Jim Connolly Marketing

A genius marketing idea from a 19th century artist

By |

Back in the 1800’s, Edgar Degas said: Art is not what you see, but what you make others see.

The same is true of great marketing

Successful marketing paints a compelling picture in the mind of a prospective client. It doesn’t list a series of facts or features. Instead, it talks directly to the needs and wants of your clients. It paints a picture of how you can help them. It illustrates how you’re passionate about helping them. Everything is rooted in what’s best for them. Everything.

Ineffective marketing paints a picture of the provider. It’s all about their business and the products or services they offer. It’s dry. It’s dull. It’s forgettable. And it fails to motivate people to take action.

The message, my friend, is simple. If you want to attract better clients, paint better pictures.

AI created content: Big changes ahead

By |

AI created content, ChatGPT

People have been asking me lots of questions lately about AI. Specifically, regarding AI created content. And rightly so. Everything is going to change. Those asking me can be split into two groups.

  1. Business owners wanting to switch from paying content writers, to using AI.
  2. Content writers, who are worried that AI created content will wipe their business out.

Here are some thoughts, observations and ideas for those in either of the above groups.

Switching to AI created content?

It was 2016 when I first wrote about AI as a content creation tool, in a post called Don’t let the robots kick your ass. I’ve followed AI content developments very closely ever since. And yes, things really have improved.

However, for a business owner thinking of replacing their content writers with AI, you’ll have some small issues to contend with. That’s because it’s not currently a like-for-like swap.

In my opinion, AI content isn’t good enough to use without some editing. Here’s a piece I created in around 10 seconds using ChatGPT, with no edits, so you can see for yourself. I simply asked the software to write an article for me about the limitations of AI writing. Here’s what it produced, including the article’s title: Limitations of AI in Writing: Context, Tone, and Nuance.

Whilst the spelling and grammar are fine, the content doesn’t flow naturally as you read it. This is a common problem and means the business owner needs to know what to edit and how to edit it, so that it reads correctly and is ready to publish.

Editing takes time, if you’re not used to doing it. And quality is an issue, because the quality of the content you end up with, will be determined by your editing skills… not AI. Yes, the quality of AI content will improve to the point where little, if any editing is required. But in the short-term, it’s not quite there.

AI and content writers

Content writers who operate at the higher end of the market have nothing to fear from AI content. You’re a proven writer. You can connect with readers, engage with them and deliver the results your clients need. You’ll be absolutely fine for a very, very long time.

High quality, human crafted content, which engages the reader, with things like nuance, irony, passion and compassion, will always have a market.

The challenge, I believe, will be for content writers who serve the middle of the market.

Why?

I’ve been testing the research version of ChatGPT for some time and right now, it can create a piece of content on any subject, thousands of words long, in seconds. Scan it with a plagiarism checker and it will pass as unique. Note, in the example I gave earlier, I just pasted the text from the software, formatted it and added an image. An experienced writer will be able to edit it and turn it into an average quality piece in under 30 minutes.

That’s exactly what a lot of content-based service providers have been doing for years. They’re able to charge a low fee and earn massively more than those charging 5 times as much, because they’re producing 20 times as much content.

Soon, AI will create content that’s already as good as the average piece that’s human created. Some in my profession say it’s already possible. Either way, it won’t need human editing. It will be ready to go. And the software is already extremely simple to use, so there’s nothing to stop those with average budgets from bypassing content writers, and doing it themselves.

I think that’s the point were the ‘real’ disruption will happen.

Some thoughts

Not much is likely to change in the very near future. Though with Microsoft and Google / Alphabet now investing billions in the battle for AI supremacy, and advertising their offerings everywhere, this will change. I think a wider, general awareness of AI content will see a surge in content service providers using it, which will force fees down. It should also result in more people switching from hiring content creators, to doing it themselves with AI. As I said earlier, it’s already very easy to use.

Content providers who charge industry average fees, to clients who’ll pay industry average rates, always find it hardest to thrive. And it’s about to get even harder. Because those who currently hire them will be able to create their own content, and create as much of it as they wish, for pennies or free. Those who sell content services into the middle will need to switch to a new content service model, which is built to thrive in the age of AI. More of the same isn’t a viable option.

As with every disruptive technology, there will be winners.

