketing

Marketing: Smoke and mirrors

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Marketing, Smoke and mirrors

Photo by James Adams on Unsplash

Friends, today’s post is longer than usual from me.

It’s an extremely important subject that is costing/losing small business owners a fortune. To get the full benefit from what I’m about to share, the estimated read time is 4-minutes. I know you’re busy, so if you don’t have time, skip to the paragraph below titled TLDR: You and your business.

Let’s go.

The success of your marketing relies on you identifying, then stopping, and marketing that isn’t producing the results you need. Then, replacing what doesn’t work, with effective marketing that produces maximum results.

A major reason why small business owner’s find their marketing efforts don’t work, is that the vast majority of marketing tips, tactics and strategies out there (around 95% in my experience) are ineffective or damagingly ineffective. They either don’t help your business grow, or they cause your business to shrink. Go back 20-years, that number was around 20%.

As someone who has devoted 30-years of my life to serving small business owners, I kills me to see so many small business owners unknowingly adopting toxic marketing advice. That’s what this article is all about.

Here’s what you need to know.

Here’s why this is happening & how to avoid it

This problem is growing because bad advice used to be very rare in comparison to today. The smoke and mirrors required for fake experts to create the illusion of success or wisdom used to come at a high financial cost. 

Today, all they need is a YouTube account or social media account, knowledge on how to feed/play the algorithms, and the motivation to work extremely hard until they pull it off.

Around 15-years ago, working behind a smoke and mirrors illusion was a lot harder. Here’s an example I remember from the 1990’s in London, which shows the kind of financial barrier to entry for fake experts.

For example.

There was a gallery that was sold to a charismatic guru in his mid twenties. It contained a lot of expensive items and he used the gallery as a base from which to sell coaching to artists, on how to make a fortune selling their artwork. He threw lavish parties in the gallery and looked to be financially successful for someone so young. And apparently he was very convincing. His place remained open for around 2-years.

The smoke and mirrors? 

The cool young artisan marketing guru had:

  • Never successfully marketed art
  • Never successfully sold art

He was gifted the company by his very wealthy parents, along with the building and the stock. He also had all his running costs paid for the 2-years he ‘traded’ there. 

The goal was for his parents to position their son as a successful business guru. They finally pulled the plug when their son started getting complaints, which led to legal proceedings against him and the whole illusion unraveled.

Now to the most important part.

TLDR: You and your business

It’s the exact opposite in 2025. The barrier has been removed. Anyone can do it. Which is why YouTube and social media are packed with thousands of charismatic, confident pretenders, offering dangerously incorrect marketing advice.

Let’s stop this happening to you.

Here are the most common red flags to watch out for, before you pay for, or take free marketing advice, from anyone. Yes, even if (especially if) they have hundreds of thousands or millions of subscribers or followers.

  • Their advice is already commonplace. Any widely used marketing activity will provide you with absolutely no competitive advantage. 
  • They didn’t seem to exist until 5 or 10-years ago. They came from nowhere, despite claiming years of success. Check people out. 
  • They offer easy to create/fake vanity metrics to ‘prove’ their ability. Traffic increases, clicks, leads and enquiries, etc. All these can be faked using software.
  • They’re under 35 and lack the lived experience required, to know the long-term impact of their advice. Such as how their advice would work in different economies. 
  • Their subscriber numbers or follower numbers are huge and it happened in a suspiciously short time. Bots can be purchased to subscribe to, or follow accounts. This is usually done in batches and added carefully over a period of time, in order to avoid being identified as fake. Once a significant number of bots have subscribed or are following them, real people start joining because those numbers suggest the pretender has value. 

One thing which hasn’t changed over the years, is that if we take the time to think it through, it’s not too hard to spot some of the less polished fakes. So, before parting with your money for membership of mastermind groups (insider groups, premium groups/clubs) marketing software or webinars etc., think carefully.

Give yourself time to make the best decision you can. This is especially the case if you’re being rushed to act quickly to avoid missing out or to get some kind of early bird discount.

They know that the faster you decide, the more likely you’ll be to pay them.

Marketing 101: The power of extra

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marketing, extra value, small business

Let’s look at how to apply the marketing power of extra into your business, for massive wins with very little effort.

When making a buying decision or a decision to hire someone, prospects look for the best value. Just like we do. They want to make the decision that they feel offers the biggest bang for their buck. Something that similarly priced alternatives don’t provide.

In short, they’re looking for the extra value, which makes the price so attractive that they proceed and make the purchase.

Note: it’s not the lowest price they want.

