Jim's Marketing Blog

Marketing tips and ideas to help you grow your business

Hard work isn’t enough (here’s what is)

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marketing, hardworking, momentum

One component of successful marketing, is knowing what needs to be done.

A second component of successful marketing, is to put that knowledge into action.

And an essential third component of successful marketing, is to keep on doing what’s required. Once things start moving, they need to keep on moving. Lasting success requires an ongoing effort. Continuous forward movement. 

Marketing momentum: the mover of mountains that’s easy to lose

Marketing momentum is where your intelligent activity (doing the right things, correctly) combines, to attract the results you want. For example, an increasing number of; sales leads, sales conversions, client enquiries, new clients, proposal requests, bid requests, client referrals, new subscribers, media requests… exciting times for sure. 

Here’s the reason I’m sharing this with you: once you’ve created marketing momentum, that momentum must be maintained and sustained.

  • You need to keep actioning your ideas.
  • You need to carry on looking for great opportunities.
  • You need to turn up again and again and again.
  • You need to consistently review and increase your targets or goals, as old ones are achieved.
  • You need to remain dedicated to improving how your business operates.
  • You need to keep working your plans.
  • You need to carry on delighting your clients.
  • You need to stay on the lookout for people who can improve your business.
  • You need to repeatedly make big, exciting promises and then deliver.

Doing all of the above is easy at the start, especially if you have an existential need for more clients or more customers.

But when all the important marketing numbers are moving in the right direction and things are going great, finding the motivation to keep your marketing momentum moving forward can become harder. And momentum soon fizzles out when left unattended.

This is something I work on regularly with new clients. Interestingly, very few ever think it will be a problem for them. This is largely because when people hire me, they do so when they’re looking for fast, massive increases in sales and financial results. They’re in the ideal mindset for creating momentum.

But.

As things start to improve, with exciting results moving all their important numbers in the right direction, almost every client I’ve ever had unconsciously thinks they’ve now arrived. That this new level of success is a destination. Irreversible, so long as they work hard. 

They forget they were already working hard before hiring me… and hard work didn’t produce the results they wanted.

Hard work by itself is not enough for ongoing success. So, ride the wave of momentum and keep moving forward.

Rapid, massive business growth: With MBRs

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marketing tip, MBR, Mutually beneficial relationships

This is massive.

I’d like to introduce you to one of the most powerful ideas in marketing. It’s an absolute marketing essential, known as mutually beneficial relationships or MBRs.

Here’s how it works, starting with a simple question.

Who already serves your prospective clients or customers, with a service or product that doesn’t conflict with your own?

This is why that question is worth so much to you. Those non-conflicting providers already have the attention and trust of your prospects. An introduction to your prospects, from one of those providers, someone they already trust, can make you a fortune.

Here’s how

MBRs are a cornerstone of success. The effectiveness of the strategy is behind the explosive growth of many of the world’s fastest growing businesses. In my own experience, many of my biggest commercial successes have come from MBRs. And some of these relationships have been producing high-profit income for well over a decade.

That’s because once you’ve built the relationships, they carry on working for you.

With one very important warning.

Mutually means mutually!

Mutually beneficial relationships need to be exactly that.. mutually beneficial. Failing to understand this and get the balance right is the only thing that can stop you. The relationship must benefit the other person in a rewarding way. Just like any relationship, for it to work both parties need to be valued. 

So, determine what you can offer these non-conflicting providers, which will motivate them to help you.

How do you get the motivation right?

You need to fully understand the risk you’re asking a potential partner to take. That person or company will be concerned that they risk damaging their relationship with their clients, if you fail to deliver. Remember, they don’t know you yet.

However, as long as the relationship you propose is beneficial enough for them, and you can convince them of your reputation, you’ll massively lower their perceived risk and increase the odds that they’ll want to proceed.

The potential for you and your business is huge.

How huge?

This huge!

  • When I help my clients build MBRs, I can usually find a couple of dozen industries that are non-conflicting with theirs, yet serve the same people or companies.
  • And each of these industries can have dozens, hundreds or thousands of potential, mutually beneficial partners.
  • And each of these partners can have dozens, hundreds or thousands of customers.

That’s thousands, times thousands of potential new customers, who are already feeling positive about buying from you. Just think about that for a moment. And let it sink in. Then, why not decide to build an MBR.

Decades of experience assures me that you’ll be very, very glad you did.

