Marketing tips, marketing help and advice

Discover how the top companies keep getting the best referrals

September 1, 2020 by Jim Connolly

marketing slogan, strapline, tagline — Photo credit: Kentucky Fried Chicken.

In today’s post, I’m going to show you a powerful way to get more, great people talking about the services you provide. But that’s not all. I’m also going to explain how to overcome a major problem: how to get people to say the right things about you.

I’ll even throw in a world-class example of how it works.

Okay let’s go

The starting point, is to decide exactly what you want people to say. Otherwise, you’re relying on them making something up on the spot. And usually, when someone is asked if they can recommend a provider, it will be a generic, weak message.

For example, if you ask someone if they have an accountant they’d recommend, the reply is usually something like; “Sure. We’re happy with the (Whatever) Accountancy Firm”.

That’s nice.

But all it really says, is that this particular person is happy with the service they receive. It’s the bare minimum. It’s vague. It says nothing about the service this accountancy firm provides. And it’s certainly not compelling.

Here’s why this matters to you: It’s entirely possible you’re already being regularly referred or recommended to great prospective clients. But you’re unaware, because, as in the above example, the referral is totally ineffective. And an ineffective referral is close to worthless.

Let’s see how the fastest growing companies overcome this problem.

How to get this right

Okay, let’s look at that accountancy firm again.

Only this time, they were professionally marketed and had already incorporated a short, memorable strapline in their branding. Something like “building stronger businesses”. If used correctly, that 3 word phrase would become an automatic part of their referrals.

So, instead of; “Sure. We’re happy with the (Whatever) Accountancy Firm.”

You get; “Sure. We’re happy with the (Whatever) Accountancy Firm. They specialize in building stronger businesses.”

That second referral is massively more powerful with far greater impact.

Think about it. If someone is looking for a new accountant, they’re clearly not happy with their current one. If we assume their existing accountant isn’t really interested in their business, a trusted referral about an accountant that focuses on building stronger businesses is exactly what they want to hear. Such referrals could be 2X, 5X or maybe 10X more powerful at encouraging people to call the accountant, than a simple “we’re happy with them”.

Here’s the thing: Most businesses make it too hard for their clients, customers or friends to know what to say when referring them. And it loses them a fortune.

Make it easier. Correctly integrate an easy to remember 3 or 4 word strapline into your marketing, so people don’t have to make something up on the spot. When you get it right, that strapline becomes part of the conversations people have about you.

That example took me 30 seconds to come up with. Now let’s look at a proven, world-class example of how this works.

How good is their food?

The marketing team behind Kentucky Fried Chicken wanted to give their diners a simple way to describe how delicious the food was. So, they made it very simple. They placed a short, powerful strapline on all their packaging.

It described their food as, “finger lickin’ good”.

And the rest is history!

Those who ate and enjoyed their chicken, now knew exactly what to tell their friends. Moreover, they were delivering an amazingly powerful, professionally written marketing message. Aware of its impact, KFC announced last month that they would suspend the use of the finger lickin good message, during the remainder of the coronavirus pandemic. See the 30 second KFC video here. Coronavirus can be spread through contact between your hands and mouth, including finger licking.

Regardless of whether you happen to like fried chicken, the mental image created with that message is powerful. The idea of people enjoying their food so much that they licked their fingers, would surely motivate their hungry friends to give KFC a try. Plus, because people who eat at fast-food restaurants know other people who also enjoy fast-food, it was pure, marketing gold.

So, the message spread. Millions or billions of times. Worldwide.

Try this

Take some time to think about want you want people to say about your business or the service you provide. Then, spend as much time as necessary crafting a powerful, extremely short strapline. If you don’t have the time or expertise to get this right, find a professional who will do it for you.

Just don’t keep missing out on great word of mouth referrals or targeted sales leads, because people aren’t recommending you correctly.

Sam urgently wants to spend $90,000. Here’s why this matters to you

August 30, 2020 by Jim Connolly

If you’d like to see a surge in new, high-quality clients, then today’s message is written just for you. It all starts with Sam and her problem.

Sam is a successful business owner. She needs a great new website for her business. She has a significant budget and is very eagerly looking to invest.

However, Sam’s now presented with a huge problem! All the web design providers she’s found have snazzy looking websites, as you’d expect. And on these websites, they make the same lofty claims about their services.

