Jim's Marketing Blog

Marketing tips and ideas to help you grow your business

3 Tips to help you regularly create great Content Marketing

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content marketing tips

If you’ve ever wondered, how some people are able to regularly produce effective content marketing; (newsletters, blog posts, articles, podcasts, etc), and how you can do the same, this post is for you.

I’ve divided it into 3 core tips.

1. Is this useful?

There’s a sign on the wall in my studio. It’s a small sign, containing just 3 words: “Is this useful”. That’s the mark I set for everything I create. Nothing gets published unless I believe you’ll find it useful. I don’t try and be clever. Just useful. And as long as I think you’ll find an idea or observation useful, I share it.

Some small business owners are put off creating content, because they over-complicate things. They dig into minute detail. And try to make everything as close to perfect as possible.

The thing is, your prospective clients or customers want something useful, not perfect.

Once you stop aiming for perfection you’ll find it a lot easier. You’ll also get massively better results.

2. Don’t let crappy ideas block you

If you’re anything like me, you’ll find that most of the ideas you get are pretty average. Most of mine are bloody terrible! But maybe 1 in 5 or 1 in 10 are good enough, to be turned into a valuable (useful) piece of content marketing.

The challenge is that in order to get that 1 useful idea, you need to allow yourself to have the crappy ones… without getting disheartened.

The way I overcame this, was to deliberately give myself permission to think of lots of crappy ideas, knowing that something useful would come from it.

When you view the duff ideas as essential steps in the development of better ones, they switch from being disheartening to highly motivating.

3. Give your work the respect it deserves

We often overestimate the ideas and the work of others and underestimate the value of our own. Here’s a great example of what I mean.

A business owner told me how she was taking some files off a computer for archiving, when she discovered an old documents folder. It contained loads of articles, which were really interesting. She looked to see who wrote them and found they were all her own work, from 9 years earlier!

She didn’t publish them at the time, because she thought they weren’t good enough. It was only when she thought they were written by someone else, that she saw them for what they really were. Your work is almost certainly way, way better than you think.

So get it out there!

In short, if you’re looking to improve the quality and quantity of your content marketing, focus on being useful. See your crappy ideas as necessary steps to your useful ideas.

And give your work the respect it (and you) deserve.

10 Proven ways to get free publicity

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Here are 10 proven motivators, which inspire people to spread the word about you, your product or service.

marketing free publicity

Read these through a couple of times. Then see which ones you can adapt and apply into your business.

  1. People will share your message, if it’s baked into your product or service. When you see someone using a laptop in public, the logo is visible on the lid.
  2. People will share your message, if they want you to notice them.
  3. People will share your message, if it makes them look clever. This is why social networks are packed with Einstein quotes.
  4. People will share your message, if they care about you and they believe sharing your message will help you.
  5. People will share your message, if it makes them appear generous to their friends.
  6. People will share your message, if they think it will make them look ahead of the curve or cutting-edge.
  7. People will share your message, if it’s remarkable. Extremely satisfied customers tell their friends when they receive an amazing service.
  8. People will share your message, if they are part of your community and want others to join them.
  9. People will share your message, if they believe it’s of great value and that their friends need to know. My newsletter is spread daily, by people who find something useful in it, which they want their contacts to benefit from.
  10. People will share your message, if it says something they aren’t brave enough to say for themselves.

Here’s an additional tip

Think about the last time you freely gave positive publicity about a company, product or service. Now consider what it was about your experience, which motivated you to spread the word.

Then, spend some time looking for ways to adapt and incorporate your version of that motivating factor, into your own products or services. This can be really effective, so give it the time and effort it deserves.

With the unique challenges facing business owners right now, the ability to generate earned publicity, rather than paid, has never been more valuable.

Get noticed: Make a difference, not a noise

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get noticed, make noise, make difference

It’s hard to get noticed today. And there’s a really good reason why.

The world has a social media megaphone. Everyone can now tell everybody about everything.

To compound the noise pollution, thousands (and thousands) of influencers and brands are encouraging their flocks to amplify the noise.

