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Is this holding you back?

Posted byIan Brodie on November 8th, 2016.

When you first start up your business, money is usually pretty tight. But what you do have on your side is time.

If you invest that time in marketing activity: calling your old contacts and grabbing a coffee with them, networking, maybe doing some presentations, then you'll start to get clients.

Do more of it and you'll get more clients.

But the rub is, working with clients takes time. Eventually you reach a point where you can't invest any more time in getting new clients because you're busy working with the ones you've got.

You end up stuck on a hamster wheel running faster and faster just to stay in the same place. 

Very many businesses hit this barrier. They can't grow because their only way of getting new clients is through their own activity and the time they spend doing marketing.

To break through that barrier you need to switch from solely using activity to win clients to using “assets”. Just like the way in the industrial revolution businesses switched from using human activity to make things to using machinery.

What's an asset in the marketing sense?

It's anything you can create and then use that will win you clients without needing to keep spending your time on.

Your reputation or brand for example. For most of us that means our status as an authority in our field. 

It could be automation. The email marketing I do needs me to set up the system in the first place and write each email. But they can be used again and again for thousands of subscribers without any extra activity from me.

One of the most powerful but frequently avoided assets is advertising.

We don't often think of advertising as an asset, but if you have a profitable advertising campaign you can run it again and again without it needing your own activity. And since it's profitable, it pays for itself and you can reinvest the profits in more advertising to grow fast.

These days, with advertising options on Google, Facebook and Linkedin we can zero in on our ideal clients far more reliably than ever before, making advertising online much less risky.

Yet many smaller businesses are still shy of advertising, preferring to spend time on “free” approaches to marketing rather than spending money. But in the end, it's lack of time that will kill your business growth. 

Tomorrow I'll talk about how you can overcome that fear of spending money on advertising.

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Why value always wins in the end

Posted byIan Brodie on November 6th, 2016.

As I get more experienced in marketing (or perhaps it's really as I get older) I've come to focus more and more on the basics.

On simple principles that work time and time again.

And perhaps the simplest and most powerful is the principle of giving value.

Marketing at its essence is a battle for attention. If you want someone to buy from you or you want to build a relationship with them, or pretty much anything significant, then you need their attention.

So does everyone else out there. And your potential clients only have so much attention to give.

If you want attention, there are three main ways to get it:

1. You can buy it. You can run ads interrupting their favourite TV show or appearing on their Facebook newsfeed for example.

2. You can steal it. Cold call them when they're not expecting it. Schmooze them at a networking event where it would be rude just to walk away.

3. Or, the best method: you can earn it. You can do something that makes them want to give you their attention.

For most of us, the best way to earn attention is to give value. To write insightful articles, share useful videos, introduce potential clients to people and events that could help them.

The more value you give, the more attention you get.

It feels better too :)

What value are you going to give this week?

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When and where are you most productive?

Posted byIan Brodie on November 4th, 2016.

Hi – I had a rather productive week this week after my ups and downs of the week before.

I really powered through creating a new webinar and you should see me talking about the ideas more in the next few weeks.

One thing that worked well for me this week was being smarter about when and where I try to do my work.

Over the years I've noticed I have two times I'm most productive. First thing in the morning and late at night.

Now I'm not an early riser, so timewise “first thing in the morning” for me is late morning for most. But the point is that usually you're at your freshest about an hour or so after you first get up.

That's prime time for doing hard thinking work.

Instead, we usually burn our brain energy reading emails and checking social media. 

So this week I was strict with myself, avoided the emails/social early on and it paid off. I found that doing planning and analytical type activities first thing in the morning worked particularly well.

By the middle of the day my brain tends to be a bit worn out so I did things that weren't so cognitively taxing. Reading and replying to email, doing some research for data I needed for my webinar, general reading.

In the afternoons I found going for a walk, grabbing a coffee or spending some time chatting to Kathy was a great use of my time.

Then, as usual, I got a burst of energy in the late evenings. I found that sitting quietly by myself from about 8pm onwards I could make great progress on things that needed a bit of creativity: writing my content emails for example, or working on my webinar presentation.

Location made a big difference too.

I don't know about you, but sitting at my desk just doesn't work well for me when I'm trying to be creative.

By the way, I don't mean creative in the Michaelangelo sense. I just mean thinking up ideas for slides or coming up with the content for an article. The kind of thing most of us need to do on a regular basis and that's actually pretty important. The better our presentations, articles, videos, and emails, the more impact we make.

Creating content usually has two phases: coming up with the ideas and structuring them, and then getting them down in electronic ink.

