Email marketing & mail shots Archives - Page 3 of 19

How to create marketing that works

By Jim Connolly | August 12, 2022

I have a very effective marketing idea to share with you today. I’m going to show you how to create marketing, which people will value and that’s powerful enough to inspire them to hire you or buy from you. It’s based on the work I do with some of my clients and includes a brief case study, which you can learn from.

So, let’s get started.

Receiving attention or paying attention?

It starts with understanding that there’s a huge difference between someone receiving your message and someone paying attention to it.

For example, TV viewers are sent targeted marketing messages (commercials) during TV shows. What do most of us do? We fast forward through them or if watching the show in real-time, we go and make a coffee. Just because they send their messages, doesn’t mean we are paying attention.

For your marketing to work, you need to get a great message in front of the right people. In order to get this correct, here’s the key question we need to ask ourselves:

If I stopped my email marketing campaign or I stopped publishing my blog posts, newsletter etc, would people really MISS them?

As a quick look at the marketing you receive every day confirms, for most people the honest answer to that question is NO! We get bombarded with dull, uninspiring sales messages all day and see them as an intrusion, rather than something of value.

Of course, for that tiny minority of small businesses who DO produce marketing, which people genuinely value and would miss if it were to stop, the sky is the limit.

I’m going to share the process required to make this work for your business later in this post.

First, we need to understand why there’s so much dull and ineffective marketing out there.

Dull is cheap. Dull is fast. Dull is easy!

It’s cheap, fast and easy to create a dull marketing message and push it to a lot of people. As a result, there’s no barrier to entry today.

Things were very different 15 years ago. Back then, if a small business owner wanted to send a mail shot to 50,000 people, she’d have to spend some serious money.

She’d have to cover the cost of the mailing list.
Then she would need to pay for all that paper and the printing.
Next she would need to pay a company to get the letters folded and inserted into the 50,000 envelopes.
Then there’s the huge postage costs for those 50,000 pieces of mail.

All in all, it would cost many thousands. She would need to think long and hard about the value of what she put into those envelopes. Get it wrong and she would pay a hefty price.

Today, everything has changed

That same business owner today, can hit 50,000 people using cheap email software and her laptop. It costs just a little of her time. If it fails, maybe tomorrow’s one will work.

In short, it’s never been cheaper or easier to push dull, uninspired, poorly thought out, selfish marketing out the door.

So, that’s exactly what millions of people are doing. This is why there’s so much junk in your email inbox and on your social networking accounts.

How to get it right

There is an alternative approach I want to share with you, so people welcome your marketing, share it and hire you or buy from you. It requires that you take the exact opposite approach, to 99% of the marketing you see out there.

It’s about shifting the focus of your marketing, so that it’s primarily of benefit to the people who receive it and secondarily of benefit to you.

It’s about producing content (audio, video, articles, blog posts, newsletters, social networking updates etc), which provide independent value to those who receive it. This means they get genuinely valuable or useful information from it, independent of them needing to spend a penny with you.

An example of how this works, based on one of my clients

Imagine you are a dog owner and after a trip to the vet, you subscribe to their dog owner’s newsletter. It gives you useful tips and ideas, to help you keep your dog healthy, fit and happy. At the bottom of each email are their contact details, so you can call them when you need a vet.

You find this free information so valuable and interesting, that you send it to 10 of your dog-owning friends.

They subscribe and then do the same.
Then these new subscribers share it too, and on and on it goes.
The amazingly valuable, highly-targeted readership just keeps on growing!

Soon, my client was talking to hundreds, then thousands of dog owners and positioned themselves in their marketplace, as THE place to take your dog for all its veterinary needs.

Their newsletter was eagerly anticipated by it’s readers. Yes, people wanted to hear from them and valued what they had to share.

Compare that vet’s approach to the typical marketing messages we see.

That vet doesn’t need to run expensive radio ads.
They have no need to waste time on Facebook. They own the communication channel with their prospective clients (by using email)!
They have no need to buy mailing lists.
They don’t need to waste valuable hours at networking events.
They certainly don’t need to pester people on social networks or ask strangers for recommendations on Linkedin.
They don’t need to invest in anything, other than the creativity required to produce a genuinely valuable newsletter, with useful content.

