Jim Connolly Marketing

Stop offering solutions

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The word ‘solutions‘ is one of the most damaging in marketing. Here’s why. Plus, how to stop it from losing you a fortune in lost sales.  

I need to stat with a quick question: What is the main reason someone should buy from you or hire you?

That’s a question, which many small businesses struggle to answer correctly. And it means they’re unable to provide their prospective customers or clients with a clear, compelling reason to buy from them, rather than a competitor. 

This is where the problem with solutions comes in.

The thing about solutions

The lack of a clear, compelling reason is why we see the word solutions used in small business marketing all the time, to describe what their business does.

Note – I’m only talking about when business owners use solutionsinstead of being specific. For example, when their marketing offers prospective customers.

  • HR solutions.
  • Email marketing solutions.
  • Cost effective solutions.
  • Training solutions.
  • Or “a range of solutions”, etc.

By using solutions, they’re telling us nothing. Their message is weak. There’s no reason for us to contact them. So, their marketing is largely ignored. And it loses them a fortune.

I don’t want that to happen to you, my friend. So, here’s a far more effective approach.

The alternative is to get specific

Determine the core value you bring to a prospective client. Then, communicate it with impact.

For example, instead of saying you, “offer a range of email marketing solutions”, get specific. Tell them, “We can help you increase sales and boost your profits, with professional, proven email marketing.”

Back in the 1980’s, business owners were advised to develop an elevator pitch. The idea was to create a compelling 5 or 10 second business introduction. Commerce today, online and offline, is like a series of elevator pitch-type interactions. Your prospective customers are busy. Really busy. They’re being bombarded with emails, calls, social network updates, text messages… it’s relentless.

They don’t have time for long or vague marketing messages. They want answers. Fast! That’s why a specific, brief and well-crafted message has never been more important or more effective.

So, get specific.

Look for the core reason why a prospective customer should hire you, rather than hire a competitor. Look for the tangible, measurable value your service offers. Then, communicate it in a compelling way.

Achieve high impact sales, with minim effort or budget

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Marketing, business advice, get moving

Small business owners have limited resources to dedicate to marketing. This should not be a barrier to success. Far from it. Here are some high impact marketing ideas that require very little time, and little or no marketing money.

Allow me to explain.

When you find yourself with limited resources, the key is to focus on doing less, but doing better. However, lots of small business owners find they spend a lot of time and/or money on marketing, for relatively little reward.

The most common example is social media marketing. Yes, it can work. But I can’t think of a less effective, yet more demanding and stressful option. There are small business owners who regularly spend their valuable time, feeding content black holes like Instagram, LinkedIn, TikToc, etc. Other’s pay ‘social media managers’ to do it for them. There are much better, easier, faster, free-of charge ways to achieve vastly higher sales results.

Here’s a high impact example of what I mean.

It’s an idea that came to me while enjoying a coffee. And it took the coffee shop owner just 20-minutes to deploy. Today, over a year later, it still gets regular customers from various social media networks, without the coffee shop owner having to invest time on any social network. Read how I did this, here.

Here’s another example.

Attract customers on YouTube… without a YouTube channel

You can achieve high impact results from YouTube, without even having a YouTube channel. And not just results, but results that will put you, your business, products or services in front of thousands of targeted viewers.

No advertising required.

No money required.

Just a high impact marketing idea.

You’re an expert in your area of business. YouTubers who interview, or chat with experts in your business niche, struggle to find enough high-quality people to speak with. This is especially the case with YouTubers who have well-established channels.

Here’s how to start. Email the show’s host with an introduction or call them. When one of them invites you on their channel, you will be swapping your stories or expertize for exposure. So, for their part, the host will let their viewers know who you are and how to contact you. Once you’ve appeared on a number of channels, invites from other show hosts will start coming to you. Remember, YouTubers have the trust of their viewers. Their positive words about you and your services or products, can have off-the-charts sales results… short, medium and long-term.

In short, there are a lot of ways to massively increase your sales or attract new clients, without spending your valuable time or money. You do not need to buy ads, pay social media managers or dance the social media dance.

So please, aim for high impact instead, my friend.

Want to regularly create great content marketing? Use these 3 tips

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If you’ve ever wondered how to regularly produce content marketing that converts prospects into clients or customers, this information 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 look clever. I don’t try and be edgy. I don’t try to shock people. I just try to be useful to you. And as long as I think you’ll find an idea or observation useful, I share it.

Many business owners are put off creating content, because they try to make it 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 duff content ideas block you

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

The challenge is that in order to get that 1 useful idea, you need to give yourself permission to have the duff ones.

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

So, regard your duff ideas as essential steps on the way to creating the content you need. This switches them from being disheartening, to highly motivating.

3. Your work is way better than you think

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 that 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 duff ideas as necessary steps to your useful ideas. And give your content the respect it (and you) deserve.

Lists dominate content marketing. Here’s why you should use them

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lists, content marketing, power of lists

Ever wondered why so many articles, videos and newsletters are based around the idea of a numbered list? It’s because lists are extremely popular. People love them. Today, I’m going to explain why, and how, you should incorporate lists in your content marketing.

