Jim Connolly Marketing

The horrible truth about marketing

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There’s a balance required if you want to rise above the competition. Yes, you should strive to be the best provider you can be. But that’s only one side of the scales. You also need to be the best marketed.

Think about it. There’s a world of difference between being the best… and the best selling.

  • The best selling album is never the best recorded album. It’s the best marketed album.
  • The best selling movie at the box office is never the best produced movie. It’s the best marketed movie.
  • And the best selling sportswear brand is never the best quality sportswear brand. It’s the best marketed sportswear brand.

You already know your best selling competitor is not the best quality competitor. It’s just their marketing that’s better. Note: this doesn’t mean their marketing is outstanding. It only means that they do more of the right things than their competitors. So, they get noticed more than you and/or they’re better at converting that attention into paying clients or customers.

Give your business the advantage

If you’re sick of watching competitors doing better than you, you need to decide to outperform their marketing, the way you already outperform their service. Because an average service that has great marketing, will always beat a great service that has average marketing.

The great news: If you decide to fight back, you’ll have better marketing and a better service. That’s an unbeatable combination. I’m telling you, your competitors won’t know what’s hit them.

The persuasion gap

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Today, I’d like to show you a great way to make far more prospects hire you or buy from you.

Here’s what we know.

  • Testimonials from former customers or clients have limited persuasive effect on a prospect. Everyone uses them. And they’re always positive.
  • Samples of previous work we’ve done have limited persuasive effect on a prospect. Everyone uses them. And they’re always best-case examples.
  • Even being recommended to the prospect by someone they trust has limited persuasive effect. Everyone’s been let down by something recommended by a friend.

What’s left is what I call the persuasion gap: It’s the gap between how persuaded the prospect is, and how persuaded the prospect needs to be, before they will hire you or buy from you. 

So, how do you fill the persuasion gap?

We start by understanding a basic fact. When someone buys a product or service, they’re buying the future.

The future?

Yep!

It’s all about the future.

Think about it from the prospect’s perspective. Our product or service hasn’t been successfully delivered yet. It hasn’t worked as expected yet. It hasn’t provided the prospect with outstanding value yet. This is all future stuff. That’s what causes the persuasion gap. They simply don’t know if they’ll be delighted with buying from us in 12-weeks, 12-months or 12-years time.

To fill the persuasion gap, we need to convince them ahead of time. We need to convince them now, so they have a complete picture in their mind of a wonderful, future outcome. And to convince them, we need to confidently explain why we believe in the value of our product or service.

The more confidently we explain it, the better.

Why?

By confidently sharing the story of our product or service with prospects, and building their confidence in us, we help them fill their persuasion gap. That’s when they happily buy from us or hire us.

Photo by Cytonn Photography

Why email marketing doesn’t work in 2026

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Photo by Le Vu

A reader shared an interesting observation with me. She told me she had “found out the hard way that email marketing doesn’t work in 2026″.

She asked me for my thoughts on why email is so ineffective. I said I’d share them here, as I’m sure some of you will find it useful.

Email marketing works

Email marketing does work. In fact, email marketing works extremely well. Better than ever, in fact.

Just ask any business owner who’s using it correctly. Whether it’s used for newsletters or promotions, the return on investment is off the charts.

Email marketing also works more predictably than any other form of marketing. And the tiny financial investment required makes it the most cost effective form of marketing, with the highest return.

Email marketing doesn’t work when…

What doesn’t work is ineffective email marketing. Just ask anyone who’s doing it incorrectly.

Here are just a few, very common examples of how small business owners get email marketing wrong.

why doesn't email marketing work, email marketing doesn't work, newsletter, email campaign

Image: Shutterstock.

  • A poorly written email won’t work. It will fail to motivate the reader to take action; to call you, email you, visit your website, make a purchase from you, whatever.
  • A professionally written email, sent to the wrong people, won’t work. It will fail to reach those with a want or need for your services.
  • A well written email, sent to the right people, with a dull subject line, won’t work. That’s because no one will open it. The subject line has to be compelling or no matter what your message is, it will literally be ignored.
  • A well written email, sent to the right people, with a compelling subject line, offering a generic product or service, won’t work. No one wants to switch to a service that’s no better then their current service.
  • A well written email, sent to the right people, with a compelling subject line, but sent on the wrong day of the week, won’t work. At least, it won’t be anything like as effective as it would be, if you research the best time of day and best day of the week, to send it.
  • Oh, and if you send your emails too often, or not often enough… that’s right, your email marketing won’t work.

