Professional development Archives - Page 89 of 91

Later becomes never

By Jim Connolly | June 22, 2016

When people receive your marketing, many of them will like what you have to say, but decide to contact you later. Then they forget. You lose the client enquiry or sale. Because later becomes never.

To grow a successful business, you must be able to motivate your marketplace to take action, now! It’s essential that you know how to inspire prospective clients to call you, email you or meet with you.

If you are getting too few client enquiries or sales leads, do something about it now, not later. Because later becomes never.

The secret your competitors don’t want you to know!

By Jim Connolly | June 20, 2016

How secure would your business be, if an expertly marketed, high quality competitor started targeting your clients and prospective clients?

Most people only consider this scenario after the fact. They wait until an exciting new business, product or service shows up. It’s only then that they think about how to respond.

We have to be smarter than that my friend.

The secret?

The secret to building a robust, thriving business, is to act as if that competitor had already arrived.

This means always, always looking for ways to improve the quality of your services. Listen to your marketplace, find out what concerns them and figure out how to help them. This will make your existing clients love you and ensure you attract a regular supply of new clients too.

Of course, I recommend you do as I have done and avoid having any competitors. Yes, it’s absolutely possible. Here’s everything you need to know.

The message here is simple: Don’t allow the arrival of “some guy’s business” to be what determines when YOU up your game. A new provider, product or service WILL show up in front of your clients. Take action now and be so well prepared that the new competitor doesn’t stand a chance.

You need to solve better problems

By Jim Connolly | June 19, 2016

Here’s one of the most important questions in business: What are the biggest problems facing your clients and prospective clients?

Whatever these problems are, you need to focus on how to solve them. Here’s why!

Why you need to solve better problems

The vast majority of your competitors offer a predictable range of services, which provide answers to a common set of problems. That’s why they [and maybe you right now] compete on fees or attract fee-sensitive clients.

I recommend you take a more profitable route. A route taken by the most successful people in every industry and profession.

Decide to solve bigger and better problems! If you do, you’ll attract more clients, earn higher fees AND always be in demand, because you will have pretty-much zero competition.

It’s an extremely effective way to grow a highly profitable business.

Think about it. You already solve problems for your clients or customers. So why not deliberately chose to solve the biggest [and most valuable] problems?

Get passionate about your business

By Jim Connolly | June 17, 2016

A business owner with passion is a formidable force. Here are 5 powerful advantages these passionate people have, over the average business owner:

Their passion inspires others to believe in them. Steve Jobs was perhaps the best known modern day example of this. When trying to hire John Sculley away from Pepsi, Jobs famously asked him: “Do you want to sell sugar water for the rest of your life, or do you want to come with me and change the world?”
Their passion drives them forward, when others decide to quit. Passion acts like fuel. It propels you forward.
Their passion gives them the courage they need, to leave their comfort zones when required. People with passion will do things, which those who lack passion will avoid. And these “things” are usually the big, brave decisions, which separate the winners from the losers.
Their passion is contagious. It motivates the people around them. Whenever you are in the company of a passionate person, you know it instantly. I can’t think of a single leader, who lacks this powerful quality.
Their passion acts like a magnet, which attracts the people and resources their business needs. Passionate people also attract other passionate people. This compounds to propel their business [and life] forward at an accelerated pace.

Where does that kind of passion come from?

Passion is something we create ourselves. It happens when we have a clear and highly compelling goal, which we believe we will achieve. Foggy goals are no good. Puny goals are no good. We need goals that are clear and inspirational. And we need to believe we can achieve them.

Dream big dreams. Convert the dreams into goals… then create a plan to make your goals a reality.

It’s impossible to overstate the positive impact this can have on your business and your whole life. I hope you found this useful, but more importantly, I hope it helps you and your business.

Marketing Tip: Sell them ideas!

By Jim Connolly | June 14, 2016

The most successful business owners have discovered that you do not sell a product or service: You sell the idea. Today’s post explains why they do it and why YOU should consider doing the same!

