Jim's Marketing Blog

Marketing tips and ideas to help you grow your business

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!

Stand out from the crowd and boost sales

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Would you like to gain a massive marketing advantage and boost your sales? Then find a way to market your services, which is NOT already being used by your competitors!

marketing stand out from crowdTake a look at the businesses in your local area and you will notice something interesting.

You will see that businesses in the same industry, advertise in the same places, to the same potential clients, using the same kind of marketing messages and the same kind of promises!

As a result, their marketing pretty-much cancels each other’s out. This is a shocking waste of money and extremely low leverage.

Creative marketing

To gain a competitive marketing advantage, you should think of ways to creatively market your services, which are not already being done-to-death by your competitors.

A great way to find new marketing ideas, is to look at the marketing methods common in other industries, which are not being used in your own. Then, think how you can adapt those forms of marketing for your business!

For example, a number of stores are now paying bloggers to write posts about their stores and their ‘special offers.’  Regardless of your industry, if your competitors are not already doing this, it could be well worth considering for your business!

Just imagine a well-known blogger, who has the respect of your future clients, telling them how brilliant you are – that’s powerful!  Before you ask, I don’t offer this service myself.

If you provide a service that has a national or international client base, like; web design, copy writing, SEO, coaching, consulting – or you sell products via a website, you might want to consider sponsoring a podcast aimed at your core prospect group.  This can be extremely powerful and yet, it’s a form of marketing that’s totally overlooked by most small businesses – including your competitors!

The bottom line

If you want your business to ‘stand out from the crowd,’ stop marketing it where all the competition is!

13 years this week since…

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It’s 13 years this week, since I got my first ever email address!  At the time, even though I only knew a few people who used email, it was clear to me that email had massive potential for me and what was then, my new business.

email marketing newsletter salesNow that pretty-much everyone uses email, it’s interesting to me that so few businesses and entrepreneurs use email marketing effectively!

For example: Buying email lists & sending ads

When you buy an email database, it’s often just a list of people who are getting SLAMMED with junk mail and spam. Why?  Because the same people, who are on the email list that YOU just bought, are on all the other lists too!  As a result, they will have either changed their email address or they will only accept email from their ‘white list’ of approved contacts.  In either case, your latest offer is NOT going to reach them!

By contacting a stranger with an advertisement, you miss the point totally!  That’s because the ‘average’ person these days is not as stupid as some marketers seem to think – far from it.

In fact, the marketplace has never been better informed or more hacked-off at the amount of advertising they receive, than they are today! If you want to gain the trust of a prospective client or customer these days, you need to engage them first; rather than just throw more adverts at them.

If you want to REALLY succeed using email marketing, it’s my experience that the best route is to build your own list of subscribers, and contact them using an informative, valuable newsletter.  In fact, I have a few tips for you here; based on my own newsletter, which is read by thousands of people from more than 100 countries.  This newsletter generated over a hundred thousand pounds for my business in its very first year – starting with an initial readership of just 29 people!

By the way, the free newsletter guide I mentioned earlier is part of a series I am planning. If you have any questions regarding newsletter marketing, either contact me here or leave a comment.

No advertising or sponsors!

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I’ve mentioned previously that this blog was never intended as a tool to generate advertising, sponsorship or affiliate income. I said at the time that the only way I would have any kind of paid ads here, was if it was for a product I use, love and endorse. 

On review, I have decided not to take those ads either – In fact, no paid advertising of any kind!

Why?

Advertising and sponsorships can be great business models for a blog,  when done correctly; but they are inappropriate for what I am trying to achieve here. Advertisers have been attracted to me because of the tremendous level of interaction here between my readers and myself. For example, my last post currently has over 200 comments.

This shows the kind of connection between a blog and its readers that advertisers love AND it is also the EXACT reason why this blog will NEVER carry paid advertising or sponsorships!

jimsmarketingblog.com IS a commercial blog, but its commercial value to me, is that it allows me to connect with more people, through my work.  It does this extremely well and I get enquiries every day from people, who want to find out more about how I can help them and their business achieve great sales results.

So, whilst I am VERY pro advertising and sponsorship – as you can see, it’s just not appropriate for what I am trying to achieve with this blog.

Thanks for taking time to read this. Please feel free to let me know what you think.

Chunking it down!

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credit crunch marketingIsn’t it strange how people think about money? There are people who happily spend £3 a day on a coffee at Starbucks, but who wouldn’t dream of investing that same £60/£70 a month on SEO for their website / blog or even a private health plan or gym membership!

For those of us involved in sales and marketing, there’s a valuable lesson here!  It’s all down to the way people perceive money.

If you sell a service, which has an annual cost of, let’s say £500 – you are asking people to make a £500 purchasing decision.

However, if you tell people they can have that same service for the equivalent of just £42 a month, you are helping them to focus on a far smaller, more manageable figure.

By further chunking that figure down to a weekly investment of just £9.62 or a daily figure of just £1.30, you change their focus completely. Especially if you use something like the Starbucks example I gave earlier, in your marketing.

In today’s economic climate, your prospective clients are thinking REALLY hard before spending their money. This is why it’s important for you to put the cost of investing in your service, into terms that show it’s relative value.

For example, an SEO provider might say:

“For half the price of your daily cappuccino, your business could be getting stacks of targeted leads & enquiries through your website!”

