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I nearly got this very wrong

Posted byIan Brodie on February 28th, 2021.

A few years ago I was asked to do a webinar on “advanced” email marketing.

I duly prepared all sort of slides on doing advanced segmentation and event-triggered email that sent different things to different people based on what they'd shown an interest in and how much they'd engaged so far.

5 minutes in to the webinar I asked the audience what their experience level with email marketing was: were they veterans, had a bit of experience, had only just started or hadn't started at all.

As the answers came in I realised the webinar was pitched at completely the wong level.

About 80% of the audience said they either hadn't started with email marketing or had only just got going.

All my “advanced” material was going to be meaningless to them.

So we switched back to talking about the basics of building an email list, writing valuable emails and getting them opened and read. Thankfully we figured it out right at the start and were able to deliver a webinar the audience loved.

I was lucky that in that case I was able to get immediate feedback to let me course-correct. More often than not we just plough on with something that isn't actually right.

When I did a survey a few months ago asking what you'd like me to write about in these emails the answers were very different to what I'd expected (and what the results have been before).

How certain are you that your marketing is hitting all the right spots for your ideal clients?

Have you asked them?

The world has changed a lot in the last 12 months and if you haven't had direct feedback about what your people now value there's a good chance you're getting it wrong.

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An easy shortcut to impactful content

Posted byIan Brodie on February 24th, 2021.

I've had lots of messages in the past few weeks thanking me for the recent series of emails I've written on doing 80:20 type marketing, getting your stuff out fast to get feedback, and avoiding perfectionism.

And I think there's a lesson in here on how to create marketing content your audience values, but to be able to do it relatively quickly and easily.

The thing is, I didn't write my recent emails from a position of having everything figured out.

I wrote them because they're issues I've struggled with myself and still do.

Even as I wrote Sunday's email on overcoming perfectionism I was struck by the irony that I was spending way too long on it trying to get it, well, perfect.

The good news if you're like me and have lots of “challenges” is that they make great material for marketing content.

Most people are more interested in hearing practical information on how you're overcoming the very real challenges you face than they are in hearing someone who's apparently perfect at things pontificating on how it should be done.

And no matter what it is you do or what you're an expert in, you still face challenges.

Leadership coaches aren't perfect leaders in their personal or professional life every single day. Sales experts don't land every sale. I certainly don't find it easy to create marketing content or wow potential clients all the time.

Your frustrations are often top of your mind. Your feelings about them often raw and honest. The solutions you've come up with often fresh and interesting.

Great, great material for your marketing content.

Or you could write yet another “7 ways to blah blah” blog post :)

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Blast through perfectionism with these 3 simple questions

Posted byIan Brodie on February 21st, 2021.

Good news: the sink is finally fixed thanks to some videos on YouTube and the wonders of Screwfix direct!

In my last email I suggested you should try to “do OK fast”.

In other words to quickly try things out with your marketing to get feedback, rather than trying to polish them to perfection in isolation before releasing them out to the world.

And, of course, it's one of those pieces of advice that sounds great in theory. But isn't always easy to do in practice.

How do you know when something is OK? When it's good enough to release? When you won't embarrass yourself or let your clients down?

My experience is that most of us err far too much on the side of caution. But you can get a better balance by asking yourself these questions:

Firstly, is it good enough to get them the results they're looking for?

If I've got a headache, I don't need the world's most powerful painkiller. I just need something that stops my head hurting.

Secondly, is it better than the alternatives?

Rather like the old joke about not needing to outrun a bear, just needing to outrun the other guy; your product or service doesn't need to be perfect. Just better than the other products and services out there.

And better may mean a better fit for a group of clients with a specific need than better on every dimension.

And thirdly, is it better for your clients to get this solution from you now rather than a “better” solution in a month or 3 months or 6 months time.

I'm sure there were better solutions to fixing my sink than sealing the joints on the new plug with plumber's mait (or plumber's putty as I believe it's known in the US). But it was much better for me to have a working sink now than to have to wait a week or more.

