Jim Connolly Marketing

Improve your email marketing by getting the basics right

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marketing email, content marketing, digital marketing

Here’s a quick tip, to help you increase the effectiveness of your email marketing or mail shots.

I was prompted to write this for you, after an email I received last week. It was a poorly targeted marketing email, from someone I hardly know.

Here’s how the email started:

“Hey guys, sorry for the email blast, but I want to reach a lot of people and this is the easiest way for me to do it”.

When someone starts a marketing communication with an apology for what they’re doing, it tells us that they believe they’re doing something wrong. Yet, they’re still going to do it anyway! That’s a toxic message, which creates a damaging, negative picture. That negativity then drowns out whatever their marketing message is. It turns a potentially effective marketing activity into a low-leverage waste of time.

Here’s a far better alternative

If you’re proud of what you do. If you know that the person you’re marketing to has a pressing need for what you provide. If you have a compelling reason for them to purchase from you. And especially if you have their permission to send them information… don’t start off with an apology. There are situations where it’s right to say sorry — this definitely isn’t one of them.

Instead, use a highly targeted list and send a highly targeted message. The reader will then feel as if you are writing for them, rather than writing at them. With no apology required.

Here’s a free, 2 part email marketing series with some useful email marketing tips:

Does email marketing work? Part 1.

Does email marketing work? Part 2.

Success leaves clues

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marketing advice, marketing help

When it comes to marketing, success leaves clues. By following these clues and learning from them, it’s possible to significantly improve your marketing. Allow me to explain.

Consider the following:

  • The last marketing email, which you were motivated to open because it had a powerful subject line.
  • The last marketing email you read, which persuaded you to take action. (To ask for information, pick up the phone, make a purchase, etc.)
  • The last blog post you read, which you were motivated to bookmark, save or share.
  • The last advertisement you saw or heard, which motivated you to make a purchase.
  • The last service you experienced, which impressed you so much that you wanted to tell your friends about it.
  • The last newsletter you received, which you forwarded to your contacts.

How to turn clues into results

Each of those marketing examples motivated you to take action. And they each contain a clue, as to why the marketing worked. To uncover the clue you need to answer this question:

What can I learn from this example of marketing success, which I can adapt and apply to my own marketing?

Next, write your answer down. This is really important, as you don’t want to risk losing your best ideas. Also, by writing your answers down, you’ll start to develop a gold mine of useful marketing notes.

Is this approach as effective as hiring a proven marketing professional? No. Not even close. But if you can’t afford expert help, it’s one way to make better marketing decisions.

P.S: To get you started, here are dozens of proven marketing ideas.

How to massively improve your email marketing results

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improve Email open rates, newsletter marketing

In 2016, email marketing is more powerful than ever before. This begs the question: Why do almost all small businesses get such uninspiring email marketing results?

I’m going to answer that question for you. I’m also going to explain what you need to do in order to massively improve the success of your email marketing.

Free and easy?

The cost of marketing has changed dramatically over the years.

For example, the cost of sending a traditional, paper-based mailshot to just 1000 prospective customers was considerable. There was the price of the stamp, the printing, the ink and the paper. Then, you paid someone to fold all the letters and stuff them into the envelopes.

Today, sending a marketing email to 1000 prospects (or 100,000 prospects) takes seconds. There’s no paper, no ink, no envelopes, no envelope stuffing and no stamps.

The cost of email marketing is close to zero. Except… it isn’t! You now risk paying a different, far higher price.

Allow me to explain.

Different prices and different thinking

In 1995, my London-based marketing business was paying around £1000 to reach 1000 prospective customers via traditional mail (mailshots). I used high quality stationery and printing. It was still quite an investment.

Before spending that kind of money, small business owners used to think long and hard.

  • They made sure they were contacting people with a potential need for their offering. They couldn’t afford to contact people with no requirement.
  • They checked that the contact name and address were correct. They couldn’t afford to send letters to the wrong people.
  • They used to work hard to optimize their copy or content. It needed to be just right. They couldn’t afford to get their message wrong.
  • They removed prospective customers from their list, if they failed to get a response after a set number of mailings. (Unlike now, where the person receiving spam email has to ask to be removed). They couldn’t afford to keep mailing someone who wasn’t interested.

Now think for a moment about the poorly targeted marketing emails that flood your inbox. It’s clear that way less thought goes into them. The vast majority are junk and totally irrelevant to you or your needs.

You regard those who send these unwanted emails as pests. Spammers. Assholes. This is where the cost comes in for email marketers in 2016! They build a lousy reputation and get equally lousy results.

Reputation points: The price you pay for average email marketing

Every time you send a poorly conceived email marketing message to someone, you pay a price.

However, unlike before, the cost to you isn’t only monetary. You pay with something even more valuable. You pay with your reputation. You pay using the currency of reputation points.

For example, when you decide to add someone’s name to your list without their consent, you lose reputation points. When you email people too often, you lose reputation points. When your message is pushy or needy, you lose reputation points. When your offer is irrelevant to the recipient, you lose reputation points.

Business owners who service a regional marketplace can soon find their name and reputation seriously damaged. They can only alienate their marketplace so many times, before people get sick of them.

Of course, when your marketing emails are like those I just mention, you pay a second price. You get crappy response rates. Too few sales. Too few new client enquiries. Too few leads.

The answer?

It starts by accepting that email marketing isn’t free. There is a hefty price to pay for a casual approach, both in reputation damage and lost opportunities. Remember, a casual approach to business causes casualties. Treat each email you send as if you were paying to send it. Because in a very real sense, you are.