The bottom line?

To a business owner, worrying where her next sales lead will come from, it’s clear that the cost of the SEO service above is infinitely more valuable to her; than the coffee she is currently paying twice as much for!

Find something that your prospective clients / customers already buy, which compares favourably with the cost of your product or service. Then, use it like in the above example – to showcase what GREAT value you offer!

Subscribe now to my RSS feed and make sure you are kept up to date with my free marketing tips, ideas and strategies!

Get your timing right!

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One of the fastest ways to dramatically increase the number of sales you make, is to make sure you ‘close the sale’ at the right point in the negotiating process!

Why is timing so important to your sales success?

marketing timing sales In any sales situation, there is a certain point in time where the prospective client or customer is most likely to agree to buy from you.  If you ask for the sale within this golden period, you stand a far greater chance of the prospective client saying “yes.”

Here’s why:
If you ask them to make a buying decision before they are ready, they will think you are either ‘pushy’ or desperate.  This will massively reduce your chances of making the sale, because people hate to feel pushed or pressurised.

If you ask them to make a buying decision after their interest has dwindled, they will be far less motivated to buy from you.  This will massively reduce your chances of making the sale, because without that all-important motivation to buy, there’s little reason for them to purchase. The moment will have passed.

Hot stuff!

A great way to remember the role of timing in the negotiating process, is to think about what you do when you boil some milk in a pan.  You start off with the milk at room temperature.  Then, once the pan of milk is placed on the hot stove, it slowly gets hotter and hotter until it starts to boil. Once you turn the heat off, the temperature slowly drops until it goes back to room temperature again.

In a negotiation process, you need to ask for a buying decision ‘when the milk is at boiling point!’  This is the point where the prospective client or customer is at their most motivated to buy.

How to improve your timing

No two people are the same.  When some people are at their most motivated to buy, they will lean forward with their eyes wide open, nodding their head in agreement.  Others will hardly change their physiology, but ask you lots of relevant questions, and some will do neither!  Whilst anyone involved in face-to-face negotiating should study the basics of body language, you need to combine this with additional resources.

For example, try asking the last 10 people who didn’t buy from you, what it was that made them decide not to proceed and pay attention to anything that suggests your timing was off.

If you regularly hear people say that “it all happened so fast” or their head was spinning from all the details, this might suggest you need to slow down a little.  If you regularly hear people say that they just “went off the idea” or they are going to “review it again next year,” this might suggest you need to speed up a little.

I have been in sales and marketing long enough to know that there are many, many reasons why people decide to use one provider over another provider.  However, by paying close attention to this often-overlooked area of the negotiating process, you can significantly increase your sales conversion rate.

The advertising question

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I’ve had quite a few people asking me recently, why there’s no advertising on jimsmarketingblog.com.  So, I thought I would let you know.

The short answer is that this blog is NOT here to sell advertising!

Some commercial blogs start off with the sole intention of selling advertising – which is great.  However, the primary focus of this blog is very different!

I decided to simply build this blog as a way for me to connect / network with great people (like you); who share my interest in marketing, networking and business development.  The community here is extremely important to me, which is why I work so hard to get readers ‘involved’ in the blog – with your comments, suggestions, ‘tweets’ and emails.

As you can see from the amazing number of comments this blog already attracts, (after just 11 weeks of marketing) – the community is both growing and very active!

So, what IS the “business model” then?

I want to show you the effectiveness of my work; through the marketing ideas I share with you and the obvious success of this blog itself. Then, if you decide you want to achieve massively better sales/profits or simply develop an amazingly successful blog, you might decide to give me a call or drop me an email.

That’s it!

Of course, as a result of the growing number of people now visiting and commenting here, companies have started asking me if I will advertise their products or services.  This blog’s community is very targeted; primarily people who own a business, are self employed or are ‘decision makers’ in larger companies.  Our community here is what advertisers dream about.

I will happily offer advertising on the blog, but only if it’s a product or service that I use or have researched and believe to be massively valuable to you.  Nothing offered thus far fits into either category – hense no ads.

Getting your marketing balance right!

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It’s a fact: People will only buy from you, if they believe that the value of your product or service (herein called a service), is significantly higher than its cost to them.  If they believe they can get better value (or a better deal) elsewhere, they will go and spend their money somewhere else.

Equally, if people think after reading / listening to your marketing that you must be out of their price-range, they won’t even get in touch with you.

You need to know how to strike the correct marketing balance and that’s what this article is all about!

Effective marketing works on a number of different levels.  For example, it should show people what a great service you provide and also reassure them that your prices or fees are set within their range.  You achieve this by pumping massive value into your services, PLUS showing that people, just like them, are already using and benefiting from your services.

For example, when I market my services, I have to make sure that people know that I work primarily with small businesses and that my fees are easily affordable to them.  Otherwise, I risk people NOT calling me or emailing me for more information, wrongly assuming I’m out of their price range!

Getting your marketing balance right

marketing balance value fees priceTo find out if you have got your marketing balance right, you will need to measure the quality and quantity of the responses you get.  If people often tell you they’re surprised at how expensive your price or fee is, it means you need to pump more value into your services.

Yes, some people will say they think you are expensive, just as a way to try to negotiate your fee down – and you will always a get a few of those; but if this response becomes regular, it’s usually an indicator that the perceived value of your service is too low.