And I think the final point to think about if you're hesitating rather than getting your new stuff out there is to give your clients some credit.

Don't treat them like children. Treat them like intelligent adults. Rather than trying to perfect something before sharing it with them, why not let them decide whether something is good enough for them?

Be open with them. Give them visibility of your progress. You might be surprised at how ready they are to run with something you didn't think was quite ready.

And you might be surprised and how much of a difference it makes to you to get your new products and your new marketing out fast.

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Do OK fast

Posted byIan Brodie on February 14th, 2021.

For those of you following my domestic dramas from midweek, I thought I ought to let you know that the wifi is fixed and the microphone's been replaced. The sink, on the other hand, is a long, long story best saved for another day.

In Thursday's email I talked about how it's almost always better to do some marketing today – even if far from perfect – than it is to wait and wait while to try to achieve perfection.

My point was that marketing is never a one-shot thing. You can market today, tomorrow, next week, the week after. You don't have to avoid marketing today to do something better tomorrow. You can market today AND do something better tomorrow.

But there's another important thing going on that Thursday's email brought home to me.

Because I got more replies in the first few minutes of sending Thursday's hurriedly-written email than I think I've had for years. Something I genuinely wasn't expecting.

It reminded me very starkly that you never know what's going to hit and what's going to miss with your marketing. You have to try it out and see.

Sure, past experience helps a lot. As does listening to people like me who've made every mistake under the sun so we can tell you how to avoid them (and maybe share some good practices too).

But while accumulated expertise can point you in the right direction and avoid common pitfalls, ultimately you and your clients are unique. 

What works for me might work for you, or it might not.

What worked for you before might work again. Or it might not.

The only way to find out is to try it.

Whether that's sending an email, making a presentation or webinar, launching a new product, offering someone your services.

The more things you try and the faster you try them, the sooner you find out what works and what doesn't. And the sooner you can react to feedback and improve things.

I think it's a fundamental character trait of many of us who want to do great work for clients that we only want to put our best stuff out there.

And that leads us into this cycle of spending ages locked away trying to perfect things before letting them loose in the world.

But I think we have to accept that we simply can't do great work without feedback. The act of letting things loose and letting people see them is what makes them great. Because it's where feedback comes from.

You may have heard me tell the story of when I used to watch magic competitions and noticed that performers who did quite badly one year were often the best the next, whereas the performers who did well didn't necessarily improve so much.

The reason was that the “bad” performers weren't afraid to go out and perform and get real-world feedback even when they knew it might be harsh. Over the year they were getting 10x the input as the guys who just practised in front of a mirror again and again.

With marketing, you've got to be more like the “bad” magicians who try stuff out quickly, get feedback and improve rather than the guys who try to perfect things before ever showing them to real people.

It's not quite “fail fast”. It's more “do OK fast”, then do better and better and better.

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3 today > 10 next week

Posted byIan Brodie on February 11th, 2021.

My email's a day late this week because…

…well, I forgot.

I spent most of yesterday trying to fix a broken sink, a broken wifi and a broken microphone. And I just forgot to do the midweek email – sorry!

I sat down this morning very, very tempted to wait until Sunday for the next email.

And I did what I know a lot of people struggle with.

I thought of some ideas for today's email, but none of them was super strong. I told myself “if you're mailing late you need to make it a brilliant one…maybe it's better to skip this one and do a 10/10 email on Sunday”.

But that's really poor logic.

Email – like most of your marketing – is never a one shot thing.

It's not a choice between a 3/10 email today or a 10/10 email on Sunday.

It's a choice between a 3/10 email today AND a 10/10 email on Sunday or nothing today and a 10/10 email on Sunday.

Overall, mailing both today and Sunday wins – even if today's email isn't a world-beater.

As long as every piece of your marketing has a positive impact it doesn't need to be perfect. 

And of course, the idea that you'll be able to do a 10/10 email if you just wait a bit longer is a fantasy anyway. You'll find yourself with another 3/10 email sitting in front of you. Or a 6/10.

