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Let them make you better, not bitter!

By Jim Connolly | March 22, 2023

marketing, usp, different

There’s an old saying that tells us, let your past make you better, not bitter.

Business owners should use a revised version of that saying, let your competitors make you better, not bitter.

I’ve worked with thousands of business owners over the years and noticed a strong tendency, for them to drastically underestimate their competitors. This then creates bitterness, especially toward the most successful of their competitors. It seems totally unfair.

I get to see both sides. And there’s always a reason why one business is ahead of the pack.

  • They market their services extremely effectively.
  • They offer an outstanding service.
  • They offer a unique variation of a service.
  • And some do all of the above, plus more.

The most useful place to look when our business is struggling against competitors, is the mirror. We’re either failing to market our business as effectively as they are, (or / and) we’re offering a less valuable service. This means we either need to improve our marketing, or we need to improve what we do. Preferably both.

It isn’t luck.

It isn’t magic.

It is fair.

And it produces predictable results. Every. Single. Time. But only if we care enough to do it correctly.

A genius marketing idea from a 19th century artist

By Jim Connolly | March 21, 2023

Back in the 1800’s, Edgar Degas said: Art is not what you see, but what you make others see.

The same is true of great marketing

Successful marketing paints a compelling picture in the mind of a prospective client. It doesn’t list a series of facts or features. Instead, it talks directly to the needs and wants of your clients. It paints a picture of how you can help them. It illustrates how you’re passionate about helping them. Everything is rooted in what’s best for them. Everything.

Ineffective marketing paints a picture of the provider. It’s all about their business and the products or services they offer. It’s dry. It’s dull. It’s forgettable. And it fails to motivate people to take action.

The message, my friend, is simple. If you want to attract better clients, paint better pictures.

Have an unfair advantage over your competitors

By Jim Connolly | March 20, 2023

unfair advantage

Today, I’m going to give you an unfair advantage over your competitors.

I was just 29 years old when I started my first business. So I made darn sure to seek out as much advice and as many tips as possible, from those with lots more experience. That’s when I discovered what I’m about to share with you.

It’s so effective, I’ve used it with great success ever since!

It came from my first accountant, back in the 1990’s. He suggested I work 1-hour a day longer, than the average for my profession. This is what he himself did, and it gave him what he called “an unfair advantage” over his competitors.

I did as he suggested and the results were amazing.

Your unfair advantage

Here’s how it works, in just 3 steps.

  1. I’m an early bird, so I chose to start work an hour earlier than others in my profession. You can equally add your hour to the end of the day, or add 30-minutes to the start of your day and 30-minutes to the end.
  2. I would finish around the same time as them, so I just worked 1-hour more.
  3. The pay-off: Over the period of a working year, this gives you an additional 6 weeks (based on the typical 40-hour working week). That’s an amazing one and a half months worth, of extra, highly-productive time, to produce, create and deliver for your clients or customers.

The positive impact on my results came fast and were easy to measure.

But that’s not all.

You automatically get another unfair advantage

Yes, it genuinely helped me get a lot more done. But it helped in another way, too.

By knowing I was working while my counterparts were not, it provided me with an instant, mental advantage. It made me feel that I was more committed, more motivated and more driven than them. This may not have been true, but the inspiration it gave me, and still gives me today, is absolutely true.

If you’re in a tight spot right now or just want to give your business a sustainable, measurable lift, I strongly recommend you give yourself this unfair advantage!

Get more referrals with this simple idea

By Jim Connolly | March 17, 2023

marketing, referrals, word of mouth recommendations

Give this a try.

  • Think of some amazing things, which you would LOVE your marketplace to be telling their friends about your business.
  • Write those amazing things down.
  • Next, put a plan together of what you will need to do, in order for your marketplace to say those amazing things.
  • Finally, get to work on your plan.

This is a switch of focus, from the vast majority of advice on getting referrals.

Most referral advice is about how to motivate others to recommend your services or products to their friends and contacts. How to change their behaviour.

This advice is focused on you taking direct control. It’s about you crafting an experience, which makes people want to recommend your services or products.

People are naturally hardwired to communicate with each other. When we give our marketplace an experience worth talking about, that’s exactly what they do.

