Do you want more client inquiries from your marketing?  Would you like to make your marketing more compelling, so it encourages more people to take action when they read it?  If you would, then read on!

Most marketing content is written to capture the attention of, and then inform, a targeted group of people.  Great marketers add a 3rd element.  They capture.  They inform.  They compel!

Compelling marketing

Average marketing leaves people thinking, “so what?”

Compelling marketing encourages people to take action.

Compelling marketing is focused on “them” not you. It’s about their needs and solving their problems and making their experience of you and your business as good as possible.  Them, them, them.

Compelling marketing messages

One of the reasons small business owners find their written marketing far less effective than they want, is that it fails to inspire the reader enough, to motivate them to take the desired action.  Here’s an example of compelling copy, which I wrote for a marketing company that had been really struggling to get enough people to subscribe to their newsletter.

Boost your sales and profits starting today, with a free subscription to our marketing newsletter.  Subscribe now and I’ll send you a FREE…..

Previously, they were doing what 99.9% of newsletter providers do; simply asking people to:

Subscribe to our marketing newsletter and receive a copy of our marketing check-list

The new message, which out-performed the old one by over 850%, was all about the reader and giving value.  It starts with a promise, to help them make more sales and increase their profits.  It then gives them a direct request to take action now.  If you want people to take action at all, ask them to take action NOW! It then finishes with the promise that if they take action now, as well as all that valuable newsletter information, they will also receive more great value, in the form of a marketing check-list.

Compelling marketing: 6 quick tips to motivate your prospective clients to take action

Here are some ideas to make your written marketing more compelling:

1  Scarcity: Whenever possible, give people a reason to take action now rather than later.  This comes from the principle of scarcity.  The fear of losing out on something is an extremely compelling reason for people to get moving!

2. Study your target market: The more you know about what’s important to them, the easier it is for you to understand what’s most likely to motivate them.

3. Avoid the use of generic terms: Generic terms simply wash over people.  The most overused word in this category is the word “solutions.”  It’s OK to use the word in context within a longer message (such as a blog post.)  However, using it on your “about” page, social media bio or profile will hurt your response rates.

Telling people something like; “we provide solutions to the XYZ industry” means nothing and is not compelling in any way.  If you build websites, which make companies look fantastic online and helps them attract throngs of eager clients – TELL THEM!  Don’t say you “offer integrated website solutions.”

4. Headlines matter most: This one is simple.  No matter how amazing your marketing message is, if no one reads it, it can’t convert.  The headline or title of your marketing is what compels people to read it.

Why do you click certain links on Twitter, Facebook or Linkedin etc?  It’s because the title makes the link sound compelling enough to check out.  The title sells the link.  Why do you open certain emails and not others? Again, the title or subject line compels you to open it.  I recently blogged about how to attract more traffic from Twitter using attractive headlines.  That post has some useful headline writing tips.

Tip: Keep a list of the next 50 links you click via social networks and study them to see what compelled you to take action.

5. Add to your marketing vocabulary: Having a limited vocabulary and trying to inspire people with your messages, is like having half the ingredients missing from a recipe and trying to make the meal taste right.  Business owners always seem to assume that they have a great vocabulary.  The reality, as you see every day for yourself, is the exact opposite.  Most small business content and general marketing is written using an extremely limited palette of uninspiring words.

6.  Embrace brevity: The fewer words in your marketing message, the more impact you can create.  Most of the marketing copy I see is at least 50% too long; often 75% or more.  A targeted, information rich message that is packed with value, will out-perform a long winded, meandering message that drags on, which few people even finish reading!  In today’s marketplace, where people have more to do than ever before, short marketing messages have more impact than ever.

The bottom line

If you want people to call you, email you, buy from you, subscribe to your blog or newsletter etc – YOU need to motivate them to do so. If you get it right, the potential to attract more inquiries, clients and sales is enormous!

Let’s work together and grow your business. To find out more click here!

Photo: Cappellmeister

My mentor, Jim Rohn, used to call knowledge; “bread for the head.”  I love that phrase.

Jim’s message was to invest the money required, to gather the knowledge you need; to feed your mind and become MORE.

• Read the books.
• Listen to the audio programs.
• Attend the seminars.
• Watch the DVDs.

Why?  Because whenever you look at the people who fail to invest in their education, you find that they are not doing so good.  They are out there right now, wondering when their luck will change.  They are living where they don’t want to live.  They are getting through life, without getting much from life.

