Jim Connolly Marketing

I’m really confused

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marketing tips, marketing advice

I’m confused.

Really confused.

Here’s why.

You say you provide a great quality service, but your fees are pretty close to average. You give various reasons to hire you, but your services look a lot like your competitors. And the wording on your website reads just like all the others I’ve checked out in your industry.

Obviously, I’m not reviewing your marketing. But someone is. And that person is (or was) a prospective client.

Today, anyone can check you or your business out in a matter of minutes. It has never been easier for the marketplace to build a picture of you. That’s why it’s critically important to make sure our promises are matched by our marketing.

The instant a prospective client senses a disconnect between what we claim, and what they experience, we lose them. Even if we get a second chance, it’s a huge struggle to repair a bad first impression.

If you’re working hard to provide a high quality, professional service, it’s essential that your marketing is equally as professional.

It’s an easy win.

It’s a huge win, too. Because those people who currently can’t ‘see’ that you’re exactly what they’re looking for, will start hiring you, as soon as your marketing has opened their eyes.

Marketing 101: Never sell to a stranger again

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marketing, content

Smart people speak, because they have something to say.

Dull people speak, because they have to say something.

And the difference between those approaches is huge!

The same is true in business

When smart business owners connect with their marketplace, they have something interesting to share. When the average business owner connects with their marketplace, it’s usually a sales pitch or special offer.

Most small business owners connect with their marketplace when they need something. They need more clients, customers or sales… so they interrupt strangers with a needy message. They have nothing of interest to say.

Yes, the business owner is interested in gaining clients, customers or sales, but that’s only of interest to the business owner.

The marketplace just sees another sales message from a stranger and ignores it.

Here’s a far more successful approach

Successful small business owners do things very differently. They remain in contact with their marketplace on an ongoing basis. They use their newsletters to create and share useful articles. Some also produce videos or podcasts. The point is, they share VALUABLE, USEFUL ideas and information… rather than broadcast sales pitches and needy requests.

This keeps the smart business owner ‘front of mind’ and showcases their knowledge.

But it does WAY MORE than that.

It also causes their marketplace to think of them as a valuable asset to their business. And if a business owner keeps delivering value for long enough, the marketplace will regard them as reliable, too.

So, the business owner is no longer a stranger. They’re a known, reliable, valued source of knowledge.

Now, when the smart business owner DOES have a marketing message to share, it’s received with enthusiasm. It’s received by people who, before they even read it, already know and value the source of the message.

Just stop for a moment and consider this: Think of all the additional clients you’d attract, if the already knew who you were, already knew you were helpful, already knew you were reliable and already knew you were extremely knowledgeable… the next time they need a provider from your industry.

I’m telling you, it changes everything.

I haven’t sold my services to anyone in decades. But small business owners, freelancers, advisers, photographers, accountants, trainers, etc., hire me all the time.

And they always feel like they already know me.

Because they do!

You deserve the same.

Today: An incubator for opportunities to flourish

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marketing tips, incubator for opportunities

There’s no doubt that these are worrying times.

There’s equally no doubt that this scenario is an incubator for opportunities to flourish.

Allow me to explain.

We’re looking at 2021 with no clear idea about what impact COVID-19 will have. None of us know when things will return to normal.

Perhaps just as worrying, is that things are almost certainly going to be very different from before, when they return to normal.

So even ‘normal’ will look different, whenever it arrives.

Here’s the thing: When faced with confusion, the tendency is to worry. To hunker down until things go back the way they were. That’s not going to happen. The past truly is the past.

This means that business owners waiting for the old, familiar ways to return before planning what to do, have no end point. No defining date to bounce back stronger. So they’ll drift, which is a lousy idea because you can’t drift your way to success or even survival.

Two points about this confusion and worry

Firstly, as business owners we need to learn to dance with the confusion. Move with the challenges. Live with the changing direction of our marketplace. This means planning for the super short-term as well as the medium and long-term. Checking the numbers once a month is like running blind. Keeping our finger on the pulse is essential.

Secondly, as business owners we have to be very aware that this same confusion and nervousness is impacting everyone else. Our clients and customers are confused. So are our prospective clients and customers. Their decision making is likely to be a lot less predictable than it used to be. We need to keep this in mind, as contracts come up for renewal. We also need to acknowledge that our marketing has to adjust (and adjust and adjust) to the evolving situation, or we’ll become irrelevant.

