Jim's Marketing Blog

My first boss gave me some brilliant advice, which I am going to share with you. It was something that initially helped me enjoy a hugely successful career. Then, the same advice allowed me to grow an amazing, international marketing business.

I believe it can help you dramatically increase the success of your business too.

Here’s what he told me

He said that the most successful people in his company, worked and acted in a way consistent with what would be expected of their boss.

As a fresh faced 17 year old, I asked why… why would anyone do more than they were paid for?

He smiled and explained that the way to get promoted, was to do the work in advance. This allowed the senior management to see how good you were. He was right. I worked the same hours as my better paid manager and took on extra responsibility. Within a short time, I was promoted and earning more than anyone I knew of my age.

The same is true in business

The work, commitment and decisions you have made until today, have resulted in whatever your business has achieved thus far. If you want a better business, you need to act like those, who already have the kind of business you want.

When you start acting in a way that is consistent with owning a successful business, you make your success inevitable. Beautifully inevitable.

PS: Here are some extremely useful business building tips!

Here’s the problem with average… average doesn’t motivate or inspire people to do anything.

It looks like this:

• If you have an average meal at a restaurant, you still pay the bill, but you don’t bother recommending the place to your friends. That’s because we don’t recommend average food.
• If your accountant provides you with an average service, you still pay their fee, but you don’t bother recommending them. That’s because we don’t recommend average service.

In short, average lacks impact.

Why average is so common

A lot of small business owners make the mistake of assuming that because they get few complaints, their business offers an above average experience for their clients or customers. They confuse silence with satisfaction, which is a silly and costly error.

They think they are better than average and wonder why they get so few word of mouth referrals. All the time, they are totally unaware that the problem is with their average approach to business. People are not spreading the word about them, because there’s nothing worth saying.

From average to remark-able

Here’s the thing: With some extra creative thinking, attention and effort, most businesses can quickly go from average to remarkable. Remarkable work is work that is meaningfully different from the average providers in your industry. Remarkable work is exactly that — worthy of remarking on (or talking about.)

When your business becomes remarkable, people talk about you for all the right reasons. They share how exceptional your products, services or customer service is with everyone who will listen.

Give your marketplace a remarkable story about your work and they will share it. Of course, the flip side of this is the acceptance that if they are not already, regularly recommending you, your story needs improving.

If I were you, I’d work on that. Today.

The thing about your prospective clients, is that they have heard it all before. They have wasted their time and money on services, which totally failed to deliver on the promises they were given.

Then you come along, making promises about your business… and expect them to believe you.

Going beyond generic

The most successful marketing takes into account, that they have heard it all before. It goes beyond the generic promises of great customer service. The guys who ripped them off promised great customer service and had client testimonials too… everyone does.

So, what are you doing to address this trust issue, in a meaningful way that prospective clients will believe?

Your answer to that question is extremely important. Think it through. Then put it in play.

Some business owners are chasing their dreams. Others are running from their fears. The difference this creates in their results is huge. No, bigger than that!

So, are you focusing on what you want or what you fear?

One will empower you and lead you to opportunities and growth. The other will lead to pain and stop you from getting started.

Focusing on fear

When we focus on fear, it has a huge, negative impact on our thinking, our decisions and then the actions we take.

Here are some examples of fear driven thinking:

• We copy our competitors, because it feels safe. This makes us invisible. Here’s a better approach for your business!
• We stay within our comfort zones. This makes it impossible for us to grow.
• We adopt the perfectionist mindset and become unproductive. Nothing is perfect, so waiting for something to be perfect slows us down or stops us from even starting.
• We waste money on things that make us feel good in the short term, yet avoid risking an investment that our business desperately needs. Investment equals risk. Fear focused people hate risk.
• We attract others who have the same fear focused mindset. This reinforces our fears and supports our decision to hunker down and do nothing new.
• We work for average people and charge them average fees. Here’s how to break free from that trap.
• We stagnate.

Those are just some of the things that happen, when we try to avoid what we fear, rather than pursue what we want.

Here’s an interesting question

What 3 things would you do today, if you knew for certain that you could not fail?

Write them down.

Why? Because that list will contain 3 things, which you are currently not doing, from fear of failing. What if one or more of those ‘things’ were to succeed? What if you were to learn something of even greater value, from looking fear in the face and doing what needs to be done?

See failure as feedback, rather than pain. Learn from the feedback. Improve. Embrace change. Give it your best shot.

When you do, you will be following the success formula of every successful person who has ever lived.

Much has been said about the value of learning from the success of others. Rightly so. If someone has already achieved something, which you want to achieve, there are surely things you can learn from their journey.

