There’s a big difference between knowing what needs to be done and doing what needs to be done.  That’s because information, (even great information) by itself is useless, without the motivation to use it.

There’s an interesting post on problogger.com, where Darren Rowse shares how it was not until his wife gave him an ultimatum, that he turned his blog into a full-time business.

Darren already knew what he needed to do and he had bundles of ability.  However, none of that was getting him the results he and his wife needed, until he became motivated enough to take action.

That’s because knowledge is not power

One of the most inaccurate common sayings is; “knowledge is power.”

Knowledge is not power – it only acquires power when you elect to do something with it.  For example, knowing how to speak Japanese has no ‘power’ for you whatsoever, unless you use that knowledge in some way.  You can use that skill to reach a brand new marketplace with your product or service – but if you decide after mastering the language, never to speak or read it again, nothing will happen.

Knowing and doing

On my motivation master class audio program, I mention a guy I met, who had recently lost his business; running up massive debts in the process.  I met him at his home, and immediately noticed that his bookshelves were packed with the most powerful, highly-acclaimed marketing books and CD’s on the market.  His collection must have been worth thousands.

I asked him if he had not found the material in these books of any value, as the primary reason he went broke was a lack of sales.  He explained that he had read or listened to all of them, but had not been motivated enough to use what he had learnt until it was too late.

In my experience, his situation is not that uncommon.  Some people will scour the Internet for sites that have valuable advice, which they then do nothing with.  They love to read about new, powerful marketing ideas but they do nothing with them.

By the way, you can download a copy of my Motivation Master Class audio program here, which shows you how to motivate yourself (and others) to take action. (It runs for just under 2 hours!)

Whatever line of business you are in, don’t simply gather marketing advice and find it interesting – Use it!

It seems hard to believe that it’s now just over a year, since I launched this blog.  In that time, the blog has developed a great community of readers, who regularly contribute comments, feedback and suggestions.  This reader input, has helped shape the direction of the blog and been of immeasurable value to me.

Interestingly, over the past few weeks, the blog has started to gain recognition from organisations outside our reader community.

Two new developments in particular have really taken my breath away.  Firstly, Advertising Age ranked this blog high enough to be included in their prestigious AdAge Power 150 list.  As a reader of Advertising Age for more than 20 years, this recognition means a great deal to me.

Then earlier this week, it was brought to my attention that technorati has also listed Jim’s Marketing blog, in their list of the top 100 small business blogs!

Content AND reader engagement

Although I have tried to provide as much genuinely valuable material here as possible, the reason the blog has started getting noticed outside of the blogs community, is because of the blogs community! No matter how hard I try to make the blog of value, without YOU being so proactive in the way you have recommended and shared this blog with your friends, NOTHING would have happened.

The encouragement and feedback you have given me over this first year has been of massively more value to me than you can possibly imagine.

I am not going to name names, because the list would be just too long.

For example, it would include the name of every one of you, who has commented. The current comment count is just under 4,000.  It would include those of you, who share this blog with your friends on Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter etc.  It would include those of you, who have linked to this blog.  It would include everyone who has subscribed to the blog’s RSS feed and those, who have tweeted with me or called me for a chat; after finding my phone number (01427 891274) on the contact page.

You know who you are, so:

THANK YOU!

Here’s a quick tip, which could save you a stack of time and money.

I have just endured three of the most frustrating days since starting my business, around 15 years ago.  However, there’s a great lesson here for you and your business.

So, what happened Jim?

The problem

I discovered that the company that was handling my blogs and email hosting, was just about to cease trading!  I quickly needed to move my blogs onto new servers.  As I had not researched an alternative hosting company, I had to drop what I was doing and spend time searching for a new host.

Thankfully, after a ton of; phone calls, Tweets and emails, I found a great new host.  However, I lost the best part of a day finding them.

Then, there were a few additional hitches.  This meant that instead of working on my business, I lost hours trying to get the blogs and email working again.  As a result, I needlessly ended up working two, sixteen hour days.  I also worked all day today (Saturday) to catch up; instead of taking my 4 year old son on a pre-arranged trip (to see Thomas The Tank Engine.)

