Jim's Marketing Blog

Marketing tips and ideas to help you grow your business

Marketing 101: Pick a frequency

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Here’s a content marketing tip, to help you attract the attention of prospective customers AND motivate them to buy from you or hire you. It’s all about one word that has two extremely useful meanings. That word is Frequency.

Allow me to explain.

marketing 101, pick a frequency, content marketing, frequency

I was prompted to write this after 2 emails I received.

  • The first was from a long time reader. Sophie got in touch to find out why I hadn’t published quite as many newsletters recently.
  • The second email was from a former reader. Rick emailed to say he’d unsubscribed from the blog, because I publish too often.

There’s a powerful lesson here for anyone who wants to grow their business.

Frequency

Clearly, I’ll never be able to keep everyone happy with the frequency of my newsletter. For some it will be too little. For others it will be too much. If I keep Sophie happy, I lose Rick. If I keep Rick happy, I lose Sophie.

So, here’s what I do.

Rather than try and get the frequency right for everyone, I use a different kind of frequency. A frequency that works. Every. Single. Time!

More importantly, it’s the kind of frequency, which you can use to attract more clients or customers and build your business.

The other type of frequency

There’s another kind of frequency. The kind radios use. If you tune your radio into the same frequency as a radio station, you receive their signal. You’re (literally) on the same wavelength as them.

When you’re on the same wavelength as your marketplace, you’re in harmony with them. And they’re in harmony with you. Sophie and I are on the same wavelength. If you’re a long time reader, you and I are on the same wavelength, too.

In short: I only write for you and Sophie.

Now, that won’t be the right frequency for everyone. But I don’t write for everyone. And there’s a very good reason why. It turns out you can’t keep everyone happy. And the harder you try, the weaker your signal becomes. Before you know it, no one is on your wavelength.

Though I used the example of newsletters / blogging for this post, the exact same strategy works for every kind of content marketing.

Supercharge your marketing

If your marketing isn’t resonating with your marketplace, it’s entirely possible your signal is too weak. This happens when you try to be relevant to as many people as possible.

You land in the middle. In my earlier example, you’d be too infrequent for Sophie and too frequent for Rick. Lose, lose.

By landing in the middle, you become directly relevant to no one. This means your marketing message will lack the motivation it needs, to inspire your prospects to take action. Only clear, directly relevant marketing has that kind of impact.

So, pick a frequency.

Shun the masses.

Embrace the community you wish to serve. Focus only on them, their needs and their wants. Be generous. And be generous as often as you can.

Pretty soon, you will have a community of people on your wavelength.

  • People who will value what you do.
  • People who will miss you when you’re not there.
  • People who will hire you.
  • People who will recommend you.
  • People who will talk about you.

Just imagine how valuable that will be for 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.

Why lists dominate marketing. And why you should use them

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marketing lists, listicles

Ever wondered why so many articles, videos and newsletters are based around the idea of a list?

Yes, you’re right. It’s because lists are extremely popular. People love them. And it’s easy to see why.

Lists promise lots of ideas. And fast!

List-based content promises a number of bite-sized ideas or suggestions. And quickly! So when we see “15 Things you really should be doing right now. Yes you. Yes now!“, we’re not expecting an in-depth examination of 15 urgent commercial activities.

No.

We’re expecting ideas. And we hope that at least one of those ideas will help us in some way. If it does, it will repay the 3 or 4 minutes we invested in reading it.

This begs the question: Does your content marketing mix contain list-based content?

If not, I suggest you give it a try. Lists are perfect for sharing, which makes them ideal if you want to expand your reach on social networks. New readers who discover your work through list content, will then get the chance to see your more detailed work. Others will follow you on the social networks, where they see your lists shared. Almost all of my most shared blog posts are lists.

Lists can also be very powerful, when it comes to increasing your email marketing open rates. Email marketing that has a list in the subject line, can result in massively increased open rates.

Here’s why.

Most small business owners are not expert copywriters. As such, the subject lines they use for their email marketing tend to under-perform. And poorly written subject lines result in low open rates. This means no matter how good their marketing message is, very few people will see it.

Using an average list title as the subject line of a marketing email, will always, always out-perform an average, regular subject line.

Should you focus exclusively on lists?

No.

No you shouldn’t.

Seriously.

Don’t!

Allow me to explain.

content marketing lists, overused

True, there are Youtubers making a fortune from creating only list-based videos. And yes, there are sites that attract millions of page views, who rely very heavily on list-based content. The business model behind both of these examples is primarily advertising. If your business sells ads based on open rates, keep churning out the lists.

However, for every other kind of business, relying exclusively on lists is a bad idea. And they should be used sparingly.

For example, I could have written this post as a list.

  • It would have taken me a lot less time to write.
  • It would have been shared a lot more on social networks. (My list content often achieves around 500% more shares.)
  • And the email version of the post would have been opened by a lot more people.

However, I wanted to dig a little deeper into one subject; the content marketing effectiveness of lists. I didn’t want to weaken that focus with “10 Reasons why lists dominate the internet”.

Going a deeper than a list

Sometimes, you need to offer more substance around one subject. Other times, an issue could be impacting your readers and you need to address it. And there are times when you want to share one really useful idea, which wouldn’t work if you broke it down into a list of sub-ideas.

The surface-level approach that makes lists so popular, renders them ineffective for anything that requires depth.

So mix it up. But include lists as part of that mix.

In short, if you haven’t already used list-based articles, videos, podcasts, posts or newsletters, give it a go. Experiment. Test different types of list. Measure the feedback. Check things (metrics) including; sales, client enquiries, open rates, social shares and new subscribers, etc. Because you could be needlessly missing out on a huge opportunity to reach more people.

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.

Marketing that sticks, is marketing that sells

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marketing that sticks sells, marketing spreads sells,

Marketing that spreads does exactly that. It spreads from one person to another. And by itself, it’s a total waste of your time, energy and focus.

REALLY?

Yup!

That’s because marketing that merely spreads isn’t necessarily marketing that produces bankable results. Clickbait headlines, cute / outrageous / funny videos, provocative images, newsjacking, etc., can all be used to make a marketing message spread like fire.

Without generating anything of value for your business.

Marketing that produces bankable results; (creates sales, attracts new clients, grows your market share, boosts your revenues and profits), is marketing that spreads AND sticks. Most business owners pay way too little attention to that last part.

Marketing that sticks?

Marketing that sticks makes the prospect pause to take action, before they spread it. If it’s online, at the very least, they’ll bookmark it or save it, so they can go back to it later.

Otherwise, they’ll place the order, make the enquiry, fill in the form, call the number… and THEN pass it on.

Yes, marketing that spreads is marketing that sells, but only if it sticks. So be sure to include a direct marketing request (or call to action) in all your marketing. And especially anything designed to ‘go viral’ or be passed around.

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.