Ian Brodie is the best-selling author of Email Persuasion and the creator of Unsnooze Your Inbox - *the* guide to crafting engaging emails and newsletters that captivate your audience, build authority and generate more sales.
Ian Brodie on May 24th, 2016.
Sooooo – you've got a method for generating leads (see last week's video for how). You've “connected” with them. What now?
You've got to make a great first impression if you want them to quickly progress to becoming clients.
And that means three things: building credibility, building a relationship, and building action. Find out how in this week's video:
Ian Brodie on May 22nd, 2016.
Here's something I've wasted FAR too much time doing. You'd do well to avoid making my mistake :)
What I do is I spend endless hours trying to find the “best” way of doing whatever it is I want to do.
Even if that thing isn't important.
Even if the difference between the best way of doing something and the average way of doing it makes little to no practical difference to my results.
I've spent more time trying to find the best “to do list” system and software than I could ever save by using it. By orders of magnitude.
I've spent more time trying to find the best wireless headphones than I could ever notice in sound quality if I lived to be 100.
And most importantly, I've wasted a ton of time trying to find the “best” marketing methods when I should have just been implementing good ones.
I know I'm not the only one. I've worked with clients who've gone round and round in circles trying to find the “perfect” niche for them – ignoring fantastic opportunities in the process. Or who never launch their lead magnet because it's not quite as good as it could be.
Of course, we want to do our best work. But as long as we do something that's good enough we can always come back and improve it over time.
In fact, with anything that involves clients, we can never really know what is best in advance of trying it with them. So trying to reach perfection in the comfort of our own world is really an illusion.
Get something good – be that a lead magnet, target market, marketing method – and try it out. If it works, great, start improving it. If it doesn't, great, now you know and can try something else.
Ian Brodie on May 18th, 2016.
Last week we looked at the “ACE Formula” with the three key steps for successful lead generation:
This week we look at the best methods for that first step: getting the attention of your ideal clients.
No one method works best for everyone, so in this week's video I show you how to decide what will work best for you and your clients…
Ian Brodie on May 15th, 2016.
Every now and then I get an email from someone that runs along the lines of…
“Ian, I love your material and your ideas, but….”
…and what comes next usually makes me cringe because it's a problem I suffer from myself….
“…I have so much on, I'm really struggling to make the time to implement what you recommend”.
Sound familiar?
It certainly is to me. I take on too many projects. Get too excited by shiny new things.
In some senses, it's fear of missing out. I've got to try that exciting new marketing tool just in case it turns out to be the best thing ever.
It never does, of course. And the time I spent learning it and trying to get it to work is time I'm not spending on the core of my business which I already know gets results.
Crazy.
But very easily done.
Are you trying to do too much and getting overwhelmed?
The only solution, really, is to scale back. Stop doing some of the things which might work a bit, but aren't huge winners for you.
Years ago I scaled back on face-to-face networking. Then I stopped answering the phone unless it was a pre-arranged call.
I've significantly cut back on some social media too.
You're only going to make big progress if you really focus on some key activities in your business. Make sure they're the right ones.
Ian Brodie on May 10th, 2016.
The next few 5 Minute Marketing Tips are going to be about Lead Generation: the vital marketing step of making first contact with potential clients.
In this week's video I reveal the “ACE Formula” for effective lead generation and show you the three key steps needed to generate the right, high quality leads for your business.
Find out about the ACE Formula and how to apply it in this week's video…
Ian Brodie on May 8th, 2016.
What does it take for someone to be ready to buy?
Usually, they need some kind of big problem or opportunity you can help them solve. Something big enough to justify the pain, cost and time of making the change.
But what if they're not aware of that big problem?
Frankly, that's most often the case. After all, if they were fully aware of their big problem or challenge they'd be working on it already.
So it's your job to educate them and show them the huge opportunity they're missing, right? Show them the big mistakes they're making that you can fix?
Hmmmm.
Has anyone ever shown you a big mistake you've been making?
How did you react?
Unless you're some kind of angel, then chances are that your immediate reaction to being told you were wrong or making a big mistake was probably indignation.
Maybe followed by a determination to prove your accuser wrong. Or at least to argue your case.
It's human nature really, we hate to be wrong. Or at least, we hate to be shown to be wrong.
Psychologists call it the “backfire effect”. When your beliefs are challenged with evidence, especially deeply held beliefs, then rather than reform your beliefs you tend to reject the evidence and harden your beliefs.
So we're left with a paradox.
We need to challenge our clients and get them to see they have problems in order for them to buy. But the most likely outcome of that challenge is that they push back against us.
How do we break that paradox?
One way is to get our potential clients to discover their problems for themselves. Give them a diagnostic they can do that will enable them to see where they're going wrong.
