Jim's Marketing Blog

Marketing tips and ideas to help you grow your business

How to quickly boost your marketing results!

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Here’s a quick tip, which can help you MASSIVELY increase the effectiveness of your marketing!

It’s all about focus

Whenever you write any form of marketing material, it’s extremely important that your message is focussed 100% on your core prospective client base.

marketing focusMany small businesses use a scatter-gun approach to their marketing messages and as a result, they write copy, which is vaguely relevant to everyone who reads it but directly relevant to no one!

By diluting your marketing message, you always reduce it’s effectiveness.

For example, let’s imagine that Bob provides a ‘Virtual Assistant’ service.  He is particularly keen to work with  web designers, software developers and SEO experts.  Bob will get a far, far better response from his marketing if he writes a tailored marketing letter/email for each individual group – rather than a vague, generic one, which is aimed at trying to be relevant to all three industry types.

Bottom line

Vague marketing messages will not motivate people to respond to you!  However, a marketing message that clearly shows how your service will solve the readers problem, is extremely attractive and will inspire far more people to respond to you!

There are 10 GREAT marketing tips for you here!

Get your timing right!

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One of the fastest ways to dramatically increase the number of sales you make, is to make sure you ‘close the sale’ at the right point in the negotiating process!

Why is timing so important to your sales success?

marketing timing sales In any sales situation, there is a certain point in time where the prospective client or customer is most likely to agree to buy from you.  If you ask for the sale within this golden period, you stand a far greater chance of the prospective client saying “yes.”

Here’s why:
If you ask them to make a buying decision before they are ready, they will think you are either ‘pushy’ or desperate.  This will massively reduce your chances of making the sale, because people hate to feel pushed or pressurised.

If you ask them to make a buying decision after their interest has dwindled, they will be far less motivated to buy from you.  This will massively reduce your chances of making the sale, because without that all-important motivation to buy, there’s little reason for them to purchase. The moment will have passed.

Hot stuff!

A great way to remember the role of timing in the negotiating process, is to think about what you do when you boil some milk in a pan.  You start off with the milk at room temperature.  Then, once the pan of milk is placed on the hot stove, it slowly gets hotter and hotter until it starts to boil. Once you turn the heat off, the temperature slowly drops until it goes back to room temperature again.

In a negotiation process, you need to ask for a buying decision ‘when the milk is at boiling point!’  This is the point where the prospective client or customer is at their most motivated to buy.

How to improve your timing

No two people are the same.  When some people are at their most motivated to buy, they will lean forward with their eyes wide open, nodding their head in agreement.  Others will hardly change their physiology, but ask you lots of relevant questions, and some will do neither!  Whilst anyone involved in face-to-face negotiating should study the basics of body language, you need to combine this with additional resources.

For example, try asking the last 10 people who didn’t buy from you, what it was that made them decide not to proceed and pay attention to anything that suggests your timing was off.

If you regularly hear people say that “it all happened so fast” or their head was spinning from all the details, this might suggest you need to slow down a little.  If you regularly hear people say that they just “went off the idea” or they are going to “review it again next year,” this might suggest you need to speed up a little.

I have been in sales and marketing long enough to know that there are many, many reasons why people decide to use one provider over another provider.  However, by paying close attention to this often-overlooked area of the negotiating process, you can significantly increase your sales conversion rate.

Getting your marketing balance right!

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It’s a fact: People will only buy from you, if they believe that the value of your product or service (herein called a service), is significantly higher than its cost to them.  If they believe they can get better value (or a better deal) elsewhere, they will go and spend their money somewhere else.

Equally, if people think after reading / listening to your marketing that you must be out of their price-range, they won’t even get in touch with you.

You need to know how to strike the correct marketing balance and that’s what this article is all about!

Effective marketing works on a number of different levels.  For example, it should show people what a great service you provide and also reassure them that your prices or fees are set within their range.  You achieve this by pumping massive value into your services, PLUS showing that people, just like them, are already using and benefiting from your services.

For example, when I market my services, I have to make sure that people know that I work primarily with small businesses and that my fees are easily affordable to them.  Otherwise, I risk people NOT calling me or emailing me for more information, wrongly assuming I’m out of their price range!

Getting your marketing balance right

marketing balance value fees priceTo find out if you have got your marketing balance right, you will need to measure the quality and quantity of the responses you get.  If people often tell you they’re surprised at how expensive your price or fee is, it means you need to pump more value into your services.

Yes, some people will say they think you are expensive, just as a way to try to negotiate your fee down – and you will always a get a few of those; but if this response becomes regular, it’s usually an indicator that the perceived value of your service is too low.

Another indicator that there’s a problem with your marketing balance, is if prospective clients start asking about your price or fee, early into your first conversation with them.  When this happens, it usually means you are either marketing to the wrong crowd or you have caused them to think you are probably out of their price range.  When people think your price / fee is likely to be great value or nominal, they are less concerned about it and more interested in how you can help them or how your service works etc.

How to make testimonials work!

One of the ways I demonstrate both the value and affordability of my marketing services, is to provide testimonials and that’s what I suggest you do too – but not just ANY OLD kind of testimonial!

YOUR testimonials need to show the value and the affordability of your service.

Most testimonials I see, are from people simply saying how great, professional or effective a service provider or product is – which is fine – but only if it’s clear that the people giving the testimonials are just like them. This way, the reader can relate to the message and ‘see themselves’ in those testimonials!

For example, the testimonials I use are all from people who run small businesses or are self-employed – who are elated at how I’ve helped them achieve fantastic results.  These are the same kind of people I market my services to.  This means that these testimonials tick both boxes; showing the value and relevance of my services.

What next?

Take a look at your current marketing feedback and see if you can spot a pattern.  If you find people are often too fee-sensitive when they respond or that you do not get as many responses as you would like, take a look at your marketing balance.

This is obviously a big subject and there are dozens of elements to consider, if you want to blow the lid off your sales and profits.  I will be addressing all these in future articles / blog posts.

Over to YOU!

What tips do YOU have, to overcome prospective clients or customers that are fee-sensitive or too price focussed? I would love you to share them with the readers and myself!

Marketing Guru’s, equality and attraction

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Recently, I have started getting a lot of emails from people; asking me a version of the same great question.

Here’s the question:

Jim, I hear that you don’t use any form of paid advertising or link exchanges – yet your posts often get dozens and dozens of comments. According to alexa.com (or whoever), this new blog gets lots of traffic. How are you doing this?

So, what’s my ‘secret’ then?

My secret is simple. It’s all down to Equality and Attraction!