The wonderful thing about this, is that it means your referral stream is always, always under your direct control.

Suddenly it smashes you in the face!

By Jim Connolly | March 16, 2023

Jim Connolly marketing, fix your marketing

Marketing tactics and strategies seldom fail overnight.

Instead, they become a little less effective over time. The decrease in effectiveness is usually so gradual that for weeks, often longer, you hardly even notice it. Then you look at your sales leads, your upcoming sales meetings and your sales figures and the reality of the situation kicks in.

Your marketing is no longer effective and you’re about to feel some real pain, unless you resolve things.

One guy went 5 months without a sales lead, before he contacted me. He said, and I believe him, that he hoped it was just a long blip, and that things would pick up ‘next week’. It was only after his bank refused to increase his lending that he reached out for help.

That months-long period is how marketing problems usually manifest themselves. There’s a slow, very gradual decline in results. Then suddenly the numbers punch you in the face. It’s at this point, where most business owners will take action.

Other business owners do things differently.

Here’s what I see regularly, with new clients. They have been keeping an eye on their marketing and the results generated. They then paid extra attention as soon as they saw a negative pattern emerging. The moment they believed there was a bigger problem ahead, they contacted me.

So, why do most small business owners hesitate?

There are a number of reasons behind the decision of some business owners, to wait longer than others, before proactively taking control of their problem.

Here are the reasons I hear most commonly from new clients.

  • Some are sat on a fat bank account, which decreases their hunger to fix things. They’ll try to ride it out.
  • Some hate the idea of change, so leave it as late as possible.
  • Some have far less motivation or need to make money, as the vast majority of their family income is from their life-partner, wife, husband or parents.
  • Some have a well-paid job and their business is really just a hobby or pastime.

It boils down to different circumstances and different attitudes.

Whatever your current situation or mindset, marketing problems are easier and faster to resolve, the sooner you get started. Because the moment you start doing the right things correctly, you change the direction of your business.

Make better decisions

By Jim Connolly | March 3, 2023

make better decisions

A key factor behind great decision making, is to make sure you are working with accurate information.

In a marketing context:

  • You can assume that your marketing copy is as good as it can be or you can split test it. By testing different versions and measuring the feedback, you can improve both your message and your sales results.
  • You can assume that your clients and former clients love the service you provide, or you can ask them.
  • You can assume that your products or service is still better value than your competitors, or you can do some research and see if they’ve upped their game.
  • You can assume that you already get a reasonable number of word of mouth recommendations, or you can compare them to the industry average. Note: I wrote this post about how to get more word of mouth referrals that you may find useful.

You get the idea.

In short, never make a decision without first knowing the facts. Make accurate information the foundation of all your decision making.

Yes. But why?

By Jim Connolly | March 2, 2023

marketing motivation

Yes. I know you want to grow your business. But why? The why part is what makes all the difference.

It looks like this.

  • The decision to grow your business is a ‘what’. It’s what you want to achieve. A goal.
  • More important to your likelihood of success is ‘why‘. The why part is what will motivate you. It’s what gives your goal meaning. It’s the fuel that propels you to achieve your ‘what’.

So, why [specifically], do you want a bigger business?

Allow me to explain.

Every small business owner has the goal of growing their business. And yet, as you know, most small business owners not only fail to achieve their goal, the majority go broke, even in a great economy.

If you’re finding it hard to grow your business right now, take time out to list exactly why you want a bigger business. Include what it will mean in real terms for you and your family. List how it will massively improve your financial security and your lifestyle. The more meaning your why has, the better.

You’ll know when your why is optimal.

How?

Because you’ll feel the motivation pushing you forward. When your work has new, radically greater meaning, it improves literally everything you do. Your energy levels go through the roof. Your confidence increases. Your enthusiasm surges. Your decision making improves. Your thinking becomes clearer.

So, go and get to work on that list.

How to crack the success code

By Jim Connolly | February 27, 2023

how to crack success code, crack success code

Hard work gets a bad rap.

Sure, it’s important to work smart.

Obviously, it’s important to work with passion, professionalism and great care.

But without the commitment to do all the work required, we’re dramatically limiting our potential. All the work required, includes the hard work… the kind of work we tend to either put off or avoid completely.

