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Finding diamonds. And 9 other tips

By Jim Connolly | November 21, 2023

small business, business tips, business ideas

Here are 10 characteristics, common to every successful business owner I have ever met or studied. I hope you find them useful.

  1. They look for the diamonds in every downturn. When something goes wrong, either internal to their business, or external to the economy, they focus on the opportunities it brings. And those diamond opportunities are always there.
  2. They make a study of business success. They listen to informed minds and take notes.
  3. They always have enough time to do everything required. That’s because they know the difference between a lack of time and a lack of direction. With direction you can achieve more in a day than others achieve in a week.
  4. They are self-starters. They don’t seek external motivation. They do what needs doing.
  5. They have learned when, and how, to say no.
  6. They are reliable and turn up even when it’s easier not to. This commitment to reliability is both rare and highly valued.
  7. They accept responsibility when they make a mistake. They learn the lessons, then set to work on improving things.
  8. They are good decision makers. Once they have the information required, they make a decision. They know that leaving decisions unmade is extremely counter-productive.
  9. They are eager to lead. They step forward, when others step back.
  10. They never mistake movement for progress. Others are moving, but doing figure eights.

If you found something above that could be useful to you, make a note of it now, while it’s fresh in your mind. Then, get to work on putting it into action. Act while the opportunity is hot, and the motivation is high.

Photo by Jon Tyson 

How to sell your services into massive companies

By Jim Connolly | November 19, 2023

marketing home run

Have you ever considered selling your services to huge corporations? If you haven’t, then maybe it’s time that you did. I’m going to show you how to remove the main barrier, and make it far easier for you to land extremely valuable clients.

Once you understand what I am about to share with you, you may find it easier to gain a $10,000 client than a $500 client.

Allow me to explain.

It’s amazing what big companies spend money on

I was prompted to write this, after remembering an email I received from a friend. He’s a head of department for a massive software corporation. He had just sat through what he called a “cringe-worthy” motivational talk from a former, professional sportsperson.

Apparently, the speaker:

  • Had no business background.
  • Had no idea about the challenges they face.
  • Didn’t understand their industry.
  • Didn’t offer a single idea for how they can improve things.
  • He “shared a few funny stories, dropped a few famous names and finished with a copy/paste you can achieve anything speech”.

My friend wanted to know, why do such people get hired as speakers by massive corporations?

Here’s why that guy was hired

The reason people like that get hired to speak is simple. More importantly, it also explains what motivates massive corporations to spend money on any kind of product or service.

That speaker may have been a waste of company money, but he was a very safe bet. An easy hire, with no risk attached.

Hang on Jim, if the guy is a waste of money, how can hiring him possibly be a very safe bet?

That’s a great question! :)

Here’s how it works:

  • The decision maker, who hired the guy, isn’t spending his or her own money. The money comes from a budget, which they need to spend.
  • The decision maker’s priority is to spend their budget every year without screwing up. So they invest in what they hope will be the safest, least risky option.
  • The risk with a speaker like this is close to zero. That’s because it’s hard to measure the impact of a talk in any meaningful way.
  • Bonus: The decision maker can’t be blamed even if the speaker is demonstrably terrible. After all, they did hire a famous person!
  • So, decision makers eagerly grab any opportunity to spend chunks of their budget on these low commercial value, but 100% risk free, speakers.

The lesson here?

I think there are a couple of lessons.

1. Corporations should reward courage

Corporations need to stop rewarding decision makers, for making lousy, but safe, decisions. Instead they need to reward courage. They need to reward decision makers for advancing the company with smart investments.

Until then, former sportspeople (or influencers, faded TV celebrities etc.), can fill their boots with very easy money. At least until their impact is measured and they are no longer a safe bet for decision makers.

2. It’s really easy to sell into huge corporations

If you’re selling into a billion dollar corporation, remember that the decision maker is frightened. They will only buy from you if you can convince them that you’re a super-safe bet. If they see you as a close to zero risk, they will pay you thousands, maybe tens of thousands. And if you’re really good on the day they’ll pay you regularly, too.

Of course, in order to sound as safe as possible you need some supporting evidence. Former sportspeople have their fame.

If you’re not a former, professional sportsperson, influencer or celebrity etc., you will need to work on building your brand, like the rest of us.

If the decision maker hasn’t heard of you, you’ll sound risky. So get your name out there for all the right reasons. Highlight notable media mentions, accomplishments and anything else that will reduce or eliminate the decision maker’s fear.