Equality

I provide marketing material for people just like me; small business owners and those who work in sales / marketing.  If I know what I am doing, you should fit into that group too.  We are all totally equal here.  I don’t buy into that Internet celebrity or marketing guru bullshit. I’m just a normal person who happens to run a successful marketing business. I have the marketing answers you need and I work hard to get as many of them to you, in as clear and interesting a way as possible.  I don’t have a tribe; I have a network of friends and great contacts.

This is a level playing field, where you and I are part of the same marketing community.

Guess what?  That means when you email me, I always email you back.  When you comment on this blog – if your comment requires or requests an answer, I give one, always.  If I like your work, your blog or your product, I promote it for free – you won’t even know most of the time, until you check your stats, sales (or Twitter follow numbers!)

marketing guruMy readers seem to like my guru-free approach to delivering the marketing information they need and helping them succeed.

As a result, you recommend this blog, my RSS feed and my newsletter to your contacts.

You are the reason a 3 month old blog is attracting so much attention. You are the reason I don’t need any paid advertising.  You are also the reason I continue to do this; even though I have been financially secure for life since I was 29 years old (I’m 43 now).

That’s despite starting off in life broke; with no connections, the son of immigrants and covered in scars and even a gunshot wound from a violent childhood in the slums. I’m proud to say that I earned my money selling millions of pounds and dollars worth of ‘goods and services’ – NOT selling books or seminars on ‘how to sell!‘

Although my primary focus is always on giving, I have already generated thousands of pounds / dollars worth of sales for my business, from this new blog.  I did over £7,500 worth of business from enquiries here in the first 10 days alone. If you have a website or blog and you would like to attract more business or leads, here’s how I do it.

Attraction

My work is all about attracting sales and enquiries –  not chasing them.

Why?

Simple – people hate being pestered by salespeople!  They hate being pursued by overzealous networkers (online and offline.)  They hate having unwanted advertising thrust upon them.

People LOVE to buy things but they HATE being sold to!

Here’s how people often get it wrong
This morning, I decided to help my Twitter followers build their follower numbers and get some traffic to their blogs.  I asked them to send me the URL of their blog.  Then, I sent another message out to around 4,500 people – with a link to all the blogs that had been sent to me.

What do you think happened?
Within minutes a couple of people decided to send THEIR blog over and over again; so their blog address appeared multiple times in the link I sent!  I received over a dozen messages from people telling me they had blocked these users and some had even advised their followers to block them as well.

That’s because people hate being pushed, pestered, chased or pursued.  Whenever someone tries to use these tactics to generate sales, they come up against resistance. What a hard way to generate new business!

marketing guru advicePeople come to this blog looking for free marketing ideas, strategies and information.  They come here to connect with people and ask questions through the comments section.  So, that’s what I provide.  I don’t ‘push’ anything.  In fact, there is only ONE page on this entire blog where you can learn about my marketing services.

You attract sales, leads and referrals by being attractive.  In the online world, this means making your site or blog as valuable to your ideal profile of client / customer as possible.  You do this by focusing on delivering quality and quantity. It requires a mindset, where you are prepared to give high quality information away for free; not just the watered down free stuff you see on most websites or in free ebooks!

If you keep all the good stuff back for your paying clients, how is a prospective client going to know how brilliant you are?

You need to make your blog or website an Aladdin’s cave. This means, when your prospective clients or customers arrive, they need to believe they have just stumbled upon a goldmine of great information.

If you sell widgets, make YOUR site or blog THEE place to find out everything they need to know about widgets!  If you sell a service (like I do), use your blog or site to showcase your expertise. Show you really know your subject, answer people’s questions and position yourself in their mind as an expert in your field.

Of course, we are not only attracted to people, groups, blogs and sites that offer great value – we love to SHARE them with our friends and contacts too.

I always advise people to take a look at their marketing and decide if it is genuinely attractive to prospective clients / customers or not.  If you are not sure or you just want to make your marketing even more attractive, ask yourself the Aladdin’s cave question, which I touched upon earlier.

“Would someone visiting my website or blog immediately think they have just stumbled upon a goldmine of great information?”

If the answer is no, look for as many ways as possible to add massive value!

Blog marketing & newsletter marketing

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If you want to lower your costs, increase your sales and boost your profits, you need to get the most from online marketing.  This post focuses on 2 forms of FREE online marketing, which you can use to achieve amazing results for your business; Blogging and Newsletters!

Online marketing is changing

blog marketing newsletter marketingNot that many years ago, online marketing reached a relatively small, fairly select group of people.  These were either technology enthusiasts, businesses run by technology enthusiasts or multinationals.  Because only certain groups of consumers and businesses used the Internet regularly, online marketing was of limited use to the average small business.

Of course today, that’s all changed! Almost everyone in a ‘developed’ country now has Internet access at home, work or both. This means it’s now possible for you to use online marketing to generate either sales or leads, for just about any kind of product or service.  It also means it has never been quicker, easier or less expensive to market your business!

Free online marketing

Right now, armed with nothing more than an Internet connection and a blog, you can generate leads or sales for your business for free.  Moreover, these can be highly targeted leads and highly profitable sales too.

Practising what you preach

I have not used any form of paid marketing for my business for years.

That’s right – 100% of my non-referred business comes from either my newsletter, my website or this blog!

All I have to do is make sure I give away as much valuable marketing information as possible, to as many small businesses as possible.  Then, when these small businesses want someone to help them market their products or services, they give me a call.  When they want their blog or website transformed into a goldmine, they already know my work and that I get results – so they get in touch!

Fast results?

blog marketing newsletter marketing fast resultsOh yes – You can see results in seconds! For example, once you build a list of newsletter subscribers or a group of regular blog readers, you can start generating either sales or leads, less than a minute after you send a message or post something to your blog!

Of course, most people with newsletters or blogs have very few readers. Just as with everything else, you need to do the right things, in the correct way, if you want to achieve the desired results.  That’s why it’s important that you spend a little time doing some research, before you start!

Blog marketing

There are lots of online networking sites and ‘social media’ tools you can use, to build up a targeted network of prospective clients or valuable contacts.  In fact, the number of websites offering these facilities is so vast, that it has become a problem in itself.

In my experience, the foundation of your free online marketing should be a blog.

A simple blog, if used correctly, can help you develop a massive community and allow you to showcase your talents to your prospective clients / customers.  It can help you find out about the needs of your marketplace and also develop a special relationship with thousands, hundreds of thousands or millions of prospects.

Getting a blog

You can get yourself a free blog right now, from wordpress.com or blogger.com, and be blogging in minutes.  Each blog platform has pro’s and con’s.  I use a paid-for version of wordpress for this blog – you can see the benefits of a paid wordpress blog here.