I’ve met countless business owners over the years, who are great at what they do, but lack the work ethic needed for the success they desire. They either fail to work the hours required, or they do the hours, but fail to do the work required during those hours.

I’ve never met a successful person in any field, who lazy-assed their way to the top. Yes, there are some wealthy businesspeople who sometimes forget to tell us they were born rich or inherited a fortune. But those who start from square one and make it to the top, work hard.

We do well to follow their example.

Why?

They’ve cracked the success code!

By doing the hard work, as well as the smart work, soon enough they find they have the resources to hire people [or buy the technology], to do a lot of the heavy lifting. They can then adjust their workload so it suits them perfectly.

The best way I ever heard this approach explained, was by the late Zig Ziglar.

“If you will be hard on yourself, life will be easy on you. But if you insist upon being easy on yourself, life is going to be very hard on you.”

  • It isn’t about over-working.
  • It isn’t about working too many hours.
  • It isn’t about working too many days in a row.

It’s about doing the work required, during work hours. And then enjoying our leisure time. Nothing more than that, but nothing less than that, either.

Steve Jobs, Einstein and the power of focus

By Jim Connolly | February 18, 2023

If you’d like greater clarity, more energy and dramatically improved results, you’ll find the following ideas really useful. It’s all about how to harness the power of focus.

It starts with something that seldom gets mentioned, yet is critically important.

It’s simply this: One of the fastest ways to massively improve your success rate, is to give your full focus to as few projects as possible.

steve jobs, power of focus, einstein

Photo: Shutterstock

Why focus on fewer things?

When you are a small business owner or consultant, you have a relatively limited number of resources. You’re required to work on many tasks, which larger companies have dedicated teams for.

By focusing your valuable time on developing too many ideas or opportunities, you dilute how effective you can be with any one of them.

What follows are 2 well-known examples of the power focus, along with lesser known benefits of improving your focus.

Einstein on the power of focus

Einstein is famously quoted as saying that one of the reasons for his amazing success, was his ability to focus on each individual challenge for as long as required.

By intentionally choosing to focus on one project or plan at a time, and saying ‘no’ to the multitude of other ideas demanding your attention, you get to give your full mental resources to the development of that idea.

You also eliminate Mind Fog: The fuzzy thinking that comes from focusing on too many things simultaneously.

Steve Jobs on the power of focus

Steve Jobs shared his thoughts on the power of focus, at the Apple Worldwide Developers’ Conference in 1997:

“People think focus means saying yes to the thing you’ve got to focus on. But that’s not what it means at all.

It means saying no to the hundred other good ideas that there are. You have to pick carefully. I’m actually as proud of the things we haven’t done as the things I have done. Innovation is saying no to 1,000 things.”
– Steve Jobs

The lesson here is clear. In all of your planning, it pays to start by determining what’s the very best use of your focus. Then, give that project, idea or opportunity as much of your available time as required.

But that’s not all.

There’s another major benefit to channelling your focus correctly.

The ‘extra’ power of focus

As well as the benefits already mentioned, the power of focus brings with it another, highly valuable component.

I’m referring to off-the-charts energy levels!

Not convinced? Well, you’ve already seen this in action many, many times. It’s what you witness every time you’ve heard someone talking with great enthusiasm and passion about a project, idea or opportunity.

These high energy entrepreneurs and leaders do not see their energy defused by foggy thinking. Instead, their laser sharp focus brings great clarity. That clarity increases their direction and purpose. They’re then energized and ready to go!

I hope you’ve found this brief look at the power of focus useful. More importantly, I hope it inspires you to take greater control over the number of things you focus on.

This works, before you even act on it

By Jim Connolly | February 17, 2023

how create, new high profitable service

If you or someone you know is experiencing a serious business problem, you might find this useful.

I had a chat recently with an old friend of mine. He told me that for the past few months, he’d been seriously struggling with what he described as an urgent, major business crisis. I gave him some advice and yesterday, he called me with an update. In short, his situation is now fully resolved.

Like everyone I have given that same advice to, he said things started to improve within minutes. Today, I’m going to share the exact same advice with you.

When my friend explained what his problem was, I told him to write a list of resources that might be able to help resolve his situation, and then to action each item on the list. The core benefit came before he started working on the listed items.