Obviously, you have to do the latter on a computer. But for the former I find I make much faster progress with better quality outputs if I go and sit somewhere quiet. Usually either in our conservatory or I take myself off to a coffee shop and sit wearing headphones. 

Physically I find it better for creativity to sit relaxed in a comfy seat using pen and paper (or iPad and pencil) than being sat upright at a desk. Even when I had a “proper” job I would forever be popping out of the office to get work done :)

What works for you might be completely different to what works for me, of course. The important thing is to find out your own preferences and then use them to your advantage. 

When was the last time you consciously thought about your work environment and about changing it to optimise your productivity?

Maybe a background task for the weekend?

More Clients Memorandum

The secret source of leads most people ignore

Posted byIan Brodie on November 2nd, 2016.

There's a “secret” source of leads that most people tend to ignore – especially online.

It's much cheaper and more effective than the usual sources of leads. But we tend to avoid it because we don't know how to approach it.

That source of leads? Your existing contacts.

Now that might sound like cheating a bit – surely they can't be leads if you already know them or have them on your email list.

But very often we let those contacts go cold.

They haven't bitten in the first few weeks since we first met or they signed up, so we kind of stop communicating with them. Or we're happy just to send our regular newsletter hoping one day they'll “wake up” and get more interested.

And we then trot off to spend a fortune (in time or money) trying to get new leads rather than making more from what we've got.

It's crazy really. So much effort on connecting with them in the first place and we just give up on them if they don't immediately bite.

Now I don't mean nagging or chasing or spamming.

In fact, I think it's our fear of being annoying that holds us back from making the most of our existing contacts. We're worried that since they didn't seem immediately interested; if we keep offering things to them we'll annoy them.

So here's a simple method you can use to reactivate your leads in a way that builds credibility and trust rather than hurts it.

I call it a Value Reactivation campaign. Well, truthfully, prior to this email I didn't have a good name for it. But from now on I'm calling it a Value Reactivation campaign :) 

It's based on the same principles as my Re-Ignite process – but has a little bit more techological intelligence built in. Here's what you do.  

The first step is to create a useful piece of content in an area where you have an offer. A comprehensive blog post or short video is ideal.

You then share that content with your email subscribers or personal contacts. The key here is tracking – you need to know who clicks through to read or watch the content. Most email marketing systems will let you do that, and for personal emails you can use a tool like Mixmax.

You can re-promote that content from a different angle to people who don't initially click through to it because the chances are they just didn't see the original email rather than they saw it and decided not to click.

At the end of the content, you make your offer. That might be a small product for sale which is a next step from the free content, or some kind of strategy call or high-value briefing which again takes them further in the area of the content.

For example, you might offer a free video with your best tips on improving your Linkedin profile, followed by an offer for your online training course on winning clients with Linkedin. Or a strategy call to help them with a roadmap for making the most of social media with the offer of your coaching support afterwards.

The key is that the offer you make should be of specific value to people who are interested in the free content. Don't offer your course on interpersonal selling skills after content on Linkedin for example. Offer something that takes them further, faster, in the area your free content focused on.

You can then follow-up on that offer via email to the people you know clicked through to the content.

The key here is that you're “preaching to the converted”. You're not sending an offer cold to someone. You're sending a reminder of a highly relevant offer to someone you know is interested in the area based on their behaviour – ie they clicked through to content in that area. And you've already built credibility and trust because of the quality of the content.

The end result is that you send something of value for free to your contacts, and only do a gentle “pitch” to people you already know will be receptive because their behaviour has demonstrated an interest.

Sounds like something even the most timid of us could do to re-active our contacts.

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Fish in the right ponds for clients

Posted byIan Brodie on November 1st, 2016.

More on lead generation today, following on from my previous emails on the mindset shift that helps you get more leads and the vital importance of using a powerful lead magnet. 

One of the conundrums you're inevitably going to face when you're looking to get more leads is where to invest your time.

Should I be looking for referrals, doing presentations, going networking, paying for ads on Linkedin?

There really is no one-size-fits-all answer. But the following questions can help you:

Firstly, where do I know my ideal clients “hang out”?

Be honest with yourself. Last time you went to that comfortable regular networking meeting with the same friendly faces you go to every week, how many actual potential clients were there?

Yes, I know that you never know who the other people might know (though asking them might help). But there are plenty of places where you can meet potential clients along with potential introducers.

I've known consultants looking for large multinationals as clients spend endless hours in networking events with local plumbers and accountants just because, well, it's easier than trying to find a bigger, more expensive, more distant event that their potential clients actually go to.

