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12 Quick tips that are great for your business

By Jim Connolly | October 2, 2023

marketing good for business

It’s good for your business…

When you make short-term decisions that are consistent with your long-term plans.

When you hire amazing people and pay them what they’re worth.

When you build a reputation as a trusted source of value.

When you connect with the right kind of people.

When you feed your mind with rich mental protein and take care of your body.

When you pause to reflect before saying, publishing or sending anything important.

When you start each morning thinking about the things you’re grateful for.

When you start your working day, writing a list of things you want to achieve. And close each day, with a review of the things you’ve learned.

When you build your primary marketing channel on a platform you control. Your website. Your email list. Social media platforms can, and do, wipe out businesses by deleting their accounts.

When you treat different clients differently, according to their unique needs.

When you make promises to your clients and deliver on them.

When you learn to absolutely LOVE what you do. Because work becomes joy and this improves literally everything.

Photo by Dylan Gillis on Unsplash

Tonight we’re gonna market like it’s 1999

By Jim Connolly | September 28, 2023

marketing letters, mail marketing

Today you will be served hundreds, maybe thousands of advertisements. You’ll also be sent dozens of spam emails and texts. And one thing they all have in common is that you will ignore them.

But a targeted letter, sent to you, in a plain envelope, which addresses you by name, WILL get opened.

It will have your attention. And this is great news for you and your business.

Pushing the envelope

If you send a marketing letter like the example above, you will enjoy the same impact. Your message will be seen. And you’ll have the attention of your prospective client or customer.

As long as your message is well written and provides them with something of genuine value, you could win big.

What next?

To start with, target 5 or 10 prospects with that same approach every week. Soon, you’ll have lots of actual, prospective clients to follow-up. Lots of irons in the fire. A steady, regular flow of leads.

Just because email marketing is so cheap that everyone is using it, doesn’t mean you should ignore investing in small-scale direct mail marketing. In fact, that deluge of email is precisely what makes your marketing letter stand out and get opened.

Photo by Mediamodifier on Unsplash

Get sharp. Get ahead. Then stay there

By Jim Connolly | September 23, 2023

small business marketing, sharp, accurate

When I was a kid, my dad taught me that a sharp bladed knife was safer to use than a blunt one. He explained that blunt blades cause us to use too much force to cut something. This renders the blade inaccurate and hard to control.

Sharpness in business is equally important.

For example.

  • If our communication skills aren’t sharp enough, prospective clients will struggle to understand what makes our products or services perfect for them.
  • If our creative skills aren’t sharp enough, we’ll fail to develop the compelling new products and services our marketplace needs.
  • And if our motivational skills aren’t sharp enough, we’ll be unable to get people excited about those new products and services.

You get the idea.

Of course, when you run a busy business, the temptation is to keep your head down and plough through the work ahead of you. You have deadlines to keep. Clients to delight. People to see. Places to go. And only so many hours each day to cram everything in.

However, when we review the most successful business owners, we find they make time to sharpen their skills. They continuously invest in their professional development; doing the reading and the studying, getting the coaching and always improving.

Where to begin?

Take time out to identify the area of your business, which you would benefit most from improving. Something that would help you overcome a current challenge. Then, put some time aside to learn more about it.

Photo by Elena Kloppenburg on Unsplash

Much better than I expected!

By Jim Connolly | September 21, 2023

better than expected, exceed expectations

Think about it. When you’ve delivered a project for a client, you want them to say to themselves, “this is much better than I expected“.

When you tell someone about the service you offer, then quote your fee, you want them to say to themselves, “this quote is much better than I expected“.

When someone experiences your customer service, you want them to say to themselves, “this service is much better than I expected“.

Five of the best words in business

There’s REAL power in those 5 words. They’re a sure sign that you’re exceeding expectations. And the most successful business owners strive to exceed expectations, with every interaction.

Here’s why.

They know that by truly exceeding expectations, they’ll retain more clients. They know they’ll also receive highly valuable client referrals. And they know they’ll build an exceptional reputation, too.

The reason the majority of small businesses fail to achieve this, is that it presents the business owner with 2 tricky challenges. When you overcome them, you can benefit from all the advantages of exceeding the expectations of your clients and your marketplace. And that’s what I’m going to share with you today.

Let’s start by looking at those 2 challenges and how you can turn things around.

1. Almost every business owner thinks they’re already exceeding expectations

They know how hard they work. They know how passionately they care about their clients. They then confuse their hard work and passion with delivering a remarkably good service.

Working hard doesn’t mean you’re exceeding expectations. After all, you can work darn hard just delivering exactly what your client expects from you! That kind of hard work is merely meeting expectations. Not exceeding them.

How do you find out for sure, if you’re exceeding expectations?