They say they have a great, experienced team.
They say they use the most up-to-date design techniques.
They say they understand the needs of their clients.
They say they will give you a dedicated account manager.
They say they will build you a site that engages your marketplace, drives sales and gets your business noticed.
They then provide predictable case-studies or testimonials.

How the heck is Sam supposed to choose?

In essence, none of these providers have given her any reason, why Sam should hire them, as opposed to their identical looking competitors.

And these same web design companies are wondering why business is so slow. They’re sitting there, right now, blaming coronavirus, the economy, etc. They’re hunkering down and waiting for things to improve.

Why this is your problem too

Whatever industry you are in, right now, there are people in Sam’s position desperately keen to hire you. Money is not an issue. Plus, they are really eager to get moving. They just need to know that hiring you is the right decision.

Now, maybe you already get these high quality, eager-to-proceed enquiries regularly.

But let me tell you, the majority of small business owners don’t.

Most people reading this are suffering from an unpredictable flow of new clients. This makes it impossible to plan ahead with any real confidence. They’re working hard. They’re darn good at what they do, too. Yet to their marketplace, they look way too similar to their competitors.

You’d think the answer was obvious

And it is. They need to look at what their competitors are doing, then build a service that’s meaningfully better and market it correctly.

But that’s not what allows the problem to persist.

What allows the problem to persist, is that too many small business owners think it doesn’t matter.

Among them are the web design companies in Sam’s marketplace. Who are capable of delighting Sam with their service, yet who are missing a (minimum) $90,000 web design project. Of course, they’re missing out on countless other great clients too.

All the time wondering why business is so quiet.

We need to be smarter than that. So, learn how to stand out, then communicate it effectively. Or find someone, who can show you how.

Anything less and you’re leaving a fortune on the table, needlessly.

11 Email marketing mistakes that destroy your open rates

August 27, 2020 by Jim Connolly

One area of marketing I often get asked about, is how to improve email open rates. So, I thought I’d share eleven of the most common reasons for unopened email marketing with you.

In no particular order.

The recipient of your email uses Gmail. Gmail dumps valid emails into the recieptient’s promotions folder. They get no notification when these emails arrive. As such, open rates plummet. I know from personal experience that my Gmail subscribers miss over 90% of my emails, unless they’ve added my blog to their Gmail contacts list. This happens, even though they used gmail to double opt-in to receive my stuff.
The email subject line didn’t motivate the recipient to open it. Getting this right is trickier than it sounds. That’s because many of the words used to inspire people to open an email, are also triggers for spam filters.
You sent the email at the wrong time of day or on the wrong day. This can have a huge impact. Despite what some people say, there’s no universally ideal day or perfect time to optimize email open rates. For example, different timing is required when you target consumers, than when you target businesses. Different times also work better for different industries; hotels work completely different hours than accountants. They also have totally different peak times, when they’re unavailable to check email and are least likely to see your message. One time doesn’t work for all. Test and measure until you find your email open rate sweet-spot.
The recipient’s email address is on a list you bought, so they have no idea who you are. And the people on these lists get bombarded with tons of marketing emails. This means they’re far more likely to have aggressive mail filters.
Your list is out of date, with lots of addresses that no longer exist or are no longer monitored. Non existent email addresses will register as ‘bounces’, and are easily cleaned with email marketing software. Unmonitored addresses will still be able to receive emails, so they don’t bounce. Depending on the software you use, you can either set things up so addresses are deleted after ‘X’ number go unopened, or remove unresponsive addresses manually.
The content of a previous email didn’t engage the reader, so they were less inclined to open subsequent emails. Remember: You never have ‘a list’. You need to earn and re-earn their permission. So stay useful.
You send marketing emails direct from your desktop software, rather than use a trusted email marketing provider (mailchimp, aweber, constant contact, etc). If you send large numbers of the same email from your own IP address, your address can become blacklisted. When that happens, your emails won’t even reach the recipient’s spam folder.
Tip: You can check if your IP address is blocked, using Spamhaus. It’s free to use.
The email content (or body) contained certain words, which trigger email filters, so the email is wrongly identified as spam or junk.
The email contained too many links or images. These are also common spam filter triggers.
You included an email attachment. Attachments are major sources of malware, so are often blocked.
You built your list by offering a freebie in return for their email address. People almost never use their primary email addresses for give-aways.

Email is a spectacularly powerful marketing tool. And sometimes just a few improvements can lead to massively better results.

Bring me your problems

August 25, 2020 by Jim Connolly

There’s real power in the following 4 words: Bring me your problems.