Another indicator that there’s a problem with your marketing balance, is if prospective clients start asking about your price or fee, early into your first conversation with them.  When this happens, it usually means you are either marketing to the wrong crowd or you have caused them to think you are probably out of their price range.  When people think your price / fee is likely to be great value or nominal, they are less concerned about it and more interested in how you can help them or how your service works etc.

How to make testimonials work!

One of the ways I demonstrate both the value and affordability of my marketing services, is to provide testimonials and that’s what I suggest you do too – but not just ANY OLD kind of testimonial!

YOUR testimonials need to show the value and the affordability of your service.

Most testimonials I see, are from people simply saying how great, professional or effective a service provider or product is – which is fine – but only if it’s clear that the people giving the testimonials are just like them. This way, the reader can relate to the message and ‘see themselves’ in those testimonials!

For example, the testimonials I use are all from people who run small businesses or are self-employed – who are elated at how I’ve helped them achieve fantastic results.  These are the same kind of people I market my services to.  This means that these testimonials tick both boxes; showing the value and relevance of my services.

What next?

Take a look at your current marketing feedback and see if you can spot a pattern.  If you find people are often too fee-sensitive when they respond or that you do not get as many responses as you would like, take a look at your marketing balance.

This is obviously a big subject and there are dozens of elements to consider, if you want to blow the lid off your sales and profits.  I will be addressing all these in future articles / blog posts.

Over to YOU!

What tips do YOU have, to overcome prospective clients or customers that are fee-sensitive or too price focussed? I would love you to share them with the readers and myself!

Marketing Guru’s, equality and attraction

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Recently, I have started getting a lot of emails from people; asking me a version of the same great question.

Here’s the question:

Jim, I hear that you don’t use any form of paid advertising or link exchanges – yet your posts often get dozens and dozens of comments. According to alexa.com (or whoever), this new blog gets lots of traffic. How are you doing this?

So, what’s my ‘secret’ then?

My secret is simple. It’s all down to Equality and Attraction!

Equality

I provide marketing material for people just like me; small business owners and those who work in sales / marketing.  If I know what I am doing, you should fit into that group too.  We are all totally equal here.  I don’t buy into that Internet celebrity or marketing guru bullshit. I’m just a normal person who happens to run a successful marketing business. I have the marketing answers you need and I work hard to get as many of them to you, in as clear and interesting a way as possible.  I don’t have a tribe; I have a network of friends and great contacts.

This is a level playing field, where you and I are part of the same marketing community.

Guess what?  That means when you email me, I always email you back.  When you comment on this blog – if your comment requires or requests an answer, I give one, always.  If I like your work, your blog or your product, I promote it for free – you won’t even know most of the time, until you check your stats, sales (or Twitter follow numbers!)

marketing guruMy readers seem to like my guru-free approach to delivering the marketing information they need and helping them succeed.

As a result, you recommend this blog, my RSS feed and my newsletter to your contacts.

You are the reason a 3 month old blog is attracting so much attention. You are the reason I don’t need any paid advertising.  You are also the reason I continue to do this; even though I have been financially secure for life since I was 29 years old (I’m 43 now).

That’s despite starting off in life broke; with no connections, the son of immigrants and covered in scars and even a gunshot wound from a violent childhood in the slums. I’m proud to say that I earned my money selling millions of pounds and dollars worth of ‘goods and services’ – NOT selling books or seminars on ‘how to sell!‘

Although my primary focus is always on giving, I have already generated thousands of pounds / dollars worth of sales for my business, from this new blog.  I did over £7,500 worth of business from enquiries here in the first 10 days alone. If you have a website or blog and you would like to attract more business or leads, here’s how I do it.

Attraction

My work is all about attracting sales and enquiries –  not chasing them.

Why?

Simple – people hate being pestered by salespeople!  They hate being pursued by overzealous networkers (online and offline.)  They hate having unwanted advertising thrust upon them.

People LOVE to buy things but they HATE being sold to!

Here’s how people often get it wrong
This morning, I decided to help my Twitter followers build their follower numbers and get some traffic to their blogs.  I asked them to send me the URL of their blog.  Then, I sent another message out to around 4,500 people – with a link to all the blogs that had been sent to me.

What do you think happened?
Within minutes a couple of people decided to send THEIR blog over and over again; so their blog address appeared multiple times in the link I sent!  I received over a dozen messages from people telling me they had blocked these users and some had even advised their followers to block them as well.

That’s because people hate being pushed, pestered, chased or pursued.  Whenever someone tries to use these tactics to generate sales, they come up against resistance. What a hard way to generate new business!

marketing guru advicePeople come to this blog looking for free marketing ideas, strategies and information.  They come here to connect with people and ask questions through the comments section.  So, that’s what I provide.  I don’t ‘push’ anything.  In fact, there is only ONE page on this entire blog where you can learn about my marketing services.

You attract sales, leads and referrals by being attractive.  In the online world, this means making your site or blog as valuable to your ideal profile of client / customer as possible.  You do this by focusing on delivering quality and quantity. It requires a mindset, where you are prepared to give high quality information away for free; not just the watered down free stuff you see on most websites or in free ebooks!

If you keep all the good stuff back for your paying clients, how is a prospective client going to know how brilliant you are?