Simple. Just look at the number of referrals your clients give you. This will sound harsh if you’re currently not receiving regular referrals. But in every industry, people proactively recommend the products and services that really impress them. They want their friends to know. That’s how word of mouth marketing works.

Some clients will stay with an “okay service provider” for years, just because it’s easier than switching to a better provider. The provider can wrongly assume this loyalty is a reflection of truly remarkable service.

It isn’t.

When a business isn’t getting a regular stream of client referrals, it’s a sure sign that the business isn’t exceeding what their clients expect from them. And it’s a wake up call. A wake up call to put things right, to up their game, to go from average to remarkable.

At least it should be.

2. It’s harder to exceed expectations than to meet them

Even if a business owner accepts they’re not exceeding expectations, it can be a challenge to figure out what they need to do, to turn things around. Every marketplace is saturated with average providers. And this can make it tricky to get out of that mindset. To see what’s truly possible and blow the lid off the service you provide.

Fear not!

Here’s something I share with my clients, to help them overcome this challenge.

The best way to elevate your own expectations of what’s possible, is to look outside of your industry and beyond your competitors for guidance and inspiration.

For example.

  • Compare your customer service to Disney.
  • Compare your product’s build quality to Rolex.
  • Compare your design quality to Apple.
  • Compare your distribution to Amazon.

Then, look for better ways to deliver your services, based on what you learn from these (and other) examples of excellence. It takes a little effort. That’s for sure. However, it’s a proven way to radically improve your services. A proven way to get people saying your offering is “much better than I expected”.

And I’ve seen it work hundreds of times with my clients, helping them smash their sales targets into pieces. It’s one of my marketing tips for 2024, just as it was for 2004.

What next?

In my experience, it’s the first of those challenges that’s always the toughest.

Even when some business owners know they get very few referrals, they’ll still fail to accept it’s down to them.

  • They’ll say their clients expect too much.
  • They’ll blame their clients for being ungrateful.
  • They’ll tell themselves their clients aren’t the kind who recommend others.

In short, they’ll refuse to acknowledge the problem.

The second challenge is a little less tricky.

It means embracing the edges. And that feels riskier than staying in their comfort zone. But as any entrepreneur, I mean real entrepreneur will tell you, the riskiest thing you can do is cling to the overcrowded middle ground.

Make no mistake, consistently exceeding expectations takes real commitment. And that’s why so few of your competitors will do it.

It’s also why this wonderful opportunity is open to you.

It’s an opportunity to attract the best clients, to attract endless referrals, to retain your clients for longer and build an outstanding business. A business that’s much better than people expected. A business that will thrive in any economy… including this one.

Photo by Jacqueline Munguía on Unsplash

Get reflective: Your unpaid salespeople will do the rest

By Jim Connolly | September 18, 2023

marketing, reflective thinking, design, utility

Right now, there’s a motivated sales force out there, who happily work for free and are waiting to tell people all about you and the services you provide.

I came up with this idea 20 years ago, after studying the world’s top industrial designers and commercial designers. It blew me away.

Here’s what I discovered.

One of the attributes of commercially successful design, is that the object needs to be reflective. In other words, it causes us to think about it. To reflect on its utility, uniqueness or beauty.

I’ve found that a commercially successful business also needs to be reflective. A business that’s useful has utility. A business that’s meaningfully different is unique. And a business that runs smoothly is a thing of beauty.

Allow me to explain why this should matter to you and your business.

Your unpaid salespeople are waiting

Designers know that reflective products almost sell themselves.

For instance, my wife bought me some Apple AirPods just after they launched. Their unique look caused total strangers to ask me about them. Their ability to instantly connect wirelessly, inspired me to tell my friends about them.

Just by owning them and using them I became an unpaid salesperson for the product.

Take a look at your products, services or business model and look for ways to make things more reflective. How many unpaid salespeople are there, who’ll spring into action as soon as you give them something reflective to share with their friends? Give it a try and find out.

Photo by Maria Fernanda Pissioli on Unsplash

Is it time to expand? Maybe. But read this first!

By Jim Connolly | September 15, 2023

expanding your marketplace

This could be the right time to expand the marketplace you serve.

It really could.

But often when a small business owner explains their scenario and asks for my advice, the solution is not to expand. Their existing marketplace tends to be more than big enough.

Usually, to get the business results they want, the answer is for them to make their prospects more interested, more engaged and more reliant on the products or services the business provides.

How?

Here’s a quick overview of what this might mean for you and your business.

  • It means greatly increasing the value of your services or products.
  • It means looking at every detail of what you provide, for opportunities to improve it.
  • It means developing new, high-value, high-profit products and services for existing and prospective clients/customers.
  • It means getting serious about your marketing.
  • It means creating an inspiring wow! factor for your services, products and brand. Creating something so compelling that it attracts attention, attracts buyers, attracts referrals and attracts word-of-mouth publicity.

