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Mary Poppins…marketing genius

Posted byIan Brodie on June 14th, 2019.

One of the biggest problems we face with our marketing is that the messages we want to get across to potential clients aren't necessarily things they want to hear.

And that's particularly true when 95% or more of the time they're not ready to buy (yet).

If they were ready to buy, then information about our products and services would be useful to them. But if they're not, it's just so much blah blah.

Of course, we'd ideally like them to know how great our stuff is before they're in buying mode. And often, when we're communicating with people we have no idea whether they're in buying mode or not.

That poses a problem.

We want them to know how great it is to do business with us, for example. But if they're not in buying mode then shoving testimonials at them just comes across as bragging.

We want them to know we've got a great new product that would be perfect for them. But leading with that comes across as a blatant sales pitch and it switches them off.

In fact, fear of coming across as too salesy like this is what holds many of us back from getting in touch with our very highest potential clients as I mentioned in my last email.

And that's where Mary Poppins comes in.

“A spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down”.

It really does when it comes to marketing.

In commercial advertising, entertainment is the spoonful of sugar.

We're intrigued to see where the Gold Blend couple's relationship goes. We find Alexander Orlov the meerkat funny. So we pay attention and the marketing message piggybacks on that.

For us, value is the spoonful of sugar.

If you lead with value in your marketing then potential clients are open to it and pay attention whether they're ready to buy or not.

And you can piggyback whatever message you want on top of that.

You don't even have to do it covertly. People are smart. If you've just given them something of value then they'll lend you their ears for long enough for you to get your point across.

A simple example:

You've created a new course on teambuilding you want to promote.

The problem is that not everyone in your audience is into teambuilding. And even if they are, they're not all ready to buy right now.

So there are only so many times you can tell your audience about the benefits of the course before they get bored and switch off. Maybe forever.

So instead, lead with value.

Record some short videos with tips on team building and at the end of the videos tell them about the new course.

Then message them to tell them about the videos rather than messaging them to tell them about the course (again).

That way four wonderful things happen:

1) No one gets annoyed by your messages because you're being generous and offering something valuable – even if they don't happen to be interested in it right now.

2) The only people who go off to watch your videos are the people interested in teambuilding – so you now know who your warmer prospects are.

3) Your videos with useful tips build your credibility and their desire for the course.

4) The people who watch to the end of your videos and get the details of your course are the warmest prospects of all. It's highly likely they'd be interested in the course and because you've given them some useful information first they don't mind hearing about the course at all.

Much, much better than continually blasting your audience with a sales message.

The exact same principle applies to what we were talking about in my last email: getting in touch with potential clients to begin a discussion about an area you could help them with.

How do you do it in a way that doesn't feel icky or salesy?

Use a spoonful of sugar.

Lead with value in your message first. Point them at a useful resource related to what you'd like to talk about first. Ideally, something you've created yourself.

That way your request to talk to them about working together piggybacks along with the value. 

The value you give first puts them in the right frame of mind to receive your message.

And just as importantly, because you're giving value first you feel good about it. So you don't hold back from getting in touch.

Make sense? 

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These 5 killer assumptions blind you to your true best prospects

Posted byIan Brodie on June 12th, 2019.

Who are your best potential clients?

The ones you should be focusing your time on if you want to maximise your chances of winning new business in the near-term?

Many people would say it's “hot prospects” – people who are ready to buy.

Not you, of course. I'm sure you know that the problem with hot prospects is that they may be ready to buy…just not from you. You haven't built up enough credibility and trust yet.

But as a result of this blind faith that there are perfect prospects out there if only we could find them, we end up spending all of our marketing time and energy on tactics that focus on strangers.

We learn the massively complex rules behind Facebook Ads, spend a small fortune trying to out-compete the zillions of other people running ads (most of whom are rather more experienced at it than us). 

And we end up with prospects who don't know us well enough to buy from us yet.

Now there's absolutely nothing wrong with that. You're building your pipeline for the future.

But if you want to prioritise winning new work in the near term, I've found time and time again that the best place to look is with the people who already know you.

The people you've already built credibility and trust with.

Not all of them are ready to buy – but those that are will favour you.