You need to make your blog or website an Aladdin’s cave. This means, when your prospective clients or customers arrive, they need to believe they have just stumbled upon a goldmine of great information.

If you sell widgets, make YOUR site or blog THEE place to find out everything they need to know about widgets!  If you sell a service (like I do), use your blog or site to showcase your expertise. Show you really know your subject, answer people’s questions and position yourself in their mind as an expert in your field.

Of course, we are not only attracted to people, groups, blogs and sites that offer great value – we love to SHARE them with our friends and contacts too.

I always advise people to take a look at their marketing and decide if it is genuinely attractive to prospective clients / customers or not.  If you are not sure or you just want to make your marketing even more attractive, ask yourself the Aladdin’s cave question, which I touched upon earlier.

“Would someone visiting my website or blog immediately think they have just stumbled upon a goldmine of great information?”

If the answer is no, look for as many ways as possible to add massive value!

How to sell ANYTHING!

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In this post, I am going to show you how to sell anything (and for a great price too!)  This means not only making a sale or gaining a new client/customer – but making that sale or winning that contract in the most profitable way possible.

Overview

People often tell me that once they get ‘in front’ of a prospective client, they are pretty good at converting the prospective client into a paying client.  The problem is; they just don’t get in front of enough people! If this sounds like you or someone you know, here’s the solution.  By the way – forward what I am about to share with you to everyone you know that might find it useful!

If you are finding it hard to sell something, the temptation is often to lower the price, especially during a tough economic climate.  This is almost always a REALLY bad idea! Ironically, when we speak with buyers we find that price is not primarily what they base their buying decision on!  We find that quality, support, utility and back-up are ranked higher than price.

Before writing this article I held a poll where I asked people, which of the following were most important to them; price, quality or backup & support. Overwhelmingly, price came back as the least important! In fact, there is a lot of data to suggest that lowering prices actually reduces sales.

Price only becomes a hurdle when the cost of something is greater than its perceived value!

To make something sell, you need to make the perceived value of it higher than the asking price.  For example, a £100 item with a perceived value of £200 will sell very successfully; however, a £200 product with a perceived value of £100 will really struggle.

The bottom line is that people need to believe they are getting a great bargain.  If they do, they will happily spend their money with you.

What is ‘perceived’ value?

Perceived value is the value that someone places in a product or service, based on what they believe it to be worth or their perception of its value is. Whenever you find yourself looking at the price of something and thinking it’s a great deal, it’s because your perceived value of it is higher than the cost.

how to sell anythingThis is why successful sales and marketing is based around making the perceived value of something appear as high as possible, so that the offering seems like a real bargain when you learn the price.

Sadly, the marketing used by most businesses does very little to increase the perceived value of their products or services (herein called products).

Therefore, these businesses focus on reducing their prices; so that the price matches the low perceived value of their products.

In other words, they end up selling a great product for less than it’s worth – and make far, far fewer sales too.

OK – Enough about how ‘THEY’ sell and market themselves (that’s their problem not ours)  Here’s how YOU can sell more than ever before! (I really am too good to you!)

Firstly, focus on the benefits of whatever you are selling and make those benefits sound as valuable and irresistible as possible.
It is not enough to say something generic like ‘our service saves people money’ – you must give an example of how you saved someone a ton of money and then compare the cost of your service to the saving it achieved!  For example, when I was marketing my services in the 1990’s, I would send a prospective client  my quote; along with a press clipping of how I helped a business triple their turnover in just 120 days – by helping them get the biggest contract in their history!  It worked really well, because it showed people the value of my service and made my fee seem an outstanding bargain!

My competitors sent their quote in with a business card and their fingers crossed!

Failing to clearly show the true value of your products in your marketing will cost you a fortune.  Back in 2005, I met with an Accountant whose practice was in real trouble.  After looking at his marketing material and website, I explained to him that there was no mention anywhere as to the value of what he did; how he could help people pay less tax, make bigger profits and hold onto more of their hard earned money.

Here’s what he replied;
“Jim, if people are too stupid to work out for themselves what an experienced accountant like me can do for their business, that’s their problem!”

“No it’s not” I explained! “It’s very much your problem – because they will take their business elsewhere and you will go broke!” Within 18 months he had lost his business and was working for a former competitor!

Secondly, you need to add ‘bonuses’; things that people will value but which cost little to provide.
For example, I give away a free ebook and free mainland postage and packing to people who buy my Motivation Master Class Audio CD’s.  The ebook version of this programme is worth £9.99 and the free postage and packing is saving my customers a further £4 – making the programme exceptional value.

Thirdly, because value is always relative, you need to look at the perceived value and price of what your competitors are offering.
One of the ways a potential client decides what value to attach to your product, is to compare it with what your competitors are offering.  You must, therefore, research what your competitors are offering and then make your product more valuable than theirs.

For example, my friend Cheryl works in London as an Estate Agent; specialising in selling homes worth over £1.5 million.  The very first thing she does when she takes on a new client is show them around the other homes in their area that are being marketed at the same price.  This way, her clients can see what their home is being marketed against – how it measures up against the competition. Cheryl is then able to encourage them to make the improvements required to make their home stand out against its competitors.  The end result is that her client’s homes always sell very quickly and for a great price!

