Jim's Marketing Blog

Marketing tips and ideas to help you grow your business

Is YouTube turning business owners into idiots?

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My client made an interesting point during yesterday’s Marketing Mentor session.

“YouTube is turning business owners into idiots”.

She was specifically referring to a client of hers, who now has a major problem after taking terrible advice from a popular business YouTuber’s video. Her wider point is that she and her team are seeing this with increasing regularity.

I haven’t covered this topic with you before, so here’s a quick flyover of how this happens, why this happens and how to avoid it happening to you.

So, how does this happen?

Business owners search for advice, find a video with a massive number of views (or a YouTuber with a huge following), and assume those metrics reflect the quality of advice.

Confidence in the quality of the advice increases, as the results that come closest to the top are usually from YouTubers with lots of nodding fans. Fans who agree with, and add weight to, whatever the YouTuber says.

It’s a very compelling mix.

Why does this happen?

It’s actually pretty simple.

The most viewed business videos on YouTube combine the best optimization practices with the most entertaining content / charismatic presenters.

By getting that balance just right, they can begin to build exposure, which then starts a cycle where their videos rank higher, so they get more views and subscribers – more views and subscribers then helps them rank higher, resulting in more views and subscribers… Repeat.

They’re not necessarily the most accurate business videos on YouTube.

They’re not necessarily the most useful business videos.

And they’re not necessarily from the most trusted sources, either.

What they are, is:

  • Expertly optimized.
  • Really interesting to watch.
  • And fronted by a confident and compelling communicator.

Yes, there are useful business ideas on YouTube. But we need to check (and credential) the source before we invest time or money on ANY kind of business advice.

Including advice from YouTube.

Stability Through Impact: Unlocking the full potential of your business

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High impact

There are 3 broad ways you can guide the direction of a business.

  1. You can aim for stability.
  2. You can aim for impact.
  3. You can aim for stability through impact.

Here’s how those 3 options pan out, and why one of them gives you the best chance of fully unlocking your maximum potential.

Primary focus on stability

Business owners with a primary focus on stability, plan and act with a safety-first mindset. This often blocks them from making the improvements they need, even when their business isn’t growing. If something ‘kind of works a little’, they’ll hold onto it tight. They do, this rather than try something new with an infinitely greater potential to help them.

They want things to improve. Of course they do. But they want things to improve, without them making any meaningful changes. Change equals risk. And risk feels scary. Too scary.

Primary focus on impact

Business owners with a primary focus on impact, plan and act with a mindset that’s driven by the desire to make a meaningful difference. They have a vision of the impact they seek to create and are motivated by the desire to see that vision become a reality.

Within this broad group are business owners who are well-prepared, with a thoroughly researched idea, which they are passionate about. However, this group also contains business owners who have a deep belief in their idea, but their idea hasn’t had the necessary rigour applied. There’s no market for it. The numbers don’t stack up.

We see this all too often, when a new business opens with an expensive launch, lots of bold claims and in no time, they’re gone. It’s heartbreaking.

Focus on stability THROUGH impact

The business owner whose primary focus is stability through impact understands something, which the vast majority of people totally miss.

They’ve figured out that a balance needs to be achieved.

They know that hunkering down, avoiding change and hoping things will magically improve is a terrible strategy. You can’t hope your way to the top. Or even the middle. At best, you’ll go broke slowly. (which is a lot more painful than going broke fast, as it traps you for years in a stressful, under-performing business).

They also know that stability is essential. If you’re only focusing on making an impact, without ensuring you have a stable foundation, you’re very likely to fail. Nothing of value can be built on flimsy foundations. You need that stability. It’s a must.

So, what do they do?

They decide what impact they want to create. In other words, they choose the thing that they want to be known for… the difference they want to make to their marketplace (or the world). Then they do the research and put a plan together. A realistic, costed and robust plan.

Then, they work the plan.