How I fed my head

I started out with a few books my older brother gave me.  He took pity on me.  I was broke and living in a violent, slum.  I had no job.  I was sick of being broke and going nowhere.  So, I decided to read the books he gave me.

8 years later, I found myself financially secure for life, aged just 29.  I was married to my beautiful wife and running my own marketing business.  I was waking up each day, just happy to be alive.

To get from broke age 21 to secure for life age 29, I invested thousands in my personal and professional development. I have invested a lot more since then.

Don’t do like Joe & Josephine average

Joe happily invests hundreds on the latest phone each year, but wouldn’t dream of spending the same amount on developing his mind.

Josephine happily invests in her daily skinny latte, during her lunch break from the job she hates, but wouldn’t spend the same amount on feeding her mind so she could get a job she loves.

Feed your mind with the knowledge you need and watch what happens to you in every area of your life.  I’m telling you, the results can be, as in my own case, life changing.

Let’s work together and grow your business. To find out more click here!

A key factor in every failing business I have ever studied, is that the business owner dabbles.

Rather than get the professional help they need, they decide to crush their chances of success, by dabbling with their marketing.

Some common examples include:

• People dabble with promotional offers: They make unattractive offers, to the wrong people, at the wrong time, using the wrong message and the wrong medium.
• People dabble with social networking: They set up accounts, usually on too many social networks and then copy what they see other people doing.  They spread themselves too thinly and have no effective strategy.  As a result, they miss all the great opportunities.
• People dabble with blogging: They set up a blog, with no clear idea of what they want to achieve.  They then fill their blog with “me too” posts (posts that simply repeat what millions of other people are saying) and then quit after a few months, because (it) didn’t work.
• People dabble with email marketing: They buy a list or add people to a list (without their consent), and email them sales messages.  They waste months angering people with unwanted email, that the recipients never requested, and wonder why it didn’t work.
• People dabble with advertising: They place the wrong message, in the wrong area of the wrong publication, at the wrong time.  They use the wrong typography, the wrong call to action and then proclaim; “advertising doesn’t work!”
• People dabble with mail shots: They send a marketing letter, written usually by themselves rather than a copywriter (to save money), to a list they bought or built from contact data they found.  The mixture of amateur copywriting, bad targeting and no compelling reason for the reader to do anything, makes this a total waste of time.

Then there are enlightened small business owners

These business owners decide to build a successful business, so they invest in the professional marketing help they need.  They do the right things correctly and enjoy the rewards.

They have figured out that in the most challenging economy in living memory, the dabblers are simply dabbling their way out of business.

Let’s work together and grow your business. To find out more click here!

Photo: Jonny2love

Today, the most effective marketing is based on attracting clients and customers, through developing relationships with them.

Pestering people into your funnel

It used to be very different.  A decade or so ago, marketing professionals were telling people about filling their sales funnels.  The idea was that you sent people mail shots, you cold called them, you sent unwanted faxes to them, you pestered them at conferences and networking events.  By cramming as many people into the top of your sales funnel as you could, it was hoped that over time, some of them might filter through and buy from you.

The reason enlightened marketing professionals dumped this approach years ago, was that:

• It was an expensive way to do business in financial terms, as all that interrupting people took a lot of time and money.  Lots of mailings.  Lots of cold calls.  Lots of junk faxes.  Lots of spam email.  That all adds up to lots of money.
• It was also expensive in terms of reputation, because companies using that model often had to junk mail, pester or pursue 500 or 1000 prospective clients, to generate a single paying client.  Many would be pissing off thousands of people every week, in the name of sales and marketing!  Small and medium sized businesses discovered that after a few years of all that pestering, they would successfully piss off the vast majority of their prospective clients.

Today, some people are still using that approach.  They will call you because they have your phone number; even though you never gave them it or permission to call you.  They will email you because your address is on a list they bought; even though you hate spam.  They will send you unwanted letters, because they know where you live; even though you never asked to be junk-mailed.

Attracting the best quality clients

I wrote yesterday about the value of building relationships with your prospective clients, rather than sending them sales messages.  Using this approach, you build a marketplace of informed advocates:

• Informed, because they know who you are and what you do.
• Advocates, because they value the information you share with them, so they share it with their contacts.  Think how different that client response is, to the way those same people treat junk mail, spam and pushy tele-marketers!

The old model saw the business start off with a “list” of 100 or 1000 or 100,000 people, and it became smaller and smaller all the time, as people asked to be removed from it.  To sustain this model, you need to buy more and more lists, so you could interrupt more and more people.  It’s expensive, time consuming stuff!