Unfortunately, we typically make 5 killer assumptions that blind us to the huge opportunities from our current contacts.

The first is that we assume that if they needed our help, they'd ask.

Sure, some might. But for most clients, it's tough enough keeping track of their own business issues or the latest misdemeanours their kids have committed at school. They're not spending their time memorising all your capabilities and constantly wondering how you could help them.

The second assumption we make is that our ex-clients don't need us any more.

We worked with them a year ago, the project was a success. Therefore they don't need any more help.

No, no, no, no, no.

How many successful projects have setbacks? How often do changes that clients implement slip back? Or perhaps they now want to move on to the next level? Or they need to do something similar in a different part of their business? Or something different but well within your capabilities?

Don't assume. Check.

The third assumption is that our current clients don't need anything more from us. 

Of course, none of us wants to be pushy and sneakily creep the scope of our work with them.

But have you looked around at their organisation to see the other ways you could help them? Things that would bring big benefits to them and complement the work you're already doing?

The fourth assumption is that dropped prospects will never work with us.  

Dropped prospects are potential clients you talked to about working together but for one reason or another it never quite came off.

We usually assume they chose someone else and decided we weren't for them.

But very often what really happened was their budget was cut. Or other priorities took over. Or we came a very close second for reasons that might change over time.

More often than not they'd be very happy to work with you on a different opportunity. Or even the same one now things have changed.

The fifth assumption is a real killer. We assume that getting back in touch with these contacts would feel painful, pushy and somehow icky. 

We worry we'll come across as desperate if we call that ex-client up to ask how things are going. We worry that our current client will think we're being too pushy if we start asking about other areas we could help them with.

So we don't.

But it doesn't have to be that way – if you lead with value when you get back in touch.

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Could you inspire your audience?

Posted byIan Brodie on June 9th, 2019.

Some of my most successful emails in the past have been ones I would call “inspirational emails”.

Not the “look at me, I had a tough life but I turned it around and climbed Everest – if I can do it so can you” type stories that you might hear from motivational speakers.

Nothing wrong with those, except that I didn't have such a tough life and I didn't climb Everest.

No, in my case, I made my inspirational emails all about my audience. And I think that works best.

In “Here's to you” I raised a glass to my readers for all the work they do as entrepreneurs or professionals helping clients.

And in “Are you a shining light?” I challenged them to be courageous and stand up for something they believed in – and to make that visible in their marketing.

A different kind of inspiration to what you might normally think. But judging by the feedback, it did the trick.

And there's a marketing side to this too. If your audience feels inspired by you they're rather more likely to hire you.

What could you cheerlead your audience about? What could you challenge them to do?

More Clients Memorandum

Another easy way to write entertaining emails

Posted byIan Brodie on June 2nd, 2019.

What's your experience of the typical email you get from an “expert” you've subscribed to?

A riveting read?

Or dull, dull, dull.

Or perhaps just annoyingly full of showing off, teasing the secrets they know, but never actually revealing anything useful?

Usually one of the last two in my experience. And it annoys the heck out of me.

It's just not that hard to provide value and be interesting.

All it takes is…

…oh – hang on…

…that's not what this email is supposed to be about…

…the first few paragraphs were really just an example of an easy way to write an interesting and entertaining email…

…I just got a bit carried away…

So here's the point: one easy way to write entertaining emails is to have a bit of a rant.

Like I just did.

It's an age-old technique used in comedy writing to come up with funny topics.

Just have a rant about something that's annoying you.

In our case, if we make it about a topic in our field: some common bad practices or things we disagree with. Then it becomes valuable too.

We're really just harnessing the power of our own emotions.

But it's surprising how interesting (and sometimes how funny) rant emails can be.

Don’t make it too much of a habit of course. No one wants to hear from someone who grumbles all the time.

But as an exception, it's an easy and interesting email to write that your subscribers will get value from and be entertained by.

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An easy way to keep your audience entertained

Posted byIan Brodie on May 26th, 2019.

Hopefully I didn't scare you off too much last week with my demand that you need to be entertaining to keep the attention of your potential clients.

It really is simpler than you might think. Here's one easy way to do it…

Tell them about your failures.

It's the power of schadenfreude – our innate interest in the misfortune of others.

