Jim's Marketing Blog

Marketing tips and ideas to help you grow your business

Join a cluster. Own a corner

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marketing, corner of market, cluster

Have you ever noticed how the major fast food restaurants seem to cluster in certain parts of your town or city? It happens for the same reason that theatres cluster on Broadway, New York, and the same reason that trading and financial services cluster in London’s Square Mile.

It’s not because they’re lonely.

It’s because they’re following a proven business strategy. A strategy that can work for your business, too.

Clusters create crowds

Once a location becomes well-known for a certain product or service, prospective customers looking for that ‘thing’ will head there.

This means a business moving into that location will open their doors on day one, knowing there will be crowds. Crowds they can potentially attract a subset of and convert into customers.

If that business is savvy, they will provide a uniquely valuable version of what the others offer. Something a section of the crowds desire, but can only get from them. This provides them with their very own corner of the market. It’s a strategy that works extremely well.

Before you assume this strategy is of little or no relevance to your business, think again.

Adapt. Then deploy

Look at the components behind that extremely successful strategy. When you do, you’ll discover something interesting and more importantly, potentially very useful to you and your business.

You’ll discover that you can adapt and deploy part of what makes that strategy work, into the online marketing of your own business.

How?

Be where your competitors are online. For example, be part of social media conversations around your industry. Join forums that are dedicated to your industry. Join Facebook Groups or LinkedIn Groups. You get the idea.

Offer something different from your competitors, which is uniquely valuable. So, when prospects find you, they can see you’re unlike the others.

Every single one of the prospects, who wants the unique value that only your service provides, can only get it from you. Do this correctly and you will have created your very own corner of the market.

Not sure where how to stand out in a meaningful way that works? Don’t worry. This will help you. And so will this.

Marketing 101: Use shorter sentences. Here’s why

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Jim Connolly marketing, write short

Here’s a quick copywriting tip, to help you improve your marketing results.

Your prospective clients prefer to read short sentences. This is especially true when explaining detailed information. For example, how your service works.

I’m not suggesting you use fewer words than required. Far from it! Use as many words per sentence as you need. Don’t remove a necessary word. Just don’t use more words than you need.

Why is that, Jim?

Over-long sentences lack impact and clarity. Those are essential elements of effective marketing. Most amateur writers tend to write over-long. Learning how to write shorter helps you avoid that mistake.

Tip: One way to shorten sentences without losing anything important, is to remove extraneous words. Look at the 2 examples below.

  • People should exercise on a regular basis.
  • People should exercise regularly.
  • We have no news at this point in time.
  • We currently have no news.

A whole story in 6 words

It’s amazing what can be achieved using fewer words. Ernest Hemingway once wrote a story in just 6 words. It’s a powerful story, too.

“For sale. Baby shoes. Never worn”.

Inspired by Hemingway’s brevity, look for opportunities to keep your sentences as short as required. Aim for clarity. Remove the fluff. And keep sentences confined to one thought.

It’s not as simple as it sounds. But if done correctly, your results will reflect the additional effort.

This word can ruin your results. Here are 12 better alternatives

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Marketing, words, content writing

Photo | Buro Millennial

When it comes to creating successful marketing, the word ‘new’ is overrated. Moreover, it can seriously damage the effectiveness of your marketing, losing you sales or client enquiries in the process.

There are 2 main reasons why this happens.

  1. A new product or service is thought of as risky. Untested. Less robust. At best, it’s a bigger gamble than the existing solution. At worst, the customer feels like a paying guinea pig. Ouch!
  2. A new product or service is seldom, if ever, the best. It lacks the improvements that come from years of customer feedback.

Yes, when you have an announcement to make, like moving to new premises, people expect to see ‘new’ and they understand the context.

The challenge comes when a key part of your marketing message is that you offer a new way to do something. Even some big brands struggle to sell new to people, despite multi-million dollar marketing campaigns. Who remembers ‘New Coke”?

Thankfully you can totally avoid this problem.

Here are some far better alternatives

Instead of relying on new, offer your marketplace something more compelling. More secure. More attractive. More motivating. And a great deal more appealing.

For example, rather than offering your prospects a new way to (whatever), look at the core benefit of your product or service. Then market that benefit to them instead.

Here are 12 alternatives that I have used very successfully over the years. All of which offer the prospect a more attractive benefit.

  1. A faster way.
  2. An enjoyable way.
  3. A secure way.
  4. A greener way.
  5. A stylish way.
  6. A stress-free way.
  7. An original way.
  8. A premium quality way.
  9. A proven way.
  10. An ethical way.
  11. A guaranteed way.
  12. A cost effective way.