Here’s the thing: As the noise from this chatter has increased, we’ve become better and better at ignoring it. Yes, technology let’s us filter the notifications and reduce the noise somewhat. But we ourselves are paying less attention to the chatter. It tends to wash over us.

Getting noticed

And that’s really, really important for business owners to know.

Why?

Because now that talk is cheaper than ever, our actions have spectacularly more impact.

  • People don’t notice the noise. Certainly not beyond a surface level.
  • They notice the difference we make. And this is especially true, when we make a positive difference to them or something they care about; their business for example.

In short, to earn the attention and trust of our prospective clients, we need to look for ways to demonstrate the value we bring, which they’ll find useful. If it’s useful (to them) it isn’t noise. So, they pay attention.

Get noticed above the noise

Rather than having a ton of social media accounts and filling them with noise (automated retweets, funny images and GIF’s, sharing famous quotes, etc), go for quality. Make a difference.

The message you’re reading right now is an example of what I mean. By taking a little time this morning, I’ve produced this information, which I believe some of you will find useful.

  • I do almost nothing on Facebook.
  • I don’t even have a Linkedin account.
  • I share ideas, like this one, and I use Twitter.

That’s it.

And every day, amazing prospective clients reach out to me.

Here’s the thing.

It’s increasingly hard to get noticed on social networks. Millions of business owners, marketing people and agencies are using the same, so-called tricks and tactics. And in doing so, they become camouflaged by the millions of others, who are doing the same thing.

We need to step away from the noise, my friend.

If you find you’re not getting the results you and your business need, focus on making a difference. Find something you can do, which will have a positive impact (be useful) to your prospective clients.

It’s less time consuming than adding to the noise, and massively more effective.

You should use information marketing. Really. Do it!

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Content marketing, information marketing

Today, I’m going to share the power of information marketing with you. It has the potential to sky-rocket your sales results. Actually, it has vastly more potential than that!

I was prompted to write about this, when answering a very common question from one of my readers. They wanted to know, how I find the time to write so many newsletters and articles.

It’s all about my information marketing strategy. And now you’ll see why you really need to start using it!

Let’s go!

Finding time or making time?

A business owner doesn’t need to find the time to go to work, or find time to look after their clients / customers. When a task is important to us, we make time for it. The time for it is set aside, in advance. It’s in our calendar. It’s high on our to-do list. And as a result it gets done.

Marketing is a top-level business activity for me. Not just for me, but for everyone serious about growing a successful business. I know that the information I create, (free marketing tips, ideas and advice) doesn’t always look like marketing.

But it absolutely is.

Some would call it content marketing, but content marketing is extremely limited in comparison.

I call it information marketing

And here’s what it does.

  • It reminds those who choose to follow my work, who I am and what I do.
  • My newsletters, website articles and social media updates showcase my knowledge.
  • My content also provides people with a checkable body of work, which proves that I show up regularly with helpful information AND that I’ve been doing this for decades.
  • This means people know who I am. They know my work and that I’ve reliably provided it for a very long time.
  • The marketing pay-off is that I’m earning their trust, long before they even contact me. And they’re sharing my work with even more prospects!

Now, imagine your prospective clients already had that kind of relationship with you and your business. Consider how much more likely they would be, to buy from you or hire you.

THAT’S what makes information marketing so effective. It provides you with a regular, predictable flow of exceptionally high quality new clients or sales. It also means you never have to sell your services to a stranger again. Because they will already know all about you and your services or products. Information marketing works beautifully.

Okay, now let’s look at just how easy it is.

Information marketing is ongoing

All successful marketing is an ongoing business activity. It’s about becoming, and remaining, visible to your marketplace; so your name, company name, branding, logo, face, etc., is familiar to them.

Almost every small business and many medium-sized businesses get this wrong. They tend to only market their business when there’s a problem; like when they’ve lost a major account or they’ve seen a worrying drop in new clients.

They then, suddenly start marketing to their prospects… even though they’re total strangers to these prospects. It’s extremely ineffective.