How to make more sales, in uncertain times

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marketing, make more sales,

As I promised recently, here are some more ideas to help you and your business through the uncertainty of the current economy.

As things change, we need to adjust our marketing to the new wants and needs of our customers or clients. That’s what I’m focusing on today.

Plan with flexibility

Typical marketing plans run for a year and make the mistake of assuming conditions will remain roughly the same. As a result, these plans fall to pieces when faced with a period of rapid change. That’s why your marketing plan needs to have flexibility built in.

I recommend creating 90-day marketing plans, to run alongside your overall business plan. These need to be regularly reviewed and adjusted, based on real-time feedback. What’s working better than before? What are your prospects suddenly asking for? What’s no longer working as well as it used to? You get the idea.

Pay extra close attention to your customers

One of the best pieces of business advice I’ve ever received is this.

‘Your customers will show you where your market is going’.

Customers do this through their actions and their words. Here are some questions to ask yourself, so you can see where your market is going.

  • Have your customer enquiries changed recently?
  • Have your customers’ buying habits or preferences changed recently?
  • Are customers mentioning any new concerns during the sales process?
  • Is there a meaningful increase or fall in customer spending?
  • Have you noticed customers becoming more price-sensitive?
  • Are customers engaging with you differently online, perhaps interacting more through social media, direct messages, or emails?
  • Have your customers started recommending (or requesting) new products, services, or features you previously hadn’t considered?
  • Is there a noticeable increase in customers asking you for personalised or customised offerings?
  • Are there specific fears or uncertainties customers are expressing more often?
  • Have customer priorities recently changed?

Now ask yourself, are there new opportunities emerging, or new concerns emerging, which I need to take action on?

Focus on your new opportunities. Think positive

Rapidly changing conditions often cause stress or anxiety for small business owners. We need to be aware of this, and turn it around. A positive, proactive mindset helps us adapt quickly, confidently, and effectively. That’s exactly what we need right now.

So, focus on opportunities rather than obstacles.

Also, encourage yourself, and your team if you have one, to innovate. Innovating puts you in control. It immediately gives you a lift and causes you to think far more positively.

And remind yourself regularly of the challenges you’ve overcome in the past. You’ll overcome future challenges too, if you use the right approach. In fact, you may well come out of this wiser and wealthier than you were before. I saw this with 100% of my clients during the pandemic.

I hope you found this useful. If you did, share it with your friends.

17 Tips to help you grow a stronger business

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marketing tips, build strong business

Here are 17 tips to help you grow a stronger business. In no particular order.

Lead with outcomes
People are buying what life looks like after doing business with you. Don’t sell the process. Sell the improvement.

Simplify the next step
Don’t just tell prospects about your product or service. Show them exactly what they need to do next. One clear action. Make it easy for them to move forward.

Your brand is always doing something
If you haven’t built your brand with intention, it’s still shaping how people see you. Only negatively.

Fit in and disappear
If your offer looks like your competitors’, you vanish. Be specific. Be different. Be seen.

Don’t build your audience on rented land
Social media platforms regularly change their rules and algorithms. They can disconnect you from your community or massively restrict your reach at any time. And it’s put many people out of business. Build an email list. Own your business’ communication channel.

Turn up consistently
In uncertain times, consistency builds trust. Be the business that turns up, follows through, and keeps its word even when others go quiet.

Stop waiting. Start creating
The perfect time won’t come. Build the opportunity yourself.

People buy for their reasons
Not yours. Always start with what matters to them.

You don’t own your customers (or clients)
You borrow them. They’re free to leave. So, keep increasing your value.

Every touchpoint matters
Buyers check you out quietly, behind the scenes. Especially your online personality. Make sure every part of your presence earns their confidence.

Too many low-quality customers
Low quality customers or clients are the unavoidable result of low-quality marketing.

Everything you do is marketing
Yes, everything… look. The way you answer emails. Your prices. Your contracts. How you follow-up. People notice. And they talk.

Use curiosity in your marketing
Give people just enough information to spark a question. That’s how you generate enquiries. Not by trying to answer everything upfront.

Use fewer words
Most marketing copy I see is 70% too long. Cut to the chase before they lose interest.

Don’t lower your fees
Raise your value. People pay for outcomes, not discounts.

Clarity sells. Confusion repels
Make your message short, clear and easy to act on. Too many options? They won’t pick any.

Earn permission
When someone chooses to hear from you, they’re far more likely to listen.

Time wasters: How to spot them and avoid them!

