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How to solve the nurture dilemma

Posted byIan Brodie on February 24th, 2019.

I think pretty much everyone intuitively gets the idea that only a small percentage of your contacts are ready to become clients at any point in time.

And that you need to nurture your relationship with them so that when they are ready, you're their first choice.

However, what most people do to nurture relationships usually falls into one of two camps: neither of which is effective.

First, there's the show-off.

The show-off is all me, me, me.

They'll send you links to case studies of their clients. They'll tell you about the awards they've won or the amazing results they've got.

What they won't do is send you anything you might actually find useful. 

As a result, most clients try to avoid them. They don't return their calls or even open their emails.

The second camp is the “helpful” type.

This person is all “you, you, you”. They really do nurture their relationships by trying to be helpful to their potential clients. Sending them useful articles, introducing them to valuable resources. 

This is a good thing. It means their potential clients appreciate them. It means they'll answer their calls and open their emails.

But it's not enough.

Put it this way: no matter how many articles you send me from the Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry, there's no way I'm going to let you do brain surgery on me until I see some evidence that you're an expert. Not just a helpful person.

To win clients successfully you have to solve the dilemma of being able to get across your capabilities, expertise and results – without it just coming across as showing off.

Because if it does, no one will listen.

Yet you can't just be helpful. Because, although people will like you, they won't buy from you.

You have to artfully combine both approaches.

Lead with value. Be helpful. But do it strategically. Help in ways that demonstrate your expertise. That allow you to show the results you get.

Don’t just send people useful articles. Send your articles  that show you're an expert.

Don't just send a list of 5 ways of getting their team to work better. Show them how one of your clients implemented those 5 ways and the results they got. 

Same learning and value for the client. But now it's raising their perception of you as an expert and someone who gets results.

Without showing off.

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Better, easier email

Posted byIan Brodie on February 17th, 2019.

A few weeks ago I was interviewed by Welly Mulia of new email marketing service BirdSend about how to use email marketing win clients and sell online training.

You can listen to the interview (and check out the bonus infographic, interview summary and full transcript)  here:

>>> Ian's Email Marketing Interview <<<

One of the questions Welly asked was about how to find your own style for your emails and this is such an important topic I wanted to talk about it a little here.

One of the big mistakes I see people making – and frankly which I've fallen into many times myself – is flip-flopping between styles.

You've probably done this yourself. You're told the best way of doing email is to broadcast daily, so you try that.

Then someone else says use autoresponders, so you do that.

Then someone else says it's all about “gain, logic, fear” or infotainment or “soft teaching” or a whole other bunch of techniques.

So you try one, then another. And never really get any results.

The truth is that there isn't “one best way” to do email marketing (or any marketing come to that).

Lots of different ways can work – if you get good at them and if they're a good fit for you.

It's a bit like playing tennis. 

There are aggressive players and defensive players. Serve and volleyers and baseliners.

And different types of style work best on different surfaces.

But it's almost unheard of for a successful player to serve and volley one week, then play baseline the next.

It's incredibly difficult to be a skilful proponent of more than one style.

Same with emails. Much better to find a style that works for you (and your audience) and stick to it.

Of course, that begs the question “how do you find a style that works for you?”

My experience is that the best way is to read a lot of emails. Subscribe to a bunch, see a range of different styles and find one you like.

Don't copy it, of course. But learn from it.

Maybe you'll write short, entertaining emails. Maybe you'll do longer more informative ones.

Maybe yours will be all stories. or more conversational. Maybe quite sales focused. Maybe a slower build.

Within your target market, some people will love your style. Others won't.

But no one will like an inconsistent flip-flop between different styles.

You can hear me talk more about this, along with:

• How to get people to buy even when your email sucks
• How to build a 5-year monster email sequence without pulling your hair out
• How to combine sequence and broadcast emails to engage with your subscribers
• The 2 types of course sales
• How I got started with email marketing and wrote my bestselling book Email Persuasion
• The #1 roadblock for online course creators
• How to talk to your target audience even when you don’t have a customer
•  How to know if your idea for a course sucks
• My #1 advice to build a successful online course business

>>> Click here to hear my interview <<<

– Ian

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3 reasons people don’t buy from you

Posted byIan Brodie on February 10th, 2019.

