Jim Connolly Marketing

Marketing in a hurry

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marketing blogs

I shared the following idea with a group of very smart entrepreneurs. They found it useful, so I thought I’d share it with you.

It’s simply this:

“Marketing isn’t something you do in a hurry, when business is sluggish. It’s an ongoing part of running a successful business”.

Successful business owners already understand this. As a result, there is a growing awareness of them in their marketplace. And because successful businesses use content marketing, their prospective clients (or customers) will regularly receive useful information from them. This useful information not only informs their prospective clients, it helps build trust.

Awareness and trust are essential. And ongoing, content marketing achieves both. Here’s how it works.

The rest market sporadically. Usually, when business is sluggish. So they take their need for sales to the marketplace, via special offers or out-of-the-blue advertising.

Because they fail to market on an ongoing basis, their prospective clients have no real awareness of them. And no awareness means no trust. So, even if the prospective client has a requirement, the marketing fails.

It has to fail. That’s because people buy from providers they trust. And a competing provider, whose marketing they regularly receive and whose brand they know, already has the prospective client’s awareness and trust.

In short, make content marketing an ongoing part of your business. Not something you do when times are tough. Get it right and you’ll find you never have to market from a position of need again.

Being there

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Being there is extremely important. That’s because it says something remarkable about you. And as such, it has a huge impact on the way people feel about you.

Being there is especially important:

  • When people are relying on you to be there.
  • When people need your help, your understanding or your support.
  • When people know it would be easier for you not to be there.
  • When people can see you’re going the extra mile.
  • When people are in need of your leadership. This has never been more important, than in 2020.
  • And when you not only show up, but show up on time and with the right attitude.

It’s easy to make promises. It’s easy to agree deadlines. It’s easy to tell people that they can rely on you.

Ultimately, it’s what you do that matters.

By being there when people are relying on you and when they need you, you tell them a great deal, without saying a word:

  • You give clients (or customers) confirmation that they were right to trust you.
  • You show clients and prospective clients what they can expect from you in the future.
  • You earn and re-earn a reputation for reliability.
  • You make yourself and your business, super-easy for people to recommend to their friends.
  • You build deeper, stronger commercial relationships and an outstanding reputation.

It’s hard to overstate just how massive an impact this can have on your business. Especially when so many business owners are scaling back on the human touch, and automating everything they can.

Be there when people need you. Because they have never needed you more than they do, right now.

The next good step

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next good step

Here’s something business owners can all agree on: It’s hard to plan ahead during a pandemic. We never know when the next restriction will be introduced. We don’t know for certain when the next restriction will be lifted, or how long it will stay that way.

One of the natural reactions to this kind of instability, is to become overwhelmed. And with overwhelm comes a tendency to stall, as we don’t know what to do amid the flux and confusion.

A business that stalls on decisions, when the world around them is moving fast, is a business that’s failing to adapt to the needs of the world around them. Such a business will soon cease to be relevant. It’s easy prey for its agile competitors. And that’s a 100% unsustainable position, given the likely duration of the pandemic and the years of economic recovery after the coronavirus has passed.

Here’s one very effective way to overcome the core problem of inertia caused by being overwhelmed (yes, I feel it too). It’s time tested. And it’s what has guided every step I have taken with my own business, since the start of the pandemic.

It’s based around a very simple question.

What is the next good step?

For example, when I feel overwhelmed with the constantly changing situation, I grab my notebook, get outside and look at the needs of my clients. I then ask myself, what’s the next good step, to help them thrive. I then take it. I look at the needs of my readers and ask myself, what’s the next good step, to provide a nugget of useful information for my reader community? I then take it. (It’s why I am writing this for you at 7am on Friday 25th September). And I look at the needs of my local community and ask myself, what’s the next good step, to help the most vulnerable people? I then take it.

Once you’ve taken the next good step, take the next. You get the idea.

You can’t do everything. But you can do something. In fact, as a business owner you must do something. So just focus on one step. The next good step. And do that. You’ll soon discover that taking action beats the feeling of being overwhelmed. It puts you back in the driving seat.

What’s the next good step for you to take right now? Think about it. Then take it.

Crank up your fees by 500 percent

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marketing premium service

In today’s post, I’m going to share a proven idea with you that can massively increase your revenues and profits. It’s something I’ve done successfully for countless clients over the years. And it’s based on a wonderfully effective business model, too.

I’d like to start by asking you to consider the following. I want you to imagine for a moment, that your clients paid you significantly more than they do now. Maybe 300% or 500% more.

Now hold that thought.

If they were paying you that rate:

  • You could give them considerably more of your individual attention.
  • You could provide them with a dramatically better level of service.
  • Your clients would value you more. So, they’d keep returning, delighted with the service they receive from you.
  • Your clients would also recommend you to their friends, many of whom would then become clients. Remember, birds of a feather flock together. People who value premium services and can afford them, have lots of contacts with the same mindset and resources.
  • And these new clients would be just as delighted… so they would recommend you to their friends.
  • Repeat.