Why then are lists so popular?

Lists promise ideas. Lots of ideas. And fast!

Lists promises a number of bite-sized ideas or suggestions. And quickly. So when we see “21 Business habits of highly successful people“, we’re not expecting an in-depth examination of 21 habitual characteristics of people who have achieved business success.

No.

We’re expecting lots of 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. That’s a good return for just a few minutes of our time.

Now, I have a question for you. 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. Many 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 significantly 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.

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 article 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.
  • 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 audience 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 episodes, posts or newsletters, give it a go.

Experiment. Test different types of list. Measure the feedback. Check the numbers, including; sales, client enquiries, open rates, social shares and new subscribers, etc.

And let the numbers be your guide.

The content marketing your prospects want from you

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Marketing, list writing

I regularly write about the importance of creating marketing that’s useful to your prospects. So, here are some specific examples, which you can adapt and apply to your own marketing.

Let’s go.

Their needs and your products or services

Start off by thinking about the services you provide or your product range. Then, consider the following topics or ideas and how you can incorporate them into your content marketing messages.

People have an inbuilt need to feel connected: Share ideas to help your prospects connect with useful contacts. The Wall Street Journal wrote about how I achieved this for one of my clients – 4 Marketing Strategies That Paid Off For Small Companies.

People also have an inbuilt need to belong: Share the opportunity to become part of your community. Lots of content marketing fails to address this. Newsletter creators talk about their ‘list’. Podcasters and Youtubers talk about their ‘subscribers’. These are all self-focused. Instead, do as I have done and build a community.

For example, when one of my community hits reply to my newsletter, they can email me direct. And they always, always get an answer from me. No AI. No automation. Just me. I make it very clear that I’m part of the same community as you… the small business owner community. Your prospects value that kind of connection. They’re less attracted to being part of an impersonal list.

Everyone is trying to succeed at something: Share ideas to help your prospects achieve their targets, goals or dreams. Obviously, as with pretty-much every topic here, if you offer a specific product or service that can help them in this area, incorporate that into the content.

We all need to feel safe and secure: Share ideas to help your prospects reduce risk or feel safer.

Everyone wants to avoid wasting time: Share ideas to help your prospects maximize their time, or help them complete certain tasks faster, etc. I’m not a time management expert, but I’ve shared tons of ideas in this area, based on decades of running a successful business, without working crazy hours. The response is always excellent. So don’t be put off sharing from your experience.

People want to improve and expand their knowledge: Share your industry knowledge, sure. But also share your experience with them. For example, if you’re an accountant, don’t just focus on tax, profit and loss or the latest business news. They can get that anywhere. Tell them the common factors you’ve identified in successful businesses. And the ones you’ve identified in those that flounder or fail.

Your specific experience is extremely valuable. It sets you apart from all your competitors. And in doing so, you make it far easier for prospects to feel a sense of connection with you.

We also want to avoid unnecessary stress: Share ideas to help your prospects feel more relaxed and assured. If there’s a specific product or service you offer, which can assist them with this, incorporate that into the message or idea.

Aim for unmissable

Are any of those topics missing from your content marketing? If they are, look for ways to incorporate them. Because this kind of useful, relevant information is the cornerstone of successful marketing. You’ll know you have the balance right, when your content marketing is so useful that people would miss it if you stopped.

How to build trust, before a prospect even knows you

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build trust, reliable, content marketing, reliability

Today, I’d like to give you a proven way to build trust from your prospective clients or customers… before they even know you.

Here’s how it works.

When I share this idea with small business owners, I start by asking them to consider a few questions. Here’s what I ask them.

  • If you publish a newsletter, can your readers rely on you to get each edition out on time?
  • If you use social networks for business, can your contacts or followers rely on you to show up regularly with your ideas?
  • If you publish a podcast, can subscribers rely on you to publish on schedule?
  • If you are a blogger, can people rely on you to publish useful posts at least once a month?

Here’s the thing: Content marketing not only allows prospects to discover us and the services or products we provide. It’s also an extremely powerful trust building asset.

What this means for you and your business

By observing your activities, such as those I listed above, your prospects also start to build a wider picture of your business. A picture that shows how committed you are to delivering on time. A picture of your reliability.

By turning up regularly, your marketplace gets to see, for themselves, that you can be depended on. Over time, you’ll also build a strong reputation for consistency. These combine to transform your content marketing into an exceptionally valuable, trust building asset.

Go easy. Don’t overstretch yourself

The easiest way to make this work for you, is to choose just one or two content marketing activities. (I only use two myself). Then, commit to being there when you’re expected. You don’t need to be prolific. A consistent, monthly newsletter is far more effective, than a weekly newsletter, which you just don’t have the time to regularly create and send.

If you do this, then bit by bit, day by day, your prospective clients will come to rely on you.

Just think how valuable that would be for your business. Imagine a marketplace filled with prospective clients who already know you’re reliable and who already trust you. And you can achieve this, without overloading yourself with extra work.

Tip: Here’s how to make your content marketing massively more compelling.

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