The new model, which is not that new any more, sees you start off with maybe just a few informed advocates, and it becomes bigger and bigger all the time, as people spread the word and share your content with their contacts.  This model sees your marketing universe expand, with every new advocate sharing your message with their contacts.  It’s also extremely low cost with unlimited growth potential.

If you would like me to help, take a look at this.

Let’s work together and grow your business. To find out more click here!

There’s a massive difference between bad marketing and great marketing.

• Bad marketing is all about doing things to the marketplace.
• Great marketing is all about doing things for the marketplace.

Bad marketing

Bad marketing is based around pushing.  They email you because they bought your email address from someone.  They write to you because they know where you live.  They interrupt your busy day with cold calls, because they have your phone number.  In short, they do things to the marketplace, which the marketplace doesn’t value or appreciate.  When these irritating interruptions stop, we are pleased.

Great marketing

Great marketing is based around contribution and engagement.

You write a blog post, which gives people interesting, valuable or entertaining information.  They enjoy it so much they spread the word for you and share your information with their friends.  You write a newsletter, which provides great value to a group of people who asked you to add their name to your subscriber list.  They forward it to their friends, who also ask you to add them to your list too.  If you were to stop writing those blog posts or newsletters, people would miss you.

Here’s a useful post on how to attract great clients not pester them!

The difference?

Bad marketing pesters people in the hope that if you pester enough of them you may make a sale.  It’s based on the mindset that says it’s OK to piss off 1,000 people, in order to get 1 positive response.  Great marketing is the total opposite.  Great marketing attracts people and engages them.

Great marketing allows you to form relationships with your prospective clients.  It also allows you to build great relationships with what I call advocates.  Advocates are essential.  Advocates are people, who may have no need for your services, but value what you do so much that they share your message and recommend you to their friends. For example, most people who read this blog will never spend a penny with me, but they will happily share my work with their friends; which can be of just as much value.  Of course, advocates often become clients and clients should always become advocates.

The bottom line:  I strongly recommend you figure out the most effective way to do things for your marketplace, not to your marketplace.

Let’s work together and grow your business. To find out more click here!

Photo: Mr. Kris

When you share your news with your friends via an email, your email looks like a regular email; no glossy images, no “buy now” offers – Just an email from you, to them.

When businesses decide to offer newsletters, they tend to do the opposite.  There’s usually little if any actual NEWS and the whole thing tends to look and read like a poorly disguised commercial.

So, this got me thinking:

• What if you treated the people who read your current newsletter, as if they were already friends?
• What if you sent them actual news and asked how THEY are?
• What if you sent it NOT on some bullshit automated schedule, but only when you had something of value or interest to share?
• What if some of them contained NO special offers or sales pitches?
• What if some were just offering to help?

Business is all about people

Is it possible that this approach would help you develop a deeper, richer relationship with your readers, than the usual; “we call it a newsletter but there’s no actual news, I just want to sell you stuff,” approach?  Because if it did, it could massively improve how they felt about you and your business.

Why does that matter?  It matters because business is all about people.  People do business with people they like.  People recommend people they like.

Now, if for some reason you think you absolutely have to send glossy, salesy-looking newsletters, how about offering a more humanized version too; just for those who would like to connect with you on a more personal level?  It’s just a thought.

What do you think?

Let’s work together and grow your business. To find out more click here!

This is one of the most valuable posts I have ever written!

I’m going to show you how to create marketing, which people will LOVE, share with their friends and which will inspire them to hire you or buy from you.

There’s a huge difference, between someone receiving your message and listening to your message.  TV viewers are sent targeted marketing messages (commercials) during TV shows.  What do most of us do?  We fast forward through them or if watching the show in real-time, we go and make a coffee.  Just because they send their messages, doesn’t mean we are paying attention.

For your marketing to work, you need to get a great message in front of the right people.  In order to get this correct, here’s the key question we need to ask ourselves:

If I stopped my email marketing campaign or I stopped publishing my blog posts, newsletter etc, would people really MISS them?

As a quick look at the marketing you receive every day confirms, for most people the honest answer to that question is NO!  We get bombarded with dull, uninspiring sales messages all day and see them as an intrusion, rather than something of value.

Of course, for that tiny minority of small businesses who DO produce marketing, which people genuinely value and would miss if it were to stop, the sky is the limit!