So, get permission to email people. Then send them targeted, expertly written, relevant information. Do this only as frequently as required.

It works. And it works extremely well.

Here’s how I helped Irene make over $32,000 in 9 days, with email marketing. That was 2 years ago. Today, the results are even better, for those of you serious enough to take email marketing seriously.

Attract sales, leads and new clients

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marketing blogs, marketing help

If you want to attract more clients, sales or sales leads, you’ll LOVE today’s article.

I need to start by sharing one of the cornerstones of great marketing. It’s simply this: Focus on your prospective clients and their needs, rather than your own needs.

Some call it paying it forward.

Others call it contribution.

You can call it whatever you like, but it’s the same thing. Focusing your efforts on the other person and not on yourself.

Why?

Bring the marketplace your seed, not your need

I live in a rural village. It’s coming to the end of harvest time. Ask a farmer about the harvest and she’ll tell you this: If you want a bountiful harvest, you need to bring your seeds to the soil. Not your needs. You can tell the soil how much you need a great harvest. You can pester the soil for months with selfish requests… and nothing productive will happen.

The marketplace is very similar. It doesn’t give a shit about what you need!

This is why pestering people for leads at networking groups is such a soul-destroying waste of your time. It just makes you look needy. The same is true of sending strangers marketing emails they never asked for. Ditto, posting needy marketing messages on social networks. All of these are super-low leverage and reflect poorly on you and your brand.

That’s what self-focused marketing looks like. You see it every day. And it has never been less effective.

Here’s a way better alternative for you to consider.

Attract sales, leads and clients

The thing is, you don’t need to pester anyone. Your prospective clients present you with an opportunity to plant as many seeds of contribution as you want to. [Think about that for a moment.]

For example, I reach tens (and tens) of thousands of prospective clients daily, by giving away as much useful information as I can via my blog and social networking channels. Without pestering anyone, I generate sales, leads and enquiries from new clients every day.

However, to earn that privilege I have to consistently focus on you. I have to uncover your needs, so I can deliver valuable, free information that will be of use to you and your business.

The bottom line is that the process of giving and receiving, starts with the giving part. If you want to receive more, give more. They say: “The best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago. The second best time is today.”

So start today

Give value, not pitches.

Be useful, not annoying.

Offer help, not deals.

Attract attention, not scorn.

Repeat tomorrow.

So, are you building a tribe or writing drive-by content?

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marketing tips

Why do the vast majority of small business owners see such poor results from their content marketing? Why isn’t it attracting sales or new client enquiries every day?

The answer is that almost every small business is making the same mistake. And this mistake makes it impossible for them to succeed.

Here’s what you need to know, in order to get the best possible results.

Content marketing and leaky buckets

The problem with trying to fill a bucket, which has a big hole in the bottom, is that the water flows out just as fast as it flows in. It’s a never ending task, unless you get a new bucket or fix the hole.

Most content marketing advice, including that written by many so-called experts, is based around the idea of treating your content marketing, like a bucket with a hole.

  • It’s about attracting drive-by readers with ‘killer’ headlines.
  • It’s about churning stuff out, rather than publishing useful information.
  • It’s about using a cookie-cutter approach, like hundreds of thousands of others, which makes you and your content invisible.
  • It’s about SEOing your thoughts, rather than expressing your thoughts.

Seth Godin said it extremely well:

“The copywriter/editor who trades in meaning for lists, using calculated SEO keyword loading and sensationalism designed to attract the drive-by audience, earns the privilege of doing it again and again, forever.”

It’s like trying to fill that broken bucket. It’s also the total opposite of growing a tribe.

They drive by

The thing about drive-by readers, is that they drive by. They are attracted to hyped up headlines and quickly go from one, “The growing trend that will scare the crap out of business owners everywhere”, article to the next.

If your content marketing is based around chasing them, you’re making life way too hard for yourself.

Grow a valuable reader community

To grow a great community or tribe around your work, you need to attract the right people, retain their attention and earn their trust.

This means showing up regularly with useful information, rather than sensationalist, predictable content for the drive-by crowd.

It means avoiding so-called content marketing systems or anything, which claims to be a one-size-fits-all “solution“. All that junk will do is make your content marketing invisible. It will leave your content camouflaged, amongst the hundreds of thousands of others using the same cookie-cutter approach.

Instead, focus on building deeper connections with people who will value your work, share your work, call you, email you, hire you or buy from you.

Anything less is a waste of your time and will stop you benefiting from the amazing opportunity, which could be yours if you use content marketing correctly.

Stop using buzzwords in your marketing. Seriously. Stop it

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stop, buzzwords, bullshit

There is no shortage of buzzwords or people who feel the need to use them.

Intersection.

Growth-hacking.

Ruckus.

Pragmatic.

Disrupt.

Paradigm.

… these buzzwords and many others, are used by people in an effort to appear informed or relevant. Interestingly, buzzwords do neither. They have the exact opposite effect when people read them or hear them.

Here’s how buzzwords work against you.

  • They make informed people cringe. Not a great idea, if you want your peers to take you seriously or recommend you.
  • They confuse the uninformed. A bad choice, if you want people to understand your message. And you do. Right?

In either case, buzzwords work against you. When it comes to marketing, write your copy in a way that your ideal client will find easy to understand.

Always aim for clarity.

Why?

Because clarity sells.