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Marketing lessons from a geeky kid

Posted byIan Brodie on May 8th, 2011.

As promised, a bit of a personal story this time…

I was never very popular at school.

Don't get me wrong: I was never bullied, and I had a good circle of close friends.

But I wasn't one of those kids who was popular with everyone. I wasn't very sporty, and I wasn't really interested in music.

I was much happier thinking about computers and what happened in the previous night's episode of Blake's Seven (and if you remember Blake's Seven it means you're probably as old and as geeky as me).

Within my small circle of friends with similar interests, I was well-liked and listened to, and I felt appreciated.

But every now and then, I wished I was one of the cool kids. One of the ones everyone liked.

So every now and then I'd look up what was in the pop charts. Find something to say about the school rugby team.

Something with broad appeal rather than the geeky stuff I liked myself. Something funny or clever I hoped everyone would like.

You can probably guess what happened next.

My attempts to please everyone never got anywhere. Passing comment on the current number one was certainly a more “acceptable” topic to the majority than the ins and outs of the latest Commodore Pet computer.

But it was no different to what everyone else was saying. It didn't turn anyone off. But neither did it turn anyone on.

Eventually, I learned that it was far better and far more personally satisfying to engage meaningfully with my small circle of friends.

We'd discuss Sci-Fi and computers. We liked model trains and other nerdy stuff that makes me cringe thinking back.

But the truth is I built deeper and more meaningful relationships with that small group by focusing on what we really liked than I ever got near to by trying to please everyone.

And the same goes for marketing.

Whether you're communicating by email, or you're giving a presentation, there's a huge temptation to focus on the majority. To not say anything controversial and to try to please everyone.

But when we try to please everyone, we end up coming across as bland and wishy-washy.

We may not upset anyone, but neither do we inspire anyone.

And whether you want people to be friends with you or to buy from you – you have to inspire them. Not upsetting them is not enough.

So if you're writing an email – write for your real core audience, don't worry about the rest. Don't worry about losing subscribers and getting complaints from the people who don't like what you have to say.

They were never going to become your clients anyway.

If you're giving a presentation, don't worry about your scores on those awful feedback sheets.

All you should care about is your impact on the few audience members who might become customers or who might go out and do something with your message.

Focus on inspiring the few, not mollifying the many.

And actually, you'll find that there are more of the few than you think. Certainly enough to help you build a flourishing business.

More Clients Memorandum

How to write engaging emails

Posted byIan Brodie on May 1st, 2011.

Last time we talked about what to include in a “nurture sequence” of emails designed to build credibility and trust with a potential client and so to eventually win their business.

I finished off the email by saying “Next you have to write it in an entertaining and engaging way”.

At that point you probably thought “hah – easier said than done”. And you'd be right.

But it's crucial to be able to do this. If people don't read your emails it doesn't matter what you put in them – it won't do a jot for your credibility, or build an iota of trust.

Ideally, you want people to look forward to receiving your emails and to open them straight away.

One reason they'll do this is if your emails contain a lot of useful information. Your knowledge of your clients' main problems, challenges, goals and aspirations tells you the topics you should be writing about.

But your emails also need to be entertaining too. We get so many emails these days, it's the entertaining and interesting ones that stand out.

Becoming an entertaining writer is a tough task. Nowadays I get many compliments on my writing (though I know there's still a lot of room for improvement).

But it wasn't always this way.

When I first started writing it was very stiff and formal. It was a bit like I was lecturing my readers.

And, to be frank, talking down to people is hardly a good way of endearing yourself to them.

So early on I learnt to write more casually. In particular, to write like I speak.

Imagine you're talking to a close business friend. What kind of language and speech pattern would you use with him or her? That's the kind of language you should be using when writing to potential clients.

That means using short paragraphs and sentences and simple words. And using the appropriate short forms: “I'll” rather than “I will”, “isn't” rather than “is not”.

I also learnt that using stories works much better than using facts and figures.

Personally, I'm a facts and figures guy. Probably because my first degree was in Maths.

But most people aren't. Most people enjoy and are persuaded much more by an interesting story or anecdote. It really brings your point home.

One of the first emails you probably got from me was “Hope is not a Strategy” where I illustrate how you need to take an active approach to your marketing by telling the story of what happened to me when I first set up my business.

I get a lot of people replying to that email telling me how it really hit a nerve and resonated with them.

I think the reason is that I tell my story. I don't just say what they should or shouldn't do – I say what happened to me and what worked for me.

Finally, write often and read often. I try to blog at least once a month and have been doing so for over a decade. Often much more frequently.

If you go back to my early blog posts you'll see how my writing has changed over the years.

I've gained the confidence to try out new things and “be myself” in my writing, rather than who I think I should be.

And by reading well-written blogs – particularly those with a very different style to yours – you come to appreciate what works and what doesn't.

In the next email I'm going to share a personal story that will help you see how to write in ways that will connect much better with your audience.