You get the idea.

Here’s another reason why email marketing is so extremely valuable to you and your business. It’s the only form of digital marketing where you own your reach.

Social media followers, YouTube subscribers, LinkedIn networks etc., are not under your control. An overnight change to these algorithms can see your marketing reach just a tiny fraction of ‘your’ subs/followers/contacts. That’s because these platforms own your connection. And they can delete your account whenever they wish.

So, instead of telling yourself that email marketing doesn’t work, ask yourself why YOUR email marketing doesn’t work. Otherwise, you’ll needlessly miss out on one of the most powerful forms of marketing on the planet!

Risk reduction 101

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In business, reducing your exposure to risk makes sense.

Eliminating your exposure to risk make no sense whatsoever.

Why?

It’s impossible to eliminate risk from any business. Even if things are going great, and we decide to just carry on with whatever we’re doing, we risk becoming obsolete. We risk becoming irrelevant. We risk losing clients or customers to agile competitors.

In seeking to eliminate risk, we automatically eliminate every great, genuine opportunity. Think about it, every genuine opportunity comes with an element of risk. 

In short, reduce your exposure to risk, for sure. But don’t try to eliminate it.

10 Huge business wins you can start on today

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Here they are in no particular order.

  1. There’s a type of thinking that can only be done by writing. So, the next time you’re working on an idea, solving a problem or developing a new service, etc., write it down in detail. You’ll get a better answer and you’ll find it faster.
  2. Don’t chase the latest success hacks. Instead, focus on proven strategies that work in every economy.
  3. Treat your time with the respect you deserve. Throughout the day, ask yourself is this the best use of my time right now? If it isn’t, stop and do something better.
  4. Get around the right people. Spend as much time as you can with those who will motivate you, inspire you and encourage you. This is probably the easiest tip on this list and certainly one of the most powerful.
  5. Do the extra 5%. Commit to do everything required for the success you want, rather than the 95% of things that most people do. That extra 5% brings with it a disproportionately massive improvement.
  6. Clearly define the vision and mission you have for your business. With clarity and direction, you’ll get ahead faster and fly higher.
  7. Regularly look for opportunities to do something, which your future-self will thank you for.
  8. One of the best investments anyone can make in their business is this: Strive to always exceed expectations. Raise your own bar. Then raise it again. And again.
  9. Provide your business with the resources it needs. When we starve anything of essential resources, it stops growing. Our business is the same.
  10. Eagerly look for a difficult problem to solve. The more difficult a problem is, the more the market will pay you to solve it.

If you found this useful, remember to share it with a friend.

Standing out: You’re the only safe choice for your prospects

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It’s really important that your prospective clients or customers specifically hire you or buy from you.

Allow me to explain.

It’s a fact that if your prospects go to one of your competitors, you have absolutely no way of knowing what kind of terrible experience they could receive. Anything could happen to them.

But on the other hand, you know for absolute certain what will happen when a prospect comes to you.

  • You know that you will look after them.
  • You know they will receive outstanding value.
  • You know that you will care, really care, about them and the service they receive.
  • You know that you will go the extra mile for them.

In short, if they choose you, you know they will be delighted.

A powerful business mindset

I have clients today, who first hired me over 20 years ago. This marketing mindset is what attracted them, and my total commitment to their success is what keeps them coming back. It’s the mindset behind everything I do. It’s 100% them-focused.

I recommend you do the same.

You see, I truly believe you have a professional AND moral obligation to ensure that your prospects hire YOU or buy from YOU. Because it’s the only way you can guarantee for certain that they won’t make a MASSIVE mistake.

You care passionately about your clients or customers. You go to great lengths to ensure their happiness. So, let the marketplace know. Show them that their total satisfaction is what matters to you. That it’s what drives you. That it’s what motivates you to continuously improve.

Now make that message, from that mindset, the cornerstone of all your marketing. It’s already the cornerstone of everything you do. That message is exactly what prospects want to hear… and you know that what you’re telling them is the truth.