Before you know it, you could have a premium quality client base, growing organically.

Premium quality clients. Growing organically. Surely that’s worth considering?

Maybe it’s time you considered offering a premium version of your services. Your marketplace already has a highly profitable subset, who value quality and will very happily pay more for it. In fact, they eagerly seek it out.

And that’s not all.

The premium quality corner of your marketplace is not only the most profitable. It’s also, by far, the least competitive. It’s the middle ground, which is always stuffed full of competing providers, forcing fees down.

Just think how your business would thrive, with higher fees, higher profits, happier clients and less competition.

Average is easy. But it’s overcrowded and overrated.

Excuses and explanations. Time machines and chickens

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There are explanations and there are excuses. Although some small business owners often use them interchangeably, they have very different meanings.

When you consciously understand the difference, it can transform your business, just as it transformed my own business. I explain how in a moment.

First, here’s a very simple look at the difference between explanations and excuses.

  • Explanations explain why or offer reasons.
  • Excuses deny responsibility.

Here are a couple of common examples.

Explanations and excuses

The small business owner who says there aren’t enough hours in the day, for them to correct a business problem, is not giving an explanation. They’re making an excuse. They have enough time. They get the same 24 hours every day as the most successful people in their industry. By believing that they don’t have enough time, they’re excusing themselves from making the improvements required, for their business to operate effectively. At least until they discover a time machine.

Maybe the most common type of excuse in business, is the famous chicken and egg scenario. This excuse is used when someone wants to avoid making a decision. A decision where there’s risk involved.

For example, ‘I can’t hire my first employee until I’m making enough money, but I’ll never make enough money until I hire someone’.

Because they unconsciously want to avoid making a decision, they choose to believe that there is no way out. This approach to decision making is toxic, because we place a very low ceiling on our potential, if we dodge the major decisions. All of which come with an element of risk. That’s why you have never, and will never, hear a successful business owner described as a poor decision maker.

Excuses and explanations feel similar

I’ve found that business owners don’t intentionally make excuses. They almost always believe they’re giving an explanation. This was certainly how it was for me! I used to believe that my excuses (I had lots) were actually reasonable explanations. It was only after I learned the difference between excuses and explanations, that I was able to correct things. As a direct result, I was then free to start making better decisions.

Take some time to look at explanations you have made (to yourself or others) regarding your business. Look closely for explanations, which could be excuses in disguise. This includes the chicken and egg / time machine kind of examples I gave earlier.

By making yourself consciously aware of the difference between explanations and excuses, you’ll find it easier to make better decisions. It certainly worked wonders for me and my business.

More importantly, I hope it does the same for you and your business, my friend.

Stop offering freebies. Seriously. Stop it!

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stop offering free advice, stop free consultations, freebies

Image: Charles Deluvio

A lot of service providers offer free initial consultations as a way to attract new clients. However, it’s one of the most dangerous things they can do.

Here are just 3 of the major problems caused by free consultations.

1. Free consultations make you look desperate

By giving your time away for free, you give the impression that you’re sat in a quiet office, with no clients. And nothing to do.

You’re literally (not figuratively) placing zero value on your time. That’s a very negative image to create in the mind of your prospective clients.

It paints all the wrong pictures. It damages your reputation, because looking desperate isn’t a good look! As such, it totally devalues your services. It also acts as a warning sign to genuine prospective clients, who will not hire what looks like a failing service provider.

It’s a toxic soup. Pure poison.

2. Free consultations attract time wasters like a magnet

Whilst high quality prospective clients are put off by needy looking service providers, free consultations are super-attractive to freebie hunters. These never-to-be clients flock to them.

Freebie hunters are time wasters who refuse to pay for professional help. Instead, they sign up for everything they can get for free, then try and do it themselves.

It looks something like this:

  • The freebie hunter searches the internet for service providers who offer free consultations.
  • They then contact the provider and request a free consultation, pretending to be a prospective client.
  • They know the service provider will try and impress them with their knowledge.
  • So, they ask for advice on their specific problems.

Don’t become a target for freebie hunters. Just don’t. Seriously.

3. Free consultations trap you in a dangerous cycle

Giving your time away for free to strangers can’t solve your marketing problems. It will simply guarantee that you stay stuck. That’s because it locks you inside a negative cycle.

The cycle looks something like this:

  1. You need more, paying clients.
  2. So, you offer free initial consultations, placing zero value on your time.
  3. This makes you look needy (at best).
  4. Any genuine prospective clients who see this are presented with a desperate looking image, which damages your reputation.
  5. This obviously repels the exact clients you want (and need) to attract.
  6. And this is on top of whatever your previous marketing problem was, which led you to giving your time away.
  7. You remain stuck.
  8. So, it’s back to step 1 again.

Thankfully, there are proven ways to make your business succeed. Strategies that attract the right clients or customers. Strategies that are perfect for you and what you want to achieve. This is where you need to focus. Anything else is unsustainable, totally avoidable and less than you deserve.