That example shows how a business can grow a massively powerful marketing asset, by sharing real value, rather than pushing unwanted messages. If you want to thrive in today’s exceptionally volatile economy, this is the kind of marketing you need.

The kind of marketing that increases in value every day.

The kind of marketing that requires zero advertising spend.

The kind of marketing that connects you with prospects in a way they actually look forward to and share with their friends.

In fact, the exact kind of marketing I have been creating for my clients, since the mid 1990’s. It works. And it works in every economy.

Marketing 101: Pick a frequency

By Jim Connolly | July 4, 2022

Here’s a content marketing tip, to help you attract the attention of prospective customers AND motivate them to buy from you or hire you. It’s all about one word that has two extremely useful meanings. That word is Frequency.

Allow me to explain.

I was prompted to write this after 2 emails I received.

The first was from a long time reader. Sophie got in touch to find out why I hadn’t published quite as many newsletters recently.
The second email was from a former reader. Rick emailed to say he’d unsubscribed from the blog, because I publish too often.

There’s a powerful lesson here for anyone who wants to grow their business.

Frequency

Clearly, I’ll never be able to keep everyone happy with the frequency of my newsletter. For some it will be too little. For others it will be too much. If I keep Sophie happy, I lose Rick. If I keep Rick happy, I lose Sophie.

So, here’s what I do.

Rather than try and get the frequency right for everyone, I use a different kind of frequency. A frequency that works. Every. Single. Time!

More importantly, it’s the kind of frequency, which you can use to attract more clients or customers and build your business.

The other type of frequency

There’s another kind of frequency. The kind radios use. If you tune your radio into the same frequency as a radio station, you receive their signal. You’re (literally) on the same wavelength as them.

When you’re on the same wavelength as your marketplace, you’re in harmony with them. And they’re in harmony with you. Sophie and I are on the same wavelength. If you’re a long time reader, you and I are on the same wavelength, too.

In short: I only write for you and Sophie.

Now, that won’t be the right frequency for everyone. But I don’t write for everyone. And there’s a very good reason why. It turns out you can’t keep everyone happy. And the harder you try, the weaker your signal becomes. Before you know it, no one is on your wavelength.

Though I used the example of newsletters / blogging for this post, the exact same strategy works for every kind of content marketing.

Supercharge your marketing

If your marketing isn’t resonating with your marketplace, it’s entirely possible your signal is too weak. This happens when you try to be relevant to as many people as possible.

You land in the middle. In my earlier example, you’d be too infrequent for Sophie and too frequent for Rick. Lose, lose.

By landing in the middle, you become directly relevant to no one. This means your marketing message will lack the motivation it needs, to inspire your prospects to take action. Only clear, directly relevant marketing has that kind of impact.

So, pick a frequency.

Shun the masses.

Embrace the community you wish to serve. Focus only on them, their needs and their wants. Be generous. And be generous as often as you can.

Pretty soon, you will have a community of people on your wavelength.

People who will value what you do.
People who will miss you when you’re not there.
People who will hire you.
People who will recommend you.
People who will talk about you.

Just imagine how valuable that will be for your business.

Here’s 1 word that can destroy your results. And 12 better alternatives

By Jim Connolly | May 17, 2022

When it comes to creating successful marketing, the word ‘new’ is overrated. Moreover, it can critically damage the effectiveness of your marketing, losing you sales or client enquiries in the process.

There are 2 main reasons why this happens.

A new product or service is thought of as risky. Untested. Less robust. At best, it’s a bigger gamble than the existing solution. At worst, the customer feels like a paying guinea pig. Ouch!
A new product or service is seldom, if ever, the best. It lacks the improvements that come from years of customer feedback.

Yes, when you have an announcement to make (like moving to new premises), people expect to see ‘new’ and they understand the context.

The challenge comes when a key part of your marketing message is that you offer a new way to do something. Even some big brands struggle to sell ‘new’ to people, despite multi-million dollar marketing campaigns. Who remembers ‘New Coke”?

Thankfully you can totally avoid this problem.

Here are some far better alternatives

Instead of relying on ‘new’, offer your marketplace something more compelling. More secure. More attractive. More motivating. And a great deal more appealing.

For example, rather than offering your prospects a ‘new’ way to (whatever), look at the core benefit of your product or service. Then market that benefit to them instead.

Here are 12 alternatives that I have used very successfully over the years. All of which offer the prospect a more attractive benefit.

