Ian Brodie https://www.ianbrodie.com Unsnooze Your Inbox! Sun, 17 Sep 2023 20:34:54 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://www.ianbrodie.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/ian-mailbox-50x50.png Ian Brodie https://www.ianbrodie.com 32 32 Unsnooze Your Inbox! IanBrodie false IanBrodie ian@ianbrodie.com podcast Unsnooze Your Inbox! Ian Brodie https://www.ianbrodie.com/wp-content/plugins/powerpress/rss_default.jpg https://www.ianbrodie.com/blog/ c9c7bad3-4712-514e-9ebd-d1e208fa1b76 Email Breakdown: “The Robots are Here” from Copyblogger https://www.ianbrodie.com/email-breakdown-the-robots-are-here-from-copyblogger/ Wed, 22 Feb 2023 17:53:31 +0000 https://www.ianbrodie.com/?p=2021424

Valuable content emails are the bread and butter of email marketing.

They're what builds credibility and trust. And they keep you top of mind for when your potential clients are ready to buy.

But too often they're done very, very badly.

No matter how great your content is, if you just brain-dump it into an email it won't land properly.

And that means none of that credibility building, relationship building or getting top of mind is actually going to work.

Luckily, there's a simple way to structure your content emails that increases readership and maximises the chances of those readers taking action. Let's take a look using an example of an email that Brian Clark of Copyblogger sent out recently called "The Robots are Here".

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Groundhog day https://www.ianbrodie.com/groundhog-day/ Wed, 22 Feb 2023 13:03:00 +0000 https://www.ianbrodie.com/?p=2022434 I got interviewed for a video podcast last week and the first question was basically “how did you end up doing email marketing?”.

It's something I remember really well, and with more than a little embarrassment.

After I started my own business back in 2007 I got into blogging big time and was doing very well. At least in terms of visitors and ranking in the search engines.

But it wasn't converting into sales. Almost all my sales still came from more traditional methods: referrals from my old contacts and doing live presentations at events.

My big hope was that online would generate a good proportion of my sales because I knew the referrals wouldn't last forever. But it just wasn't happening.

Then out of the blue I got an email from someone who'd found my blog. He made some insightful comments about my content so we got chatting. And then he uttered the words which started it all…

“Ian, how come you're not doing email marketing?”

I'd like to tell you I immediately jumped at the idea and became an email expert overnight.

But what actually happened is I said…

“Because it's 2008 Lee. Email marketing is dead. Blogging is where it's at”.

Eventually, of course, I did try out email. And it turns out Lee was right. After a few months I started to get enquiries from my email list about coaching and training that I'd never managed to get from all those visitors to the blog.

Since then, email marketing has been pronounced dead at least half a dozen more times. And each time it's continued to thrive.

When I used to speak at marketing conferences about email I always used to amuse myself by looking at the websites of the other speakers who majored on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest or whatever was “hot” at the time.

The amusement came from the fact that without exception, the most prominent thing on every social media speaker's home page was an email signup form.

But to be fair, they weren't being hypocritical. Email marketing works brilliantly hand-in-hand with social media, not against it.

Social can be a great way for people to find you (as can search or paid ads of course). Email isn't great for discoverability.

But where email rules the roost is follow-up. Keeping in touch on a regular basis to build credibility and trust until someone is ready to buy. 

And because almost every significant sale needs a lot of follow-up, that's why email has stayed top of the pile.

I suppose someday someone will proclaim that email is dead and actually be right. Nothing lasts forever.

But it seems from all the data that email has a good few years left in it yet. It's still generating the most sales of any medium.

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Overlooked assets https://www.ianbrodie.com/overlooked-assets/ Sun, 19 Feb 2023 13:02:00 +0000 https://www.ianbrodie.com/?p=2022430 A couple of days ago I took a look at the waitlist for the next run of my Persuasive Email Writing Accelerator course on Maven.

When I saw the waitlist was up to 110 people (with a maximum of 30 needed or the course) my initial reaction was relief.

“Phew – should go OK then”.

But then I realised I'd made a mistake.

I'd paid no attention to the waitlist for ages. I should have been keeping in touch to keep people warm and excited about the course.

Or maybe I could have run the course earlier?

No matter. It's in hand now.

But the bigger question is “what other assets are we overlooking that we should be doing more with?”

Do you have an email list you haven't mailed for weeks?

Or a couple of contacts who used to refer you business you haven't grabbed a coffee with since before the pandemic?

What about the people you talked to about working together where it never quite came off? Maybe they weren't ready then but they are now? Or maybe the partner they went with instead of you didn't quite work out and they're looking round again?

What about intellectual assets? Have you got brilliant articles languishing unread on your hard drive or that blog no one visits? Maybe sharing or serialising them on Linkedin will get more traction?

Or how about that great idea you had in the shower that you've not got down on paper and not shared with anyone?

It seems to be a core flaw in human nature that we find it easier to move on to the next shiny object than to follow through with what we've already started.

Don't let that be you.

Make a note in your calendar or to-do list right now to get back in touch with that old friend. Email that list. Resurrect that article.

And do it next week. Not the week after or the week after that.

– Ian

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Brave enough https://www.ianbrodie.com/brave-enough/ Fri, 17 Feb 2023 13:00:00 +0000 https://www.ianbrodie.com/?p=2022426 I had a bit of an epiphany this week.

As part of my analysis into what's working well on Linkedin I noticed that a lot of the people who are growing their accounts and engagement fast have one thing in common…

…they're comfortable admitting to the world they're still learning.

Actually, they might not be comfortable admitting it, but they do it anyway.

It's really interesting that the people building the most active tribes aren't necessarily at the top of their fields. But their journey and what they're learning seems to resonate.

And I think the reality is that we're going to see a lot of revolution in the next few years. AI for one, even though it's become a bit of a cliche.

We're all going to be beginners.

Of course, fundamentals don't change. Psychology doesn't change.

But plenty of other stuff does. Even in the last decade or so we've seen new platforms open up big opportunities for people willing to start from zero and learn.

But that whole “starting from zero” is actually quite hard.

I love learning new things. But I'm also very proud of what I already know and the fact that people look to me as a source of great ideas and insights for the topics I'm an expert in.

Stepping off that pedestal of expertise in one field to be a beginner and just one of the pack in another is really hard. It's tough for the ego to be the oldest guy in school.

But that need to always be the knowledgeable one, to always be the professional…it's going to kill you when it comes to learning.

Right now I'm watching all the noise about ChatGPT with one group of people trying to position themselves as experts and another group trying to convince us (or more likely themselves) that actually it's not a big deal.

I don't think either of those two groups is going to be the big winners.

I think the big winners are going to be the people who say “I don't know much about this. I'm not an expert. But I think it's going to be big so I'm going to learn everything I can”.

All new things start off rubbish.

The problem with the people who want to be seen as experts in the new thing from day 1 is that it stops them learning.

The problem with the people who believe the new thing won't replace the old thing is that it stops them learning.

The folks who are humble. Who are brave enough to be a beginner are the ones who'll learn the fastest.

And in a year or two years or five years when the new tech isn't rubbish any more, they'll be the ones positioned to get the most from it.

And that's true not just of AI but of marketing generally. Of Linkedin. Of email marketing.

Casting off the protective armour of competence and admitting you have a lot to learn is the first step to getting really good.

If you're brave enough.

– Ian

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٩◔̯◔۶ skip this and lose half your readers https://www.ianbrodie.com/%d9%a9%e2%97%94%cc%af%e2%97%94%db%b6-skip-this-and-lose-half-your-readers/ Fri, 10 Feb 2023 11:50:00 +0000 https://www.ianbrodie.com/?p=2022422 The first few seconds of your content are make or break. You could lose half your audience if you get it wrong.

In an email or Linkedin post it's the first sentence or two. On Youtube it's the first 30 seconds. maybe less.

That's how long it takes for someone to decide whether to continue reading or watching.

Marketing experts rightly tell you to put a lot of effort into your subject line or headline or thumbnail image – because that's what gets people to stop, pay attention and start to read or watch.

But they put a lot less focus on what happens next – and that's a big mistake.

Because if half your readers quit straight away, all that effort you put into the subject line was wasted.

“How do I get people to keep reading or watching?” I fake hear you ask :)

Two things.

Bear in mind the decision isn't a purely rational one. A lot of it is System 1 thinking. Instant gut feel heuristics at their best.

The first thing is “does this look easy?”

When they open your email or start to read your Linkedin post, is it horrible dense text that looks like you'll have to battle with it.

Or is it nice and open.

Plenty of whitespace. Plenty of variety in sentences and paragraphs.

On Youtube I'm less certain of what “easy” looks like but I suspect that fast-paced rather than pondering is the key.

The second thing is Potential Value.

Form what you see in those first few sentences, do you get a sense that you'll get a lot of value from reading or watching the rest.

I use “value” in the loosest sense here. It could be value like boring content markers mean: some kind of practical, useful, how-to info.

But value could also be a brilliant new idea that triggers a lightbulb moment. Or it could just be you're entertained for a bit and can forget the monotony of daily work life.

Either way, you have to see in those first moments that you'll get value. That allows your System 2 brain to put a lid on System 1 and stop it looking for something new for instant gratification.

“Oh but Ian” I fake hear you ask again, “how do I show potential value early on?”

That one's simple. You tell them.

On Youtube rather than playing your expensive intro ident first, cold open and tell them what they'll learn from this video and how that will benefit them. Then cut to the intro.

In an email do the same – say what they'll learn and why it's important. Or make a provocative statement they'll want to have explained. Or begin an intriguing story they can't resist hearing the end of.

I opened this email with “The first few seconds of your content are make or break. You could lose half your audience if you get it wrong.”

I'm not saying that't the perfect opener, but it does the job.

It gets you interested by introducing a problem: that the first few seconds of your content are make or break. And it raises the stakes by saying you could lose half your audience if you get it wrong.

That second part is vital. No point telling people about a problem they have if they don't think it's important. 

I call this compelling opening to an email (or any content) your “hook”. Because it hooks your readers or viewers in and makes them want more.

It's a vital element of any successful email alongside the transition, content and call to action.

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it can’t be this simple, can it? https://www.ianbrodie.com/it-cant-be-this-simple-can-it/ Wed, 08 Feb 2023 10:33:00 +0000 https://www.ianbrodie.com/?p=2022416 Last time I showed how I got over 3x my normal engagement on a Linkedin post by harnessing the AIDCA formula.

(In fact the post has now got over 10x my normal engagement).

In particular, it was the A that made all the difference.

Attention.

And without going all sciency, the thing that drives attention is contrast.

We notice things that stand out from what's around them. Because back in the day, things that were unusual and different were quite likely to eat us.

So the lucky folks who were good at spotting them survived and passed on their difference-spotting genes to us, their descendants.

In fact, not only do we pay more attention to things that are different, we don't even really see the things that look similar to their surroundings. They never enter our consciousness. They're filtered out before they get there.

So if you want someone's attention your first impression has to be one of contrast.

On Linkedin my comic book imagery looked very different to 99.99% of the dullsville content usually posted.

With Facebook it's similar: people pay attention to posts with “different” images. Only over there, what looks different to the rest of the feed is different to what looks different on Linkedin.

Apologies for that last sentence. I didn't mean it to sound like Dr Seuss, but I couldn't find better words :)

On email, the place to stand out is your subject-line and pre-header.

Traditional best practice says your subject line needs a benefit – otherwise why would someone open the email?

But the reality is that pure benefit subject lines have been done to death. Once you've read 7 emails about how to double your sales in 2023 you kinda stop opening them.

That's why it's often a good idea to set up a throwaway email address and subscribe to a bunch of newsletters from your competitors or other people your clients are likely to follow.

That way you'll know what their inbox looks like.

Close enough anyway.

And that means you'll be able to deduce what would look different for them.

Like a lower case headline with a weird question for example.

Of course, you need to deliver on the promise of the headline too. Hopefully I've managed to show that yes, it can be this simple. At least when it comes to getting attention.

How are you going to feed that into your next communication?

– Ian

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This classic marketing formula works perfectly for new media https://www.ianbrodie.com/this-classic-marketing-formula-works-perfectly-for-new-media/ Sun, 05 Feb 2023 10:15:00 +0000 https://www.ianbrodie.com/?p=2022404 I've been continuing my research into effective content on social media and as ever I'm reporting on my findings so far…

This week I noticed that a lot of top creators use carousels on Linkedin – and they get more engagement than other posts. So I thought I'd give it a go.