Fourthly, review your marketing material.
Take a look at your marketing material, everything from; your sales letters and advertisements to your website, blog and any marketing emails you might use.  When you read them, does every sentence and every paragraph pump value into your products and your business?  If a potential client reads your marketing, is it going to motivate them to take action, call, email or meet you?  Is someone reading your marketing material going to feel compelled to call, meet or email you?  If the answer is no, you are losing a fortune in sales.

How to sell any product or serviceIt is essential to the success of your business that your products are seen as being of exceptional value.  Competition has never been greater than it is today PLUS the consumer has never had so much choice.  If your marketing is pedestrian in its approach, it is hurting your business so improve it NOW.

Finally, review your sales pitch or presentation.
When you speak with a prospective client, do your words add value to whatever you are selling?  Do you identify their problems during your meeting and then sell your product as the answer to these problems?  If not, throw your presentation or sales pitch into the bin and start again!

No one wants to meet with you, to be bombarded with a list of benefits and features and then quoted a price or fee. They want you to inspire them, to show them that you have something that they absolutely need!  They then need to be certain that you are the best person anywhere to buy it from.  Your sales pitch is all about pumping value into your products and your business and then showing the person that you want their custom – not because you are greedy – but because you believe that if they buy from anyone else they will get a worse deal overall.

If you really believe that your products, your service or your business is the best solution for someone, you have a moral obligation to stop them making a mistake! You have an professional obligation to ensure that this person gets to benefit from being one of your highly valued clients.

This message must resonate powerfully through your marketing, your conversations and all your interactions.

Get moving!

Go on – right now, pump the enthusiasm you feel for your product and business into all your marketing and sales messages!  Make sure everyone knows how valuable your product is and how much you want to help them.  Don’t leave anything up to chance.  Tell your prospective clients that you are looking out for them;, that you provide a stunning service and that the only way you can be sure that they will be looked after is if they allow you to service their requirement.

You are a knowledgeable, hard working professional and you want your years of experience to help these people and their businesses!

Now go and make sure that EVERYBODY knows!
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Highly Recommended – The dot.life blog

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There are some exceptional websites and blogs out there. Today, I would like to share one of them with you – and give my ‘Highly Recommended’ award to
The BBC’s dot.life blog.

The dot.life blog

Like many small and medium-sized businesses, I rely heavily on technology.  I use technology to support the work I do for my clients and to help me be as productive as possible.  Over the years, the dot.life blog has been invaluable to me; as a way to discover emerging technologies and stay ‘ahead of the curve.’

The blog is written by three superb technology journalists;

rory cellan jones bbc tech.
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Rory Cellan Jones

Maggie Shiels bbc technology blog.
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Maggie Shiels

darre waters bbc technology editor blog

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Darren Waters – Editor

The dot.life blog has a truly international reach – with Maggie Shiels based in Silicon Valley and Darren and Rory reporting from all over the globe.

If you are interested in technology and the impact it has on people and businesses, I believe you will throughly enjoy the dot.life blog!

Photos credit – The BBC

Getting in touch

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One of the best things about writing for a busy blog, is the feedback I receive from readers. Usually, the feedback is a general question about marketing, business development or a suggestion; and these can be answered by my readers and myself in the comments section of the relevant post.

However…

However, if you would like to get in touch with me for anything else, I have just added a contact page to the blog!

This is also the best way to contact me if you would like to know more about ‘what I do’ or how I can help you market your business!

Online networking & attraction

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As some of you already know, I use Twitter; the micro-blogging tool, to keep in touch with some friends, clients and contacts.  I have three thousand followers and really enjoy interacting with them; they are a BRILLIANT bunch of people!  However, I know that many of them find it hard to get new followers, so I decided to do something to help!

My idea

I wanted to develop a list of my followers, who were all interested in networking – so people could build their Twitter follow lists. I sent my followers a Twitter message (called a Tweet), asking them to send me their name and their username, if they wanted to go on this list.

Only around 70 of the 120 or so replies I got were actually usable.  The remainder were sent without a name, or were emailed to me via the blog, without a Twitter user name! Obviously, because so few of the messages were usable, it became way too time consuming for me to continue and the list has been closed.

Two important lessons I want to share with you

Firstly, Twitter is a wonderful tool, but it is limited. It only allows you to post 140 character long messages. This means it’s great for getting short, direct messages out, but lousy for explaining things.  I’m sorry for not being clear enough with my request – But that’s NOT the reason I’m writing this!

There was a second, far more valuable lesson here!

Around a dozen of the messages I received were borderline abusive or very abrupt.  So, as a marketing man, I wanted to know how that kind of online networking attitude was working for these people.  Here’s what I found….

I decided to take a look at their websites or blogs, using a few of the well-known online research tools – just to get a very general idea of how many people they were attracting to their sites.  Not one was registering even average traffic numbers.  Then I took a look at the blogs of those who had blogs, and saw very few comments or signs of reader activity.  Finally, I noticed that none of them had more than a handful of followers on Twitter either.

Whether building a network of clients online or offline, it seems the same rules apply:

People are attracted to attractive people
– and they are repelled by repellent people.
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When I talk about being an attractive person here, I don’t mean physically attractive – I mean attractive in relation to one’s personality and actions.  Even ugly, bald guys like me can be attractive as people ya know!