Blog marketing is a massive subject and I can only scratch the surface in this post, but there’s going to be a LOT more information to come – So subscribe to my RSS feed, using the button on the top right of the page and make sure you don’t miss a thing!

Newsletters

blog marketing newsletter marketing emailBy far, my biggest ‘network’ is the readership of my marketing newsletter.  The newsletter has been going for almost three years and has thousands of valued readers, spanning over 100 countries around the world.  Each newsletter is sent just a couple of times a month and contains an original marketing article (like this one).

I use the same principle to grow my newsletter, as I use to grow this blog.

I provide high value content, so people share it with their contacts. These contacts then subscribe and they share it with their contacts…

Which businesses can benefit from Newsletters & Blogs?

Any business, in any industry can benefit from a Newsletter and / or a blog.  That’s because the same process outlined above is universal.  Just make sure your blog or newsletter content is designed exclusively for YOUR target market.

In other words, if your business offers web design – write about great web design ideas, tips and tricks.  If your business offers insurance, write about how people can lower their premiums or get better cover or share some funny insurance stories.  If you are a coach or consultant, blog about your subject and give great tips and ideas to your readers. Most newsletters are little more than advertisements and because of this, people do not forward them on and they fail to grow.

Make sure you pump as much valuable information as possible into everything you write.  This showcases your talents, positions you as an expert and shows the real value of your products or your services.  It also makes choosing you as a provider almost risk-free to your readers.

Conclusion

I know people in just about every industry, who get the vast majority of their leads or sales through free online marketing.  I also get emails from people every day; who are wondering how to generate the leads or sales their business needs in order to survive.

If you want to know more, take a look at the free resources mentioned above and also check out the guides and articles in this blog.  You might also want to look that this, it’s all about how to build a successful newsletter.

If you have found this post useful or you have anything to add, please leave a comment and share your feedback with everyone!

Common marketing mistakes 101

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There’s a lot of information on this blog about things you can do, which will help you dramatically increase your sales results and profits.  However, it’s ALSO really important to know some of the things you must avoid, if you want your business to succeed. That’s because some marketing mistakes can nullify all your hard work and actually set you and your business way, way back!

Common marketing mistakes 101

marketing mistakesThis post contains some of the most common and damaging mistakes I see people making with their marketing. I hope that through the comments section, you will share some of the common errors you see people making too! Here are a few, in no particular order, to get the process rolling:

1. Failing to differentiate their product or service

One of the hardest things to sell, is a product or service that looks to be ‘about the same’ as hundreds or thousands of alternatives.  It’s hard to stand out and grab peoples imagination, when you seem to offer ‘just the same’ as a stack of other providers.

For example, the Internet is filled with people offering coaching or consulting services that look identical to each other. They offer a service that sounds the same, to the same potential clients, with the same kind of promises and THEN market it in the same kind of way as each other! The net result is that EVERY PENNY they spend on marketing is being cancelled out, by the thousands of other people who are doing the same things.

The problem here, is that some of these services are outstanding and others are rubbish! However, because they all seem so similar and promise the same results, it’s impossible for a prospective client to tell one from the other.

If you want to make sales all day long, break away from the pack and BE YOURSELF!

Develop your own unique voice and use it to show the VSP (Valuable Selling Proposition) you bring to the marketplace. If you can answer the following question, and then communicate it effectively in your marketing, your sales will sky-rocket immediately;

“What genuinely compelling reasons are there, for someone to become a client of mine; rather than one of my competitors?”

For example, I answer this question by offering a marketing service to small businesses; which gives them unlimited access to me for a whole year, for a small, single, capped fee!  We have regular marketing meetings all the time, so my clients can plan ahead with total peace-of-mind; with me as their virtual Marketing Director and advisor.  Also, if they get a problem or they just want to kick some ideas around, they can call me whenever they want.

YOUR answer to the above question must be non-generic.  In other words, it’s not enough to promise great customer service or to promise to go the extra mile for your clients – everyone promises that – even those who don’t provide it!  Your answer has to be something that makes it super-attractive to become one of your clients.

2. Relying on pedestrian copy writing to sell their services

Most smaller businesses tend to write their own marketing copy – and the results are often shockingly poor.  For example, it’s not uncommon for a small business to pay a fortune for a great website, and then write the wording for that site themselves!  As a result, they find that people who visit the site don’t fill in contact forms, click links, email them or call them.

That’s because pedestrian copy writing simply INFORMS people – without inspiring or motivating them to take action!

If you want to dramatically increase the number of sales or leads you get from your; website, blog, advertising, mail shots or email marketing – get your marketing written by a professional!

3. Focusing on the size of their network, rather than it’s value

networking events groups marketing salesYou have seen them, the people who attend EVERY local networking event and eagerly thrust business cards into as many people’s hands as possible.  They then ask the stranger; “So, tell me how I can help you” …. just like their 1980’s networking manual told them to!

OK – that’s one way to build a network.

Here’s another!

My former client, Susan, is a marketing consultant to small businesses.  She decided to do as I suggested and stopped attending every networking event in town.

I got Susan to shift her focus from the typical ‘numbers game’ approach to networking – To focusing on quality and influence instead.

I got Susan a list of the 10 main accountancy practices (or CPA’s) in her region; who between them, look after around 35,000 local businesses.  Susan then decided that these would be her ‘network’; as they had the potential to provide her with more high quality clients than she could ever need.

I suggested she attended some local lunchtime events sponsored by these people and to use the opportunity to set up meetings with the senior partners of each firm.  After attending just three events, Susan had meetings booked with each of the people who would become her new network.  She did her homework and focused on what she could do for them and their clients.

Six of the accountancy practices were just not interested.  But she DID manage to form a great relationship with the other four practices and she now has a client-base full of top quality clients.

The bottom line: A network of 30 well-connected, influential people is vastly more commercially valuable and easier to manage, than a network with 300 contacts who lack influence or reach!  As human beings we are obviously all of equal value, but in the marketplace, some people are massively more influential than others.

4. They don’t show everyone how brilliant they are!

The information most small businesses and entrepreneurs put on their websites, blogs and in their newsletters, is usually a watered-down version of what they are actually capable of.  They fear that if they give too much away for free, people won’t pay them for ‘the good stuff’.  This is a SERIOUS mistake!

Why?

Because if you don’t let people see how great you are until they become a client, how are they supposed to find out?  If you only have a diluted version of your work available for free, that’s what people will associate you with.  You have to let everyone see the value you are capable of providing. I know you are great, you know you are great – now let ‘them’ see how great you are!

I am not talking about giving it ALL away.  I’m simply suggesting that you make sure that there is real, genuine value in what you decide to put ‘out there.’

