Jim's Marketing Blog

Marketing tips and ideas to help you grow your business

How to crack the New Year’s resolution code. My story

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I never succeeded with New Year’s resolutions. Then I figured out why they don’t work. Since then I’ve achieved every major goal I’ve set. Today I’m sharing the simple idea behind my success with you.

So, here’s how I did it. And in doing so, generated hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars in fees, quit cigarettes, quit alcohol, got to my ideal weight (and stayed there), put Type 2 diabetes into full remission… and achieved lots more too.

Why New Year’s resolutions suck

First, here’s why New Year’s resolutions are so notoriously ineffective. We see the same pattern every year.

  • The local gym will be three times as busy, because it’s January.
  • The sale of health food will surge, because it’s January.
  • Business owners worldwide will set new targets, because it’s January.

And by March, almost all of these will revert back to their old ways. That’s because setting a target or goal, simply because it’s January, brings very little motivation. Once January passes the motivation it brings also passes. Gyms are emptier, the sale of healthy food plummets and business owners slide back into their comfort zones.

The best New Year’s resolution you can set for yourself, is to do something you know is good for you or your business. Something BIG and exciting. Then, resolve to stick with it… for 24-hours. And tomorrow, resolve to do the same.

Does it work?

Using this method, I quit smoking (28 years ago) and quit drinking alcohol (33 years ago). I haven’t had 1 cigarette or consumed any alcohol since. No tricks, no pills, no patches. I just stopped.

But only for 24-hours.

Anyone can do it for just 24-hours. The thing is, those 24-hours stack up. They become weeks, months, years and decades.

I’ve also reversed Type 2 diabetes and am in full remission, so zero medication and perfectly normal blood sugar (HBA1C 5.4% or 36 mmol/mol). And I reached my ideal weight years ago (and stayed there). By doing what is required, just for 24-hours and seeing where it takes me tomorrow.

In 2008 I decided to start Jim’s Marketing Blog. The goal was to write something every day. And if it was likely to be useful to business owners, I’d publish it. There are now thousands of useful posts published on the blog, and tens of thousands of notes, unpublished. The blog has readers worldwide, many of whom become clients; generating hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars in fee income and countless opportunities.

And it all stems from setting a BIG and exciting goal and doing what’s required, just for the next 24-hours.

Maybe it’s time to make things easier for you and your business? Set some big and motivating goals. Grab the most important one and be resolute to do what’s required for its attainment, just for 24-hours. Then see where it takes you the next day. Repeat with each important goal.

7 Hard truths about marketing your business

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marketing 2020

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  1. Embrace brevity. Your marketing content is almost certainly 50% to 75% too long. Fix it. Your prospective clients are being bombarded with emails, texts, social media updates, phone calls. Their time (and attention) has never been under so much pressure. This will become an increasingly bigger issue in 2020. So get to the point. And fast.
  2. Be cautious of anyone offering tricks or short cuts to marketing success. Short cuts to success are seldom short cuts and they never lead to success.
  3. Avoid general marketing advice. Why? Because it’s extremely risky. Your marketing problem is specific to you and your unique situation; your industry, budget, location, size of business, competition, mindset, assets, etc. And your specific situation requires a specific strategy.
  4. In business, everything you do is marketing. Yes, everything. From the way you answer the phone, reply to emails and the design of your website… to your ability to meet deadlines, the customer service you offer and your opening hours. It’s all saying something about you. Either positive or negative. Nothing is neutral. It’s making you money or it’s losing you money.
  5. Don’t expect professional marketing results from amateur marketing. Marketing is the life-blood of your business. So stop treating it like some DIY project or you’ll run out of money, time (or both).
  6. If you need to attend networking events, to try and get people talking about your business, you have a major problem. Ask yourself “why”? Why aren’t people automatically talking about your service? Spend more time fixing the problem. Spend zero time pestering strangers at networking events for leads.
  7. You will never be one Facebook Live ‘event’ or online course away from marketing success. Ever.

It’s easy. Really easy

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marketing easy

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It’s easy to have a rigid customer service policy. Easier than taking personal care of your clients and dedicating yourself to service excellence.

It’s easy to settle for less from your business. Easier than doing what’s actually required to build a thriving business.

It’s easy to do what’s expected of you. Easier than exceeding expectations and giving people a positive and memorable experience to share with their friends.

It’s easy to automate your social media accounts. Easier than using them to build connections and interact with people.

It’s easy to lower your fees. Easier than professionally marketing your business, so you attract the right clients.

Yes it’s easy. Really easy.

But I’m pretty sure ‘taking it easy’ and being instantly forgettable was never the goal of your business. Worth remembering, the next time you suspect you are doing what’s easy, rather than doing what’s required.

