Since 1995, I’ve helped thousands of small business owners to make massively more sales than ever before. Today, I am going to share my top marketing tips with you.

So, let’s get started with marketing tip number 1!

Marketing Tip 1: Use Content Marketing (The Right Way)

Content marketing isn’t just newsletters, social or blogging. It’s the process of earning trust before you ask for a sale. In an era where AI can churn out generic advice in seconds, the only content that wins in 2026 is content backed by real-world experience.

I have generated well over $1,000,000 from this site and my newsletter, exclusively through content marketing, without spending a penny on traditional advertising.

How it works in a “Post-AI” World

The goal is simple: you provide free, high-value information that solves a specific problem for your ideal client. By the time they are ready to buy, you aren’t a vendor… you are a trusted advisor.

When I share these tips, I often hear the same concern: “If I give my best ideas away for free, why would anyone hire me?”

The 3 Types of People Consuming Your Content

To understand why this works, you have to look at your audience in three distinct groups:

1. The DIY-ers (Freebie Hunters): This group will never pay for professional help. By giving them free info, you lose nothing because they were never going to buy anyway.
2. The Hybrid Group: These people want to understand the process. They might try it themselves first, but once they realize the complexity, they hire the person who taught them the how-to.
3. The Time-Rich Professionals: This is your best segment. They don’t want to dabble. They read your content to verify your expertise so they can confidently hire you to do it for them. They pay for the result, not the information.

Jim’s 2026 Insight: Ignore anyone who tells you that you can fully automate your content with AI and get results. If your content doesn’t have a human pulse, a unique opinion, or a story behind it, it will be ignored by both humans and search engines.

Marketing Tip 2: Own Your Audience (Mastering Email)

In 2026, social media reach is more volatile than ever. Whether it’s LinkedIn, X, or Instagram, you are essentially “renting” your audience. When the platform changes its algorithm, your visibility can vanish overnight.

Email marketing is the only way to truly own your network. It is direct, predictable, and most importantly it’s platform-independent.

The “Rented Land” Trap

Back in 2013, Facebook famously turned off organic reach for business pages, forcing owners to pay to reach their own fans. This trend has only accelerated. If you build your house on rented land, the landlord can raise the rent or evict you at any time. Your email list is a private asset that nobody can take away from you.

How to Build a High-Value Email List Today

In the current landscape, people don’t ‘sign up for a newsletter‘. They subscribe to value.

Here’s how to make that work for you.

• Move Beyond the “Free Report”: Generic white papers are a dime a dozen. In 2026, offer something that solves a specific, immediate problem (e.g., a 5-minute audit tool or an exclusive AI prompt library).
• The Permission Paradox: Never add people. Even if it’s legal in your jurisdiction, it’s a brand-killer. Earning a YES! via a clear opt-in is the only way to ensure your emails actually get opened.
• Friction is the Enemy: Only ask for a name and email. Every extra field you add (Company, Phone Number, Job Title) is a hurdle that will drop your conversion rate by 20% to 30%.
• The Forward Strategy: Don’t just hope people share your work. Make it a call to action. A simple “If you found this useful, please forward it to one colleague” is still the most effective way to grow a high-quality list.

Jim’s 2026 Insight: Before I even launched this site in 2008, I used this exact permission-based approach to build a readership of over 60,000. That foundation is what allowed me to weather every economic and algorithmic shift since.

Marketing Tip 3: Build a Network of Influence (Not Just Numbers)

One of the most persistent myths in business is that a large network equals a successful business. In reality, the size of your network is a vanity metric. What actually moves the needle in 2026 is the influence and reach of the people within it.

The Value of the Power Ten

If your network consists of 1,000 people who lack the ability or desire to help you, its commercial value is zero. However, if your network has just 10 people who are highly motivated, influential, and have the ear of your target market, its value is massive.

Stop Collecting Business Cards

Traditional networking events are often a race to the bottom. In my experience, the most influential people in any industry, the ones who can truly change your trajectory, are rarely found swapping business cards in a hotel function room.

The best networkers don’t stumble into the right people. They target them.

The Strategic 30 Action Plan

To build a network that actually generates revenue, you must be intentional.

1. Identify the Gatekeepers: Draw up a list of the 30 most influential people in your marketplace. This should include high-value prospective clients and people who already have the trust of your ideal audience.
2. Earn Their Attention: You don’t get on their radar by asking for 15 minutes of their time. You get there by providing value first. Share their work, solve a small problem for them, or provide an insight they haven’t seen.
3. The Long Game: This approach takes more effort than clicking connect on LinkedIn, but the rewards are incomparable.