OK – What are the most common marketing mistakes YOU come across?

Here’s your chance to share the most common marketing mistakes you see small businesses making. If you can offer a solution too – please do!  I want to make this post as valuable as possible.

Being positive about your business

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By Jim Connolly
In business, confidence is massively important! I’m not talking here about our self-confidence; but rather the level of confidence that other people have in us, our business and our services.

I would like to ask you a question!

When someone asks you; “how’s business?” – what kind of answers do you tend to give them?

If you want people to buy from you, recommend you or invest in you; it’s vitally important that you always speak in positive terms about your business!  If there’s nothing positive to say about your CURRENT business position, then tell people all about your exciting plans for the future!

business confidence sales referrals successWhat a ‘positive’ answer does

Whenever you speak about your business in a confident, positive way, it causes people to feel confident about you and your situation.  This is really important, because your future success will always be in direct proportion to the number of people that ‘feel’ confident or positive about; you, your abilities, your business and it’s products or services.

If you think about it, the current economic situation is a great example of this.  The direction the stock markets take is always determined by the ‘confidence’ of those, who invest in stocks and shares.  If they feel positive about some news or a rumour – they act positively and the market grows.  If they lack confidence in something they act negatively and the market shrinks.

What a ‘negative’ answer does

Whenever you speak in negative terms about your business, you cause people to lose confidence in you.  This is one of the most commercially damaging things anyone can do to their business!

I have lost track of the number of small business owners I have spoken with over the years, who ALWAYS find something negative to say about their business, no matter how well things are going for them! What they seem unaware of, is that these negative comments about their business can spread like a virus.

Soon, their suppliers, competitors and potential clients start speaking negatively about them and BOOM – they can actually ‘talk themselves out of business!’

For example, there are countless companies who have gone broke, PURELY BECAUSE a false rumour suggested they were in financial trouble.  Very quickly, people’s confidence in the company starts to dip; so they stop using them, (fearing they will lose their money.)  Suppliers stop providing credit to them and all of a sudden, that company REALLY does have a financial problem! That’s how important it is to generate confidence in you and your business!

Especially in today’s erratic economy, make sure the seeds YOU plant in the marketplace are 100% positive.  Make YOUR business the one that people feel positive about and want to buy from, recommend or invest in. Talk only about what you want and not what you fear.

NEVER, EVER FORGET you are ALWAYS just one great idea away from your first (or next) million!

The value of your network

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If you are one of those dedicated people, who invests a lot of their time developing a network of contacts, I have a question for you:

“How valuable to your business, (in financial terms), is your network of contacts?”

I ask this because in my experience, many small businesses focus almost exclusively on developing networks of people, with little influence in their marketplace!

networking events groups leverageA VERY low leverage activity!

You can end up wasting thousands of pounds worth of your time and money on local networking events and joining networking groups; whilst simultaneously limiting the time you have to actually RUN YOUR BUSINESS! A lose-lose situation.

Although a local Accountant or Bank Manager can be an excellent source of credible referred business; not everyone in your local business community has credible access to your target market.

Without credibility, a lead or referral is worthless!

This is because when a person who lacks credibility recommends your business to someone, you become associated in their mind with that ‘non-credible’ person.  I wrote recently about a Lawyer whose law firm has suffered terribly; after he joined a networking group and had his good name associated with some hard-sell tactics, used by a few of his fellow networkers to generate leads!

Of course, one of the most effective ways to network today is from your desk! Millions of people have totally ditched traditional, time-consuming networking, for free online networks.  I use one myself called Twitter which is excellent!

There are also more formal online networking groups like ecademy and linkedin that you might like to explore – neither of which I use or endorse! In any case, the costs will be massively lower than traditional networking.  So will the demands on your time – essential for people like us who run small businesses!

Email marketing tip

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If you want your marketing emails to work, they need to actually REACH the people you send them to.  After all, the best marketing message in the world won’t work if no one receives it.

This means your marketing emails need to be written,  designed and sent in such a way that they are not wrongly mistaken for spam, by the various spam filters out there.  Avoiding spam filters is a huge subject, but you can quickly learn many of the things to avoid – simply by doing the following……

Read the emails in your junk mail filter

Take a look at the emails that have been caught in your spam filter and you will find that they all fit into 1 of 2 categories:

1. Emails from spammers, which were correctly detected as spam.
2. Legitimate email from people, which was wrongly detected as spam.

In both cases, the reason these emails were detected as spam is usually because of the way they were written, designed or sent.  There were things about those emails, that your spam filter thought was suspicious enough to merit them being blocked.  You need to look for some of the common factors and where these blocked emails differ from those you received, which were not blocked.

Common email marketing mistakes

There are a large number of things that can lead to an email being regarded as spam, from; using terms like ‘click here’ inside the email to the over-use of exclamation marks!!!!

The use of a graphics within the email can also cause problems, as can things like having too many upper-case letters in the subject line of the email.

Sadly, you can send a perfectly crafted email to your readers and STILL have it blocked – simply because someone using the same mailhost and within your ip range is a spammer.  Without you doing anything wrong, your ip address then gets blacklisted.

These are just a few of the things you need to look out for.  You will find lots more when you start to examine the emails that get caught in your spam filter.

So, what kind of things have YOU noticed that cause emails to be wrongly detected as spam – let us know.

Top newsletter tips – part 1

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As you may already know, I produce a very popular newsletter; with thousands of readers spanning more than 100 countries around the world.  I have developed my newsletter without any form of paid advertising; everything has been achieved through my website, blog, referrals and forwarding!

Here are a few of my suggestions, if you want to either add a newsletter to your marketing or increase the success of an existing newsletter.

Content

I believe the finest way to generate a massive, interested readership for your newsletter – is to build your subscriber base on the recommendation of your readers! Of course, the only way to get people forwarding your newsletter and growing your readership for you, is to provide them with stacks of really powerful, valuable information!

My marketing newsletter carries an original article (always written by me) and usually just one very brief news story.  Most newsletters I see are just a massive sales pitch, wrapped around generic content.  As a result, no one bothers to forward them!

People do not forward adverts to their contacts; they forward things they find interesting, useful or both.  Focus exclusively on high value content and your newsletter will ‘go viral!’  I get around 25 new newsletter subscribers each day using this approach.

Only write for your readers

If you want your newsletter to generate new clients or customers for your business, make sure that you only write material that is 100% relevant to YOUR specific market! Many newsletters make the mistake of trying to appeal to too wide a range of readers and as a result, end up being of little relevance to anyone!

For example; if you sell insurance broking products to small businesses within your area – everything you write should be relevant to the local, small business community.  If you focus on their problems, their opportunities and their interests, your messages will always be relevant to the reader.  You will find it far easier to grow your readership this way, than if you write general information with no local appeal.