Then remember the following before you market your services:

  • You’re never selling to a billion dollar corporation.
  • You’re always selling to an individual, whose priority is not to make a mistake.

Lasting success for your business

Lasting success comes from achieving the balance of being a safe bet… AND being someone who provides measurable value.

Get that balance right and you’ll build yourself a world-class reputation. You’ll also find yourself able to attract the most valuable clients, again and again and again.

Photo: Shutterstock.

New is getting old

By Jim Connolly | November 9, 2023

marketing risk, new, change, fear of change

When it comes to creating a powerful marketing message and attracting customers, the word ‘new‘ is overrated. New is a very loaded word and can destroy your marketing results.

There are 3 broad reasons for this.

  1. The newest product or service is always a riskier bet. At best, it’s a bigger gamble than the trusted incumbent. At worst, the customer feels like a paying guinea pig.
  2. The newest product or service is seldom the best. It lacks the improvements that come from years of feedback. It lacks the robustness that comes from stress-testing.
  3. New doesn’t last for long. This makes it a short-term marketing message. Anything that’s new is only new for now.

A dozen better alternatives

Given the challenges of using the word new, I recommend you replace it with something more compelling. More motivating. More attractive. To get you started, here are 12 alternatives.

  1. A faster way.
  2. A more enjoyable way.
  3. A cleaner way.
  4. A proven way.
  5. A stylish way.
  6. An profitable way.
  7. A premium quality way.
  8. An ethical way.
  9. An exciting way.
  10. A safer way.
  11. A more reliable way.
  12. A cost effective way.

What next?

Take a look through your marketing and search for opportunities to replace new with a better alternative. This is usually in situations where new is used as the only adjective. 

Also, you can apply this to your presentations, negotiations or meetings. For example, if you’re trying to sell a new product, service or idea to someone, they’re more likely to pay attention when you tell them about your ‘more profitable way’ of doing something, than your ‘new way’ of doing something. 

Finally, in situations where you need to use the word new, such as a press release or product launch, combine it with another word. For example, new and improved. 

Photo by Werner Du plessis

Did you see what those liars are saying?

By Jim Connolly | November 7, 2023

marketing liars

Have you ever looked at the marketing promises made by your competitors?

  • Your most unreliable competitors will promise to deliver on time, every time.
  • Your lowest quality competitors will promise premium quality at low prices.
  • Your least competent competitors will promise a highly professional service.

And they’ll all have testimonials. Testimonials that are often the opposite of what a real client or customer will experience from them.

It’s horrible. It sucks. But it makes sense

After all, they’re hardly likely to admit that working with them or buying from them is a total nightmare. You see, the mindset that says it’s okay to produce low quality work and charge over the odds for it, has no problem being dishonest in other areas of their business.

What does this have to do with you?

Everything!

It has everything to do with you. And here’s why.

Your prospective clients or customers have been lied to before. This means the claims you legitimately make in YOUR marketing will only be treated seriously, if you back them up.

Here are a couple of tips to help you make the truth of your marketing a lot more believable.

One way to add credibility, is to link from your website to external sources. For example, link from your website to external reviews or positive media coverage. Similarly, if you’ve been accredited by a respected organisation, link to the page on their website, where you’re mentioned.

Another way to add credibility, is to turn up regularly with useful information, via a newsletter, a blog, a podcast or on social networks, etc. By providing genuinely useful, informed advice, you demonstrate your knowledge. By doing this regularly, you show your reliability. This also gives you an opportunity to show your personality. By demonstrating your knowledge and allowing your marketplace to get to know you, you create a potent marketing mix that really helps you to build trust.

Please don’t just find this advice interesting.

Do something with it.

When the economy is in bad shape, people think a lot harder before making any investments. This includes investing in the services or products you provide. Showcase your credibility and make the decision to invest in you as easy as possible.

Set your business free from this limiting belief

By Jim Connolly | November 3, 2023

marketing, failure, success

With 2024 less than 2 months away, I’d like to help you overcome one of the biggest barriers to business success. If you do, you’ll set yourself up for an amazing year ahead.

Ready?

Then lets go my friend.

It starts with one of the biggest paradoxes in business. The only way to succeed more often, is to increase your failure rate. (I’ll give you 3 examples of why this is provably correct in a moment).

The challenge here, is that many small business owners have not yet figured this out. They avoid taking action on their ideas, unless they are convinced, in advance, the idea will work out exactly how they want it to.