More Clients Memorandum

How to make email marketing work

Posted byIan Brodie on April 24th, 2011.

Last time I talked about how you can use email marketing “autoresponders” to nurture potential client relationships on autopilot.

But how do you create a good autoresponder sequence?

Well, I'm not going to pretend it's easy. Since writing this post I've written an entire book about email marketing. But here are some hints.

Start by thinking through a timeline. At the start of the timeline is your potential client today. Write down their “state of mind” right now as it relates to the sort of services you provide.

So, for example, if you're a procurement consultant they may start off worried that they're spending too much on external purchases. Feeling out of control and victimised by their vendors. Confused as to where to start, etc.

Now think about their state of mind after you've worked together.

Perhaps they're feeling in control. Elated that they've saved 20% of their external costs, etc. Whatever state of mind you typically leave your clients in when you've had a big success with them.

Now here's the crucial step…

Wind back a little bit.

What state of mind do they need to be in before they'll be ready to hire you?

You may think initially that this is the same as the initial state of mind – but it's not.

Initially they may be confused and concerned – but are they motivated enough to hire you (hopefully for a significant fee)?

Usually before clients hire professionals they need to have built up some degree of confidence in three things:

-> Their problem is big – and they need to fix it urgently.

-> You've got the skills, capabilities and track record to help them.

-> You're the kind of person they'd be comfortable working with.

Chances are they don't feel all of these things initially.

So before they're ready to hire you, you're going to have to take them on a journey to get them into this state of mind.

If you think through the individual steps needed to do this, and the natural order of doing them – that gives you your autoresponder sequence.

So, for example, sharing some case studies of other clients in similar situations and their realisation of how bad their situation was can help raise urgency.

As can sharing any diagnostics they can use themselves or early warning signs they've got a problem.

Success stories of people who've made significant improvements from their position can help them believe that it's not a lost cause for them.

Just go through – step by step – the very specific things that they need to believe before hiring you and you've got an outline for your sequence.

Next you have to write it in an entertaining and engaging way. And, of course, you have to be writing about topics your client's are inherently interested in. You can't just send them stuff that tells them how great you are!

But that's what our next email is all about…

More Clients Memorandum

Nurturing clients on “autopilot”

Posted byIan Brodie on April 17th, 2011.

We've been talking recently about the importance of nurturing or romancing your potential clients. And in the last email I shared my simple system for categorising clients into As, Bs and Cs and investing time each week or month to think of how to build your relationships with those As and Bs.

But what about the Cs?

Who are those C category potential clients? Well, they're mostly people I haven't met or had detailed discussions with yet – so I don't really know whether they could be great clients for me. That means I can't afford to invest a ton of time yet into creating a tailored plan for developing my relationship with them.

Historically, C category clients have been largely ignored by most professionals. Maybe they received a Christmas card or maybe a newsletter every now and then. But most professionals invested their valuable time in their As and Bs.

And that was the right strategy. There just aren't enough hours in the day if you're having to do all your nurturing by hand.

The Power of the Internet for Building Client Relationships

I'm sure you won't be surprised to hear me say at this stage that “the internet has changed everything”. It's a bit of an overworked phrase.

But it has. It really has.

Through online marketing on the web it suddenly becomes viable to keep in touch and add value to C category prospects.

And it's well worth doing so. You may not yet know whether they could become great clients for you, but they might.

“Might” isn't good enough if you have to invest time and effort into communicating with them. But if you can do it essentially for free, then “might” is not bad at all.

And if you can build up a very large number of “might”s then it can become incredibly powerful.

With old-school nurturing you can invest your time in (say) a portfolio of 25 potential clients each with a 20% chance of becoming a client. That means you'll get 5 clients from your nurture activities.

Now let's say your C category potential clients only have a 1% chance of becoming a client. Doesn't sound so good initially. But what if you can nurture relationships with 1,000 of them? That gives you 10 clients. Or even 5,000 of them?

Suddenly the economics begin to change.

And through the web, hooking up with 1,000 or 5,000 potential clients isn't unrealistic at all. If you can get sufficient traffic to your website, and if you can offer them something of value to get them to sign up to receive communications from you – then building a list of thousands of subscribers who could become clients isn't such a tall order.

In fact, it's exactly the strategy I've followed to build my business.

By optimising my website, doing targeted pay-per-click advertising, and harnessing social media I get lots of website visitors from people who could be potential clients.

By offering relevant free reports or videos in return for them signing up I've had thousands of people opt-in to receive communications from me.

And by sending (hopefully) useful emails like this one I can demonstrate to readers my knowledge and expertise in how to win new clients.

So over time, if I keep adding value, many of the people who receive these emails will choose to contact me and we'll end up working together.

It's an approach that – once set up – runs almost on autopilot. it works when I'm out of the office or even asleep.

And, to be frank, it's rather more pleasant than knocking on doors touting for business.

And it's something almost everyone can do for their business.

More details on how next week…