Ask your readers to forward your newsletter

Every edition of my newsletter finishes with a request.

“If you found this newsletter useful, please forward it to anyone you think might find it interesting!”

This causes people who have just read and enjoyed your newsletter, to focus on people they know who might also find the newsletter useful.  This simple step can generate a 200% increase in the number of new subscribers you get after each edition – often more!

Offer new subscribers something to welcome them

You should ALWAYS offer people an incentive for taking the time to subscribe to your newsletter!  For example, when you sign-up for my newsletter, you get a free copy of my short eBook; “10 secrets to success!” People LOVE this brief eBook and it’s a great way to welcome new readers!

Just make sure that whatever you offer is likely to be extremely attractive to your ideal profile of reader.

No more than once a week & no less than twice a month

If you send people any form of email communication more than once a week, it is likely to result in lots of unsubscribe requests! People hate being bombarded with emails; even emails that contain really useful information, like your newsletter!  I get so few unsubscribe requests using this approach that I manually delete them.  I get fewer unsubscribe requests a year than many people get in a week!

However, if you leave too long a gap between emails (more than 14-21 days), response rates and new subscriber numbers start to drop!  For my newsletter, two emails a month seems ideal.

Let your readers know their details are safe with you

Never, ever sell, rent or share your subscriber database with anyone!  Also, make sure you let people know that you will never share their details!

You only need an email address

If you want to send your newsletter to someone, you don’t need anything other than their email address.  Did you know that every additional piece of information you ask for, drastically reduces the number of people who will sign-up?  It’s true!

If you think that by getting your readers names you will be able to ‘personalise’ their emails – STOP!  It’s not 1999 any more and EVERYONE knows what a mail merge is! You make your newsletter personalised by making the information specific to your target readership – not by opening it with Dear Bob!

Newsletter marketing is something I will be covering again in future posts.  If you have any specific newsletter questions, either contact me using the contact button above or leave a comment here.

….and feel free to subscribe to my newsletter, using the button below!

Making your marketing work

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Imagine a building project, where the carpentry work was being carried out by an insurance broker, the electrical work was being handled by an accountant and where the bricks were being laid by a web designer!

That project would be a total mess!  Although the people working on that building are all intelligent professionals in their own area – none of them are professional builders!

Marketing havoc

Believe it or not, I see the result of this kind of havoc all the time; when I meet with the owners of small businesses!  I see what happens when someone who’s an expert in Law or Recruitment or Insurance etc, but  with no marketing background or experience, handles their businesses marketing!  They usually waste a fortune; on advertising that could never work, mailshots that no one reads or websites that no one visits.  They not only waste a fortune, they miss out on masses of new business too!

Marketing & cause and effect

If your sales and profits are not what you want, you must either hire a marketing professional or decide to learn professional marketing.  Business is all based on cause and effect, which is great news.  It means you can achieve any result you wish; providing you do the correct things, in the correct order – correctly!

The law of cause and effect also assures us that; “if you always do what you have always done, you will always get what you have always got.”

In other words, you can’t expect better results without making better decisions and taking better actions. The business owner who moans about her lack of success, but refuses to improve her effectiveness through study and application is a fool!

Free marketing material to help you

As one of the UK’s best known marketing professionals, I have produced a stack of free marketing material for you.  It’s on my main website at www.jimconnolly.com; in fact, 100% of the sales and marketing material there is free – even the audio program!  I also write a massively successful marketing newsletter, which you can subscribe to using the button below.  All the marketing material on my main website and in my newsletter is written by me and the free audio programs are written and narrated by me – to help you make your marketing as powerful as possible.

I hope you find it useful!

Listen to the marketplace

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Here’s one of the most valuable pieces of business advice I ever received.  It was given to me by a retired accountant way back in 1995, a few weeks before I started my business.

It is simply this: “Listen to what the marketplace is telling you!”

He went on to explain that if, for example, you find prospective clients (your marketplace) expect the cost of your service to be lower than you quote – the marketplace is telling you that it cannot see enough value in what you offer.  This means you must either make the value of your service more obvious with better marketing or increase the value of your service by adding more benefits to it – preferably both.

No matter how well someone markets an ‘average’ service, they will always struggle.  There are thousands of business owners out there who work long hours and extremely hard, with little reward.  This is because they are trying to sell something that the marketplace sees little value in, like yet another ‘average’; accountancy service, legal service, recruitment service or web design service etc.

Business is always going to be a struggle for them, because the marketplace is attracted to value – not ‘just another average service’.

As a successful marketer you should ALWAYS be looking for new ways to add value to whatever you offer.  The more value you pump into your product or service, the easier you will find it to make highly profitable sales and you will NEVER have to sell based on price. This marketing tip will help!

WordPress.com and business blogging

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I wrote a post a while ago, saying that WordPress.com was a good place to host your business blog, if you were just starting out and wanting to ‘test the water’ as it were.

However, since then I have been emailed by a reader; who pointed out some poorly publicised, but extremely important limitations to a WordPress.com hosted business blog!

I looked into this and found 3 REALLY IMPORTANT reasons why I believe you should NOT use a WordPress.com hosted blog for your business.  Here they are:

1. WordPress.com insert ‘hidden adverts’ into your blog

Automattic (the company that runs WordPress.com), inserts ‘hidden advertising’ into the blogs hosted on their servers.

Hidden?

Yes, the ads they place into your blog are hidden from you – so you can’t see what THEY are advertising to YOUR readers in YOUR company’s name! Because Automattic use Google Adwords for these ads, they could be advertisements for your competitors products or services!  This is perhaps why they feel the need to hide these adverts from their users?  Anyhow, many of their users have no idea these adverts even exist; because they will not be able to see them when they look at their own blog. The ads are only displayed to their readers!

As of last week, you can pay to have these adverts removed, the fee is currently $30 a year.  This is an improvement, as until last week you were stuck with them! However, there are two far bigger problems with hosting a business blog at wordpress.com!

2. WordPress.com won’t let you advertise anything

I have been in marketing for over 20 years and I own and run a very successful international marketing business.  I don’t know a single company, which has a commercial blog and does not use it to promote their business or market their services in some way.  The whole point of a commercial blog is commerce after all!

Although Automattic actually encourage people to host a commercial blog at WordPress.com, they forbid any form of commercial advertising!  So, if you have any desire to advertise your services in your blog; you simply can not use WordPress.com – full stop!

3. WordPress.com won’t let you link from your posts to your website

One of the major marketing benefits of having a business blog, are all the links you get from the blog to your main website.  These links can be really useful for a business blog!

