Jim Connolly Marketing

Marketing tips and ideas to help you grow your business

Marketing, information and data

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information and data, difference between, marketing

A company pays a salesperson $125,000 a year.

That salesperson has generated an average of $250,000 a year, for 3 years, in high-profit sales.

They did great.

No they didn’t!

They were terrible.

In fact, they were worse than a waste of money.

That’s because…

They were losing their company a fortune!

You see, that salesperson left the company and was replaced by a new salesperson.

The new salesperson was also paid $125,000 a year.

And using the same source of leads, over the following 3 years they generated an average of $750,000 a year in high-profit sales.

In the space of 3 years, the first salesperson under-performed by $1,500,000.

Data and information

Too many business owners, and sales / marketing directors (who should know better) make decisions based on data, when what they need is information.

Information is what you get, when someone applies knowledge, experience and context to data.

  • Data will show you that your salesperson is generating a 100% profit.
  • Information does that. However, your information-based decision making causes you to research the average conversion rate for your industry. It immediately identifies a major problem that’s losing you a fortune. The salesperson is way, way below average and needs training or replacing.

This same data error is made by most small and medium-sized businesses, when they advertise.

  • They run the ads and data shows an ‘X’ percent profit is being achieved. They then look at ways to further increase that profit figure, with better written ads, better timed ads, better designed ads or placing ads on different platforms.
  • An information-based approach would start by looking at the data… then expand their potential by examining the profitability of investing in influencer-marketing, email marketing, joint ventures and endorsed relationships, etc.

In short, data is extremely useful. I rely on it multiple times every working day to create valuable information. It takes focus, time and effort. But you CAN NOT make informed decisions without information. Data is just a single component.

Make more mistakes. Lots more mistakes

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marketing, make more mistakes

It’s not only okay to make marketing mistakes, they’re absolutely essential if you want your business to grow in any meaningful way.

Here’s why these mistakes are so important. And why you might want to re-evaluate how you feel about making mistakes with your marketing.

Let’s go!

Why are marketing mistakes okay?

They’re okay because they’re temporary.

Temporary?

Yes. Much of the marketing we do can be adjusted in minutes, with useful feedback sometimes obtained in hours.

For example, you can try a new call-to-action on your website. Then, check the conversion rate as soon as you have enough data in. If it’s worse or no better than the previous call-to-action, try a better one next time.

You’ll either win fast or you’ll learn fast. Not bad, eh?

Instead of thinking of your marketing as a somewhat rigid set of activities, try thinking of it as a series of temporary steps. Steps that you replace with something better, as you try new things. Because that’s exactly what the most effective marketing looks like.

Why are marketing mistakes essential?

They’re essential because you can’t possibly know if a new marketing idea or activity will work without testing it first. So, if you’re committed to growing your business, you’ll be committed to testing different ways to improve your results.

With testing comes measuring.

Measuring is where you find out what works.

It’s also where you find out what doesn’t work (the mistakes).

As such, the business owner who seldom makes a mistake with their marketing, seldom tries anything new and is leaving money on the table every day.

You may have heard the story about how Steve Jobs reprimanded team members, if they were not making mistakes often enough. Whether that’s true or just part of the Steve Jobs legend, the fact remains that mistakes are directly linked to progress. In trying to avoid mistakes with your marketing, by repeating what feels comfortable, you inadvertently block your business from the very success you long for.

So expect marketing mistakes.

No… Scrub that.

Welcome marketing mistakes for what they truly are: A critically important part of the success of your business.

How to create a niche for your business, with zero competition

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no competitors, zero competition, niche marketing

One of the things I work on with many of my clients, is the development of a valuable niche for their business. A highly profitable niche, with literally no competition.

Here’s a quick look at the approach I use, plus some ideas you can adapt into your own business.

The niche model I use is based on the strategy I developed for my own business. Here are just 3 of over 70 processes I’ve developed.

Enriching my competitors

Instead of focusing on crushing the competition, I focused on enriching the competition. When I started my business in 1995, my strategies were so different from the other providers in my industry, they were no longer competitors. This gave me the freedom to enrich, elevate, connect and promote their marketing businesses. That remains to this day.

The following is from a previous article I wrote on this subject – the full article is here.