Jim’s 2026 Reality Check: Imagine how your business would look if you could pick up the phone today and speak directly to the top 10 influencers in your niche. That isn’t a pipe dream. It’s the result of building a network by design, not by accident.

Marketing Tip 4: Transform Your Website into a 24/7 Sales Machine

Most small business websites are digital dead ends. They sit on an unused dirt road in the middle of nowhere, outdated and ignored. But when optimized correctly, your website becomes your most productive employee… working 24/7 to generate trust, connection and sales.

The Vetting Reality Check

Even if your marketing is brilliant elsewhere, 90% of interested prospects will visit your website before they ever contact you. Your website has a unique power: it can either kill or supercharge the response rates of all your other marketing. If your site looks like a relic from 2015, you aren’t just losing a visitor; you are losing the trust you worked so hard to build on other platforms.

High Impact, Low Investment

In 2026, there is no excuse for a poor website. The barrier to entry has vanished.

• The Platform: This site, one of the world’s most popular marketing blogs, is built on WordPress. It’s free, flexible, and out-performs sites that cost 100 times more.
• The Design: You no longer need to spend thousands on custom coding. Modern themes and AI-assisted builders (like Claude or ChatGPT) allow you to create a professional, high-converting site for the cost of a decent lunch.
• The Focus: Don’t pay for “bells and whistles.” Pay for clarity. A simple site that loads fast and speaks directly to your customer’s pain points will always beat a flashy, expensive site that says nothing.

Photo by BoliviaInteligente 

Is Your Website Telling the Truth?

When a prospect checks you out, your website is telling a story. Is it telling them you are an industry leader who is on top of your game? Or is it telling them you are “out of office” and behind the times?

Jim’s 2026 Strategy: If your marketing isn’t converting the way you hoped, stop looking at your ads and start looking at your landing page. Own a site that creates instant trust. Make this your highest priority.

Note–To get my best marketing ideas direct to your inbox for free. Just click here.

Marketing Tip 5: Align Your Pricing with Your Promises

There is a fatal mistake that costs small businesses a fortune every year: The Mixed Message.

It happens when your marketing promises a premium, high-quality service, but your invoice reflects a bargain-basement fee. By doing this, you don’t attract deal hunters. You create distrust

The Psychology of “Too Good to be True”

We are hard-wired from childhood to believe that quality never comes cheap. In a 2026 economy defined by skepticism, if your offer looks too good to be true, your prospects will assume there’s a catch.

• High Price = High Expectation: A premium price signals to the brain that the provider is confident, experienced, and capable.
• Low Price = High Risk: A cheap price for a premium service signals desperation or a lack of experience. It creates a cognitive dissonance that kills the sale before it even begins.

Don’t Compete on Price. Compete on Value

In an unpredictable economy, the race to the bottom is a race you don’t want to win. There will always be someone willing to go bankrupt faster than you by undercharging.

Instead, focus on making your services as indispensable as possible. When you solve a high-value problem, you must charge a high-value fee. When your prices match your promises, you make it easier for your clients to trust you.

Jim’s 2026 Rule: Trust is the bridge to a sale. If your pricing is inconsistent with your branding, you break that bridge. Make your marketing message and your price tag tell the same story.

Marketing Tip 6: Use Inbound Marketing

I am sure you will have noticed what happens whenever a beautiful person walks into a crowded room or a bar? People look at them. In fact, some people will actually walk over to them and strike up a conversation. The reason we call these kind of people ‘attractive’ is that they literally attract the attention and also the interest of other people.

So, you might be wondering at this point, what this has to do with you and your marketing? The most successful businesses all use the same type of attraction I just highlighted, in order to attract sales, readers and subscribers. The most successfully marketed businesses gain the attention and interest of potential clients by making their business, products or services attractive.

Example: Jim’s Marketing Blog

I rely exclusively on inbound marketing for 100% of my sales income.

How? 

Simple: people find this blog attractive for marketing tips, so they recommend and forward it to their contacts, their colleagues and their friends. This, in turn, helps me attract more people. These new people then do the same etc, etc.

Without spending anything on any form of advertising; pay-per-click, affiliate marketing, SEO or anything else, there are now millions of people who know all about my ability to help them produce great sales results.

So, whenever my readers decide that they want someone to help them make more sales, guess what? Yes, they give me a call or send me an email. I attract clients rather than pursue them, which is great because people HATE being chased or pursued. Spend a day doing cold-calling and you will learn very quickly just how much people HATE being pursued.