A carousel is a document like a pdf you upload to a Linkedin post and viewers can then scroll though it page by page.

On Linkedin the post is small, so a normal document would be unreadable. You've got to format it with huge text to make it readable.

To do my carousel I used a classic marketing formula: AIDCA.

Attention – Interest – Desire – Conviction – Action.

I wasn't selling anything, so I didn't go heavy on building desire or conviction. But I knew if I wanted to get people to read it I needed to grab their attention vs all the other noise they'd be seeing.

So the first thing I did was think about how to make my post stand out. And on most social media, that usually means getting an image or thumbnail that's very different to the other things your audience will see on their feed.

I decided to use a comic book theme with bold colours and a huge bright headline in a funny font. And I added in a photo of me gurning at a phone. You can see the image below.

It's amazing how easy it is to stand out on places like Linkedin if you're prepared to be a little bit brave and don't care much about how silly you might look.

So now I've got their attention, I need to get them to read the document by clicking the button Linkedin puts on the document to page through it.

That's where the interest element of AIDCA comes in.

I used a headline that had both a benefit in it (“save an hour a day”) and invoked curiosity (“5 simple tips? I wonder which ones they are…”).

I boosted the curiosity with a couple of graphical bubbles with phrases you might see on a comic book or dodgy magazine: “shock revelations” and “myths busted”.

One of the advantages of taking a light-hearted approach by using comic book imagery is it allows me to play around with exaggeration. If I'd had a deadly serious cover I couldn't have said “shock revelations” because the revelations aren't really that shocking. 

But taking a more humorous approach means you're saying it with a wink, and you can get away with it. Yet it still gets people wondering what lies beyond the front page.

I also added a big arrow with the instructions to “click me” pointing at the spot they'd need to click to page through the document. You'd be surprised how often people forget tell their audience what they want them to do – and then get disappointed when they don't do it.

AIDCA is kind of fractal. It applies to the whole document as well as the front page.

From a document perspective the front page grabs attention, then the second page builds interest by talking about the problems we all have with being overworked and stressed out.

You then get the tips – one per page – and formatted in an interesting way to make reading them easy.

And then there's a call to action with the last tip to get going implementing.

The results?

Over 3x the number of views and comments of any of my other posts for the last few weeks.

Not that it went viral or got tens of thousands of views and comments. But compared to my baseline it did very well indeed.

And it all shows that classic marketing like AIDCA absolutely works in new media.

– Ian

PS you can find the Linkedin post here if you're interested in the tips or in analysing it for yourself.

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How common is your marketing sense? https://www.ianbrodie.com/how-common-is-your-marketing-sense/ Wed, 01 Feb 2023 01:38:00 +0000 https://www.ianbrodie.com/?p=2022400 I've been immersing myself in the world of content marketing on social media and I'm finding a lot of, er, rubbish.

Survey after survey has shown that marketing people are out of touch with the rest of the world. They use i-devices where normal people watch telly. They multi-screen where normal people don't. They're on all the latest social media channels and think facebook is old hat.

And worst of all, they think everyone has the same media consumption habits as them.

That's perhaps why you hear gems like this from the CMO of Levi:

“Our biggest challenge today is delivering tailored messages to our consumers 24 hours a day, 365 days a year across an increasingly complex communications landscape.”

Great. Just what I wanted. Personalised messages about jeans 24/7.

But it's not just the marketing high and mighty that get tied up in knots and lose their common sense. It's all of us.

One of the biggest areas we lose our common sense in is following marketing platitudes without thinking through whether that advice works for our particular clients and products.

One week we'll hear that USPs are vital. So the founder of a startup with a brand new product leads their marketing with all sorts of technical stuff when instead their potential buyers just need to know what the thing actually does for them.

Or the reverse: we read that it's all about the emotional benefits for customers so we start wobbling on about how buying our hammer will make you feel. 

Or we start making videos for TikTok to attract our corporate clients. Because, well, it's the cool thing these days.

Mea Culpa: I absolutely fall for this. Again and again.

But thankfully, one benefit of spending a bunch of time analysing marketing content on social media is that you see all the nonsense all in one go and it's easier to recognise it for what it is. Platitudes and hype.

So my suggestion for you, said as humbly as I can because I'm not good at it, is that whenever you're about to launch a new bit of marketing, run the rule of common sense over it.

Put yourself in your customer's shoes. Would this make sense to them? Does it talk about what they care about? In language they'd use? On a channel they use regularly? Does it deal with the kind of questions they might actually have about your product?

Those simple questions will help you move past the platitudes.

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#fail – lessons learned from my rubbish launch https://www.ianbrodie.com/fail-lessons-learned-from-my-rubbish-launch/ Fri, 28 Oct 2022 00:38:00 +0000 https://www.ianbrodie.com/?p=2022358 Have you ever got an email from an online marketing expert telling you about how brilliantly their latest launch went and how you should copy their tactics?

This is not one of those emails :)

My recent launch of my email marketing cohort course was, well, pretty much a disaster. But I've learnt a lot from it and I think you might too, so  in a burst of brutal honesty, here's my breakdown…

The backdrop is that my first two cohort courses were a huge success. They sold out within days and I got the best feedback I've ever had for a course, with a Net Promoter Score averaging about 9.9.

So when I launched and got pretty much zero sales in the first couple of days I was shocked to say the least. I even double checked to make sure the checkout was actually working.

Eventually a couple of sales dripped in, but nowhere near what I was expecting. Not even enough to run a proper cohort.

So where did it go wrong?

Mainly complacency I think.

With the first two cohorts selling so well I took that as a sign that there was a lot of demand for the course and that it would sell out again quickly when I opened up for registration. The fact that more people had registered for the wait list than we had room for on the course added to that impression.

What I hadn't thought – but should have – was “maybe those first two courses took up all the pent-up demand. Maybe everyone who really wanted the course right away has already bought it”. And “maybe the people on the wait list just want the info and aren't all going to buy”.

I spoke last week to an online marketing friend I really respect and he told me the same thing had happened to him recently. Hi did a pilot for a new course that sold out almost instantly so when he launched the course he fully expected a flood of sales.

Instead: crickets.

His conclusion was the same as mine: the initial flood of sales wasn't indicative of a big market. It was simply that all the people who really wanted the course bought the pilot straight away and when he launched shortly afterwards there was no urgent demand left.

So that's the first lesson learned: don't make assumptions – check for alternative explanations

Particularly if you're going to make the second mistake I made which was to ease off the accelerator and not really push the launch because I thought it was going to be easy!

Since the first two cohorts had sold so well and I now had some amazing testimonials in the bag I decided I didn't need to build any extra demand for the course and instead put marketing on the back burner.

At the time we were really busy with Kathy's business and we took a couple of weeks vacation too so it was an easy decision to make.

The reality though was that I did need to build much more demand – or I needed to wait until demand had naturally built up.

When I did my post launch survey the #1 reason for not buying by far (3x the next response) was that the timing wasn't right.

This isn't new news of course. It's almost always the case that at any given point it's not the right time for most people. 

What that means is that you either have to build a bigger list (so that a small percentage of people being ready is still a big number) or you have to build that readiness in your nurture process.

I did neither.

And the truth is that I've somewhat neglected listbuilding in the past few years. My natural focus is to spend my time adding value and nurturing relationships with my current subscribers. But you really need to balance that with getting more new ones too.

The survey also told me that the second top reason for not buying was that for many people, email marketing wasn't an important topic for them.

That's a consequence of a mismatch between my lead magnet (the reason people signed up for my list) and what I was trying to sell.

I've always positioned my business as providing a broad range of marketing tips and ideas to consultants, coaches, trainers and the like. And my lead magnets – like my “Value Based Marketing Blueprint” have reflected that.

Email marketing is something I believe almost everyone should do. But it's not specifically what many people signed up to get help with.

So there's always going to be a subset of subscribers who will never buy an email marketing product. Probably a lot more than the survey suggests I think as if you're not interested in email marketing at all you probably won't take the survey either.

The lesson here is that if you're in that situation you either need to accept it and live with the lower demand and potentially offer a range of products covering all the bases people signed up for.

Or if you really do want to focus your services more, you need to refocus everything including your marketing and lead magnet to be directly relevant to your new offerings.

In my case I do want to be more focused. These days I think it's very difficult to stay on top of a broad range of marketing tactics from email to Linkedin to paid advertising. To give real value you need to be a master of what you advise on.

So that means at minimum I need to update my lead magnet to attract more people who might then want to buy an email marketing course. Obvious when you think about it :)

Anyway – this post is pretty long already. So for now, here's a summary of my lessons learned so far:

  1. Don't make assumptions – explore alternative explanations. And above all – don't get complacent.
  2. Balance nurturing your existing contacts with acquiring new ones.
  3. Align your marketing so that you're attracting the kind of people who would likely buy the products you're offering.

(All sounds simple when you summarise it – but believe me, it's easy to get it wrong in the heat of the moment!)  

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The secret of consistency is… https://www.ianbrodie.com/the-secret-of-consistency-is/ Sun, 23 Oct 2022 00:33:00 +0000 https://www.ianbrodie.com/?p=2022352 I'm sure you've heard the phrase “the secret of success is consistency” or something similar. And it's very true. Most important results come from sticking with a task.

But what's the secret of consistency?

In my experience, it's success.

That's not a typo..let me explain.

As I'm sure you know, we humans are driven by immediate gratification. 

Sure, we like to think we can work diligently towards a long-term goal. But experience (and research) tells us that unless we see results quickly we give up.

So the best way of sticking to something isn't to try to rely on willpower. It's to go with our natural tendencies and figure out a way of harnessing the power of instant gratification.

Michelle Segar's research on behaviour change and weight loss, for example, has shown you're far more likely to get people to exercise regularly if you get them to focus on the immediate high they'll feel rather than trying to persuade them it'll be good for them in the long term.

And I've found it's the same in business.

I've built a reputation in the field of email marketing and I've got results because I email regularly.

But I email regularly because when I first started I got immediate small wins: positive feedback on my emails, and the occasional enquiry and sale.

Those successes motivated me to keep going.

And because I kept going I got better. And I got bigger wins.

So I kept going and getting better and getting more wins.

The lesson in this?

If you want to get results and you know that results come from consistency: pick something to do where you can get fast feedback and quick wins.

Don't plough your time into something where you won't know if it's working for months or years. The reality is that you'll give up long before you see any results.

Whether you call it a flywheel or a virtuous circle – early successes lead to keeping going – which leads to more successes which leads to an unbreakable habit.

Then people notice and tell you that consistency leads to success :)

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3 unexpected rules for choosing your marketing https://www.ianbrodie.com/3-unexpected-rules-for-choosing-your-marketing/ Sun, 09 Oct 2022 01:06:00 +0000 https://www.ianbrodie.com/?p=2022307 There are, of course, plenty of different ways of marketing your business (despite certain “experts” telling you theirs is the only way).

The good news is that you can choose which to use.

The bad news is that choosing isn't easy.

But over the years (and a lot of missteps) I've found three simple and somewhat counterintuitive rules that can help you pick the best methods for you.

Rule #1 – do marketing you enjoy (or at least don't hate).

Marketing only works if you do it, and do it consistently.

If you hate making cold calls, making videos or doing presentations then no matter how effective those methods may be, you won't do them consistently enough to get results.

Rule #2 – do marketing that's quick and easy (for you)

This goes against the whole hustle-culture idea that you have to work 18-hour days and devote your life to your business to get meaningful results. I've not found that to be true.

And in particular, the reality is that most of us don't do marketing full-time. So the marketing we do has to be simple and intuitive.

I've found this with software for example. If I'm a regular user it can be pretty complicated but I'll learn the shortcuts and the best ways to use it.

But if I only use it once a week it has to be simple and intuitive, otherwise I'll just get stuck and give up.

It's the same with marketing. I used to use Google Ads and then Facebook Ads a lot. I don't now. So when I log in it's just a confusing mess for me. There's no way I can figure out how to do anything meaningful in the limited time I have available.

On the other hand, posting on Linkedin or writing an email is pretty quick and easy. I can do it without having to re-learn it each time. So I can focus my limited time on the message and the marketing, not on the mechanics of doing it.

Rule #3 – do marketing that whispers rather than shouts

We all know the reality that the vast majority of our customers aren't ready to buy when we first start interacting with them.

Marketing that shouts – aggressive, pushy tactics like cold calls or cold emails or ads and social posts that are straight pitches – may get you a small number of buyers. But it pushes away the much larger number of potential customers who are your long-term future.