No, the customer is NOT always right

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marketing, client wrong

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That old saying, that the customer is always right, is bogus. Worse still, if you believe the customer or client is always right, it will damage your business.

That’s because the customer is often wrong.

Allow me to explain!

That saying still persists, because fearful service providers are scared that if they say the customer is wrong, they might take their custom elsewhere. So, generations of business owners have worked under the erroneous belief that they should simply agree with their clients all the time.

That’s a really bad idea 

It fails the client and it fails you. Here are a few examples.

  • Designers end up producing ugly work, because the client made terrible design demands. The client is left with low quality design, which won’t work for them. The designer will never get to work with that client again.
  • Copywriters end up writing junk, because the client demanded uninformed changes. So, instead of a professional piece, the client gets something amateurish that they could have written themselves. The copy fails to work. The client ends up unhappy. The copywriter is never hired again.
  • Coaches and mentors end up delivering a poor quality service, because the allow misguided clients to dictate what happens. The client then ends up hearing what they want to hear, rather than what they need to hear in order to succeed. It fails the client. And the provider is never hired again.

No, I’m not suggesting you argue with your clients. That’s a terrible idea and extremely unprofessional.

I am suggesting you need to guide your clients.

As a professional, it’s your job to help clients make the right decisions, so they get the very best results. That means providing the client with your informed, expert guidance. It means steering them away from mistakes. It means responding with advice and ideas, which lead to a successful project and a delighted client.

In short, your clients deserve your very best work. Agreeing with a client, when you know they are making damaging mistakes, doesn’t help them and it doesn’t help you. So give your clients your very best. That’s what they pay you for. That’s what they deserve.

And you cannot, on any level, afford to give them anything less.

Reduction: How to do less and achieve more

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marketing more less

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One of the best kept secrets in business, is something I call reduction. It’s a strategy I share with my clients and today, I’m going to share some of it with you.

Less can be more

Ineffective business owners strive to do more and more. They focus on productivity hacks, growth hacks, life hacks and short-cuts. As an unavoidable result, they become increasingly busy, increasingly stressed, increasingly frustrated and increasingly disappointed.

Thankfully, there’s a smarter way forward.

The most effective business owners use a very different approach. They’ve discovered that the biggest wins come from doing fewer things. Less is more.

For example:

  • Fewer unfinished projects, equals more clarity.
  • Fewer social media interruptions, equals more focus.
  • Fewer repeated errors, equals more progress.
  • Fewer dodged decisions, equals more respect.
  • Fewer missed deadlines, equals more trust.
  • Fewer hours wasted, equals more productivity.
  • Fewer angry words, equals more happiness.
  • Fewer broken promises, equals more belief.
  • And fewer excuses, equals more achievement.

If you find yourself stressed, working long hours and making too little progress, don’t add even more to your workload. All it will do is create additional stress.

Instead, focus on reduction. Because with the right strategy, less can be more. So much more.

12 Urgent and important things to focus on before the New Year

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marketing targets 2020, 2020 goals

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In no particular order.

  1. Have you considered firing your worst clients? The time wasted on bad clients can then be invested in delighting your best clients even more.
  2. Have you looked at opening your services up to a global audience? If not, now is a good time to consider it. That’s because proximity is no longer geographical for many service providers. For example, my 3 newest clients are based on 3 different continents. This will help.
  3. What are the biggest hurdles to your success right now, and how do you plan to remove them? A business problem can only persist with your consent… passive or active.
  4. What was your biggest setback in 2019 and what can you learn from it? Those who don’t learn from past mistakes tend to repeat them.
  5. How can you reduce or eliminate the feeling of risk that’s associated with hiring you or buying from you?
  6. What’s the biggest opportunity for your prospective clients in 2020 and how will you help them benefit from it?
  7. Is your marketing useful or does it read like a sales pitch? People hate being sold to. This will help.
  8. If 2019 was like a rerun of 2018, how long will you wait in 2020, before you make the improvements required?
  9. Have you considered offering a premium version of your services? There’s an extremely profitable segment of every marketplace, who are eager to pay more for ‘that certain extra’. This will help.
  10. If you stopped trading tomorrow, how tricky would it be for people to find a suitable replacement? Your task is to be as close to irreplaceable as possible.
  11. Does your marketing inspire people to hire you or buy from you? If not, you’re leaving money on the table. That’s unsustainable.
  12. Is your business providing you with the lifestyle you want? If not you will either need to lower your expectations or work on a plan to improve your financial situation. I recommend the latter. Rekindle that motivation you had when you started your business. And stop settling for less.