Now what?

It depends

If you’ve deployed this process already, and seen a significant increase in your market share, then look to expand your marketplace. The work you’ve already done in maximizing the sales potential of your business, will make the expansion spectacularly more effective.

However, if you haven’t already given your services, products and brand this type of radical review AND implemented the improvements, do that first! Then, expand your marketplace.

Is it easy?

No, of course not.

The rewards are huge and the work required is considerable. Don’t believe anyone who says you can have it all, with growth hacks and tricks. That’s bullshit.

Is it possible?

Yes, of course it is.

People in your industry, have already optimized the sales potential of their business and successfully expanded in to new markets.

Will you do it?

Only you can answer that.

Photo by Roberto Nickson on Unsplash

10 Proven ways to get free publicity

By Jim Connolly | September 14, 2023

get free publicity

Here are 10 proven motivators, which inspire people to spread the word about you, your product or service.

Read these through a couple of times. Then see which ones you can adapt and apply into your business.

  1. People will share your message, if it’s baked into your product or service. When you see someone using a laptop in public, the logo is visible on the lid.
  2. People will share your message, if they want you to notice them.
  3. People will share your message, if it makes them look clever. This is why social networks are packed with Einstein quotes.
  4. People will share your message, if they care about you and they believe sharing your message will help you.
  5. People will share your message, if it makes them appear generous to their friends.
  6. People will share your message, if they think it will make them look ahead of the curve or cutting-edge.
  7. People will share your message, if it’s remarkable. Extremely satisfied customers tell their friends when they receive an amazing service.
  8. People will share your message, if they are part of your community and want others to join them.
  9. People will share your message, if they believe it’s of great value and that their friends need to know. My newsletter is spread daily, by people who find something useful in it, which they want their contacts to benefit from.
  10. People will share your message, if it says something they aren’t brave enough to say for themselves.

Here’s an additional tip

Think about the last time you freely gave positive publicity about a company, product or service. Now consider what it was about your experience, which motivated you to spread the word.

Then, spend some time looking for ways to adapt and incorporate your version of that motivating factor, into your own products or services. This can be really effective, so give it the time and effort it deserves.

With the unique challenges facing business owners right now, the ability to generate earned publicity, rather than paid, has never been more valuable.

Photo by Timo Müller on Unsplash

25 Reasons why people don’t buy from you or hire you

By Jim Connolly | September 12, 2023

marketing, removing blocks, increase sales

It’s a massive source of frustration. You’re trying to sell your service or product to a prospect, but they just don’t get it. Here are 25 common reasons why people don’t buy from you or hire you. By learning what’s stopping them, you’ll find it easier to turn things around.

Here they are in no particular order.

  1. You’re connecting to them using the wrong medium. You’re using email instead of sending a letter. A letter instead of a phone call. A phone call instead of Zoom. A Zoom instead of in-person.
  2. They make decisions slowly. You move quickly. They’re still trying to process things.
  3. They make decisions quickly. You move slowly. They’ve lost interest.
  4. You’re assuming too much about what they know or what they need, etc.
  5. They’re short term focused and you’re selling a medium to long-term benefit. Or vice versa.
  6. You’re dealing with the wrong person.
  7. You have a closing problem. Read this.
  8. They’re under a great deal of stress. Which is really common right now.
  9. You’re using too many words to describe your proposition. This is extremely common.
  10. You’re using too few words to describe it. This almost never happens.
  11. There are too many steps in your sales process. You’re losing them. They get half way through whatever you’re communicating, and they’re already forgetting the start.
  12. You’re using incompatible marketing ideas, approaches or strategies from a different industry. This is a huge, HUGE problem for service providers. I wrote about how to avoid the problem, here.
  13. They can see the value, they do want it, but are lying to you because they’re broke and embarrassed.
  14. Your product or service, if purchased, would force them to admit they failed in some way.
  15. You’re attracting poorly targeted leads, so they lack the need, the finances or both.
  16. You haven’t given them a deadline to make their decision. Deadlines sharpen the mind.
  17. They don’t trust you enough yet, to lower their guard and let your message land.
  18. You’re confusing them, because there’s a disconnect between what you say and what they see. This is very common. The vendor says they’re professional and reliable, the vendor IS professional and reliable, BUT their marketing gives the opposite impression.
  19. They’re very visual and your marketing or sales presentation isn’t.
  20. You’re not enthusiastic enough, about your product or service, so they’re not enthusiastic enough to hire you.
  21. You haven’t demonstrated the full value of your product or service to them. So, they wrongly believe it’s too expensive.
  22. You haven’t explained the core benefits of what you’re offering, so they don’t even know they need it.
  23. They’re apprehensive about making the purchase or hiring you and your level of reassurance isn’t cutting it.
  24. They’re expecting the approach or marketing from someone in your industry, to look or sound different.
  25. You haven’t made it easy enough for them to switch to you from their current provider.