However, there is another way to learn. In many ways it’s more powerful too.

Learning from the failure of others

The average small business owner is, by default, average. They work hard, but fail to achieve meaningful success. If you want to avoid offering average services to average people for average fees – study the average business…. then don’t do what they do!

Use their month to month struggle as motivation to succeed. Use their mistakes as a powerful warning of what to avoid.

Here’s what we know about the average small business owner:

• They have a business that is largely indistinguishable from their competitors.
• They attract far fewer word of mouth referrals than successful business owners.
• They think poor cash flow and over demanding clients are just part of being in business, rather than a sign of amateur marketing.
• They wish things would improve, rather than investing in progress.
• They complain about their situation… but refuse to do what’s needed, to turn things around.
• They are able to name the stars of their favourite TV show, but can’t name who their best prospective clients are.
• They dabble with areas of their business, where they clearly need expert help.

If you are tired of working hard and making too little progress, stop! Ask yourself why you are working hard, using an approach that isn’t generating the results you want.

If you have lots of time and lots of money, you can do this yourself over a period of years, through trial and error. If you aren’t that wealthy or you value your time, invest in the expert help you need and get on target immediately.

Remember: Hard work alone is not the secret of success. If it was, our grandparents would have been millionaires.

Here’s a valuable marketing tip, from one of the world’s most successful companies. I’m going to share a marketing lesson from Apple, which you can apply directly into your business.

Throughout the last recession, Apple managed to break its sales records again and again. Whilst its competitors were floundering and cutting prices on far less expensive devices, Apple’s sales were growing quarter on quarter. At one point, Apple was the most valuable company in the world.

So, how does Apple sell so many premium priced devices, regardless of market conditions?

Apple bake marketing into their products

A huge part of the answer, can be found in the way that Apple constantly improves the value of its products. They make the new version of their products so much more valuable than the current version, that people, especially existing Apple customers, feel compelled to upgrade.

For example, when Apple launched the latest MacBook Air, it came with a huge benefit over the previous model: All day battery life. This was a huge technological and psychological breakthrough. It meant that people who are often away from the office all day, can charge their computer before they leave home and know they have 12 hours of battery life for the day ahead. No chargers to carry. No need to find somewhere to charge it.

The MacBook Air provided Apple’s core target market with huge value and huge perceived value. That value is what motivated people to buy the device. Of course, because Apple has invested years building better and better devices, there are some Apple fans who will buy almost anything Apple make.

Imagine that for a moment: A company that has FANS rather than customers.

What  your business can learn from Apple

By constantly improving what you offer and developing new, high value products and services, you provide a compelling reason for:

• Existing clients or customers to keep buying from you and recommending you to their friends.
• New clients or customers to be attracted to your products or services.

So, here’s a useful question for you to ask yourself:

What new products or services could you offer, which would provide clients and prospective clients with massive value?

Here are 2 places to look for answers:

1. A new, premium version of your current offering, which provides greater value.
2. A whole new product or service, based on the most pressing needs of your clients or customers. Apple did this with their 12 hour battery life.

Here’s the thing: Great marketing will get your message in front of the right people, at the right time, in as compelling a away as possible. However, that is only part of the journey.

When you match great marketing with a valuable (and thus highly desirable) product or service, your marketplace will buy from you, hire you and tell their friends about you.

PS: Here is more information on how you can bake marketing into your business.

If you want to attract your ideal profile of client and get more word of mouth referrals, this post is written just for you.

The power of focus

When you focus on delighting a segment of your potential clients, rather than trying to appeal to all of them, you give them a reason to talk about you.

Here’s why.

Those who your work and marketing is targeted toward, will feel as if you truly understand them. Your marketing messages will also feel directly relevant to them. When people in your targeted niche feel that way about you and your work, they tell their friends. Many of these friends will have a similar mindset and value your approach too. Birds of a feather and all that.

Soon, not only are you attracting more targeted clients, you are attracting more word of mouth referrals than before. Just as importantly, you are attracting word of mouth referrals from people who are a great fit for you and your business.

Delightful

The key is to focus exclusively on delighting, (providing a Meaningful Difference), to a targeted niche of your marketplace. These should be the people, who are your ideal profile of client. No compromising.

In short: Be directly relevant to those you most want to attract. Delight them… then watch your work spread.

Despite what many people believe, small businesses are not merely smaller versions of big businesses. They are different in one very important way.

Here’s the difference

The largest companies, from Apple to MacDonald’s, have to stick to a standardised way of doing things. It’s all about consistency. There is a company way of doing things and the employees need to operate within that framework. iPhones and Big Macs look the same at every store and the way they are served to you is also as close to identical as possible.