And frankly, shouty marketing isn't something that most of us enjoy doing or find easy (see rules 1 & 2).

Marketing that whispers is marketing that adds value, is interesting, and has a gentle sales message.

It's marketing your potential customers will keep paying attention to. It's marketing that will build credibility and trust over time. It's marketing that will be there when they're ready to buy.

A podcast or youtube show does this. Email marketing does this the best.

The marketing you select using these 3 rules probably isn't going to be the latest silver bullet. Or anything cool. But it will work – for you. And that's the important part.

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Self-sustaining growth https://www.ianbrodie.com/self-sustaining-growth/ Sun, 25 Sep 2022 22:46:00 +0000 https://www.ianbrodie.com/?p=2022047 I've been reading Rob Fitzpatrick's “Write Useful Books” while on hols. 

Yeah, I know, super boring. But there are some very obvious applications beyond books for our marketing, our courses and services.

Fitzpatrick has authored two hugely successful books that – very unusually – have grown their sales over time rather than peaking at launch. “Write Useful Books” is about how to do that with your books but the principles apply much more widely.

The “secret” is to get your current readers to regularly recommend the book to others. Obvious really – but there are a few keys to it.

The first key, not surprisingly, is to pack your book with value per page. You need to wow your readers if you want them to recommend your book.

But how many books have you read that are really just a decent article stretched out so that the author could say they'd written a book?

Far too many.

That doesn't serve your audience and it won't get your book recommended.

And the same goes for online courses, or even our live work. Clients are buying the results they get from you and the faster that happens the better. More hours is bad not good.

The next key is to make sure your book (or service or course or lead magnet) provides a clear solution to a problem lots of people ask about.

When do people recommend things? When someone asks for recommendations. Or says they've got a problem.

That means your thing must be ultra-specific. But just being specific isn't enough. 

It needs to answer a question that many people often ask or a problem many of them have and tell people about

It can't be a solution to a problem your clients don't know they have. Or that they won't admit to in public. Or that only a few of them have,

So it takes work.

It takes actually talking to potential clients.

Which is where the third key comes in – I'll talk about that soon.

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Never again https://www.ianbrodie.com/never-again/ Sun, 11 Sep 2022 22:31:00 +0000 https://www.ianbrodie.com/?p=2022040 We're on holiday this week – on a big old ship headed towards Oslo :)

I must admit I had a little too much to drink last night (Kathy would say a lot too much) and I found myself thinking “never again” this morning.

Of course, time passes. Memory fades. And we do it again.

Luckily having a bit of a sore head the next day isn't too big a deal. But the same trick often happens with our marketing.

We get so busy with client work that we just don't do enough to line up our next clients.

Then when our projects end we swing from feast to famine and we have to desperately scrabble around trying to find the next one. Often we end up working on stuff that's maybe not the best use of our skills or the best paid.

And we say to ourselves “never again – next time I'm going to keep marketing even when I'm busy”.

But time passes. Memory fades. And we do it again.

With feast or famine cycles, the impact is much more serious than a sore head.  So it really is worth doing something about.

And it doesn't have to be much.

If you only need a handful of clients each year, a couple of emails and phone calls every week to keep in touch will help.

If you create courses or get clients online, a short article on Linkedin or an email or a bit of “keep in touch” with potential partners who could help promote you will help.

Just a little bit each week will keep things ticking over so you won't find yourself thinking “never again” when you're short of clients.

And if you're in that situation right now where you haven't done any marketing for a while – don't put it off.

Don't nod as you read this email and think “I'll get right on to that…tomorrow”. Do it now.

Send a couple of emails. Get a “crappy first draft” done of that article you've been meaning to write. Jot down a list of 3 people to call tomorrow morning along with what you can talk to them about (that isn't a sales pitch).

As my kids would say “do it…do it…do it”.

It's simple stuff but it makes a big difference.

If only it were so easy when it comes to over-indulging on holiday :)

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Another chance https://www.ianbrodie.com/another-chance/ Sun, 28 Aug 2022 21:52:00 +0000 https://www.ianbrodie.com/?p=2022034 We've been at a wedding this weekend. One of those one-in-a-million British weddings where it's actually sunny :)

The groom was my friend David (of whose stag night I wrote about a few weeks ago). And I can't think of anyone more deserving of another chance at happiness.

It's tempting to think that at a certain point your future is set in stone. But that's just not true. It can be really hard, but anything can be changed.

I gave Twitter a second chance recently. I'd grown very tired of the amount of anger and nonsense on it. But by essentially starting from scratch I've been able to get a feed full of interesting, useful and positive messages.

But more importantly, you can get another chance.

At what?

Anything.

Just because you always used to work with a particular type of client doesn't mean you always have to.

Just because you always used to offer a particular service doesn't mean you always have to.

Just because you always used to use a certain type of marketing doesn't mean you always have to.

You get my drift, I'm sure.

Of course, it's easier to harness skills and contacts and resources you already have. So you might not want to change everything.

But if you change nothing, you're going to get the same results you've always got. And there's a good chance you're going to get bored doing so.

Might a different type of client value your services more? Do you have other skills you've developed you might be able to build a business around (that's how I got into my current business).

One of the reasons new startups often leave established businesses standing is that despite the established business spotting an opportunity, it just feels too different and too risky for them to take.

I see the same thing again and again with individual consultants and coaches who struggle with their marketing.

Instead of rethinking who they're offering their services to, what they're offering and how they market themselves, they look for a silver bullet which will let them plough on down the same furrow but somehow with better success.

It rarely works like that.

Sometimes you find a magic method that lets you do the same things, just more successfully. But not often.

More usually you have to take a chance and do something significantly different. Focus on different clients, different services, different marketing.

A challenge, for sure. But it's how you get another chance at success.

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The most powerful thing you can do in a course https://www.ianbrodie.com/the-most-powerful-thing-you-can-do-in-a-course/ Thu, 25 Aug 2022 23:47:00 +0000 https://www.ianbrodie.com/?p=2022028 About a decade ago I partnered on a webinar with a guy who did Linkedin training, and he did something live that I've never forgotten.

This was back in the day when we thought that appearing high up on searches on Linkedin was something valuable.

So what he did on the webinar was to get people to search for the keywords they wanted to rank for on Linkedin. Then he got them to make a few changes to their profile and search again.

I can still remember the little chat messages coming in:

“OMG!”

“I'm number one!”

“Amazing – thank you”

And it went on and on.

Now I'm not sure that appearing higher up in Linkedin searches was ever all that valuable. But the impact of getting an immediate result in the workshop was a sight to see.

Not surprisingly, he sold a lot of copies of his training program on that webinar.

Normally in training courses or workshops, we give people skills they can use later to get results.

But the impact of getting results inside a workshop is huge. You can just see people become inspired and motivated.

Now the results you give inside a workshop are unlikely to be monetary ones. But, like the immediate improvement in Linkedin search ranking, they can be tangible.

Or they could be mental too. Giving attendees an amazing new insight or breaking down a big barrier for them.

On the Persuasive Email Writing cohort courses I'm running the things that are working best are the idea generators and the email and subject line templates.

Course members who were stuck coming into the workshop can leave with a dozen new ideas for emails. And they can instantly see how to use the templates to shave hours off the time it takes to write them.

Whatever kind of course you do, there are always opportunities for instant results. Take those opportunities early – ideally in the first workshop even if it doesn't naturally flow.

Because if you can get people excited about what they've achieved and what they'll soon be able to do then you've got them hooked. They'll put in the work. They'll get great results and they'll sing your praises.

All because you focused on giving them quick wins.

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Can you get quality AND speed in your marketing? https://www.ianbrodie.com/can-you-get-quality-and-speed-in-your-marketing/ Thu, 04 Aug 2022 23:08:00 +0000 https://www.ianbrodie.com/?p=2022024 I've been struck recently by what seems like a contradiction in the advice given by my interviewees on Course Builders TV.

I get a lot of people saying that the route to success with courses is speed. To get something out quickly in a pilot version to get feedback and progress fast.

And I get a lot of people saying that the route to success is quality – to create a course that's so amazing and delivers such great results that people want to share and spread the word.

They can't both be right, can they?

Well, in some ways they can.

Firstly, quality doesn't necessarily take a lot of time. And it doesn't necessarily mean polished or high-tech or full of fancy features.

For most people, the “quality” of a course is really down to the results they get from it and the experience they have on it.

And it's certainly possible for people to get brilliant results from a minimum viable product version of a course that focuses only on the essentials. In fact for many that's far preferable to a huge course that takes ages to get through but only gets incrementally better results.

When it comes to the experience of the course, don't get trapped into thinking that means it has to be pretty with fancy videos and interactive quizzes and the like. A pilot version of your course that does everything live with a lot of interaction will deliver a great experience in a different way.

In fact, it's important to remember that the people who sign up for a pilot have different expectations to people who buy a mature product.

They're not expecting everything to work perfectly. And one of the reasons they've signed up is the opportunity to interact with you and get feedback.

So the live version will exactly match their definition of quality even if you don't have professionally designed slides and studio-quality video.

It's important to recognise this evolution of your course – and of your buyers.

Your first version will inevitably be a bit scruffy. Might even have gaps you have to plug via Q&A. But it will work for the innovators and early adopters whose primary motivation is early access.

As you begin to market your course more widely you'll get majority and laggard buyers. They'll be a bit more uncertain and want the traditional trappings of quality like a well-designed website, tried and tested exercises to help them learn, proper support and help features.

That means you can move fast and “do it live” in your pilot and the people there will think it's great quality. But you need to evolve the course over time to meet the quality expectations of a broader set of buyers.

But, of course, having done the pilot and early iterations of the course you're in a perfect position to upgrade the quality in that sense – and you should have the money from your pilot sales to enable you to do it!

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John Stuart Mill’s advice…and my night last night https://www.ianbrodie.com/john-stuart-mills-advice-and-my-night-last-night/ Thu, 21 Jul 2022 23:00:00 +0000 https://www.ianbrodie.com/?p=2022020 Last night I was out on that very British of institutions – the stag night. (hence the late post today, ahem).

One thing that always strikes me at events like these is just how much talent, intelligence and capability there is in “normal people”. And how it comes in all shapes and sizes and from all backgrounds.

It's easy to surround yourself with people like you. People with similar educations, similar professions, similar points of view.

It's comfortable. But it's a surefire way to kill off new ideas.

John Stuart Mill said “It's hardly possible to overstate the value, in the present state of human improvement, of placing human beings in contact with other persons dissimilar to themselves, and with modes of thought and action unlike those with which they are familiar. Such communication has always been one of the primary sources of progress.”

He was spot on, in my experience. You learn more from people who are different to you than people who are the same. So it's worthwhile making sure you have that variety in your life.

It could be you get it from a mastermind group you're in. Or a course you take with a lot of diversity in members. Or you might seek out people who are different with interesting ideas and interview them for your podcast.

Whatever method you use, you'll find it's well worth it.

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Being brilliant at marketing is overrated https://www.ianbrodie.com/being-brilliant-at-marketing-is-overrated/ Sun, 17 Jul 2022 22:36:00 +0000 https://www.ianbrodie.com/?p=2022014 When I first started in business it seemed like about 90% of all the advice I got said “you've got to get good at marketing – it's the number one skill”.

Become a brilliant copywriter. Master SEO and content marketing. Excel at conversions. 

I lapped it up.

Perhaps I should have noticed that the people giving the advice all sold marketing training :)

But it seemed to make sense. When you start a business your biggest challenge is getting customers. So surely marketing is the big thing you need to get good at? 

Not necessarily. At least not in my experience.

You reed great results from your marketing. But you don't need to be all that great at marketing to get great results.

If you've got a great product or service and you don’t play in a super-competitive market then frankly, half-decent marketing is all you need.

You don't need the higher-level skills that could squeeze an extra percentage point of conversion from an already hyper-optimised landing page. You just need the basics that your competitors probably haven't got.

Improving from 90% to 95% is really hard and needs world-class skills. It's worth it for a business doing millions in a competitive market.

Improving from 20% (where most small businesses are likely to be if they're lucky) to 60% is way easier. But relatively speaking it has a much bigger impact on your business.

And often you can do it based on simple principles and using templates and examples that have worked time and time again.

Templates and examples alone will never get you to 95%. But they'll get you to 60% or 70% which is all you need.

People trying to sell you marketing training are biased – and usually they can't see it.  They live in the ultra-competitive world of marketing services so they tend to assume that all markets need the same level of sophistication and skill.

They don't.