And don't make assumptions either: test. To my eternal shame I was absolutely convinced that my clients would never be seen dead on Facebook and so I didn't even try advertising there because it would have been pointless.

Thank heavens for a prod I got from a friend: it's been my best source of new leads online for the last 2 years.

Secondly, can you actually reach your ideal clients via this method?

An event that you can't get an invite to doesn't help. And although pretty much everyone is on Facebook, sometimes it's difficult to find good criteria to target them by.

So don't be satisfied just knowing where your clients are, you have to be able to reach them there.

Finally, do they respond?

I've found I can reach my potential clients easily and accurately via Linkedin Advertising. But they don't respond as well as with Facebook Ads. I guess maybe it's because they have something in mind when they're on Linkedin and they're more casually browsing and so open to checking out new things (like my ad) on Facebook.

A lot of networking events are full of potential clients. The problem is they're all there to sell, not build relationships. So those events tend not to work well for lead generation.

Final tip: focus on a small number of ponds to fish in. Don't spread yourself too thinly or you'll have no impact. 

Pick two or three sources of leads – ideally with at least one offline and at least one online. Offline methods tend to work faster as you can build relationships quicker face to face. But they don't scale easily and they don't have the reach of online methods.

Stick with a small number of balanced sources of leads and you'll do well.

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Please don’t do marketing like this

Posted byIan Brodie on October 30th, 2016.

Got handed a brochure recently where the text on the front cover began…

“In a time of hyper discontinuity, relying on old ways and patterns is dangerous”.

I must admit I can't help but read it like it was a promo for a hollywood blockbuster movie.

What on earth does it mean? Who knows.

I'm not even sure that “a time of hyper discontinuity” makes any sense. Obviously it must be more discontinuity than just a common or garden time of discontinuity. But perhaps not as much discontinuity as a time of mega discontinuity.

Sadly, the brochure was handed to me at a marketing conference too.

Why on earth do people write nonsense like this?

Well, I think it's for two reasons. 

Firstly they want to impress. To prompt you to take action. That makes sense.

But secondly, they've got lazy.

The brochure was actually from a bunch of lawyers who help businesses relocate to places where they pay lower rents, but get better access to talent.

(It took me about 10 minutes to figure that out by the way. The rest of the brochure was no clearer!)

Instead of generic puffery about “hyper discontinuity” they could have got their point across by using specifics.

They could have reported on the typical cost savings their customers could get. Or data on the education levels of the inhabitants of their locations to show how you could get access to the talent you needed. Or data on the number of businesses relocating.

Or frankly, no end of real information that proves to you that something big is changing rather than just claiming it with generic nonsense like “in a time of hyper discontinuity…”.

Now the purpose of me sharing this example isn't just to have a dig at these bad marketers. It's a reminder that this is an easy trap to fall into for all of us.

We all want to impress and to get our potential clients to take action.

And we're all busy people. So there's a big temptation to use whatever first springs to mind because it sounds good.

But if we're not careful we end up with our own version of this generic puffery. I've done it myself.

Instead, make sure you do the hard work to dig up the specifics that illustrate your case, rather than resorting to flowery language. It will be much, much more powerful.

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3 things you MUST do to attract more leads

Posted byIan Brodie on October 28th, 2016.

Yesterday I spoke about how, if you want to get more leads, you need to focus on potential clients just becoming aware of their problems and challenges rather than people who are already ready to buy.

And I promised that today I'd talk about how you can do that.

You might have already guessed that I'm going to talk about the principle of Value In Advance and using a “Lead Magnet”. After all, I've been banging on about them for almost 10 years :)

But there's a twist.

While the concept of giving away something of value to attract potential clients is now pretty commonplace, it's usually done pretty badly.

A lot of the lead magnets you see being used – even by so-called experts – end up attracting the wrong sort of person entirely. They get a big email list they can show off about, but very few actual clients.

Here are 3 things you must do with your lead magnet to attract the right leads.

Firstly, your lead magnet must deliver real value. 

Sounds obvious, but how often have you signed up for a free report or checklist, read it, then thought “meh”.

Doing what I do, I obviously sign up for and download a ton of free reports and other lead magnets and honestly, I'd say about two-thirds or more of them are just a waste of space. They offer no new or insightful information at all. Just the same old stuff repackaged.

It's like they spent more time on a fancy headline and landing page than they spent on the lead magnet itself.

So now they have my email address, but they've lost all credibility. The chances of me buying from them are nil because I'm going to assume that anything they have to sell is going to be equally as mediocre.

So rule #1: make your lead magnet super high value. Make sure it leads to quick results or progress on a tricky problem your clients face.

