Jim's Marketing Blog

Marketing tips and ideas to help you grow your business

A lazy attitude limits your altitude

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industrious attitude, lazy attitude

Back when I was at school, I remember one of my teachers grading my work with an F, and I was lucky to even get that! Mr King also included the following 2 words: Lazy attitude! He was a great teacher and he was absolutely right.

He knew the distance between what I was capable of, and what I actually achieved. It took me a while, and a few more failures, but I eventually learned from it and have benefited from an industrious attitude ever since.

Working attitudes

Today, aspiring business owners often ask me for a tip that will help their business idea to succeed. I tell them that no matter how amazing their business idea is, it’s no match for a lazy attitude. Doing the work, all the work, is essential for success.

I then share how an industrious attitude to business manifests itself, compared to a lazy attitude.

Industrious attitudes

Those with an industrious attitude will get an amazing business idea. Then, they’ll find out what needs to be done, and do all the work required. Their idea stands a good chance of success.

But that’s not all.

Because these people have an industrious attitude, they’ll keep on working at it. They’ll keep on doing the right things correctly, achieving success upon success.

Lazy attitudes

Those with a lazy attitude will get an amazing business idea. Then, they’ll find out what needs to be done. But they’ll refuse to do all the work required. They will avoid tasks that are essential, but are outside their comfort zones. Consequently, their idea has absolutely no chance of success.

But that’s not all.

If they choose to stay in their comfort zone, they’ll keep failing to do what’s needed, suffering failure after failure.

Ditching a lazy attitude once and for all

1. There’s no comfort in your comfort zone. None. It’s a place of regret and lack.

2. Hard work is overrated. Great ideas are overrated. But when you put the two together, there’s no limit to what you can achieve.

Any of us can choose to leave the fake comfort of a comfort zone. It will take time. It will be hard. But it’s literally the only possible way to succeed and keep on succeeding.

Marketing 101: Use shorter sentences. Here’s why

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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 for 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.

Jim Connolly marketing, write short
  • 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.

What they want, not what you want

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Marketing focus

Which of these approaches do you find the most compelling?

  1. I wrote this blog post, now I want you to read it.
  2. There’s an idea I believe your business will benefit from, so I wrote this post for you.

And which of these 2 do you prefer?

  1. I recorded a business podcast, now I want you to subscribe to it.
  2. Business owners have some pressing challenges, so I created a podcast to help you.

Your marketplace is far more attracted to the second approach in those examples.

Despite this, almost every small business marketing message is based on the first approach. They market from a self-focused mindset, rather than concentrating on the needs (or wants) of their marketplace. And it loses them sales and client enquiries, all day every day.

Smarter marketing

Your marketing needs to be smarter than that, if you want people to hire you or buy from you.

Remember: Every business exists in order to solve problems. Your prospective clients or customers don’t care about what you want. They care about answers to their problems.

What next?

Spend some time reviewing your marketing. Shift the emphasis of any self-focused material, from what you want to what they want. Show them how passionate you are about helping them. Show them you care. And make solving their problems the cornerstone of your marketing messages.

The best or the best marketed?

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best selling, best marketed

Today I answer a question that business owners ask me all the time.

It’s usually a version of the following.

Hey Jim, why are some of our competitors doing better than us, when their service or product isn’t as good as ours?

So, here’s the answer.

The best marketed

There’s a world of difference between the best… and the best marketed.

Here are just a few very common examples.

  • The best selling book is never the best written book. It’s the best marketed book.
  • The best selling album is never the best produced album. It’s the best marketed album.
  • And the best selling sportswear brand is never the best made sportswear brand. It’s the best marketed sportswear brand.

Your best selling competitor, is the one with the best marketing. This doesn’t mean their marketing is outstanding. It only means that they do more of the right things than you and their other competitors. So, they get noticed more than you. And they are better at converting that attention into paying clients or customers.

The way forward for you and your business

If you’re tired of watching these lower quality providers doing better than you, you need to decide to outperform their marketing, the way you already outperform their service. Because an average service that has great marketing, will beat a great service that has average marketing… every. single. time.