The key is to intentionally use words that paint better mental pictures. Pictures that build trust and inspire people to take action. I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve seen this simple adjustment lead to radically better marketing results.

What next? Do a review of your current marketing and look for opportunities to replace the word new, with a better alternative.

How to have great business ideas

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How business ideas, How to have great business ideas, have business ideas

Photo | Steve Johnson Pexels.com

Today, I’m going to show you how to have great business ideas and how to put them to work for your business. This includes a step-by-step guide that you can easily follow.

Think about it: Behind every successful business are a series of ideas. Great business ideas, which open up new opportunities or set the business on a more fruitful path.

The challenge with great ideas is that they often look like average ideas, until after they become hugely successful. As a result, most great ideas never see the light of they.

In fact, I bet you have a few tucked away right now, without even knowing it.

Here’s an example of what I mean.

How a great business idea was mocked

In 1985, The New York Times announced the death of laptop computers, in an articled entitled; “Whatever happened to the laptop computer?” They wondered why laptops never became popular (seriously). Here’s how one of the greatest business ideas in history, was openly mocked:

“[…] I.B.M. never legitimized the market with its much rumored ”Clamshell,” probably because the company realized that laptops are a small niche market, not a mass market.”

Erik Sandberg-Diment. New York Times 1985.

And when the electric light bulb was invented, most people said it would never become a mass market product. It was thought that there was no affordable way to get electricity to enough homes.

How to have great business ideas that win!

Business owners sometimes ask me what I think of an idea they have. The challenge here, is that it doesn’t matter what I think or what their friends think. Great business ideas are not anointed. If you want to know how good your idea is, you need to get it out there.

If you do, you will find it’s almost impossible to fail.

Really?

Yes, really!

It’s a win win thing.

  • If it is a great business idea and it flies, you’ll have a success on your hands.
  • If it flops, you’ll learn something. Something that you can invest in the next idea and greatly increase your chances of success.

Ironically, the only way to guarantee a business idea will fail, is to try and protect it from failure by locking it away.

It’s a lose lose thing.

  • The idea you fail to ship can’t succeed.
  • The idea you fail to ship can’t teach you anything new.

This not only insulates you from success, it also insulates you from learning and growing. This used to be a major problem for me when I started out in business. I was in my late 20’s and lacking in confidence. I’d sometimes have a great business idea, but I wouldn’t put the idea into action.

I knew I needed to do it. I also knew it couldn’t work if I didn’t ship the idea. But for me, putting an idea into action, even one I thought was great, felt way too risky.

Thankfully, I discovered a way forward, which I’m now going to share with you, step-by-step.

Here’s the business idea strategy, which worked for me

I’ve shared this strategy with countless people over the years and the results have been amazing. It’s actually really simple.

My breakthrough came when I figured out that the part of my mind responsible for putting ideas into action, was weak. It needed strengthening. I thought one way to do this, would be to treat it like a weak muscle. To make a weak muscle strong, you start off by working with very light weights. As the muscle grows, you slowly increase the weight you’re working with. Eventually, the muscle becomes strong.

Here’s how it worked

I started by acting on what I considered to be small ideas. Ideas that were unlikely to set the world on fire if they worked, but where there was relatively little downside if they failed.

  • I’d get a business idea.
  • Every time I put one of these ideas into play, I’d write it down in a journal, along with the results.
  • With each new business idea in my journal, my idea muscles grew a little.
  • I also noticed that even with these small ideas, my business was starting to see some very encouraging results. This further built my idea muscles!
  • Pretty soon I found it easy to get great business ideas, big, meaningful ones, and ship them.
  • Every day since I’ve eagerly looked for ways to get great business ideas to help me make opportunities or solve problems.
  • And if they’re interesting, I always put them into play.

As the frequency and size of the ideas you act on increases, so does your ability to get great ideas. This is reflected in the development of your business.

And something else happens. Business in general becomes a lot more interesting. That’s because working on new business ideas, even small ones, is extremely invigorating. It causes you to think differently, meet new people and explore new opportunities.

Just remember to start with small ideas. Slowly build it up. And be sure to chronicle your results, so you can see the progress you’re making and also learn from the feedback.

In short: How do you get great business ideas? You put the small business ideas you already have into play. Each time you do, your ability to have great ideas and ship them increases.

Opportunity is banging loudly on your door. Let it in!