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If you run a business, you will already know how precious your time is.  This is why it’s so important to ensure that you avoid time wasters, and that’s what this post is all about.

Time wasters

One of the biggest time sucks in business, are those seeking free advice from you, with no intention of repaying you in any way.  Often, these time wasters will disguise themselves as prospective clients or customers, in an effort to get the benefit of as much free information from you as possible. These are the time wasters I am going to focus on in this post!

Unless you have nothing better to do (and I know you have), you need to identify and remove these people from your business as soon as possible.  You see, that “free” advice is only free for them! That so-called free advice costs you, in lost productivity and the inevitable slump you feel, after realising you have been suckered!

How to spot the time wasters

If there is someone right now, who you suspect is just trying to get as much free advice from you as they can, with no intention of repaying you for all that great information, I have a simple tip for you.

Try this: Ask them for some measurable time scales!

For example, ask them when they will have the funding in place.  Ask them when they plan to get started with you.  If they give you vague answers like “soon” or some other general answer, ask them for clarification.  If they are serious, they will value and respect your need for clarity.  It shows them that you are keen, interested and professional.  However, if they were not genuinely interested in working with you, they will immediately realise that their game has been tumbled.  They will then go and find another victim to drill for free information and you will have lost nothing.

Of course ultimately, the way you decide to allocate your time is down to you.  If you want to spend more of your time speaking with people, who have a genuine interest in your services, you may find that simple idea useful.  It has worked for my marketing business for more than a decade and saved me more time than any time management strategy I know.

Is it time to ask for the sale yet?

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Today, I would like to share some ideas with you, about the importance of timing in the sales process.  The idea for this post came to me, whilst standing in a queue last night buying some milk!

While I was waiting to be served, I noticed that the shop had some pumpkin shaped, Halloween chocolate on a shelf, with the price heavily reduced.  Although the chocolate was still within its sell-by date and would have tasted exactly the same as it would have on Halloween, who wants pumpkin shaped, Halloween chocolate in December?  No one! Even with its price discounted by 75%, it was stuck on the shelf unsold.  That’s because it’s moment had passed.

Here’s the thing: The sales process is time sensitive.  If you have a prospective customer, who is thinking about buying from you and you ask for the sale before they are ready – you will lose the sale.  Equally, if you wait too long to ask for the sale, you will also lose it – because their interest has cooled. They are no longer a hot prospect!

Think of the sales process as being like a saucepan of cold water placed on a hot stove.  The water starts off cold, then it gets warmer and warmer until it reaches boiling point.  In business, that’s the point where the prospective customer is most likely to buy from you.  When we turn the stove off, the water quickly stops boiling and cools, until it reaches room temperature.  In sales, every degree in heat that’s lost, makes it less likely that you will get the sale – Until you have zero chance because they have gone elsewhere or are simply no longer interested.

Here’s what 23 years in the business tells me

In my experience, the majority of companies wait too long, rather than ask too soon.  I’ve lost count of how many times people have told me that they didn’t want to rush the prospective customer into making a decision – only to find that when they finally did ask for the sale, the customer had gone elsewhere!

In your business, you need to identify precisely at what point in your negotiating process, your prospective customers are at their hottest.  That’s the point where you need to ask them to make a decision. Not before. Not after.  Get this right and you will massively increase the number of sales you make.

Have you figured out when your prospects are at their hottest? Do you have any tips on how to get the timing right, that you would like to share?  What do you think?

Are you on course?

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Did you start using Twitter in order to waste a stack of time attracting “followers”- Or to generate more sales, leads and business connections?

Did you invest in those expensive brochures in order to watch them slowly go out of date – Or to increase the effectiveness of your marketing?

Did you invest in your website in order to remain invisible online – Or to generate a regular, predictable flow of sales, leads and enquiries?

Marketing tip: Focus on your outcome

It’s way too easy to start a marketing activity with all the right intentions, only to realise one day that you have been slowly drifting off course and are now getting little if anything in return.

Grab yourself a coffee and take a few moments to look at your current marketing activities.  Are they on track to help you make more sales and generate more high quality business?  If not, stop whatever you are doing and either get back on track or develop a more effective marketing strategy.

Thriving or surviving in a recession?

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You can’t open a newspaper or watch a news report these days, without hearing how bad the economy is.  The media’s focus is pretty-much exclusively on huge, national and multinational companies, reporting drops in profits and job cuts.

