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The #1 Marketing Productivity Killer

Posted byIan Brodie on April 24th, 2022.

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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Think Small for Big Results

Posted byIan Brodie on April 17th, 2022.

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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How to fake being prolific :)

Posted byIan Brodie on March 27th, 2022.

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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How to throw away all your amazing plans

Posted byIan Brodie on March 20th, 2022.

So far in this series on building a life-friendly business we've talked about having a high-leverage business model, offering a high-want product and creating a fan-level following.

In other words, making things easy for yourself by selecting a type of business that works well with a “solo” type business, selling something that people really want so you don't have to do much selling, and building your own little tribe so they pick you by default to buy from.

The final pillar is much more boring. But it's essential.

Without it, none of the rest works.

It's to be productively prolific.

Running a business – and especially marketing, needs you to create things.

Adverts. Articles. Emails. Videos. Podcasts. Whatever you choose to focus on.

Some people get lucky and make one great ad that runs for years. Or hit a viral theme with a video that makes them a little bit famous for a while.

Most of us aren't that lucky. We need to create content regularly to build relationships remotely. Our ads need refreshing over time. Our presentations need updating.

If it takes you an absolute age to do that you're in trouble.

Even if you outsource a lot of your business, that creative element that marks you out as you usually has to come from you.

So if you're very slow at creating it means you either won't get enough done to properly market your business – or you'll be working way more hours than you should.

That's why the next few emails will be about creative productivity.

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Why I follow people

Posted byIan Brodie on March 13th, 2022.

Last week I asked you to think about the people you follow: newsletter subscriptions, youtube channels you tune in to, etc.

And to ask yourself “What is it about them that makes me follow them?”

Because a better understanding of why you follow people may give some clues as to why people might follow you. Which means you can build the relationships you need to turn them into clients.

Many of you kindly wrote back to me with your thoughts on why you follow people. Now I'd like to share mine with you.

But I'm going to start with a caveat: humans are notoriously unable to reliably understand their own motivations.

Study after study has shown we tend to do things for reasons we don't understand then when asked why, without knowing it, we fabricate something plausible and believe it.

So do take what I'm about to say with a little pinch of salt.

That said, here's why I think I follow people.

Firstly, like everyone I guess, I follow people who share useful stuff.

But it has to be relevant to me and my interests.  And being human, my interests change over time and business priorities change too.

Secondly, the people I follow have to be interesting in some way. Adding value is necessary but not sufficient. Their communications have to keep me engaged.

So it might be they write charmingly. Or they're funny.  Or tell interesting stories. Either way, it's rare that someone is so brilliant they can keep you paying attention just through their ideas alone. They have to entertain in some sense.

Thirdly, I have to feel aligned with them in some way. Some of it is ethics. I can't make myself follow someone I believe is unscrupulous or untrustworthy for very long, no matter how much I could learn from them.

But alignment goes further than that I think.

Personally, I like to look on the bright side. I don't like to criticise or complain or rant at things.

I know that an angry, ranty style works for some experts. And it attracts others looking for someone or something to blame.

But it just leaves me flat. And it just doesn't feel good to me when people pepper their content with angry rants about the government or the left or the right or big business or lazy people or people who unsubscribe from their list or whoever they want to pick on.

I don't follow those folks for very long.

So I believe people usually tend to gravitate towards those with a similar outlook on life to them.

Now your list of “why I follow” factors may be similar to mine, or it may be very different.

What's important though are the clues it gives you as to why people might follow you and what you need to do to make it happen.

There's an old saying in marketing that “you are not your customer”.

And it's often very accurate. Marketing people, for example, spend exponentially more time on social media than “normal” people. And often they let their own preferences unduly bias what they think other people want.

But when it comes to building a following, I think it's very difficult to adopt a “fake” persona to attract a certain type of client if you're not like that naturally.

That's why your shortlist of the reasons you follow people is a good starting point for why people might follow you.

In my case, it leads me to think about whether I'm sharing enough really valuable information. And am I doing it in an interesting and entertaining way?

And every now and then when I've got angry about something and am about to dash off a ranty email castigating some poor soul who served me the wrong type of coffee or whose software was full of bugs, it gives me pause for thought.

Is that really the person I want to be? Because it's not the person I want to follow.

Worth thinking about.