That’s an exceptionally high bar to set. So they tend to leave most of their ideas on the drawing board. Including the ideas that would have made them a fortune.

Broadly speaking, there are only three potential outcomes after you take action on a business idea. And you can benefit massively from all three of them.

  1. It might work out just how you wanted, right out the box! A quick win. An instant hit. 
  2. It might work later, after you make some adjustments. By putting an idea into action, you attract feedback. Feedback allows you to tweak and improve. And improvements lead to success.
  3. It might flop. If it does, you get to learn from it and invest that learning into future opportunities. These failure lessons help you build an invaluable reservoir of feedback, which leads to better and better decision making. This is how ALL ongoing success happens.

When you fully understand the value of feedback, it becomes a lot easier to take action with your ideas and insights. That’s because you will have eliminated any irrational fear of failure. Just like every successful business owner before you. 

Failure is feedback.

And feedback is your friend. 

Stop using buzzwords in your marketing. Seriously. Stop it

By Jim Connolly | October 23, 2023

remove buzzwords, marketing copy, clarity sells

One thing in business is certain. There’s no shortage of buzzwords and phrases. Here are just some that I’ve seen in use recently.

  • Knowledge transfer.
  • Price point.
  • Intersection.
  • Deep dive.
  • Disrupt.
  • Ruckus.
  • Knowledge transfer.
  • Ideate.
  • Pragmatic.
  • Whiteboard it.
  • Paradigm.

Buzzwords are used by people, in an effort to appear informed or fashionable. Interestingly, using buzzwords has the total opposite effect.

Here’s how they work against us and our marketing.

  • Buzzwords make informed people cringe. Not only is this embarrassing, it’s a terrible idea if we want our peers to take us seriously or recommend us.
  • Buzzwords confuse the uninformed. And that’s the last thing we need, when we want people to understand our message.

In short, buzzwords not only add nothing positive to our marketing, they actively weaken it. And because they’re totally unnecessary, we can remove them with no negative impact.

Remember: One of the keys to effective marketing is to always aim for clarity.

Photo by Kim Gorga on Unsplash

That breakthrough you need

By Jim Connolly | October 12, 2023

step by step success, breakthrough business

There’s a lot of commercial doom and gloom out there right now. That’s why it’s essential to remember that your business success remains under your direct control.

You’re in the driving seat.

It’s in your hands.

Better still, those who have succeeded in the worst of economic conditions have given us one of their keys to success. Take a moment to study their stories and you’ll immediately notice a pattern.

A wonderful pattern.

A pattern that you can follow and achieve similar breakthroughs in any economy. It’s simply this: Their success was achieved one step at a time. For example.

One connection at a time.

One opportunity at a time.

One proposal at a time.

One presentation at a time.

One meeting at a time.

One new client (or customer) at a time.

One major new client at a time.

One life-changing contract at a time.

By looking for where your big breakthrough will come from amid the economic gloom, your mind isn’t in the present moment. And it’s easy, really easy, to miss the daily steps you should be taking that will lead you to breakthrough success.

Here’s your next step

You know what you want to achieve. So just ask yourself. Based on what I know right now, what’s my next good step?

Then resolve to take that step. Do the same thing tomorrow and the following day, and every day. Just one step.

The success of this approach is easy to verify. You simply need to read the chronicles of anyone who’s ever achieved anything of great value. It’s the worst kept secret in business. And the best way to achieve the success you desire.

All it takes is one step at a time. One day at a time.

You can thrive in the weeks and months ahead. Remain focused on what you want to achieve and do the right things correctly. Easier said than done, but it’s not exactly difficult, either.

Sales tip: How to turn a ‘no’ into a ‘yes’!

By Jim Connolly | October 10, 2023

marketing  close sale, sales tip

When a prospective client or customer decides not to hire us or buy from us, how can we turn their no into a yes? And how can we do this, even when they’ve had their objections or concerns fully answered and they still say ‘no’?

Faced with that kind of rejection, there are 3 broad ways we can choose to respond.

  1. We could just leave it. They’ve made their decision. End of story.
  2. We could reply and let them know why they’re wrong and make sure they know they’ve made a big mistake. If we know the competitor who won, we could also include all the bad stuff we know about the lousy dirt-bag.
  3. Or we could contact them and be more genial, positive and helpful to them, than if we had won the contract!

Yes, it’s number 3 I’m going to focus on. Because it’s exceptionally effective.

Turning a prospect’s no into a yes

Imagine how the following might work, as a massively more effective way to respond to a prospect’s ‘no’.