However, whilst many huge corporations really struggle right now, there are countless small businesses out there, doing really well!  Of course, their success is almost invisible, because it’s not carried in the newspapers or reported about on the news.

Marketing success in a recession

I spoke with a man yesterday morning, whose main problem at the moment, is recruiting enough good quality people to cope with the 300% increase in business he has seen since last June.

I spoke today with the owner of a recruitment business (one of the industries hit hardest by the recession), whose business is growing faster right now than ever before.  I also spoke with an accountant earlier, who has seen an amazing 50% increase in the size of his client base in the past 6 months!

All three of these businesses are clients of mine, so their marketing is brilliant! However, their success is only possible, because they are focusing on growing their businesses rather than survival. Their competitors are ‘hunkering down’ and hoping to just stay afloat, so my clients have been able to gain market share and will continue to do so!

Recession thinking

Because of the wall-to-wall negative news coverage, most small business owners right now are focusing on what they might lose.  Their thinking and strategies are all designed around avoiding loss – Rather than developing their business.

Even in a good economy, ignoring the development of a business and focusing on loss, will guarantee that a business fails!

That’s because what we focus on determines the actions we take.  Let’s look at a very simple example, which shows how a business owner’s focus will dramatically influence what he does; based on whether he focuses on survival or growth.

If Bob asks himself; “How can I avoid going broke during the recession?” He might come up with answers like:

  • I could cut back on everything.
  • I could work harder / longer hours.

However, if Bob asks himself; “How can I double my profits, even during a recession?”  He might come up with answers like:

  • I could find a great new service to offer all my existing clients, which is also highly profitable.  Existing clients already trust me, so a high percentage will go for it.
  • I could get my website professionally copy written, so we get more sales leads from all those hits we get.
  • I could build an Introducer network, people who recommend me to their contacts in return for a commission. This way, unlike advertising, I only have to pay when a new client joins me AND I get an army of salespeople out there telling the world how great my business is.

I am certainly not suggesting that the current economy is a bunch of roses. It definitely isn’t!

What I am suggesting, is that we tend to get what we focus on; so why not focus on what you want – rather than what you fear?

Boost sales with your advertising!

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In this post, I am going to show you how to get massively better results from your advertising – starting right now!

Making advertising work!

If you tried advertising in the past and found that the only winner was the person who sold it to you, you’re not alone.  Over the years, I have helped market the services of thousands of businesses, spanning just about every industry and profession.  During my initial conversations with the people behind these businesses, I would often hear a version of the following statement:

“We tried advertising – it doesn’t work!”

Advertising actually DOES work (really well), but only if you use it correctly.  I have personally sold many millions of pounds (and dollars) worth of products and services for my clients and myself, with the help of advertising.  In this post, I am going to share one of the secrets of my advertising success with you.

If you have a small or medium sized business and are advertising with the intention of making sales, boosting your profits and transforming your income; I suggest the only form of advertising worth investing in is action advertising.

Why is ACTION advertising so effective for smaller businesses?

ACTION advertising is designed to make the reader take action.  Big companies are usually seeking to get someone to switch from one brand of cola, razor blade or sports shoes etc to another.  These adverts can be effective by simply associating good feelings or famous / beautiful people with their ‘brand.’

Small businesses typically advertise in order to generate sales.  Their advertising needs to; get their phone ringing, fill their store with eager buyers or fill their inbox with sales requests and enquiries.  This means their adverts need to inspire some form of direct response or action from the reader / listener.  A good quality action advertisement includes the following:

–  It tells the reader who the advertiser is.
–  It tells the reader what the benefits of their product or service is.
–  It gives them a motivating reason to ACT NOW – to call, visit or e-mail the advertiser.
–  It tells them to contact the advertiser – usually with a time sensitive or limited availability element!

Here’s an example of a simple action advertisement I read (with the company’s details changed):

“ACME Widgets can save you a recession-busting 45% on your annual widget costs, that’s why we are inviting you to attend our wine and widget evening on 26th February at 7pm.  You can reserve your place now by calling Rachael on 012345 123123.  As places are limited, please call now to avoid disappointment!  Acme Widgets, 22 East Street, London.”

In contrast, most small business advertising creates little motivation for the reader to take action.  These ads are often based around the following:
–  They tell the reader the name of the service or business.
–  They show the reader the advertiser’s logo.
–  They tell the reader a little about what the advertiser does or their benefits.
–  They sometimes list a ‘special offer’.
–  They usually give the reader some contact details.