And it’s avoidable when you use information marketing.

information marketing, content marketing

It requires way less money than you think

Actually, information marketing takes less money AND less time than you think.

Allow me to explain.

Less money than you think?

Yes. If you market your services the way I do, you don’t need to buy ads. I haven’t paid to advertise my service in over 20 years. Not a penny.

That’s because when you publish useful tips, ideas and advice, which your marketplace will value, they’re attracted to it.

And you’ll be really easy for them to find.

Here’s a quick look at how that works.

  • If you write an article like this, or even something as short as a tweet, your prospects can find it on a search engine. Yes, tweets are findable via Google. Just be sure that when they find your information, it’s very easy for them to contact you and subscribe to your newsletter list. That’s really important.
  • If you write a newsletter (and you REALLY should), people will share it. This is especially the case when you answer common problems for people in your target market. That’s because people tend to know lots of similar people; (those who live in the same area, or are in the same profession, or have the same type of problems, or are in a similar income bracket). So, your initial subscribers will share your newsletters for you, and you’ll be organically building a bigger and bigger, targeted list.

That’s right.

You’re not only connecting with a growing number of prospects. Your growing number of prospects are sharing your work, for free, with even more prospects.

That kind of personal recommendation is massively more effective than an advertisement.

information marketing, get noticed, content marketing

Less time than you think?

Oh yes. Way less time.

Whereas content marketing is known for being about producing a high volume of often low-quality ‘content’, information marketing is focused way more on the quality of information you share. This means you have zero need to ‘pump stuff’ into every social network on the planet every day.

Note: I only use Twitter, my website and my newsletter. That’s it!!!

The information marketing strategy I use with my clients, allows most of their work to be used in multiple ways. So, you invest time creating one piece of useful information, and it can provide you with multiple marketing opportunities.

For example, if you write a useful article for your website or a blog post, it can be:

  • Published as a newsletter. Longer pieces can be published as a 2 or 3-part newsletter series.
  • Published on Linkedin.
  • Published on your Facebook Page or in your Facebook Group
  • Published on a forum your marketplace uses.
  • Extracts can be published as short-form content.
  • And visuals can be published on sites like Instagram, Pinterest and Twitter.

So, you create once and yet produce many, many marketing *assets. (*Things you can use, to attract, help and engage your prospects).

Some all-new information marketing material takes minutes to create. It can be as simple as taking a photo, related to the prospective clients you want to work with. For example, photos of events you’re attending, or photos that show people how you work. These help your prospects to better understand what you do, and they make you more ‘real’ to them. These photos can be really interesting and shared on multiple platforms.

But that’s not all.

After a very short time, as you become more used to creating and sharing useful information, you’ll notice the process takes less and less time.

Information marketing isn’t a time suck

Remember, you don’t need to share something new, multiple times a day, or even every day, as with content marketing.

Information marketing is about producing information that’s useful enough, for people to share your work for you.

It’s all about quality, not quantity. Value, not volume!

You could create just one useful article like this, every 10 – 14 days. By using it in the various ways I explained a moment ago, this would give you something useful and new, to share every 2 or 3 days for a few weeks, to attract the attention of new prospects and start building a valuable connection with them.

Consider again the marketing potential of growing your very own, huge, targeted audience, of extremely high quality prospects. Then measure it against the effort required for information marketing.

If you can see the full potential, you’ll want to get started.

What next Jim?

The best time to start information marketing: building this kind of connection, relationship and trust with your prospects is 10 years ago. But the second best time is now.

If you’re not already marketing your business, by sharing useful information, which you know your prospective clients value, please give it some serious consideration. I have used this model since the 1990’s. And I’ve helped countless business owners transform their sales results with their own information marketing strategies.

I’m telling you, not only does information marketing work better than any form of marketing I have ever used or studied, it works better today than ever before.

Photo: Shutterstock.

Word of mouth referrals: It’s never been easier

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word of mouth marketing, Word of mouth referrals, recommendations

Word of mouth recommendations open up an amazing opportunity, for you and your business. If you choose to embrace it, you can have an army of enthusiastic people successfully selling your services.