Maybe a useful way forward, is to ask yourself what a winning model for your business will look like, now AI content creation is going mainline. Consider how you might put the amazing power of AI to work for you, rather than have it work against you. There’s no reason for you not to prosper mightily from the disruption.

Going narrow and deep

By |

going narrow and deep, marketing, social media

If you find it hard, time-consuming or confusing, to be present on lots of different social media platforms, relax. You don’t need to! Today I’m going to show you a far better alternative. It’s based on the approach I use. I call it going narrow and deep. So, here’s how it works, and how you can benefit mightily from it.

This blog is in its 14th year. And I’ve been publishing a newsletter since the 1990’s! When I mention this to people they often ask how I have managed to update my blog and publish a newsletter, very regularly, for so long.

I really don’t do much

Sadly, I don’t have some kind of productivity super power. It’s a lot less impressive than that.

You see, my ‘secret’ is all about how little I do.

  • I don’t have a Linkedin account.
  • I don’t have a Youtube channel.
  • I don’t have a podcast.
  • I don’t have a Facebook Page
  • I don’t have a Facebook Group.
  • I don’t have a TikTok account
  • I don’t write books.
  • I don’t give many interviews.
  • I don’t have a business account on Instagram or Snapchat, either.

Lots of business owners do most of the things on that list. And I bet they produce at least as much information across those platforms as I produce for my blog / newsletter.

The difference is in what we choose to do with the content we produce.

They go wide. I go narrow

Let me flesh that out a little.

Having been involved in social media marketing since its inception, I’ve seen how easy it is to lose your account, and audience, on any platform you don’t own. And if a platform ceases to be popular, you can also lose your audience, or most of it, when they move to the next new, shiny thing.

Plus, it’s extremely hard to create a significant marketing impact, or foster deep engagement across multiple platforms. So, you end up with a wide spread of shallow encounters. That’s why I chose to go narrow and deep.

  • I own my blog.
  • I choose where it’s hosted.
  • And I can use any commercial email provider to mail my newsletter to subscribers.

The benefits of building your own platform are many and varied.

The best-known benefit of going narrow and deep

Maybe the best-known benefit is that you’re building your very own publishing business, which grows in value literally every day.

For example. Jim’s Marketing Blog has thousands of pages of marketing and business development information and a 14 year pedigree. It has built trust and a deep connection with thousands of people worldwide who read it regularly.

So today.

If I wanted to.

  • I could form partnerships with online training providers, promoting their courses here, for a commission on each place sold.
  • I could create a dedicated store here, providing products that appeal to my reader demographic.
  • I could cash-in. The last offer I received for Jim’s Marketing Blog was huge.

There are multiple revenue generating opportunities open to me, because I built everything here. Combined, they would easily create a significant enough income to become a stand-alone business. Imagine if I’d spread my ideas and work across social media platforms / social networks. None of the opportunities I just mentioned would exist.

So, consider the commercial value of creating your own platform. Your own publishing business. And I mean, seriously consider it. Because it could be worth a fortune to you.

The least-known benefit of going narrow and deep

I think the most overlooked benefit, is the incredible focus, clarity and freedom it gives you.

With the multi-platform approach, different types of ‘content’ work better on one platform and less well on another. All of a sudden, you need to add lots of tasks to your daily workload. So, you’re no longer ‘just’ running your business. You need to find time to be a photographer, broadcaster, video producer, audio creator, short-form writer and networker. Plus, there’s the time required to monitor all those different places every day for replies or responses.

You also need to be careful how often you publish. Most platforms will make your content less visible to your audience, if you publish what they deem to be too often. Facebook, Linkedin and Instagram are notorious for this. Blogs do the opposite, because fresh content is rewarded by search engines. It’s a sign that your blog is being supplied with new and updated material. A sign that your blog is worth recommending to those searching for up-to-date information.

With your own platform, you publish when you have something useful or interesting to share. That’s it. It’s extremely liberating.

In short, I probably don’t produce content more often than you or anyone else involved in marketing their business. I certainly spend a lot less time creating it.

I just put it in the same place and let it build steadily over time. Eventually, all those little molehills become a mountain.

How to create marketing that works

By |

Marketing that sells

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 |

marketing 101, pick a frequency, content marketing, frequency

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.

What’s really blocking you?

By |

Marketing iPad image

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.