These ineffective adverts provide information about who the advertiser is and what they do, BUT give no reason for the reader to take action and contact them.  Guess what – generally, no one does!  Here’s a real life example, (with the company name/details changed):

“Acme Widgets have over 20 years of experience and our customer service is second to none.  Last year our widgets were voted ‘Best Value Widget’ by What Widget Magazine.  Our best selling Orange Widget is just £250.  Acme Widgets, 22 East Street, London”.

The majority of small business advertising I see in the press or in trade journals, is far less effective than it could or should be.  There is nothing compelling about what they say – nothing to inspire the reader to do anything.  When I started out in marketing, back in the 1980’s, we used to call these ineffective advertisements ‘flick-through ads’ – because people would literally see them and just carry on flicking through whichever publication they were in, without doing anything.

Remember, all motivation comes from motive

If you want your advertisement to generate masses of new business, you can!  But you need to advertise where your ideal future clients/customers are and give them a BIG enough reason to inspire them to take the action you require.  People are not stupid and will only contact you if there’s a compelling / motivating enough reason for them to do so.  Just having your message “out there” is simply not enough!

4 ways to grow a business

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With so many buzz words and marketing ideas flying around, it’s easy to forget the basics.  That’s why I wanted to share something with you today, which really helps us focus on what’s important.

4 ways grow a business jay abraham4 ways to grow a business

As Jay Abraham said so concisely, many years ago; there are only 4 ways to grow a business.  They are:

1. Attract more clients or customers (herein called clients.)
2. Sell more often to your existing clients.
3. Increase your prices or fees.
4. Reduce the number of clients, who stop using your services or buying your products (your attrition rate). Though this was not included in Jay’s original 3 ways to grow a business model.

The most effective businesses, focus on all 4 ways to grow a business.

The least effective businesses focus on just 1 or 2 of them.

Many businesses, for example, actively seek to win new clients; but to little to retain their existing clients.  Others look after their existing clients supremely well and their clients love them – but they don’t focus correctly on winning new clients.

Whatever business you are in, try and work on as many of these 4 ways to grow a business as is possible, for someone in your industry.

Recession thinking

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Judging by my inbox and the comments on this blog, it seems that the current recession is having a very different impact on different people.  That’s to be expected, yet I’m seeing businesses of similar sizes, in the same industries and the same region having totally different experiences.

Recession marketing

I wrote a while ago, about how some businesses managed to grow significantly during the last recession – whilst their competitors were treading water or going broke. You can read the secret of their success here!

Time and time again, we see that it’s NOT outside factors that determine our success or failure, but how we choose to deal with them.  As they say;

When life deals you lemons – make lemonade!

One of the advantages that small and medium-sized companies have over larger ones, is their ability to spot an opportunity and quickly get to work on it.  Large companies and corporations move like a cruise liner – small businesses can move like a speedboat.

Make sure you focus on opportunities and when you spot one, take action!

Business success in a recession

With the media spreading nothing but doom and gloom, I have decided to write a series of posts for you; about businesses I know, who are currently enjoying great commercial success.  These are businesses in highly competitive industries, which are thriving.

To make sure you don’t miss out, subscribe to this blog now, using the RSS button on the top right of the page!

Targeted marketing

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This post is all about how you can increase your sales and enquiries, by using a targeted approach to your marketing.

A great product or service, with an excellent marketing message, will still fail to generate sales – unless that message is reaching a targeted group of prospective customers.  That’s why it’s so important for you to target the marketing of your services, to the right people.

Targeted marketing

If Bob gets a well-written marketing message in front of 10,000 people, who have no need for his services and no ability to pay or obtain credit – he’s unlikely to make a single sale.  However, if Bob gets that same great message in front of just 10 people; each with a real need for his services and the ability to pay – he’s likely to make a number of sales!

Blogging and targeted marketing

Fortunately, one of the best ways to get an extremely valuable, targeted audience for your business, is either free or very inexpensive.  I’m talking about blogging!

Whilst it takes time to set up a blog and add regular, interesting content – the financial cost of blogging is extremely low. Great news for any small businesses who are struggling financially right now, yet still have time available for marketing.

So, how do blogs attract targeted prospects?

There are two main reasons why blogs attract such targeted prospective customers / clients.

Firstly, there’s SEO
A nicely designed blog, with good SEO, (search engine optimisation) and interesting content relating to your profession, will attract people who are interested in your area of expertise.  Although the numbers will be low to begin with, you can develop a great audience or marketplace for your services over time.