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woman in black long sleeve shirt sitting on chair

Photo | Andrea Piacquadio.

The pace of change is accelerating faster than ever. This is creating a multitude of exciting opportunities for business owners. Including you.

Here are just a few of the opportunities you might want to explore.

New needs and wants are emerging. This means you now have masses of new prospective clients (or customers) you can serve. It also means you have the opportunity to offer more services or products to your existing clients.

New ways to access knowledge are at your fingertips… for free. With AI, you can get a detailed summary of every best-selling business book ever published. You can then question the summary, so it explains whatever parts of the book you’re most interested in learning from. As I write this in July 2024, that service is freely available from services like Google Gemini, Perplexity AI, ChatGPT and many others.

New and improved ways to work smarter are available to you. You can decrease stress whilst simultaneously increasing your productivity. That’s a huge win win.

New ways to sell your services are available to you, thanks to the newly-competitive payment provider sector. This makes it easier for clients to hire you or buy from you. Plus, it’s more profitable for your business, too.

New partnership possibilities are springing up. All this change brings almost unlimited potential for you to radically expand and improve your partnerships. Joint Venture opportunities are everywhere, just waiting for you.

It’s utterly exhilarating

I work with small business owners daily. Based on the results I’m seeing month after month, I firmly believe this is a golden age of opportunity for small business owners. I’ve never seen anything even vaguely like it, in almost 30-years of serving small business owners. It’s utterly exhilarating. Don’t let yourself miss out.

You’re better. They’re more successful. Why?

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marketing balance, marketing tips, marketing ideas

Photo | Andrew Draper

Today, I’d like to help you avoid maybe the most frustrating thing in business. I’m referring to watching your less capable competitors gaining more of the market, and making more money, than you do.

It all starts with understanding the following.

The most successful provider and the best provider, are seldom the same provider. In fact, it rarely happens.

That’s because being the best doesn’t automatically mean people will notice you, believe you, buy from you or hire you.

Why is that?

Commercial success requires a critically important balance.

You need to balance the development of a great service, with the development of a strategy to earn the attention, trust and business/patronage of your marketplace.

Here’s why that balance is essential.

  • If your prospective clients don’t know you exist, it doesn’t matter how exceptional your service or product is, because you’re not an option for them.
  • If your prospective clients DO know you exist, but your marketing doesn’t inspire them to trust you, they won’t hire you or buy from you.
  • And if your prospective clients know you exist, and they trust you–but your marketing doesn’t motivate them to take action, they won’t hire you or buy from you.

Without that balance in place: Trying to grow a business is extremely frustrating, as less capable competitors grab your share of the marketplace. You will already know competitors in your space, who are nowhere near as good as you, yet they’re flying.

With that balance in place: You get all the rewards your hard work and dedication merits.

Thankfully, this is directly under our control as business owners. And it’s easy. All it takes is a decision. The decision to adjust the balance, so our business attracts the volume and quality of clients we deserve.

But here’s the challenge

It’s even easier to ‘keep on keeping on’ and hope things just get better. Which is why this message is ignored by most people I share it with. It’s why there are business owners still whining about how unlucky they are 5 or even 10-years after they started their business.

It’s not luck.

It’s a decision. THIS decision.

And as business owners, it should be the easiest, most obvious business decision we ever make.

Assess. Improve. Execute

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marketing tips, curiosity, sales leads, sales

Photo Finn Hackshaw

Today, I’m going to share a marketing idea with you that helped me increase a client’s sales results by just over 180% in 5 months.

It can be summed up in 3 words: Assess. Improve. Execute.

Here’s how it works.

Assess

The first step to boosting your sales results is to assess your current situation. I spent some time digging into my client’s sales and marketing process and identified her company’s primary problem. It turned out they offered a superb service and when prospects learned about it, they absolutely loved it. The problem was that they were getting too few chances to demo their service. This means I needed to radically increase the number of high-quality client leads they attracted.

Once we identified the root of her problem, it was time to improve things and free my client to dramatically increase her company’s sales results.

Improve

There were a number of areas in my client’s marketing that were under-performing. This is why she wasn’t generating the volume of high-quality enquiries she needed. She knew her marketing wasn’t working the way she needed it to. But like many business owners, my client assumed the enquiries they attracted were about average in number and quality. She was wrong on both fronts. A common mistake, which had been needlessly losing the company a fortune.

By making a small number of essential improvements at the very beginning, we were able to considerably increase her results. And fast. Really fast.