  • Without paying them.
  • Without even asking them.

There’s a little work required on your part. But once it’s done, you’re good to go! You can then watch extremely high quality sales leads / client enquiries roll in. Over and over and over again.

The work?

Get recommendations by word of mouth

It’s actually pretty simple.

I do it daily with clients.

It works like this.

Think of a product or service you’ve used, which impressed you so much, you told your friends. That’s all you need your offering to do. It’s not about reinventing the wheel. It’s just making some adjustments, which stand out in a meaningful way.

This is what gets people telling their friends, associates and social media contacts about you.

People in your industry have already done this very successfully. In fact, there are countless examples from every industry.

It’s how we all prefer to find new restaurants, phone brands, bars, accountants, motorcycles, authors, marketing consultants, lawyers, professional photographers, financial advisers, software products, artists, fashion brands, doctors, … everything.

Seriously, you need to be a part of that list. You need word of mouth recommendations or referrals working for you and your business.

Word of mouth marketing has never worked better

How come?

The power of a recommendation comes from it being third party and independent. In other words, not from someone who works for the provider they’re recommending, or who is being paid to recommend the product or service. Until relatively recently, someone’s ability to reach people about how delighted they are with you, was restricted. Now, social networks allow anyone to instantly tell 50, 500, 5000 or 50,000 people how delighted they are with you.

Let that sink in for a moment and imagine what that would do for you and your business.

Plus, in many cases, these recommendations and wonderful comments about you, are findable by people using search engines. This gives your recommendations an even wider audience and an even longer life cycle!

Get daily word of mouth recommendations

I work with business owners every day, who are enjoying the massive benefits of free, word of mouth recommendations.

You deserve the same.

So take the time to recreate your products or services, so that people want to tell their friends and contacts about you. If you want to do this right, first time, get some expert help.

Either way, do not miss out on this amazing marketing opportunity to grow your business, from wave after wave of word of mouth recommendations and referrals.

How to make your marketing totally unmissable

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Marketing

What do the following have in common?

  • The trailer for a movie, which is part of a franchise you really enjoy.
  • A radio interview with a musician, whose music you’ve always loved, talking about their new album.
  • A Facebook post from an author, whose books you collect, announcing their new title.
  • A newsletter from a brand you like and trust, announcing an exciting new product.

The answer is that they are all examples of marketing you value. Marketing you wouldn’t want to miss. Marketing that doesn’t even feel like marketing.

How to create unmissable marketing

So, what was it that made those marketing examples unmissable?

  1. You gave permission for the marketing message to reach you. You tuned into the TV station or radio channel. You liked them on Facebook. You subscribed to their newsletter.
  2. The product being marketed (movie, album or book etc.), is something you’re interested in.

The key words there are permission and interest.

Here’s why!

Without your permission, the marketer is being a pest. No one wants to be pestered with unsolicited emails, off-target advertising or unrequested social networking messages.

Without your interest, the “offer” is just another annoying, time-wasting, badly targeted sales pitch.

Making YOUR marketing unmissable

Firstly, make sure you only market to people who want what you’re offering.

Secondly, earn their permission.

How?

Here’s a strategy that works:

  1. Think about the brands you have given permission to contact you.
  2. Write them down.
  3. Next, ask yourself why you did it. Why did you subscribe to their YouTube channel, their newsletter or their podcast? Why did you like them on Facebook or connect with them on Linkedin? Why did you ask them to send you their catalogue or email you their updates?
  4. Finally, see what you can learn from their strategy, which you can adapt, to earn the permission of your prospective customers.

It takes more effort to create unmissable marketing. However, it will massively improve your results.

Here’s what to do, if people ignore your important marketing emails

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Marketing email content

Image: Austin Distel

I get scores of really important marketing emails every day. I call them important, yet none of these messages are of any importance to me.

They’re typically irrelevant and of literally zero interest. They are only important to the people sending them!

I know you receive these emails too.