Imagine two competing products (or services) that are same price. One of them them offers something extra, which people in the market for this type of product value. The other doesn’t. Naturally, the product with that extra value will win almost all the sales.

That’s pretty obvious.

But here’s the idea I want to share with you today.

Imagine two competing products that are priced differently. One is priced 50% higher than the other. If this higher priced product has enough extra value, the price still sounds like it’s worth every penny. It will carry on outselling the less valuable, cheaper competitor. Maybe by only 20-30%.

That extra value is doing something amazing.

It’s causing the product to outsell the competing product… and these additional sales are made at a meaningfully higher price.

You and your business

With very little effort, that extra value product will become something you provide. You’ll make more sales or attract more clients than your competitors. All these additional sales will be at an increased price.

Very little effort?

Yes. Actually, very, VERY little effort!

The marketplace already provides us with countless examples of exactly what to do. You simply need to look at the extra value that people in somewhat similar industries to yours offer… adapt it for your specific, target customer… then offer it.

You get bonus points (and a lot more sales and money) if you put some time into it and discover the most attractive, extra value.

Then, you need to kick your extra value offering out the door. That’s the only tricky part. Lots of small business owners worry about what will happen, to the point where they choose to do nothing.

Note: Those same small business owners are not risk averse!

They can’t possibly be.

Never, ever assume that a small business owner is scared to take a risk.

Why?

  • These same people started a business in the first place. That’s something only a fraction of the population have the tenacity to do.
  • These amazing people had the guts to employ themselves. And some have a team working for them.
  • These brave people were courageous enough to leave the ‘safety’ of a regular pay check.

This is why I love and respect small business owners so much. 

Important

For those small business owners reading this who have forgotten how resilient you are, reread the 3 lines above. Not just today, in relation to the idea I shared with you today. Read it again if you ever doubt exactly what you’re made of. 

Before they buy: 3 things your prospects need to hear

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marketing impact

Photo: Shutterstock

Before you hit go on your next marketing effort, here are 3 questions your prospective clients or customers need you to answer.

1. I’m busy. Why should I give you my attention?

Attention is earned. It’s not granted automatically because you launched a campaign or sent out a newsletter. Your audience is already overwhelmed by messages, distractions, and responsibilities. If your title/headline doesn’t instantly signal relevance, they will simply ignore it.

Tip: Spend at least 25% of your time crafting the title/headline, as you do on the rest of your marketing piece. It’s THAT important. 

2. Why should I switch to you from my current provider?

Your competitors all claim to offer a great service. Unless you give prospects a powerful reason to switch to you, a reason that carries weight, they’ll stick with what they know. To multiply your conversion rates even more, back your powerful reason with a guarantee. Then, to increase your conversion rates even more, make it easy for prospects to switch from their current provider, to you. 

Relax. I’ve written about how to make switching to you as easy as possible, and as attractive as possible. Read it here.

3. I’ve never heard of you before. Why should I trust you?

Trust is the foundation of every sale. But when you’re unknown to the prospect, you start with none. So, you need to demonstrate credibility, not just claim it. Offer evidence. Show results. Share proof. Make it easy for people to feel safe choosing you. 

When you answer all 3 of those questions clearly, confidently and early, you make it far easier for prospects to buy from you or hire you. 

You’ll cut through the noise.

You’ll position yourself as worth noticing.

You’ll give people a reason to believe in you, and to take action.

You’ll also radically increase your sales!

You’re better. They’re more successful. Why?

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marketing balance, marketing tips, marketing ideas

Photo | Andrew Draper

Today, I’d like to help you avoid maybe the most frustrating thing in business. I’m referring to watching your less capable competitors gaining more of the market, and making more money, than you do.

It all starts with understanding the following.

The most successful provider and the best provider, are seldom the same provider. In fact, it rarely happens.

That’s because being the best doesn’t automatically mean people will notice you, believe you, buy from you or hire you.

Why is that?

Commercial success requires a critically important balance.

You need to balance the development of a great service, with the development of a strategy to earn the attention, trust and business/patronage of your marketplace.

Here’s why that balance is essential.

  • If your prospective clients don’t know you exist, it doesn’t matter how exceptional your service or product is, because you’re not an option for them.
  • If your prospective clients DO know you exist, but your marketing doesn’t inspire them to trust you, they won’t hire you or buy from you.
  • And if your prospective clients know you exist, and they trust you–but your marketing doesn’t motivate them to take action, they won’t hire you or buy from you.