Dull is cheap. Dull is fast. Dull is simple.

It’s cheap, fast and simple to create dull marketing and get it in front of a lot of people.  There’s no barrier to entry today.  However, a decade ago, if a small business owner wanted to send a mail shot to 50,000 people, she’d have to spend some serious money.  There’s the cost of the mailing list.  Then she would need to pay for all that paper and the printing.  Next she would need to pay a company to get the letters folded and inserted into the 50,000 envelopes.  Then there’s the postage costs.  All in all, it would cost thousands.  This means she would need to think long and hard about the value of what she put into those envelopes.  Get it wrong and she would pay a hefty price!

Today, everything has changed.  She can hit 50,000 people using cheap email software and her laptop.  It costs pennies.  If it fails, maybe tomorrows will work.  It’s never been easier to push dull, uninspired, poorly thought out, uncreative marketing out the door.  So, that’s exactly what a lot of people are doing.

There is a proven business model in phone app sales, where you can get a free version of an app, so long as you allow them to show ads to you.  Because they know these ads suck, they offer a profitable answer.  We can pay them for the exact same app, but with the annoyance of these ads removed.  The software is exactly the same – You are simply paying them to stop presenting you with dull, uninspiring marketing.

The answer?  Switch your focus!

There is an answer, for those who want their marketing welcomed with genuine anticipation, rather than seen as an irritation.  It requires that you take the exact opposite approach, to 99% of the marketing you see out there. 

It’s about shifting the focus of your marketing, so that it’s primarily of benefit to the people who receive it and secondarily of benefit to you.  It’s about producing content (audio, video, blog posts, newsletters, mail shots, flyers, social networking updates etc), which provide independent value to those who receive it.  This means they get genuinely valuable or useful information from it, independent of them needing to spend a penny with you.

For example…

For example, imagine you are a dog owner and after a trip to the vet, you subscribe to their dog owner’s newsletter.  It gives you tips and ideas, to help you keep your dog healthy, fit and happy.  At the bottom of each email are their contact details; so you can call them when you need a vet.  You find this free information so useful, that you send it to 10 of your friends, who are also dog owners.  They subscribe and then do the same, etc, etc.  Soon, that vet is talking to hundreds or maybe thousands of local dog owners and positioning themselves in their local marketplace, as THE place to take your dog for all it’s veterinary needs.

Compare that vet’s approach to the typical marketing messages we see.

• That vet doesn’t need to run expensive radio ads.
• They have no need to buy mailing lists.
• They don’t need to waste valuable hours at networking events.
• They certainly don’t need to pester people on social networks or ask strangers for recommendations on Linkedin.
• They don’t need to invest in anything, other than the creativity required to produce a genuinely valuable newsletter, with great, targeted content.

The hurdle?

It’s not as easy to develop a great strategy like that, as it is to churn out dull marketing, which people try and avoid.  When I work with clients to create strategies like the vet example, I point out that although it costs peanuts to put them into play for their business, it takes time and a commitment to do what’s required, to build a community of people who LOVE to hear from you and spread your marketing with their friends.

But for those who see the potential, it can change their businesses (and lives) beyond recognition.  I strongly suggest you give it some thought, if the idea appeals to you!

Let’s work together and grow your business. To find out more click here!

No one likes to be pestered. Yet, when it comes to marketing, it seems some people still think they can pester their way to success. This post is about a different way to do business. It’s based on one of the most powerful ideas in commerce and I strongly recommend you take a few minutes to read this post in full.

Pestering their way to the bottom

Over the weekend, I received more than 100 emails from people I don’t know, all asking me to do something for them. Most want me to blog about their latest product or tell you how great their blog is. They send me spam email, because I have a well known blog and they think that means it’s OK. In 100% of the emails, where I have checked the link, the stuff they are pushing is uninspiring, at best.

It seems they have not figured out yet that if their product was worth talking about, they wouldn’t need to spam me or anyone else.

Here are a few examples that came to mind immediately.

