Marketing tips, marketing help and advice

Here’s how I helped a coffee shop owner boost sales and profits in just 7 days

May 27, 2021 by Jim Connolly

I had an interesting marketing chat with a business owner yesterday. I think you’ll find the core of our conversation really useful, as it’s all about maximizing average sale value and profits. And fast.

So here it is.

I spoke with a coffee shop owner last Monday, who had recently reopened her shop after lockdown. She explained that due to restrictions on capacity, the business was now only able to serve 45% as many people, as before the pandemic. I asked what her strategy was, to increase the average sale value. She said she’d increased prices slightly, but was more focused on keeping her overhead down than anything else.

Increasing your average sale value

Maintaining a sensible overhead is always smart. But improving your average sale value and profitability is absolutely essential, when customer numbers have plummeted. It’s also an easy, highly profitable win. And increasing prices is just one (high-risk and pretty limited) way to do this. I shared some ideas with her, which could be implemented immediately with no cost.

I then popped in yesterday to see how she was getting on.

She’d already put two of my suggestions into place.

One was to move her impulse purchases to a more central location. Previously, these items were placed close to the counter, so customers saw them as they waited to pay. However, people now have to pay at their table. As a result, far fewer customers were focused for any length of time on her impulse items.
The other was my suggestion to change the language they used, when asking people if they wanted cake (or whatever snack) with their beverage. I said they should ask customers something along the lines of, “would you like to treat yourself to some delicious (whatever)?”. The key words there are “treat yourself“. Right now, with people feeling anxious or worried, treating yourself feels a lot like self care.

Those 2 suggestions increased her average sale value by around 18% – 20%. The shop owner explained it was tricky to be more accurate, as she had to reverse her price increase 3 days into the week. She’s introducing another of my suggestions next week, which should create an even bigger improvement for her. We’ll see how that goes.

Regardless of whether you sell products or services, online or offline, there’s a really good chance you’re missing out on windfall sales / profits, by failing to maximize your average sale value. Without generating any additional clients or customers, gains of between 15% and 50% are extremely common; with far bigger gains in many cases.

Make no mistake, this is an area you should really give some thought to.

Here are tons more proven ideas, yours now for free.

Unlock the secret to breakthrough results

May 25, 2021 by Jim Connolly

Image: Jametlene Reskp

The breakthrough result you’ve been waiting for is closer than you think. Here’s a trusted and proven way to make it happen.

I was prompted to write this, after someone emailed me with a request. His email opened with; “I need a major breakthrough, Jim!”.

In short, he wanted me to personally introduce him to someone who’s very wealthy and a friend of mine. The unknown emailer apparently has a proposal, which he’s sure my friend “will want to be in on”.

Let’s ignore the fact that the person he wants me to introduce him to is not a friend of mine, but an acquaintance instead.
And let’s also ignore why on earth I would personally recommend a total stranger to anyone.

Instead, let’s look at the mindset the emailer is using.

Because although his email was certainly unusual, a lot of business owners adopt a broadly similar approach.

Allow me to explain.

The thing about major breakthroughs

When looking for a major business breakthrough, the temptation can be to focus on a massive home run… a home run, which will save you years of effort and land you in the big time.

“If I could just get 20 minutes with (insert name of famous billionaire), maybe they would back my idea”.

That’s one way to succeed.

However, major business breakthroughs don’t tend to happen like that. There will be exceptions, but they’re called exceptions for a reason. They’re exceptional.

Instead, major breakthroughs are almost always the result of lots of mini breakthroughs. And the process is tried and tested. It follows the same, proven path.

You decide exactly what breakthrough you want to achieve and put a plan together.
You chunk your plan down into a series of steps (mini breakthroughs).
You then apply intelligent activity to each step.
You carry on taking steps forward, until you’ve achieved your major breakthrough.

Recommended reading: How to know if you have a winning idea.

It’s far less glamorous than scoring lunch with Jeff Bezos or Mark Cuban and being handed their full financial backing. But it’s far more likely to actually happen.