But over time, a dozen 3/10 emails have way more impact than a single 10/10er you agonised over and took weeks to come up with (if ever).

So today's email is today's email. Hopefully it's got a good idea for you that might help you if you get stuck like this.

But if not, there's always the next email or the next email or the next.

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3 questions that will boost your marketing every week

Posted byIan Brodie on January 31st, 2021.

I've taken to asking myself 3 simple questions at the end of every week that are having a very positive effect on my marketing.

I'm like most people in that I tend to do what I'm comfortable with rather than what's best for me – unless I'm pushed.

And these 3 questions have proven to be a great way of giving myself the little push I need each week to make sure I refocus onto my most important marketing tasks.

They really are very simple:

1. What did you do this week to generate more leads?

If you're in a small-number/high-value business that might be asking for referrals. In a business like mine, it might be something like making a guest appearance on a podcast or publishing an article.

2. What did you do this week to nurture relationships with your best contacts?

Maybe that's a phone call or sending a short note to your best contacts. In my business, it's more likely to be an email newsletter or sharing content with my contacts on Linkedin.

3. What did you do this week to convert some of your nurtured relationships into paying clients?

That may be offering to chat with someone on the phone, making a formal proposal, or for me: running a live webinar or making an offer in a short video.

Simple questions, right?

But the first time I was prompted to ask a variation of them by a friend, I really didn't have good answers.

Most of what I'd been doing had been useful stuff – but much of it tangential to the most important tasks in marketing: generating leads, nurturing relationships, converting into paying clients.

And when I was hitting one of the “big 3” it was almost always focused on the area I'm most comfortable with: nurturing relationships.

Vitally important to be sure. But unless you're generating leads on a regular basis you'll be nurturing a shrinking set of relationships.

And unless you're converting those relationships into paying clients somehow, you'll have a shrinking bank account too.

This week try asking yourself these simple questions – especially the ones that relate to the areas you're the least comfortable with.

You may be surprised at your answers and at how much it gets you to refocus for the upcoming week. 

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A simple schedule for effective marketing

Posted byIan Brodie on January 27th, 2021.

I often get asked about how much time you should dedicate to marketing, and how to schedule it during the week.

In part, the answer is “do what suits you”. But while true, that's not very helpful really. And there are some guidelines that can steer you in the right direction.

Timewise I'd aim to spend 20% of my time – roughly a day a week – on marketing and business development type activities.

You'll need more if you're starting up or you've got a bit of a client slump at the time. Perhaps a couple of days or more a week.

And if you've got a steady source of new business that's unlikely to disappear overnight you can survive with a bit less. Perhaps half a day per week.

But don't get complacent. Unemployment queues are filled with consultants who were sure their clients were going to stick with them for another year at least.

In terms of scheduling that time I have two rules:

1. Schedule a biggish block of uninterrupted time where you can work on tasks that need focus and attention. Strategising. Writing. Making videos. 

It's almost impossible to make progress on tasks like these if you're grabbing 20 minutes here and there.

Schedule the time for when you're at your freshest so you can do your best thinking. Monday morning is a good default.

2. Try to do some marketing every day. 

It doesn't have to be much. Reconnect with some old clients on Tuesdays. Write a short Linkedin post on Wednesdays. Send something useful to a priority prospect on Thursdays.

Doing something on your marketing every day is a very healthy habit.

It keeps marketing and clients front of mind and means you'll find it much easier and quicker to pick up marketing tasks when you start them rather than having to get warmed up.

And having this regular focus on marketing means it's much more likely that good marketing ideas will pop into your brain in-between times.

It really is as simple as that. A chunk of time on Mondays. A bit of time every other day.

And as I said in my last email – write down in advance what you're going to do each day so you can get straight into it without having to spend half your allotted time thinking of what to do.

Not rocket science. But very, very effective.

And like the magic of compound interest, these small investments in marketing add up to something big over time.