  • You contact the prospect and thank them for the time they spent with you or with your proposal.
  • You also let them know, up-front, that you respect their decision. This is important. It shows you’re not doubting their ability as a decision maker.
  • You add that as a result of their decision, you’re working to improve your proposal or presentation.
  • You then find something generous to say about the competitor who won, so long as it’s true. Nothing sarcastic or tongue-in-cheek, but truly gracious.
  • And finally, you let them know that if they ever need anything, you’re there for them and happy to help.

Here’s what we know for absolute certain. Very, very few people respond with that type of good-natured, yet professional strategy. But when they do, they get remembered for the very best of reasons. It’s exceptionally powerful and I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve seen it work.

Here’s what can happen

Here are just some of the outcomes this can generate for people, who were originally rejected.

In many cases, the prospect who rejected them suddenly wonders if they made the wrong decision, in choosing the other provider. I’ve personally seen this result in an immediate about-turn, with the rejected provider winning the deal.

Much more commonly, I’ve seen the rejected provider given the contract, as soon as the winning provider screws up!

It’s as if the prospect is unconsciously looking for their original choice to fail, after becoming fully aware what a wonderful provider they rejected. By respecting the prospect’s decision and leaving the door wide open to them, the rejected provider makes it extremely easy for the prospect to contact them.

But that’s not all!

Ask anyone who uses this approach and they’ll confirm that it also results in a number of referrals, from the prospects who didn’t change their mind about hiring the rejected provider.

I’ve used this strategy for years and seen amazing results. My clients have, too. So give it a try. You literally have nothing to lose and everything to gain.

Photo by Jim Wilson on Unsplash

What is sub-scratch and why must you eliminate it?

By Jim Connolly | October 4, 2023

What is sub-scratch and why must you eliminate it?

You’ve never heard of sub-scratch before. That’s understandable. It’s a term I created. Here’s how I explain it to clients, and why you need to AVOID it.

Starting from scratch / sub-scratch

  • Starting from scratch is an opportunity to start anew. It frees you to build a project on a clean, clear foundation. And it’s extremely underrated.
  • Starting from sub-scratch is the exact opposite. It’s what happens when you start work on a project, which is already broken. You need to pick up the pieces and erase the damage before doing anything else.

I was prompted to write this, after learning about the following, recent sub-scratch example.

A business owner wrote, and sent, a very pushy marketing email to everyone in a local business directory. None had requested the information. She then discovered that she and her ‘spammy email’ were being trashed in the local Facebook business group. The business owner then posted confrontational responses to some individuals in the group, making things even worse. By choosing to dabble with the initial marketing that caused the problem, then dabble with the PR required to mitigate the problem, she’s seriously damaged her reputation within her target marketplace.

My expensive sub-scratch mistake

I made my own sub-scratch mistake well over 20 years ago. It cost me a fortune. I still cringe when I think of it. I had a financial investment decision, which I was maybe 80% sure I knew the answer to. Rather than hire a professional Financial Advisor, I dabbled. I asked a wealthy friend and he agreed I was right. So, I proceeded. I was wrong and so was my friend. It ended up losing me thousands. I still needed to hire a professional Financial Advisor, but she needed to unpick my DIY financials, before building me a solid foundation.

As small business owners, you and I need to make sure we don’t create sub-scratch problems. We need to be very intentional about the things we absolutely know we’re able to do, and those things where we lack the knowledge required. It’s always more effective and far less expensive, to hire an expert at the start, rather than afterwards.

Photo by Francisco De Legarreta C. 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

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

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.

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.

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.

Proof: Your business growth potential is limitless

By Jim Connolly | June 15, 2023

Marketing forward

You now have free access to every prospective client or customer on the planet. And that’s a provable fact.

This means the potential to grow your business is literally limitless.

  • Podcasting gives you a free, global radio show.
  • WordPress gives you a free magazine, plus free, global distribution.
  • Social networks give you free access to a global audience.
  • YouTube gives you a free, global TV channel.
  • Email gives you a free, global communication channel, which scales to infinity.
  • Zoom gives you free, global access to video meetings.

This means that in June 2023, a start-up business with no budget, can reach every city on the planet, in a way that previously cost millions and was only available to the world’s biggest corporations.

It’s truly a spectacular time to be a small business owner.

With an idea and a plan, the world is yours. This is true even if you’re struggling right now. Isn’t that amazing?

So, all the tools you need are freely available to you. The question is, what will you do with all this potential?

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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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