Marketing tips, marketing help and advice

This tip can improve your whole business

By Jim Connolly | May 13, 2023

Here’s a very quick tip, which can dramatically improve things across your entire business.

As someone who has mentored thousands of people over the years, I’ve found that the reason a business isn’t doing great, is often because the business owner isn’t feeling great. Perhaps they don’t feel as motivated, confident or inspired as they would like to be.

The reason this matters is that our feelings guide our decisions, and our decisions guide our actions. These actions are what determine our results and therefore the success of our business.

I’ve discovered that the fastest way to genuinely become motivated, confident, inspired (or experience any positive feeling), is for you to give these feelings to others.

Allow me to explain.

My epiphany

I noticed that whenever a client or friend came to me because they were, for example, lacking motivation, and I started to build up their motivation, it always left me feeling massively more motivated.

Then I noticed the exact same thing happened when I helped people feel more confident, inspired, courageous, resourceful, optimistic, energized or anything else. I would immediately feel stronger in whatever area I’d helped them with.

I shared this idea with others and found they had identical, or very similar experiences to mine.

Here’s what makes this so powerful.

When you give these highly-valuable feelings to others, you become a source of the very thing you give. And it’s an endless source. Because as long as you keep giving, you’ll keep receiving.

It’s a simple technique, which can strengthen the core of everything you do. And you can access it as often as you want to. I use it daily.

Interestingly, this process works regardless of how you do it; face-to-face, Zoom, phone, email, one-to-one / a group of people, social media, podcast, blog post, a handwritten note or any other form of communication.

The next time you want to think more productively and make better business decisions, identify the key feeling or feelings you’re lacking in. Then give others those same feelings. Don’t wait for motivation, energy, confidence, creativity, calmness or anything else to arrive. Make it appear, by giving it away.

It’s a wonderful way to enrich yourself, and by extension, enrich others.

In case it doesn’t go without saying, I am not a mental health professional. This is simply based on what’s worked for my clients and myself.

Your customer, and your business, are one

By Jim Connolly | May 10, 2023

customer focus, focused on customer, us and us

What I am about to share with you is pure gold. And if you take a moment to read it, it can radically improve the success of your business.

It starts with this very simple idea.

You cannot develop greater value for your customer or deliver higher levels of service to your customer, without benefiting from it equally. Your customer, and your business, are one.

Now I’ll explain why.

There’s only us and us

In business, when it comes to the vendor and the customer, there’s no us and them. There’s only us and us. You already know that customers are an essential part of your business. Logically, when you make things better for them, you make them better for your business, too. Your customer, and your business, are one.

A common objection I get when explaining this to business owners, is a version of the following.

But Jim, if I go to that extra effort and expense for my customers, it will cost me in time and money. The customer will benefit, but I’ll lose out.

Here’s where the confusion occurs.

Business owners will look at their current numbers, subtract any extra time or financial investment, and it doesn’t add up. What they’re missing is that their current numbers are a fraction as high, and a fraction as profitable, as they would be with the improved model.

Invest in your customers

How do you switch to the improved model? You do it by developing your business, so that it’s transparently designed to be of massive value to your customers and prospects. (I provide lots of useful information in that link).

Here’s what we see from those rare business owners, already embracing this customer-focused attitude.

They attract the best customers.
They thrive in every economy.
They retain existing customers for massively longer.
They never need to sell based on price.
They attract high-value opportunities, from brands who want to collaborate with them.
They are far more productive.
They generate a buzz around their products or services, simply by doing what they do.
They enjoy a hugely valuable profile in their marketplace.
They attract endless word-of-mouth referrals.

All that (and more) can be yours, when you fully embrace the idea that your customer, and your business, are one. You’re then free to grow a high-profit business, doing your best work, for the best customers.

Do this correctly and you’ll be amazed at how quickly, and how dramatically, things improve for you.

Stop focusing on more sales leads. Really. Just stop

By Jim Connolly | May 7, 2023

What do you think is the most common problem that business owners ask me to help them with?

It’s a version of this: “Hi Jim. I need to get more sales leads (or client enquiries)”.

However, in over 25 years of working with business owners, I have never met or spoken to one whose actual problem was a lack of leads.

Their core (or root) problem is always a lot more obvious and a lot more direct. It’s THAT core problem, which needs their attention.

