Jim Connolly Marketing

You should use information marketing. Really. Do it!

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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

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immediate marketing results

Photo by bruce mars 

Great news: 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. And yes, they work exceptionally well in 2026.

Oh, and none of them require paying for advertisements or buying attention.

Okay. Let’s do it!

Immediate marketing results from your website

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

For example, on a first marketing session with a new client, I suggested a quick improvement. He implemented my suggestion live 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

You will immediately improve your email marketing results, when you improve the subject line on your marketing emails. That subject line is what causes your emails to be eagerly opened, or instantly deleted. This is huge. Imagine sending out the same number of emails, and reaching another 20%-40% prospects. As promised in the title, this will immediately improve your marketing results.

And it gets better!

Bonus: You can see equally fast results, if the copy used for your offer in the email content is improved. Better still, I’ve see sales increases of over 100%, if you’re willing to get that copy fully optimal.

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

And from your retail outlet

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.

She called me a few days later and said she’d seen an in increase in new customers. The first new customer came around an hour after I left. The marketing results were immediate. A more permanent version of that same message is still there, and still working today. The original sign simply had the word ‘open’ on it. My makeshift sign did something crucially important. It told prospective customers to ‘Come in, we’re open’. That’s a direct request.

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 my fellow 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.

Examples of how successful JV’s

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

JV’s provide outstanding results, when used in conjunction with public speaking. Here’s an example. I was contacted by the marketing director 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. And the new client started flowing within an hour of each Zoom session! It’s 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 will 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. Tree surgeons with grass cutting companies, or locksmiths with carpenters.

I’m sure 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 tactics I use.

You now have ways to immediately improve your sales figures or the number of new clients you attract. 

What are you waiting for? Go for it!

Here’s what to do, if people ignore your important marketing emails

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Marketing email content

Image: Austin Distel

I get scores of really important marketing emails every day. I call them important, yet none of these messages are of any importance to me.

They’re typically irrelevant and of literally zero interest. They are only important to the people sending them!

I know you receive these emails too.

  • The amazing special offers, which are neither amazing or special in any way whatsoever.
  • The newsletters you never even subscribed to.
  • The partnership opportunities from total strangers.
  • The poorly targeted deals, which aren’t even applicable to you.
  • And let’s not forget the masses of automatically generated spam you receive.

Here’s the thing we need to remember, before emailing someone. If our exciting announcement or important news is only really important to us and our business, we’re not marketing to people. We’re interrupting them!

And if we do that a second time, we go from interrupting them, to pestering them.

That’s not a good look.

How to get it right?

Create something genuinely interesting, which is important to your prospective clients or customers. Then, only send your message to people who have given you permission to contact them, and who you know have a genuine need for that important information.

It’s hard to overstate the marketing power of a valuable message, sent to people who want to hear from you. It’s how you create the best marketing… marketing that’s so useful, people would miss it if you stopped.

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

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list building, build a list

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.

If you just churn out the same content 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 takes notes, it may be a while before it becomes a habit.

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… even in 2026 where AI can be a real help. 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.

A list of business experts you absolutely must avoid

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marketing stop

In life there are certain people who you absolutely need to avoid. The same is true in business.

Some are easy to spot

  • The web designer whose website is a piece of crap.
  • The marketing expert, who embarrassingly needs to pester people on Linkedin because their own marketing doesn’t work.
  • The consultant or adviser who claims to be in high demand, yet offers free consultations.
  • The self-proclaimed leadership guru, who clearly isn’t leading.
  • The copywriter whose content is poorly-written and lacks impact.
  • The creativity expert who’s just like all the other creativity experts. (Think about that for a moment).

Others are trickier to spot

  • The marketing consultant, who used tricks to attract a million social media followers.
  • The accountant who understands numbers, but can’t clearly explain what they mean to their client’s business.
  • The strategist whose own strategy is failing.
  • The business development adviser who has never built a successful business of their own.

Protect your business from bad advice

The personal recommendation of a trusted friend is usually the least risky way to find an expert provider. Just make sure the friend has recent, first-hand experience of the quality of the provider’s work.

Another option is to hire someone whose work you’re already familiar with. For example, if you subscribe to a provider’s podcast, YouTube channel, blog or newsletter and they regularly share useful information, they’re giving you some powerful clues.

  • The fact they have turned up consistently, demonstrates a degree of reliability. This is especially the case if they have many years worth of material available.
  • You get to experience first hand, how knowledgeable they are from the quality of information they provide.
  • In addition, you’ll know in advance if they share information with the clarity you need.
  • You also gain an insight into their personality and mindset, which can help you determine if they’re the kind of person you work best with.

With an attractive looking website and some testimonials, anyone can claim to be an expert at anything. And that’s why you need to look deeper.

Because the cost of taking bad advice is far, far higher than the person’s fee.

Content marketing: It’s all about pressing the publish button

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marketing

Image: Danielle MacInnes. 

Hannah just emailed me with a question. She wants to know what’s the secret to publishing content marketing more frequently. Here’s my reply.

There are lots of reasons for not publishing more of our ideas, to more people, more often.

  • I just can’t think of anything useful to say right now.
  • Maybe no one will bother reading it.
  • I know what I want to say, but I can’t figure out how I want to say it.
  • This needs to be really, really good and I’m not sure I can write something of that quality today.
  • I don’t have enough time.

Those are totally valid reasons. I know because I’ve experienced all of them more than once over the years. However, I don’t think they address the primary reason why so few people, regularly create and publish their own content marketing.

In my experience, as someone who has mentored hundreds of people on content creation and delivery, the main barrier is pressing the publish button. Moreover, their concern regarding the response they might face, after publication. The fallout, criticism and possible confrontation.

It’s certainly true that if we choose to publish nothing, we don’t need to worry about unleashing a wall of potentially hostile responses.

It’s also true that we miss out on all the opportunities that could come our way, if we were to press publish and share our ideas or observations.

But tragically, by failing to press the publish button regularly, we never learn how other people manage to publish regularly.

Here’s the thing. By repeatedly pressing the publish button, we become perfectly, totally comfortable, publishing our original content whenever we have something useful to share.

Here’s an example of what I mean.

  • My first blog post took several days to write, edit, re-edit, format, re-edit… then publish.
  • This post was written on my phone and published on WordPress in around 15-20 minutes.

What was the difference between the two posts?

The experience I gained, from pressing the publish button several thousand times.