Flourishing

Every business challenge creates an incubator for opportunities to flourish. Before calling bullshit, take those two points I just mentioned.

  • One business owner will see them as 100% negative.
  • Another will identify (at least) a dozen opportunities to improve their business and own their competitors.

What makes this a perfect storm to flourish, is that the vast majority of business owners are focused on the gloom. This static majority wait and hope, leaving their marketplace wide open to the motivated and agile minority.

  • Interestingly, both types of business owner are equally fearful.
  • All that changes is the reaction they choose when faced with fear. Their response.

Fear either inspires us to respond with positive action, or causes us to respond by hunkering down and doing nothing. It’s where the phrase ‘scared stiff’ comes from.

The key here is that both responses are a choice we make. And our choice is a critically important factor in our results over the coming months and years.

In short, look for the opportunities. If you can’t see them, find someone who knows where to look. Adapt and adjust as required. If you don’t know how, find someone who does.

What on earth are they thinking?

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feast famine cycle, what is, feast famine problem

I’ve been doing some thinking this morning.

  • I wonder why thousands of accountants pay, to use the exact same newsletter and marketing materials as their competitors… then complain because their look-alike firms attract fee sensitive client enquiries.
  • I wonder why marketing professionals join networking groups, desperately looking for leads, when they’re supposed to know how to attract the very best clients.
  • I wonder why most business owners have no idea who the top 5 or 10 people in their industry are, yet they can name the judges on a TV talent show.
  • I wonder why business owners say the reason their customers don’t recommend them, is that ‘their customers’ just aren’t that type, even though it’s provably incorrect.

Here’s one possible answer

Much like web designers who have ugly websites and communications companies who use bland messaging, I believe there’s too little thought given to the consequences. These situations occur when decisions are made (and avoided) with too little consideration of the effects they will have.

On a surface level, the decisions mentioned here are easy to make. So easy, they’re almost non-decisions.

For example.

  • Maybe the accountants with bought-in newsletters see them as a tiny financial investment, thus of equally little risk. They’re not thinking enough about the consequences of trying to grow their practice, with a cookie cutter approach.
  • Maybe the marketing person in the networking group hopes no one will notice the irony of their membership. And if their business is already struggling, they may not even care about the medium-term impact it will have on their reputation.
  • Maybe the business owners who are less informed about the top contacts in their marketplace, than the judges on a TV show, just want to chill after a hard day at work. They may not necessarily care that much, about the influential people in their niche.
  • And maybe the business owners who would rather assume their clients ‘just don’t recommend service providers’, aren’t ready yet to face the reality that they’re not referable.

Here’s the thing. Our results are always telling us something. It’s our job to listen. To take heed. And then to take action. That’s always sound advice, but never more so than today.

The common factor behind self-made millionaires

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In every industry, during every economy, there are businesses that thrive. There’s no mystery as to why this happens. In fact, we can choose to become one of them. And that’s what today’s message is all about.

I’m very specifically referring to the business owners who:

  • Have the courage to do things their way. As Warren Buffett says, the best investors sell when everyone else is buying, and buy when everyone else is selling.
  • Have the courage to turn away the wrong kind of projects and clients. They know that no business can thrive without a strong client base or customer base.
  • Have the courage to develop innovative, new products or services.
  • Have the courage to refuse to do average work. They know that people judge them based on the quality of their work. So they set the bar high and increase their value.
  • Have the courage to set deadlines and deliver as promised. They’ve figured out that this is one of the best ways to earn the trust of their clients.
  • Have the courage to charge 100% or 500% more than the industry average.
  • Have the courage to focus on what they want. They’ve learned that we tend to move in the direction of what we focus on. So they refuse to focus on what they fear.
  • Have the courage to lead. When everyone else is waiting for someone to take action, these business owners lead by example.

Time and again, I find that the most common factor behind successful business owners and entrepreneurs, is courage.

The role of courage in business success

Fact: A courageous business owner will always outperform a fearful one. This holds true, no matter how smart the fearful business owner is.

For instance, many of the most fearful and least successful business owners I have met or studied, were very highly educated. However, as former US president Calvin Coolidge famously said, “The world is full of educated derelicts“. They were great at detail. Wonderful with research, yet lousy when it came to leaving their comfort zones. They lacked the courageous mindset of an entrepreneur.