The lesson

If you have an website or blog, which is important to your business, you need a strong contingency plan.  You need the name of a reliable hosting company and the name of a reliable tech person; who you can call on to handle the switch over.  I had a tech guy in place and have no idea how long this would all have taken, if I needed to find him as well.  By the way, I will publish the name of my new hosting company for you, if their service remains this good over a longer period.

The bottom line is that the time to get these providers in place is now – Not when disaster strikes.

That’s it!  Time for me to go and get our family trip rebooked...

In 2005, I wrote and developed a massively popular audio program called; The Motivation Master Class – available at the time exclusively as a 3 CD box set.

The program sold all over the world and is based around a set of powerful motivation skills, which I used in order to transform my sales results and thus my income and business results.

Stocks of the CD’s sold out over and over again.  So, I decided to turn the program into a downloadable, full length audio program.  Of course, I have also been able to slash the price!

The great news is that now, for the first time, you can get yourself a copy of The Motivation Master Class right here on the blog.

How will it help you and your business?

The easiest way to see how this program can help you and your business get better results, is to take a look at the product page.

I’m genuinely excited to be able to share this program with you via the blog for the first time and for such a great price too.

I saw someone on FriendFeed recently, who described himself as a “medical expert.”
Turns out he isn’t. When I asked him what his medical qualifications were, he told me he had none, but he had, “read some great books over the years.”

I read a blog last week, written by a lady who claimed to be an “SEO expert.”
Turns out she isn’t. Her website is very poorly optimised and lacks some of the most basic forms of SEO.

I saw someone on Twitter earlier, who describes himself as a “social media expert.”
Turns out he isn’t. He simply using Twitter to ReTweet other people’s posts and post links to the tunes he’s listening to. No conversation, no connection – not very social.

When someone isn’t getting the results they want, it’s often simply because they are taking the wrong advice.

You can waste a LOT of time trying to give the right message to the wrong person.

I have a book in my office, which was given to me a few years ago, by an employee of one of my clients. This man was very likeable, yet totally demotivated.  He was doing the same job at age 45 that he has done all his working life and earned less than anyone of similar age within the company.

He handed me the book one day, telling me that it would be “just my thing” because “it’s all about motivation and success.”  I asked him how come he didn’t want it.  He explained that he was not into that kind of stuff.

I then asked him why he bought the book in the first place and he told me he didn’t buy it – but that his wife had given it to him; though he had no idea why.  He went on to say she often bought him books like that, which he never read. “You’d think by now that she would realise I prefer novels,” he said.

No matter how great your message is, you are wasting your time sharing it with the wrong people.

This post is all about generating word of mouth and creating a positive buzz about you or your business.

If a friend recommends a great restaurant to you, you are massively more likely to go and eat there than you would be, if you’d found out about that same restaurant via an expensive advertisement. This is because, as we all know, a word of mouth referral is extremely powerful.

So, here’s a question for you:

Why do so few companies do anything to encourage word of mouth?

There are a number of reasons, but here’s what I believe to be the primary one: In my experience, most business owners think they are already doing enough to generate a buzz about what they do.  They genuinely care about their customers and work hard to try and exceed their customer’s expectations.

Surely that’s enough to get people talking about them?

No. It’s not!

That’s because there’s a high level of customer expectancy within the marketplace.  Think about it for a moment.  You expect great service don’t you? Of course you do and so does everyone else!

So, we all notice when we get bad service, but when we get either a good or slightly better than good service, it just washes over us.  It certainly doesn’t motivate us to want to tell all our friends.  We reserve that kind of buzz for the special companies – The one’s that stand out.

Word of mouth 101: We attract remarks, when we become remarkable

The marketplace will not start talking about a company, unless there’s a reason.  So, if we want to attract word of mouth business, we need to give people something to talk about.  A great place to start, is to continuously look for ways to offer a remarkable service, remarkable products or both.

To become remarkable takes courage; the courage to be different.  I’m not talking about being different just for the sake of it. If Bob’s the only Accountant in town to wear a batman outfit to his meetings, he will be different AND people will talk about him. (But that’s a whole different kind of word of mouth!)

Here’s a thought:  Why not take a moment to think about the companies, services or products that you are talking about and figure out how to adapt what you do, so your business becomes just as remarkable – but in your own way.  Use companies in different industries as inspiration, but don’t copy them.  Dare to be different and offer unique value.

Okay, that’s my take on it. I’d really like to hear what tips or ideas you have for generating word of mouth.