Secondly, blogs are read by bloggers
I read stacks of blogs each day and it seems I am not alone!  I’ve been running a Reader Poll on jimsmarketingblog.com for the past 2 weeks; asking my readers if they own a blog.  Interestingly, around 90% of the 300 or so people who voted, said “YES!”

So, someone reads something of interest on your blog, which they then mention on their blog.  Suddenly, their readership is alerted to your work and you get a stack of new, targeted readers!  Many of these new readers will be bloggers too – helping you reach more and more people.

This kind of targeted readership is ‘marketing gold dust’ for you and your business.  These people are reading your blog because they already have an interest in, or need for, your subject.  So, if they see you as someone with the answers they need in your area of expertise, who better for them to call / email when they want to hire someone?

Targeted readers come from focused content

In my experience, the blogs that attract the most targeted readers, are the blogs that offer the most focused content.  Some blogs suffer from diversifying too much.  As a result, they attract a fractured readership.

Conversely, by blogging about subjects directly relevant to your services / products, you get to attract not only a readership, but a community!  Jimsmarketingblog.com is an example of a community blog. That’s because the blog’s readers, commentor’s and myself all share a common interest in sales, marketing and business development.

How well do you target your marketing?

If you want to improve your sales figures, a great place to start is by looking at how well you target your prospective customers / clients.  If you are a commercial blogger, (blog as part of your business), and you want to attract a more targeted readership, ensure your posts are ‘on topic.’

If you are not already blogging, this might be a great time for you to start! Just make sure you are committed to investing the time required.

A new year or the same old year over again?

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For most businesses, the first week in January is not the start of a New Year – It’s simply the chance to live the same old year over and over and over again!

They carry on investing their time and money in all the wrong places and thus, they get the same kind of results.  Such businesses reach a plateau after a few years and tend to stay there.  Like a truck that’s stuck in the mud, the harder they try the deeper they seem to get trapped.

The owners of these businesses complain about their lack of results, but fail to make the changes required for success. This fear of change is what psychologists refer to as The Homoeostatic impulse.  It’s best demonstrated in the human desire for things to “be the same – but better.” However, as we all know, improvement can only come as the result of change.  Things don’t “just magically get better” – we have to make them better.

If you always do what you have always done, you will always get what you have always got!

So, as we enter the first full working week of 2009, let’s embrace the opportunity to learn from what we did in 2008.

Movement or progress?

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As we move into a brand new year, I would like to share one of the simplest, yet most valuable pieces of advice I know with you.

Don’t mistake movement for progress!

Progress is not the result of hard work. If hard work were the secret to success, our grandparents would have been millionaires!Progress only comes when we work hard doing the right things. However, if we keep rowing that boat in the wrong direction, no matter how hard we row; we will never get where we want to be.

Before you invest your time or money on any marketing activities in 2009, make sure you are doing the right kind of marketing for your business – before you worry about doing it correctly.  For example; you ‘might’ be doing a mail shot correctly – yet by using email marketing instead of paper-based mailings, you can see better, faster results for a fraction of the cost and time of a traditional mail shot.

You might be doing that mail shot correctly, but it may not be the right form of marketing for what you want to achieve – your outcome!

Making progress

I suggest you look at all the marketing activities you currently engage in and then, one by one, find out if there isn’t a better, higher-leverage alternative for you to use in 2009.  There’s a list of marketing ideas here, which are extremely effective, just to get you started.

Over to you

What have you found to be the most effective forms of marketing for your business over the past year? Share your experiences and leave a comment below.

Unsexy blog posts can be valuable too!

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A blogger recently told me how his analytics software was unavailable for several days.

He went on to say how much more he enjoyed blogging and social networking his business during that period; without the pressure of checking ‘the numbers’ after everything he did.

Freedom to blog and connect

He kept saying how he enjoyed the freedom to really connect with his readers and those in his network; without the worry of whether his last blog post, tweet or facebook entry was driving visitors to his blog or not.

Although (like me) this blogger sells a service via his blog and not a product or advertising, he says he is obsessive about checking his statistics. It guides everything he does.

Like many service providers, I monetize jimsmarketingblog.com by attracting enquiries from people who read my work and then contact me, when they want someone to help them market their small business or boost their profits.

As a result, I only write posts if I believe people will find them useful, but I base the decision on what to write exclusively on whether I feel the post has value – NOT it’s potential to go viral or attract hits!