Why?

Because everyone has problems. And nobody wants them. That includes your prospective clients. What they want (and need) are answers. They want to get unstuck. They want to free themselves from frustration. They want reliable service providers, who they can trust. And this is extremely important to them.

In short, your prospective clients are highly motivated to get their problems solved.

Okay. Hold that thought for a moment.

Now let’s look at the service you provide

Your service is the answer to a problem. Or a series of problems. How do I know this? Simple. Every service provider is a problem solver.

So, I’d like you to answer a question: When was the last time you asked people to bring you their problems?

Sure, every service provider markets the services they provide. They have them listed on their websites, they mention them when they speak with prospective clients, they may even mention them in a newsletter, blog, vlog, podcast or on social networks, etc.

But that wasn’t what I was asking.

My question was a lot more literal than that.

In very literal terms, when was the last time you used these four words [bring me your problems] in your marketing?

Bring me your problems is a powerful, direct request. It bypasses all the fluff. It cuts right to the chase. It strikes at the core of what your prospective clients want and need. And this is especially the case when those 4 words feature prominently, in the right place.

Here’s how it works

It looks a lot like this.

Your prospective client has a problem.
She finds your website (or any of your marketing assets).
She can see that the services you provide are related to her problem.
She then sees a direct request, asking her to bring you her problems.
Boom! Your message has engaged with her needs like a laser.
You’re now massively more likely to have motivated her to contact you and hire you.

Easy?

Absolutely.

But no one said that powerful marketing had to be complicated.

An important reminder

August 22, 2020 by Jim Connolly

If you have any concerns about the growth of your business in the coming months, I have an important reminder for you.

It’s simply this

There is a major benefit of owning a small or medium sized business when the economy is down. I’m referring to speed.

You can get an idea in the morning and sketch it out in the afternoon. If everything stacks up, you can put it into play within days. Often sooner.

Why am I reminding you about this?

When the economy is tough, that kind of agility is like a superpower for small business owners. If things are not going the way you want them to, you can switch direction. And you can do it fast, before any real damage is done.

In short, you can very quickly improve your fortunes.

A lot of business owners are concerned about the coming months. That’s okay, because a degree of concern is actually useful. It can act as a powerful motivator to get things done. However, once the motivation hits you, stop worrying and tap into your super power.

Remember: You’re never more than one idea away from the breakthrough you need. Better still, as a small business owner, you can act on that idea fast and turn things around.

P.S. If you’re looking for fresh ideas or things you can quickly improve, here’s a large (4000 word) marketing tips guide, with lots of examples.

How to make the right decisions, just like the world’s top entrepreneurs

August 21, 2020 by Jim Connolly

The best decisions you ever made all had one thing in common.

Can you guess what it was?

They were BIG decisions! All of them.

Think about it… the decision to start a family, to buy a home, to spend a year travelling the world, these decisions are huge. Life-changing, even. And they’re risky, because they come with no guarantee of success.

Business success and decision making

The same is true in business. Major success only comes, after you’ve made breakthrough decisions. And breakthrough decisions are big. Big enough to break through the challenges that are holding your business back.

Here’s the thing: Every big business decision will always carry an equally big risk.

That’s because it’s the size of the risk that determines the size of the decision. This explains why making small decisions is so easy. They carry little or no risk, so they feel safe.

In working with business owners, I find that ongoing business problems can always be traced back to a big decision, which is being avoided.

It looks something like this.

They know there’s a persistent or recurring problem in their business.
They also know something needs to be done about it.
The decision to do what’s required (usually to make an investment or make a significant change) feels too risky.
So they decide not to do what’s required.
Instead, they do something that seems easier (less risky).
The problem persists.
The business continues to struggle.

The entrepreneurial mindset

One hundred percent of the most successful businesses, in every niche, are directed by people with an entrepreneurial mindset. That’s because entrepreneurs evaluate risk in a massively more effective way.

Entrepreneurs know that letting a problem persist is always riskier, than making the necessary decision. They know that ignoring the smoke bellowing from the rear of their car doesn’t make the problem go away. And a business problem that gets ignored, is a business problem that gets worse.

Interestingly, the entrepreneur is still avoiding risk. All that changes, is what they attach risk to. They define risk correctly, make far better decisions and achieve far better results.

In short, if you want the right results for your business, you need to make the right decisions for your business. And if your business growth has levelled off, there’s almost certainly an important decision somewhere, which you really need to make.