Jim Connolly Marketing

How to own your competitors. It’s easier than you think

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When you own a high-profit chunk of your marketplace, everything improves. You’ll have no meaningful competitors. Growing your business will become easy. You’ll attract the ideal type of client or customer every time. And you will never again have to compete based on price.

I’m going to show you how to make this happen. I’m nice like that.

Let’s imagine someone is the owner of a small marketing agency. Ironically, that’s one of the most common industries with this problem. Now let’s assume they know that there are lots of ideal prospective clients in need of a new agency. But their agency isn’t getting a big enough share of these wonderful, prospective clients.

By the way, let’s assume this agency also has a well-designed website, nice branding, some kick ass testimonials and experienced team members. As well as all the services you’d expect.

Given there are lots of outstanding prospects out there in need, why doesn’t this well-equipped provider get a really big slice of their market?

Yes, there are lots of wonderful prospective clients out there with a very real need. But unless those prospects want to hire YOU to fulfil their need, they’ll go elsewhere. And because the vast majority of businesses in every niche look similar, they each end up with a small slice.

You see, prospective clients expect a well designed website, nice branding, kick ass testimonials and experienced team members. They expect to see a familiar list of services. As such, nothing there creates ‘want’. Nothing. Even the most beautifully crafted branding is no match for a predictably dull range of services/products and promises.

The answer?

The providers who win the best clients or customers, refuse to be just another superb, well branded example of a professional provider in their industry.

Instead, the winners get intentional. They choose an edge, based on the exact profile of client they want. Then they absolutely OWN it. Their edge gives them their unique voice and allows them to develop a very specific strategy, with which to attract and utterly delight their ideal profile of client.

This gets them noticed by prospective clients who want a provider with that edge. Prospects are powerfully drawn by the connection they sense, when they encounter a 100% relevant provider. It cuts through the noise and almost instantly commands their attention. 

So choose your edge. Then make it the cornerstone of all your marketing.

It’s how the prospect’s want is hatched.

It’s how you capture their eager attention.

And it’s what motivates ideal prospects to get in touch, who really, really want to hire you. Allowing you to own a huge, highly-profitable slice of your marketplace.

Four questions that helped a subscriber boost sales by 68%

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building business contacts, better contacts

When I ask a business owner who their ideal customer or client is, they almost always reply with demographics; average age, location, income level, etc. 

Whilst demographics are certainly useful, they’re just a piece of the picture.

Demographics will tell you who to target with your marketing.

However, to get that demographic to buy from you, you need to know what matters to them. That’s their motivation. That’s what drives their decisions. That’s what drives their actions. That’s what determines whether they buy from you… or don’t.

Demographics alone can be problematic. There are wealthy people who spend the lowest possible price for a reliable product. They’d happily buy a £5 pen, but wouldn’t dream of buying a £500 pen. There are also those on low incomes who would take a loan out, just to own that £500 pen. Income level is only part of the picture.

I was inspired to share this with you, after learning that one of my newsletter readers increased her revenues by close to 70% last year, partly by focusing on 4 of the questions I shared in one of my newsletters. By honing in on the right things, she was able to improve her marketing, so that it spoke directly to what matters to her marketplace.

These are the 4 prospective customer questions that worked for her.

  • What improvement are prospects looking for, from my services or products?
  • What do they primarily place their security in?
  • Which do they value the most, quality they can rely on or low-prices.
  • What do they give most of their attention to commercially?

By talking with current and former customers, we can get a good idea of what matters most to our typical buyer. Often we don’t even need to ask! For example, if our customers tend to wear designer names, quality and style are more important to them than the lowest-priced/reliable alternatives. 

Through observation and conversation, we can get a clear picture of what our prospects are attracted to. That’s an essential part of attraction marketing; marketing that attracts sales and enquiries from our ideal customer. 

I hope you found that useful.

Ignore the uninterested

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ignore uninterested prospects, small biz marketing, marketing

Photo by Debby Urken 

This is a foundational truth of marketing: You can make a fortune if you market to the right kind of people. However, you will waste time and money, if you market to the wrong kind of people.

So, who should you be marketing to? And why?

Ignore the uninterested

No matter how great your service is, people who are delighted with their current provider are highly unlikely to switch to you. That’s because they’re not looking for a new provider. They’re simply not interested in dumping a service, which they trust and are extremely happy with.

We call the people who are not in the market for your services, the uninterested. Whilst it is possible to sell to those with no interest, it’s an extremely low leverage activity.

It’s also totally unnecessary.

Focus on the unhappy

It makes a great deal more sense to focus on those who are eagerly looking for a new provider. We call these people the unhappy. They are actively in the market for what you’re offering. They’re ready to make a purchasing decision. They are the exact type of motivated buyers your business needs. I wrote this post about how to get your prospects’ urgent attention and immediate action, which you might find helpful.

Certainly, build an awareness of how great your service is. Make it easy for people to find you, when their relationship with their current provider sours. That goes without saying.

However, if you want to instantly connect with people who will give you their full attention AND who are ready to hire you or buy from you now, create a marketing strategy that focuses on attracting the unhappy.