Fortunately, if you decide to fight back, you’ll have better marketing and a better service. That’s an extremely powerful combination, which will provide you with a massive advantage over your competitors. They won’t know what’s hit them.

The big marketing lie! With 30 examples to prove it

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biggest lie in business, everything is marketing

The biggest lie in marketing is almost certainly not what you’re expecting.

Here it is.

If you ask the average owner of a small or medium-sized business about marketing, they will tell you the following: “I don’t have enough time for marketing”.

That’s a lie. 

And here are 30 examples to prove it

Whether these business owners know it or not, they are marketing their business all day every day. That’s because everything in business is marketing.

Here are 30 examples.

  1. The way you speak: From the words you use to the warmth of your welcome.
  2. The range of services you provide, especially in relation to how similar they are to what your competitors offer.
  3. The eagerness you demonstrate for helping your clients or customers.
  4. The cleanliness and age of your company vehicles.
  5. The way you and your team dress.
  6. The experience you give your clients or customers, which they share with their friends.
  7. The way you handle phone calls.
  8. The causes that you or your business publicly support.
  9. The prices or fees you charge.
  10. The type of offers you use to attract new clients.
  11. The confidence you inspire in others when you connect with them.
  12. The way you respond to email enquiries, both in the speed and tone of your response.
  13. The content you use on your website.
  14. The places you choose to advertise.
  15. The type of advertising messages you use.
  16. The groups your business belongs to.
  17. The energy you have for your business.
  18. The way you connect with people on social networks.
  19. The time it takes you to make a decision.
  20. The quality of the photos and other graphics you use.
  21. The type of clients or customers you choose to work with.
  22. The type of clients or customers you choose not to work with.
  23. The leadership you demonstrate.
  24. The guarantees you offer.
  25. The flexibility you show, when a client or customer has a unique challenge.
  26. The professionalism of your marketing copy.
  27. The working atmosphere you provide.
  28. The way you communicate with your clients or customers.
  29. The way you handle problems, both internally and external (client) problems.
  30. The regularity with which you achieve deadlines.

It’s all marketing

Everything your business does is marketing.

That’s to say, it’s giving people a story about your business. It’s setting their expectations. It’s building confidence in your services or creating doubt. It’s telling the world what your priorities are.

In short, if you run a business, you are already engaged in marketing. And you’re doing it all day, every day.

So, the question is never if you market your business or not. The question my friend, is whether you’re doing it effectively or not.

Attract more clients with The Fine Print

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the fine print, marketing, the small print

I have something a bit different for you today. It’s a marketing tactic that helps influence people to buy from you or hire you, by destroying preconceptions about the fine print we often find in marketing messages.

Here’s what we all know about the fine print, before we even read it. It’s going to be some kind of disclaimer, informing us that the product or service they just told us about, isn’t as good as they made it sound.

This got me thinking.

What if my clients were to do something amazing and flip the fine print, so that it was a marketing asset for them?

I developed the idea in full. Then, I tested it and measured the results. Finally, I rolled the tactic out to my clients.

Here’s what happened.

Flipping the fine print

My idea was to create a big and positive impact on their cautious prospective clients [or customers]. The kind of prospects that read the fine print. Those who made bad purchasing decisions in the past, or who just like to be thorough.

Anyhow, what I did was to add fine print to my client’s marketing material. But instead of it containing a disclaimer, it gave their prospective clients an additional, motivating reason to make the purchase.

Think about that for a moment: The prospect is braced for a disclaimer, but they find a powerful benefit of my clients product or service, instead. That’s marketing dynamite!

  • It shattered negative preconceptions that their prospective clients might have had.
  • It was memorable for all the right reasons, with prospects often mentioning that they spotted it and it made them feel more reassured.
  • It built trust in my client’s services or products.

And this all combines and compounds, to make the buying decision that much easier.

Hold that thought.

Your prospective clients

Now, let’s think about your prospective clients.

How do you think they would feel about your services, if you added fine print to your marketing, which contained the same kind of preconception-shattering, motivating benefit?

Could it have a similar, positive impact on how your prospects feel about hiring you or buying from you?

Based on years of seeing it work in my client’s marketing, if you do it correctly, I believe it absolutely could.