There are only really three reasons people don't buy from you or hire you to help them.

Understand which is the main one for you and you're halfway to getting them to buy.

Problem #1 is that they don't want what you're offering.

Not that they don't need it. Not that they wouldn't want it if they knew what they'd get from it.

But right now they're looking at what you're offering and thinking “meh”.

Or even “that sounds good”. But sounding good doesn't get the sale. They have to want it and want it now.

This is typically the problem that most people who work in fields where the bottom-line impact of what they do isn't immediately obvious.

You coach leaders. Those leaders perform better. The whole organisation performs better. Sales go up, costs go down, share prices go up.

But it's all a bit nebulous.

As someone holding onto the purse strings I want something more solid. I want to see that if you train or coach my people I'll get a clear and pretty immediate ROI.

If you can't tell them that based on your previous work then you might get some sales from people who buy into what you do. But the bulk of clients who are much more pragmatic won't buy until they can see clearly how you will make their business or life tangibly better.

Problem #2 is that they don't believe you.

This is a problem that people like me who sell more tangible benefits often have.

If you work in a field like marketing or sales that directly delivers more revenue. Or one that directly delivers cost savings. Then it's pretty easy to get people to want what you're offering. Just tell them the results they'll get.

The problem is, often they won't believe you.

They've been told the same thing time and time again and it didn't happen.

So you need to prove to them why it will work this time with you. How others have got the results they're looking for. How your approach is different.

The best thing to do here is get them some results before they have to pay you. Then they've seen it with their own eyes.

Problem #3 is that the time isn't right.

They want what you have. They believe you can deliver it. It's just not priority #1 right now.

Or there's something else they have to get sorted first.

Or one of a whole host of reasons why now is not the right time.

This is the most pernicious reason we all face. 

There are a few things you can do to accelerate the process.

For example, if there's a deadline on your offer. Or if you can help the client see that things are going to get much worse if they don't act now.

But often, the time just isn't right.

And by “often” I mean 60, 70 or 80% or more of the time.

That's why follow-up is so important. Nurturing a relationship over weeks, months and years so that when the time IS right, you're in pole position.

That's what can make the biggest difference to most businesses.

So which of the 3 big problems do you face?

And what are you going to do about it?

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Is conventional marketing “wrong”?

Posted byIan Brodie on February 3rd, 2019.

If you've been on any marketing training before (especially as taught by online marketers) you'll have no doubt been taught to focus on your client's “pain points”.

Find their pain.

Talk about it. Highlight it. Twist the knife.

Because psychology tells us that people are much more motivated to move away from pain than move towards gain.

Er…OK…

That may be true, but what a depressing way to do your marketing.

The world has enough pain and uncertainty in it these days without us spending our time prodding our clients' wounds to make them feel bad so we can sell them our solutions.

I'm going to suggest that maybe focusing on inspiring your clients and talking about how good things could be if they hire you isn't such a bad thing.

Apart from the fact that it's rather more uplifting to do that sort of marketing, it might even be more effective.

Think of the very top brands in the world.

Look at any top 20 or top 50 list. You'll see brands like Apple, Google, Disney, Coca Cola, Mercedes, BMW, Nike, Louis Vuitton.

Does their marketing focus on their customers' pain and twisting the knife?

Not as far as I can see.

Their marketing is about aspiration. About a world that's better with their products in it. About how great your life will be if you just bought from them.

Their marketing is a far cry from conventional wisdom about pain points and twisting the knife.

Maybe ours can be too.

More Clients Memorandum

This one thing can increase email opens by 10%+

Posted byIan Brodie on January 27th, 2019.

There's a simple technique I use in a number of my emails that regularly gets my open rates to bump up by 10% or usually more.

You can't overuse it of course. But in the right place, it's very powerful.

The technique is to use a “demonstrative pronoun” in the subject line.

In other words, a word like “this”, “that”, “these” or “those”.

“Are you making this fatal marketing mistake?”

“Do you make these mistakes in English?”

