Jim's Marketing Blog

Marketing tips and ideas to help you grow your business

Steve Jobs, money and success

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It’s an interesting fact that very few of the world’s most successful businesspeople, set out with money or success as their primary target.

  • They aimed to be valuable.
  • They aimed to make the world or the marketplace a better place.
  • They aimed to make a difference.

However, money or success was not their primary focus.

Here’s how they did it!

Steve Jobs famously said:

“I was worth over $1,000,000 when I was 23, and over $10,000,000 when I was 24, and over $100,000,000 when I was 25, and it wasn’t that important because I never did it for the money”.

If Jobs was focused primarily on the money or success, he’d have been able to cash in when he was in his 20’s… super rich and exceptionally successful.

When Einstein said, “Strive not to be a success, but rather to be of value”, he showed where his focus was. Again, it was about the value. Einstein carried on working until his death, even though he could have quit decades earlier with his reputation set in history forever.

To understand how the most successful and wealthy business owners achieved their success, we need to look at why most business owners struggle.

In it just for the money

You can usually tell pretty fast, when you encounter someone who is primarily in it for the money. That’s because it’s both obvious and extremely unattractive. And this makes it very hard for them to succeed.

Here are some examples we see all the time, which you will recognise instantly:

  • They are the salespeople, whose eyes light up like a wolf when they spot a potential sales victim.
  • They are the ill-informed marketing gurus, who STILL say the money is in the list, because they haven’t figured out the value is in the community.
  • They are the affiliate marketers, who leave spammy links and comments on blogs and Facebook.
  • They are the pests, who send us unwanted spam email.
  • They are the pushy business owners, who corner us at events. The ones who pretend they want to know about us, when we know it’s just an old, cringe-worthy networking tactic.
  • They are the struggling restaurant owners, who use slightly lower quality ingredients and hire slightly lower quality chefs, and end up with a low quality restaurant that no one recommends.

They are the kind of business owners you thought of, as you were reading those examples!

The way forward for smart business owners

Focus on value. Create products or services that are meaningfully different from the competition. Solve better problems. Create work you are proud of. Offer remarkable service and outstanding quality. And delight your customers at every opportunity.

Persistently create value and use marketing to make it visible. People are extremely attracted to value and they pay a premium for it too. Just ask the owner of any high priced Apple product, the owner of a luxury car or the client of any leading service provider.

Get this right my friend, and the money and success will surely follow.

How to make your marketing totally, utterly unmissable

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marketing blog

What do the following have in common?

  • The trailer for a movie, which is part of a franchise you really enjoy.
  • A radio interview with a musician, whose music you’ve always loved, talking about their new album.
  • A Facebook post from an author, whose books you collect, announcing their new title.
  • A newsletter from a brand you like and trust, announcing an exciting new product.

The answer is that they are all examples of marketing you value. Marketing you wouldn’t want to miss. Marketing that doesn’t even feel like marketing.

How to create unmissable marketing

So, what was it that made those marketing examples unmissable?

  1. You gave permission for the marketing message to reach you. You tuned into the TV station or radio channel. You liked them on Facebook. You subscribed to their newsletter.
  2. The product being marketed (movie, album or book etc.), is something you’re interested in.

Without your permission, the marketer is being a pest. No one wants to be pestered with unsolicited emails, off-target advertising or unrequested social networking messages.

Without your interest, the “offer” is just another annoying, time-wasting, badly targeted sales pitch.

Making your marketing unmissable

Firstly, make sure you only market to people who want what you’re offering.

Secondly, earn their permission.

How?

Here’s a strategy that works:

  1. Think about the brands you have given permission to contact you.
  2. Write them down.
  3. Next, ask yourself why you did it. Why did you subscribe to their YouTube channel, their newsletter or their podcast? Why did you like them on Facebook or connect with them on Linkedin? Why did you ask them to send you their catalogue or email you their updates?
  4. Finally, see what you can learn from their strategy, which you can adapt, to earn the permission of your prospective customers.

It takes more effort to create unmissable marketing. However, it will massively improve your results.

How doing less can get you more

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Marketing focus

One of the best kept secrets in business, is something I call reduction. It’s a strategy I share with my clients and today, I’m going to share some of it with you.

Less can be more

Ineffective business owners strive to do more and more.

They focus on productivity hacks, growth hacks, life hacks and short-cuts. As an unavoidable result, they become increasingly busy, increasingly stressed, increasingly frustrated and increasingly disappointed.

Thankfully, there’s a smarter way forward.

The most effective business owners use a very different approach. They’ve discovered that the biggest wins come from doing fewer things. Less is more.

For example:

  • Fewer unfinished projects, leads to more clarity.
  • Fewer social media interruptions, leads to more focus.
  • Fewer repeated errors, leads to more progress.
  • Fewer dodged decisions, leads to more respect.
  • Fewer missed deadlines, leads to more trust.
  • Fewer hours wasted, leads to more productivity.
  • Fewer angry words, leads to more happiness.
  • Fewer broken promises, leads to more belief.
  • And fewer excuses, leads to more achievement.