I’m not a psychologist and can’t be certain exactly why this is so effective, but here’s what I’ve seen happen, over and over again.

It seems that writing the list takes you from a passive, maybe even helpless state, to an industrious state. It improves your attitude. It improves your resourcefulness. It improves your optimism. It improves your motivation and so much more. All this combines to greatly improve your chances of success.

What I find amazing, is that you get these benefits before you take action on the list items. This equips you to be at your very best, precisely when your business needs your very best.

How to make decisions, like the world’s top entrepreneurs

By Jim Connolly | February 6, 2023

decision making entrepreneur

The best decisions you ever made all had one thing in common. Can you guess what it was?

It’s simply this. They were big decisions. All of them.

Think about it: The decision to start a family, to buy a home, to start a business or change careers… these decisions are huge. They’re life changing. And they were risky, because none of them came to you with any guarantee of success.

The same is true in business.

Major success only comes after you’ve made breakthrough decisions. And breakthrough decisions are big. Big enough to break through the challenges that are holding your business back.

Decision making and risk

Every big business decision comes with what seems like an equally big risk attached. At least, that’s how it feels at the time. However, the riskiest thing any business owner can do is to try and avoid such risks. By seeking to avoid risks, they actually avoid opportunities.

In working with business owners, I find that ongoing business problems can always be traced back to a big decision, which is being avoided.

It looks something like this.

  • They know there’s a persistent or recurring problem in their business.
  • They also know something needs to be done about it.
  • The decision to do what’s required, usually to make a significant change, feels too risky.
  • So, they decide not to do what’s required.
  • Instead, they do something that seems easier.
  • Naturally, their problem persists.
  • The business continues to struggle.

The entrepreneurial mindset

One hundred percent of the most successful businesses, in every niche, are directed by people with an entrepreneurial mindset. That’s because entrepreneurs evaluate risk in a massively more effective way.

Entrepreneurs know that letting a problem persist is always riskier than making the necessary decision. They know that ignoring the black smoke bellowing from the rear of a car doesn’t make the problem go away. It only makes things worse. And that ignoring a business problem doesn’t make the business problem go away. It only makes things worse.

Interestingly, the entrepreneur is still avoiding risk. All that changes, is what they attach risk to. They attach risk correctly, make far better decisions and achieve far better results.

In short, if you want the right results for your business, you need to make the right decisions for your business. And if your business isn’t performing the way it should, it’s because there’s an urgent decision you need to make.

Predictable?

By Jim Connolly | February 3, 2023

Predictable, marketing tip

Predictable can be life saving: The braking system on your car is a great example. You need to know that each time you put your foot on the brake, you’re going to slow down or stop as expected.

Predictable can be reassuring: It’s reassuring to know that the quality of products or services you receive from a vendor, will be predictably excellent.

However, predictable can also hurt your business. Imagine a prospective client is looking for a new service provider. For whatever reason, their previous provider didn’t fulfil their needs. The last thing that prospective client will want, is another provider that seems too similar looking, to the one they just fired.

Conversely, they’ll be extremely attracted to providers that combine being reassuringly professional, with fresh ideas and uncommonly great service.

That’s where YOU come in my friend. At least it should be.

Don’t let predictability bite your ass

Being predictable in the wrong areas will destroy your marketing.

  • It will attract fewer enquiries.
  • It will motivate fewer prospects to hire you.
  • It will position your business as a commodity. People buy commodities based on the lowest price or fee.
  • It will camouflage your business and stop you getting noticed.

This is the total opposite of what you need in order for your business to succeed.

Make no mistake, it takes guts to build your own version of how a service provider in your niche should operate. It’s hard to zig when your competitors zag. It’s so much easier to play follow the follower. That’s why only the top few percent in any industry truly stand out.

Those of us who want our business to fly need to be smarter than that. We need to only be predictable where it matters. Because the alternative is to be invisible. And a business that lacks visibility, places a very low ceiling on its potential.

Are you listening or paying attention? The difference is huge

By Jim Connolly | January 30, 2023

decision making, paying attention

There’s a big difference between paying attention, and listening.

Yes, listening is indeed one way to pay attention.