An alternative approach

• I recently bought a Lenovo Ultrabook and was so impressed with it, that I told the 11,000 people who connect with me on Google+ and the 6,000 who follow me on Twitter. The quality of the product was worth talking about, so I did exactly that. I wasn’t asked to. I just did it because I am like you: I talk about the things that impress the pants off me.
• I received such amazing customer service from Dell computers, that I was compelled to blog about it. Again, I have no connection with Dell, other than being a customer. The service was so good, I had to share my experience.
• I saw a Facebook update, where Peter Bestel shared a video of his 14 year old daughter, Zoe Bestel singing. Zoe wrote, sang and played on a beautiful track called “Into the Night” and I must have shared that link dozens of times. Why? Because it’s fantastic. You can see Zoe’s video in a moment!
• A couple of weeks ago, I had an amazing caramel latte at a place in Gainsbrough, Lincolnshire called Creme and it was so good I photographed the cup and sent it to everyone on G+ and Twitter, with my recommendation. Again, the recommendation was totally unasked for. Like all those in this list, it was earned. It was remarkable, so I remarked on it.

Do great work and put it where people will see it

If Bob puts his work out there, where his clients and future clients can see it and they value it enough, they will share it with everyone. As in the above examples, this works whether it’s a multinational company, an independent coffee shop or a 14 year old girl with an amazing gift. Seth Godin makes the point beautifully, in this post about Kevin Kelly’s 1000 true Fans. I suggest you read Seth’s post.

Now, what does Bob do if he has a product or service that he’s always pushing and when people see it, it fails to inspire them? I believe he has 2 options:

1. He can try and pester his way to success. It may mean cold calling hundreds of people or spamming hundreds of thousands of people to make a sale, but he will make some sales. He will successfully piss off a huge number of people in order to make a sale, but Bob may feel OK with that. This approach will work for a while, until he gets added to enough spam lists and nuisance caller lists, that it’s not effective to push people any more. This pestering approach is extremely common, as your spam folder will confirm.
2. Bob can develop something that is of such genuine value, that people will want to share it. I call this doing work that matters. As I wrote yesterday on Creative Thinking Hub, this requires a lot more thought than pushing something that’s average, but it’s where the value is. It’s also a far more enjoyable way to develop a business.

‘Average’ isn’t good enough to motivate people to tell your story

Life is too short and people are too informed, for us to waste our time offering a service or product, which people are underwhelmed by. Those interested in being better than average and attracting the best clients, doing work that matters, rest assured I am here to help you with this blog. To those of you committed to being better than average and attracting the best clients, doing work that matters, get in touch. Make it happen.

Finally: Here’s Zoe!

Before I wrap this up, I have to share the following video of Zoe Bestel with you. If you can’t see the video below for any reason, you can watch it here.

Before you send your next piece of marketing to anyone, there are 2 important things you should consider if you want to get the best return on your investment.

Here they are:

1. Do I have permission to contact this person?

A lot of marketing is still based on interrupting people. For example:

• They send us email because our address is on some list they bought.
• They send us junk mail because they know where we live or work.
• They cold call us because they have our phone number.

Yes, you can get people’s attention by interrupting or pestering them, but it’s not the kind of attention they welcome. People repel pests, they don’t embrace them. Walking into a company unannounced and poking the boss in the chest will get their attention, but it’s unlikely to win their willing cooperation or earn their trust.

So, rather than add people to some list and pester the crap out of them, we should earn access to them instead.

A great way to achieve this, is via the type of message you are receiving right now. Everyone reading this blog post, either by email, RSS reader or on jimsmarketingblog.com, has subscribed or searched for the information. It’s seen as useful, not an interruption. I work hard to deliver as much useful, free information as I can and as a result, thousands of prospective clients read my work every day. This blog is what’s called a permission marketing asset.

Permission based marketing delivers the kind of response rates that interruption marketing can’t touch. Newsletters, blogs, YouTube channels, Facebook pages and LinkedIn groups are permission assets that take time to build, but they offer unparalleled potential, for business owners seeking to earn the attention and trust of their marketplace.

2. Am I contacting them with something they need or is it all about me?

Most marketing (and almost all small business marketing) fails because it’s all about the sender and not the recipient. This happens for a number of reasons, but mainly because business owners wrongly assume ALL marketing has to be about pushing a sales message.

That assumption is not only incorrect, it’s toxic!

Successful marketing is about building permission and earning trust among a targeted group of prospective clients. It’s about making you an obvious choice, when they need the type of service you provide.

For example:

The local health food store, which offers advice on the best foods to eat for your unique needs, is building a relationship with you. They are also positioning themselves in your mind as an authority, when it comes to health food.

Their free newsletter offers healthy recipes, the dates of their next subscriber-only, healthy cooking evenings and the latest news on the benefits of certain food types – So, it’s eagerly awaited by its readers. These readers buy the ingredients from the store because they trust it. They are a part of the community and recommend it to their health-conscious friends. People LOVE to be part of a community of like-minded people.