A faster way.
A secure way.
An enjoyable way.
A greener way.
A stylish way.
A stress-free way.
An original way.
A premium quality way.
A proven way.
An ethical way.
A guaranteed way.
A cost effective way.

The key is to intentionally use words that paint better mental pictures. Pictures that build trust and inspire people to take action. I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve seen this simple adjustment lead to radically better marketing results.

So, do a review of your current marketing and look for opportunities to replace the word new, with a better alternative.

What’s really blocking you?

By Jim Connolly | April 30, 2022

Today, I’d like to share some ideas about what could be blocking you from achieving the results you want. I’ll also help you dispel a couple of common myths, which could be seriously damaging your business.

It starts with a quick look back at yesterday, and what I did in the first 90 minutes of my workday.

I began by reading what I had planned. Next, I replied to some emails. A few of them were from clients. One of which ended with a brief Zoom chat over coffee. The majority of emails were from readers of my newsletter. I then wrote my next article, put the iPad Mini I’d been working on in my bag, left the coffee shop and came back to my studio.

It’s that last sentence, which is the important part!

You have the tools

I did everything I just mentioned, using a cheap tablet device (see above). At a push, I could have done it on a phone.

This means you already have the tools you need to market your business, even if all you have is whatever device you’re reading this with!

It means you have the tools to connect with your marketplace, share your ideas, show your work, make connections with amazing people, demonstrate your value, build yourself a community and engage with them.

So, you have the tools you need.

The right time is now!

Finally, I have a question for you: What exactly is it that you’re waiting for, before you’ll take your business to the next level? If you’re waiting for the right time, unless you have months and years to burn, the right time is now.

So, you not only have the tools you need, you also know that the right time to get started is now.

This means you’re finally free to figure out (or admit to yourself) what your real barrier is.

Yes, I sincerely hope you find these ideas useful, but more importantly my friend, I hope this inspires you to take action on whatever is blocking you.

You should use information marketing. Really. Do it!

By Jim Connolly | April 15, 2022

Content marketing, information marketing

Today, I’m going to share the power of information marketing with you. It has the potential to sky-rocket your sales results. Actually, it has vastly more potential than that!

I was prompted to write about this, when answering a very common question from one of my readers. They wanted to know, how I find the time to write so many newsletters and articles.

It’s all about my information marketing strategy. And now you’ll see why you really need to start using it!

Let’s go!

Finding time or making time?

A business owner doesn’t need to find the time to go to work, or find time to look after their clients / customers. When a task is important to us, we make time for it. The time for it is set aside, in advance. It’s in our calendar. It’s high on our to-do list. And as a result it gets done.

Marketing is a top-level business activity for me. Not just for me, but for everyone serious about growing a successful business. I know that the information I create, (free marketing tips, ideas and advice) doesn’t always look like marketing.

But it absolutely is.

Some would call it content marketing, but content marketing is extremely limited in comparison.

I call it information marketing

And here’s what it does.

It reminds those who choose to follow my work, who I am and what I do.
My newsletters, website articles and social media updates showcase my knowledge.
My content also provides people with a checkable body of work, which proves that I show up regularly with helpful information AND that I’ve been doing this for decades.
This means people know who I am. They know my work and that I’ve reliably provided it for a very long time.
The marketing pay-off is that I’m earning their trust, long before they even contact me. And they’re sharing my work with even more prospects!

Now, imagine your prospective clients already had that kind of relationship with you and your business. Consider how much more likely they would be, to buy from you or hire you.

THAT’S what makes information marketing so effective. It provides you with a regular, predictable flow of exceptionally high quality new clients or sales. It also means you never have to sell your services to a stranger again. Because they will already know all about you and your services or products. Information marketing works beautifully.

Okay, now let’s look at just how easy it is.

Information marketing is ongoing

All successful marketing is an ongoing business activity. It’s about becoming, and remaining, visible to your marketplace; so your name, company name, branding, logo, face, etc., is familiar to them.

Almost every small business and many medium-sized businesses get this wrong. They tend to only market their business when there’s a problem; like when they’ve lost a major account or they’ve seen a worrying drop in new clients.

They then, suddenly start marketing to their prospects… even though they’re total strangers to these prospects. It’s extremely ineffective.

And it’s avoidable when you use information marketing.

information marketing, content marketing

It requires way less money than you think

Actually, information marketing takes less money AND less time than you think.