With the stability of working to a solid plan, and fuelled by the motivation of making an impact, you can fully activate your maximum potential, whilst minimizing risk.

Why your subscribers aren’t hiring you and how to fix it

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Hannah has almost 2000 newsletter subscribers. Her open rates are always between 80% and 85%. And yet she’s attracted just 4 paying clients since 2019, directly from her newsletter readership.

She asked me what she was doing wrong. I suggested, (with her permission), that as this is a really common problem, I’d share my answer with you.

Why accurate marketing data can cause us problems

We’re now able to test and measure our digital marketing with great precision. And it’s causing hard working small business owners to make very expensive marketing mistakes.

For example. Service providers like Hannah, often look at the open rates / clicks / shares data of their newsletters or blogs, then write certain styles of headline or content, based on what’s popular.

That seems to make sense.

Until we look at the massive difference, between what’s popular with readers… and what generates bankable income for our business.

The key point here.

  • Readers are mostly just that. They’re readers. They read our stuff. That’s it.
  • Only a subset of readers are prospective clients. This is usually a relatively small percentage; especially if we use the content marketing model, (which Hannah uses, I use and you should be using too).

In short: The vast majority of people who subscribe for useful, free business information have zero intention of spending a dime with us. They’re looking for free information. Period.

Oh yeah. They really mess with your marketing data

That’s because the free stuff crowd are also the people most likely to open newsletters and click links.

They especially love sensational headlines, free special reports and free white papers, etc. They are attracted to them because they dabble rather than hire expert help, so their businesses are constantly struggling. Over-hyped headlines give them hope that they’re one ‘killer free idea’ away from solving their latest problem.

It’s not a coincidence that none of the 4 readers who hired Hannah directly from her newsletter, had high open rates or click rates. They almost hired her in spite of being on her list. This is because our ‘prospective client readers’ behave very, very differently from the ‘free stuff readers’.

The same over-hyped approach that gets opens and clicks from freebie hunters, leaves our prospective clients rolling their eyes!

Allow me to explain.

Yes, our prospective clients are certainly looking for great, useful information. And that’s a fact.

The BIG difference, is that they are also looking to provide their businesses with the resources and expertise it needs. This means when they consume our newsletters, blogs (podcasts, YouTube broadcasts, whatever), they do so with a prospective need for our services and are building a picture of us.

And unlike the freebie crowd, they’re looking for clues.

For example.

  • They’re looking to see how reliable we are over a period of time. If we regularly show up with ideas or go missing unexpectedly for long periods.
  • They’re also looking for clues as to whether we’d work well together or not.
  • They want to see if our communication style is consistently clear and easy to understand.
  • And they want to see just how informed we are; the depth and breadth of our knowledge.

Plus a ton of other things they pick up on, which guides their decision to hire us or not.

The freebie crowd don’t give a rat’s ass about any of that!

In a nutshell: For a service provider, the most valuable feedback from your content marketing, is if it’s generating high quality paying clients or not. So please don’t chase the numbers that have little or no, real-world commercial value.

Your road to better clients, higher fees and less competition

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Marketing value, meaningfully different

Are you struggling to get noticed by great prospective customers? Are you attracting too many price-sensitive enquiries? If so, you’re not alone. This easy to fix issue is one of the most common in marketing.

Easy to fix?

Yes. We know exactly why it happens and how to fix it.

Here’s what you need to know, along with 10 examples to get you started.

Here’s why it happens

When competing products or services seem similar, price becomes the obvious way to determine value. As such, there’s little, if any, motivation for someone to pay more. In this common scenario, the lowest price looks like the best deal.

Sure, they “may” go for the 2nd or 3rd lowest price, hoping to insulate themselves from scammers or super-low quality goods or services. The key thing is that at this point, they’re price shopping. And you’re now competing on price.

Here’s how to fix it

A proven way to totally overcome this problem, is through developing something I call meaningful value.