Most businesses choose to pursue new customers and even though people are not responding to them, they just keep on grinding away regardless. This is one of the most important marketing tips in 2026, as people become better at blocking and ignoring ads and unsolicited sales pitches.

Marketing Tip 7: Research Your Competitors

It’s impossible to effectively sell or market your services unless you have researched your competitors. You need to know what offers, guarantees, prices, range of services and bundles you are up against, in order to make your offering the most attractive to potential clients.

In my experience, the average business owner often assumes that the service they offer to potential clients is better average. Science tells us that the average business is, by default, average. One of the reasons for this better than average belief, is that a key way service providers gather feedback on their competitors, is when they speak with former clients of their competitors.

An accountant, for example, speaking with the disgruntled, former client of one of her competitors is likely to get a very biased, worst case scenario view. The key is to find out what you’re really up against… and then beat it by adding massive value!

This type of research has never been easier, or less expensive. Plus, it’s of enormous value to your business. It’s marketing tip that deserves your urgent attention.

Marketing Tip 8: Scale Faster with Strategic Joint Ventures

A Joint Venture (J.V.) is one of the fastest ways to grow because it allows you to “borrow” the trust someone else has spent years building.

The secret to a successful J.V. is simple: find a credible partner who serves your exact same audience but offers a non-conflicting product or service.

The “Trust-Stacking” Effect

When a trusted provider introduces you to their clients, that trust is transferred to you.

• Example: If you provide high-end recruitment for the hospitality industry and a partner provides employee benefit packages to that same industry, you are both fishing in the same pond with different bait.
• The Result: By cross-promoting, whether through a shared webinar, a featured newsletter slot, or a bundled offer, you both win. You gain a warm lead, and your partner provides extra value to their client.

Protecting Your Reputation

In 2026, your reputation is your most fragile asset. You must be extremely protective of who you associate with.

• The “Inbox” Rule: Never agree to a J.V. with someone who cold-emails you out of the blue. These are almost always low-quality, mass outreach campaigns that will dilute your brand.
• The “Vetting” Rule: Only partner with people whose work you would personally vouch for. If your partner lets their customers down, it reflects directly on you.

Jim’s 2026 Advice: A great Joint Venture isn’t a “favor”. It’s a strategic alignment. Look for the “Super-Introducers” in your niche… the people who already have the ear of your dream clients. Then, find a way to make their life easier first.

Marketing Tip 9: Harness the Power of Endorsed Relationships

If a Joint Venture is a “handshake,” an Endorsed Relationship is a “full-throated recommendation.” This is marketing gold dust. It’s a high-trust asset that provides you, your services, and your brand with instant, unshakeable credibility.

The “Reputation Transfer” Effect

In a standard J.V., you might simply appear alongside a partner. In an Endorsed Relationship, the partner stakes their reputation on your quality.

• The Difference: They don’t just share your link. They write to their inner circle and say, “I have worked with Jim, I trust his results, and you should too.”  
• The Result: I have seen endorsed email campaigns return a 90% positive response rate. When a highly-respected source puts their name next to yours, the skeptical barrier that usually takes months to break down vanishes in seconds.

Why Endorsements Rule in 2026

We are living in an era of Deepfakes and AI-driven scams. People are more defensive than ever. In this climate, a personal recommendation from a trusted peer is the only marketing tool that still has a 100% deliverability rate to the human brain.

How to Secure an Endorsement

You cannot buy a true endorsement; you have to earn it.

1. Be Remarkable: You must provide a service so good that your partner feels proud to recommend you.
2. Make it Easy: Provide your partner with the copy they need, but ensure it sounds like their voice.
3. Reciprocate: The best endorsed relationships are built on mutual respect and long-term value, not a one-off transaction.

Jim’s 2026 Insight: Endorsed relationships don’t just open doors; they blow them off the hinges. If you want to move from searching for leads to receiving high-value introductions, start building the kind of reputation that people are eager to endorse.

BONUS: Here’s how to use endorsed relationships in your marketing.

Marketing Tip 10: Avoid Shortcuts to Success

The Internet is packed with people selling the idea that you can automate your way to success. They offer products, programs, webinars, seminars and services, which promise shortcuts to success.

A reader emailed me after she’d lost over $10,000 on a financial success event, offered by a very well-known self-help guru. She explained that it had wiped her out financially and that she felt a fool for being tricked into believing there was a shortcut to becoming a millionaire.

There are 2 things you need to remember, when people offer you shortcuts to business success or wealth.

1. They are seldom shortcuts.
2. They never lead to success.

The reality is that you can’t trick your way to the top. Success comes from working hard and working smart. Success comes quickest, when you find the most direct, effective route from where you are to where you want to be. The best route between 2 points.