Because of this, you will see posts here like this one, which I know in advance will only get a small number of comments, next to the previous post, which currently has over 70 comments. You will see other posts here with over 250 comments, next to posts with 20 or so.  The reason this happens, is that if I believe a post like this one, is offering a valuable message, I will write it – even though it’s not a sexy marketing topic.

Give everything you believe your readers need

I believe that it’s important for everyone, but for service providers especially, to write posts based on what we believe to be valuable to our readers; even if it’s not always going to be a viral post or get hundreds of comments.  The irony, is that this approach has helped this blog grow from it’s launch a few months ago, to a couple of thousand unique visitors a day (often far more.)

The numbers are important for every commercial blog, but they should not be the only driver of what we decide to say!  After all, some of your least populist output, can be the most interesting to a section of your blog’s community.

Link love, Google and spammers

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The results are in and I can now let you know what’s happened since I started this exciting marketing experiment!

As many of you already know, jimsmarketingblog.com offers everyone who comments here a special reward; something called a do-follow link.  This is great for my readers, as it means when you comment here, your link actually tells Google to visit your website or blog; which can help boost your Search Engine Optimization.

link love google spam internet marketingSadly, over 99% of blogs and almost every well-read blog, offers the exact opposite – they offer ‘no-follow links’; which tell Google NOT to follow the link to your website or blog.

The 2 main reasons people give for not offering do-follow links are as follows:

1. Google ‘penalise’ sites like mine, which offer them, by lowering our page rank.
2. Blogs offering do-follow links are more likely to be targeted by spammers, because links from do-follow blogs are so much more valuable to them.

So, what REALLY happens when you offer do-follow links?

I have seen no drop in traffic from Google. This blog’s only a few months old and it gets around 50 – 60 unique visitors each day via Google. When I started the experiment, I was getting around 40 a day. There are lots of reasons why this number has gone up – but for a very new blog that only posts a few times a week, that’s an ‘ok’ response from Google. I can’t see that I am being punished for offering the links; not yet anyway!

Spam? Well, 99.9% of the spam here is the kind of automated spam that every blog gets and it goes straight into the blog’s spam filter.  There has been no increase in this kind of spam at all.

Spam from people using my comments section to pimp their website/blog has increased very slightly – but mainly because spammers know how well read this blog is. They see posts with over 200 comments and that’s like a magnet for comment spammers.

Thus, I can say with a high degree of certainty that the blog has suffered no ill effects from Google or from spammers, because of my use of do-follow links!

So, I am going to keep offering them to you – every time you comment here!

Benefits of offering do-follow links?

There are a lot of very compelling reasons to offer do-follow links. If you look at the kind of comments I got here when I announced what I was doing, you will see how warmly it was welcomed by the online community.

This blog is all about developing a community, based around our mutual interest in marketing and social media. So, what better way to show my commitment to our community, than to reach out and help promote everyone who comments here?

I have also seen a massive surge in visitor numbers, RSS subscribers and in the number of people who contact me via jimsmarketingblog.com. I believe a big reason for this, is that people really embrace the concept of a blog that actually gives them something tangible every time they comment.

We live in an age where marketing and social media guru’s keep on talking about how important it is to connect and share – yet they do so behind blogs that deliberately tell Google NOT to visit YOUR website or blog!

I really like the phrase that’s used to describe do-follow links.  They call it Link Love. As we approach what is sure to be a very challenging year for small businesses in 2009, I hope more people reach-out to THEIR readers with links that are actually worth having.

Over to you!

So, what do you think about ‘Link Love?’  Do you find yourself more likely to comment on blogs that show they value your comments?  Do you offer link love to your readers already – if so, what has your experience been? Whatever your thoughts are, share them here (and get some Link Love too!!)

Stand out from the crowd and boost sales

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Would you like to gain a massive marketing advantage and boost your sales? Then find a way to market your services, which is NOT already being used by your competitors!

marketing stand out from crowdTake a look at the businesses in your local area and you will notice something interesting.

You will see that businesses in the same industry, advertise in the same places, to the same potential clients, using the same kind of marketing messages and the same kind of promises!

As a result, their marketing pretty-much cancels each other’s out. This is a shocking waste of money and extremely low leverage.

Creative marketing

To gain a competitive marketing advantage, you should think of ways to creatively market your services, which are not already being done-to-death by your competitors.