The way we interact with people online is REALLY important.  If we try to help people, speak well of people and focus on delivering quality to people – we will attract the help and co-operation of others.  However, if we speak ill of people, are abrupt with people or focus too much on ourselves – we will attract very little positive response.

What have YOUR experiences been with online networking?

Do you have any tips you would like to share with your fellow readers?  If so, please leave a comment below.

37 Marketing ideas in 140 characters

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As you may already know, I am passionate about helping as many people as possible to massively boost their sales and profits. This means I’m always looking for great marketing ideas, which I can share with people – and today, I have enlisted the help of 37 amazing professionals, who are going to each give a single, short marketing tip!

What 1 piece of marketing advice would you give to a start-up business?

My question was; “What 1 piece of marketing advice would you give to a start-up business?” Now, the reason the following answers to this question are so focused, is that they were given by people who only had 140 characters in order to get their answer across!

Twitter

twitter networking micro blogging marketingYes, each of the answers you are about to read, were submitted by people I do not know, but who follow me via my favourite social media website Twitter.  The end result are 37 diverse and often-powerful answers, from 37 incredibly clever people, who wanted to pass on their ideas to help you and your business!

I am posting the answers exactly as they were sent, with the abbreviations etc, so you can see for yourself just how much value someone can get into such short messages!

It’s also worth considering that these answers come from a brilliantly rich group of people, from many different profiles of businesses, and this is reflected in their answers – which really helps!

I think the end result is amazing and would like to personally thank everyone who was kind enough to offer this advice here for my readers.  Obviously, I do not endorse and am not responsible for, the content of the external sites listed in this post!

After you read the answers below, see if you can offer some great advice yourself, using 140 characters, in the comments section!

So, what 1 piece of marketing advice would YOU give to a start-up business?

Here’s 37 answers in 140 characters or less!

Marketing is like a snowball. You have to keep rolling to see results. You can’t start and stop and start and stop.
Cynthia Powell www.ChicksAndCubs.com

Innovation in marketing is as much imp as innovation in product itself. think different in marketing it.
Sushrut Bidwai www.sushrutbidwai.com

Invest in the right marketing people, both leaders & executers. People w/ vision + desire / workethic to make vision happen.
Chris Hoppel Samsung www.samsung.com

Think, do you need your product to succeed or do your customers need your product to succeed?
Aronado www.LuckyStartups.com

1. I laid every biz card I had across a table, picked up the phone & started calling ea. contact.
2. Held in-person meetings to tell our story.
Lisa Cruz

Help others link to you by writing articles, link swaps, donate products for prize giveaways, send products for blog reviews.
www.MyPreciousKid.com

Take small steps toward big goals every day, don’t climb the mountain all at once or you’ll get discouraged. Discipline counts.
Juliann Grant http://blog.telesian.com

Communicate possible outcomes. Start-ups are driven with passion. Visualize potential outcomes so clients get excited.
Jeff Cook www.digitalriver.com

Don’t try do everything yourself, outsource tasks that don’t directly make you money. Ex: accounting, website design.
Kim Cornwall Malseed www.marcomink.com

Focus, focus, focus!
Lance Ulanoff Editor-in-chief with www.PCMag.com

Be clear about what you do, focus on it and be as good as you possibly can at it!
David Rosam http://dangerous-thinking.com

Establish an ad budget first thing. 5% of sales should be saved for marketing and decided upfront where to spend.
Joe Gauder http://supersonicstandstill.blogspot.com

Brand representation is every experience the customer has in affiliation with the company.
Christina Wehry www.coloradoshakes.org

Blog for SEO. Human, affordable, & allows in-bound marketing
http://blogging.compendiumblog.com

Define yourself and be true to that definition in everything you do. You cannot be “all things to all people
Kathleen Morse

Work, work some more, keep going, keep trying and be patient – take extra care of your users.
CJ Jenkins http://scienceforseo.blogspot.com

Relationships matter most. Emotional connection+status w brand. Offer MORE value that what u get. Participate in community.
Lisa de Bruin http://winedivergirl.wordpress.com

Do not compromise your fees. Charge by project, not hourly. Don’t waste money on brochures. Have a clear vision of your business/market.
Joanne Victoria www.JoanneVictoria.com

Have money and plan set aside for 2 yrs of no-to-next-to-no profit; of course aim for better and sooner
Christian Markley; www.blu3digital.com

Follow up with clients and potential clients on a consistent basis, create simple systems to maintain the follow up!
Alan Underkofler www.followupsuccess.com

My advice: Social networks do not magically bring people to your product you have to engage in the community to see any results.
Tony Colvin http://ireflectm.com

Define your niche market, stay away from paying big bucks for ads that don’t target your niche.
Denise Russos http://posolutions.wordpress.com

First marketing money should be spent on the web – highest accountability & returns.
Darryl Parker www.parkerweb.com

All action is a response to a felt need: find the need, appeal to the need at least 7 times, and offer a solution!
Bill Collier http://blog.freedomist.info

Do your research first! Make sure you have a market for your product or service. Separate your emotion from the facts.
Wendy Limauge www.businessbloggingguide.com

Make sure you know your purpose, identity & audience. 100% focus & clarity is key to success in a fragmented world.
Damien Basile www.thecauseisthehabit.com

Just get it out there. It doesn’t have to be perfect yet. Don’t let analysis paralysis set in. You can always fine tune later.
Christopher Thiede www.buildcommunications.com

