Jim Connolly Marketing

Social Networking Tip: Stop chasing the wrong numbers

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marketing tips, marketing help

The internet often feels like a huge popularity contest. Social networks, for example, display our follower, fan and “like” counts for the world to see. As a result, many business owners look for ways to boost these numbers.

This approach is seriously flawed on 2 levels. In fact, it can have a toxic effect on your business. Allow me to explain.

1: The numbers are almost meaningless today

Initially, the number of followers, fans or likes you had, was a useful social proof tool. For example, you’d see someone on Twitter claiming to be an expert at something, notice they had a huge following and assume they were a big deal. Today, these numbers have little real-world influence.

Why?

People are now increasingly aware that anyone can fake any of these popularity numbers. They know that anyone with a credit card can buy 100,000 Twitter followers or Facebook fans. You can also buy retweets, Facebook “likes” and more.

Prospective clients and customers are aware of this. As a result, fewer and fewer of them are influenced by artificially inflated numbers.

2. It causes you to focus on the wrong things

Most importantly of all, by chasing popularity numbers, you’re focusing on the wrong things. Only a minority of people buy followers, fans and likes.

The majority of those chasing the numbers use simple tricks [or automation software] to increase their counts. And it causes them to make mistakes!

As you’d expect, these tricks don’t attract the right people. They’re designed to attract the most gullible or least experienced social network users. They won’t help you build meaningful connections. In a nutshell, they add nothing of value to your business.

A more effective approach is to decide what you want your social networking to achieve. Then, focus on making that happen. This might include:

  • Connecting with the right people.
  • Sharing information and ideas, which your marketplace will find useful.
  • Looking for people in your marketplace who have questions, which you can answer.
  • And listening. Listening to your prospective clients so that you gain a deeper understanding of their needs and wants.

Your social networking goals will vary depending on your specific goals or targets. The key thing is to aim for quality and meaning, not empty numbers.

P.S. This will help you: Are you building a tribe or writing drive-by content?

Here are some GREAT ways to be a quitter

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10 ten

Quitting gets a lot of bad publicity. We even use the word quitter as an insult. And it’s wrong! It’s wrong, because quitting is essential if you want to succeed.

Business success requires that you quit the common mistakes made by struggling business owners, then replace them with winning alternatives.

Here are 10 extremely common examples.

  1. Quit looking for shortcuts to success and start looking for proven, direct routes.
  2. Quit looking for excuses why you can’t and start looking for reasons why you must.
  3. Quit wishing it would happen and start making it happen.
  4. Quit complaining that your business isn’t growing and start investing in professional marketing.
  5. Quit focusing on what you fear and start focusing on what you want.
  6. Quit blaming others and start taking responsibility.
  7. Quit following what your competitors do and start leading.
  8. Quit being reactive and start being proactive.
  9. Quit thinking like an employee and start thinking like an entrepreneur.
  10. Quit settling for less than you’re worth and start demanding the best from yourself.

Quit what isn’t working. Replace it with a winning alternative. Yes, it’s easier said than done, but so is everything of value.

How to join the top 5 percent of your industry

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marketing blogs, marketing help

Who sets your prices or fees? Your answer to this question is not as obvious as it sounds.

Most business owners will instantly answer that question, saying they set their prices. And in one way, they do.

However, that’s only part of the story

It doesn’t explain why most businesses in the same local area and the same industry, tend to charge roughly the same. Surely, with freedom to charge whatever they like, there should be a massively greater range of prices and fees.

Instead, I often find something like 70% of businesses charging around the same, with maybe 25% of providers at the bargain basement end of the prices scale and 5% at the top. Those numbers are anecdotal and in some industries, that 70% middle is closer to 60% or 80%. However, that same rough pattern holds true again and again.

What we know about your marketplace

  1. The most competitive slice of your marketplace is the overcrowded 70%. This is where it’s hardest to get noticed. These businesses tend to spend the most on advertising, networking and promotion.
  2. The least rewarding slice of your marketplace is the bargain basement 25%. This is where the most fee-sensitive and least valuable clients are. Those who hire you because your fees are low will ditch you, when someone offering a lower fee comes along. Wafer thin profits and high customer churn make this slice exceptionally risky. It can work [unless you sell your time for money], but requires a highly specialist approach.
  3. The best paid and least competitive slice of your marketplace is the top 5%. This is where the best clients, the highest fees and the biggest financial rewards are.

So, are your prices or fees attracting the right slice of your marketplace or have you drifted into the wrong place?

Drifted?

Yes.

Although it’s by far the biggest slice of every marketplace, few if any business owners set out to be average. And NO BUSINESS OWNER will admit to building an average business.

They know how hard they work. They know how much they care about their customers.

So, how does it happen?

In an effort to be competitive, most business owners slowly align their prices or fees (and service level) to within a few percent of the industry average. Before they know it, they’ve joined the overcrowded masses. Working hard. Working long hours. However, earning average fees from average customers.

Moving into the top 5%

Thankfully, if you’re not happy where you are, you can reposition your business. If you want to move your business from the overcrowded middle, to the highly rewarding top 5%, you can.