Or tell them a story about how you or one of your clients discovered the problem yourselves and they'll learn by analogy.
Or “let them off the hook”. Give them a valid reason for why they're making the mistake that doesn't make them feel stupid or challenged. Maybe these new opportunities have arisen through new technology. Or a new way of organising things. Or maybe they were too busy focusing on other areas to notice this.
However you do it, you need to avoid triggering the kind of push-back that will prevent your client from seeing the truth and from buying from you.
Ian Brodie on May 3rd, 2016.
We all know that we need to differentiate ourselves. To stand out from the crowd. be seen as an expert or authority. Specialise. Do something different.
Otherwise, our potential clients don't have any reason to pick us over our competitors or to pay us premium rates.
That's why so much of marketing focused on proving to potential clients that you're different.
But there's an additional factor you need to show. Something often overlooked, but without which all your differentiation means nothing.
Find out what it is and how to apply it in this week's video…
Ian Brodie on May 1st, 2016.
One thing I'm horrendously guilty of is overthinking thinks.
Maybe you are too.
So when I want to do a marketing campaign to promote a new program or relaunch an existing one I usually end up overcooking it in the first draft.
I'll think about all the free content I'll send first. Then how I'll tag everyone interested in that. Then a follow-up sequence. Then more value. Then maybe a webinar. Then after some more twists and turns, maybe I'll actually ask people for the order.
What my superdupercomplex campaign forgets though is that in any audience, some people genuinely are ready to buy right now.
A small percentage of course. But if you only need a small percentage for, say, a pilot, then don't make them jump through hoops.
Just tell them what you've got to offer and ask if they're interested and want more details.
An email reply will do. No need to set up complex funnels with application forms to fill in. That all dehumanises the process anyway. Just ask your gang if they're interested. Email them more details if they are. Jump on a call if needed. then ask them if they want to buy.
I tried it recently. It worked.
Now, of course, next time it won't be so straight-line. Most of the folks who are ready have said yes already so I'll need to do more nurturing for everyone else.
But the first time you promote something, keep it simple.
Ian Brodie on April 26th, 2016.
So now you've got a bunch of new email subscribers you're all set, right?
Not quite.
There's no point in getting a ton of email subscribers if you don't build a strong relationship with them, and if they never turn into paying customers or clients. And one of the most important time periods where you have the biggest opportunity to do that is when they've just subscribed.
First impressions count!
In this week's 5 Minute Marketing Tip Video I show you how to turn new subscribers into warm relationships, and the best 3 options for what to do with your “thank you” pages and initial welcome emails.
Click here to watch the video »
Ian Brodie on April 24th, 2016.
Something I very much admire in some of the people I follow online is a willingness to fail in public.
What I mean by that is that there are a small number of people (though growing) who are on a path to becoming seen as experts not by figuring things out in private and then unleashing their newfound genius on the world. But by letting us see behind the curtain as they try, fail, try again, fail again, then eventually succeed.
One case in point is Aaron Orrendorff. He's a writer I connected with after he wrote an article on the top 10 experts on email marketing that I was named in.
Aaron sells his services to organisations as an expert writer of content. That could be blog posts, articles, landing pages, adverts.
So you'd think that he'd do his very best to only let the world see all his successes, his testimonials and the big name companies he's worked for.
Well he does that. But he also lets you see his work in progress. He has a project going on right now he calls “#letsgetrejected” where he's on a quest to write for big prestigious magazines like Forbes, Entrepreneur, Inc etc.
His end game, I believe, is to sell his services teaching others how to do the same. But instead of doing his learning in private and then emerging as a fully formed expert, he's letting us see his progress as he goes along.
On his Facebook page he's documenting the places he's trying to write for, the ones he gets accepted for, and the ones he gets rejected by.
He's not playing the “know it all” game at all. He's asking for help and ideas when he gets rejected.
And all the time he's building a following of people cheering him on.
It doesn't matter to them (I should say “us” really, as I'm one of them) that he's not getting a 100% acceptance rate. We feel like we're part of his journey. And it feels more realistic too. It feels like we can learn more from him and all the hard work and learning he's done than someone who seems to have been a natural.
I've not yet been brave enough to make all the thing I do public. But when I do (like when I challenged myself to get 10,000 new email subscribers in a year but had to change tack mid-way through) it's worked out incredibly well for me. People seem to love following the journey and it raises rather than lowers your credibility to see you grow and develop.
I guess there's a reason People magazine has about 5 times the circulation of Business Week. We're interested in people and their stories.
Could you be more public about your successes and failures? Could you do a public project where you document what you're doing and let people see behind the scenes?
It's a great way to build a following and learn as you go along.