Don’t overestimate your own ability to market yourself. Get an expert. Their objective view and knowledge is invaluable.
Tony Roberts www.inhumanbeings.com

Build your network, both online and in person. these are your foot soldiers, resources, etc. help them and they will help you.
Jon-Mikel Bailey www.woodstreet.com

Be honest. Under promise and over deliver.
Brian Johnson www.konnects.com

Be authentic and truly desire to help people with your business and success will come to you.
Kim Fenolio www.americasbestcompanies.com

Do NOT skimp on your web presence. Regardless what product or service you sell/provide most research begins online.
Charles Lauller www.bizzuka.com

Monitor activity and track time/resources invested vs returns. Change one aspect at a time to understand impact of the change.
Reeta Luthra www.paradoxofreality.com

Shamelessly leverage who you know to seed word-of-mouth marketing. your network is your most valuable asset
Maxine Teller http://mixtmediastrategies.com

Talk to your customer. constantly. don’t assume you have what they need. confirm it with them.
Julie Lenzer Kirk www.JulieLenzerKirk.com

There are “bug” days and “windshield” days. Be the Windshield and ready to travel lonely dirt roads to reach your destination.
Tim Hayden www.gpexperience.com

Truly love what you do or you won’t stick with it long enough to succeed!
Karalyn J. Eckerle http://cardinalpointva.typepad.com

Conclusion

The marketing tips above were sent to me within just thirty minutes of asking the original question.  This means that there are not only a lot of extremely helpful people ‘out there’ – it also shows what a great marketing and business development tool Twitter can be for your business.

OK – Now it’s YOUR turn!

In 140 characters or less, please share YOUR answer to this question;
“What 1 piece of marketing advice would you give to a start-up business?”

I look forward to reading your replies!
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New blog theme

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As of today, Jim’s Marketing Blog has a whole new look – I hope you like it!  For me, content is everything – but people need to be able to find that content easily and read it without any fuss. So, how did I come up with this new blog design?

The importance of user opinions

After the initial draft of the blog was done, I asked my readers and contacts for THEIR opinions of the new design.  In total, almost 500 people emailed me, messaged me, Tweeted me or called my office – and their feedback has been invaluable in shaping the look and ‘feel’ of the blog!

I believe a blog or website should be designed for the people who read it; NOT the person who writes it!

This means if there are certain recurring suggestions being made by lots of people, there’s a good chance that’s what the wider readership will also want!  In each case, I acted on these suggestions.

For example, the initial draft of the blog didn’t have a picture of me on the homepage, because as you can see, my looks are not by best asset! :)  However, it became very apparent from your feedback that people wanted to be able to see the ‘person’ behind the blog.  So, my picture was added.

Ditto, the sign-up box for my free ebook and also the sidebar headings were all changed, based on popular suggestions.  The net result is hopefully, a blog that’s easy to use and simple to navigate around – with lots of useful information for you and your business.

To all those who have helped me over the past few days, “Thank You!” There are way too many to mention individually, but your feedback has been of huge value to me.  I would also like to give my thanks to Mark White of Better Business Blogging for doing all the technical stuff behind-the-scenes.

What NOT to do!

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Over the past few days, I have read a few different people giving the same piece of extremely damaging advice!

Stop your marketing!

Believe it or not, there are people out there right now, suggesting that because there is an economic downturn, credit crunch or recession (take your pick), businesses should avoid investing in marketing!  This could not be further from the truth. In fact, during tough economic times, it’s far MORE important to market your services effectively than during a stronger economy.

Why?

Because when times are good, even poorly marketed companies will make some sales – just by being there at the right time or getting their message in front of enough people.

However, when money is tight, people and businesses have to REALLY THINK before they buy anything.  They also become far more attracted to products and services that offer great value. So, they spend money on the things that sound the most valuable and compelling – and that’s the goods and services that are best marketed!

I shall be writing some posts over the coming days, to show you how you and your business can thrive during a weak economy.  Make sure you don’t miss a thing, by subscribing to my RSS feed using the orange button on the top left hand side of this page!

Blog update – almost there!

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Almost there….

Just a very quick post, to let you know that I am in the process of having a brand new theme applied to this blog.  As a result, I have not posted anything for a few days (while the theme is being tweaked).  However, I have some GREAT stuff waiting for you when the new theme has been added!

How to make sales the easy way!

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Generating high quality sales on a regular basis can be either really hard and stressful or really exciting and enjoyable.  Sadly, for most businesses, making frequent high calibre sales is a struggle.  It’s easy to see why, when you look at what they do.

They make life as hard as they possibly can for themselves, by replicating what their competitors are already doing!

How to make sales the HARD way

sales and marketing tipsMost small and medium-sized businesses offer the same kind of service as their competitors, for the same kind of price as their competitors, to the same potential clients as their competitors.

Then, they market this service in the same way as their competitors.  The net result is that AT BEST, their service seems just the same as all the others!

For example, there are over a dozen, equally-qualified law firms in my local area – but I could not give you one valid reason to pick one of them rather than another!  In fairness, the same could be said of most service providers in most areas.

How to make sales the EASY way

To regularly generate high quality sales, you need to start by putting all the odds in YOUR favour! You do this by:
1. Offering the marketplace something it wants.
2. Being the only provider of this product or service – so there’s no competition.