It looks like this

Firstly, decide what you want to achieve. Next, put a strategy together to get you from where you are now, to where you want to be. Then, work your strategy. Put in the effort. Invest the time required and reap the rewards.

I Helped my wife Sharon do this and she’s now a 10-time, best selling History author. It started as a dream for her. We made it a reality.

I have studied and worked with some amazingly successful people. My clients include 2 Grammy Award Winners; Nile Rodgers and Bruce Elliott-Smith. I’ve also worked with countless self-made millionaires. I’ve discovered that the best shortcut to success, is to avoid costly detours.

In short: Ignore those who claim they have shortcuts to make you rich or successful. The only people who gain from that worthless junk, are those who sell it. Ignoring the tricks and hacks these people advocate,

Marketing Tip 11: Weaponize the Power of Curiosity

Every single sales enquiry you have ever received started with one thing: Curiosity. The prospect had a gap in their knowledge, and they contacted you to fill it. That moment, the transition from curious observer to active enquirer, is the most critical point in your marketing.

The “Information Dump” Trap

Most small businesses kill curiosity before it even has a chance to grow. They bombard their website with endless lists, technical specs, and exhaustive FAQs that answer every possible question.

The result? You’ve eliminated the need for them to speak to you! 

If your marketing answers everything, the prospect has no reason to pick up the phone or send that email. You’ve “educated” them right out of a sales conversation.

Ignite the “Need to Know”

In 2026, your marketing shouldn’t be an encyclopedia. It should be a trailer.

• Provide Value, Not Just Data: Give them enough insight to prove you have the solution, but leave the how it works for their specific business as the reason to contact you.
• The Curiosity Gap: Identify a problem they didn’t know they had, show them the impact of that problem, and then invite them to a conversation to discover the fix.
• Review Your Assets: Look at your website and all your other marketing messaging. Are they closing the case or opening a conversation?

Jim’s 2026 Rule: High-quality marketing doesn’t just inform. It inspires. If you aren’t building curiosity, you are eroding your own lead flow. Get creative with what you don’t reveal, and they will get curious about what you do know.

Marketing Tip 12: Target the Dissatisfied. Ignore the Rest

The most effective way to skyrocket your sales is to stop marketing to everyone and start focusing exclusively on the unhappy.

When a prospect is dissatisfied with their current provider, they aren’t just browsing. No, they are highly motivated buyers actively looking for an exit. They are the easy wins that most businesses walk right past in a desperate race for reach.

The “Volume vs. Value” Trap

Most small businesses waste a fortune marketing to people who are perfectly happy with their current setup or have no immediate need for a change. They prioritize Quantity over Quality, resulting in anemic conversion rates and wasted ad spend.

How to Be Found by the Actively Seeking

In 2026, the “unhappy” don’t wait for an ad to find them. They go hunting for a solution. To win their business, you must be visible at the exact moment their frustration peaks.

• SEO & GEO (The Answer Engines): When someone is fed up, they ask specific, problem-based questions to search engines and AI models like Google Gemini, Claude or ChatGPT. By optimizing your content for Generative Engine Optimization (GEO), you ensure that when they ask for a “better alternative to [Competitor],” your name is the one the AI recommends.
• Organic Authority: While you can pay for top-of-page ads, earning an organic spot through high-value content is a far better investment. It signals that you aren’t just buying their attention: you’ve earned it.
• Smart Advertising: If you do use paid ads (there’s really no need), move away from broad “Industry” or “Geographical” targeting. Instead, bid on “Intent-based” keywords that signal a customer is ready to switch.

Jim’s 2026 Rule: Why spend your life trying to convince a happy person to change, when there is a line of unhappy people begging for a better option? Seek out the dissatisfied, not the uninterested.

How to Get the Most From These 12 Marketing Tips

If you are working harder than ever on your marketing, but the sales results aren’t what you want, stop. Don’t just do more of what isn’t working. The key isn’t effort. It’s alignment. If you aren’t already implementing the strategies on this page, I strongly recommend you pick just one to start with today.

Why? Because these aren’t just theories or ideas. They are the fundamental pillars that have helped thousands of businesses survive and thrive. They work in times of economic uncertainty, and they work when technology is changing faster than we can keep up with.

That makes them the ideal core of a successful marketing roadmap, for you and your business in 2026.

Your Next Step: pick the one tip that resonated most with you today. Is it building your “Strategic 30” network? Fixing the “Curiosity Gap” on your website? Or finally owning your audience via email? Start there. The results will follow you, my friend.

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