Jim's Marketing Blog

Marketing ideas to help you grow your business

1 Word that can destroy your marketing, plus 12 better alternatives

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marketing help, marketing advice

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

There are 2 main reasons for this:

  1. A new product or service is always seen as a risky bet. At best, it’s a bigger gamble than the existing solution. At worst, the customer feels like a paying guinea pig.
  2. A new product or service is seldom, if ever, the best. It lacks the improvements that come from years of customer feedback. It lacks the robustness that comes from being stress-tested.

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.

Thankfully, you can totally avoid this challenge.

Use better alternatives

Instead of relying on ‘new’, offer your marketplace something more compelling. More secure. More attractive. More motivating.

For example, rather than offering them a ‘new’ way, look at the core benefit of your product or service. Then, market that benefit to them instead. So, instead of a ‘new’ way, you could offer them one or more of the following 12 alternatives.

  1. A faster way.
  2. A secure way.
  3. An enjoyable way.
  4. A greener way.
  5. A stylish way.
  6. A stress-free way.
  7. An original way.
  8. A premium quality way.
  9. A proven way.
  10. An ethical way.
  11. A guaranteed way (this example works extremely well).
  12. A cost effective way.

In short, if a potential customer sees your ‘new’ whatever, as a risky or unproven option, it’s very unlikely that they’ll buy from you. So use better alternatives. Alternatives that build trust and inspire them to buy from you or hire you.

Use what you have, to get what you want

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focus, marketing

When business gets frustrating, it’s useful to remind ourselves that our actions are what determine our results.

Think about it:

  • We can wait for the economy to improve. Or we can embrace the circumstances and openings available today.
  • We can wait for inspiration to arrive. Or we can command it to appear. Here’s what Steve Jobs and Picasso said about inspiration.
  • We can wait for permission. Or we can take the initiative.
  • We can wait for the right opportunity to come along. Or we can make it happen.

In short, we only become a victim to poor commercial circumstances, if we allow those circumstances to control the direction of our business.

Every successful business owner I have worked with or studied, followed the same 2 basic rules:

  1. Focus on what you can control.
  2. Do everything you can with everything you have.

This places you firmly in the driving seat. It takes you from being reactive, to proactive. And it allows you to make more progress, faster, than you ever thought possible.

The amazing truth about you

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marketing blog

You’re amazing.

Those are not just kind words. It’s not an empty phrase, designed to make you feel good. It’s based on fact.

And I’ll prove it

Take a moment and remember how amazing you’ve been in times of emergency… how you’ve come out winning, against the odds. And don’t forget the amazing courage you’ve summoned, when things looked bleak. Or the amazing kindness you shown people, when they were in need. Not to mention the amazing resourcefulness you’ve shown, again and again and again.

My point?

It’s so easy to be in awe of others and the amazing things they’ve done, whilst forgetting the amazing thing’s you’ve achieved.

Remembering that you’re capable of amazing things helps you raise the bar on what you expect from yourself. And when you’re going through tough times, it’s REALLY helpful to remember that you have amazing resources, on tap, ready to be used.

There are certainly some amazing people out there. Just remember that you’re one of them.

The most incredible article about headlines you’ll ever read

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Here are some ideas, which you can use to dramatically improve the results of all your written marketing.

It’s all about the marketing power of headlines.

Your headline has to capture the reader’s attention

Headlines are important. Really important.

You see, it doesn’t matter how great your message is, if too few people read it. That’s where your headline (or title or subject line) comes in. The headline’s primary job is to attract attention, gain interest and then motivate the reader to carry on reading.

Think about it:

  • The headline is what inspires prospective clients to open your marketing email.
  • It’s what motivates them to read your blog post or article, when someone shares it on a social network.
  • It’s what compels them to listen to your podcast or watch your video.
  • It’s also what grabs their attention and interest when they see one of your advertisements.

Advertising legend David Ogilvy was in no doubt regarding the importance of headlines. He famously said:

“When you have written your headline, you have spent 80 cents out of your dollar.”

Treat your headlines with the importance they deserve. Give yourself plenty of time to craft the best headline possible. The following tips and examples will help you get the balance right.

Your headline should accurately reflect your content

Because headlines play such a huge role in getting your content noticed, it’s tempting to over exaggerate them. (Yes, the headline of this post is a tongue-in-cheek example of what I mean).

Sometimes called clickbait, these attention-grabbing headlines are proven to generate traffic. The reason I strongly recommend most people reading this not to adopt that headline strategy, is this:

Your headlines make a promise, which your content MUST deliver on.

Make your headlines as compelling as you can. Use words that will compel people to read what you have to say. But make darn sure that your content backs up the promise of the headline. You may be able to fool someone once or twice with clickbait. But unless your content delivers on the promise of the headline, people will quickly learn to ignore you.

