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What the past 7 days can tell you about your future success

January 29, 2021 by Jim Connolly

marketing 2021

Today, I’d like to share a profoundly important marketing and business development idea with you, which is often ignored.

What makes it “profoundly important”? It’s literally (not figuratively) essential if you want to build a successful business and a very bright financial future!

I need to start by asking you something: How many of the marketing tasks you worked on last week, were due last week? Your answer to that question is important. It’s a great snapshot of how long term (or short term) your current horizon is.

The next 6 months, 12 months and 36+ months

It’s natural to focus on making your next sale or getting your next customer enquiry. It’s really important, too. However, it’s profoundly important to come up for air and look to your future. To work on the foundations of your marketing and business development, which will determine your success over the next 6 months, 12 months and 36+ months.

This might include answering key questions like.

  • How can you meaningfully increase the number of sales you make, in the next 6 months, 12 months and 36 months or more?
  • And how can you increase the profitability of those sales?
  • What could you be doing in order to significantly improve your customer retention rate and the number of customer referrals you receive?
  • What valuable, new product or service could you be working on, for your current and future customers?
  • Who are the useful people you need to introduce yourself to now, so you’ll have an existing relationship with them in your medium and longer term? There is a direct link between how well connected you are, and how successful your business will be. There’s more information on this here, (in the 3rd marketing tip).

Today’s important tasks absolutely need to be worked on. But the only way to build a spectacularly bright future, is to work today with your future in mind. To regularly invest your time, thinking, planning and imagination on where you want to be. And to resist the temptation of being so wrapped up in today’s business challenges, that you have too few foundations in place, for the future success and rewards you deserve.

Filed Under: Business Development, General marketing

Unbelievable results in unbelievable time with unbelievably little effort

January 28, 2021 by Jim Connolly

marketing snake oil

They’re everywhere: experts, claiming to be able to deliver unbelievable results in unbelievable time with unbelievably little effort.

Don’t believe them!

Growth hacking, business hacking, success systems, tricks and shortcuts are everywhere. Not because they WORK, but because they SELL.

A huge subset of the population wants to believe that they can get rich (thin, healthy) quick. They want to reap the harvest, without planting the seeds and tending the soil. They want the rewards, without the effort. They’re looking for magic – something that breaks the laws of cause and effect.

This is why today, we see the marketplace flooded with online gurus selling the 21st century equivalent of snake oil. It’s well-crafted bullshit. Bullshit designed to press all the right buttons, on those who are looking for unbelievable results. And the hungry marketplace laps it up.

The fastest route to success

The fastest way to get from where you are, to where you want to be, is to take the most direct route. To find out what works and do it. It’s about doing the right things, correctly.

Shortcuts to success are nothing more than costly detours. Be extremely cautious of anyone trying to tell you otherwise.

Filed Under: Business Development, General marketing, Professional development

It’s okay: Even Superman struggled with kryptonite

January 26, 2021 by Jim Connolly

marketing superman

Image: Esteban Lopez – Unsplash

Every business owner has weaknesses.

Every single one of us. Including you and me.

But that’s okay.

After all, even Superman has kryptonite to contend with. He knows that this mysterious substance weakens or eliminates his super powers. So he does everything he can to avoid the problems kryptonite causes, and comes out winning.

Business owners. Not so much!

Unlike Superman, business owners are usually aware of our weaker areas, but unaware of the often serious damage caused by them.

Here are a few common examples of how this looks and why it manages to persist.

  • The business owner who starts too many sales presentations with an excuse for being a few minutes late, may think it doesn’t matter. They’re unaware that every prospective client who values punctuality will feel very differently about it. The business owner will wonder why they never won the contract… and write the prospect off as a time waster. So the problem persists.
  • The business owner who avoids making big decisions until the last moment, may think it doesn’t matter. They’re unaware that leaving things until the last minute means they have fewer options open. They lose valuable time, end up with vastly limited choices, are forced into making a worse decision, and blame it on bad luck. So the problem persists.
  • The business owner who does pretty-much what they’re paid for and very little more, may think it doesn’t matter. Their customers end up with the minimum required, not outstanding value, and seldom recommend them. The business owner then assumes that their customers just aren’t the kind of people who give referrals. So the problem persists.
  • The business owner who thinks it’s okay to develop their business as if it was a Do It Yourself hobby, may think it doesn’t matter. They’re unaware that their DIY approach to systems, marketing, legals, planning, financials and strategy, etc., is making it impossible for them to succeed. The business owner assures themselves they’re saving money, when they’re missing out on a fortune. So the problem persists.

Jim Rohn used to tell us that the reason failure is so common, is that it’s incredibly subtle. The vast majority of businesses tend not to fail overnight, the result of a single, cataclysmic event. It’s the smaller errors in judgement we regularly make, which rob us of the success we want.