– Ian

PS another tip, not quite 100% marketing-focused: set aside time each week for reading. Not “reading” Facebook or Linkedin. But proper reading – ideally books. 

Doesn't matter so much what. But reading for an hour a couple of times a week makes you more focused. And it helps relax you too.

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Never start from a blank sheet of paper

Posted byIan Brodie on January 24th, 2021.

There's something weird about trying to think and do at the same time.

Brainstorm a list of articles to write? Easy.

Write an article on a topic you've previously listed, or one someone else has given you? Maybe not easy, but doable.

Brainstorm an article topic and then write it in the same session? Absolutely im-bloody-possible it seems.

At least for me and a lot of people I've spoken to.

Somehow separating the thinking (of topics) from the doing (writing the article) makes it all work much smoother.

Perhaps it's the mindset you need to be in for each phase. Or perhaps the process of choosing which one to do rather than being given just one topic allows you to over-think and procrastinate.

The exact same is true when it comes to nurture marketing.

Brainstorm a list of nurture activities you could do on a regular basis?

Sure: you could get back in touch with old clients to ask them how things have progressed since your work together. You could send a link to an article to contacts you met in the last week or so. You could give your views on industry news to ex colleagues. etc etc – the topics just flow.

Execute a pre-defined nurture activity?

Of course: ask me to get back in touch with an old client and I just bring up a list of them, see who I haven't spoken to in a while who I might have something useful to say to, then I ping off a message. Job done.

Brainstorm a nurture activity to do and then do it straight away?

For some reason I get stuck. I can't make up my mind which one. I procrastinate.

That's why when you set up a Golden Hour for key activities like nurture marketing you should always list out in advance what you're going to do in that hour.

Never go into your Golden Hour with a blank sheet of paper.

You don't need all the details. You just need a solid list of activities you can work your way through without having to think about what to do next.

The list of activities depends on your priorities, but for a Monday morning Golden Hour it could be something like:

• Message 3 ex-clients to see how things are going
• Pick one contact you met in the last 2 weeks, search for an article you think they might find useful and send it
• Try to schedule a 1-1 call with a potential client where your nurture activities have progressed well

Those activities are something you can easily do in much less than an hour, yet they'll help you take big steps with nurturing your relationships and getting people closer to being ready to buy.

Of course, you might not do the same activities every week. All you need to do is check out your Golden Hour activity list a few days in advance and update it if needed.

Then when you get into your Golden Hour you can focus on execution, not umming and ahhing about what to do,

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Do you have a “golden hour”?

Posted byIan Brodie on January 20th, 2021.

In photography, the “golden hour” is the time just after sunrise or just before sunset when the sun is low in the sky and so its light is warmer, softer and casts more interesting shadows.

In other words, it's a great time to get your best photography work done.

When it comes to marketing or business in general, I believe it's important to make your own “golden hour” at least once a week where you can focus on your most important work.

For me, that means planning the week's activities. Something I do first thing on a Monday morning.

(Though admittedly, “first thing” for me tends to mean 10am or 11am.)

It also means setting aside protected time when I can work on creating new content for my website and new training for Momentum Club members.

Those are the things I've identified as the highest value activities for me.  So it's vital I set aside dedicated golden hour time for them rather than try to squeeze them in between more immediate but less important issues.

It's easy to prioritise and schedule client work.

You're getting paid for it. You have deadlines. You have someone who will say something if it doesn't get done.

And most of us have a big sense of duty to our clients.

We tend not to have that same sense of duty or urgency for our own activities that have a longer-term impact on our business.

Especially ones we might not enjoy so much or be that good at initially.

But in the long run, activities like nurturing client relationships outside of projects and creating content to build our credibility will have a huge impact on the success of our business.

And, I'd argue, on our well-being too.

Relationships that last beyond the current transaction are what keep human beings happy. And creating a body of work to be proud of gives us a real sense of worth and achievement.

So make sure you plan in at least a few “golden hours” every week to work on these vital activities.

Don't leave it to chance. Don't try to squeeze it in when you have time.

Prioritise it.