I hope you find these examples useful.

Photo: Shutterstock.

Enthusiasm is pure marketing gold dust

By Jim Connolly | September 5, 2023

enthusiasm, marketing, viral

Today, I’d like you to consider your answer to the following question.

How enthusiastic are you about your business?

Here’s why your answer to that question is so important: People can tell almost immediately if you’re enthusiastic or not. And that matters! It matters because is has an immediate impact on how they feel about you, your business and the service you provide.

Allow me to explain.

Enthusiasm makes things happen

When you speak (or write) with enthusiasm, people feel more positively about you. Enthusiastic business owners exude confidence, which is essential. Think about it, we only hire people or buy from them, if we have confidence in them.

I once heard the definition of making a sale described as, ‘the transfer of enthusiasm‘. That’s a great example of just how essential enthusiasm is to the success of your business.

Also, when you speak with enthusiasm, people listen more attentively. They’re drawn in. You sometimes notice their body language change, as they lean forward because they’re paying attention. And this happens in seconds.

All these benefits of enthusiasm, and more, combine to create an immediate, positive impact. In a moment, I’ll give you 10 important ways that this can help you greatly improve your results.

A lack of enthusiasm makes things happen, too

When enthusiasm is lacking, people are less motivated by you. They pay less attention to what you say, because your lack of enthusiasm is talking louder than the words you use.

I experienced this recently, talking to a business owner. She was saying positive things about what she wanted to achieve with her business, yet she was clearly lacking in enthusiasm. And it sucked all the confidence and impact from her words. I honestly can’t recall much of what she said. Just her total lack of enthusiasm.

Unleash your enthusiasm

Here are 10 ways you can improve your results, by letting your enthusiasm shine through everything you do.

  1. It will generate more sales, as you ‘transfer your enthusiasm’.
  2. It will improve perceptions of you, your business and the service you provide.
  3. It will encourage the people around you. This super-valuable trait is common to every great leader.
  4. It will inspire confidence in you and what you do.
  5. It will attract opportunities that you wouldn’t have previously been offered.
  6. It will attract the best clients, too.
  7. It will position you in the marketplace, as ‘one to watch’.
  8. It will energize you and everything you do.
  9. It will motivate people to recommend you to their friends.
  10. And it will make you happier with your business, which further boosts your enthusiasm and amplifies all those great benefits.

Okay. So, not everyone reading this is brimming with enthusiasm right now.

Let’s look at that.

What if you’re not feeling enthusiastic?

Think of it like this. You’re the business owner. So, you’re in control.

This means you have the freedom, starting right now, to build a business that enthuses you. A business that excites you on every level.

Remember: You choose where you work. You choose who your clients or customers are. You even choose what you charge. This means you get to decide where you work, who you work for and how much money you make.

So, if your current business doesn’t cause you to feel enthusiastic, improve it until it does.

You can do it. That’s for certain. I know, because I see it happening every day with my clients.

Selling simplified: Get your prospects to say ‘yes’

By Jim Connolly | September 2, 2023

marketing, pick you, choose you

Here is a very quick marketing tip. It works online and also when you’re giving a presentation to a prospective client or customer. It’s based on one of the foundations of successful selling:

A confused mind always says ‘no!’.

In other words, when faced with a buying decision, a confused prospective client will not proceed. They’ll say ‘no’ or walk away, rather than risk making a bad decision. And you, the business owner, are the one who pays the price for that lack of clarity.

Clarity sells

With this in mind, I’d like you to think for a moment about all the different options or choices your prospective clients are faced with.

Here’s why it’s critically important for you to get the balance just right.

  • The more options you put in front of someone, the more choice they have.
  • The more choice they have, the harder it is for them to decide.
  • The harder their decision-making process is, the less likely they are to make the decision to hire you or buy from you.
  • They move on.
  • You lose a prospective client or a sale, to a less confusing competitor.

We don’t want that to happen to you.

The marketing power of clarity

I’d like you to take some time to go through all your marketing materials, especially your website. Then review the content of your sales presentation; what you say when pitching to a prospect.

Now, look closely for all unnecessary confusion.

Some good places to start (depending on your industry) may include.

  • The number of service levels you provide.
  • Your various pricing options.
  • The number of different bundles or packages you offer.
  • Any over-long feature lists.
  • The amount of information you require on your enquiry / contact forms.

You get the idea.

Now consider whether you actually need to offer so much complexity, so much potential for confusion. And if not, reduce. Everything that needs to be there should remain. But if it doesn’t need to be there, remove it. Cut the confusion. And make more sales.

Photo: Shutterstock.