Before its launch, Steve Jobs famously told his team that the iPhone was not a product, it was a lifestyle. Apple marketing then sold the idea of owning an iPhone and living the iPhone lifestyle. iPhone went on to become more than a phone: It became a statement about those who owned it.

Sell ideas and capture imagination

Over and over, we see that the most successful people in business focus on selling the idea, rather than the product or service.

For example:

The most successful alcohol brands do not sell you booze. They sell the idea of the fun lifestyle, which they have attached to booze.
The most successful restaurants do not sell food. They sell the idea of enjoying a wonderful, memorable, culinary experience.
The most successful coffee shops do not sell hot beverages. They sell the idea of being part of the cool, coffee shop culture.

Switching from selling products / services, to selling ideas

What is the idea behind the products or services you provide? If you save people money, save people time or make people more productive etc., that’s what you need to market to them.

For example:

When clients hire me, they do so because they like the idea of their business having more powerful marketing than any of their competitors.
They like the idea of being more visible and more desirable than their competitors, through my copywriting service or marketing services.
The idea of attracting the best sales leads or client enquiries is also extremely compelling.

So, it’s the idea of what their business will achieve, which motivates them to hire me — not a list of my features or benefits.

In short: Spend some time thinking about the benefits of what you provide. Then, consider marketing the idea behind those benefits – rather than marketing your core product or service itself.

PS: If you found this useful, you can get my latest ideas delivered direct to your inbox, for free, right here.

How often should you publish blog posts?

By Jim Connolly | June 12, 2016

marketing blogs, content marketing

Karen from Delaware emailed me with a question earlier.

“I’d love for you to post on your blog every day like Seth Godin does. Is there a strategic reason why you don’t?”

That’s a good question. The answer is that you need to match your publishing model to the business model behind your blog. Allow me to explain.

My publishing model

It’s easy… very easy, for me to publish something every day. However, my business model doesn’t require me to keep tapping you on the shoulder [reminding you I’m here] with daily posts.

Why?

I market just 2 services via my blog. There’s a limited number of clients I can work with and every post generates client enquiries.

Daily publishing, [which I did a few years ago], caused me to receive way too many enquiries. The huge momentum created by daily publishing is disproportionate to the few additional posts I was publishing each week.

If I decide to change the blog’s business model, so my income is primarily from the sale of products or advertising, I will need to adopt a daily publishing model of at least one post a day. It’s all about getting the balance right for what you want to achieve.

The daily publishing model

Whatever his motivation, Seth Godin uses a business model that rewards daily blogging. His blog is a kind of single author book store. Every post displays a carousel [on the left of each post], which is stacked with around 20 or so books.

His superbly written, daily posts are what create traffic to his book store. Visitors to his book store are also extremely well targeted, because the topics covered on his blog match those in his books. If you like the posts, you’ll love the books. Seth’s daily publishing model also pre-markets his books, by referencing new books in his posts long before they are published.

So…

You arrive on Seth’s blog.
If you like Seth’s posts, you may buy a book.
If you don’t buy a book, you may still decide to share the post you’re reading with your social networks.
By sharing the post, others will visit Seth’s blog.
They too may decide to buy a book or share the post.
A cycle is created, which is fed by daily content.

That model clearly rewards daily publishing. Fewer posts would equal less traffic, fewer subscribers, fewer shares and fewer sales.

Getting your balance right

The key take-away here is this: Your blog publishing model should support whatever you want to achieve. So, choose the best frequency for your business, rather than copy what someone else is doing. Their approach could be totally wrong for you.

If you’d like to get more from your blog or you’re thinking of starting a blog, here are a few free resources to help you.

Here’s how to launch a successful blog.

This explains how to make your blog stand out and build a large, valuable readership.

Ever wondered if you need to write long blog posts or if short posts are OK? Well, here’s the answer.

This is a list of 7 blogging mistakes, which you need to avoid.