It’s about them

Effective marketing is not just about pushing special offers and new product lines at people. It’s about engaging with them and building a relationship with them. It’s about earning their trust. It’s about being seen as the obvious place to go, when they have a requirement you can fulfil. It’s about them.

Let’s work together and grow your business. To find out more click here!

Photos: Tim Parkinson & Vale

If you want to develop great marketing, which will work hard for your business for years and years, today’s post is just for you.

The people who built the castle in today’s photo built it to last. That was way back in the year 1297. It took planning, time, hard work, money and brains. The end result is a building that was so well constructed that it was still being used as a home until the 1960′s. In fact, with a little work it could easily he used as a home again, over 700 years after it was built.

Marketing that’s built to last

Many small business owners only take their marketing seriously, when something drives them into action. It can be the loss of a major client, a change to their income requirements or the sudden realisation that their business has reached a plateau. Faced with this, they go from tick-over mode to proactive marketing. They adopt a tactical approach and usually try:

• Advertising
• Networking
• Email marketing / mail shots
• Social media marketing

Then, once the immediate crisis has been averted they step back into their usual routine. Marketing is no longer a priority. In essence, marketing is something they do reactively when something goes wrong. It’s not a part of the DNA of their business. It’s not woven into everything they do.

The problem with reactive, tactical marketing

The challenge with a reactive, tactical approach to marketing is that you start from zero each time. You have no relationship with the person receiving your marketing message. It’s a sluggish, low leverage and expensive way to build a business.

The following is a very recent example of how someone using a longer term, strategic approach gained me as a client.

Proactive, strategic marketing in action

I wrote yesterday about how I changed email service providers, upgrading from Feedburner to Mailchimp. As soon as Feedburner’s problems became apparent, a number of email providers started pestering me with sales pitches. None of them were known to me, so they were contacting me as strangers, with a product I knew nothing about.

Now, whilst those guys were selling (at) me, I was thinking of the email providers I already knew of. The stand out provider for my needs, was Mailchimp. Here’s why:

• I instantly knew their logo and felt good about what it represented.
• Over the years I have regularly seen reports and blog posts from them regarding email marketing best practices, which were useful and informative.
• I’d signed up for newsletters, which people had built using their software and they always arrived on time and looked great.
• Their approach to business and customer service is professional and also a lot of fun.

So, I opened an account with them. It was easy for me to do, because I already felt like I knew them. By strategically, proactively adding value to their marketplace on an ongoing basis, they had sown the seeds that motivated me to hire them.

Ongoing, strategic marketing builds relationships

Mailchimp had earned my attention because of their contribution to their marketplace. Their ongoing, strategic approach to marketing had positioned them in my mind as a trustworthy provider. The companies I’d never heard of, who suddenly started interrupting be with their messages, were simply pestering me. I didn’t know them. They were starting from scratch with me. No credibility had been earned. There was no relationship between their brand and me.

I know you are busy

I know that as a small business owner, you are busy and that it’s not always easy to find time to regularly deliver useful, valuable marketing for your marketplace. However, by developing a marketing strategy and working on it as an ongoing part of your business, you will find it easier to attract regular, good quality clients and sales leads. This approach is also the perfect antidote to the feast and famine problem, that so many small business owners struggle with.

In short: Make marketing an ongoing element of your day to day business and build relationships with people, before they even know they need you.

Let’s work together and grow your business. To find out more click here!

I shared 5 ideas with a business owner yesterday, which she found extremely useful.

Today, I am sharing them with you.

1: Study the gold dust around you

If you find yourself reading a marketing email or mail shot today, stop! You have some potential gold dust in front of you. Examine it and look for what it was that compelled you to open it. Then, think about what caused you to start reading it.

Finally, consider how you can make your own marketing more effective, by incorporating what you have just learned.

2: Offer something spectacularly exclusive

Think about offering an elite or exclusive version of your services. There will always be a market for exceptional service and gold-standard products. It’s an extremely profitable market, too.

3: Never underestimate the importance of the human touch

So much of what we do today can be automated, from Facebook updates and tweets, to auto-responder emails. Whilst there is a place for some automation, you can’t automate your way to success.

Business is all about people and your competitors are forgetting that. You can gain a huge advantage over them, if you look for opportunities to interact with people. Keep it as human as possible. Never automate anything, unless it’s essential. The cost in lost business can be staggering.