“I chose to proactively seek out opportunities to help my competitors flourish, to open doors for them, to share new ideas and strategies I’d developed with them, to connect them with useful people, etc. I was in my twenties at the time and many in the industry said I was young and naive. I saw things very differently…”

Tip: If you found that interesting, I strongly recommend you read the full article.

Closing sales replaced by opening relationships

Instead of focusing on closing sales, I focused on opening relationships. It has always struck me as odd that good salespeople are referred to as good closers. So I decided to focus on opening instead of closing.

Opening relationships, to be precise.

Whilst sales closers have a toolkit of psychological closing techniques, I didn’t. Instead of seeing the sales process as a game of chess, pitting me against the prospect, I wanted to be on the same side of the table as the prospect. In their corner. Looking out for their best interests, exactly as I would if they were already my client. This transforms initial meetings with a prospective client. It switches things 180 degrees, from the usual chess game.

Yes, it does mean being willing to openly, honestly tell a prospective client if you don’t think you can help. When this happens, you’ve still planted some amazingly positive seeds.

You’ve just demonstrated to a prospective client that you can be trusted. You’ve also demonstrated that you offer an exceptionally professional service. In my experience, these same prospective clients often go on to become regular sources of high quality referrals.

This approach has set me apart and allowed me to further develop my reputation as a trusted adviser. That’s because it’s in such stark contrast to the usual strategy, of closing tricks and needy follow-up emails.

Building an influential network, not a big network

People in the marketing industry are known for the size of their networks. They’re at every networking event. They’re amongst the most active people on Linkedin. I took a very different approach. Instead of focusing on growing a large contact network, I focused on growing a small, but influential network.

Even when I was starting out, I never saw the value of what’s usually thought of as ‘networking’. For example, I think I had my last lot of business cards printed around 2002/3.

Oh, and I’ve never had a Linkedin account or had any need for one.

Why?

Business is all about people and the depth of the relationships you have with them. I chose to intentionally develop strong, meaningful relationships with people who I believed to be the best fit.

Initially my main focus was senior media people, marketing experts and mentors. I was 29 when I started my business, no one knew who I was and I needed to be around people who were able to help me get known and develop. If you followed the link I shared earlier, you’ll have seen how my first 6-months in business went.

As with every person I have shared this selective networking approach with, I too have found that you automatically get many of the benefits of a large network. Such as massively expanding the reach of your work, your opinions and your ideas.

For example, you’ll find that from time to time, your influential contacts recommend you and your work to their audience. An audience that respects their endorsement. Another example is media coverage, something I have professionally benefited from enormously. Lots of journalists have known me for years. They trust me and are comfortable enough to contact me, and cite me, when they need expert opinion.

Tip: One way to get started is to think who would be really useful for you to know in 12-months or 18-months time. And today, start to look for ways to earn their attention and then their interest. It’s not by cold emailing them or pestering them. It’s about being useful to them. Gently. Over time.

I hope that quick look at 3 of the 70+ processes I’ve developed, has encouraged you to seriously consider a more niche approach to the growth of your business.

Ultimately, you can choose to compete against the masses or develop your own, wonderful niche. You can choose to blend in or stand out. You can choose to be ‘yet another’ or uniquely you. It’s always a choice.

Your business needs to avoid these people

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There are certain people who you and your business need to avoid.

Some are easy to spot.

Marketing, business avoid

For example.

  • The marketing expert who has to pester people on Linkedin, because their own marketing doesn’t work.
  • The business consultant who claims to be in demand, yet offers free consultations.
  • The leadership expert who’s just like all the other leadership experts. (Think about that for a moment).
  • The social media marketing expert who needs to use paid ads or spam, to get your attention.
  • The web designer whose website is outdated and ugly.
  • The copywriter whose content is uninspiring.

Others are harder to spot.

  • The strategist whose own strategy isn’t working.
  • The accountant who understands the numbers, but can’t express what they mean to your business.
  • The business coach who has never built a successful business.
  • The success coach whose personal life and professional life is a mess.
  • The Google ads or Facebook ads expert, who knows just enough to sound convincing.

Here’s the thing: With a slick website and some testimonials (fake or otherwise), anyone can claim to be an expert in anything. So, before you hire the services of an expert, ask them to back up their claims in a way that is both meaningful and verifiable.

Personal recommendation

The best way to avoid hiring the wrong provider, is via personal recommendation. Ask your friends and trusted contacts if they have someone suitable they can endorse to you.