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The problem with a “high want” offer…

Posted byIan Brodie on February 27th, 2022.

I've been singing the praises of “high want” offers in my last few posts. Products and services that your clients already know they want so you don't have to spend half your life convincing them they need it.

But there's an obvious problem with a high want offer.

Sure as eggs is eggs, if there's something people really want, you won't be the only person offering it.

So, of course, you need a really good reason why someone would buy from you rather than the other folks who offer something similar.

There are lots of ways of doing that. But most of them, frankly, are hard work.

They involve persuading, explaining and worst of all, thinking!

And you have to do it time and time again for everything you offer.

For me, a better way…no, an easier way, not necessarily better…is to build a fan-level following.

What I mean by that is you need enough people who already trust you, like you and want to buy from you that when you offer something they want, half the battle is won.

Pete Smissen said this in our Course Builder's TV interview recently.

There are plenty of courses that teach English. And language teaching is a mature subject so there aren't many clever new innovations you can bring to the party.

But you can differentiate through your personality and through the relationships you build with potential clients.

You can be the person who shares brilliant new ideas or the person who tells interesting stories or the person gives the most practical tips or a whole host of different things.

And the relationships you build (or dare I say it, the personal brand you create) differentiates everything you do and gives people a reason to buy that you don't need to update every time.

These relationships that make you the person your audience wants to work with are what I mean by a fan-level following. They're an asset you build bit by bit over time and that repays exponentially.

Kind of like the compound interest of the marketing world.

You don't need millions of “fans”. But you need enough that you're not forever scrabbling around trying to find an audience for everything you sell and trying to convince them to buy from you. Or having to work with people who are less than an ideal fit.

Having a following of people who prefer to buy from you is what makes the difference between marketing being hard work vs something you can actually fit into your life.

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4 paths to a “high want” offer

Posted byIan Brodie on February 20th, 2022.

Last week I said that for a “life-friendly business” you need to focus on selling something that people already know they want and that you don't have to convince them they need.

Life's just too short basically.

But if people don't immediately “get it” right now – does that mean you have to start again from scratch?

Usually not.

Sometimes it's just a matter of changing how you describe what you do so that they get it much quicker.

As experts, it's too easy to think that the big benefits of what you do are obvious. But to “normal” people, they rarely are. Time spent spelling out how what you do gives people what they really want is always time well spent.

Sometimes you can get to a “high want” product by narrowing down and focusing on one part of your offer or one specific problem you solve.

It takes a rare and enlightened business owner to wake up in the morning thinking “I wish I was a better leader”. But very many wake up wishing they didn't have such high staff turnover, or that their team would pull their weight more, or that meetings weren't so painful or…

Talk about the specific problems you solve, not about the generic skill you teach. Then when you've helped them and established trust, you can talk to them about bigger goals and opportunities.

Sometimes you can get to high want by re-using your skills to solve a different problem that's more front-of-mind. Or by using skills you have, but haven't offered to clients before.

I mentioned last week that early on in my own business I took the skills I'd built up in marketing and selling consulting services for the firms I'd worked for and started advising and teaching clients how to do the same.

And finally, you might find that a service that isn't high want for one type of client is high want for another.

When my wife Kathy first started her business offering training to nursery schools we assumed that the biggest demand would come from lower performing schools wanting to improve. So that's where we focused her marketing.

But it turned out that most low performing schools didn't really want to improve – I guess that's why they were low performing.

The schools who wanted to improve the most were the ones already rated as good or outstanding. They wanted to get even better – and we had much more success switching her marketing to focus on them.

Almost any business can be made more high want by asking yourself those 4 questions:

• Can I talk about my service differently to emphasise how it helps with something my clients already want?
• Can I narrow down and focus (initially) on the parts of my service they know they want, rather than the parts I think they need?
• Can I reuse my skills to offer a different service that clients are more aware they want?
• Can I focus on different clients who already know they want what I have?

Rather than getting frustrated with clients for not realising they need your help, ask those 4 questions to help you refocus on an easier path.

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Selling to Wants not Needs (don’t hate me for this)

Posted byIan Brodie on February 13th, 2022.

The next key component of the life-friendly business we've been talking about is to sell a “high want” product.

I'm sure you've been in the situation where you can see exactly what a client really needs, but the client doesn't see it for themselves.

To some degree, it's an occupational hazard for experts.