Not more sales leads

Their core problem will be a need for bigger revenues and profits, or a need for more high-value sales, or perhaps a need for more high-quality clients. That’s their actual problem. Instead, they are looking for answers to their “more leads” question. And it causes them all kinds of frustrating challenges.

Their incorrect focus points them in multiple, fruitless directions. It also confines their thinking around one, solitary aspect of marketing. And it misses their core problem completely.

When I explain this to business groups, I use the following scenario.

Imagine someone owns a car and notices the smell of rubber whenever they’re driving.
Their core problem is not the unpleasant smell of burning rubber.
Their core problem is that something in their vehicle is either burning or drastically overheating.
However, they focus on getting rid of the burning rubber smell.
They decide to drive with the windows open, but that doesn’t work.
They decide to buy an air-freshener, but that doesn’t work. They then buy a few more and none of them work, either.
They decide to have the vehicle completely cleaned inside and outside. That doesn’t work.
They then decide to plug their nose. This gets rid of the smell, but they can taste the rubber in their mouth.
Finally, their smelly car refuses to start. Its electronics have burned out. And their vehicle is trashed.

Focus on your core problem

Then look for effective ways to overcome it.

Just to get you started, here are some useful questions to help you redirect your thinking to successfully resolving your core problem. Use them as a starting point and add your own great questions.

What adjustments can I make to my product or service, which will open it up to a new, massively profitable marketplace?
Who has already achieved what I need to achieve, and how can I get them to show me the way forward?
How can I increase my average customer spend by x%, starting next week?
What new, high value services can I provide to my existing clients?
How many ways can I think of, to increase my referral rate by XYZ%?
How can I motivate customers to buy from me more frequently?
What 5 money-making lessons can I learn from (insert name of a successful company outside your industry)?
What are the best ways I can find to radically improve my client or customer retention rate?
Who are the people that my marketplace already trusts, and what’s the best way to get to know these trusted people?

I hope that helps provide you with some additional clarity, as you plan to smash your business targets.

12 Quick tips and ideas to help your business thrive

By Jim Connolly | May 4, 2023

In no particular order.

Be stingy with your time, but not with your ideas.
Your past does not equal your future. Next level results are yours, when you take next level actions.
All business is personal.
Either do what you love or learn to love what you do. Both approaches work extremely well.
To develop a new service, you do not need to reinvent the wheel. A relatively small improvement to an existing way of doing business, can open up a whole new marketplace for you.
Outsmarting your competitors works best, when you’re outcaring them, too.
Optimism is highly contagious. And never more so than in times of uncertainty.
To be in greater demand, provide greater value. Whether a business serves the top end of the market or the bottom end, its customers always want value.
A business can only be as successful as the weakest link in its leadership.
Opportunities come with a use-by date. If something looks like it has potential, do the research and if it stacks up, get moving.
Be eager to take responsibility. Step forward. Especially when others step back.
Whenever possible, be kind. And it’s always possible.
Strive to give others more than they expect from you. That little extra has a big impact.

Decisions: How to get your timing right

By Jim Connolly | April 28, 2023

The right time, and the perfect time, are not the same time.

But many small business owners are totally unaware of it.

And it screws up everything.

The right time

The right time to take action on improving your business is the moment you know there’s a problem. It’s an easy to identify moment. And it makes zero sense to allow a problem to persist; it only gets bigger, and costs you more in time and money to fix.

This means the right time is always, always, blindingly obvious.

However, even really smart business owners totally miss it.

Why?

Because they’re not actually looking for the right time. No. They’re looking for, and waiting for, the perfect time.

The perfect time is an expensive illusion

It’s an illusion, because it exists in an impossible to identify moment.

Think about it.

If things are going great for your business, they might get even better. Now is not the perfect time.
If things are ‘okay’ or even if things suck, then maybe they’ll pick-up. Now is not the perfect time.

So, when is the perfect time to improve your business?

You missed it. Because we can only ever know the perfect time, after it has passed. We identify it on reflection. It’s rear view mirror stuff.

That’s why the most successful businesspeople focus on the right time. It’s clear. It’s existential. We experience it. It’s in front of us.

In short, if you have an ongoing business problem, the right time to do something about it has passed. The next best time to do something about it is right now.

Your opinions, voice, uniqueness and AI

By Jim Connolly | April 25, 2023

Opportunity is knocking. It’s knocking loud and it’s knocking clear.

