Jim's Marketing Blog

Marketing tips and ideas to help you grow your business

Quick tip: How to market with massively more impact

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content marketing, trust

There are 2 important questions, which very few business owners ask of themselves. However, they contain the seeds of a massively valuable marketing insight. And by asking and answering them, you’ll avoid an extremely common and damaging mistake.

Here are the questions.

  1. What does my ideal client (or customer) look like?
  2. What am I doing, to make sure my marketing is only directly relevant to this super-valuable niche?

Here’s why these questions, and your answers, are so important.

Something for everyone

One of the most common marketing mistakes, especially with small and medium-sized businesses, is to try and appeal to the widest possible range of people.

On one level, it seems to make sense.

The thinking looks like this: The more people you try and appeal to, the more prospective clients you’ll have.

However, that’s not how it works. In reality, using that approach guarantees you will actually attract far fewer clients or sales.

And here’s why.

To motivate someone to switch brands or switch providers, your marketing needs to motivate them into action. It has to be directly relevant to them. It has to talk to their world-view. Their wants. Their needs. Their values.

Every time you decide to widen the appeal of your marketing, beyond your ideal client, you weaken its effectiveness. Your marketing shifts from being:

  • Directly relevant (powerful and compelling).
  • To vaguely relevant (feeble and weak).

If you haven’t already, I recommend you get intentional about exactly who you want to do business with. Then focus all your marketing, so that it speaks exclusively to that high value group.

In short, go narrow and deep. Not wide and shallow.

Get it right my friend, and it’s a game changer.

Higher fees, higher profits, happier clients and less competition

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marketing high quality

In today’s post, I’m going to share a proven idea with you that can massively increase your revenues and profits. It’s something I’ve done successfully for countless clients over the years. And it’s based on a wonderfully effective business model, too.

I’d like start by asking you to consider the following. I want you to imagine for a moment, that your clients paid you significantly more than they do now. Maybe 200%, 300% or 500% more. If this was the case:

  • You could give them considerably more of your attention.
  • You could provide them with a far, far better level of service.
  • Your clients would value you more. So, they’d keep returning, delighted with the service they receive from you.
  • Your clients would also recommend you to their friends, many of whom would then become clients.
  • And these new clients would be just as delighted. And recommend you to their friends.
  • Repeat.

Before you know it, you could have a premium quality client base, growing organically.

Premium quality clients. Growing organically.

Think about that for a moment. Because maybe it’s time you considered offering a premium version of your services. Your marketplace already has a highly profitable subset, who value quality and will very happily pay more for it. In fact, they eagerly seek it out.

But that’s not all

The premium quality corner of your marketplace is not only the most profitable. It’s also, by far, the least competitive. It’s the middle ground, which is always stuffed full of competing providers, forcing fees down.

Just think how your business would thrive, with higher fees, higher profits, happier clients and less competition.

In short, average is overcrowded and overrated. So why not develop something premium?

No more time wasters: How top companies keep getting the best referrals

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marketing referrals, get referrals

In today’s post, I’m going to show you a powerful way to get more, great people talking about the services you provide. But that’s not all. I’m also going to explain how to overcome a major problem: how to get people to say the right things about you.

I’ll even throw in a world-class example of how it works.

Okay let’s go

The starting point, is to decide exactly what you want people to say. Otherwise, you’re relying on them making something up on the spot. And usually, when someone is asked if they can recommend a provider, it will be a generic, weak message.

For example, if you ask someone if they have an accountant they’d recommend, the reply is usually something like; “Sure. We’re happy with the (Whatever) Accountancy Firm”.

That’s nice.

But all it really says, is that this particular person is happy with the service they receive. It’s the bare minimum. It’s vague. It says nothing about the service this accountancy firm provides. And it’s certainly not compelling.

Here’s why this matters to you: It’s entirely possible you’re already being regularly referred or recommended to great prospective clients. But you’re unaware, because, as in the above example, the referral is totally ineffective. And an ineffective referral is close to worthless.

Let’s see how the fastest growing companies overcome this problem.

How to get this right

Okay, let’s look at that accountancy firm again.

Only this time, they were professionally marketed and had already incorporated a short, memorable strapline in their branding. Something like “building stronger businesses”. If used correctly, that 3 word phrase would become an automatic part of their referrals.