Smart and courageous

Conversely, Apple was co-founded by a courageous university drop-out. And Steve Jobs was not alone. Dell founder Michael Dell never graduated. Nor did Henry Ford, Wendy’s CEO or Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison. (Ellison is worth an estimated $54 Billion, around 10 times more than Sir Richard Branson). Smart people for sure. That goes without saying.

My point is that their lack of academic qualifications had no negative impact on their success, and that gaining academic qualifications is no guarantee of success.

In the 25 years since starting my business, I’ve worked with thousands of business owners. I’ve found that nothing can stop a smart, courageous business owner from succeeding. And that nothing can stop a smart, fearful business owner from being average… at best.

The good news is that courage is NOT the absence of fear.

Courage is a choice we make.

Courage is how we choose to respond when faced with the risk that comes with every genuine opportunity. It’s how we choose to respond when faced with the current uncertainty.

And we can choose to start acting with courage, whenever we wish.

How a failing business increased revenues by over 1100%

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Almost every small business owner is wasting their time and money on the wrong kind of marketing.

Here’s why you’re probably making the same mistake, plus an example of what happens, when you switch to the right kind of marketing.

The wrong kind of marketing

I’m referring to the obvious stuff that small business owners think of, when they consider marketing.

This includes the things they do when business is quiet and they have to do SOMETHING. The things that look easy enough for them to try. The things they copy from their competitors. The predictable, uninspiring messages they put on their websites, newsletters and social media accounts. In short: the obvious things that small business owners dabble with.

That’s not how you grow a business. No. That’s running blind, hoping you’ll get lucky. And it’s why the majority of small businesses go broke.

The right kind of marketing

I’m referring to creative marketing. You already know what creative marketing looks like. It’s what 100% of successful businesses do; from the expanding small businesses in your marketplace, to the consultants who work from home yet service international brands and earn a fortune. It’s also what the world’s fastest-growing brands do and how they stay ahead.

Creative marketing is not only spectacularly effective, it’s rare among small (and medium-sized) businesses. Really rare. This is one of the reasons it’s so powerful, compared to the dabbling bullshit I mentioned earlier.

Here are just a handful of reasons why creative marketing is so powerful.

  • It’s hard to copy, which means it carries on working.
  • It requires little or zero money, so your competitors can’t out-spend you (think about that for a moment).
  • It stands out, so you get noticed.
  • It helps you differentiate your business, products or services, so you never have to sell based on prices / fees or work with low value clients.
  • It inspires your prospective clients to take action.
  • It gets shared. This increases the reach of your marketing.
  • It’s memorable. Because small business marketing is useless, creative marketing finds it easy to make a positive, memorable impact.
  • It touches people in a way that never happens with uncreative marketing.

Still not convinced?

I’d like to tell you about Sara.

What creative marketing can do

Sara emailed me before the pandemic and invited me to lunch. She’s semi-retired now, but I mentored her a while ago and we’ve been great friends ever since. She now knows how to creatively build an extremely profitable business, in any sector or industry. She’d previously been a very good business consultant, but always struggled to get the flow of high quality clients she needed. Sara went on to build an amazing business and today invests in small and medium-sized businesses.

Why am I telling you this?

Over lunch, Sara told me that 2 and a half years ago she’d invested in a small, independent bakery. The bakery was already employing great people, already using premium quality ingredients and already making delicious food. BUT too few of the right kind of customers knew it was there, as they’d been using typical, small business marketing.

Sara spotted an opportunity and because she knew the owners, she offered them a price for their business. They eagerly accepted, especially as Sara promised she’d employ the same team to run it. (And they were going broke).

I asked Sara how the bakery was doing. She said she’s increased the turnover by almost 1100% and it’s massively more profitable, too.

One thousand, one hundred percent.

Massively higher profits.

Remember: She kept the same team, the same levels of quality, the same delicious food. Her only change was to switch from typical small business marketing, to creative marketing.

This probably goes without saying

But I’ll say it anyway.

If you’re currently dabbling with the usual type of ineffective, small business marketing, it’s time to switch.

Switch to a deliberate, creativity-driven approach. It’s what 100% of my work is based on, both with my clients and my own business.

Punch above your weight, by creatively gaining the attention, trust and patronage of your marketplace (ahead of your competitors). Look to the future with excitement, not apprehension, because your creativity-driven approach works perfectly in every economy, location and industry.

And it has never been more effective, than it is right now.