With a small business, success comes from doing the exact opposite. It comes from individuals within the small business, being human and expressing themselves… doing work that is meaningfully different.

The most successful small and medium sized businesses provide products, services or experiences, which are only available from them. They have figured out that by creating something that is meaningfully different, they become the only show in town, for clients who want that meaningful difference. They create a special value, which is only available from them. It works. Beautifully.

Most small business owners don’t get this

In fact, the massive majority of small businesses within the same niche, look almost identical.

• They offer the same predictable range of services.
• They make the same predictable marketing promises.
• They have the same predictable looking websites, blogs and social networking accounts.
• They offer the same predictable guarantees and have the same kind of testimonials.

They become cookie cutter duplicates of their competitors, then wonder why prospective clients are so fee sensitive. Clue: When you look just like the competition, prospective clients use your fee as their way to determine your value.

Embrace your uniqueness

Build a business that is meaningfully different. Not only will you have no competitors, you will be free to charge what you are worth, to clients who value the meaningful difference you provide.

PS: For more information on how to attract the best clients and fees, read this.

For many small business owners, 2014 is already starting to look a lot like 2013.

The good intentions of just a few weeks ago are starting to fade, as the average business owner lowers their sights. They slowly slip back into the comfort of settling for average again. Maybe next year they will take their business seriously. Maybe next year, they will drop their employee mindset and make decisions like an entrepreneur.

As a business owner, you need to choose:

• Do you do 100% of what’s required or 100% of the things you are comfortable with?
• Do you dabble with the development of your business for another year or invest and improve?
• Do you work long hours for little reward or get a better strategy and start making some meaningful progress?

Here’s something to remember: The clock is ticking. You may delay, but time will not. None of us, regardless of our age, can afford to repeat the same old year over again.

Important

If you are happy with ‘average’, you’re really wasting your time and my bandwidth, reading my work. Feel free to unsubscribe.

HOWEVER: If this post has inspired you to make some important decisions — or you are already committed to being the best you can be, I salute you. You are my kind of person. You inspire me to write.

I’m here for you and will carry on providing you with as much value as possible… just as I have since 1995.

Are you tired of attracting fee sensitive clients or customers?

Create a meaningful difference

If you are, answer the following question: How can I make the service I offer, different from what my competitors offer, in a meaningful way?

In other words, create a meaningful difference, then market that difference correctly. If you get this right, you will never need to deal with low quality, fee sensitive clients again.

Once upon a time, the proximity of your business to your prospective clients, was based on your geographical distance from them. In other words, your clients or customers needed to be within a certain number of miles from your location.

This is no longer the case.

Today, the proximity of your business is not defined by how close you are in miles from a prospective client, but how closely you are aligned with their thinking, needs and values etc. If you want to hire someone because their work is amazing, thanks to low cost or free digital communications, you can.

In short: Geography is no longer a barrier for many service providers. In 2014, it’s about human proximity… not miles.

For example:

• If you need a copywriter and there’s one whose work you love, but he’s 5000 miles away, no problem. You can work together just fine.
• If you need a graphic artist and find someone who does great work, the fact they are in a different country makes no difference.
• If you need someone to translate your work from English to Spanish, you can pick a translator who you trust, regardless of where they are.
• If you need a great web designer and you find someone, but she’s in a different country, you can work together just fine.
• In 2013 alone, I worked with clients in; 8 U.S. states, Canada, South Africa, Denmark, Dubai, The UK, France and Germany. All of whom I shared proximity with, although I am located in England.

Are you embracing the new proximity?

So, with proximity now being defined by shared mindsets, aligned outlooks, common values and the love of another person’s work — what are you doing about it? If you offer a service, which can be delivered via digital communications, I strongly recommend that you consider embracing the new proximity.

There’s a world of opportunity out there, just waiting for you.

They have subscribed to your newsletter, followed you on a social network or emailed you for information.

You may think you now have their attention, however, you haven’t!

Attention is earned… then re-earned

You have only earned their attention at the point where they subscribed, followed or emailed you. You now have to re-earn their attention, regularly, if you want to remain relevant to them.

If you get too few inquiries from your readers, your subscribers or your networking contacts, focus on re-earning their attention. The challenge of course, is that it takes time, effort and creativity if you want to remain relevant to your marketplace.

No, it’s not easy. But it is required.

Fact: Your mindset will determine what 2014 holds for you.

We know this, because everything else you need in order to achieve the business and lifestyle you want, is already there, just waiting for you.

For example:

• All the books you need are already out there. Thanks to the Internet, you have access to every great business book ever written. BUT unless you are motivated to read them, they can’t help.
• All the expert, one-to-one help you need is out there. There are experts in every field of business and life, on hand to provide you with the professional help you need. BUT unless you are motivated to get the help you know you need, those experts can’t help.