So, instead of; “Sure. We’re happy with the (Whatever) Accountancy Firm.”

You get; “Sure. We’re happy with the (Whatever) Accountancy Firm. They specialize in building stronger businesses.”

That second referral is massively more powerful with far greater impact.

Think about it. If someone is looking for a new accountant, they’re clearly not happy with their current one. If we assume their existing accountant isn’t really interested in their business, a trusted referral about an accountant that focuses on building stronger businesses is exactly what they want to hear. Such referrals could be 2X, 5X or maybe 10X more powerful at encouraging people to call the accountant, than a simple “we’re happy with them”.

Here’s the thing: Most businesses make it too hard for their clients, customers or friends to know what to say when referring them. And it loses them a fortune.

Make it easier. Correctly integrate an easy to remember 3 or 4 word strapline into your marketing, so people don’t have to make something up on the spot. When you get it right, that strapline becomes part of the conversations people have about you.

That example took me 30 seconds to come up with. Now let’s look at a proven, world-class example of how this works.

How good is their food?

The marketing team behind Kentucky Fried Chicken wanted to give their diners a simple way to describe how delicious the food was. So, they made it very simple. They placed a short, powerful strapline on all their packaging.

It described their food as, “finger lickin’ good”.

And the rest is history!

Those who ate and enjoyed their chicken, now knew exactly what to tell their friends. Moreover, they were delivering an amazingly powerful, professionally written marketing message.

Regardless of whether you happen to like fried chicken, the mental image created with that message is powerful. The idea of people enjoying their food so much that they licked their fingers, would surely motivate their hungry friends to give KFC a try. Plus, because people who eat at fast-food restaurants know other people who also enjoy fast-food, it was pure, marketing gold.

So, the message spread. Millions or billions of times. Worldwide.

Try this

Take some time to think about want you want people to say about your business or the service you provide. Then, spend as much time as necessary crafting a powerful, extremely short strapline. If you don’t have the time or expertise to get this right, find a professional who will do it for you.

Just don’t keep missing out on great word of mouth referrals or targeted sales leads, because people aren’t recommending you correctly.

How to be luckier in business. Plus 4 other nuggets

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  1. If you hear yourself wishing for better luck, remind yourself that what you really need, is a better strategy.
  2. It’s getting harder and harder to sell average stuff, now that everyone has a social media megaphone.
    • The best providers get their message amplified in public.
    • The average providers get their message minified in public.
    • Below average providers get their message vilified in public.
  3. A business succeeds when there’s congruence between what the business owner wants… and what the business owner does. Failing to provide a business with what it needs, is like refusing to water your plants. Only a lot more expensive.
  4. Everything your business does is marketing. Yes, everything.
  5. Never complain about the economy or other outside factors. Adapt. Adjust. Put your success in your own hands.

Now go and make it a great day, my friend.

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 blog? 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 can massively improve your results.

How to totally avoid fee sensitive clients. Yes, it works in your industry too

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important, marketing

You don’t need to sell your services or products based on price. You don’t need to waste your time on fee-sensitive clients or customers, either.

In today’s brief post, I explain why.

Sort by price

One of the most common features on shopping sites, is the “sort by price” filter. It lets us see products in the category we’ve searched for, listed in price order.

The reason sort by price exists, is that the marketplace demands it. When presented with 5 or 50 options for a commodity product, the lowest price wins. This is known as the race to the bottom. Bottled water is bottled water. It makes no sense to pay more for it than you need to.

Bullshit!

But what about Bob?

Bob is passionate about helping people worldwide have access to clean drinking water. He then finds a water brand, which donates money from every bottle sold, to build wells in areas where there’s no clean water.

So, Bob’s happy (very happy) to pay more for his bottled water from this well-building brand. Plus, because people like Bob know lots of other people like Bob, he tells his friends. They do the same. Water gets sold. Wells get built. And people get to make a meaningful difference to the lives of those who need it.

The lesson here?

If you want potential clients or customers to stop caring about your fees, give them something more important to care about. This means differentiating your products or services from the competition.

The good news? If it works for a commodity like water, it can definitely work for you. Regardless of your industry.