Break away from the pack

To achieve sales success in a competitive industry, it is essential for you to break away from the pack and design your business and marketing around what the marketplace wants.

Most businesses wrongly assume that because their competitors are doing things in a certain way, they should too.  However, as we have seen, when you follow the pack you simply blend into the background.  How do you break free from the pack and ensure you are moving in the right direction?

Listen to your marketplace

The first thing you need to do is identify a genuine need within your marketplace, which is either not being serviced by anyone or not being serviced correctly. Most businesses will listen to their clients and the prospective clients they meet and then use this tiny, unrepresentative group to base their picture of the marketplace on. This is too small a section for you to accurately read what the market for your services REALLY wants from a provider.

If you want to make the right decisions, you need to listen to the needs of the wider marketplace.  This is where all your future clients are, after all.

Fortunately, this has never been easier, thanks to the Internet!  From the comfort of your desk, you can find out what your prospective clients are worried about and what problems they have.  Armed with this information, it’s easy to spot opportunities for your business.

Remember, whatever industry you are in, you are always a professional problem solver.  If you are a dentist, you solve the problem of tooth-ache – if you are a web designer, you solve the problem of ugly or poorly-functioning websites etc.

How to get all the information you need

Without doubt, the fastest and least expensive way for any small or medium-sized business to learn what their marketplace really wants or needs, is to follow their marketplace ‘online’.  The best way to quickly collect all this information, 100% free, is to find some blogs, websites and forums that your marketplace read / comment on and then READ THEM!

The easiest way is via RSS (you can find out about RSS here.)

For example, let’s assume Bob runs a commercial insurance brokerage and he specialises in working with hotels, based within a 100 mile radius of him.  He would subscribe to the RSS feed of each blog in his area, that’s focused on the hospitality industry.  He would then take time to read the questions that hoteliers ask in these blogs, as this is a good way to learn about their concerns or problems.

Bob could also start his own blog and use it as a way to communicate with the marketplace.  Unlike a website, a blog allows you to have a dialogue or conversation with all your readers and everyone can join in.  This is a superb way to get the essential feedback you need and to learn what your marketplace wants.  By the way; it’s also very effective as a way to make new contacts.

Bob could also use his blog to share useful resources with his readers, so they start to think of him as a problem solver; giving him a massive competitive advantage over his competitors.

Creativity and marketing

Once you learn the problems and challenges facing your marketplace, you now need to get creative!  You need to either think of a way to adapt one of your existing services, so that it solves these problems or you need to create a new service.

For example, I did this exercise with one of my clients a while ago.  He owned a successful accountancy practice and we found that in his area, local businesses were crying out for a professional lunchtime networking event.  So, we developed a free networking event every month and the results were stunning.  Not only did he manage to generate stacks of new clients and contacts through these events, he found a second, even more valuable benefit.

When he or one of his staff met with a potential client, because they were the only practice in the area offering this free facility, they were seen as the accountants who not only ‘did the numbers’ – but helped their clients make money too!  This set them apart from all their competitors and led to some amazing results.

Is it time you broke away from the pack?

Whatever area of business you are in, you will always find it hard to win new clients or make more sales, if you are replicating / repeating what your competitors are doing.  Find out what your marketplace really wants and then focus on delivering it in the most effective way possible. It’s a lot easier to make sales when your product or service is the answer to a problem, that no one else in your area / region is solving other than you.

That’s how to make sales the easy way!

Save time & spot opportunities with RSS

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An idea for you and your business – From Jim Connolly
With the advent of the Internet, there has never been more information available to you.  Although this has created an unbelievable number of opportunities for you and your business; it has also created a problem:
THERE’S JUST TOO MUCH INFORMATION OUT THERE!

So, how do you make sure you get the information you need – without missing anything important or wasting your precious time, trawling through stacks of websites?

RSS

RSS marketing business time managementRSS (Really Simple Syndication), is a simple tool that allows you to receive all your important Internet content in one place! If, for example, you like to keep up to date with the new posts on this blog, RSS will send you my posts once they have been written! No need to keep checking back here – you will automatically receive all my new stuff and can then read it whenever you like!

OK, I clicked the RSS button – now what?

Most Internet Browsers have their own built in RSS reader.  Firefox uses something called Live Bookkmars and Internet Explorer has it’s own built-in RSS reader as well.  So, once you have clicked the RSS button on this blog or any other website that provides an RSS feed, you can simply look in the RSS section of your browser and get the latest from all your favourite sites!  The only proviso here is that the site or blog needs to offer a ‘feed’ – almost all blogs do and all news websites.  Pretty much every regularly updated website offers ‘feeds’ these days.

Are there any other benefits to RSS?

Oh yes!  There are news sites like Google News, which will let you receive news stories about your industry or local area as soon as they break, via RSS.  This is a GREAT tool for competitor analysis! You can even set it, so that whenever someone posts information about you or your company, you will be the first to know!

The benefits of RSS are massive!  This article from Mark White clearly explains everything you need to know and points to some useful resources.  However, none of this will help you unless you decide to start using RSS!  If you want to save time and become the best informed person in your industry or profession, you really need to start using RSS!

Are you an existing RSS user?

If so, please leave a comment here and let us know how RSS has helped you or your business!