4: Let people Pick Your Brain, commercially

If you get people asking you for free advice and you place any commercial value on your time, consider offering a Pick My Brain service. It has 2 enormous benefits.

1. Those who were purely intent on grabbing a freebie from you will vanish. The second they know there’s a fee, they go and look for another victim.
2. It can prove to be an extremely valuable service for those who really do value your advice (and for you too).

Business is all about mutually beneficial relationships – not greedy people taking advantage of your expertise for their own selfish reasons.

5: Motivation alone is not the answer

When your business is heading in the wrong direction, you don’t need motivation to speed you up. You need guidance to get you on the right path. Working longer hours in an under performing business, just means you will go broke, faster. No matter how fast you row your boat in the wrong direction, you will still get lost.

What about you?

Do you have an idea, which you’d like to add to that list? Share your thoughts with a comment.

Do you have a marketing question or business problem?
Then Pick My Brain for the answers and ideas you need.

If you want to sell successfully, get to know the prospective customer first.

Don’t say hello, then smash them in the face with a sales pitch.

Here’s a quick Content Marketing tip, to help you improve the effectiveness of all your marketing material.

Content Marketing and speaking their language

One of the cornerstones of effective copywriting, is to remove as many barriers to communication as possible. The person reading your copy (or message) needs to be able to connect with it cleanly and clearly. This means speaking their language.

Lawyers, web designers, accountants and financial experts etc, regularly use industry terms, phrases and buzz words in their marketing to potential clients. This massively reduces the effectiveness of their marketing message.

You can immediately improve your marketing results, by embracing a more accessible approach.

How to create powerful, accessible content

Before you write your next piece of marketing material:

1. Think about the benefits you provide, from the prospective client’s perspective.
2. Focus on ‘them’, their business, their needs.
3. Clearly explain how the benefits you provide will tangibly improve their life, business or both.
4. Finally, review your message and make sure it’s pitched to the sophistication of your ideal profile of client. Tip: Listen to the different way radio ads are pitched, according to the product and audience of a station or show.

In short: Match your message to your ideal profile of client, by focusing on benefits and using their communication style, not yours.

Using sensational headlines, to get people to open emails or read content, is a super-fast way to lose the trust and respect of your marketplace.

People hate being taken for a fool

If the content of a blog post, article, free download or newsletter, etc, fails to deliver on the promise of its sensational headline, the author has just broken a promise to the reader.

Yes, titles are important. However, they need to accurately reflect what the content delivers. Otherwise, any success gained through getting more ‘traffic’ will soon be lost, as people realise they’re being lied to.

People respect honesty

With Content Marketing, using honest, well crafted headlines is the only way to attract and retain the attention of your marketplace.

It builds trust. It earns credibility. It’s worthy of you and your business.

Around 30 people email me every day, with some kind of pitch. They do this, even though I specifically ask people not to pitch me, on the contact page of the blog.

They think their email is somehow special

They spam me, because they think that spamming is something that other people do. It’s OK for them to ignore my request, because they think their pitch is different.

It isn’t. In fact, the type of people who use that uncreative, pushy ‘spray and pray’ approach to email marketing, never have anything interesting to say.

The rules apply to all of us

Here’s the thing: No matter how special, ethical, important or valuable we believe our message is, the rules of effective marketing still apply to us. Spam is spam, even when we do it.

If you want people to take notice of you, do something worthy of their attention and make it easy for them to share. Build an email marketing list, from people who give you permission to email them.

If our message is genuinely of use or interest, the first 10 people who hear about it will each get us another 10, who will do the same, and so on…

If we have to keep pushing our message, because too few people are sharing it, it’s time to make what we’re doing more attractive – not more annoying.

No, it shouldn’t matter that your website has a typo.

It certainly shouldn’t matter that your latest newsletter uses an apostrophe incorrectly.

It shouldn’t matter, but it does matter!

Making judgements

A prospective client who doesn’t know you, starts making judgements on you based on the limited information in front of them. If they’re reading a piece of your marketing and spot a typo, it adds to the mental picture they are building of you and your business.

It’s heartbreaking to lose sales because of a typo or misplaced apostrophe. Thankfully, it’s totally avoidable with just a little extra attention to detail.

The post It shouldn’t matter appeared first on Jim's Marketing Blog.

I have a business development tip for you today, which is essential to the success of your business.

Most small business owners are busy people. They work hard. They work long hours, too. Yet, very few make the kind of progress they would like. All that movement and hard work isn’t getting them where they want their business to be.