If you truly want a better year in 2014, you have to accept 2 fundamental truths of success:

1. It’s never about the lack of access to knowledge or expertise.
2. It’s always about the lack of motivation, to seek out and use that knowledge or expertise.

With all that expertise and information already out there, just waiting for you, here’s a question to ponder: What are you going to do with it?

A super-simple decision

If you are looking to 2014 with excitement because of the progress you made last year, your decision is easy. Just carry on with the same mindset. It’s working.

If you are looking to 2014 with apprehension, because of the frustrations of last year, your decision is equally easy. You need to adjust your mindset, so that it is in line with what you want to achieve.

Once you know what to do in order to grow your business, plus you have the mindset required to make it happen, anything is possible!

I’d like to wish you all the very best for 2014!

PS: If you are genuinely ready for your most successful and rewarding year ever, read this.

I wrote a blog post once, entitled The sandwich shop that closed for lunch. Of course, it was just a title. In reality, no shop owner would close during their busiest period.

Actually, it turns out they would!

Here’s what happened, along with a useful lesson and a free resource.

The gift shops that closed for Christmas Eve

On Christmas Eve, I visited a local shopping area. I quickly noticed that lots of the shops didn’t bother to open. Amazingly, this included several gift shops… gift shops that closed for Christmas Eve!

The town was packed with Christmas shoppers and the shops that did open, were doing brisk business, with queues everywhere. I have never seen so many shoppers there.

It makes perfect sense to have a break, relax and close the doors after the festive rush. However, to close them the day before the busiest shopping day of the year, shows a jaw-dropping lack of commercial acumen.

Sale time!

This morning, I noticed one of the gift shops that closed on Christmas Eve, was open. They had a huge sale on. Merchandise, which the business owner could have sold at full retail price just 2 days ago, was being offered at up to 50% off. Ironically, the town was almost empty.

I know the business owner quite well and asked why he had closed on such a busy day. His answer was that he always closed on the 23rd. He then went on to complain that he hadn’t made a sale all morning and how bad trade had been this Christmas!

The lesson here

The worst reason to carry on doing anything, is because we have always done things that way.

Here’s an alternative approach: Why not use today, as an opportunity to look for any areas of our business, where we can make improvements? Usually, the best places to start looking are the areas of our business, which we tend to take for granted.

PS: This should help you. Here are 15 Powerful ideas to help you grow your business!

If your business is growing too slowly, today’s post is written just for you.

It’s based on a talk I gave to young entrepreneurs. It shows how small business owners can massively improve their business results… by looking after their business the same way they look after their teeth!

A small business owner with a tooth problem

If you have a problem with one of your teeth, you go to a dentist. If possible, the dentist will fix your tooth. If the tooth is too damaged, she will remove it for you.

In that scenario:

• The small business owner sees they have a problem (toothache).
• They then seek professional advice (dentist).
• They then either have their problem resolved or removed (treated or extracted).

A typical small business owner with a business problem treats it very differently.

• The small business owner sees they have a problem. In many cases, they will just hope it magically goes away. They hunker down and hope for the best. Hope is essential, but hope isn’t a business strategy.
• They then dabble with their problem. They ask unqualified friends. They ask strangers on social networks. They ask people, who lack the expertise they need. Just last week, I saw a business owner on Google+ ask an accountant for marketing advice. The accountant’s answer was not only incorrect, it was toxic. In other words, it will damage their business if they do as the accountant said.
• Their problem then persists or gets worse. They suffer with the commercial equivalent of severe toothache. With severe toothache, even in a worst case scenario, you can fix things by having the tooth extracted. That pain is nothing, compared to the pain the business owner suffers, when their business goes broke.

Many small business owners I speak with, admit that they work an insane number of hours and that they would earn more if they had a regular job. Their commercial toothache is numbed with painkillers, rather than professionally treated. They tell themselves things will ‘just get better’ if they hunker down, which acts as a narcotic to ease the pain of the reality of their situation.

The answer?

We need to look after our business the same way we look after our teeth!

It starts with accepting that you have a problem, rather than burying your head in the sand. Then, get the expert help you need. If your sales are going nowhere, speak with a marketing expert. If cash flow is a problem, talk with an accountant. If you have a legal issue, talk to a lawyer. Just make sure you only take expert advice, from experts. Then put their advice to work.

Yes, you will need to pay a competent professional for her help. However, that investment is far lower, than the cost of starving your business of the help it needs.

In short: If your business needs help, think DENTIST not DABBLE.