Meaningful value is when you take what the marketplace expects from someone in your industry, and then improve upon it in a radical, meaningful way.

By default, any product or service with meaningful value has to be radically different from what’s expected. That’s what gives it meaning and elevates it from being average. This automatically places you in a unique position. A position, where you’re no longer competing on price, because your offering has no comparative competition!

What might this look like?

  1. A service that comes with a 125% money-back guarantee.
  2. A product that’s provably safer than anything in its category.
  3. A product that’s 50% lighter than the industry leader.
  4. A service that’s designed from the ground up, around the unique needs of each client.
  5. A product that’s the only one in its class, to be made from 100% renewable sources.
  6. A product that’s part of a numbered, limited edition.
  7. A service that’s 3 times faster than the industry leader.
  8. A product that’s far longer lasting than anything in its niche.
  9. A service that’s massively more extensive than anything else available to your marketplace.
  10. A product that’s clearly the most energy efficient in its class.

Those ideas are just food for thought. They’re simply examples to demonstrate the ‘base line’ required, for your products or services to stand out as being of meaningfully more value, than your marketplace expects.

Be sure to invest the time and effort required, to create something special. Marginal improvements have marginal impact. They won’t elevate your offering to the point where you have no comparative competition.

So let your creativity run wild. And aim for maximum impact.

Exposed: The great workaholic lie

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marketing tips, marketing advice

Workaholics are never really workaholics.

It’s not work, which the so-called workaholic is addicted to. Instead, they’re hooked on the feelings that come from doing something they love. That passion and joy is what inspires them all day, every day.

When you do something you love, it’s natural to want to keep doing it.

  • It’s why Nile Rodgers still creates and performs. (Read this).
  • It’s why Arnold Schwarzenegger is still making movies.
  • It’s why Bill Gates is still making a difference.

Nile and Bill are in their 60’s – Arnie is 73. None of them need the money. What they do need, are the feelings associated with their “work”.

Conversely, someone who finds their work frustrating, boring or stressful, pays to go on vacation… to get away from work!!! They spend a tiny amount of time each year, doing what they love. They have the equation completely the wrong way round.

No one is addicted to work

If you get paid for doing what you love, you may be a passion-aholic. You could be a joy-aholic or even a pleasure-aholic. But you’re not a workaholic. No one is addicted to working just for the sake of work.

  • Work without meaning is a way to pay the bills.
  • Work without meaning is stressful.
  • Work without meaning is empty.
  • Work without meaning leaves you doing things you don’t want to do, for the majority of your adult life.

If work feels like work for too many days in a row, take action. Transform your business from something you work in, to something that fills you with joy, passion and pleasure.

Can you do it?

Yes. Of course you can.

How do I know?

I know, because for more than 20 years I’ve helped business owners worldwide to make it happen and I experience it in my own life, every day.

Stop explaining everything. Seriously. Stop it!

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marketing tips

One of the most common marketing challenges facing business owners is also one of the most serious. I’m referring to a lack of regular client enquiries (or sales leads).

Today, I’m going to show you a key reason why this happens, and how you can overcome it.

I need to start by asking you something: Why do prospective clients call you, email you or ask you questions?

The answer can be summed up in just one word. Curiosity.

It’s their curiosity that motivates them to get in touch with you. This means it’s their curiosity that provides you with business enquiries. So, if you want more enquiries, your task is to make them more curious.

Hold that thought for a moment.

Now, do a quick review of your marketing materials and just look at how many questions you answer about the services you provide. This is really, really important.

Why?

Because with each question answered, you reduce a prospective client’s curiosity. You make them less likely, then unlikely, to contact you with an enquiry. You proactively lose yourself the super-valuable sales leads your business needs.

The balance you want to strike, is to give them ‘just enough’ information to make them curious. Just enough information to motivate them to contact you for answers or advice.

Just enough information, so you get all those sales leads or client enquiries that you’re currently missing out on.