Without that balance in place: trying to grow a business is extremely frustrating, as less capable competitors grab your share of the marketplace. You will already know competitors in your space, who are nowhere near as good as you, yet they’re flying.

But with that balance in place: you get the outstanding results your hard work deserves!

Thankfully, this is directly under our control as business owners. And it’s easy. All it takes is a decision. The decision to adjust the balance, so our business attracts the volume and quality of clients we deserve.

But here’s the challenge

It’s even easier to ‘keep on keeping on’ and hope things just get better. Which is why this message is ignored by most people I share it with. It’s why there are business owners still whining about how unlucky they are 5 or even 10-years after they started their business.

It’s not luck.

It’s a decision. THIS decision.

And as business owners, it should be the easiest, most obvious business decision we ever make.

This marketing gets opened 100% of the time

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marketing letters, mail marketing

Today you will be served thousands of advertisements. You’ll also be sent dozens of spam emails and texts. And one thing they all have in common is that you will ignore them.

But a targeted letter, sent to you, in a plain envelope (no branding of any kind), which addresses you by name, WILL get opened. If your name and address are handwritten on the envelope, the odds on you opening it are pretty-much 100%.

It will have your attention. And this is great news for you and your business.

Pushing the envelope

If you send a marketing letter like the example above, you will enjoy the same impact. Your message will be seen. And you’ll have the attention of your prospective client or customer. This includes those hard to reach prospects, who have previously ignored your outreach attempts. Just think about that for a moment. 

As long as your message is well written and provides them with something of value, you now have your best opportunity to win. And you have that same opportunity with every prospect you target.

What next?

To start with, target 2 or 3 prospects each week with that same approach. Soon, you’ll have lots of prospective clients to follow-up.

Lots of people who will remember your classy, personal and friendly approach.

Lots of irons in the fire. 

And a steady, regular flow of leads.

Use the feedback from your mailings to improve your message and your follow-up. As your conversion numbers increase, increase the number of letters you send. 

Just because email marketing is so cheap that everyone is using it, doesn’t mean you should ignore investing in small-scale direct mail marketing. In fact, that deluge of email is precisely what makes your marketing letter stand out and get opened. 

Photo by Mediamodifier on Unsplash

Higher Fees, Zero Competition, Maximum Profit. Includes 10 Examples!

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less competition, higher fees, better clients

Small businesses often struggle to attract high-quality prospects. They also attract too many price-sensitive enquiries. Are either of those happening to you? If so, it’s a relatively easy issue to fix.

Easy to fix?

Yes. We know exactly why it happens and how to fix it.

Here’s what you need to know, along with 10 examples to get you started.

Let’s go!

Here’s why the problem happens

When competing products or services seem similar, price becomes the obvious way to determine value. As such, there’s little, if any, motivation for someone to pay more. In this common scenario, the lowest price looks like the best deal.

Sure, they ‘may’ go for the 2nd or 3rd lowest price, hoping to insulate themselves from scammers or low quality goods or services. The key thing is that at this point, they’re price shopping. And you’re now competing on price.

Here’s how to fix it. Including 10 examples

A proven way to totally overcome this problem, is through developing something I call meaningful value.

Meaningful value is when you take what your industry normally delivers and improve it so dramatically that comparison becomes impossible.

By default, any product or service with meaningful value has to be radically different from what’s expected. That’s what gives it meaning and elevates it from being average. This automatically places you in a unique position.

A position, where everyone is talking about your products or services.

A position where a growing number of people know the name of your business and what your business stands for.

A position, where you’re no longer competing on price, because what you provide has no serious competition!

Here are 10 examples to get you started.

  1. A service that comes with a 125% money-back guarantee.
  2. A product that’s provably safer than anything in its category.
  3. A product that’s 50% lighter than the industry leader.
  4. A service that’s designed from the ground up, around the unique needs of each client.
  5. A product that’s the only one in its class, to be made from 100% renewable sources.
  6. A product that’s part of a numbered, limited edition.
  7. A service that’s 3 times faster than the industry leader.
  8. A product that’s far longer lasting than anything in its niche.
  9. A service that’s massively more extensive than anything else available to your marketplace.
  10. A product that’s clearly the most energy efficient in its class.

Those ideas are just food for thought. They’re examples to demonstrate the ‘base line’ required, for your products or services to stand out as being of meaningfully more value, than your marketplace expects.

So, invest the time required to create something special. Marginal improvements have marginal impact. They won’t improve your offering to the point where you have no real competition.

Go big. Aim for maximum impact. Make comparison impossible.

Photo by Robert Katzki on Unsplash