But commercially, we learn a lot more about a person, a company culture or a company as a whole when we pay attention to what they do. Their actions reflect their motivations, beliefs and priorities with much greater accuracy than their convincing, carefully polished words.

Here’s what one of my mentors taught me when I started out in business. It’s saved me from making bad decisions countless times over the years.

What people say, is what they want us to think they will do. What people do, is what they actually do.

I’ve found that advice to be enormously valuable, before making any important, commercial decisions. I hope you find it equally useful.

Start with the end in mind

By Jim Connolly | January 28, 2023

start with the end in mind

Small business owners come to me regularly, asking for something they don’t want and they don’t need. I’m sharing this with you, because it’s a symptom of a problem and you’re probably making it, too!

Here it is. Plus how you can avoid it.

First, here are some examples of dangerously misleading statements. I see these pretty-much every day from small business owners.

  • I need more leads for our sales team.
  • I need more enquiries from my website.
  • I need more social media followers.
  • I need more traffic to my website.

They’re wrong!

One hundred percent, provably wrong.

More sales leads, additional client enquiries, bigger social networks and more website traffic are not their desired outcomes. That’s because they’re not end results. What business owners actually need, is more customers, higher profits, bigger contracts, higher revenues or more sales, etc.

The challenge with searching for the wrong thing, is that it will lead you down the wrong path. You’ll ask the wrong questions, get the wrong answers and end up with the wrong outcomes.

Start with the end in mind

This means you need to decide what your desired outcome is. In other words, determine exactly what you need your business to achieve. Focus on your desired end point and NOT on a particular process or marketing strategy.

Here’s an example of exactly what I mean.

I was thinking of a business owner earlier, who decided to start with the end in mind. Sarah identified a contact who owned a business that offered a complimentary, non-conflicting service to hers. They agreed to do some joint ventures. Sarah achieved 7-years worth of business growth in just 11-months. Previous to using this idea, she’d wasted years doing what everyone else does.

Start with the end in mind. It will help you get your marketing on the right track and ensure you’re aiming for the correct targets.

Almost everyone will ignore you

By Jim Connolly | January 14, 2023

Marketing to everyone

Almost everyone will ignore you.

And that’s perfectly fine.

Because some people will love you.

The message in those 3 sentences is worth remembering. For example, when you’re creating a new product, or putting a marketing strategy together.

Here’s the thing

You can’t appeal to everyone.

You don’t need to appeal to everyone.

Think about it, if everyone wanted to hire you or buy from you, you couldn’t cope!

So focus your marketing, and wider business development, on some people.

Some people?

  • The kind of people who ‘get’ the way you work.
  • The kind of people who value your vision.
  • The kind of people who will love working with you or buying from you.
  • The kind of people who make the very best clients or customers.

In a nutshell, ignore everyone with your marketing and focus very specifically on some people.

It’s the fastest, least expensive and most straightforward way to dramatically improve your marketing results. And build a world-class client base.

Moving your business forward

By Jim Connolly | January 11, 2023

work harder, the success code

If the work you’re doing right now feels comfortable, it’s almost certainly not moving your business forward. It’s not helping you make meaningful progress and not leading you toward the attainment of your goals.

Why?

Because your best work never feels comfortable. Here’s what your best work looks like.

  • It’s the kind of work that forces you to grow into the person who can take your business up a level.
  • It’s the kind of work that inspires you to make better decisions.
  • It’s the kind of work that gives you energy and makes you feel truly alive.
  • It’s the kind of work that attracts the clients or customers you want.
  • It’s the kind of work that gives you a sense of real optimism.
  • It’s the kind of work that causes you to make exciting plans for your future.

Look at that list. Now, ask yourself if the work you’re doing is honestly your best work. And just as importantly, if you’re not doing your best work, find out what’s blocking you.

Service providers. Please stop making this mistake

By Jim Connolly | January 5, 2023

marketing stop

This is borderline crazy. It’s totally unsustainable. And it applies to all service providers, not just the 3 examples I mention here.

There are training providers, coaches and consultants out there. Right now. Today. Selling training, coaching and consulting. And they’re wondering why no one is interested.

Seriously.