You’ll be very glad you did.

The horrible truth about marketing

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There’s a balance required if you want to rise above the competition. Yes, you should strive to be the best provider you can be. But that’s only one side of the scales. You also need to be the best marketed.

Think about it. There’s a world of difference between being the best… and the best selling.

  • The best selling album is never the best recorded album. It’s the best marketed album.
  • The best selling movie at the box office is never the best produced movie. It’s the best marketed movie.
  • And the best selling sportswear brand is never the best quality sportswear brand. It’s the best marketed sportswear brand.

You already know your best selling competitor is not the best quality competitor. It’s just their marketing that’s better. Note: this doesn’t mean their marketing is outstanding. It only means that they do more of the right things than their competitors. So, they get noticed more than you and/or they’re better at converting that attention into paying clients or customers.

Give your business the advantage

If you’re sick of watching competitors doing better than you, you need to decide to outperform their marketing, the way you already outperform their service. Because an average service that has great marketing, will always beat a great service that has average marketing.

The great news: If you decide to fight back, you’ll have better marketing and a better service. That’s an unbeatable combination. I’m telling you, your competitors won’t know what’s hit them.

Read this and improve your advertising results, fast

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A lot of small business owners spend a ton of money on advertising. Often with pretty poor results. So, I put this post together, to help you avoid the most common advertising mistakes.

Here they are in no particular order.

  • You’re using brand advertising (ads that contain no obvious call to action), when you should be using direct response advertising (ads that contain a direct call to action). Almost all small businesses should use direct response.
  • You’re advertising on a platform your prospects don’t use / don’t pay attention to.
  • Your advertising is online, when it should be in print media. Or the other way around.
  • You’re buying advertising on platforms that people don’t trust, rather than advertising on highly trusted websites, podcasts, etc.
  • You’re advertising at the wrong time in your prospective client’s (or customer’s) buying cycle.
  • You’re advertising to get maximum click-throughs, rather than targeted click-throughs from actual prospects.
  • Your advertisements are not written by a proven copywriter.
  • Your advertisements are bought based on what they cost, rather than their potential effectiveness.
  • Your advertisements are in places where lots of your competitors are advertising.

There are lots more common reasons why advertising doesn’t work.

For example, your advertising message is irrelevant to your target prospect, or it’s lacking in targeted motivation, or it points to a poorly converting landing page, or it points to a landing page that loads too slowly, or the special whatever you’re offering isn’t as special as you think, or it explains too much, or it sounds too similar to an advertisement they’ve already clicked on, or it sounds too good to be true, or your target prospects are privacy conscious and your landing page requires cookies, or you are not bidding for your advertisements correctly, or your advertisement is reaching just a fraction of the number of people you think it is… seriously, I could go on and on, but you get the drift.

In most cases, small and medium-sized business advertising makes lots of these mistakes simultaneously. These simultaneous mistakes are more damaging than the individual damage each one causes.

That’s because they compound together. Think of compound interest, but working in reverse!

Do you even need paid advertisements?

For many small and medium-sized businesses, their biggest advertising mistake is that they’re buying them in the first place! I don’t buy advertisements. My clients have no need to buy them either. It’s an increasingly expensive, complex game. And you don’t need to play. It’s just one form of marketing. Nothing more.

I hope you found this useful, my friend.

Photo by Stas Knop on Pexels.com

Your next client is already looking for you

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immdiate sales, immediate marketing action, small biz marketing

Photo by kaboompics on Pexels.com

You’re a small business owner. In my experience, this means you care about the needs of the people you serve. I want to help you do it better. Which is why I wrote this for you.

Let’s start with a simple, but important question: what keeps your prospective clients or customers awake at night?

There are only two answers.

  1. The things they’re worried about. Their fears, apprehensions or concerns.
  2. The things they’re excited about. Their goals, ambitions and the opportunities ahead of them.

Now you know what those two answers are, you can significantly increase your sales or attract more clients.

Here’s why those answers are so valuable

Anything keeping your prospects awake at night is an urgent priority. It’s where their attention is. They’re not casually browsing. They’re actively looking for help, right now. And I want you to be the one who provides it.

To get there, you only need to do two things. Both of them are relatively easy.

First, find out what your prospects are worried about or excited about. How? Talk to them. Read or listen to their social media. Look inside the forums, which people similar to your prospects use. You get the idea. Just pay more attention. Or as we used to say, grow bigger ears.

Second, show them (very clearly) in your marketing how your product or service will help them in exactly that area. How it will eliminate or greatly reduce the things they’re worried about. How it will help them achieve those opportunities they’re so excited about.

In short: speak directly to what they’re feeling.

Here’s another thing that makes this idea so extremely powerful: I assure you that the massive majority of small businesses never do this. It means that when you do, you’ll stand out immediately. Not by being noisier. But by being totally relevant to what’s most important to them.

You just need to listen, understand their need, speak to their need and then serve their need.

When you get this right, everybody wins. Most importantly that includes you, my friend.