“This one thing can increase email open rates by 10%+”

Using a demonstrative pronoun in the subject line (or the headline of an advert like the famous “Do you make these mistakes in English?”) allows you to state a benefit or problem and imply a very specific answer. But without stating what that answer is.

So it builds a lot of curiosity.

You want to know what “these mistakes in English” are and whether you're making them. You want to know what the “this one thing” is that can increase email open rates by 10%+.

You'll see similar techniques used in journalism a lot by publications that rely on clicks through to their website.

Look at the most read stories on a news portal (I use newsnow.co.uk for the sports coverage) and you'll see headlines like:

• “Shearer gushes over three Newcastle players on Twitter after stunning comeback” [which three players?]
• “It's his own fault really – Allardyce blames Everton man for Newcastle loss” [which player does he blame?]
• “This is how Man City could be punished for Financial Fair Play breaches” [how?]
• What Newcastle will promise Rafa Benitez to incentivise him to sign new contract [what will they promise him?]

In each case the headline tells you something interesting but leaves out a key piece of information. So out of curiosity, you click through to the website to find out.

It's powerful stuff, but easy to use.

You can often get to a demonstrative pronoun just by tweaking what you want to say. For example…

“How to improve sales conversions” –> “These 3 techniques will double your sales conversions”

“5 techniques for increasing leadership effectiveness” –> “Are you making these 5 critical leadership mistakes?”

Small changes, yet they have a big effect on opens, clicks and signups – wherever you use it. 

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When it feels unfair

Posted byIan Brodie on January 20th, 2019.

Ever feel that business is sometimes unfair?

I know I do.

When you see other people using what you consider to be unscrupulous practices and yet succeeding.

Or people who've succeeded because of money or connections or luck or all three.

Or a whole host of other factors that just don't seem fair.

I've done my share of wallowing in self-pity that I wasn't so lucky or that I'm too honest or that I don't have the contacts and family money they do.

But at the end of the day, jealousy doesn't get you anywhere, no matter how warranted. 

Feeling annoyed at them doesn't help me. In fact, it holds me back.

It's a natural feeling. And you kind of need to let it out rather than bottle it up.

But you need to move on.

Ask yourself what can I do to improve my situation?

I've asked myself that question many times over the years. I've always come up with something.

And it's never anything to do with “them”. Always to do with me and what I can do differently.

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Does this make you mad too?

Posted byIan Brodie on January 13th, 2019.

For the last few years, Kathy and I have been going to a few marketing conferences together.

I know, really romantic, right?

For the most recent one, we were looking through the agenda to see which sessions we should go to.

Because it was a conference for marketing people the titles were, well, a bit hypey to say the least.

“Follow the XYZ method to 5x your lead generation”

“How this one simple tweak can double your sales in 24 hours”

That kind of thing.

Drives me mad. You can never tell whether the session is going to be full of insight or just the same stuff you already know but hyped up to make it sound great.

In amongst all that Kathy said “let's go to this one”.

“It's the only one where I can tell from the description what the talk is actually about”.

Think about that for a minute.

The marketing for the session didn't need to make all sorts of wild claims in an attempt to shout louder than all the other sessions.

It just quietly told us what the topic was, what we'd learn, and what we'd get from that.

So we signed up.

I'm not saying everyone will flood into that session. Many, many people at marketing conferences are attracted by the hypey “quintuple your business overnight” type sales pitch.

But a significant number of people in all markets are just looking for clarity.

What exactly will I get from this?

When you're learning marketing it's all too easy to think that you need to do the hypey thing too.

And there are plenty of “marketing experts” who'll tell you that's what you need to do.

The problem is that they've only ever sold marketing to marketing people. They live in a bubble where that kind of hype works.

In the real world, there are huge numbers of people who are turned off by it.

My guess is a lot of your clients are just looking for clarity.

What exactly will they get from what you offer? What will it mean for them?

Your marketing should tell them straight. No need for hype.

Unless you're a marketing guru marketing to marketing people who sell marketing to marketing people of course.

In which case ignore everything I say, unsubscribe right now, and listen to the millions of marketing guru gurus out there :)

But for people who have real clients: keep it simple. Keep it clear.