10 Important things to ponder as you start your week

May 24, 2021 by Jim Connolly

Image: Candice Picard

A business can only be as successful as the weakest link in its leadership.
All business is personal.
Opportunities come with a use-by date. When opportunity knocks it’s time to get moving.
… and if opportunity isn’t knocking, build a door.
To earn bigger fees, solve bigger problems.
Either you control the notifications on your devices, or your notifications will control you.
You can’t eat low quality food and enjoy high quality energy.
Be useful. Repeat.
Ignore shortcuts to success. Embrace the next good step, instead.
Whenever possible, be kind. And it’s always possible.
Give more than people expect.

Marketing Dollars versus Marketing Creativity

May 21, 2021 by Jim Connolly

Creative marketing ideas

Image: My Life Through A Lens

Ever wondered why I don’t write about how or where to spend your marketing money?

Today, I spill the beans.

Marketing money

There are a lot of ways you can spend money on marketing. Advertising and promotion is available via thousands of digital advertising providers. It’s so easy.

You pay the money.
They say they’ll get your message in front of X number of prospective clients (or customers).
Hopefully, a percentage of these will contact you.
And a percentage of that percentage, will spend money with you.

So far so good, right?

It would be, if your competitors didn’t have the exact same options. But they do. And as you know, competing businesses advertise to the same marketplace.

Your ads will always be competing against their ads. Whoever spends most *should* get most of the attention. This is equally true when you advertise on different platforms, as digital advertising reaches the same target groups regardless of where they are.

Buying attention via ads and promotions is extremely precocious. Your reach will always depend on the marketing dollars your competitors choose to spend. It’s out of your control. It’s also impossible to plan the future growth of your business with confidence. Why? A well-funded competitor can wipe your visibility out before you even know what’s happening.

Thankfully there’s a much better alternative.

Marketing Creativity

I choose to focus 100% on a very different marketing model. It’s a model that is almost impossible for your competitors to copy, as they can’t see what you’re doing, unlike paid ads / promotion. They’ll know you get talked about more often. They’ll sense there’s a real buzz around your products or services, but they won’t know why.

That’s because my marketing model is based around creativity, not money.

It’s about attracting attention, not buying attention. It’s about giving your prospective clients something to talk about. It’s why The Wall Street Journal came to me, for an example of how I achieved massive marketing success for a small business, using creative marketing strategies – – and NOT A PENNY spent on advertising or promotion.

In short, I don’t write about how to buy attention because it’s a risky, lazy and exceptionally limited way to grow a business. And there are hundreds (and counting) of better options, which I love to develop and share with people.

So now you know.

Exposed: The great BIG leadership lie!

May 20, 2021 by Jim Connolly

Image: Markus Spiske

Leaders lead. That’s what they do.

They don’t tell us they are leaders. They don’t self-proclaim to be leaders in their social media profiles or on the about pages of their websites. Instead, they lead.

Leaders are easy to spot

When everyone else is flapping, looking for someone to lead the way, the leader is the one who steps up. The leader commands our respect.

We all know leaders and in every instance, they don’t need to tell us they are leaders. They literally lead by example.

Leaders are courageous. They stand up for what they believe in. They inspire others by what they do. They’re massively valuable and extremely rare.

Fake leaders are even easier to spot

Instead of leading, the fakers tell us they are leaders and hope no one notices. But we do notice. We see them acting like sheep; sharing leadership quotes on social sites, having their photo taken with leaders… yet never actually leading.

For fake leaders it’s about telling, not showing. It’s about talking and bluster, not action. It’s about self-proclaimed titles, not the respect of their marketplace or community. It’s about following the flock, not leading.

Don’t fall for the great leadership lie

The lesson here is simple. Be suspicious of anyone who self-proclaims that they are a leader. Instead, decide for yourself based on what a person does and what they fail to do. Leaders lead. They don’t talk about it. They do it.