How to quickly, repeatedly improve your sales

By Jim Connolly | August 29, 2023

marketing experiments, improve sales, sales results

Marketing relies heavily on creativity. It takes creativity to attract your prospective client’s attention. It takes creativity to stand out against your competitors. It also takes creativity to write a great marketing message or land a new client. 

The enemy of creativity is fear. Specifically, the fear of failure.

Today, I’m going to show you how to overcome this challenge, so you be free to create without fear and improve everything about your marketing at the same time. It’s based on a strategy I discovered in the mid 1990’s and it’s worked for me ever since. I hope you find it as valuable as I have.

It looks like this

I decided to improve how I felt about creating, by reframing my marketing as a series of experiments. This was not only extremely helpful. It was also factually correct.

Think about it.

Everything you do to market your business is done to achieve some kind of result. That result is feedback. By measuring the feedback, you learn, and can then improve the result next time. It’s a process of testing and measuring akin to scientific experiments.

Marketing experiments

So, I switched, mentally, from spending my day on a series of projects, to spending my day on a series of marketing experiments. It was such a powerful exercise that I even renamed my first office ‘The Lab’.

What I loved about this approach is that it made me vastly more productive. That’s because the more I experimented, the more feedback I received.

And that feedback is extremely valuable.

  • Sometimes the feedback is what I expected.
  • Sometimes the feedback is a total surprise.
  • Sometimes the feedback leads to a major success breakthrough.
  • Sometimes the feedback leads to a massively more profitable, new direction.

However, no experiment ever fails! 

That’s because the feedback you receive equips you to make better and better marketing experiments. With better marketing experiments, comes better marketing results; more new clients, more product sales, better client retention, higher profitability, more enquiries, more subscribers and every other sales metric you need.

As such, fear was eliminated from my creative output. This freed me to become vastly more productive.

You and your business

Could this approach work for you?

Yes. Yes it could.

However, you’ll never know if it works for until you give it a try. So, go ahead. Test, measure and improve your sales results. As often as you wish.

P.S. Here’s why people criticise you and how to deal with it, in just 3 steps.

Photo by Yassine Khalfalli on Unsplash

Personal news. Einstein’s marketing tip. And more

By Jim Connolly | August 22, 2023

marketing tip Einstein

Before I start, it’s been a huge week here in the Connolly household. My son Lewis got a place at his first choice university. That has nothing to do with marketing. I’m just sharing a proud dad moment with you.

Okay. Now let’s grow your business with some marketing ideas!

Overcome a common marketing problem

I’m hearing from a lot of small business owners lately, who have the same challenge.

Here’s what they’re telling me.

They offer a great service. They’re working at least as hard as they always have. But their results are either plunging, dipping or not growing in any meaningful way. And the ads or marketing that used to work, are no longer as effective.

If you’re in a similar position, there are a few things I recommend you take a look at.
 

Demand

Has your marketplace shrunk? A growing number of services that people used to pay for, are now available for free via AI. Initially it was content writers whose services saw a huge drop in demand.

Now it’s far wider. Including; SEO providers, photographers, recipe planners, course/training creators, those selling online information products, web developers, commercial artists, designers, data analysts, technical writers, paralegals and tutors.

Note – This applies exclusively to those who serve the middle or lower end of the market. If you’re one of them, focus on what you can do, which AI can’t do. And make that a key element in your marketing.

Otherwise you’ll no longer be competing against lower-priced competitors, you’ll be competing against zero-priced competitors. 
 

Templates

If your marketing is based around a checklist, template or online course/program, you’re really hard to hire or buy from. That’s because you’re invisible. You’re camouflaged amid the millions of others following the same type of cookie-cutter approach.

Instead, look for intelligent opportunities to zig when they zag.

It’s not about being different.

It’s about finding ways to capture attention, which your prospects will love. It’s about knowing how to earn the trust of your prospects, before they hire you or buy from you. It’s about becoming a must-buy proposition. It’s about being the obvious choice for your prospects to make. That’s the exact opposite of the template approach to marketing.
 

New needs and wants

I’ve mentioned this a few times this year, but it’s something that’s created a huge shift in the way you need to market your business. The speed of change over the past 3 years has been greater than at any time in living memory. And it’s charging ahead at an accelerated pace.

This means your marketing needs to adjust to the new needs and wants of your prospects.

So, talk with your prospects. 

Dip into forums and social media.

See what they’re excited about.

See what they’re worried about.

See what they’re paying attention to. 

This is critically important. You can’t market effectively unless you know who you’re marketing to and what they want.

Einstein’s marketing tip

I’m certain you’ve read the following quote. You may not have applied it to your marketing efforts, though. “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results”. 

When your sales results are going in the wrong direction, or going nowhere, it’s time to stop doing the same type of marketing.

When I explain this to business owners, they almost always draw the wrong conclusion. They conclude that I’m asking them to try different types of marketing.

I’m not.