The economy is horrible, budgets have been slashed. But for some reason, these trainers, coaches and consultants are trying to sell their services.

That makes no sense at all from a marketing perspective. It’s literally the wrong way round.

Why?

Because no prospect on the planet gives a crap about the service the provider offers.

Prospects care exclusively about their own urgent need. So, prospects are looking for the end result. Prospects pay for the end result. Prospects hire those who offer the end result.

Telling a prospect who’s urgently looking for that end result, all about how amazing your service is, or that it delivers, is tone deaf. It loses you prospective client enquiries. It’s not like the prospect thinks the provider is going to say their service is terrible and fails to deliver.

Look at the marketing of any small business in the service industry. Especially their websites. The vast majority use their homepage, their primary opportunity to grab the attention of the prospect, to… tell prospects how great they are, list some high profile clients and testimonials.

Wrong, wrong, wrong.

By this point, they’ve already lost the prospect’s attention, and their enquiry, to a professionally marketed competitor.

Any service provider making this mistake needs to fix it.

Then look at everything else. Because if they’re making that kind of elementary, fundamental marketing error, it’s certain they are making lots more expensive mistakes, too

One moment of anger

By Jim Connolly | January 3, 2023

pause, angry reply

That’s all it takes to ruin a reputation.

This holds true, even if that moment is preceded by 10 years of good service to the local community.

I was thinking earlier about a struggling store owner, who was having a bad day, at the end of an equally bad year. Before he finished a 13-hour shift, he checked his company’s Facebook Page. He noticed a complaint from an angry customer.

That complaint was the final straw.

The store owner responded with an unprofessional mix of sarcasm and anger toward the customer. By the time the store owner arrived home, he’d decided to delete his outburst. It was too late. His comment had already been widely shared.

He offered a full apology, and explained that he’d cut his workforce by 40% after almost going bankrupt during the pandemic, and that he was stressed out and angry after working crazy hours.

Even so, he lost a number of regular customers at a time where he desperately needed them.

Anger and the cold light of day

In the cold light of day, it’s easy to say that we would never be that stupid. That we would be more measured in how we handled things.

But these situations don’t happen in the cold light of day! They happen when we’re stressed, worried or fearful. And sadly, that’s the lived experience of more business owners today, than at any time in recent history.

In business, it’s really important to press pause and think before responding. Go for a walk. Get up and do some stretches. Focus on your breathing for a while. Whatever. This can put just enough space between you and the rawness of the situation, for you to offer a more considered response.

In that above example, the store owner chose to respond in the moment, just as he was leaving for home and full of anger. If he’d waited until he arrived at home to respond, this would never have happened, or it would have had a more agreeable conclusion.

The challenge here is educating ourselves to do the sensible thing when emotions are high. But it’s worth the effort. Because it improves literally all of our relationships. Not just the commercial ones.

Your top 2 marketing goals for 2023

By Jim Connolly | December 30, 2022

increase value, client retention, attrition

There are two essential marketing goals for you to focus on in 2023, which I’d like to share with you.

First, some context.

In recent months, we’ve seen the start of a massive change. Consumer spending is falling and company budgets are in equally sharp decline. This is forecast to get worse in 2023 as we enter a global recession. And it has already started to change the way your prospects purchase things. They’re having to take drastic action and cut back on expenditure.

  • They’re looking for cost savings on essential purchases.
  • They’re eliminating or reducing non-essential purchasing.

Here are those two essential areas I’d like you to be aware of, along with some ideas on how to put them to work.

1. Increase your value and let your prospects know

You need to greatly increase the value of whatever you provide. Then, powerfully market that greatly increased value to your prospects. Your prospects are thinking really hard about purchases, making value for money an essential if you want their hard earned cash or company budget. I give some tips here on ways to create value.

A common way to greatly increase your value, is to greatly reduce your fees or prices. Lowering fees is a bad idea in any economy. However, when your own overhead is increasing, lowering your fees makes no sense at all. It’s also totally unsustainable, given the long-term economic forecast.

Of course, once you’ve created a way to radically increase the value of your products or services, you need to let people know. This means attracting their attention. Then clearly explaining the compelling benefits you offer, in a way that motivates them to buy from you or hire you. If your service is faster, explain why that extra speed is so valuable to them. If the quality of your product is demonstrably better, explain why that superior quality represents amazing value for them.