For example, the newsletter button at the foot of my blog posts is a link; however, it would be BANNED from use on a wordpress.com hosted blog! Also, links from your business blog to your main website can really help with the sites Search Engine Optimisation (SEO).

However, these links to your main website (what Automattic refers to as a ‘third party’ website) are forbidden on a WordPress.com hosted blog.  Their terms of service state that by making content available on your blog, you warrant that it:

“does not contain unethical or unwanted commercial content designed to drive traffic to third party sites or boost the search engine rankings of third party sites

Although it is impossible to understand what they mean by ‘unwanted commercial content’ (as this is always going to a matter of opinion), the threat itself is clear.  If someone at Automattic sees that your posts link to your business website – you could have your blog suspended until it is removed!

Conclusion

Even if you pay Automattic to have their adverts removed from your blog, you are still left with a blog that:

– You cannot link from as you wish
– You cannot market advertise or promote your services on or even insert adwords
– You cannot customise fully
– You cannot advertise other people’s products or services on
– You cannot add commercially useful plugins to

A ‘free’ business blog on WordPress.com, with the ads removed, your own url added, some slight changes to its look and some extra space will cost you between $70 and $145 dollars a year.  For not much more, you can enjoy full control of a blog and (most importantly) use it to market your business; by hosting it with another provider.

I love WordPress software and the people in the wordpress.com user community are fantastic! WordPress.com servers are really reliable and very secure too.  However, if you want a commercial blog that you can advertise your services on and you want the freedom to link when and where you wish – I believe you need an analternative host.

UPDATE: Because some people are commenting here, without checking the date of the post (September 2008), I have disabled comments.

2 years later, changes to WordPress.com Terms and Conditions make it slightly more business friendly, but ultimately it is still a platform over which someone else has control.  WordPress.com these days says you CAN link from the blog to your 3rd party site (or main website) though they decide if you are OVER linking!  Any time you elect to put your time and effort into building something, which someone else can suspend or delete, you are taking a risk.  If you are happy with that risk, WordPress.com is still the best free platform out there.

Think long and hard before you build your marketing on a platform they do not control.

Jim.

3 great Internet marketing tips

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In this blog post, I am going to give you 3 great tips to improve the amount of leads, enquiries or sales you make from your website!

But first, have you ever wondered why some of your competitors appear on the first page of Google, when you do an industry related search?

They have really average looking websites and the content is no better than yours – so how come they rank so highly and get all that lovely search engine traffic?

You ‘might’ be surprised to learn that it has LESS to do with the quality of their site and MORE to do with things like the number of inbound links their site has and how many times a day or week it has new information added to it!

Search Engine Optimisation = Google optimisation

I know people speak about Search Engine Optimisation (or SEO) – but it’s really Google optimisation. Here in the UK, for example, more than 80% of all Internet searches are done via Google. So, it’s all about Google and doing what THEY say you need to do, in order to rank highly.

This means, if you seriously want to get onto the first page of Google for a common search term associated with your industry or profession – I’m afraid it’s going to cost you serious money! I know medium-sized companies today, which spend over £8,000 every month on SEO; to get as close to the top of page one of Google as possible!

Yes, those people who appear above you in the search rankings at Google, are often paying tens of thousands of pounds a year for their FREE place at the top of those search results!

A big marketing problem for small businesses!

Google created a major marketing problem for every small business on the planet, as soon as it became the dominant search provider. It’s all down to how Google decides which sites to place at the top of its search rankings. Two of the most important things Google looks for are:

1. Inbound links, preferably thousands, linking to you from relevant sites!
2. Regularly updated pages, preferably updated on a daily or weekly basis!

Obviously, most small businesses simply do not have the time to add new pages to their website every day and they lack the time and expertise, to add the thousands of links from other people’s websites too!

Google’s SEO model loves BIG companies!

Bigger companies find it extremely easy to make their way to page one of Google.com – without breaking any rules! That’s because Google is rewarding things that small companies cannot afford to provide; like a dedicated person or group of people pumping links and content into their website!

Big companies, however, simply hire a great SEO company to do it all for them (along with the dozens of other nifty techniques that SEO companies use.)

Small companies & website traffic

How can a small company possibly compete; when it doesn’t have the time / expertise to do its own SEO or the money to outspend it’s bigger rivals?

Simple: It uses a different approach to generating targeted traffic to its website! That’s what I am going to share with you, with the following 3 essential internet marketing tips!

Internet marketing tip 1: Get an SEO company to optimise your site!

If you have a business website YOU NEED A GOOD SEO PROVIDER! A website that is not optimised might as well not be there – because it’s pretty-much invisible. An optimised website, on the other hand, can be a money-making-machine for you and your business. An SEO company will make sure that your website is configured correctly, so that it is visible to search engines. They can also make sure you have enough relevant inbound links and give you some great SEO tips (like putting keywords into the headings of your pages etc.)

Get an SEO company to look after your website on as regular a basis as you can afford. This alone is not going to get you to the top of Google, but it will make sure that your site can be seen by Google and that you get a better position than you have today. Every little helps and even basic SEO is often a very worthwhile investment!

Internet marketing tip 2: Get a business blog!

Google values sites with regularly updated content. This is useless for most commercial websites, because once they are written they are pretty-much static. There’s no need to add new pages or new sections each day, even if you had the time to.

Google likes to see new content added at least once a week, preferably more often! This is why so many businesses now write a blog, which is actually woven into their main website. Each new post counts as a newly added page and also generates new links – all working toward helping your website climb the Google search rankings!

Blogs are also a great way to reach new people and to have ‘conversations’ with them; through the comments section of each blog post. This is what I love most about this blog; it gives me the opportunity to have a two way dialogue with you. Right now, you can read what I am saying and then let me and all the other readers know what you think – something just not possible on a regular website!

As I write this, Jim’s Marketing Blog is just a month old and already has over 700 inbound links. It is also starting to generate a regular flow of search engine traffic and generating traffic to my main website at jimconnolly.com

Internet marketing tip 3: Use social bookmarking

You can generate high quality, targeted traffic to your website, without a search engine!

By joining a social bookmarking or social networking website, you can attract targeted traffic and make some great contacts too – all for free! I use StumbleUpon and my personal favourite Twitter – both of which have really helped me to reach more people with my work. I have had one page of my blog visited more than 5000 times in an hour or two – after a friend from StumbleUpon recommended it to his other friends. If you want to know more about StumbleUpon click the link.

Twitter allows you to communicate directly with people, each of whom have their own network of contacts. By selectively generating a network of contacts on Twitter, you can get highly-valuable feedback and also lots of new traffic to your website. I have made some amazing contacts on Twitter and can not recommend it highly enough! You can contact me now via Twitter – my user name is @jimconnolly (say hello)

There is also Digg, Reddit, Delicious and MANY more.