Most of the business emails I get from people trying to position themselves as experts just catalogue their amazing successes. Winning this, crushing that.

Yawn.

No one is interested in someone who succeeds at everything. And mostly we don't believe it either.

How successful would the Avengers series of films have been if they just coasted through them easily defeating all their enemies without breaking a sweat?

Not very.

We have to see our heroes in peril – even though we know inside that they're going to pull through in the end.

So if you talk about some of the mistakes you've made…

…genuine mistakes – not the fake “I work too hard” or “I care too much” nonsense. But real screw ups.

And what you learned from them of course.

That way the story arc plays out pleasingly. You're in trouble, you figure things out, they learn from your experience.

Some of the most popular emails I've ever written follow the simple formula of “My worst X ever”.

My WORST sales meeting ever.

My worst performing email EVER.

(OK, I varied things a bit with the capitalisation :) )

Try it!

One caveat though. Make sure you've established your credibility before you start talking about your previous failures.

Someone you know to be a success who is open about their failures seems more human.

Someone who's an unknown who starts off talking about their failures comes off as a bit of a loser.

Be the former rather than the latter :)

More Clients Memorandum

“Wait, I have to what?”

Posted byIan Brodie on May 19th, 2019.

I'm going to say something now that might be a little bit scary…

Perhaps the most important factor in your success at nurturing and building relationships with potential clients is your ability to entertain them.

That sounds like quite a big ask, doesn't it? Not many of us consider ourselves entertainers.

Experts, yes.

Results-getters. Yup.

But entertainers? Er, not me.

But entertain we must.

How else are you going to hold the attention of potential clients and keep them listening, watching or reading week after week, month after month?

Because if they're not paying attention, you're not going to get your expertise and result-getting qualities across.

And no matter how useful the information you have to share is, no one wants to get a dull, dry research paper in their email every week.

The good news, though, is that being entertaining – in business at least – isn't as difficult as you might think.

Firstly, the bar isn't that high.

Most of the business emails I get through my inbox are either blatant promotions, braggy “look what I did”s or deathly dull “7 tips you've probably seen before”s.

Along with the obligatory contrived rags-to-riches story we've all heard a hundred times before.

When it comes to business emails your readers don't expect a laugh a minute. Nor do they want a huge sob story or emotional roller coaster.

All it takes is a little bit of humour.

An interesting story to illustrate a point.

An unusual or intriguing idea.

A controversial or counterintuitive point of view.

Just a little bit extra effort every email. 5 minutes more after you have the content to spice it up, make it easy to read and sound right.

Makes the world of difference. Keeps your reader's attention just that bit longer.

So your expertise and credibility gets across without you having to ram it down their throats.

And they'll tune in the next week. And the week after.

Until they're ready to buy.

More Clients Memorandum

These two factors are what grabs attention

Posted byIan Brodie on April 21st, 2019.

I talked last week about the importance (and difficulty) of being able to grab the attention of your potential clients given just how much information they're being exposed to each day.

I mentioned entertainment and usefulness as two key strategies for getting attention. Let's look behind them a bit more.

If you look at scans to see what stimuli actually light up the attention centres of the brain, it comes down to two different but related factors.

The first is novelty.

Millennia ago, our ancestors who noticed when a new funny looking cat creature with big sharp teeth appeared tended to survive. Those who didn't, well, they didn't last long.

You see it today in the way almost all of us are drawn to try new foods or the way we love a surprise ending in a TV show.

New stuff stands out, and we're drawn to it.

The other key factor is salience. Is this something that is similar or reminds of something that is already important to us?

We're great at spotting yummy red berries against the green of the jungle. Because we know those berries are good for us.

So how can you use this in your marketing?

Often a good way is to use a novel presentation of a valuable idea.

Remember those “whiteboard explainer videos” that were all the rage a few years ago? Where an idea was explained by a voice over while simultaneously being sketched out on a whiteboard.

The first few times you saw them you paid attention because they were interesting and new. And if the message in them was useful, they kept your attention to the end.

But fast forward a few years and you don't see them much any more. The novelty has worn off and we tend to ignore them as they scroll past on our social media feeds.

Same thing with live video. Or long, long Facebook Ads.