Whenever you're looking to get better results from your marketing, sanity check the advice you're getting. Does it apply to your particular market? Or is it calling for you to reach a level of mastery that just isn't needed (and would take far too long anyway)

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Your biggest challenge when selling your online course is this https://www.ianbrodie.com/your-biggest-challenge-when-selling-your-online-course-is-this/ Wed, 13 Jul 2022 22:33:00 +0000 https://www.ianbrodie.com/?p=2022007 Years ago in his book The Ultimate Sales Machine, Chet Holmes shared what he called the “Stadium Pitch”.

It perfectly illustrates the biggest problem you're likely to face when you're trying to sell your course.

Holmes asked his readers to imagine they had a chance to go on stage at a stadium filled with people who fitted their ideal client profile.

The big question: what would they say? What would their “stadium pitch” be?

He went on to say that most salespeople and business owners would try to sell their product to that audience. They'd talk about the benefits, pre-empt objections and make a great offer.

The huge problem though is that even if the stadium is filled with people who fit your ideal client profile, very few of them would be ready to buy at that point in time. 

Holmes suggested that:

  • Something like 3% of people are actively looking to buy at any given time.
  • A further 7% aren't looking but would be open to it
  • 30% of people aren't thinking about it at all
  • 30% of people think they're not interested (but could maybe be persuaded otherwise)
  • 30% of people know they're not interested

Of course, the numbers will vary business to business. But the point is the vast majority of people just won't be actively in the market for whatever you're selling at any point in time.

So if you try to hard sell them, you might get that 3% to buy and maybe even some of the 7%. But you're losing everyone else – including maybe 60% of people who could well buy – but just not right now.

That's why if you do a “stadium pitch” you need to talk about something that the 7% and the 30% and the 30% are interested in hearing about – not just the 3%. Then you keep the dialogue going until the time is right for them.

That's how you convert a high percentage of your potential clients into buyers – not just the fraction who are ready when you first start speaking to them.

Sound familiar?

I'm sure it won't have escaped your attention that this is exactly the strategy you follow with email marketing.

Attract everyone who could be a buyer with a valuable lead magnet. Then nurture your relationship with them until they're ready to buy with useful, interesting emails.

Of course, that's easier said than done.

You have to come up with great topics to write about consistently. You have to know what it will take to get people ready to buy. And you have to write so that people will open your emails, read them and take action.

But that's why you read these posts :)

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The Greeks knew this truth about persuasion https://www.ianbrodie.com/the-greeks-knew-this-truth-about-persuasion/ Sun, 03 Jul 2022 22:17:00 +0000 https://www.ianbrodie.com/?p=2022003 These days our idea of persuasion is to ramp up scarcity, throw in a deadline and a bunch of testimonialy social proof.

But the ancient Greeks had very different ideas.

In Aristotle's Rhetoric, he identified the three cornerstones of persuasion: logos, pathos and ethos.

Logos is persuasion through rational argument. In our case that primarily means demonstrating the benefits our potential clients will get if they buy our products or services. But it can also be the “logical” answer to objections they might have or other reasons why this makes sense for them.

Pathos is persuasion through the emotions of the hearer. For example, tying the benefits they'll get to a deep seated desire or inciting pride in the improvements they'll see. Or perhaps anger that they're not getting what they deserve, or envy that others are.

Ethos is persuasion through the character of the speaker. In our world it's about whether they trust you to deliver for them and whether they have confidence in your capabilities.

I'm going to suggest that the Greeks were on to something.

Psychological nudges can get people off the fence. They can even drive the whole decision for low-cost products where the stakes aren't all that high.

But for something big and important it's different.

Unless someone sees the benefit they'll get from your product, really feels what a difference it will make to them, and trusts you to deliver: all the deadlines, scarcity and social proof in the world aren't going to get them to stump up a small fortune to buy.

Psychological nudges are great and can make a real difference. But get your logos, ethos and pathos right first.

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What will it take for someone to buy your course? https://www.ianbrodie.com/what-will-it-take-for-someone-to-buy-your-course/ Fri, 01 Jul 2022 22:16:00 +0000 https://www.ianbrodie.com/?p=2021999 How do you get someone to buy your course?

Well, think about what it takes for you to buy something yourself. There are always a set of beliefs you need to have before you'll be ready.

You've got to feel like you need it for a start. It solves an important problem or helps you achieve a big goal (or meets some big psychological desire you have).

And for something like a course, you need to believe that it actually works and that you'll be able to implement what you learn successfully.

There are also some less obvious beliefs you need.

For example, one of the biggest reasons people don't buy courses is inertia. A hope that if they just do what they're currently doing a bit harder and a bit better they'll get what they want and won't need to change much.

So a belief that's needed before someone will buy is “I won't achieve my goals (or solve my problem) just by doing what I'm currently doing (or making small changes)”.

Another issue is that for most problems, they'll most likely have tried a few times to solve it before – without success. So for them to buy they need to believe that the approach you're teaching in your course is different to what they've already tried.

It also has to feel right to them. They have to believe that what you teach (and you yourself) are a good fit for them and their values and the way they like to do things.

For example, someone who sees themselves as honest and trustworthy won't feel comfortable learning from an SEO course that's full of “black hat” techniques – even if they work.

The final “big belief” is that now is the right time to do this. If you don't have this belief in place they'll be ready to buy, but put it off (and maybe never come back to it).

The thing is, these beliefs don't just magically appear in people's heads. They get there because of their experience – and because of your marketing.

If you want people to buy your course you have to get them to believe they need it, that your course works, that they'll be able to implement what they learn, that it's something new, that it's a fit for them, and that the time is right.

And you need to do that while adding value and keeping things interesting so they don't “tune out”.

If that sounds like a lot of work, it can be. But it's nowhere near as much work as trying to get people to buy if they don't have these beliefs.

More on how to establish them in upcoming posts.

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What I love about teaching https://www.ianbrodie.com/what-i-love-about-teaching/ Wed, 29 Jun 2022 22:01:00 +0000 https://www.ianbrodie.com/?p=2021984 I've been working really hard over the last couple of weeks.

Scratch that.

I've been thinking really hard over the last couple of weeks.

I'm turning my experience and insights from the last decade or so of writing emails that people find interesting and useful into a course.

And the trickiest part of that is figuring out how to get across those ideas and techniques in ways that people can learn from and actually use day in, day out.

When you're using those techniques in your own business you tend not to think about them. And if someone asks you a question it's usually fairly easy to answer based on something you've done before.

But when you have to explain something in a course you really have to understand it.

Even in the last week or so, the process of writing down my approach to building credibility and trust through email has given me deeper insight into what works and what doesn't – and why.

Sitting down, concentrating for long periods, drawing up models and frameworks and reworking them until they're right is genuinely hard work.

But I also feel great afterwards. Like I've really mastered the topic rather than just being pretty good.

This is one of the big side-benefits of teaching what you know. It forces you to develop a deeper understanding and to be better at your craft.

I don't think it's ever going to be your main motivation for creating a course. That's usually the ability to reach more people, to decouple your time from your income and to build an asset that's not purely dependent on you.

But it's a really nice bonus. And it's a benefit you get as you create the course not just afterwards after you've sold it.

And hopefully you'll see the benefit of it too in my upcoming emails :)

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Ditch the tricks…do this instead https://www.ianbrodie.com/ditch-the-tricksdo-this-instead/ Sun, 26 Jun 2022 22:03:00 +0000 https://www.ianbrodie.com/?p=2021988 I’ve been doing a lot of reflecting on what makes for successful email marketing over the long term.

Not the “hustle a bunch of sales from new subscribers” type of success that a lot of experts and courses seem to focus on. But instead, how do you build the long-term trust and credibility needed for someone to be ready to buy something big and important.

And it’s struck me just how much advice in marketing these days is based on “tricks”. Psychological techniques borrowed from Cialdini, Kahneman, Sherman, Ariely and others.

There’s no doubt that reciprocity, scarcity, urgency, social proof and all those other persuasion techniques do work. But they tend to amplify motivations, not generate them out of thin air.

If someone is seriously considering buying your product then a little deadline can push them over the edge.

But if they think your product is worthless, no amount of social proof, scarcity or urgency is going to get them to buy. In fact, it’s more likely to annoy them and push them further away from you.

So when it comes to writing interesting and engaging emails, for example, the answer isn’t to start with a boring topic and sprinkle on clever writing techniques.

It’s to start with a topic your audience is actually interested in.

Tricks and techniques can help amplify that and make it even more interesting. But the key is to start by understanding what your audience actually cares about and to write about that.

Similarly, the key to persuasion is to start by understanding what your audience actually wants and to show them how your offer gives it to them.

Start with the fundamentals, then add on the cleverness (if it’s needed at all).

But tricks and techniques with no substance behind them just don’t last.

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Could you thrive in a non-traditional niche? https://www.ianbrodie.com/could-you-thrive-in-a-non-traditional-niche/ Fri, 24 Jun 2022 22:14:00 +0000 https://www.ianbrodie.com/?p=2021993 One of the biggest impacts the net has had on business – in my view anyway – is the opening up of non-traditional niches.

What I mean by that is that in the past your client focus was very much defined by practical aspects of who you could reach.

  • Unless you were very big, you could usually only reach local or at best national clients.
  • Unless you lived in a big city, you had to focus on a relatively general niche to make sure there were enough of them near you.
  • You almost always had to focus on niches with “externally visible identifying characteristics”. In other words in order to be able to reach them with your marketing they had to work in an industry or a job function or be part of a demographic you could target.

That's all changed today.

While traditional marketing still works, of course, we now have other ways of reaching people.

Online advertising is so cheap (relatively) and the algorithms are so smart that you can put out ads to a broader audience and let the algorithm figure out who responds best to it.

You don't need to know in advance if it's people from a certain industry or with certain demographics or job titles. The algorithm can pick out common characteristics you couldn't possibly know.

Or (my favourite strategy) you can become a beacon that attracts the right sort of people for you.

You can't find “people who want to become scriptwriters” using traditional marketing targeting. But Lucy V Hay built a big following by publishing incredibly valuable resources for budding authors and scriptwriters and they found her

You can't find “people who want to learn Airtable to automate their business” using traditional marketing targeting. But Gareth Pronovost built a hugely helpful YouTube channel teaching Airtable and potential customers for his courses found him.

Create valuable content for the people you want as clients (no matter how weirdly and non-traditionally they're defined) and they will find you – as long as you actively promote your content.

And it means you don't have to lock yourself into the boring old industry/job description/demographic niche model we were stuck with in the past.

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Why you must “keep the ball” in marketing https://www.ianbrodie.com/why-you-must-keep-the-ball-in-marketing/ Sun, 19 Jun 2022 21:58:00 +0000 https://www.ianbrodie.com/?p=2021979 Oh no…the football analogies continue…

Last week I talked about how your sales are more dependent on how often you manage to build the trust and credibility needed for people to be ready to buy than on how good you are at the final step of selling.

(Like the way a football team's goals are more dependent on how often and how well they get the ball into danger zones on the pitch than they are on their shooting ability).

There's another related football analogy that's important here too.

I can't source the quote exactly (I had in my mind that it was Johan Cruyff from his groundbreaking work at Barcelona but it seems not) but you may well have heard some variation of:

“If we've got the ball, it means the opponent can't score”.

It's real back to basics, but it's true. None of that fancy stuff about getting into danger zones means anything if you haven't got the ball.

In marketing, keeping the ball means keeping the attention of your audience.

You can't build credibility and trust and get people ready to buy if you've lost their attention. If they're no longer listening to you.

I don't just mean people actively disconnecting – unsubscribing from your emails for example. Far more common is people staying subscribed but just not opening or reading any more.

In fact, your main issue isn't upsetting people so they unsubscribe, it's boring them so they drift off without unsubscribing.

It's particularly vital if you sell something big with a long sales cycle. You need people to keep paying attention over a long period of time so you're there and front of mind when they're ready to buy.

And unlike football, if you lose attention, it's rare you get it back.

It would be fantastic if there were marketing equivalents of ball-wining midfielders and hard-tackling defenders to get attention back once you'd lost it. But that's rarely the case.

Instead your best option is to make sure every email or piece of marketing you send is valuable or interesting – ideally both.

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You have the power of choice https://www.ianbrodie.com/you-have-the-power-of-choice/ Wed, 15 Jun 2022 21:54:00 +0000 https://www.ianbrodie.com/?p=2021974 In my last post on building online courses I suggested that it’s vital to understand what your clients really want from your course. And in particular, whether their goal is learning or results,

Self evidently, those two different motivations lead to two very different types of course.