In fact, if you look at the bottom of all my posts, you will see a list of buttons. These buttons allow people who read my stuff and like it, to share it with their contacts at the press of a button.

You can and should be able to generate daily or even hourly enquiries, leads or sales from your website. This brief post / article has just scratched the surface and I will be adding more information in coming posts.

I suggest you start now, by looking for an SEO company who will give you an assessment of your website and a quote, to make sure your site is fully optimised. Many SEO companies offer different levels of service, from a one-off basic review of your website – to an ongoing service, where they handle everything.

I will be covering Internet Marketing and SEO a lot more in future posts and also in the articles in my newsletter.

To make it in sales – fish for whales!

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When I started my first sales job, over 20 years ago, my boss gave me a piece of sales and marketing advice that has helped me generate millions of pounds worth of sales – and I am going to share it with you right now!

“To make it in sales, fish for whales!”

I asked my former boss what his comment about fishing for whales actually meant.  He explained:

“Jim, if you go fishing and you catch 10 goldfish, you won’t even fill a cup – but if you catch 10 whales, you will fill half the beach!”

Sales leverage

With that simple explanation, he taught me how the amount of time and effort required to win a £50,000 sale, was not a great deal more than it took to win a sale of £5,000.  This simple idea totally blew my mind!  It was my introduction to what I know today as leverage.

I immediately realised that if I wanted to succeed in sales, I needed to prioritise my sales efforts and focus on where I could deliver most value as a salesperson – because that’s where all those whales are!

If you want to dramatically improve your sales figures, make sure your time and energy is invested wisely – fishing for whales and not goldfish!

How to test and measure your marketing

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As any marketing professional worth their salt will confirm, successful marketing is based around a process, where you ‘test, measure, test measure’ everything you do, until it’s as effective as you can get it.

Here’s how testing & measuring works!

You test (or try) a new idea and then you measure the results you get. If your business uses mail shots, test a new headline and measure what feedback you get.

If, for example, your new headline generates a 10% increase in enquiries or sales – keep the new headline and dump the previous one.  Then, test a different offer or guarantee in the mailing.  If the new offer or guarantee increases your response rate by 20%, keep it.  If it reduces the number of positive responses you get, dump it and test another offer or guarantee.

Over a relatively small number of mailings, you can dramatically improve your results.

This constant tweaking, based on testing and measuring, is how you improve your marketing results. However, you never start off with perfect marketing.

Your aim is to leverage your marketing, so you get the best possible return you can. This means it is always a work-in-progress – never perfect!

Paralysis by analysis

I spoke with the owner of a small business last week, who had some really exciting ideas for marketing her services.  The problem is, she has had these great ideas for over a year and still done nothing with them!  When I asked her what was causing the delay, she replied; “I’m a perfectionist.  Everything has to be just right before I begin.”

Ironically, the perfect way to begin your marketing is to decide what you what to do and then JUST START! Once you know you have a good idea or you see a good marketing opportunity, get to work immediately!  One of the reasons many small businesses fail to achieve the sales success they want, is that they suffer from ‘paralysis by analysis.’ 

By  examining everything in too much detail and then waiting for every condition to be just perfect, they either do nothing at all or take so long that the opportunity has gone!

Only change one thing at a time

When you use the test / measure approach in your marketing, it’s really important that you only ever test one thing at a time.  If you change more than one element, it’s impossible to see what caused the change in your feedback.

So, if you currently run an advertisement in a magazine or website, only change one component of that advertisement then measure the difference in the response you get.  If you change the size of an advertisement and also the wording or design, you will not know what created the increase or decrease in your results.

Measure everything!

It’s extremely important to measure your feedback accurately and fully.  This means you need to measure the negative response as well as the positive.  An email marketing exercise that generates 10 replies, from people who do not become clients, is NOT a zero response rate!  It is proof that 10 people read your email and were motivated enough to call or email you.

If you sent that email to 5000 people, it’s also proof that 4990 people DIDN’T feel motivated enough to call or email you – and that’s just as valuable!

What they say in their response to your marketing is also really important. For example, if they say that they expected your fee or price to be lower than you quoted – they are telling you clearly that you need to pump more value into your marketing message! Measure everything and then, when you test the next time, use that feedback to improve your results.

Start now – Look at your existing marketing for an opportunity to test and measure.

Spot opportunities and improve client retention!

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As the owner of a business or someone involved in marketing, you should regularly ask your clients for feedback.

2 REALLY GOOD reasons why YOU need client feedback:

Firstly, it allows you to spot opportunities that you would have missed AND avoid problems before they happen.  For example, if you ask your clients what additional services they would like you to offer, and a uniformed reply comes back – you have just identified a whole new income stream for your business!

Secondly, it can help you spot if a particular client is unhappy or thinking of leaving!  Clients who are disgruntled are often among the first to reply to feedback requests!  By listening to their problems and resolving them, you can reduce the number of clients you lose. This is an excellent way to quickly improve client retention. Client retention, sometimes called ‘attrition’ should be a part of every business’s marketing mix.

A simple email, asking clients what they think about some of the key elements of your services is all you need. Ask them to score each section on a scale of 1 to 5 and see what comes back.  Always provide a section for them to leave a comment, idea or suggestion.

The answers are often very illuminating – AND ALWAYS useful!

What’s your competition like?

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At the recent Olympic Games, every athlete knew exactly what the ‘personal best’ figures for each of their competitors was.  That’s because it’s almost impossible to succeed at anything, unless you know what you are competing against!

Equally, to compete successfully in business, you need to research what you are marketing against!  We call this research Competitor Analysis.  So, I have a question for you:

“How much do you know about your competitors and what they offer?”

In my experience, most small and medium-sized businesses know very little about the quality of their competitor’s services.  They will often believe that their own service is very good, but when you accurately compare it against their competitors, it’s generally no better than average.

I am convinced this lack of Competitor Analysis is why there are so many average services out there!  After all, no one sets out to be ‘just average’.

Businesses then market their services, thinking that what they offer is great value – and wonder why they get very little positive response! It’s not always the quality of a small business’s marketing that’s letting them down, but the ‘attractiveness’ of what they are offering!

In order to motivate someone to switch from one provider to another, there must be a compelling reason for them to do so.  This means you need to know what your competitors offer, so you can make YOUR services more valuable than theirs!