However, there’s a critically important additional step you need to take, before acting on a personal recommendation.

Make sure to ask the person giving you the endorsement, if they have first-hand experience of the provider.

Otherwise a friend or contact may give you the name of someone they’re aware of, but have no actual experience of that person’s ability or effectiveness.

Even if they have first-hand experience of the provider’s work and their recommendation is glowing, still do some background research. Be as sure as you can be. Only when you are fully satisfied with their credentials should you consider hiring them.

I hope this helps you avoid making a costly mistake. Equally, I hope it helps you locate, and benefit from, the best quality providers for your business.

How to get people to take action, right now

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Here’s the foundation of all successful marketing. In just 7 words.

It motivates people to take action, now.

Let’s break that down and also see how it works.

Marketing motivation, take action
  1. It motivates people: It gives them a compelling reason. A reason, which is powerful enough to grab their attention and generate enough desire within them that they’re ready for the next step.
  2. To take action: It makes a direct request. It asks them to; call us, click here, proceed to checkout, visit us, read this, subscribe, etc.
  3. Now: It asks them, whilst their motivation is high, to take the action required. Right now. Straight away. That’s because even if they love what you said and are genuinely interested, their attention will soon jump onto the next thing. This could be a notification on their phone, a delivery person might arrive with a package for them or they suddenly notice it’s time to meet their friend for lunch… and you’ll lose them. They tell themselves “I’ll do it later” and later becomes never.

The marketing from most small and medium-sized businesses is missing at least one of those essential steps. It’s either not motivating enough, lacks a direct call to action or doesn’t generate sufficient urgency. And it’s losing these businesses an absolute fortune.

We have to be smarter than that.

How to overcome the problem

Take a look at all your marketing messages and check you have all 3 of those steps fully covered. Try to be as open-minded as possible. Make sure it’s motivating, action driven and urgent. If you think any of those areas can be improved, improve them. Repeat this process until you have fully maximized everything.

Then remind yourself that you’ll always be able to wrestle another few percent improvement… and do it again. It’s hard to overstate what a massive, positive impact this will have on your marketing and sales results.

Turning upism

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turn upism, prepared, definition

Turning upism is the philosophy of staying around long enough for something positive to turn up. It’s about buying time for a positive change or opportunity to arrive.

Though the term may be new to you, you see examples of turning upism regularly. Just consider the countless actors who achieved worldwide fame late in life, when the right casting opportunity turned up. And those politicians who only achieved high office after decades in politics, when the right opportunity to stand for office turned up.

What does this have to do with business?

Quite a bit, actually.

Turning upism and business

In business, success comes to those with the persistence to keep on doing the right things, correctly. However, as in the above examples, turning upism isn’t merely about persisting or waiting.

We also need to be prepared for when the opportunity turns up.

I wrote a while back about a friend of mine who was invited onto a popular, national radio show. She’s an amazingly gifted architect and the show is an absolutely perfect fit for her. After she told me about the invite, I was just about to congratulate her… when she said that she turned the offer down! She went on to say she just couldn’t do it because she’d be too nervous.

Prepare for your opportunity

Here are a few useful ways to prepare, for when turning upism presents you with the dream project or major client / customer that you’ve always wanted.

  • Make it a habit to be on the look out for people who you can put in place, in case you need additional team members.
  • Talk with your suppliers. Find out how quickly they can scale up if you have a sudden, vastly higher demand than usual for whatever they provide.
  • Make sure your financial details are clear and detailed, should a serious party ask about acquiring your business. This will help you get the best possible price and show them you’re a serious operator.
  • Talk with your bank manager, in anticipation of a future, major project. Make sure you have access to the cash flow required, for what can be a sudden, huge spike in your outgoings.
  • Get some media training, before you need it. Learn how to speak on camera, how to talk with clarity and how to overcome any fears about there being a huge audience.
  • And if you’re hoping to go ‘viral’, contact your web host to make sure it has the capability to handle huge volumes of traffic. I’ve seen what happens when a server can’t cope, and masses of valuable traffic is lost.

You get the idea. Prepare in advance.

Whether someone knows about turning upism or not, the longer you’re in business, delighting your customers or clients, building your reputation and your brand, the more likely it is that something wonderful will turn up. So be ready. Get the maximum from the opportunity. Because you’ve earned it.