Don’t just greatly increase how valuable your service is and expect prospects to ‘get it’. It’s critical that you tell them, in a way that moves them to take action and make the purchase.

2. Work harder than ever on client retention

You need to make retaining your existing clients, a top-level business activity. Their income or budget is being severely squeezed. This means they’re vastly more likely to shop around. This includes clients who until now, have been loyal for years.

To compound things, your clients will be increasingly targeted by your competitors with attractive reasons to switch. Your competitors are experiencing similar challenges to you. Expect them to respond with increased marketing activity and hunger.

In part, you will already improve your client retention by implementing the previous suggestion.

But you’ll need all the commercial firepower you can muster. So, I’m recommending you do what the leaders in client retention do.

It’s simply this: Maintain useful, regular contact with your clients. Clients are used to being contacted when it’s renewal time or when they’re involved with you in a transaction or on a project. The type of regular contact I’m referring to, goes beyond that. And it’s spectacularly effective.

How do you maintain useful, regular contact?

Some common examples include sharing useful resources with them, maybe an app, productivity tool, or useful piece of information [like this]. Also, if you have a contact that could be a great fit for them, connect them. And if you learn of an event that could be helpful to them, let them know. You get the idea.

It’s about being mindful of your clients as you go through your working day, and collecting any resources worth sharing with one or more of them. No, don’t pester them every few days. In my experience, a few times a month is a great place to start. It keeps you front of mind. It’s a great way to become a semi-regular part of your client’s business. The closer the connection between client and provider, the more value you can be to your clients and the harder it is for a competitor to get them to switch.

Thriving in tough times

As we’ve seen over the past 36-months, there have been some huge changes to what we consider business as usual. Each time things took a turn for the worse, some business owners went broke, others struggled but survived, and others thrived. As you’ll know, there were small businesses in each of those three groups in just about every town and city. This often included businesses in the same industry, targeting the same prospects, facing the same restrictions and challenges, yet with very different results.

Certainly, some went into those struggles with significant resources behind them. But that was not so for the average small business owner who thrived. What allowed them to thrive was that they adapted their business to the new ‘normal’. They didn’t hunker down. They didn’t just carry on as if nothing was happening around them. They remained agile and benefited from opportunities that their competitors were not even looking for.

You should consider doing as they did, my friend.

What you don’t know, will hurt your business

By Jim Connolly | December 28, 2022

Successful business owners think different

You, yes you dear reader, are just one step away from someone, who already has a trusted relationship with more of your prospective clients or customers TODAY, than you could hope to reach in the next 10 years! And because this person is already trusted by your prospects, they’ll feel positively toward you when the contact recommends you to all of them.

Yes, there are people in that position who will do that for you.

Yes, this is something that happens all the time.

Better still, it’s just one of many tactics that wealthy business owners use. Tactics that allow them to make massive numbers of sales, incredibly fast!

Why I’m sharing this with you

The thing is, you’re not researching who that contact is. You’re not using a proven strategy to get their life-changing endorsement, either. Even though that tactic can make you rich. I know because I’ve used it for decades with people just like you, and it works in every industry.

Don’t be too hard on yourself.

You’re not working this amazing tactic, because you don’t know about it.

And it’s just one of scores of other powerful tactics, that you don’t know about.

All of which you could be using.

Any of which can improve your life forever.

So, in 2023 you’ll simply carry on looking for more sales leads, paying for ads, networking (oh my word), building your list or trying to get more traffic, or whatever low leverage tactics you’ve cobbled together over the years.

Enough is enough

You don’t need leads, ads, networking groups or traffic.

You need clients. Lots of great clients. And that’s where your focus must be.

If you were one of my clients, you’d have access to the right advice and someone who will help you. So, you would already have used the tactic I just mentioned, and you’d be enjoying the rewards. Today, you’d be looking forward to 2023 with justified confidence and excitement.

You wouldn’t trust an amateur to style your hair. That’s why you go to a professional. Someone who will provide you with exactly what you need.

Now it’s time to quit treating the lifeblood of your business as a DIY job and go to a marketing professional. Someone who will provide you with exactly what you need.

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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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