A great way to find new marketing ideas, is to look at the marketing methods common in other industries, which are not being used in your own. Then, think how you can adapt those forms of marketing for your business!

For example, a number of stores are now paying bloggers to write posts about their stores and their ‘special offers.’  Regardless of your industry, if your competitors are not already doing this, it could be well worth considering for your business!

Just imagine a well-known blogger, who has the respect of your future clients, telling them how brilliant you are – that’s powerful!  Before you ask, I don’t offer this service myself.

If you provide a service that has a national or international client base, like; web design, copy writing, SEO, coaching, consulting – or you sell products via a website, you might want to consider sponsoring a podcast aimed at your core prospect group.  This can be extremely powerful and yet, it’s a form of marketing that’s totally overlooked by most small businesses – including your competitors!

The bottom line

If you want your business to ‘stand out from the crowd,’ stop marketing it where all the competition is!

Quick Marketing Tip – Strategic marketing

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One of the common factors behind all successful businesses, is that they use a strategic approach to their marketing rather than a tactical approach. So, what’s the difference?

Strategic marketing

marketing tactic strategyIn short, businesses that take a strategic approach to their marketing, think ahead and plan ahead.  They ‘compound’ many marketing activities together to leverage the best possible sales results.

Tactical marketing

Businesses that take a tactical approach, tend not to plan their marketing in advance. As a result, each individual marketing activity is done in isolation and therefore, lacks momentum. Tactical marketing decisions are usually made either on a whim or (most commonly), in reaction to a sales problem.

For example, a business owner will wait until sales are down – and then decide to ‘do something’ about it.  They then do one single thing in isolation, (often a mailing, advertisement or an email blast) and typically get a very poor response.  Often, I see a business with a single marketing letter or advertisement, which they use whenever ‘business is bad’ – rather than using a series of letters or advertisements, which build upon each other strategically, to create a compound leverage effect!

What is compound leverage & why do you need it?

Compound leverage is when you do a series of marketing activities, which compound to create a result that’s greater than the sum of the individual parts.

For example:
If you have a marketing email and you send that same marketing email, to the same list of people 6 times – you will see your results drop after each mailing.

However, if you decide to do a series of 6 different marketing emails; with each email building upon the previous one, you will see the power of the 6th email massively leveraged, because of the foundation created by the initial email and all the curiosity / desire created by the 2nd-5th emails.

By switching from a tactical approach to a strategic approach, you can massively improve the success of your marketing without having to invest a penny extra.  In fact, many people see far better results AND are able to cut their marketing budget at the same time!

The switch from a tactical approach to a strategic one, requires a shift from having a short-term focus (tactical) to having a medium or long term focus (strategic.) Every successful business I have worked with or studied, thinks and plans ahead with a long term focus.

If you want your business to not only survive but thrive during 2009, don’t wait until 1st January to do something – make a plan today! Put a strategy together, which consists of a series of marketing activities that compound to provide you with the kind of forward momentum you and your business will need in 2009!

Here’s a list of things to consider adding to your marketing strategy – from the most popular page on the blog!

Chunking it down!

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credit crunch marketingIsn’t it strange how people think about money? There are people who happily spend £3 a day on a coffee at Starbucks, but who wouldn’t dream of investing that same £60/£70 a month on SEO for their website / blog or even a private health plan or gym membership!

For those of us involved in sales and marketing, there’s a valuable lesson here!  It’s all down to the way people perceive money.

If you sell a service, which has an annual cost of, let’s say £500 – you are asking people to make a £500 purchasing decision.

However, if you tell people they can have that same service for the equivalent of just £42 a month, you are helping them to focus on a far smaller, more manageable figure.

By further chunking that figure down to a weekly investment of just £9.62 or a daily figure of just £1.30, you change their focus completely. Especially if you use something like the Starbucks example I gave earlier, in your marketing.

In today’s economic climate, your prospective clients are thinking REALLY hard before spending their money. This is why it’s important for you to put the cost of investing in your service, into terms that show it’s relative value.

For example, an SEO provider might say:

“For half the price of your daily cappuccino, your business could be getting stacks of targeted leads & enquiries through your website!”

The bottom line?

To a business owner, worrying where her next sales lead will come from, it’s clear that the cost of the SEO service above is infinitely more valuable to her; than the coffee she is currently paying twice as much for!

Find something that your prospective clients / customers already buy, which compares favourably with the cost of your product or service. Then, use it like in the above example – to showcase what GREAT value you offer!

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