I remember the easiest adjustment I made, was to improve the focus of their sales message. It had previously focused on what their business did, how great their service was and how amazing their team was. It’s a common mistake.

If your marketing has a similar focus, it’s a bad, bad idea!

And here’s why.

No one buys a service or a product. They buy the result. For example, you don’t buy exercise equipment. You buy looking good and feeling great. So, sell the result of investing in your service.

Anyhow, we then dug a little deeper and uncovered a series of similarly untapped, windfall opportunities.

One of them was for me to transform their website into a lead generating machine, by improving their marketing copy. I needed it to make prospects on their site feel massively more curious.

Curious? Why curious, Jim?

Think about it. Every client or customer enquiry you have ever had, or will ever receive, only happened because that person needed to know something. So, if you want your marketing to attract massively more leads, it needs to create more curiosity… and answer fewer questions.

Previously, their website tried to answer as many questions as possible. I rewrote their marketing and made sure it provided just enough information.

Just enough information to inform the prospect and ignite their curiosity.

Just enough information to compel, to motivate and to inspire eager prospects to contact them with a high-quality enquiry.

We wrapped these ideas into a plan, along with half a dozen other tactical improvements. Now we were good to go!

Execute

Oh man! Without doubt, this is the stage that excites me most. This is why I do what I do.

It’s where we execute on the newly-improved marketing and measure the feedback. There’s something wonderful about the energy I get from clients, as they see their business performing the way they always wanted it too. And often far, far better.

Assess. Improve. Execute. Focus like a laser on those 3 steps and watch your business grow.

From? To?

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marketing tip, business journey

Photo: Nick Fewings

Today, I’d like to share a very powerful marketing strategy with you, which few, if any, of your competitors are aware of.

Every business provides a product or a service, which solves a problem for the customer. In order to solve their problem, it needs to create a change. To move the customer from something to something.

For example.

  • From worried to confident.
  • From vulnerable to safe.
  • From broke to wealthy.
  • From discomfort to comfort.
  • From bored to entertained.
  • From struggling to succeeding.
  • From confused to clear.
  • From sad to joyful.
  • From scruffy to glam.
  • From lonely to connected.
  • From loss to gain.
  • From ignorant to informed.
  • From stressed to relaxed.
  • From pessimistic to hopeful.
  • From lost to guided.

Now, here’s the part very few business owners get right.

You need to figure out the change your prospective customers are looking for. Their ‘from what’ and their ‘to what’.

Warning

The biggest danger here is believing the answer is obvious. It almost never is.

Seriously.

For instance, no successful coffee shop focuses on changing you from thirsty to quenched. None of them.

They change you by creating an attractive atmosphere. An atmosphere, where you can go from stressed to relaxed, or from tired to restored, or from lonely to connected, from stuck to creative or from bored to entertained.

The world’s top coffee shops know this. It’s what their marketing focuses on. It’s why we see very little emphasis placed on the coffee beans used, yet huge emphasis placed on the welcoming, positive atmosphere.

Here’s another example.

The world’s most expensive restaurants don’t focus on taking you from feeling hungry to feeling full. You can go down the street and get the same number of calories from a burger joint for pennies. Instead, these restaurants focus on their exclusivity. They take you from feeling normal to feeling like a star.

You get the idea.

Your product or service

Determine what change or changes your prospect is truly looking for.

Focus on the ‘from what’ part. Your marketing message needs to meet them right there. It needs to talk to their current situation. It needs to address the discomfort they’re feeling. This means your message will be on the very same wavelength that they’re on. This dramatically and profoundly increases the sales impact of your marketing

Then focus on the ‘to what’ part. Your marketing needs to illustrate how your product or service transitions them to their end point. To the very thing they desire.

This marketing strategy is designed to directly address the wants or needs of your prospects and position you as the answer. Almost no small business marketing does this and amazingly few medium-sized businesses.

How to create a new, high profit service

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Here’s a tried and tested way to create a new and highly profitable service that will be irresistible to your marketplace.

It’s based on an easy to follow, 3 step formula.

new profitable service

1. Identify their major problem

Identify the biggest challenge facing your clients and prospective clients. If you think you’ve identified it, BUT it isn’t a big enough problem to keep them awake at night, you haven’t found it yet.

So keep looking!

That may sound dramatic, however, there’s a direct link between the size of the problem you solve and the success of your new, high profit service.

2. Create the solution

Create a solution that will overcome the challenge.

Yes, you’ll need to get creative here. If the solution was patently obvious, it wouldn’t have an entire marketplace suffering with it.

