Jim Connolly Marketing

Why your Internet marketing NEEDS your voice!

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I saw a joke on Google+ yesterday. It simply said:

How to start an argument online

  1. State an opinion.
  2. Wait.

There’s some truth in this

Many small business owners lack visibility online, because they fear being challenged for expressing their own opinions. So, they will like, retweet, +1 and stumble what others say and ensure their own messages are as uncontentious as possible. Whilst this approach does almost eliminate confrontation, it also robs you of the visibility you need, in order to succeed.

  • Your marketplace listens to you, when you have a message worthy of their valuable attention.
  • They follow you, when you lead. Not when you simply nod along like everyone else at the back.

Business should be challenging

Yes, you will get challenged, if you have the courage to share what you think and it happens to go against the grain. If you believe in the value of your opinion, you should welcome people to test what you say. In many cases, you will learn something about the strength of your own view point. In others, you will learn how to make your point more clearly. I have learned a great deal from people, who have caused me to dig deep and question my own opinions.

Looking through their lens

So, what about those people who just seem intent on arguing, when you confidently express your opinion? A quick look at what you have said, through their lens, will usually show you (in seconds) why they are arguing with you. Looking through their lens, is a phrase used to describe looking at what you said, from their perspective, so you can identify their motives.

Here’s what I commonly find, when I look through the lens of someone intent on arguing rather than discussing a viewpoint:

Vested interests: They have a vested interest in the opposing view. I saw a recent post by a guy who said that traditional networking groups were becoming less relevant, as more people connected with others on services like LinkedIn and Facebook etc. He was attacked by a lady who said online networking was of zero value, zero use and that he was in denial. After clicking through the link on her comment, I saw she ran several offline networking groups. Her business model needs that guy to be wrong.

Trolls: You are dealing with a troll. Trolls are going to troll, it’s what they do. Welcome to the Internet. It’s your call, but if they are only looking to insult you, there’s little value publishing their abuse or responding to their jibes on social networks. Seriously, you would not allow someone to do that to you in public and you shouldn’t online either. If someone’s just being a bastard, there’s no room for that in my business and I’m guessing the same is true for your business, too.

They want your juice: They want to gain your attention or the attention of your readers / followers. Some people seem to believe that it’s an effective marketing technique, to argue with people in their profession on social networks and on their competitors blogs. This is pretty rare and tends to happen more when you have a large readership or online following and a reputation for publishing comments that disagree with you.

In summary

I’ve written thousands of blog posts and only ever needed to delete a handful of trollish comments. Others who challenge my views, often open up the conversation and that’s how I evaluate their input: As an asset.

It’s your marketing and your decision, but it’s extremely hard to attract the attention of your prospective clients or earn their respect, if you’re simply nodding along with the masses.

Avoid this common social networking mistake

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Positivity and negativity share a common factor: They are both extremely contagious. This can work for you or against you.

What I mean by that, is that when you speak in negative terms about your business, those who hear you will start to share your negativity. Similarly, when you speak positively about your business, your enthusiasm spreads too.

The value of speaking with positive optimism

Social networking sites are filled with business owners, either spreading optimism about their business or creating doubt and uncertainty. Those speaking with positive optimism about their future, build confidence within their marketplace. We associate them with a solid business and a bright outlook.

The danger of spreading negativity & fear about your business

Those speaking negatively about their business, stand a real chance of fulfilling their fears, as they scare prospective clients away from using them. Prospective clients are extremely unlikely to waste their time hiring a new service provider, if they believe the service provider’s business is in trouble. The marketplace wants the support of providers, who they can bank on being there for the long haul. A flaky business with a dark outlook is an unattractive proposition for prospective clients.

When using social networking sites to connect with your marketplace, be very aware of the damage you can do, expressing doom and gloom about your business. It has never been easier to become a self fulfilling prophecy than it is today, so focus on what you want and not what you fear.

If there is a reason for you to be worried about your business right now, fix what’s broken. Then, move forward with confidence and share that confidence and optimism with your marketplace.

Plan ahead. Announce it. Then ship it!

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Have you ever noticed how some people are great at announcing things, yet less good at actually launching them and following through?

The Internet is full of small business websites, with announcements that something, is coming soon. Check these out in 6 months and you will see 1 of the following 3 scenarios on many, perhaps most, of them.

1. The sign is still there & they still have not launched

When a business owner announces something is coming soon, and they fail to launch it or ship it on time, it reflects poorly on them. Very poorly.  Their prospective clients value people who can be relied upon to get things done on time. Publicly announcing you are about to do something, then leaving it publicly unfinished is not a smart move.

Think before you announce anything and get the time scale right.

2. The sign has gone but nothing launched

When a business owner announces they are going to do something, yet they fail to take action and make it happen, they make prospective clients nervous. It causes people  to question the business owner’s ability to deliver on their promises. That’s potentially, extremely damaging.

Think before you announce anything and make sure you can deliver before you tell the world.

3. The sign has gone, the whatever launched, but they gave up

When a business owner publicly announces they are going to launch something, then gives up on it after a short period of time, it sends a bad signal to their marketplace. It could suggest the business owner is a quitter. I don’t need to explain how damaging that is. It could also suggest that the business owner has problems planning ahead. When people see you started something and then quickly gave up, it’s not unreasonable for them assume you didn’t plan ahead very thoroughly.