If you find yourself stressed, working long hours and making too little progress, don’t add even more to your workload. All it will do is create additional stress.

Instead, focus on reduction. Because with the right strategy, less can be more. So much more.

How to know if your business idea will succeed

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will my business idea succeed, how to know idea succeedImage: Toa Heftiba

Yesterday’s post attracted a lot of feedback. People wanted to know how to tell in advance if their business idea will succeed (product, service, opportunity, etc.,) is likely to spread and succeed.

To answer that question, let’s look at what happens when you share a truly exciting idea or opportunity with someone.

  1. They lean forward as you’re talking. You have their attention. They’re listening intently.
  2. Then they try and find a way to get involved with it. They can sense the promise of the opportunity. So they want in. For example, they’ll ask you if they can tell their friends about it or place a pre-order; you won’t have to ask them. That’s because great ideas have legs.

Reaction to an average or below average idea looks VERY different.

  1. People nod politely.
  2. Many will tell you they think you’re onto a winner.
  3. But that’s about as far as it goes. Because average ideas lack legs. More about legs in a moment.

Why am I sharing this with you?

I hear from small business owners regularly, who’ve wasted time and money developing dud ideas, after misinterpreting the feedback they received. This need not happen to you, so long as you know what to look for.

How to know if your business idea will succeed?

Start by filtering everything!

Never make a commercial decision based on surface-level thinking. Filter everything for accuracy.

Before you accept any feedback, remember that people often tell you what they think you want to hear, rather than what they actually think. Their intentions are good. They want to encourage you or be supportive. But their misplaced kindness can lead you into a huge commercial loss if you accept it on a surface level.

As I said yesterday, it’s what people do that counts. Focus 95% on what they do when you tell them about your idea… and 5% on what they say.

Here’s how: Look for how eager they are to get involved, without prompting from you to take action. Just explain the idea clearly. Then watch!

For example.

  • If your idea is a business product or service and includes a pre-order option, did they want to pre-order without you asking?
  • Did they ask you for a second meeting?
  • Did they request a sample of the product?
  • And did they ask if you’d like to demo the idea or give a presentation to their colleagues, boss or friends?

The key is to be guided by what they do, far more than what they say. It’s a proven, time-tested way to see if your idea has legs or not.

Why are legs so important, Jim?

I’ll use the example of an idea for a new product or service.

  • If your idea has legs, it means it will spread from person to person by itself. Every viral product or service works this way. People learn about (whatever it is) and tell their friends. Their friends do the same… repeat. These products or services require far less marketing and are massively more profitable.
  • If your idea doesn’t have legs, growth only comes when you tell people about the product or service. It goes from you, to the marketplace. Ideas that lack legs require lots of advertising, promoting, networking and are drastically less profitable. Growth is slow, expensive, frustrating and time consuming.

So, get feedback from people. Especially those in your target market for the product or service. Look closely for signs that the idea has legs, by focusing on what people do. Are they leaning forward? Do they want to get involved? And remember that actions speak louder than words.

I know what you’re thinking…

At this point, business owners ask me whether it’s possible for their existing product or service, which lacks legs, to be transformed into a runaway success.

The answer is yes. Of course!

I do it every day, helping my clients pump massive extra value into their products or services, which gives it the legs required.

How to know what your clients and prospects truly want from you

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marketing uncover wants

Give the marketplace what it wants. It seems easy enough.

  1. Ask them what they want.
  2. Provide them with what they want.

The trickiest part there, by a very long way, is step one. That’s because history assures us that time after time, people don’t tell us what they really want.

They tell us what they think we want to hear. They also tell us what they think makes them look smart. They sometimes tell us what they think makes them look considerate, edgy, unique, creative or kind.

If you really want to know what people think, you need to study what they do. Their actions speak louder and with greater honesty, than their words.

Take that into account, the next time you’re tempted to survey your clients or prospective clients. Heed what people do, far more than what they say.

How to be pushy. And still succeed

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Marketing pushy

Photo: Tim Mossholder on Unsplash

When it comes to being a pushy business owner, there are two ways to do it.

One of them works extremely well.

The other one doesn’t.

Allow me to explain.

1. You can push people

Pester them with cold calls.

Interrupt them with selfish requests.

Spam them.

Try and close the sale the first time you speak to them.

Hassle them for referrals at networking events.

Hound them on social networks.

2. You can push yourself

Expand your knowledge.

Refuse to settle for less than you truly want.

Do what’s right, even when it isn’t easy.

Do what your competitors avoid, because they think it’s too tricky.

Leave your comfort zone… regularly.

Focus on what you want rather than what you fear.

In short, when you push yourself, you move forward. When you push others, they push you back. All the way back.

Choose wisely my friend, and then push.