  • The amazing special offers, which are neither amazing or special in any way whatsoever.
  • The newsletters you never even subscribed to.
  • The partnership opportunities from total strangers.
  • The poorly targeted deals, which aren’t even applicable to you.
  • And let’s not forget the masses of automatically generated spam you receive.

Here’s the thing we need to remember, before emailing someone. If our exciting announcement or important news is only really important to us and our business, we’re not marketing to people. We’re interrupting them!

And if we do that a second time, we go from interrupting them, to pestering them.

That’s not a good look.

How to get it right?

Create something genuinely interesting, which is important to your prospective clients or customers. Then, only send your message to people who have given you permission to contact them, and who you know have a genuine need for that important information.

It’s hard to overstate the marketing power of a valuable message, sent to people who want to hear from you. It’s how you create the best marketing… marketing that’s so useful, people would miss it if you stopped.

List building: How to build a list that builds your business

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list building, build a list

Photo: Shutterstock.

People often ask me for tips on how to build a bigger list. They want more subscribers, more readers, more listeners, more viewers, more followers, etc.

The short answer is simple. It’s this.

Create useful content, which is worthy of people’s attention and make it really easy for them to subscribe.

If you do that, you’ll attract more people and because your content is useful, many of them will subscribe. Think about it. That’s the exact process, which motivated you to subscribe to every list you’re on. Something attracted you, you found it useful, you subscribed.

This begs the question: If the answer is so simple, why is it so darn hard to build a large and valuable list?

Here’s the slightly longer answer.

The advice is simple. The process is tricky

There’s some tricky stuff between you and that massively valuable list you want.

Finding something useful to share, on a regular basis, is tricky. Remember, if you just churn out the same stuff as others in your industry, you won’t attract subscribers or retain them. This means you’ll need to be willing to do some research. You’ll need to become a regular note taker. A collector of ideas. It’s interesting work, but if you’re not already someone who studies and takes notes, it can take a while to transition.

Finding the time to create content is also tricky. You’re already busy, right? Developing content around all that interesting material you have, takes time. That time is easy to justify when you have a huge list. It’s harder to justify, when your hard work is being consumed by just a small number of people. You’ll need to push through the tumbleweed and crickets of the early stages. And I know from personal experience, that can be a real challenge.

Summoning the courage to publish your stuff is also tricky. Why? Because if you do it right, you’ll attract critics. Someone once told me that we have a choice to make. We can either be criticized or be ignored. If we’re being ignored, we’re invisible. That’s not good for any business.

The alternative is to not only expect criticism, but to welcome it as a positive sign that we’re no longer being ignored. Don’t set out to attract critics. Set out to be useful and worthy of attention. But see criticism as an inevitable part of becoming visible and successful.

Note: Here’s why people criticize you and how to deal with it.

Once you know what’s involved, building a valuable list is pretty easy.

And the rewards are huge

Picture this: Just imagine what a difference it would make to your business, if you were in regular contact with thousands of prospective customers. Not via advertising, which is usually seen as an unwelcome interruption. But via a subscription to your content, which people proactively requested because they WANT to hear from you. It’s almost impossible to overstate just how valuable your subscribers are.

The opportunity is amazing. And it’s right in front of you. Right now.

Marketing success: Reactive versus proactive

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jim connolly marketing

Today, I’m sharing a marketing idea to help you achieve long-term business success.

It starts with an extremely useful question.

How many of today’s business activities will make my business stronger in 6 months’ / 12 months’ time?

That question provides us with a useful perspective. Especially if we ask it every day. It gives us an insight into how much of our time and focus is invested in the middle to long-term future of our business. Equally important, it shows how much of our time and focus is short-term.

When we look at our results 6 months or a year from now, they’ll tell us if we got the balance right. We’ll know for sure. Of course, by then, it’s too late to change things if we got it wrong.

How do we get the balance right, ahead of time?

Here’s what I’ve discovered

From experience, small business owners are likely to invest too heavily in the short-term. Most small business owners will openly tell you; they spend too much time working IN their business, and not enough time working ON their business.

A short-term focus in business manifests itself in multiple ways. As a marketing bloke (hey, I think I’ve just found a new job title), I see the following 2 examples most often.