Allow me to explain.

Less money than you think?

Yes. If you market your services the way I do, you don’t need to buy ads. I haven’t paid to advertise my service in over 20 years. Not a penny.

That’s because when you publish useful tips, ideas and advice, which your marketplace will value, they’re attracted to it.

And you’ll be really easy for them to find.

Here’s a quick look at how that works.

If you write an article like this, or even something as short as a tweet, your prospects can find it on a search engine. Yes, tweets are findable via Google. Just be sure that when they find your information, it’s very easy for them to contact you and subscribe to your newsletter list. That’s really important.
If you write a newsletter (and you REALLY should), people will share it. This is especially the case when you answer common problems for people in your target market. That’s because people tend to know lots of similar people; (those who live in the same area, or are in the same profession, or have the same type of problems, or are in a similar income bracket). So, your initial subscribers will share your newsletters for you, and you’ll be organically building a bigger and bigger, targeted list.

That’s right.

You’re not only connecting with a growing number of prospects. Your growing number of prospects are sharing your work, for free, with even more prospects.

That kind of personal recommendation is massively more effective than an advertisement.

information marketing, get noticed, content marketing

Less time than you think?

Oh yes. Way less time.

Whereas content marketing is known for being about producing a high volume of often low-quality ‘content’, information marketing is focused way more on the quality of information you share. This means you have zero need to ‘pump stuff’ into every social network on the planet every day.

Note: I only use Twitter, my website and my newsletter. That’s it!!!

The information marketing strategy I use with my clients, allows most of their work to be used in multiple ways. So, you invest time creating one piece of useful information, and it can provide you with multiple marketing opportunities.

For example, if you write a useful article for your website or a blog post, it can be:

Published as a newsletter. Longer pieces can be published as a 2 or 3-part newsletter series.
Published on Linkedin.
Published on your Facebook Page or in your Facebook Group
Published on a forum your marketplace uses.
Extracts can be published as short-form content.
And visuals can be published on sites like Instagram, Pinterest and Twitter.

So, you create once and yet produce many, many marketing *assets. (*Things you can use, to attract, help and engage your prospects).

Some all-new information marketing material takes minutes to create. It can be as simple as taking a photo, related to the prospective clients you want to work with. For example, photos of events you’re attending, or photos that show people how you work. These help your prospects to better understand what you do, and they make you more ‘real’ to them. These photos can be really interesting and shared on multiple platforms.

But that’s not all.

After a very short time, as you become more used to creating and sharing useful information, you’ll notice the process takes less and less time.

Information marketing isn’t a time suck

Remember, you don’t need to share something new, multiple times a day, or even every day, as with content marketing.

Information marketing is about producing information that’s useful enough, for people to share your work for you.

It’s all about quality, not quantity. Value, not volume!

You could create just one useful article like this, every 10 – 14 days. By using it in the various ways I explained a moment ago, this would give you something useful and new, to share every 2 or 3 days for a few weeks, to attract the attention of new prospects and start building a valuable connection with them.

Consider again the marketing potential of growing your very own, huge, targeted audience, of extremely high quality prospects. Then measure it against the effort required for information marketing.

If you can see the full potential, you’ll want to get started.

What next Jim?

The best time to start information marketing: building this kind of connection, relationship and trust with your prospects is 10 years ago. But the second best time is now.

If you’re not already marketing your business, by sharing useful information, which you know your prospective clients value, please give it some serious consideration. I have used this model since the 1990’s. And I’ve helped countless business owners transform their sales results with their own information marketing strategies.

I’m telling you, not only does information marketing work better than any form of marketing I have ever used or studied, it works better today than ever before.

Photo: Shutterstock.

How to get immediate marketing results

By Jim Connolly | April 3, 2022

You absolutely can get outstanding, immediate, marketing results and there are many ways to do it. I’m going to share some examples with you right here, right now.

Oh, and none of them require paying for advertisements.

Okay. Let’s do it!

Contents

Immediate marketing results from your website

Improving the call to action messaging on your website will provide you with immediate results.

For example, recently, on my first marketing session with a new client, I suggested a quick improvement. He implemented it during our session. Before the session ended, he was already looking at a higher percentage of people taking the action he required. That’s what I call immediate, measurable marketing results.