With expertise comes the ability to jump quickly from small symptoms to significant root causes in the same way Holmes could deduce Watson had been in Afghanistan from his demeanour, tan and injured arm.

Of course, clients often can't make those leaps from the problems they're experiencing to the real causes unaided.

Worse: they often don't even know they have a problem, or how big it is.

Given time, you could probably explain it (or better still, help them discover it for themselves).

But I'm going to suggest that if it takes a lot of explaining (or in other parlance, “selling”) for a client to realise they have a problem worth solving and that you have a great solution for them – then it may be you're selling the wrong thing.

It's not that you don't have what they need. Or that you couldn't convince them over time.

But it takes work.

And I'd rather spend my time solving a problem (and getting paid to do so) than spend it convincing someone that the problem needs solving.

I know that might sound a bit defeatist. And I know there are many, many problems that really need solving that take a lot of convincing.

But if you want an easier life, you have to decide not to focus on those sorts of problems.

There are plenty of big problems you could focus on where clients are well aware of the issue and want it solved. Or where it just takes a little bit of education for them to see the light.

A good rule of thumb for me is that if you can give someone a lightbulb moment in an email, blog post or video that gets them to realise what they really need and to want it, then it's a good area to work in.

If it takes a 2-hour call with them, it's not.

If you want to run a life-friendly business you have to take a good hard look at what you're offering to clients and ask yourself honestly whether it's something they already know they want.

If it is, or if it just takes a little bit of explaining, you're on the right track.

If it's not. If not enough clients quickly “get it”, then it's always going to be hard work.

And – don't hate me for this – I'm going to suggest you find something else to offer them.

That something else might just be a small twist on what you already do. Or a different way of presenting it so it's clearer to clients how it benefits them directly. Or it might be a very different way of using your skills and experience to help them.

When I first started out on my own I wanted to offer strategy and marketing services to smaller local businesses in the same way I'd been working with multinationals in my previous role.

After a few months of knocking on doors and very long conversations, I realised it was just too much hard work.

The vast majority of small businesses I spoke to were much more operationally focused. If something wasn't going to grow their sales or cut their costs in the next 6 months or less they just weren't interested.

I knew they needed a more strategic approach. But they didn't want one.

So I switched my focus to some of my other skills (marketing and selling services) for a different market (professional service firms) that already knew they had a problem and wanted a solution.

The upturn in my fortunes was pretty immediate.

I know it can hurt when you're convinced you have what a client really needs…if only they could see it.

But you're far better off changing tack to focus on something they can already see they need. Or focusing on a different type of client. 

It makes your marketing and selling an order of magnitude simpler and less time-consuming.

– Ian

PS Of course, it could have been that the small businesses were right and I was wrong. Maybe they didn't need a more strategic approach and focusing on the short term was more important for them. 

Either way, it doesn't matter. They weren't going to buy what I thought they needed without an awful lot of time spent convincing them – and maybe not even then. So changing tack was the right answer for both them and me.

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Leverage through products

Posted byIan Brodie on February 6th, 2022.

Another in our short series of posts about building a “life-friendly” business today.

Last time we talked about getting leverage through people – essentially building a team that runs your business for you. Before that we covered charging rockstar level fees as the means of getting high leverage.

The third high-leverage model is leverage through products.

In this model you create products which are then sold and don't require your time to deliver – hence the leverage.

Those products could be online courses, they could be books, they could be apps or other software.

The point is that most of your effort goes into the creation of the product which can then be sold many times without you needing to be involved personally. At least not anywhere near as much as with in-person services.

This is my own preferred model for getting leverage and freeing up my time so I'm rather biased towards it. I'm going to tell you a bit about why it can be a great model for solo professionals. But I'm also going to share the downsides too, because it's not perfect for everyone.

Firstly the upsides.

Creating courses has a bigger potential upside than (say) charging high fees. Your fees can only get so high before they max out the value you're delivering, or someone good starts offering something similar for less.

But the market for most products in terms of the number of potential customers is much, much higher.

Secondly, they give you much greater control over your time. You can create products when you want. You're not tied down to fitting in with a client's schedule.

Thirdly, they create an asset which can be sold. If you want to sell your business but your only “product” is the time you sell to clients, it's almost impossible for someone else to replace you.

But if your product is online courses or apps or books, they can be sold long after you're gone. And future products can be created without you too.