I’m asking them to adopt a successful, uniquely them, marketing strategy.

That’s why some people reading this will find it interesting, then go to YouTube in search of sales hacks and tricks (template information). But the entrepreneurs reading it will see this as an opportunity to close out the last 4 months of the year thriving, and enjoy an amazing 2024.

If that sounds like you, it’s you that I serve

It’s you that I’m rooting for.

It’s you that I write for.

It’s you who share the my blog or newsletter with your friends.

And it’s you that email me with your success stories.

To your total success!

Photo by Taton Moïse on Unsplash

They’re always right. Are you?

By Jim Connolly | July 28, 2023

learn buying style, prospect's buying style

If you want to make dramatically more sales, you need to start by knowing what your prospect’s buying style is. Once you uncover the way your prospects like to buy, you massively increase the likelihood you’ll make the sale. Over and over again.

It starts by understanding that people buy based on feelings far more than logic. [Note] I explain why, here.

We also need to understand that the prospect is right. And that they’re right every single time.

  • They’re always right about what constitutes value for money.
  • They’re always right about their past experiences of the type of product or service you provide.
  • They’re always right about the last experience they had with someone from your industry.
  • They’re always right about their attitude to risk (real or perceived risk).
  • They’re even right about whether pineapple belongs on a pizza or not.

That’s because THEY are always the most informed person in the world regarding what they think and how they feel. And as their thoughts and feelings are what determine their actions, you need to discover them fast!

This might include, what they value most when making a purchase, whether they’re in the low price crowd or the premium quality crowd, if they’re someone who likes to take their time or prefers to move along, what their past experience of your industry was, how they feel about risk and any other factor you would like to know.

If you try to get them to make a purchasing decision without you knowing that information, your chances are radically reduced.

  • You’ll be making assumptions based on what you know about your service and what you feel are the most important points.
  • You’ll be focusing on things that don’t motivate the prospect.
  • You’ll be missing things that they need to hear from you before they will buy.

In short, you’ll be trying to sell to them based on hunches and guesswork, rather than knowing exactly what they need to hear or see from you.

How to get it right

Only when you have a good idea of how they think and feel from their answers to your questions, should you start to explain how your service will benefit them.

By matching the focus and tone of your conversation, or presentation, to your prospect’s thoughts and feelings, you’ll be fully aligned with them. Yes, this makes the sales process a great deal smoother and easier.

But more importantly, it can dramatically increase your sales results.

Core essentials: Accelerate the growth of your business

By Jim Connolly | July 25, 2023

business development

Successful athletes focus heavily on building their core body strength. They know that a strong core is essential to their overall performance.

 Equally, a business needs to be strong in all its core areas if it wants to succeed. To get you started, I have included a few business-related cores you should focus on. Plus, I’ve added some guiding questions, to prompt you to find the specific answers you need.

The core values of your business: What does your business stand for? Do you just want to make money or do you want to make a difference?

The human core of your business: How effective are the people who work for your business? Do they receive regular training and appraisals? Is it time to invest in higher level people?

The core of your innovation: Do you introduce new products or services regularly enough? Do you seek out ways to improve existing products or services? Do you encourage problem solving? Is your business agile?

The core of your marketing message: Why should people buy from you or hire you, rather than one of your competitors? Is your message clear? Is it easy to share? Is your message compelling enough to attract the attention of your marketplace? Does your business have a story, which people tell their friends about? Can your message be improved?

With a strong business core, you’ll be ready and able to seize future opportunities. You’ll also be better equipped to weather the inevitable storms ahead.

And by regularly strengthening these core areas, you won’t just get strong. You’ll stay strong.

Make lots more mistakes

By Jim Connolly | July 24, 2023

It’s not only okay to make marketing mistakes, they’re absolutely essential if you want your business to grow in any meaningful way.

Here’s why these mistakes are so important. And why you might want to re-evaluate how you feel about making mistakes with your marketing.

Let’s go!

make more mistakes

Why are marketing mistakes okay?

They’re okay because they’re temporary.

Temporary?

Yes. Much of the marketing we do can be adjusted in minutes, with useful feedback sometimes obtained in hours.

For example, you can try a new call-to-action on your website. Then, check the conversion rate as soon as you have enough data in. If it’s worse or no better than the previous call-to-action, try a better one next time.

You’ll either win fast or you’ll learn fast. Not bad, eh?

Instead of thinking of your marketing as a somewhat rigid set of activities, try thinking of it as a series of temporary steps. Steps that you replace with something better, as you try new things. Because that’s exactly what the most effective marketing looks like.

Why are marketing mistakes essential?

They’re essential because you can’t possibly know if a new marketing idea or activity will work without testing it first. So, if you’re committed to growing your business, you’ll be committed to testing different ways to improve your results.

With testing comes measuring.