That’s why it’s so important to pay attention to what we do and how we do it. Even those things that may not seem obviously important.

No. I take that back.

Especially those things that may not seem obviously important.

Filed Under: Business Development, General marketing, Professional development

Target the unhappy, not the uninterested

January 21, 2021 by Jim Connolly

marketing get specific

I want to share one of the foundations of effective marketing with you today. It’s something that can help you dramatically (and quickly) increase your sales or client acquisition figures. It can also help you save time, money and focus your marketing far more effectively. 

Are you ready?

It starts with understanding the following.

People who are happy with the products or service they get from one of your competitors, are not looking for whatever your business is offering.

Satisfied people are exactly that. They’re satisfied. They value their current provider. And like you, they ignore marketing messages when they’re not interested in a new (whatever).

This remains true even when:

  • You’re providing amazing value.
  • You are less expensive.
  • You are faster or more reliable.

Despite this, most marketing from small and medium-sized businesses tries to be relevant to as wide an audience of prospects as possible.

Yes, it’s certainly true that you can change someone’s world-view or mindset. But it takes time. Lots and lots of time. It also takes a great amount of effort. Even then, the conversion rate is low.

That’s why I recommend you adopt a more effective approach.

Focus on the unhappy. Avoid the uninterested

Yes, it’s important to build an awareness of how great your product or service is. You need people to know where to go, when they’re looking for whatever you provide.

But what if you need to quickly increase your sales figures or attract new clients? Then my friend, it’s time to adjust the focus of your marketing. If you want to have the full attention of the most motivated buyers, (people ready to make a purchasing decision right now), focus on the unhappy, not the uninterested.

The ‘unhappy’ are actively looking for what you offer.

  • They’re eager and ready to proceed.
  • They already have a budget allocated.
  • They’re highly motivated to take action right now, and buy from you or hire you.

To profoundly increase your sales numbers or client acquisition rate, your marketing needs to talk directly and exclusively to these red hot prospects. And as a bonus, you’ll also attract very few, if any, time-wasters. 

That’s the kind of double win that many business owners really need right now.

Filed Under: Business Development, General marketing, Professional development

A bias for engagement!

January 20, 2021 by Jim Connolly

marketing close

It’s hard to overstate the importance of engagement.

Engagement has tremendous power. It’s the sensation we experience, when someone or something connects with us and captivates us. It creates a bond between us and them. It fosters trust and forms an extremely resilient foundation on which to build a relationship.

And it’s of immense value in business.

Why am I sharing this with you?

Look around you and see just how hard the typical business owner strives to destroy engagement at every opportunity.

  • They send us impersonal auto reply emails; rather than reply in person when they’re available.
  • When we call them, we get a call tree (those automated messages with multiple options).
  • Their social media accounts primarily broadcast famous quotes and sales pitches, but very little inter-personal communication.
  • And of course, the only time we hear from most prospective vendors is when they’re trying to sell us something… rather than staying in touch with us with useful information, so we know where to go when we actually need them.

The list of engagement-destroying tactics is almost endless.

Choosing our bias

It seems we have a choice to make as business owners.

  • We can either develop a bias for engagement.
  • Or we can develop a bias for the impersonal approach.

We can choose to go narrow and deep or wide and shallow. To build meaningful connections with engaged prospective clients or push surface level, automated interactions to strangers.

True, the impersonal approach is cheap and quick. That’s why it’s so popular. But that cheapness needs to be looked at in context.

If we think it’s expensive to take time and engage with our clients and prospective clients, we often haven’t fully considered the cost of being disengaged.

After all, if we choose to disengage from our marketplace, the very lifeblood of our business, we set an extremely low ceiling on our potential.

Filed Under: Business Development, Professional development

What exactly are you waiting for?

January 18, 2021 by Jim Connolly

2021 marketing tips

It’s midway through January, in one of the most challenging years ever for business owners.

The opportunities ahead of you are huge. However, you need to get your plans into action in order to navigate the coming months and come out on top.

These evergreen essentials for business success will help.

  • Don’t wait for permission. You don’t need it.
  • Don’t wait for the perfect time. The time is never perfect.
  • Don’t wait for inspiration to appear. Command it to appear.
  • Don’t wait for the right opening. Create it.
  • Don’t wait for someone to pick you. Pick yourself.
  • Don’t wait for the initiative. Take it.

In short: If opportunity doesn’t knock… quit waiting and build a door.

Filed Under: Business Development, General marketing, Professional development

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marketing advice, marketing help Hi! I'm Jim Connolly and I help business owners to make more sales, boost their profits and build amazing businesses. You can find out more here.

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