Products are a great way of increasing the value you give (and the revenue you get) from face to face clients too. They give you an easy option to add in to proposals and projects that doesn't cost you any more, yet can be hugely beneficial to clients.

And finally, they let you help a lot more people. Only a small elite can benefit from working with you personally. A much larger number can be helped through your products.

But it's not all a bed of roses.

Products can be much riskier. Even if you're smart and pre-sell your products and build them as you deliver them; there's still an amount of upfront investment you have to make with an unknown return.

With face-to-face services you tend not to start work until you have a contract in place. Often you may be paid in advance.

With products you tend to invest in building them, then you try to sell enough of them to cover your costs and make a profit.

Bigger potential upside. But a different and more uncomfortable business model if you're not used to working that way.

It takes a different skillset and style of working too.

Many coaches thrive on being in the moment with their clients and reacting to what they say. Many professional speakers get a huge buzz from being on stage. Many consultants do their very best work in partnership with their clients.

Making products is much more about working on your own to plan, design and build your product. It's usually about working with pen and paper, video cameras and technology rather than people.

Personally, I enjoy the creative freedom I get. But I know many people who started creating products to get the wonderful benefits but ended up giving up because they hated the working style.

It can also be a lot more competitive too. A client choosing a consultant or trainer to work with in person has a limited choice of those they can physically meet with. When they're buying an online course or book they can literally choose anyone in the world.

And finally, there's a lot more emphasis on marketing. Products are typically sold to more people for less each whereas in-person services are sold to fewer people for more each.

That means you need to reach a lot more people with your marketing for products rather than building closer relationships with a small number of potential clients. Again, a different style of working.

So although the benefits of getting leverage through products can be great, it's not for everyone.

Whichever model of leverage you prefer, the key is to build your business around that model rather than bouncing between them or getting stuck in the middle.

A rockstar fee model needs a lot of work to establish yourself as an expert worthy of high fees. A people-leverage business needs you to invest your time in building a brilliant team. A product-based business means you need to invest in creating and marketing products.

It sounds obvious when you see it written down, but the reality is that most people don't think about where they're going to get their leverage from and which will work best for them and their skills.

So they end up flipping between different approaches depending on which silver bullet is flavour of the month.

Or they end up in the muddy middle ground of selling their time, but not at high fees. Of having some staff, but not excelling at hiring or managing them. Of creating a couple of products, but not selling enough of them to make it worthwhile.

Low leverage. Low returns. Low levels of free time.

Instead, be clear on how you're going to get leverage and make it happen.

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Leverage through people

Posted byIan Brodie on January 30th, 2022.

Another in our short series of emails about building a “life-friendly” business today.

Last time we talked about the first type of high-leverage business model – charging rockstar fees.

The second high-leverage model is leverage through people.

This is the traditional professional service firm pyramid model where as your business grows you take on staff to perform more of the client work.

This model has stood the test of time over hundreds of years. It provides a high level of leverage for the firm's partners through the margin charged on more junior staff who carry out the day-to-day work.

Whether it's a great model for clients is a question for another day. But there's no doubt it provides a high income for partners, significantly beyond what they'd be able to achieve from their own fees alone.

However, it does have a number of disadvantages and it's not the high-leverage model I'd recommend for most.

Firstly, your time switches over from focusing on client work to managing others. And the emphasis of your skill set needs to switch from your core expertise to the skills of managing and hiring.

The requirements for marketing become greater too. Rather than just needing to be able to bring in work for yourself, each partner needs to bring in enough work to feed all the staff in their pyramid.

Many people enjoy that switch in emphasis. But if your goal is just to do the client work you love and get paid well for it then taking on staff isn't a great model. You'll end up spending your time doing the kind of stuff you don't enjoy while watching your staff do the work you love instead.

And most worryingly, in all my experience, I've never seen a professional service firm partner who doesn't work incredibly long hours. And for many, this has a damaging impact on their home life too.

Taking on staff is the default option many take when they're trying to grow. But frankly, while the pyramid leverage model can lead to high income, I don't think it leads to the kind of freedom and control (and frankly, fun) that I'm looking for in my business.

So I'd be very cautious about going down that route if you have similar goals yourself.

Next time I'll look at the third type of leveraged business model (and one I do recommend) – creating products to complement your services.