Measuring is where you find out what works.

It’s also where you find out what doesn’t work (the mistakes).

As such, the business owner who seldom makes a mistake with their marketing, seldom tries anything new and is leaving money on the table every day.

You may have heard the story about how Steve Jobs reprimanded team members, if they were not making mistakes often enough. Whether that’s true or just part of the Steve Jobs legend, the fact remains that mistakes are directly linked to progress. In trying to avoid mistakes with your marketing, by repeating what feels comfortable, you inadvertently block your business from the very success you long for.

So, expect marketing mistakes.

No… Scrub that.

Welcome marketing mistakes for what they truly are: A critically important part of the success of your business.

It’s a love thing

By Jim Connolly | July 19, 2023

benefits features, marketing, people buy benefits

It’s your business and quite rightly, you love it. You love your products or services, too. This partly explains a very common problem with small business marketing. It’s a mistake that’s a twist on the old benefits and features idea, and even some marketing providers make it.

Allow me to explain

When you love your business, it feels right to focus on the amazing things your specific product or service does. After all, you put a huge amount of time and effort into building your product or developing your service.

The challenge here, is that those details, points and features are not what convert your prospects into customers. Your prospects are motivated by the value your business, products or services will give them. They’re inspired to buy based on the benefits and amazing value you’re offering them. And you almost certainly already knew that.

You see, whilst every business owner knows that people buy based on benefits, not features, many of them still make the mistake of marketing based on features.

Why?

Because they don’t know they’re doing it!

It’s a ‘love thing’.

They’re so passionate about their product or service that they just have to tell you what it is, how it works and how proud they are of it. For example, they may have spent years of their life and invested a fortune financially, to develop (a training course, software package, consultancy or whatever). They want you to know how clever, amazing or comprehensive it is.

Often, they do that and completely forget to tell you how it will directly benefit you. Or leave it too late to tell you, so you’ve lost interest and moved on.

Take another look at your marketing. And seek out every opportunity to shift the primary focus away from features and onto the benefits of hiring you or buying your product.

By sharing these compelling benefits, so your prospect can clearly see and feel the value you’re offering, you massively increase the likelihood of them buying from you.

No one gives you the initiative

By Jim Connolly | July 11, 2023

take the initiative

There’s something wonderful and extremely powerful about initiative.

Just think about this for a moment. No one gives you the initiative. You take the initiative.

It’s that last part that is easy to overlook. Initiative us something we take. This means it’s down to us to make things happen. And this is true regardless of where we are right now. Regardless of what season our business is going through. Regardless of how the economy is performing. Regardless of our age, industry, background or our past performance.

Initiative: Your free, always-on opportunity

Better still, not only are we free to take the initiative. We’re free to take it any time we choose to. We have the green light to make something amazing happen.

Those are not just empty words.

Any business owner right now, who’s looking to improve their current situation can make amazing things happen.

And that’s because:

  • We’re free to take the initiative and build great relationships with the key people in our industry.
  • We’re free to take the initiative and answer important problems, which prospective clients will eagerly pay us to solve.
  • We’re free to take the initiative and massively improve the course of our business and our future.
  • We’re free to take the initiative and develop a better version of an existing product, which customers will flock to.
  • We’re free to take the initiative and endeavour to become a leader in our industry.
  • We’re free to take the initiative and strive to provide the best customer service in our industry.
  • We’re free to take the initiative and generously encourage others.
  • We’re free to take the initiative and connect people who may be able to help one another.
  • We’re free to take the initiative and improve one key area of our business, every week.
  • We’re free to take the initiative and increase our knowledge.

And we’re free to take the initiative with a thousand other useful things.

Sometimes, what we need in order to turn things around is a gentle nudge in the right direction. A reminder to take the initiative and make things happen, rather than passively wait for someone to give us the initiative.

That’s why I wrote this today. I hope this brief message provides you with a gentle nudge of encouragement.

How to find your hidden opportunities

By Jim Connolly | June 29, 2023

unmet needs, marketing, usp

Right now, your marketplace has unmet needs. That may not sound particularly exciting.

But it should.

Why?

Because when you provide what they need, you gain a powerful advantage over all of your competitors.

It’s easier than you think

Unmet needs are usually easy to find. That’s because your clients or customers will tell you what they are.

Here’s a quick example from a couple of years ago.

I met with the owner of a successful accountancy practice. She focused on serving local, independent retailers. During our first meeting, I asked if any of her clients had requested something that her practice did not currently provide. She said that clients would sometimes say they wished accountants opened earlier. Her practice, and all the others in her area, opened no earlier than 8:45am. Her clients explained that even if they got the earliest meeting slot, they would have to open their store an hour late. That costs them valuable trading time and money.