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Get into the groove

Posted byIan Brodie on January 6th, 2019.

So I'm hardly Madonna, but “getting into the groove” is a crucial part of marketing.

If everything you do to try to win clients takes a monumental effort and a ton of thought then you'll get worn out pretty quickly.

Much better to have one or two “go to” marketing things you do week in, week out that make it easy for you to switch into marketing mode and get going with.

Of course, it's easy for me to say that. If you're struggling to get traction with your marketing and you spend most of your time staring at a blank screen or dreading the next event you have to go to it probably doesn't seem like “getting into the groove” is at all possible.

But it is.

The trick is to find one thing you're good at and enjoy (or at least don't dislike) and then schedule a fixed time to do that every week.

For me, it's writing my weekly email on a Saturday ready to go out on Sunday morning.

I schedule some nice quiet time. Have a think about something interesting I could say that you'd find valuable. And then tap away for a bit and it's done.

It takes a bit of effort to force yourself to do it every week until it becomes a habit. But like exercising or taking time out to read, or even learning to drive or play a sport – once you repeat it often enough it becomes much, much easier.

Once you have a successful marketing habit grooved-in you can start adding other activities, safe in the knowledge that if nothing else happens, you've still got your weekly email or blog post or social activity or whatever it is you choose to do.

It helps you be more relaxed about the rest of your marketing.

And it gives you space to get your next marketing habit in the groove. Then the next.

Pretty soon people start asking you how you're so productive with your marketing when all it took was a little habit to get going.

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Try one little thing

Posted byIan Brodie on December 30th, 2018.

Making to-do lists is supposed to motivate you to take action I think. But it often backfires for me, especially with marketing.

Marketing feels like a discretionary activity (it's only mandatory if you want to survive ;) )

So when I have a huge to-do list of marketing stuff it tends to overwhelm me and I end up doing nothing.

Maybe you have that challenge too? 

Something that almost always helps is just to do one little thing.

Doesn't have to be strategic or high impact.

The important thing isn't the result. It's the momentum.

So I might email an ex-client to ask how they're doing. Or write a quick post on Linkedin.

Just something to help me get back on track making progress.

And sometimes (more often than you'd think) those little things pay off too.

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The secret power of permission

Posted byIan Brodie on December 23rd, 2018.

I mentioned last time how important it is to ask permission before starting a regular follow-up campaign with someone. And I saw a great example of that in practice via Linkedin a couple of days ago.

I'd just connected with someone and they messaged me to say they like to send out a weekly message through Linkedin to their contacts with new ideas and insights on their field of expertise. They asked if I'd mind if they sent one to me too. 

I said no as the topic wasn't one I was that interested in.

But the important thing is that they asked, and I respected them for that.

A lot of the training you'll see on winning clients with Linkedin suggests you connect with people and then start sending them messages to “add value”. The problem is that if the person you're sending it to doesn't see it as valuable to them and they haven't asked for it, they'll see it as spam.

Usually they won't tell you to stop – people are too polite for that. They'll just get silently annoyed with you.

That's what would have happened if this person hadn't asked permission. But he did, and so now he's in my mental “good guy” pile.

And, of course, had I been interested I'd have said yes to the messages. And because I'd specifically given permission I'd have read them more intently than if he'd just started sending them.

That's the secret power of permission. It also creates a commitment.

If you ask if I want something and I say yes, it becomes a bit beholden on me to make more use of it.

If you just sent it to me, then even if I thought it was good, when the going gets tough and I'm short of time and looking for things to ditch it'll be high on my list.

In the back of my mind I'll be able to say “well, I didn't ask for it in the first place”.

But if you asked permission and I said yes, a little part of me feels as if I have to keep my end of the bargain and keep it.

Weird, but that's how it works.

It's why it can be good, every now and then, to confirm with people who haven't been reading your emails whether they want to keep getting them.

Some will say no. Most will do nothing. But the ones who say “please keep sending them” tend to really make the effort to read them in future.

Inside their heads, giving permission also commits them to read them more.

So not only is it polite to ask for permission, it's effective too.