Competitor Analysis explained

Competitor Analysis is where you analyse what your competitors are offering to the marketplace.  This allows you to see how YOUR services stack up against the other services being offered to your potential clients (and existing clients!).  As part of your Competitor Analysis, you will need to find out things like; what kind of guarantees your competitors offer, their payment terms, their prices, the range of services they offer and their opening hours etc.

I spoke recently with the owner of a recruitment company, who told me that his main competitors all offered a very poor service, compared to his.  I asked how he knew.  He replied that whenever a client moved from a competitor to him, they always said what a poor service they had just received!  He was basing his ‘research’ on what these non-typical, disgruntled people said!

You cannot build your competitor research, based on the jaundiced opinions of anyone!  You need to know what the reality of the situation is, because THAT’S what you will be marketing your services against!

I have a friend who sells homes in London, which market for over £2,000,000.  She found her clients were often hesitant about improving their home before marketing it, thinking it was already ‘good enough’ to quickly attract a buyer.

So, she started taking new clients to view a selection of homes in the same price range as their own – so they could clearly see what their home was competing against.  Universally, this totally changes their opinions and they are happy to make any required improvements.

Most businesses are like the home-owners who think that their home is already great value, without knowing what the others are like.  This can prove commercially fatal – especially in today’s challenging economy!

Some ideas to start your competitor analysis

Competitor Analysis on the Internet

Depending on the industry you are in, you can often get a mountain of extremely valuable information by visiting a competitors’ website.  If you are in retail, for example, you will immediately be able to see; their product lines, prices, delivery times, guarantees etc.

No matter what industry you are in, most websites will have an ‘about’ page, which tells you all about the company.  You should also be able to tell very quickly what each company thinks it’s best at – because people sell their services based on their strengths!

You will also be able to tell in seconds, if they have had their website professionally copy written or not.  This is a key indicator as to how seriously they take their marketing.

Conversations with THEIR clients

Whenever you meet someone, who is using the services of one of your competitors, ask them how well they are being looked after.  This is a more accurate measurement of the quality of a competitor’s services, than the earlier example; where people with an axe to grind were relied upon.

An existing client is someone who can generally, be seen as having an ‘average’ or ‘typical’ experience of a service provider.  If they say their service provider is great or awful – ask them; “In what way?”  Then listen!

Avoid conversations with suppliers

I have found conversations with suppliers, who also supply one’s competitors, to be close to worthless!  Also, be extremely careful what you say to anyone who gives you too much information.  As my mother used to tell me; “those who bring news, carry news!”

After your Competitor Analysis – What next?

After your Competitor Analysis, take a good close look at your own business and find ways to beat them!  Don’t just try to match them – look at how you can go one better.  If you cannot offer a better service to someone than they already get – why on earth should they switch to you?

For example, would YOU go through all the hassle of switching from your current; accountant, insurance broker, bank or recruitment provider; for a service that’s no better than you already receive?

Of course not – and NOR WOULD ANYONE ELSE!

Only when you have developed a service that you know, with confidence, is better than your competition, are you ready to market it. When you have a great service, and you get that message in front of potential clients with compelling marketing, the sky’s the limit.  You can achieve anything!

The power of a great marketing statement

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I saw a piece of marketing earlier today, which clearly demonstrated the power of a well-written marketing message. It was an advertisement for an Internet hosting company.  It makes what ‘sounds’ like a very positive statement; regarding the quality of their service – until you think about what they are actually saying!

Here’s what their marketing message said:

“We guarantee that websites hosted on our servers, will be working 99% of the time!”

However, 99% reliability for an Internet hosting company is AWFUL!

The promise of your website being online 99% of the time, if you select them to host your website MIGHT sound like a great deal – but it’s not!  It’s shockingly poor!

What they are ACTUALLY saying, is that if your business has it’s website hosted with them, you can expect it to be down, off-line and unavailable for the equivalent of THREE FULL WORKING DAYS EVERY 100 DAYS! So, over a period of little more than3 months, your potential clients or customers will be unable to find your website for a combined period of 24 hours – (that’s three working days, based on the 8 hour working day model)

There are 2 marketing lessons here

  • Firstly, the power of a well-crafted marketing message is enormous.  You can make something sound irresistible and inspire people to contact you and buy from you in their droves – even if your service actually sucks!
  • Secondly, even with great marketing, unless your service is excellent, you will lose clients just as quickly as you gain them – perhaps even faster!  When I searched for this company’s name on Google; it generated page after page of people complaining about the service they received. If only this company was as devoted to service, as it seems to be with its marketing, it would be massively more successful.

Marketing success

Marketing success comes only when you are able to win AND retain high quality business.  Looking after your clients and providing them with more than they expect, every step of the way, is not only great customer service; it’s extremely good business practice too!

Increase sales & profits quickly

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Here’s a powerful marketing tip, which will show you how to massively increase your sales very quickly.  It’s also a super-fast way to boost your cash flow and sky-rocket your profits!

In order for us to begin, I need to ask you something:

“What additional, valuable products or services ‘could’ you offer to your existing clients, which they would be happy to pay you for?”

This is a key marketing question; because selling additional services to an existing client is easily, the single fastest way to MASSIVELY increase your sales and profits! It’s an exceptionally high leverage marketing activity, because the return you get is totally disproportionate to the amount of time and effort required.

The reason the results are so amazing, is that you already provide a GREAT service to your clients and they already trust you.  This means that buying an additional product or service from you is a VERY easy decision for them to make. There’s no risk attached because they already know how brilliant you are!

Selling additional services to existing clients

Here’s a recent example, based on a client of my marketing program. This particular client came to me because he needed to quickly and dramatically increase his cash flow and profitability.

His company provides IT maintenance services to around 120 local, small businesses.  I suggested he find another service to offer his existing clients – before thinking about winning new clients.  He said that a few of his clients had asked if he provided an online data back-up service; which he did not.  So, he looked for prices, to see how much it would cost to provide the service and found that he could make an average profit of around £500 a year, per client, by offering this service.

I sent out a well crafted marketing email to his clients and in just 48 hours, we generated £21,000 of pure profit for him! Because this is an annual service, payable in advance, the end result was an immediate, MASSIVE cash flow boost!

Leverage the potential of your existing clients before looking elsewhere

Before you spend a penny seeking to win new business from new clients – make sure you are not missing out on a windfall profit opportunity from within your existing client base!

Selling additional services helps retain clients too

Not only does offering a wider spread of services to your clients make them more profitable to you, they are also far, far less likely to leave you for another provider.  To replace the provider of one service is relatively simple, but to replace a service provider who looks after 3 or 6 or more of your needs is a very different matter.

When you provide more services to a client, you also provide more value and the marketplace ALWAYS rewards value!

Selling additional services to existing clients is easy and extremely profitable, so what’s stopping you?