Jim's Marketing Blog

Marketing tips and ideas to help you grow your business

How to make the right decisions, just like the world’s top entrepreneurs

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The best decisions you ever made all had one thing in common.

Can you guess what it was?

They were BIG decisions! All of them.

Think about it… the decision to start a family, to buy a home, to spend a year travelling the world, these decisions are huge. Life-changing, even. And they’re risky, because they come with no guarantee of success.

Business success and decision making

The same is true in business. Major success only comes, after you’ve made breakthrough decisions. And breakthrough decisions are big. Big enough to break through the challenges that are holding your business back.

Here’s the thing: Every big business decision will always carry an equally big risk.

That’s because it’s the size of the risk that determines the size of the decision. This explains why making small decisions is so easy. They carry little or no risk, so they feel safe.

In working with business owners, I find that ongoing business problems can always be traced back to a big decision, which is being avoided.

It looks something like this.

  • They know there’s a persistent or recurring problem in their business.
  • They also know something needs to be done about it.
  • The decision to do what’s required (usually to make an investment or make a significant change) feels too risky.
  • So they decide not to do what’s required.
  • Instead, they do something that seems easier (less risky).
  • The problem persists.
  • The business continues to struggle.

The entrepreneurial mindset

One hundred percent of the most successful businesses, in every niche, are directed by people with an entrepreneurial mindset. That’s because entrepreneurs evaluate risk in a massively more effective way.

Entrepreneurs know that letting a problem persist is always riskier, than making the necessary decision. They know that ignoring the smoke bellowing from the rear of their car doesn’t make the problem go away. And a business problem that gets ignored, is a business problem that gets worse.

Interestingly, the entrepreneur is still avoiding risk. All that changes, is what they attach risk to. They define risk correctly, make far better decisions and achieve far better results.

In short, if you want the right results for your business, you need to make the right decisions for your business. And if your business growth has levelled off, there’s almost certainly an important decision somewhere, which you really need to make.

Frequency

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marketing frequency

Photo: Shutterstock.

Here’s a quick idea, to help you attract the attention of prospective clients AND motivate them to hire you and recommend you. It’s all about one word. Frequency.

Allow me to explain.

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

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

Here’s what this has to do with growing your business.

Frequency

Clearly, I’ll never be able to keep everyone happy with the frequency of my posts. For some it will be too little and 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 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’s on your wavelength.

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

By being vaguely relevant to as many people as possible, you become directly relevant to no one. And it’s only directly relevant marketing messages that motivate people to take action.

So pick a frequency. Shun the masses. Embrace the community you wish to serve. Focus 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 would be for your business in 2020.

How to make your marketing totally, utterly unmissable

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marketing blog

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.

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 blog? 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 can massively improve your results.

10 Reasons to be massively optimistic about your business

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marketing optimism

  1. You’re never more than one idea away from a life-changing, breakthrough result.
  2. And you’re never more than one email or phone call away from your biggest order or best ever client enquiry. I was reminded of this last month, when a client informed me that he’d just landed his first ever million dollar contract. Just 10 months earlier, he was close to quitting!
  3. You can increase your fees (or prices) by 200%, as long as you increase your value to the marketplace by 200%, first. Of course, the same is true of a 300% fee increase, etc.
  4. Whatever problem you’re facing right now, has already been overcome by countless other business owners. This means the answer you need is already out there. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking.
  5. Business doesn’t need to be boring. Remember, you’re in control. You can choose to do work that truly inspires you.
  6. And because you’re in control, you don’t have to work for low quality clients, either. As I said last week, you can’t build a great business with bad clients.
  7. Thanks to social networks, you can listen to your marketplace and find out exactly what they want. This means you can develop a product or service, knowing in advance that the demand will be high. No more guessing!
  8. You’re living in the golden age of business. This is the era, which past generations dreamed of. For example, YouTube gives you a free, global TV channel. WordPress gives you a free, global publishing platform and Gmail gives you free, global message distribution.
  9. Fact: When you improve your strategy, you improve your results. And you can choose to improve your strategy any time you want to.
  10. Finally, you don’t need to hunker down and “hope” things will improve. You can choose get moving on anything listed above, right now, and start enjoying the results.

It’s time to get emotional. Yes. Really!

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marketing close

Someone recently asked me why her business needed a story. She thought it was, “a load of trendy nonsense”.

When I answered her question, she emailed me back to say it had changed her perception completely. She said it would improve her approach to marketing forever.

So today, I decided to share my answer with you. I hope you find it just as useful.

Why your brand needs a story

My answer begins with a quote from advertising legend, David Ogilvy.

“There isn’t any significant difference between the various brands of whiskey, or cigarettes or beer. They are all about the same”. “[…] The manufacturer who dedicates his advertising to building the most sharply defined personality for his brand will get the largest share of the market at the highest profit”.

That message isn’t new. It was written decades ago, as you can tell from the examples he uses. But it’s even more valid in 2018, than when Ogilvy shared it.

Think about it: Apple’s iPhone is the best selling mobile phone in the world, despite being one of the most expensive. It doesn’t have the best display, the best camera, the best signal reception or the best battery life.

But it does have the best story.

Emotions drive decisions

Your prospective clients or customers are motivated by emotions, far more than logic. The way they feel about you and your brand, is what will drive their decision to hire you, buy from you and recommend you. And it’s your story, which determines how they feel about you.

Build a story, my friend. A story that people will embrace and share.

Is it easy? No.

Is it possible? Yes.

Is it worth the effort? Absolutely!

Never underestimate the power of being first

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marketing ideas

It’s 2018, yet we still remember Roger Bannister as the first person to run a mile in under 4 minutes.

Apple became the world’s most valuable company, largely because of profits from the iPhone; the world’s first smart phone.  (Here’s the original iPhone press release.)

There are 2 useful lessons here:

  1. When you are the first to do something, it’s remembered for a very long time. We remember Bannister, even though Australia’s John Landy broke Bannister’s record just 6 weeks later. Landy was faster, yet remained relatively unknown because he wasn’t the first person to go sub 4 minutes.
  2. It doesn’t have to be perfect. The first iPhone was really buggy. It even lacked a basic copy and paste facility for over a year! However, it was extremely useful.

This begs the question

What product or service could you be the first to create for your marketplace?

Fortunately, you don’t need to reinvent the wheel. For example, a service which is common in another industry may be unheard of in yours. It just needs to be new to your industry, profession or marketplace.

And it absolutely doesn’t need to be perfect. It needs to be useful.