1. Small business owners will fail to create an ongoing conversation with their prospective clients; via a newsletter, non-automated social media account, etc. So, when they need to significantly increase sales, they’re forced to interrupt strangers with paid ads, instead.

It takes a little time to write a newsletter or to connect with your prospective clients on your preferred social network. But it’s a spectacularly valuable medium and long-term investment.

2. Another common manifestation of too heavy a focus on the short-term, is reactive marketing. The small business owner waits until something bad happens, THEN they respond. This forces them to start marketing from a position of weakness, and in need of an urgent win. Either one of those is a tricky challenge. But needing fast results from a weak position is really tough to pull off.

It takes a little time to proactively do some regular marketing. But as I said a moment ago, it’s a spectacularly valuable medium and long-term investment.

Moving forward

Long-term success doesn’t come from short-term thinking. We need to be aware of the bigger picture. And even though we are busy, we need to invest some time in longer-term marketing activities.

So, how much of our time do we need to invest?

Obviously, not all of it.

Not most of it, either.

In fact, all it takes is a small amount of time. Repeated most days.

Why your subscribers aren’t hiring you (and how to fix it).

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Hannah has almost 2000 newsletter subscribers. Her open rates are always between 80% and 85%. And yet she’s attracted just 4 paying clients since 2019, directly from her newsletter readership.

She asked me what she was doing wrong. I suggested, (with her permission), that as this is a really common problem, I’d share my answer with you.

why wont people hire me

Accurate marketing data can cause us problems

We’re now able to test and measure our digital marketing with great precision. And it’s causing hard working small business owners to make very expensive marketing mistakes.

For example. Service providers like Hannah, often look at the open rates / clicks / shares data of their newsletters or blogs, then write certain styles of headline or content, based on what’s popular.

That seems to make sense.

Until we look at the massive difference, between what’s popular with readers… and what generates bankable income for our business.

The key point here.

  • Readers are mostly just that. They’re readers. They read our free stuff. That’s it.
  • Only a subset of readers are prospective clients. This is usually a relatively small percentage; especially if we use the content marketing model, (which Hannah uses, I use and you should be using too).

In short: The vast majority of people who subscribe for useful, free business information have zero intention of spending a dime with us. They’re looking for free information. Period.

Oh yeah. They really mess with your marketing data

That’s because the free stuff crowd are also the people most likely to open newsletters and click links.

They especially love sensational headlines, free special reports and free white papers, etc. They are attracted to them because they dabble rather than hire expert help, so their businesses are constantly struggling. Over-hyped headlines give them hope that they’re one ‘killer free idea’ away from solving their latest problem.

It’s not a coincidence that none of the 4 readers who hired Hannah directly from her newsletter, had high open rates or click rates. They almost hired her in spite of being on her list. This is because our ‘prospective client readers’ behave very, very differently from the ‘free stuff readers’.

The same over-hyped approach that gets opens and clicks from freebie hunters, leaves our prospective clients rolling their eyes!

Allow me to explain.

Yes, our prospective clients are certainly looking for great, useful information. And that’s a fact.

The BIG difference, is that they are also looking to provide their businesses with the resources and expertise it needs. This means when they consume our newsletters, blogs (podcasts, YouTube broadcasts, whatever), they do so with a prospective need for our services and are building a picture of us.

And unlike the freebie crowd, they’re looking for clues.

For example.

  • They’re looking to see how reliable we are over a period of time. If we regularly show up with ideas or go missing unexpectedly for long periods.
  • They’re also looking for clues as to whether we’d work well together or not.
  • They want to see if our communication style is consistently clear and easy to understand.
  • And they want to see just how informed we are; the depth and breadth of our knowledge.

Plus a ton of other things they pick up on, which guides their decision to hire us or not.

The freebie crowd don’t give a rat’s ass about any of that!

In a nutshell: For a service provider, the most valuable feedback from your content marketing, is if it’s generating high quality paying clients or not. So please, don’t chase the numbers that have little or no, real-world commercial value.