But it’s also worth remembering that real life is a little bit more complex than people who want to learn vs people who want to get results.

In fact, life is a lot more complex than any simple marketing model that suggests “all” your customers behave a single way.

The reality is that in your market there will be some people who want to learn and some who just want results. Just like there will be some people who are ready to buy and some who need nurturing. Or some who prefer to interact online and some who prefer face to face.

And the wonderful thing is that unless you're a giant multination that needs a huge customer base, you can choose which segment to go for.

There may be a lot more people who want results vs want to learn – but that doesn't matter. What matters is whether there are enough of the people you want to work with to give you a great business.

If you're a small business and you have the ability to reach people online, that's almost always the case.

Back when business was constrained by our ability to see people face to face, most of us were forced to gear up our services to cater for the most common type of customer. The exception being businesses based in big cities where there were plenty of every type of customer.

Now, thanks to our ability to reach people around the globe, it's like we all live in big cities. We can focus on much smaller niches and still have easily enough prospects for a thriving business.

And those niches don't have to be the traditional ones defined by industry or demographics. They can be defined by the type of people we want to work with. As long as we can find a way to reach them or get visible so they can reach us.

I'll give some examples of how course builders are doing that in my next post.

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The “build up play” you need to win clients https://www.ianbrodie.com/the-build-up-play-you-need-to-win-clients/ Sun, 12 Jun 2022 21:52:00 +0000 https://www.ianbrodie.com/?p=2021970 Apologies to those of you who aren't football (soccer) fans, but I'm going to overuse an analogy that's been front of mind for me all week.

When most people talk about marketing, they tend to focus on the very last step.

The sexy bits. The sales page that gets people to buy. The email they click on to go to the checkout. The social media post that leads to a sale.

But I think that focus is a bit misplaced.

In football we're (usually) a bit more sophisticated. We know the objective at any point in time is to score a goal. And we know we can only score if we take a shot.

But that doesn't mean we should shoot every time we get the ball. Far from it.

Instead, we know we have to get the ball up the pitch and into a danger zone where a shot is much more likely to result in a goal. And that's where coaches put most of their attention.

Get the ball into a dangerous position in the opponents' penalty area often enough and you will score. Even if you don't have the greatest strikers in the world. 

I believe the same thing applies in marketing. In other words, rather than focusing only on the final step that leads to a sale, we should focus primarily on the steps beforehand that get your clients ready to buy.

Nurture your relationships so that clients understand their problems and impact. Show you understand them and have a unique solution that will work for them. Give them confidence they will succeed with you.

Do that often enough and you will win clients, even if you're not the greatest marketer in the world or your sales pages and emails are a bit basic.

Winning clients is 80% about the build-up play.

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Who really wants to learn? https://www.ianbrodie.com/who-really-wants-to-learn/ Wed, 08 Jun 2022 21:50:00 +0000 https://www.ianbrodie.com/?p=2021965 One of the things I've found it's vital to understand is what your course buyers really want.

In particular, do they want to learn a skill (which enables them to do something)? Or do they just want the end result and don't care about the skill?

It's a really important difference – and one it's easy to get wrong.

I personally love to learn new things. I want to become skilled at things that are important to my business.

So it's easy for me to fall into the trap of assuming everyone thinks that way.

But most people are rather more pragmatic when it comes to learning. In particular, the thing you teach might not be core to them, even if the result is important.

And if it's something they won't have to do frequently, they're going to lose those skills fast anyway.

That means they'll want to learn as little as possible in order to get the result they're looking for. Not all the niceties and clever tweaks and subtleties you might love, want to explore and want to teach.

So what they're looking for in a course is very different from someone who wants to become skilled in that area. They need two very different courses.

In fact, thinking outside the box a bit and really focusing on what that customer wants, the course might not actually look very course-like at all.

It might actually be mainly templates and examples they can use with some guidelines on how to adapt them to their own situation.

Something that will get them to “good enough” very quickly without having to go through a big learning curve.

Have you thought through what your customers really want from your courses?

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3 things I (re-)learned this week https://www.ianbrodie.com/3-things-i-re-learned-this-week/ Sun, 05 Jun 2022 21:48:00 +0000 https://www.ianbrodie.com/?p=2021960 I've started my Maven Course Accelerator program this week alongside a bunch of talented and very interesting people. From startup founders to singing coaches.

3 things I learned (or in some cases, I'd forgotten and re-learned) you might find useful:

  • Having an external drumbeat to push you to make progress is really helpful – always more so than you realise

    Of course, I know this to be true from experience and from running my own programs. But yet again I was surprised by it :)

    There were steps I took this week to progress my cohort course, exercises I did and things I thought about that I could easily have done myself weeks ago – but didn't.

    The drumbeat of a program with a fixed schedule where we're expected to complete tasks on time made it happen.
  • No matter how different people seem on a course there's always a lot to learn from them

    I had a brilliant idea in one of the working sessions that only I could possibly have thought of. 3 other people had the same idea :)

    More importantly, I got 2 other good ideas I wouldn't have thought of myself just by listening and paying attention to what others were doing.
  • Restrictions set you free

    I'm the kind of person who takes pride in having the absolute best version of everything: landing pages, email formats, the right font size for readability, everything…

    As a result, I'll spend way too much time researching and tweaking things that make very little difference in the grand scheme of things.

    Maven is very templated. You just don't get those options. In this early beta version you can't even change the font.

    And while in some ways that drives me crazy, it also saves me a ton of time. Time I can focus on more important things that have a bigger impact.

Trying something new and pushing yourself a little bit (in my case with the pace of doing this while I have so much other stuff on) always results in learning.

I don't do it often enough, but just reflecting on that learning every week helps to consolidate it and make sure you take action on it.

What have you learned this week?

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Your success relies on their success https://www.ianbrodie.com/your-success-relies-on-their-success/ Thu, 02 Jun 2022 23:01:00 +0000 https://www.ianbrodie.com/?p=2021935 I've been thinking a lot about the success of your course members recently.

As I mentioned last week, I've been selected to pilot the new maven.com platform for cohort based courses and I'm going to run my planned “Persuasive Email Writing System” course through it.

At the onboarding this week it was interesting to reflect on how much emphasis they were putting on student success. Right from the use of cohorts, the community mechanisms to get them engaged, and the built in use of net promoter score at the end.

Of course, everyone wants their students to succeed.

But I think we often underestimate just how powerful having successful enthusiastic students can be.

Marketing is getting increasingly difficult. It's noisy. Advertising costs have shot up and results have got worse.

But the highest impact route to new clients: word of mouth from happy customers, is still as powerful as it's always been.

Especially in areas where potential customers are unsure whether the course will work for them. They're going to be looking to see whether it's worked for others like them.

That's where enthusiastic testimonials and people who willingly spread the word become so powerful.

That enthusiasm comes from both getting great results from your course, but also having a great experience.

Feeling part of a community. Of something bigger. Of being noticed. And heard.

If you want people to proactively refer you to others you've got to spark those feelings. And most of that comes from the way you work with your students through your program, not just the content itself.

When you're designing your course, don't just ask yourself how you can ensure your students get results. Ask yourself how you can make sure they have an amazing experience.

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Story prompts to speed up content https://www.ianbrodie.com/story-prompts-to-speed-up-content/ Tue, 31 May 2022 22:52:00 +0000 https://www.ianbrodie.com/?p=2021915 One of the biggest killers of productivity in marketing, for me at least, is struggling for ideas.

It's difficult to be prolific if most of your time is spent staring at a blank screen.

I've mentioned before I started using the “zettelkasten” method of note-taking to make sure I always have a good base of ideas to write about. But sometimes I get stuck knowing how to illustrate those ideas in a non-boring way.

In other words, what story am I going to use?

Here's where story-prompts come in helpful. Little triggers to stimulate your creativity.

The ones that work best for me are often time based. I've used similar ones when I've run “writing challenges” for Momentum club members.

All I do is ask myself about an interesting thing that happened at various times in my life.

For example, a story my parents told about me as a very young child (with a lesson for today).

Or something painful/fun/weird that happened to me as a teenager (with a lesson for today).

Or when I hit a problem early on in my career and what I learned from it.

Or when I was riding high later in my career but found out I wasn't brilliant at everything.

Or a piece of wisdom I've learned through the benefit of age and experience.

Or something that happened yesterday that made me angry/happy/confused.

Or something that's just happened right now.

For example, a very good friend of mine told me that yesterday he'd just written an article for marketing purposes when the tool he was using blew up and lost it.

Undaunted he got his head down and wrote an article about how his system had blown up and lost his work – and how a stoic mindset helped him get refocused quickly rather than wallowing in anger and self-pity.

Your long term past and your immediate experiences are rich seams for mining stories. You can go through the list of timeframes I've just shared almost like a checklist and use it to trigger ideas for stories to illustrate a business point.

Or if you've got a particular topic in mind (e.g. that you've been exploring in your Zettelkasten) then you can run through them thinking “is there a story from my early work years that illustrates this topic? etc”

It doesn't work 100% of the time. Nothing does.

But I'd say at least 80% of the time it triggers ideas for a good, interesting piece of content. Often more than one, so you can “bank” the idea to use later.

It gets you productive fast rather than being stuck staring at that white screen of frustration.

– Ian

PS as you can probably guess, today's post was inspired by the last of the timeframes. Me being short of ideas and thinking “what can I say about what's happening to me right now?”

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Fast feedback is today’s key to all your marketing https://www.ianbrodie.com/fast-feedback-is-todays-key-to-all-your-marketing/ Wed, 25 May 2022 22:59:00 +0000 https://www.ianbrodie.com/?p=2021931 If there's one thing that I've learned from creating multiple online courses over the last decade or so it's the power of fast feedback.

That's been amplified by what I've heard from the successful course builders I've interviewed recently.

You see it in the idea of pre-selling your course. And in piloting it once sold. The faster you get feedback on whether it's a good idea or whether the course is working, the faster you can adjust.

But it's much more than that. It's a different way of working, and it applies to so many different aspects of marketing and business.

Back in the day, the “right” way to create a course would be to do a ton of research, think about it deeply, create a detailed specification, build a brilliant course and then go big on your launch to ensure your success.

Except often it wasn't a success. Or at least anywhere near what you'd hoped.

Often the topic of the course wasn't the right one to inspire your audience. Or it just wasn't the right format. Or you were selling it to the wrong people. Or any one of a host of reasons you can only really find out by trying things in the real world.

Today a lot has changed which makes fast feedback much more possible.

You can reach a warm audience much easier. People are much more willing to take part in pilots and tests. The technology means you can quickly knock up a half decent version of a course and polish it later. You can get instant feedback and work with people on live video calls.

But fast feedback isn't just about the course itself.

How do you know what topic to focus on?

In the past you'd have picked a problem you thought was a big issue. Or if you were lucky, one that clients had told you was important to them.

Today you can start publishing content about a handful of problems on Linkedin or Twitter or Medium or email or whichever media reaches your audience. You can see which one really clicks with them and gets them engaged.

You can double down on it and go deeper. You can interact with them to see which aspects are important to them.

And then you can punt a potential course on that topic.

You can find out in days what might have taken you months or longer in the past. And that takes the guesswork out of creating courses – and so much of your marketing too.

And it gives you confidence too. You don't have to spend months squirrelling away in the background on your masterwork hoping that when it sees the light of day it'll be what people want. 

You can build in public and make sure it is.

Don't market in the dark. Test different options. See which works. Go deeper.

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Marketing you hate just doesn’t work https://www.ianbrodie.com/marketing-you-hate-just-doesnt-work/ Sun, 22 May 2022 22:55:00 +0000 https://www.ianbrodie.com/?p=2021926 One of the things I really enjoy doing is exploring research and ideas that are a little outside mainstream marketing – and then seeing if they can be applied back in my world.

It was through that exploration I bumped into the work of Michelle Segar – a researcher into sustainable behaviour change in the areas of health and exercise.

Segar's contention – backed by a ton of research and experience over the last 30 years – is that trying to motivate people to lose weight and exercise to improve their health just doesn't work.

It's too focused on a potential future benefit rather than immediate gratification. And too often it gives people yet another thing to try to cram into their busy lives.

It sounds a lot like trying to motivate people to do regular marketing like writing emails or following up with contacts.

The benefit of more clients happens in the future, and is far from certain. And it's yet another thing that you have to cram into a busy workday.

Segar's work has shown that it's better to get people to focus on the immediate gratification they'll get from exercise – for example feeling better and less stressed – rather than the long-term gains.