The best part? To benefit from this spectacular opportunity you just need to be yourself.

Allow me to explain.

It starts with a statement of fact: Your opinions are exactly that. They’re yours. They’re as specific to you as your unique blend of life experiences and lessons.

Conversely, artificial intelligence doesn’t have an opinion. Everything about its knowledge base is artificial.

Instead, AI is fed with masses of data. And it’s trained by groups of AI experts. One of the primary tasks of AI trainers, is to keep their AI as neutral to everyone as possible. And in seeking not to offend anyone, AI lacks even an artificial opinion.

In stark contrast

No person who has ever lived is neutral. Unlike AI, we not only have an opinion, we have countless opinions. This includes the opinions and feelings we have regarding the way we do business. And it impacts everything, including:

The business tactics we rule in or rule out.
The atmosphere we create for our clients or customers.
The way we sell or negotiate.
The value we place on our products or services.
The baseline quality of service or products we provide.
The type of staff we hire and the way we look after them.
The suppliers we choose.
The profile of customers we want to attract (and those we want to avoid).
The type of promises and guarantees we provide, etc., etc.

Your business, opinions, voice and uniqueness

Your opinions matter. They always have. They’re what give you your unique voice in the marketplace.

I firmly believe that today, and for the forseeable future, that uniqueness is a powerrful way, maybe the most powerful way, for your business to gain your biggest ever slice of the marketplace.

How?

A growing number of your competitors are switching to AI for their voice. For example, AI tools are creating and guiding their business plans; what to do and what to avoid. Chatbot apps are handling their frontline customer service. Chatbots are also guiding or shaping (and in many cases providing) their; newsletter content, blog posts, video / podcast scripts, advertising copy and social media interactions, etc. In short, everything that prospective clients or customers use in order to judge these businesses, is bland and lifeless.

I’m suggesting that you adopt a very different aproach to AI.

The most savvy business owners I know are also using AI. But the way they use it, excludes every area of their business that carries their DNA. Their opinions and their voice remain 100% human. It’s what guides their messaging, their priorities, their values, their commitment, their customer service and their willingness to go the extra mile. Their businesses have a pulse and personality. They are extremely easy to connect with. They are easy to relate to. And on a very human level, they’re easy to trust. Because they are human. And so is their brand. Not dull and lifeless like the previous example.

Very soon, you’ll be able to stand out and get noticed, in a way that wasn’t possible before. The opportunity is knocking. But only for those who choose to take notice of it.

12 Trusted ways to get free publicity

By Jim Connolly | April 20, 2023

People will happily share your message for free.

If it’s baked into your product or service. When you see someone using a laptop in public, the logo is visible on the lid.
If they want to get your attention.
If it makes them look clever. This is why social networks are packed with Einstein quotes.
If it makes them look compassionate to their contacts or community.
If by sharing it, they believe they will benefit directly or indirectly.
If they care about you and they believe sharing your message will help you.
If it says something they aren’t brave enough to say for themselves.
If they believe it’s helpful or valuable and that their friends need to know about it. My newsletter is spread by people who find something useful in it, which they want their contacts to benefit from.
If they think it will make them look ahead of the curve or well-informed.
If it’s remarkable. Extremely satisfied customers tell their friends when they receive an amazing service.
If it makes them appear generous to their friends.
If they are part of your community and want others to join them.

Buying or attracting?

As I tell my clients, you can hire salespeople and buy advertising, or you can use a little creativity and build a growing crowd of advocates. That’s a crowd who have the attention and trust of the people they’re sharing your message with.

Trusted friends spreading the word about you, for free, is an exceptionally effective way to grow your business. It’s an incredibly powerful form of viral marketing.

And it’s one of the dozens of ideas I use, to literally transform my clients fortunes.

Sales Targets: You’re doing it all wrong

By Jim Connolly | April 19, 2023

There’s something a lot of business owners get wrong about sales targets. It’s simply this: They usually misunderstand the reason for setting these important targets. And in doing so, they miss all the important stuff. The stuff that helps them achieve spectacular sales results, month after month and year after year.

Here’s why you need to set sales targets, along with 13 examples.

Why sales targets are essential

The reason you need sales targets is to improve the sales effectiveness of your business.

Not to motivate you to work harder.
Not to motivate you to do more of the same, only faster.
Not to treat it like the daily steps target on your smartphone app.

No!

