Jim Connolly Marketing

Marketing tips and ideas to help you grow your business

The marketing power of being first

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Photo: Shutterstock.

I’d like you to consider the following, seemingly unrelated facts. They’ll provide you with a really useful insight for your business.

  • Although it’s 2022, we still remember Sir Roger Bannister as the first person to run a mile in under 4 minutes.
  • Apple became the world’s most valuable company, largely from the profits of its iPhone; the world’s first smart phone.

There are a couple of really valuable business lessons here.

When you are the first to do something, it’s talked about and it’s remembered for a very long time. We remember Bannister, even though Australia’s John Landy broke Bannister’s record just weeks later. Landy was faster, yet remained relatively unknown because he wasn’t the first person to go sub 4 minutes. The first person was covered worldwide in the media of the day. Landy was largely ignored.

Secondly, it doesn’t have to be perfect. The first iPhone was really buggy. It even lacked a basic copy and paste facility for over a year! However, it was extremely useful, compared to the so-called feature phones that preceded it.

You and your business

Here’s a highly valuable question to ask yourself: What useful adjustment or change to your product or service, could you be the first in your industry to provide (locally, nationally or globally), in response to the current economic challenges?

Here’s why that question is potentially of so much value to you.

You don’t need anyone to tell you that we live in very uncertain times right now, or that lots of business owners are struggling. However, other businesses large and small are innovating and inspiring their marketplace, just like they did at the start of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020.

Again, just as in 2020, the businesses that will thrive are the ones willing to adapt to the new, commercial realities.

It’s easier than you might think

Fortunately, you don’t need to reinvent the wheel. For example, an idea that’s common in another industry may be unheard of in yours. It just needs to be new to your locality, industry, profession or marketplace.

And it absolutely doesn’t need to be perfect. It just needs to be useful, based on the 2022 requirements of the market you serve.

The wrong kind of people

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marketing, prospecting

You can’t build the right kind of business, with the wrong kind of people.

  • If the wrong kind of people work for you, they’ll ruin your business.
  • If the wrong kind of people hire you, they’ll ruin your business.

The solution seems simple: Decide exactly who the right people are. And then intentionally hire, and market to, the right people.

The tricky part? Saying ‘no’ to the wrong kind of people!

That’s why the best time to hire someone is before you desperately need a position filled. And the best time to choose a new client, is before you desperately need a new client.

It’s that easy.

And it’s that difficult.

But it’s required.

Great ideas are not anointed

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marketing ideas

In business, great ideas are not anointed. They flop or fly based on feedback from your marketplace.

Sure, you can do a thought experiment. You can sketch an idea out and estimate what the possible outcomes might be.

The thing is, the only way to really know if that idea of yours will fly, is to try it. To put your idea in play.

Yes, do the research. Be sure to do the planning, too. But then you need to get moving. You need to take action and shift your idea from concept to reality.

Taking action requires courage, because once your idea is in play, it has the potential to flop. However, taking action is the only way to give your idea wings. And the best idea in the world can’t fly, without wings.

Stay in your comfort zone

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stay in your comfort zone, comfortzones

You really should stay in your comfort zone.

Yes. Really!

Comfort zones are perfectly fine. Just ask anyone at the top of their field and / or getting what they want from life. They will 100% agree that they’re in their comfort zone!

There’s just one pretty-small caveat. You need to be comfortable, when doing the things that are consistent with what you want from life. If you are, you’d be a fool to leave your comfort zone.

If you’re not getting what you want, and not comfortable enough to do what’s required, it isn’t a zone issue. Blaming the zone is nothing more than passing the buck.

It’s a YOU issue.

Thankfully, that places it fully under your control.

Get noticed: Make a difference, not a noise

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get noticed, make noise, make difference

It’s hard to get noticed today. And there’s a really good reason why.

The world has a social media megaphone. Everyone can now tell everybody about everything.

To compound the noise pollution, thousands (and thousands) of influencers and brands are encouraging their flocks to amplify the noise.

Here’s the thing: As the noise from this chatter has increased, we’ve become better and better at ignoring it. Yes, technology let’s us filter the notifications and reduce the noise somewhat. But we ourselves are paying less attention to the chatter. It tends to wash over us.

Getting noticed

And that’s really, really important for business owners to know.

Why?

Because now that talk is cheaper than ever, our actions have spectacularly more impact.

  • People don’t notice the noise. Certainly not beyond a surface level.
  • They notice the difference we make. And this is especially true, when we make a positive difference to them or something they care about; their business for example.

In short, to earn the attention and trust of our prospective clients, we need to look for ways to demonstrate the value we bring, which they’ll find useful. If it’s useful (to them) it isn’t noise. So, they pay attention.

Get noticed above the noise

Rather than having a ton of social media accounts and filling them with noise (automated retweets, funny images and GIF’s, sharing famous quotes, etc), go for quality. Make a difference.

The message you’re reading right now is an example of what I mean. By taking a little time this morning, I’ve produced this information, which I believe some of you will find useful.

  • I do almost nothing on Facebook.
  • I don’t even have a Linkedin account.
  • I share ideas, like this one, and I use Twitter.

That’s it.

And every day, amazing prospective clients reach out to me.

Here’s the thing.

It’s increasingly hard to get noticed on social networks. Millions of business owners, marketing people and agencies are using the same, so-called tricks and tactics. And in doing so, they become camouflaged by the millions of others, who are doing the same thing.

We need to step away from the noise, my friend.

If you find you’re not getting the results you and your business need, focus on making a difference. Find something you can do, which will have a positive impact (be useful) to your prospective clients.

It’s less time consuming than adding to the noise, and massively more effective.