Thankfully, big problems don’t always require a big or complex answer. However, the solution to such pressing problems can require some extra creativity.

With that in mind, here are a couple of tips to help you find the answer you need.

  • Look outside your industry for the solution. Problems in one industry (or region / country) have already been solved in others. The most famous example of importing a solution from a totally different industry, is from The Ford Motor Company. They developed the automotive production line, based on how Chicago’s meat-packing plants worked.
  • Ask others for their ideas. By encouraging people you trust to provide their input, you multiply your chances of cracking the problem. It’s possible one of them will figure it out. It’s also possible that one of them could propose a solution that doesn’t work… but which sets you on a new direction that leads to the answer.

And finally.

3. Market your highly profitable new service

Create a marketing strategy that will inform and convince your marketplace, that you have the answer they need.

When marketing your solution to existing clients, you should find a massive level of interest.

Once you’ve provided an extremely valuable service to enough existing clients, the word usually spreads and spreads.

This then leads to a consistent flow of high quality client enquiries. Initially from your local area, then spreading into new locations; opening up an ever-expanding market.

Obviously, if you don’t have any existing and / or former clients, you have a trickier task at hand. Existing clients already know you and trust you. It’s very easy to share an idea with them.

When you’re contacting strangers it’s a very different proposition. There’s no one-size-fits-all marketing approach. The way forward for you will depend on multiple factors. Note: If you’re in this position and want some alternative strategies and ideas, I strongly recommend you read this: 10 Reasons your business isn’t growing and how to fix it.

The most valued service providers are those who solve the biggest, most serious problems, and then market their solution effectively. By using that 3 step formula correctly, you can become amazingly valuable to the market you serve.

People will tell their friends about you.

Your reputation will sky-rocket.

And you’ll attract the very best clients, whilst enjoying the rewards that come from your new, highly profitable service.

The content marketing your prospects want from you

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Marketing, list writing

I regularly write about the importance of creating marketing that’s useful to your prospects. So, here are some specific examples, which you can adapt and apply to your own marketing.

Let’s go.

Their needs and your products or services

Start off by thinking about the services you provide or your product range. Then, consider the following topics or ideas and how you can incorporate them into your content marketing messages.

People have an inbuilt need to feel connected: Share ideas to help your prospects connect with useful contacts. The Wall Street Journal wrote about how I achieved this for one of my clients – 4 Marketing Strategies That Paid Off For Small Companies.

People also have an inbuilt need to belong: Share the opportunity to become part of your community. Lots of content marketing fails to address this. Newsletter creators talk about their ‘list’. Podcasters and Youtubers talk about their ‘subscribers’. These are all self-focused. Instead, do as I have done and build a community.

For example, when one of my community hits reply to my newsletter, they can email me direct. And they always, always get an answer from me. No AI. No automation. Just me. I make it very clear that I’m part of the same community as you… the small business owner community. Your prospects value that kind of connection. They’re less attracted to being part of an impersonal list.

Everyone is trying to succeed at something: Share ideas to help your prospects achieve their targets, goals or dreams. Obviously, as with pretty-much every topic here, if you offer a specific product or service that can help them in this area, incorporate that into the content.

We all need to feel safe and secure: Share ideas to help your prospects reduce risk or feel safer.

Everyone wants to avoid wasting time: Share ideas to help your prospects maximize their time, or help them complete certain tasks faster, etc. I’m not a time management expert, but I’ve shared tons of ideas in this area, based on decades of running a successful business, without working crazy hours. The response is always excellent. So don’t be put off sharing from your experience.

People want to improve and expand their knowledge: Share your industry knowledge, sure. But also share your experience with them. For example, if you’re an accountant, don’t just focus on tax, profit and loss or the latest business news. They can get that anywhere. Tell them the common factors you’ve identified in successful businesses. And the ones you’ve identified in those that flounder or fail.

Your specific experience is extremely valuable. It sets you apart from all your competitors. And in doing so, you make it far easier for prospects to feel a sense of connection with you.

We also want to avoid unnecessary stress: Share ideas to help your prospects feel more relaxed and assured. If there’s a specific product or service you offer, which can assist them with this, incorporate that into the message or idea.

Aim for unmissable

Are any of those topics missing from your content marketing? If they are, look for ways to incorporate them. Because this kind of useful, relevant information is the cornerstone of successful marketing. You’ll know you have the balance right, when your content marketing is so useful that people would miss it if you stopped.