It starts with a commitment to embrace the edges of your marketplace, rather than cling to the middle ground. You then need to increase the value you provide and then to increase your fees accordingly.

Finally, you need to ensure your marketing reflects the additional value you bring and communicates all that value into a highly compelling marketing message.

Get this right and 2018 won’t only be your best year ever. It will be the year you

What you need to know about the stupid people who don’t hire you

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marketing tips, clarity, content

I heard a business owner earlier making an amazing statement. Here’s what he said, along with a massively valuable marketing lesson.

The business owner was being interviewed on local radio. They asked him how his business was doing. He replied that it was really struggling. When they asked him why, he replied:

“That’s simple. The marketplace is too stupid to understand how good my service is, so they hire cheaper providers”.

I guess that’s one way to look at things.

He was wrong. Very, very wrong!

Clearly, when prospective customers are failing to understand the value of the services you provide, it’s your job to build a better, clearer marketing message. Writing the marketplace off as being stupid is… well… stupid. It also shifts the focus away from the business owner [who can fix the issue] to the prospective customer [who can’t].

Some far more useful alternatives

If your prospective customers are failing to understand the value you bring, there are lots of things you can do. Here are just a few.

  • Make sure YOU are 100% clear on the value of your service. Check that you’re offering a compelling reason why prospective clients need what you provide. Demonstrate the extra [whatever] you offer, which they can’t get from a competitor. Note: If you can’t explain why they should use your service over a competitor’s service, you’re not ready to market your service yet.
  • Hire a professional marketing copywriter. This is the least expensive, fastest and most effective option. You pay a professional to style your hair, right? You pay a professional to look after your teeth too. So, pay a professional to create a compelling marketing message for your business.
    Tip: If you think your business isn’t worth hiring a professional for, get a job.
  • If you insist on creating your own marketing message, try being clearer. Cut the fluff from your message. Get to the point. Embrace brevity.
    Tip: Don’t write your web copy for Google. Really. Don’t!
  • Then test that new, clearer message on a selection of prospective customers. See if they have a clearer idea of the message you want to convey. If they understand it, others are likely to understand it too.
  • If they still don’t understand your message, try explaining things using more forms of media. So, if it was originally a written marketing message, add video, images, graphs or audio.

There are more customers and clients out there than you could ever need. Plus, it has never been easier to reach them. This means you never need to settle for a business that’s under performing.

It’s 100% within your control.

How to build a great business, with outstanding Customer Service

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marketing tips, marketing advice

As I’ve said previously, everything a business does is marketing. The customer service we provide is a prime example of this. It’s the core of our whole business. It’s what determines whether we lose clients or retain clients who recommend us.

The root cause of bad customer service

This begs the question: When customer service is this important, why do we regularly experience such poor service?

The answer is simple. Bad service, like good service, is a reflection of a company’s culture.

A company’s culture is what nurtures the kind of service their customers receive. It attracts and rewards incompetence or it attracts and rewards excellence.

For example.

  • An employee will not get away with offering poor service for long, if their company is serious about great customer service. Their poor quality service will quickly stand out. It will not be tolerated. They will then either be trained or fired. Period.
  • Conversely, an employee who believes in great customer service will find it hard to work for a company with no real commitment to customer service. The employee will either leave or be slowly beaten down into offering the same low quality service as their colleagues.

In both examples, employees find out what is expected of them. They then know what they need to do, to comply with the company culture. They know how low or how high the bar has been set.

Customer service and marketing

As business owners, we create the customer service culture of our businesses. Whether we are a solopreneur or have a team, we determine what’s expected.

This means we can choose to shoot for service excellence. And service excellence is the culture that attracts the best employees and the best customers. Plus, we’ll retain our customers for longer and they will become passionate advocates — recommending us to their friends.

That’s why customer service excellence is a foundational part of effective marketing. That commitment to excellence is also an outstanding way to build a business.

Here are 2 posts with examples and ideas, to help you improve your customer service experience:

There are no traffic jams on the extra mile.

Are you building an exceptional customer experience.

So, who are your next 10 clients?

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your next 10 clients

Your next 10 clients will usually be a lot like the previous 10. They will pay you a similar fee, have similar requirements and expect a similar level of service too.

That’s great news if you already attract high value, high profit clients.

It’s not such great news, if you tend to attract fee sensitive, average clients.

How to build a highly valuable client list

If you want to build a more valuable client list, start today by getting specific about the type of clients you want to work with. When you have done that, consider the following:

  • What level of service do these higher quality clients expect? Do some research. Find out what they want from a provider in your industry.
  • Next, build a level of service, which over-delivers on what they expect. By exceeding their expectations, you will have a vastly more powerful proposition to offer them — something that will earn their attention and interest.
  • Are you prepared to execute on this strategy, in order to build a massively more valuable client base? Nothing I have mentioned so far is difficult to do. However, putting it into play requires courage. It means leaving the failing familiar.

As service providers, we have the freedom to choose who we work with. Deliberately selecting the kind of clients we want, in advance, is the key to building a highly valuable client base.

In every sense, it pays to choose wisely.