And if you can show them how exercise gives them more energy which makes all the other things they've got to do much easier, you're on to a winner.

But I think most importantly when it comes to marketing, Segar's research showed that it's much better to allow people to do the imperfect exercise they enjoy rather than the perfect one they hate. And to allow them to find that exercise they enjoy themselves.

In marketing (and business generally) there's way too much “this is the best way to do things” advice.

Often it's done with the best of intentions. Sometimes it's done to sell you a shiny new toy or course.

But none of it is done with the realisation that the only marketing that works is marketing you actually do, and do regularly.

So if you enjoy the third best or the seventh best or second worst way of marketing and you'll keep at it – that could well be the “best” marketing for you.

At least for now.

Segar's research has also shown that starting with a small good habit you can do often leads to taking on something bigger and enjoying that too.

And if you don't enjoy any marketing?

Keep trying different approaches until you find one you do. Or think creatively about how to make something you do enjoy work from a marketing perspective.

Remember at the start I said “One of the things I really enjoy doing is exploring research and ideas that are a little outside mainstream marketing”?

Emails like this and similar content I create are my way of turning that thing I enjoy doing into something that works from a marketing perspective for me.

There will be something you can find for you too.

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A great way to pick your course topic https://www.ianbrodie.com/a-great-way-to-pick-your-course-topic/ Fri, 20 May 2022 22:53:00 +0000 https://www.ianbrodie.com/?p=2021921 I just finished a great interview with productivity and time-management expert Alexis Haselberger for Course Builders TV.

We were talking about how to pick the best topic for your online course and Alexis made one of those points that seems so obviously right in hindsight that you wish you'd come up with it yourself!

Most advice on picking your topic is a variation on the theme of picking a big problem your clients typically have. Ideally an urgent one with significant financial impact they'd be willing to pay to get rid of.

But what Alexis pointed out was that for an online course, the problem also has to be one they can fix themselves.

If you think about the work you do with clients there are some problems where, once they know what the issue is, you can just say “go do this”. Those sorts of problems are good topics for online courses.

But there are other problems where you need to delve deeper with a client to diagnose things. Or give them regular feedback to help them course-correct. Or where they may need lots of personal support and motivation.

Those aren't such good areas for online courses.

Now obviously some online courses include an element of group coaching too, or the occasional one-to-one call. So the rule isn't a hard and fast one.

But generally speaking it's a very good criteria to use. Just ask yourself “if I told my client what to do in this area, would they be able to just get on with it and get great results by themselves?”.

If so you may be on to a winner.

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Wow your audience with pinpoint precision https://www.ianbrodie.com/wow-your-audience-with-pinpoint-precision/ Wed, 18 May 2022 22:49:00 +0000 https://www.ianbrodie.com/?p=2021908 A final way of getting a “wow” from your audience for your course is pinpoint precision.

In other words if they see your course as the absolute perfect fit for their very specific problem. The final piece in the jigsaw.

Here's the thing though. Every would-be marketing guru will repeat the standard advice that you need an ultra-specific niche. “An inch wide and a mile deep” is the mantra.

You want to be the perfect solution for someone, not the second best for everyone. But your common sense also tells you if you go too narrow you shrink your market.

In the real world you need to do both. You have to maximise the benefits of narrowing down but avoid reaching the point where you stop benefitting from it.

How do you find that point? Ask yourself 3 questions:

  1. By focusing on this specific area, will customers feel the course will be better for them? Are there specific problems and challenges they face in this area that the course can focus on?

    For example, my guess is that lawyers would feel that because of their client relationships and legal restrictions, a marketing course for lawyers will be more useful to them than a more general one. On the other hand they probably wouldn't see any particular value in a course on Excel skills for lawyers.
  2. By focusing on this specific area, will it reduce the amount of work you have to do creating or marketing the course?

    For example, a course on marketing for corporate lawyers could focus on relationship building with senior executives rather than on more general broad brush marketing and advertising – giving a major reduction in the amount of training material needed. And by marketing the course only to law firms with significant corporate law practices you can use more direct, high value approaches and avoid wasting time and money on more general marketing.
  3. Do the increased attractiveness of the course and decreased amount of work needed to create it outweigh any reduction in market size?

    You have to think realistically here. If, for example, you do hybrid courses with a significant live component then you'll have limited capacity. So a decrease in potential market size from a million to half a million won't make any difference to you as both are exponentially bigger than you need. On the other hand, if you do low-cost self service courses then a big reduction in market size for a small increase in the attractiveness of the course might not be worth it.

At the end of the day, it's a judgement call and relies on your knowledge of your customers and course. But asking yourself those three questions means you'll be making an informed decision, not just picking a focus for your course because you hope everyone will buy it or just following generic advice to narrow down.

And the thought process you go through to make that decision will also help you make a better course.

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Wow your audience with a brand new promise https://www.ianbrodie.com/wow-your-audience-with-a-brand-new-promise/ Wed, 11 May 2022 22:45:00 +0000 https://www.ianbrodie.com/?p=2021901 The second way of getting a “wow” from your audience when you announce your course is to make a brand new promise.

And obviously, it needs to be incredibly attractive promise to them to get that “wow”.

Now the reality is that today, all the big promises have been made.

Get rich, lose weight, meet your ideal partner, get more clients.

No one is going to go “wow” if you just repeat one of these old, worn-out promises unless they've been living under a rock for the last few decades.

So there needs to be a (truthful) twist on the promise.

One way to do that is with a “without clause”.

That's where you enhance the promise by removing something they don't want that normally comes with it.

Lose weight without diets. More clients without endless posting on social media.

It has to be true of course. You have to be able to deliver on that promise.

But if you can it can be very powerful…

…provided they've not heard the exact same promise before.

In some markets a simple “without clause” will sound brand new. In others – like marketing for example – it's probably already been done countless times.

Getting more clients even if you hate marketing, if you have no time, if you're an introvert…all done many times before.

So it's trickier in mature markets. But not impossible.

I've been around the block more than a few times, but Jon Buchan's big promise of teaching you to write cold emails so engaging and charming that people would enjoy and appreciate getting them was new to me. And I did indeed go “wow” and buy the course.

Another way of getting a wow from your promise is to pick a smaller but highly unusual promise.

I bought a course a while back on being 10x more productive with my writing.

That's not a big end-result promise like more clients. But in a mature market where there are lots of people who know that being 10x more productive with their writing will bring them big results, it works.

Another course I bought recently was on running mini-workshops. The promise was to teach you how to set up and sell a lot of places on low-cost live online workshops which would eventually lead to more high value clients.

It was an unusual offer I'd not seen before and to convince me to buy they needed to convince me that mini workshops would be easier to sell than something high ticket…but could lead fairly quickly to those mini workshop attendees buying something bigger.

They did.

That's the trick with a smaller but highly unusual promise. By definition it's something no one else is offering. But to get a wow you need to show people how it can give them something big in terms of end results.

That sudden “hang on, I've never considered this before but blimey, this could absolutely get me what I want” realisation is amazingly powerful and a big driver of sales.

It needs you to think through “what can I promise that's different, but that leads to a big result (and that I can prove leads to that result)”.

It needs a bit of creativity. But it can really pay off.

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The drumbeat of productivity https://www.ianbrodie.com/the-drumbeat-of-productivity/ Sun, 08 May 2022 22:42:00 +0000 https://www.ianbrodie.com/?p=2021894

One of the things I learnt when managing big engagements back when I worked in corporate consulting was the importance of establishing a “drumbeat” for the project.

A weekly progress meeting with each of my teams. A 5-minute daily “standup” to get focused and motivated for the day. A monthly or quarterly offsite to look at bigger issues and make sure everyone was headed in the same direction.

It's the same now I'm working on my own. I think everyone needs that sense of momentum and rhythm.

Personally, I do all my big plans in quarters. Building a new course. Trying out a new marketing method.

You can get a lot done in a quarter if you focus on it. Give yourself a year and you tend to put it off. Give yourself just a month and it's difficult to get anything big done.

A quarter is just right. For me at least.

Weekly is where the action really happens. Taking the big priorities for the quarter and planning what I'm actually going to get done this week. Then allocating out big tasks per day.

It's also where I reflect on what happened last week. Did I get all the big tasks done? Did I manage to exercise every weekday? Did I manage to learn something and create something every day?

I covered daily planning last week and how I use it to keep my big priorities front of mind to ward off distractions.

It's the weekly planning that makes sure I have those priorities right and everything is headed towards achieving the overall plans.

I suppose that all sounds very logical and structured. In practice it's not quite so organised.

I'm a late riser and a night owl, so “morning planning” tends to happen at some random time after 10am.

And some days I'll wake up with something big on my mind and start on that straight away rather than starting with planning the day. Not surprisingly on those days I tend to get less done overall. 

That urge to “jump in” and do something straight away is sometimes overwhelming even though I know I'll be less productive overall.

But the important thing is I manage to keep on track 80% of the time. And not only does that mean I tend to be quite productive, it also makes me feel good too. 

There's a real sense of forward momentum towards big achievements rather than just having “done some stuff” each day.

And that sense of progress makes it even more likely that the next day I'll make progress too. Then the next.

Sometimes that psychological side is the most important part of being productive.

– Ian

PS did you know that Top Cat was called Boss Cat when they showed it on the BBC in the 60s and 70s because we had a brand of cat food over here called Top Cat?

Only the title changed though – he was still TC in the show itself.

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How to become a “wow” person fast https://www.ianbrodie.com/how-to-become-a-wow-person-fast/ Fri, 06 May 2022 22:38:00 +0000 https://www.ianbrodie.com/?p=2021886 I said last time that one way to get your potential customers excited at the prospect of buying your course is if it's delivered by someone who gets them to think “Wow! I'd really like to learn from them”.

You don't have to be famous to get this wow effect. You don't even need to have built up a relationship with them for years like the example of Steve Folland I shared last time.

What matters is that they believe you have unique insights that will help them, and they feel they know you and like you.

A great way to do that is to consistently add value over time in emails like this or a podcast show like Steve's.

But you can accelerate the process too.

You have to draw a balance between adding lots of value and building a relationship fast with the people who are ready, and overwhelming the people who aren't. But thanks to a bit of tech cleverness it's all doable.

For example, on the “thank you” page people get to after they sign up for your emails you can offer them a one-click signup for an upcoming webinar or a series of videos.

In that webinar or video series they can see and hear you which accelerates your relationship. And if you pack it with some of your best and most surprising insights it'll build your credibility fast too.

And since they have to click a button to sign up for it, only the people who are ready will get it and you won't overwhelm the people who aren't.

You can do the same with your early emails after someone signs up.

I always send more frequent emails after someone has just signed up under the logic that the reason they signed up was because they're actively interested right now. So it's unlikely you'll be overwhelming them.

But you can take it one step further. If you have a lot of ideas to share in one area, put a link at the bottom of the email which they can click to get more content. And ideally make that content video based so they can see and hear you to build your relationship faster (though a comprehensive article can work too).

Just to clarify: I'm not saying the only thing in your email is the link.

I'm saying put in a great tip or idea like normal (for your typical subscriber) and then have a link to bonus content for those that are especially interested.

Again, it means that those who aren't ready right now don't get overwhelmed, but those who are ready can get more and build a relationship with you faster.

That way you can become that “wow person” in weeks or even days (for some of your subscribers) rather than months or years.

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3 sources of “wow” for your online course https://www.ianbrodie.com/3-sources-of-wow-for-your-online-course/ Wed, 04 May 2022 22:35:00 +0000 https://www.ianbrodie.com/?p=2021882 If you want people who aren't actively searching to buy your course you need something that makes them sit up and take notice. A “wow” factor.

I've found there are three big ways to get that “wow”.

The first is the person delivering the course.

Most people aren't going to get excited by the prospect of yet another course on cookery or photography. But Gordon Ramsay's first ever course? Or Annie Leibovitz? That's different.

You don't have to be world famous for this to work either. Just famous in your little corner of the world.

I've just interviewed Steve Folland for Course Builders TV, for example. Last year he launched a course for people just starting out as freelancers.

Why did people buy his course? Primarily because his Being Freelance podcast has been running for nearly a decade. To them, hearing that the OG of freelancing was putting out a course was a “wow, I must have it” moment.

The second way of getting a “wow” is a brand new promise.

All the big promises have already been made of course. Get rich. Save money. Get productive. Get fit. Lose weight. Find love.

So brand new promises are usually exciting new ways of achieving those big goals.

Years ago I bought a course on cold emailing from Jon Buchan of the Charm Offensive. The promise behind the course was learning to write cold emails so engaging and charming that people would enjoy and appreciate getting them.