You need to make changes in order to:

Improve your knowledge of the marketing strategies and tactics that work best today.
Improve the quality of prospects you attract.
Improve the story people in your marketplace have, when they talk about your business.
Improve how you measure the sales-effectiveness of your marketing activities.
Improve the commercial value of your contact network.
Improve the experience of doing business with you.
Improve the way your business looks to the outside world. Design, photos, use of social media, etc.
Improve your marketing response rates.
Improve your awareness of the problems your prospects are most concerned about.
Improve the way you handle inbound enquiries from prospects.
Improve how visible you are to your target market.
Improve the number of advocates your business has.
Improve your marketing decision making.

And carry on improving, until you get the maximum return from all your marketing and sales efforts. When you do, you’ll start to benefit from compound marketing. Compound marketing does for your sales results, what compound interest does for your money. It grows at an accelerating rate.

When it happens, your business will experience exponential growth. So set those sales targets, and let them inspire you to make the improvements required. You have everything to gain.

Why lists dominate marketing. And why you should use them

By Jim Connolly | April 17, 2023

content marketing, list posts, listicles

Ever wondered why so many articles, videos and newsletters are based around the idea of a numbered list? It’s because lists are extremely popular. People love them. Today, I’m going to explain why, and how, you should incorporate lists in your content marketing.

Why then are lists so popular?

Lists promise ideas. Lots of ideas. And fast!

Lists promises a number of bite-sized ideas or suggestions. And quickly. So when we see “21 Business habits of highly successful people“, we’re not expecting an in-depth examination of 21 habitual characteristics of people who have achieved business success.

No.

We’re expecting lots of ideas. And we hope that at least one of those ideas will help us in some way. If it does, it will repay the 3 or 4 minutes we invested in reading it. That’s a good return for just a few minutes of our time.

Now, I have a question for you. Does your content marketing mix contain list-based content?

If not, I suggest you give it a try. Lists are perfect for sharing, which makes them ideal if you want to expand your reach on social networks. New readers who discover your work through list content, will then get the chance to see your more detailed work. Others will follow you on the social networks, where they see your lists shared. Many of my most shared blog posts are lists.

Lists can also be very powerful, when it comes to increasing your email marketing open rates. Email marketing that has a list in the subject line, can result in significantly increased open rates.

Here’s why.

Most small business owners are not expert copywriters. As such, the subject lines they use for their email marketing tend to under perform. And poorly written subject lines result in low open rates. This means no matter how good their marketing message is, very few people will see it.

Using an average list title as the subject line of a marketing email, will always, always out perform an average, regular subject line.

Should you focus exclusively on lists?

No.

No you shouldn’t.

Seriously.

Don’t!

Allow me to explain.

True, there are YouTubers making a fortune from creating only list-based videos. And yes, there are sites that attract millions of page views, who rely very heavily on list-based content. The business model behind both of these examples is primarily advertising. If your business sells ads based on open rates, keep churning out the lists.

However, for every other kind of business, relying exclusively on lists is a bad idea. And they should be used sparingly.

For example, I could have written this article as a list.

It would have taken me a lot less time to write.
It would have been shared a lot more on social networks.
And the email version of the post would have been opened by a lot more people.

However, I wanted to dig a little deeper into one subject; the content marketing effectiveness of lists. I didn’t want to weaken that focus with “10 Reasons why lists dominate the internet”.

Going a deeper than a list

Sometimes, you need to offer more substance around one subject. Other times, an issue could be impacting your audience and you need to address it. And there are times when you want to share one really useful idea, which wouldn’t work if you broke it down into a list of sub-ideas.

The surface level approach that makes lists so popular, renders them ineffective for anything that requires depth.

So mix it up. But include lists as part of that mix.

In short, if you haven’t already used list-based articles, videos, podcasts episodes, posts or newsletters, give it a go.

Experiment. Test different types of list. Measure the feedback. Check the numbers, including; sales, client enquiries, open rates, social shares and new subscribers, etc.

And let the numbers be your guide.

My epiphany

There’s only us and us

Invest in your customers

Not more sales leads

Focus on your core problem

Marketing that sticks?

The right time

The perfect time is an expensive illusion

In stark contrast

Your business, opinions, voice and uniqueness

Buying or attracting?

Why sales targets are essential

Lists promise ideas. Lots of ideas. And fast!

Should you focus exclusively on lists?

Going a deeper than a list