And from your email marketing

Improving the subject line on your marketing emails will massively improve your results, from the moment your emails reach your prospective customer’s inbox!

Bonus: You can see equally fast results, if the copy used for your offer in the email content is improved.

Double bonus: Those two improvements will compound when used together, which can result in spectacular marketing results. So, do both!

And from your store

Improving the messaging on your store’s window display can also have an immediate, powerful impact. For example, my friend’s wife owns a lighting store on a local high street. He asked if I could give her a few marketing tips, as things had been a little too quiet lately. One tip took just 5 minutes. I asked for a piece of card and a Sharpie pen. I wrote on the card, and asked if I could place it in her store’s front window.

Before I left, a new customer came in. He said he’d walked past her store lots of times, but ‘for some reason’ he decided to come in today. The marketing results were immediate. A more permanent version of that same message is still there, and still working today.

Those were examples based on improving your existing marketing.

That’s absolutely great.

However, by ALSO introducing new, high-return marketing tactics into your strategy, you can achieve even more. And the possibilities are only limited by your imagination.

Here are some ideas to get you started. In no particular order.

Immediate results from Joint Ventures

The following examples (I could give you dozens), come from just one marketing tactic! I’m referring to Joint Ventures. As you’ll see, when you make them a part of your marketing, and do it correctly, you’ll regularly enjoy immediate, measurable results.

What is a Joint Venture? It’s an agreement between you, and a person or company whose products or services are complimentary and non-conflicting with your own.

What does complimentary and non-conflicting mean? I’ll use my business as an example.

I provide marketing services to business owners and marketing professionals, but I don’t provide web design services.
I could connect with a web designer who builds websites, but doesn’t provide marketing.
I write a newsletter that’s read by business owners and marketing professionals.
The web designer also writes a newsletter that’s read by business owners and marketing professionals.
Each of us could recommend the other in our newsletter, because our services are complimentary.
And because neither of us sells what the other one sells offers, there’s no conflict.
Note: I do not do this. It’s just an example to explain the tactic.

The following examples are designed to explain how to use Joint Ventures (JV’s) in your business.

Look at the process being used, NOT the sector / industry of the example. JV’s are applicable to pretty-much every industry.

JVs provide outstanding results, when used in conjunction with public speaking. Here’s an example. I was contacted by the CMO of an accountancy practice. He wanted help with client acquisition. I suggested they put on a Zoom talk for their clients, and invite someone from a complimentary, non-conflicting company to speak. They identified a company that did business with their exact profile of client. I wrote an email for my client, to introduce the opportunity to the potential JV partner. They agreed to give it a go. Two talks were lined up. Each of them had a chance to speak to the other ones audience. It worked really well. Another example of immediate marketing results.

One of the most popular uses of JV’s, is when YouTubers or podcasters invite other YouTubers or podcasters onto their show. The invited person gains exposure to their host’s audience, which can dramatically, and quickly, increase their own audience numbers. They then do the same for the person who hosted them. Both of them see immediate, measurable marketing results.

Immediate marketing results across the board

Once you understand how JVs work, you see opportunities everywhere.

That’s why you need to forget about the industries I’ve mentioned here and the type of JVs used, and focus only on the process to create high-performance JVs.

When you do, you’ll see how companies that install new windows and doors can do Joint Ventures with home security providers, just by recommending one another. In the same way, veterinarians can do Joint Ventures with artists who specialize in pet portraits, or pet photography. And sales trainers can do Joint Ventures with communication trainers. And tree surgeons with grass cutting companies, and locksmiths with carpenters…

You get the idea.

Immediate results. No paid ads

Notice anything about the examples throughout this article? That’s right! None of them required you to buy advertising. You don’t need to buy the attention of your prospective clients or customers, AND ads are way less effective than the 100 plus tactics I use.

So, get your thinking cap on. With a the right planning and some creativity, you never know what kind of immediate marketing results you too could achieve.

How to make your marketing totally unmissable

By Jim Connolly | March 22, 2022

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?

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.

The product being marketed (movie, album or book etc.), is something you’re interested in.

The key words there are permission and interest.

Here’s why!

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:

Think about the brands you have given permission to contact you.

Write them down.

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?

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.

List building: How to build a list that builds your business

By Jim Connolly | March 10, 2022

Photo: Shutterstock.