Give your great idea an unusual presentation and you can get the attention you need to get your message across.

At least for a while.

But is there a way to get attention that doesn't go out of fashion?

More on that next week…

More Clients Memorandum

Without this scare resource you can’t win clients

Posted byIan Brodie on April 14th, 2019.

It's perhaps a bit of a cliché to remind you of just how many marketing messages our clients are bombarded with every day.

In fact, I can't even remember the actual number. But it's thousands.

And more important than the number of marketing messages they see are the number of things they'd rather pay attention to than marketing: TV, radio, their friends on social media, their real friends, their family, sport, cooking – just tons of stuff.

Your marketing is waaaay down the priority list.

But if you want to win clients you have to compete with all that, because you need *attention*.

Unless you can grab your potential client's attention, they're not going to notice anything you try to get across to them.

No relationship building. No authority.  No nothing.

How do you grab someone's attention?

You could try being very loud and obnoxious.

It works, and it's a strategy some people use to good effect in their marketing with rants about how bad things are or how awful your life is and how you need their solution.

Not for me.

One strategy is to be entertaining.

We like entertainment. We pay attention to stuff that's interesting and different.

Remember when we used to say that the adverts were the best part of TV? Cadbury's Gorilla, The Smash Martians, You've been Tangoed.

Apologies for the UK specific references (you might want to look them up on youtube for a bit of fun if you don't know them).

Or you could try being useful. We pay attention to things that we can quickly see will be valuable to us.

You probably signed up to get my emails years ago because you saw me offer a free report or checklist of template that you thought would be useful to you.

Either that or the beard.

But probably the value I would guess.

Combine entertainment and value and you're on to a winner in the battle for attention.

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Stop chasing hot leads

Posted byIan Brodie on April 8th, 2019.

If there's one thing I think most people do wrong with their marketing it's spending way too much time chasing “hot leads” and not nearly enough trying to build and nurture relationships with people they already know. 

I'm sure you know the numbers. The vast majority of potential clients you come into contact with just aren't ready to buy initially.

Maybe it's 80%. More likely 90%+. Either way it's a lot.

It's not that they won't ever buy. It's just that the time's not right, it's not a priority for them right now, or you haven't built up enough credibility or trust yet.

What most of us do when we realise someone isn't ready to buy (and I'm as guilty as anyone here) is we lose interest, we label them as tyre kickers and we move on to try to find someone who *is* ready to buy.

The problem is that focusing all your energy on trying to find people who are ready to buy is like a guy who wants to get married trying to find brides on the eve of their wedding and asking them to marry him.

After all, they're ready to get married…

Just not to him.

And unless you're George Clooney, it's very, very unlikely they'll suddenly decide that you're the one for them after all.

Meanwhile, as you flip from hot lead to hot lead, those “tyre kickers” you ignored have been getting more and more ready to buy.

And when they're ready, who are they going to call? The person who's ignored them for the last 6 months? Or the one who's kept in touch, kept helping them, kept top of mind?

Unless you're George Clooney it pays to keep in touch and to nurture your leads.

More Clients Memorandum

If you don’t turn anyone away, who will you attract?

Posted byIan Brodie on April 7th, 2019.

I had someone have an argument with my website chat bot today.

Weird.

They seemed to take umbrage at my sales page for Momentum Club where I say:

“if you're anything like me, you're probably not a natural salesperson.

You don't enjoy all that networking and schmoozing. And you'd much rather be working with clients than spending all your time posting on Facebook or accepting endless connection requests on LinkedIn hoping it will turn into something.”

Apparently, they saw this as projecting my profile onto others and alienating prospects.

And if I didn't like networking I was in the wrong game.

Here's the thing.

If you're not alienating some prospects, you're not strongly attracting the right ones for you.

It sounds like my chatbot-arguing friend was a professional salesperson who loved all the schmoozing and high-pressure tactics that the rest of us hate.

And people like that are just not my people.

Nothing wrong with them.

But if I try to water down my message to appeal to people who have different skills and aspirations to my people just because they might buy; then it weakens the appeal to the people I really want as clients.

Same is true for you I'm sure.

Rather than worrying about scaring off some people, worry about attracting the right ones.

Everything else will fall into place.