That’s because there’s something missing from this picture… something that transforms movement into progress.

So, what’s the answer?

The answer can be found, when we look at those business owners who are making real progress, often working fewer hours than those who spin their wheels.

It looks like this: Those who make progress learn from every experience. Then, they invest what they learn, to make better and better business decisions.

Here’s how you can do the same!

Here are a couple of examples, which show how this works in practice. The same approach can be used to massively improve your success in every area of your business.

Example 1: What was the last marketing email you opened and started reading?

Dig it out and spend some time studying its subject line (or title). Learn what it was, which motivated you to open it rather than trash it like all the others. Then, invest what you learned from that email, so that your next marketing email gets a great open rate.

Example 2: What was the last service you received, which impressed you so much that you had to tell everyone?

Think about that exceptional service, from start to finish. Now, look at what it was, which made that service so different from what you were expecting. Then, look for a way to incorporate something similar into the experience you give to your own clients or customers. Congratulations… you’ve just massively improved the volume and quality of the word of mouth publicity you receive!

In short: Don’t just get through the day. Get from the day.

PS: I wrote an article for Microsoft.com yesterday, which gives you another 5 habits of successful business owners.

The post How to get better results without working harder appeared first on Jim's Marketing Blog.

Whether you sell B2B or B2C you’re ALWAYS selling P2P (person to person).

It’s extremely important to remember that.

Why?

Because people will only listen to you, if you have something valuable to share with them, which matters to them. And no… a vague, poorly targeted marketing message is not going to work.

Here’s what we know

The more focused your marketing messages are, the more effective they will be and the more business they will generate for you.

• A focused marketing message speaks directly to the reader (viewer or listener), in a language they understand. It connects with them at a far deeper level than a poorly targeted message.
• A focused marketing message makes the reader feel as if you knew exactly what they needed. This makes you relevant to them, which is extremely powerful.
• A focused marketing message captures the reader’s attention. This is of huge value to you today, when people’s attention has never been so scattered.
• A focused marketing message has the power to motivate people to take action… to buy from you, call you, email you or visit you.

In short, a focused marketing message has the power to inspire and compel people in a way that vague messages can’t.

Review your written marketing

Look for opportunities to make it more focused, so that it’s only relevant to your ideal profile of client. Be less inclusive. Talk directly to them.

Business is all about people and people really notice, when you’re speaking directly to them, in their language, about what matters to them!

PS: Here’s some advice on how to build a successful business, using a more human approach.

There is no shortage of buzzwords or people who feel the need to use them.

Intersection.

Ruckus.

Disrupt.

… these buzzwords and many others, are used by people in an effort to appear informed or relevant. Interestingly, buzzwords do neither of these. In fact, they have the exact opposite effect when people read them or hear them.

For example:

• They make informed people cringe. Not a great idea, if you want your peers to take you seriously.
• They confuse the uninformed. A bad choice, if you want people to understand your message.

In either case, buzzwords work against you. When it comes to marketing, write your copy in a way that your ideal client will find easy to understand.

Always aim for clarity.

Why?

Because clarity sells!

PS: Here’s how to develop effective, clear, compelling marketing.

In 2011, I shared an idea with my readers, to help them massively improve the success of their newsletters. In the years that have passed, a number of courageous readers have adopted this approach, with great success. Today, I want to share this valuable idea with you.

When is a newsletter not a newsletter?

When you share your news with your friends via an email, your email looks like a regular email. It contains no glossy images, no “buy now” offers. It’s just an email, from you, to them.

When businesses decide to offer newsletters, they tend to do the opposite. There’s usually little if any actual NEWS and the whole thing looks and reads like a poorly disguised advertisement.

So, this got me thinking:

• What if you treated the people who read your current newsletter, as if they were already friends?
• What if you sent them actual news and asked how they are?
• What if you sent it, not on some lame automated schedule, but only when you had something of value or interest to share?
• What if some of them contained no special offers or sales pitches?
• What if some were just offering to help?

Business is all about people

Is it possible that this approach would help you develop a deeper, richer relationship with your readers?

Is it probable that it would sound more honest and trustworthy than the usual; “we call it a newsletter but there’s no actual news, I just want to sell you stuff,” approach?

Because if it is, it could massively improve how they felt about you and your business.

Why does this matter?

It matters because business is all about people. People do business with people they like. People recommend people they like.

There’s real potential here, for those with the courage to make their newsletters more human.