People often ask me for tips on how to build a bigger list. They want more subscribers, more readers, more listeners, more viewers, more followers, etc.

The short answer is simple. It’s this.

Create useful content, which is worthy of people’s attention and make it really easy for them to subscribe.

If you do that, you’ll attract more people and because your content is useful, many of them will subscribe. Think about it. That’s the exact process, which motivated you to subscribe to every list you’re on. Something attracted you, you found it useful, you subscribed.

This begs the question: If the answer is so simple, why is it so darn hard to build a large and valuable list?

Here’s the slightly longer answer.

The advice is simple. The process is tricky

There’s some tricky stuff between you and that massively valuable list you want.

Finding something useful to share, on a regular basis, is tricky. Remember, if you just churn out the same stuff as others in your industry, you won’t attract subscribers or retain them. This means you’ll need to be willing to do some research. You’ll need to become a regular note taker. A collector of ideas. It’s interesting work, but if you’re not already someone who studies and takes notes, it can take a while to transition.

Finding the time to create content is also tricky. You’re already busy, right? Developing content around all that interesting material you have, takes time. That time is easy to justify when you have a huge list. It’s harder to justify, when your hard work is being consumed by just a small number of people. You’ll need to push through the tumbleweed and crickets of the early stages. And I know from personal experience, that can be a real challenge.

Summoning the courage to publish your stuff is also tricky. Why? Because if you do it right, you’ll attract critics. Someone once told me that we have a choice to make. We can either be criticized or be ignored. If we’re being ignored, we’re invisible. That’s not good for any business.

The alternative is to not only expect criticism, but to welcome it as a positive sign that we’re no longer being ignored. Don’t set out to attract critics. Set out to be useful and worthy of attention. But see criticism as an inevitable part of becoming visible and successful.

Note: Here’s why people criticize you and how to deal with it.

Once you know what’s involved, building a valuable list is pretty easy.

And the rewards are huge

Picture this: Just imagine what a difference it would make to your business, if you were in regular contact with thousands of prospective customers. Not via advertising, which is usually seen as an unwelcome interruption. But via a subscription to your content, which people proactively requested because they WANT to hear from you. It’s almost impossible to overstate just how valuable your subscribers are.

The opportunity is amazing. And it’s right in front of you. Right now.

Marketing success: Reactive versus proactive

By Jim Connolly | February 20, 2022

Today, I’m sharing a marketing idea to help you achieve long-term business success.

It starts with an extremely useful question.

How many of today’s business activities will make my business stronger in 6 months’ / 12 months’ time?

That question provides us with a useful perspective. Especially if we ask it every day. It gives us an insight into how much of our time and focus is invested in the middle to long-term future of our business. Equally important, it shows how much of our time and focus is short-term.

When we look at our results 6 months or a year from now, they’ll tell us if we got the balance right. We’ll know for sure. Of course, by then, it’s too late to change things if we got it wrong.

How do we get the balance right, ahead of time?

Here’s what I’ve discovered

From experience, small business owners are likely to invest too heavily in the short-term. Most small business owners will openly tell you; they spend too much time working IN their business, and not enough time working ON their business.

A short-term focus in business manifests itself in multiple ways. As a marketing bloke (hey, I think I’ve just found a new job title), I see the following 2 examples most often.

1. Small business owners will fail to create an ongoing conversation with their prospective clients; via a newsletter, non-automated social media account, etc. So, when they need to significantly increase sales, they’re forced to interrupt strangers with paid ads, instead.

It takes a little time to write a newsletter or to connect with your prospective clients on your preferred social network. But it’s a spectacularly valuable medium and long-term investment.

2. Another common manifestation of too heavy a focus on the short-term, is reactive marketing. The small business owner waits until something bad happens, THEN they respond. This forces them to start marketing from a position of weakness, and in need of an urgent win. Either one of those is a tricky challenge. But needing fast results from a weak position is really tough to pull off.

It takes a little time to proactively do some regular marketing. But as I said a moment ago, it’s a spectacularly valuable medium and long-term investment.

Moving forward

Long-term success doesn’t come from short-term thinking. We need to be aware of the bigger picture. And even though we are busy, we need to invest some time in longer-term marketing activities.

So, how much of our time do we need to invest?

Obviously, not all of it.

Not most of it, either.

In fact, all it takes is a small amount of time. Repeated most days.