Now I don't do cold email or cold calling or anything like that. But I bought the course.

For me, the skill of writing so engagingly that people who weren't expecting your email would enjoy and appreciate it was a “wow, I must have it” moment.

The third way of getting a “wow” is pinpoint precision.

If your course promises to do something for people that they believe is their specific, almost unique problem then hearing your course exists can generate a “wow, this is perfect for me” moment.

For years Mark Dawson has run a very successful course on Facebook Ads for fiction authors.

Part of the success, no doubt, is that Mark is a very successful author himself, so it has a bit of the person wow factor.

But a large part of is is because it was the first course of its type specifically targeted at fiction authors.

Before that, almost all Facebook ads courses were either generic or focused on ecommerce or online marketing or business type products.

This was the first course that fiction authors could look at and think “wow, this is perfect for me” and not worry that the techniques taught wouldn't work for their type of business.

Precision doesn't have to be for a type of business either. It could be a very specific problem. Or a goal for people with a specific roadblock (sales techniques for introverts, for example).

Of course, pinpoint precision means a smaller potential market.

But it's much, much better to have a small market that thinks your course is perfect for them than it is to have a huge market that thinks it's no different to anyone else's.

And you'd be surprised at just how big the market of fiction authors wanting to sell through Facebook ads is, or the number of introverts who need to sell.

There are other ways of getting a “wow” too, if you get creative. I was wowed by the first video product launch I saw. And the first cohort-based course. And great production values and little different twists always impress me.

But the easiest ways of getting a wow are though who you are, the new promise you make, or the precision of your offer.

Are you using these to get a wow for your course?

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How to slay the dragons of distraction https://www.ianbrodie.com/how-to-slay-the-dragons-of-distraction/ Sun, 01 May 2022 22:33:00 +0000 https://www.ianbrodie.com/?p=2021877 I'm absolutely world-class when it comes to distracting myself.

Checking email, checking Linkedin, checking the football news. Checking out that “important” new piece of tech someone recommended.

Anything rather than focus, concentrate and push through any creative blocks I happen to have.

I mentioned last week that simply being aware of our tendency to distract ourselves has helped me a lot.

Another powerful but simple technique I use is just to write down what your big goals are for each day. And to list a couple of important tasks you could be doing if you get a few minutes of spare time.

Please don't write this off as too simplistic or “beneath you”.

It sounds ludicrous to suggest that we “forget” our big goals and important tasks. But we do.

Or more accurately, we don't keep them front of mind enough.

So when we get a few spare minutes during the day, instead of springing into action on an important task we umm and ahh a bit and the moment is lost.

Or when we're writing an article or email and it gets a bit hard to think of what comes next; we allow ourselves to get distracted because it doesn't feel like such a big deal.

What I find time and time again is that if I write down my big goals and tasks in the morning every day and keep them open next to me on my desk it tends to focus my mind and keep me on the straight and narrow.

If I get a few minutes spare I know exactly what useful things I can do with those few minutes and I do them. Or if not a quick glance reminds me.

If I'm struggling a bit and get tempted to check email or the news, I'm reminded that I've got a lot to get through during the day and I need to keep focused.

Most times, it's enough.

I also find that writing things by hand keeps them top of mind much more than typing them. So I get the best of both worlds by hand-writing them onto my iPad.

As I say, “writing down your big goals every day so you keep them top of mind” sounds way too simplistic to be effective. But I promise you it's not.

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The Wow factor for online courses https://www.ianbrodie.com/the-wow-factor-for-online-courses/ Fri, 29 Apr 2022 22:29:00 +0000 https://www.ianbrodie.com/?p=2021873 I've been doing a little audit of courses I've bought over the years to try to identify what persuaded me to buy them.

And that forensic-type audit is really necessary. In many cases my recollection of how I'd come to buy something was very different to what the email trail showed had actually happened.

What it revealed was three common factors behind almost every course purchase I'd made. I suspect these three factors will be common to your customers too.

Firstly, and obviously, the course was in an area that was important to me.

Not necessarily something I was actively looking to fix at the time. In fact in most cases not.

But somewhere where, when the opportunity came up, I looked at it and immediately thought “yes, that would be really helpful”.

Secondly and also obviously, the course was being offered by someone who'd built up enough trust with me that I was willing to risk my time and money on them.

At minimum, I trusted their content enough that I was paying enough attention to their emails to notice the course being offered.

More usually they'd reached a position with me where when I saw their course being offered I thought “yeah, I think they know what they're talking about and I feel good enough about them to trust them with my money and my time to go through this course”.

But here's the thing. There are lots of people who offer courses in areas that are important to me and who I trust enough to buy from – but I don't.

They're necessary conditions, but they're not enough.

What makes the difference for me, what gets me to buy from one person but not from another, is a “sit up and take notice offer”.

A wow offer.

Typically that means the course is offering something I've not seen before. A new way of thinking. A new method or technique. Something that almost literally takes my breath away with excitement when I first see it.

And usually there's some kind of associated urgency too. It's the pilot of a course, it's on special offer, it's a once-every-quarter thing.

For example, over a decade ago I stumbled across the initial release of a course that taught you how to write story-based email sequences based on techniques they use for TV series.

Many of the things I learnt are commonplace now, but back then my instant reaction was “wooah – I've not seen anything like this before – this could really work – I have to have it”.

More recently I bought a course on running mini-workshops to reach lots of people at low cost, rather than the “high ticket” stuff that's so prevalent these days. Again, a different approach I'd not seen before.

When you buy a course that you've been offered (rather than one that you've searched for based on a specific and immediate need) you really need that wow factor. That rush of excitement that comes from seeing the possibilities of something new.

Does your course pass that test?

If you emailed out an offer to 100 people right now, how many would say “wooah – I've got to get that”?

Getting that wow factor into your offer is hard. Of course it is.

But if you can get it, it makes a massive difference.

I hope to explore some different ways you can get that wow factor into your courses in the next few emails.

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The surprising role of trust in selling online courses https://www.ianbrodie.com/the-surprising-role-of-trust-in-selling-online-courses/ Wed, 27 Apr 2022 22:27:00 +0000 https://www.ianbrodie.com/?p=2021869 Us marketing people tend to bandy about platitudes like “people need to trust you before they buy from you” without really digging into what they actually mean.

Of course people need to trust you before buying from you. Duh.

But what kind of trust? Trust is complex and multi-faceted.

I trust my Mum to love me and think in my best interests. But I wouldn't trust her to fix my computer if it was broken.

When it comes to buying online courses there are a few different levels of trust involved. One of them you might not normally think of.

Obviously, people need to trust you're not going to take their money and rip them off. That goes without saying and I would expect everyone reading this has the sort of business that's already established that kind of trust.

But with online courses, it needs to go deeper.

Courses are complex. It's really difficult to tell from a course description if the course is quite right for you. Especially if the marketing focuses only on the benefits you'll get from it and not the nitty gritty details of the course.

Is it at the right level or is it too advanced or not advanced enough? Does it cover tactics you have the skill or desire to learn? Will it work for your particular type of business?

Because of that uncertainty, I'd want to know if the people providing the course “played nice” with buyers.

In other words, if you bought the course and discovered it wasn't a good fit would it be easy to get your money back? Or would you have to go through all sorts of “did you complete all the exercises, can you prove you actually implemented what we taught” kind of nonsense.

For many courses I'd also want to know that the seller would go the extra mile to make sure I succeeded with the course.

Maybe it's just me, but I find that when I take a course my situation often doesn't quite fit with the examples being taught and I need to ask questions to apply the knowledge to me specifically.

Will my questions go unanswered? Will I end up getting feedback from someone employed by the course creator who can parrot back the party line but isn't expert enough to tweak the advice for unusual situations.

Or will the expert themselves give me the best of their thinking to help?

These are all questions of trust.

They're all things that can't really be quantified or controlled by contract or service level or known for certain in advance.

They're about whether you trust the course provider will be looking out for you. When the need arises, will they go the extra mile to help?

Of course, we don't analyse that stuff rationally before taking a decision to buy. We just get a good feeling about them and it makes it easy to buy.

Or we don't get a good feeling and we hesitate.

What gives us those good or bad feelings?

It's all the interactions we've had with that person before. Either in real life or more likely with online courses, from our online interactions.

Do they come across as a nice person in their emails? If we message them, do they take the time to answer and try to help us?

The impression you give about what sort of person you are is often as important as the “value” you give in your emails.

And that's where the final, more surprising role of trust comes in.

Because you only get to make a good impression on someone if they're actually paying attention to you. If they actually open and read your emails (or your social posts or whatever way you communicate with them).

That final level of trust is “do they trust you to always send them useful, interesting communications?”

If so, you get the chance to build the other levels of trust you need.

If not, it's game over. 

If your messages appear in their inbox but they don't trust they'll get something useful from them, they'll stay unopened. And you'll never build that deeper trust needed for them to be ready to buy.

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The #1 Marketing Productivity Killer https://www.ianbrodie.com/the-1-marketing-productivity-killer/ Sun, 24 Apr 2022 22:21:00 +0000 https://www.ianbrodie.com/?p=2021863 The number one killer of your marketing productivity – at least in my experience – is other stuff.

Or more accurately, switching to do other stuff when you get a bit stuck with your marketing.

Here's an example: when I was trying to write the opening line of this email I got a bit stuck. Rather than sitting trying to get it right, I flipped tabs and checked the split test we're running of different Facebook ads for Kathy's upcoming summit.

It's not that checking the progress of our test isn't useful.

It's just that checking it now, when I was supposed to be writing this email, really hurts productivity.

I'm sure you've heard that creative work needs a different frame of mind to other types of work. And it takes a while to warm up to the task and get yourself in that frame of mind.

According to a recent University of California Irvine study, it takes an average of 23 minutes and 15 seconds to get refocused after an interruption.

Ignoring the spurious accuracy for a moment, that's a long time. And I think it's even longer when it comes to creative work.

So the reality is that if you get interrupted while you're trying to be creative it takes a good while to get back on track.

And the problem these days isn't just outside interruptions like phone calls or notifications. It's that we're constantly interrupting ourselves.

The minute we get even a tiny bit stuck with something we flip tabs and check emails or scroll a bit of social media or do something else ostensibly useful.

But in reality, what we're really doing is getting a little stimulation fix in preference to staring at the screen and working through our problem.

It's much easier. And we can kid ourselves we're doing something useful.

Because at some point we will need to check email or the progress of that split test. There is some minor value in checking your Linkedin feed and replying to a relevant post.

But all of those can be done later – without breaking your flow.

I don't think there's an easy answer to this kind of self-interruption addiction we all seem to have.

But something that definitely helps me is just being aware of it. When you're aware of it you can keep it in check a little.

Noticing I'd distracted myself when writing the first line of this email helped me keep more focused and I managed to stay on track while writing the rest of it.

There were a couple of points when I got stuck and I was ever so tempted to flip tabs and check email or see if I'd had a reply to that comment I posted in a Facebook group just before starting the emails.

But instead, I closed my eyes. Breathed. Then got back to writing.

And the words came.

Sometimes it's not quite so easy to stay on track. But being aware of when you're distracting yourself and how much it hurts your productivity definitely helps.

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Why do you really buy courses? https://www.ianbrodie.com/why-do-you-really-buy-courses/ Fri, 22 Apr 2022 22:03:00 +0000 https://www.ianbrodie.com/?p=2021858 I've found there's often a big difference between why people think they buy courses and why they *really* buy.

And also in how they buy them.

It's really helpful to understand the difference – otherwise you can truly mess up your marketing.

Unfortunately, if you ask people how and why they buy, they usually tell you what they think happens rather than what actually happens.

So often a better source is to be more forensic about it. Look at the last few course purchases you or they actually made and track what happened.

You'll find there's often a big difference between your real experience for that specific course and what you imagine happens when you think more generically.

In my case for example, if you asked me how and why I buy courses I'd say that when I have a need for a course I'll go out and search for the best course available on that topic. I'll do pretty thorough research and weigh up which one I think will get me the best results, will be a good fit for me personally, and is from people who seem trustworthy.

Is that what actually happens in practice?

Yes. Maybe 5% of the time.

But when I look back at the courses I've actually bought in the last few years the vast majority of them didn't happen that way.

What happened far more often is that I got notified of a new course becoming available by someone I follow.

Usually that was because I subscribe to their emails. Occasionally it was through going to their website and very rarely because of something they posted on social media.