I suggested the accountant trialled opening her practice an hour earlier, 2-days a week, for 8-weeks. Then, we would measure the results. She agreed, and had 4 of her team available from 7:45am. It became immediately obvious that the new opening times were extremely popular. These early slots were always the first to get booked. After 4 or 5-weeks the accountant started getting new clients from referrals; when her clients told other retailers about the earlier opening times. After the trial period, the early opening was made permanent and extended to 3-days a week.

Note: By the time her competitors figured out what was happening, my client already owned the retailer-friendly chunk of her marketplace.

Is it always as easy as that?

No. Sometimes it’s even easier and sometimes it’s a little trickier. But it’s never particularly difficult.

The challenge is figuring out how to provide the unmet need. You have to find a way that’s both effective and sustainable for you.

Is it worth a try?

Yes, definitely. The upside when you get this right can be huge.

10 Marketing ideas and oodles of useful resources

By Jim Connolly | June 26, 2023

how create, new high profitable service

Here are some marketing ideas, along with links to useful resources.

But first, I have a little surprise for you.

If you need immediate marketing results this post has you covered. It’s one of the most popular ever published on my blog and has tons of ideas, many of which can be deployed in minutes. And as you’d expect from me, none of them require you spending a penny on ads.

Now for those 10 ideas.

  1. Do you already know the most influential people in your industry? If not, discover who they are and introduce yourself to them. The better connected you are, the easier it is for you to succeed.
  2. How can you make it feel less risky for people to buy from you? The lower the risk, the greater their motivation will be.
  3. Is your marketing useful or does it read like a sales pitch? Remember, people hate being sold to.
  4. Does your marketing create enough urgency? You need people to take immediate action; to hire you, buy from you, make an enquiry, fill in your contact form, subscribe, etc., while they’re engaged with your marketing material. This post will help you. It’s a long read, with stacks of tips.
  5. What was the last piece of marketing, which inspired you to take action? Review it and look for ways to adapt its powerful message into your own marketing.
  6. Who already has the attention and trust of your prospective customers? Consider a Joint Venture or Endorsed Relationship with them. This post will help you.
  7. What is the biggest barrier that blocks prospects from hiring you or buying from you? Figure out how to remove it. Then, let them know. Tip: There’s always, always a way to remove the barrier.
  8. How tricky would your clients find it, if they needed to replace your services? You need to be as irreplaceable as possible. This post will help you.
  9. Have you considered offering a premium version of your services, for high-value prospective clients who are eager to pay more, for the ‘extra’? This post will help you.
  10. Is your business providing you with the quality of life you want? If not, don’t lower your expectations. Raise your revenues and profits instead.

I hope you found this useful.

Empathy in marketing: It’s absolutely essential!

By Jim Connolly | June 23, 2023

marketing empathy, marketing with feeling

How interested are you, regarding the challenges facing your prospective clients or customers? That may seem like an odd question, but your answer is spectacularly important.

Why?

Because the most effective marketing, and strongest business relationships, are all built on a foundation of empathy: The ability to understand and share in the feelings of another person.

Think about it for a moment.

  • The vendors you are most loyal to, are those you feel have a connection with you.
  • The vendors you tell your friends about, are those you feel confident recommending.
  • The vendors you feel closest to, are those who understand your wants and needs, because they took time to find out.
  • And the vendors you appreciate the most, are those you feel you actually ‘know’.

Conversely, the vendors you have no interest in are those who have a mostly transactional relationship with you. These are the vendors that don’t really give a rat’s ass about you or what matters to you. Their focus is cold and based on how to maximize their yield from you.

Show your empathy through your marketing

Despite the value of demonstrating empathy and the damage caused by a transactional focus, most marketing lacks feeling. Instead we’re hit with needy messages transparently designed to milk us like a cash cow; sales pitches, killer deals, special offers and marketing gimmicks. It’s stripped of empathy, yet that human connection is the most valuable part.

Here’s the thing:

Business is all about people. And marketing is about how those people feel.

That’s because our feelings are what drive the decisions we make and the actions we take. Feelings are what cause people to hire you, buy from you, recommend you and remain a loyal customer. Without those feelings there’s no connection.

And without that connection, you and your business lose.

You know that you care about your customers and the community you serve. So, don’t keep it a secret. Instead, make empathy a visible part of the way you do business and the way you market your business.

Look for empathy opportunities

Proactively look for ways to demonstrate empathy.

Yes, demonstrate!

Words have amazing power. But when you show someone, it has massively greater impact, than when you merely tell them.

Here’s a suggestion. Do a review of the way you communicate with your customers and prospective customers. Are you creating empathy? Are you building them-focused relationships? If not, put it right.

Because when you do, it will radically improve the way they feel about you. And those feelings are what drive their decisions and actions.

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Hi! I'm Jim Connolly and I help small business owners to increase sales, boost their profits and build amazing businesses. Read more here.

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