Your headline needs to be written for your target market

Your marketing message is intended to connect with a very specific group of people: Your prospective clients or customers. The headlines you use should do the same. This means speaking their language and addressing their concerns and opportunities.

Here’s why this matters:

  • By focusing your headlines around the interests of your target market, you help your marketing message to attract the attention of the right people.
  • Conversely, by using headlines that attract the attention of a wider group of people, you cease to be directly relevant to your target market.

In other words, use headlines that are directly relevant to your prospective clients.

Your headlines should match your medium

If you’re writing a headline that’s intended for a print magazine, newspaper or flyer, you have certain freedoms, which you don’t have when writing for the internet.

For example, if you want your internet article’s headline to be fully displayed in search results, you need to use around 60 / 65 characters or fewer. Going beyond that will see your headline cut short.

If your headline is intended for email marketing, you need to take other things into consideration. For example, if you include exclamation marks!! in your subject line, along with a number and maybe a word that’s in ALL CAPS, it’s highly likely to end up in a lot of spam or junk filters. Email software looks for certain common factors used by spammers and if it sees them in the email headlines you use, it could wrongly treat your marketing as spam.

In short, you need to adapt depending on the medium you’re using.

The only 2 types of headline that matter

There is a lot of debate among marketing professionals, regarding the correct way to use headlines.

They take entrenched stances, each insisting that their approach is the only strategy that’s professional or effective. In almost every case I have seen, they totally miss the point!

When it comes to the headlines you use in your marketing, there are just 2 broad categories worthy of your attention.

  1. Headlines that work for you and your business goals.
  2. Headlines that are failing you and your business goals.

You need to find the correct balance for what you want to achieve. And it will differ depending on your brand, your industry and your business model.

For example, BuzzFeed has grown into a very successful media business, initially relying heavily on a controversial, yet powerful headline formula. Many labelled their approach as being linkbait or clickbait. And they were wrong. That’s because the quality of the BuzzFeed’s content was consistently compelling, so their readers returned. In fact, they returned and re-shared, which helped the readership grow even faster.

In summary

Experiment until you find what works best for you. Test and measure your headlines, titles and email subject lines. Just make sure that your content delivers on the promise they make.

Get this balance right and you can dramatically and measurably improve your marketing results.

Here are some people you have to avoid

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marketing

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 own website is a mess or outdated.
  • The marketing expert, who embarrassingly needs to attend networking groups because their own marketing doesn’t work.
  • The business guru who claims to be in high demand, yet offers free consultations.
  • The copywriter whose content is poorly-written and lacks impact.
  • The leadership expert who’s just like all the other leadership experts. (Think about that for a moment).

Others are harder to spot

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

Protecting 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 find someone, whose work you’re already familiar with. If, for example, you subscribe to a provider’s Podcast or YouTube channel and they regularly share useful information, they’re showing you 2 things.

  1. The fact they have turned up consistently, demonstrates a degree of reliability. This is especially if they have many years worth of material available.
  2. You get to see, first hand, just how knowledgeable they are, from the quality of information they share.

With an attractive looking website and some testimonials, anyone can claim to be an expert in anything. And that’s why we, as business owners, need to look deeper. Because the cost of hiring a bad business provider is far, far higher than their fee.

Why you need to stop working so hard

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marketing

A reader asked me why he’s making so little progress with his business, even though he’s working hard and working smart.

Here’s my answer. It’s not what you’re expecting!

Hard work is not the answer

The problem here is that from childhood we’re told to study hard. Then we start our career and we’re told to work hard. Then we’re told to work hard and work smart. We’re even told to play hard.

Eventually we start to believe it. We start to believe that working hard or studying hard is the route to success.

It isn’t. Not even close!

The most successful and happiest people in business do things very differently.

  • They work smart, sure, but they work with passion for what they do.
  • They study, of course, but they study with joy and excitement for what they’re about to discover.
  • They play, but they play with a limitless sense of fun, just like they did when they were kids.

Hard work = Hard life

When you adopt a hard attitude to business, life becomes hard. Both for you and those around you. No one deserves to live like that. Especially you.

The answer is as easy (and as challenging) as this:

If you love what you do, then work with love. If you don’t love what you do, either learn to love it or find something else to do. Soon you’ll discover that work is easier, more enjoyable and a lot more fruitful.

Warren Buffett is a billionaire, with more money than he will ever need. He could have retired decades ago. However, he chooses to carry on because he loves what he does and he works with passion. If it was a long, hard slog… he’d have quit as soon as he made his fortune.

In short, stop making life so hard for yourself. Seriously. Live and work with joy and passion. When you do, it will improve every element of your life, not just your business. I also strongly recommend you read this, Exposed: The great workaholic lie.

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