Now if I'm subscribed to their emails or regularly visit their website it implies I'm already interested in their area of expertise and already trust them.

And it means I rarely do a thorough search for alternatives.

Mostly I'll just check out the details of the course to see what I'd be getting, think about whether it would be useful for me, whether it's in line with what I'm aiming to focus on in the next few months, and whether I'll have the capacity to do the course.

This idea that I do a thorough search triggered by a need is a bit of a fantasy really.

I probably think I do it that way because when I do I'm actively concentrating on the process.

When I normally buy – the more reactive way – I'm not concentrating on the process so deeply or for a very long time. So I don't remember it so much.

Anyway, the important point here is that if my customers are anything like me (and my experience is they are), then they too will usually buy courses in that more reactive way.

It means that my marketing should be more focused on building a following of people interested in my area of expertise and who trust me – and then offering them something fairly unique on a regular basis.

Of course, if it turns out that your customers really buy through a more thorough search process then you need to gear up your marketing to be easily found in a search for a common need and to score well in a comparison against similar courses.

But my feeling is that for most of us, our best route is to build a following and make unique offers.

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Less content = more momentum https://www.ianbrodie.com/less-content-more-momentum/ Wed, 20 Apr 2022 22:01:00 +0000 https://www.ianbrodie.com/?p=2021854 You may remember I interviewed Reuven Lerner a little while back about his Python and Data Science online courses.

You can watch that interview here if you haven't already.

Reuven mentioned in the interview that he does an email newsletter for corporate trainers so I signed up (in all honesty, more out of politeness than anything since I don't really do courses for corporates any more).

Well, it turns out that Reuven's newsletter is excellent. Very thoughtful and full of experience-based tips on marketing and running live courses for corporates. But also lots of stuff that's very applicable to online courses too.

In this week's issue Reuven talked about how, over the years, he's learned to reduce the amount of content he teaches in his courses to get better results for his students.

Previously he was cramming them with material in order to make them as “valuable” as possible. But the effect was that his students didn't have the time to properly take on what he was teaching.

By reducing the amount of content he taught he was able to add more exercises and Q&A so that students learned what he was teaching much more deeply.

The end result was that they learned more and gave better feedback on his courses. While he had to prepare less material for each course (but think about it more deeply to structure it right for learning).

Reuven listed a number of benefits of the “less content” approach in his newsletter but I'm going to add one here that particularly applies to online courses.

Less content = more momentum.

One of the biggest problems I see with people trying to create online courses is getting bogged down creating the content.

So they either end up never releasing their course, or they finally finish it but are so worn out they have no energy to market it properly.

After that experience they never attempt to create another one. And, of course, it's rarely your first course that makes you the real money. It's your second or third or fourth.

But if instead you really whittle down the content for your course to what's absolutely necessary you can get it created quickly, get it on the market, plug any gaps, then move on to the next one.

It becomes an invigorating virtuous circle rather than a cycle of despair :)

And it actually helps your students learn faster and better.

Win win.

Anyhoo – if you do training for corporates (or want to get some useful tips you can apply to online courses too) I thoroughly recommend signing up for Reuven's newsletter.

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Think Small for Big Results https://www.ianbrodie.com/think-small-for-big-results/ Sun, 17 Apr 2022 21:59:00 +0000 https://www.ianbrodie.com/?p=2021848 If you want to do more good marketing fast, it pays to think small.

We often feel pressure to add more value by “going large”. By writing about important topics with a big impact on our clients.

And that desire to be valuable is great. But big topics are hard to write about. There's just so much to cover.

If you sit down and think to yourself “I'm going to write about how to double your sales” or pick a huge topic like teambuilding or leadership you're most likely going to end up staring at a blank screen for a very long time.

Instead, go small. Write about one little aspect of teambuilding or leadership or sales.

In theory, you won't be adding as much value as if you covered the whole big topic. But in practice, very few of your audience are going to be able to plough through a giant email or blog post every week.

If you want to cover big topics, split them up into series.

Then “go small” on each individual marketing piece. Really drill down and tell a little story about something very specific.

You'll find that kind of content is more interesting too. 

If you try to cover a huge topic in a short piece of content you'll end up having to be very generic and gloss over the details.

But it's the details that fascinate people.

A list of 25 tips on holding effective meetings is going to be 25 dull bullet points (even if they're useful).

But a single story about the worst meeting you ever ran and the big lesson you learned from it is really quite intriguing.

Easier to write + more interesting to read makes “going small” a big winner :)

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The one thing you must do with a micro course to make it sell https://www.ianbrodie.com/the-one-thing-you-must-do-with-a-micro-course-to-make-it-sell/ Fri, 08 Apr 2022 17:20:00 +0000 https://www.ianbrodie.com/?p=2021828 In my last post on courses I suggested that if you were a bit stuck creating your first (or next) online course, to try building a “micro course”.

A micro course is a short 10-30 minute course that's focused on one specific customer problem or goal.

It's much easier to get going to produce a very short course like this. You can do it in one sitting.

But if you want to sell that course (and I suggest you do as it's the only way to properly test the market) then you must do one key thing…

And that's to make sure your micro course is different to what people can get for free on Youtube or other sources.

A larger course is almost inevitably different to the free tutorials you might find on Youtube. But with a short course with very limited scope, there's a risk there's already a free tutorial or two out there.

You can make sure your micro course is different and something people will be willing to buy in a number of different ways:

Firstly, you can tweak the topic to really focus on pain points and frustrations.

Instead of a tutorial on website migration, make one that's focused on hassle free, zero downtime migration without needing tech skills.

By the way, don't make a micro course where the emphasis is on doing something for free. That'll naturally attract people who want to do things for free nand won't be willing to pay for your course!

Secondly you can teach the course in a unique way that helps them get better, faster results.

This could be by teaching your own unique methodology or giving them tools and templates they can use. Stuff they can't find anywhere else and that will make life simpler for them or get them better results.

Remember: busy businesspeople usually aren't paying for the knowledge you share. They're paying for the results they can get from it and they value getting those results faster and easier.

Thirdly you can add features to your course that they can't get with free courses.

A great example of this is to include a Zoom Q&A session where they can get all their questions answered. Or feedback on their work by email.

Adding features like this to a low cost micro course isn't really sustainable if you were going to be running it on an ongoing basis. But as a one-off to get your momentum going with courses it's well worth doing. You don't have to prepare anything in advance – just offer it as part of the course and wait for the questions to come in.

So for your micro course idea, take a look at what's available already for free and think:

How can I change the topic so it's more focused directly on the pain and frustration of my clients?
How can I teach it in a different way that's faster, better, simpler to understand, easier to get results from etc?
How can I add features that differentiate this from a free tutorial and make it worth paying for for my audience.
Or, of course, do two or three of them.

These simple changes can allow you to build a course that's easy to create and will sell well.

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Struggling to build your first course? Try this… https://www.ianbrodie.com/struggling-to-build-your-first-course-try-this/ Wed, 06 Apr 2022 17:18:00 +0000 https://www.ianbrodie.com/?p=2021824 Your first course won't make you millions.

Not unless you're very, very lucky or you already have a big audience.

But what it will do is get the ball rolling. Build momentum. Prove to you that you can do it.

With that first course in the bag your second becomes exponentially easier to create. As does your third, fourth or however many you want to make.

But getting that first course out the door is often hard.

So here's a suggestion to make it much, much easier: create a micro-course.

A micro-course is simply a very short course focused on one specific problem. Ideally you'll be able to teach it in something like 10-15 minutes. Maybe 30 tops.

Often the thing you teach is a small but valuable part of a wider skillset. For example, in every course or workshop I've done on email marketing I've taught a module on email subject lines. That module could be a micro course in its own right.

The advantage of micro courses is twofold.

Firstly, because they're small they're easy to create. I reckon I could create a decent micro course on email subject lines in a couple of hours.

I'd gather some of my existing material and models. Do a quick search for new examples of good subject lines. Outline what I wanted to teach. Rattle off a few slides. Record a video.

I could have it out “on the market” the next day and be getting feedback.

Secondly, they're actually good for learners.

We might feel we're giving more value by cramming more into a course but usually our customers want to learn the minimum possible to achieve the outcome they're looking for.

With a micro course we're focusing on solving a small but valuable problem. Out customers should be able to start work on solving that problem after taking our training in just 15 minutes or so.

That means they're getting results faster and not wasting any time.

Now of course it's difficult to charge a huge fee for a micro course so you're not going to get rich creating one. But as we already said, you never get rich from your first course anyway.

So why not make it easy on yourself and make that “first course that isn't going to make you rich” quick and easy to create.

Get some momentum going. Get some early adopters who'll give you feedback, get great results and give you great testimonials.

And prove to yourself it's not as hard as it looks to make a course.

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The final benefit of getting your course out fast https://www.ianbrodie.com/the-final-benefit-of-getting-your-course-out-fast/ Wed, 30 Mar 2022 16:33:00 +0000 https://www.ianbrodie.com/?p=2021815 This is going to be my last post extolling the virtues of live pilots and other ways of getting your course out onto the market fast.

But it's an important one.

There's a great story in David Bayles and Ted Orland's book “Art & Fear: Observations on the Perils (and Rewards) of Artmaking” that my friend Lee told me about.

The story is about a ceramics teacher (although on investigation it turns out that the true origin is a photography class but the authors didn't want the story to be about a media they were known for).

Anyway, the story goes that the ceramics/photography teacher used to split his class into two groups. He told the first group their work would be graded only on quality. He told the second group their work would be graded only on quantity (ie on how many items they produced not how good they were).

At the end of the course when the works were graded it turned out that ALL the highest quality works had been produced by the group who'd been told they'd be graded on quantity.

What had happened was the “quantity” group had produced a high volume of material and learned from their mistakes each time and got better fast.

The “quality” group had spent so much time trying to make high-quality items (despite not really having much skill initially) they hadn't produced much at all and had less to learn from.

Quantity leads to quality.

A similar thing happens with your online courses. In this case, though, speed leads to quality.

When you're creating your course you should – of course – try hard to come up with a great topic and find the right audience. And you should talk to them to figure out what they want from the course and try to build a course that meets those needs.

But in the real world, your customers never know exactly what they want, you can't possibly interpret what they say perfectly, and you can never build the exact right course that matches what you think their needs are.

If you go through the process quickly in a few weeks you can probably build a course that's 70% or 80% right. If you agonise and try to get it perfect and take 6 months, you might get it 90% right.

The problem for the “agoniser” is that in those 6 months the person who created their course quickly can have gone through half a dozen revisions and updates to the course and got it to 95% or more based on actual customer feedback.

You can never get a course right without feedback. So as long as your initial version is decent and helps your customers get results, your best bet by far is to get to that point of feedback fast and iterate.

And not only that, by then the person who launched with a live pilot or found some other way of getting to market fast will also have onboarded way more customers and been paid a lot more than the “agoniser” who's still on their initial round.

It just takes a bit of courage (and humility) to accept that the first version of your course can never be perfect – and so to just get on with and get it done fast.

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How to fake being prolific :) https://www.ianbrodie.com/how-to-fake-being-prolific/ Sun, 27 Mar 2022 16:30:00 +0000 https://www.ianbrodie.com/?p=2021810 Last week I said that it was important to be prolific in your marketing.

But I was wrong.

What's actually important is to be perceived as prolific. Or in other words for your potential clients to see a lot from you – even if you're not necessarily producing a lot.

I got an email a few years ago from a friend saying something along the lines of “how come you create so much? I see your stuff everywhere”.

Which I found puzzling because at the time I really hadn't done very much for a while.

Eventually, I figured out the reason she thought I created so much was simply that she was seeing a lot of my stuff.

But that was because of two reasons. Firstly, the places I happened to be active happened to be the places she was active too.

I wasn't everywhere. I was just everywhere she was (which wasn't a lot of places).

Secondly, I was (and still am) pretty good at reuse.

Not wholesale verbatim reuse. But videos into articles. Articles into emails. Emails into articles. Articles into talks, interviews and webinars. Even a book.

Even more importantly: reusing ideas and topics. Explaining the same thing as a “how to”, as a story, as a client case study, looking at it conceptually, looking at in practically.

I read a lot. I learn a lot. But eventually, everything comes down to a few core ideas that I present in different ways.

Strategic focus on the right channels and thoughtful reuse gets you the impression of being prolific.

Now obviously I'm making it sound easier than it is.

It takes experimentation to figure out which channels will be the best ones to focus on. And reuse doesn't equal zero work. 

But it's doable. And much easier than actually being prolific :)

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