Think ahead and ensure you can give a new project the resources it needs, in order to work.

If you are going to launch something, plan ahead, announce it – Then ship it!

How to stop your competitors getting the sales leads you deserve

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Do you ever feel frustrated, when you see low quality competitors making all kinds of inaccurate claims about their services? If you do and you would like to ensure your genuinely awesome service attracts the high quality clients it deserves, you will love today’s post!

First, a question!

Let us assume I am a prospective client of yours. I have a question in my mind, which you need to answer if you want me to invest in your services:

Why should I use your services, rather than one of your competitors?

Here’s the thing: Your competitors, even those who offer low quality services, make some big claims in their marketing. They claim they will offer me great customer service. They say they will go the extra mile for me. They say they would love to hear from me and that they will not pressure me into buying anything if I call them.

This begs another question:

If you are making those claims and guarantees in your marketing (and you really mean it), how is a prospective client supposed to know you really are better than your competitors?

I suggest a very good place to start, is by connecting with prospective clients via a blog and social networking sites. When a service provider regularly shows up to take part in the conversations within his or her business community, so long as the provider is helpful and useful rather than pushy, they can cut through the noise and show how valuable and approachable they are.

Showing works better than telling

Anyone can claim anything in their marketing, which is why poor quality providers are quick to make promises and guarantees, which they know are bullshit. The marketplace, your prospective clients, are influenced far more by what they experience, than a claim made by a stranger’s marketing. As a result, it’s massively more powerful for you to demonstrate how professional and approachable you are via social media, than for you to make that statement in your marketing and not back it up with action.

The massive majority of business owners use social networking sites almost exclusively to push marketing messages at people and as a result, get very little back and attract similar-minded people, so they build low-value networks too. In my experience, you attract far better results when you stop using social media to push generic marketing promises and start using it to be useful to your target market. This gives you an opportunity to build trust and credibility, which is enormously valuable to you and your business.

Useful beats noisy every time

In an age where low quality providers use social media to claim they are wonderful, you can use those same tools to demonstrate how valuable you are and achieve the results your superior service deserves.

2 Ideas to help you write great content every day!

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If you have ever wondered, how certain bloggers are able to come up with useful blog posts on a regular basis, this post is just for you. It contains 2 simple ideas, which are used by many of the world’s most successful bloggers.

Let’s go!

1. Don’t let 4 average ideas block 1 useful idea

You get ideas all day every day, things that you could easily turn into an interesting, useful blog post.  The challenge is, you probably don’t write them down or record them. So, write them down. If you are like me, you will find that most of the ideas are average but maybe 1 in 5 or 1 in 10 are useful enough to be written up into a blog post.

Here’s the thing: Don’t let the average or bad ideas stop you pressing forward until you find a useful idea. In fact, try and come up with as many bad ideas each day as I do and you will have just as many good ideas, maybe more!

2. Give your work the respect it deserves

We all have a tendency to overestimate the words and ideas of others and underestimate our own. I spoke with someone recently, who told me she had read through some documents on her computer, which were really interesting. She looked to see who wrote them and found they were her own draft blog posts, from several years ago! She explained that at the time, she didn’t publish them because she believed they weren’t good enough. As soon as she read them believing they were written by someone else, she saw them for what they really were; useful, interesting blog posts.

Thankfully, today, you don’t need to wait to be picked by the editor of a magazine, before you can publish your ideas and share them with your marketplace. Today, you can pick yourself. Then, it’s a case of ploughing through enough bad ideas until you find something to write about, and get writing. Next, summon the courage to press publish.

It gets easier and easier the more you do it. In fact, I was hardly frightened at all, whilst writing this post for you!

Are you making this common mistake with your marketing?

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Twitter, Google+, Facebook and Linkedin are full to bursting with stressed out business owners, making unremarkable offers to uninterested people.

These business owners work hard sharing links to their special offers and webinars and wonder why they get nowhere, even though they have the whole process backwards!

Twitter, Google+, Facebook and Linkedin SHOULD be buzzing with their clients and prospective clients talking about how remarkable their business is, to an impressed audience who want to know what all the fuss is about.

Why this happens and how to fix it

In order to fix this problem, you need to understand what’s broken. What’s broken, is the assumption that people will talk about a service, which is average or similar to other services in the marketplace. Look at the providers in your industry and you will see what I mean.

You will find the vast majority of your competitors:

  • Offering similar services
  • For similar fees
  • To similar people
  • Making similar promises
  • and offering similar guarantees.

Now, here’s what we know about your prospective clients. They are being bombarded with unremarkable marketing about unremarkable services all day every day. It washes over them.

Remarkable

You know what catches their attention though? They stand up like meerkats, when something remarkable comes along. It captures their attention and inspires them to share what they have just experienced. It spreads and before you know it, people are out there, talking about how remarkable you and your service is.

Yes, it takes creativity and lots of work to develop something that’s remarkable about your business, your service and how you work. But business owners in this economy who insist on marketing unremarkable services, will find it harder and harder to earn the interest of the marketplace.

They will be forced into the race to the bottom, when they could be enjoying the journey to the top.