Secondly, your lead magnet must qualify your ideal clients.

What I mean by that is your lead magnet shouldn't just be valuable to everyone in your market. It should be especially valuable (ideally only valuable) to your ideal clients.

An example: my online training is for consultants, coaches and other professional service providers. And the majority of my folks are sole practitioners or run small firms. That means they don't have a ton of free time to spend on marketing. 

So while I love playing around with advanced marketing techniques myself, there's no point in me creating a lead magnet that shows you how to set up a complex marketing funnel, for example, as my ideal clients just won't have the time to do it. That kind of lead magnet will attract full-time professional marketers and geeks rather than the busy professionals I create my products for.

Instead, my lead magnet needs to focus on marketing techniques that don't take a ton of time to do, work for service businesses and, ideally, leverage the expertise and experience my folks have.

Create your lead magnet so that it's especially attractive to your ideal clients, and less attractive to others.

Thirdly,  your lead magnet should trigger a “lightbulb moment”.

In some ways, this is an extension of the principle of making your lead magnet truly valuable. But it goes further.

One of the biggest challenges we face, especially if we deliver high-value products and services, isn't that we lose out to better competitors.

It's that our clients choose to do nothing at all. Even though they know you're an expert and that what you do has great benefit, they're happy with what they've got. Or they're comfortable making minor improvements.

If your lead magnet is valuable but doesn't challenge their perception that what they've got is good enough or just needs minor improvement, then they're not going to shell out for a major piece of work with you.

So a lead magnet that teaches people a better way of doing something they already knew about won't have anywhere near the impact of a lead magnet that introduces something completely new to them or gets them to reframe their way of thinking.

Don't get me wrong: this isn't easy. You don't have to nail it to have a good lead magnet. But if you do, the impact can be so much higher. 

In my “21 Word Email” for example, I don't just give people a better template for emailing the contacts they're already speaking to. I show them that there's a group of people who are great prospects that they're completely overlooking.

For many people that triggers a lightbulb to go off in their brain. They begin to think “woah – I'd never thought of that but he's absolutely right”. It highlights something they've been doing wrong in their marketing for a long, long time and opens them to the idea that they might need to change.

Of course, they're unlikely to immediately spend a fortune just after reading a lead magnet or even after implementing it and getting results. But it has begun to open their mind to the idea that maybe what they're doing today isn't enough. Maybe there are some things they could do that would get them much better results.

And so their journey begins with a more open mind…

That's it from me today. It's been a long email but these tips will make a big difference to the effectiveness of your lead magnet.

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Productivity ups and downs

Posted byIan Brodie on October 28th, 2016.

Hi – I feel like a bit of a fraud sending you an email giving you productivity tips this week.

Truth is, I've wasted a ton of time myself.

On Monday I got obsessed with a little technical website problem.

I was trying to get some extra details in the tracking I do so I could trace back subscribers to the original web page they signed up from. I got things working on my site, then installed the exact same changes on Kathy's site (which has an almost identical setup to mine) and it just wouldn't work.

I spent literally hours trying everything I could think of to get it to work, but to no avail.

And the truth is, that extra little bit of information will hardly make any difference at all. But I got obsessed with the problem. I couldn't stop until I solved it.

I was a classic case of “throwing good money after bad”. Except it was “throwing good time after bad”. And time is in much shorter supply than money.

They say persistence is an important trait for entrepreneurs. But sometimes it's even more important to realise when what you're chasing isn't actually worth it and to give up.

So that was the Down.

The Up for me this week was something I mentioned last week: using pen and paper (or in my case my iPad and Apple Pencil).

I got so much good thinking work done by hand writing, drawing and doodling that I've almost stopped using my little Macbook. There's something about writing or drawing things by hand that seems to stimulate the little grey cells and enable you to concentrate for longer periods. I'd recommend it.

The other thing I've found really speeds up my thinking and creative work is to try to explain what I'm thinking to others. It seems to force me to either clarify my thoughts or realise they're not as solid as they should be.

This week I did a short Facebook Live broadcast for Momentum Club members on “The Expert Myth and the Power of a Disruptive Point of View”. By the end of the broadcast I had a couple of additional good ideas to help me take this project further.

I also had a number of calls with my “idea buddy” Lee during the week to bounce ideas backwards and forwards on things we were working on. 

If you haven't got someone yourself who you can do this kind of 2-person brainstorming with it's well worth finding someone. You learn when you have to explain your idea to them, and you learn when you get feedback from them. It gets you much further, faster, than trying to figure it all out by yourself.

That's it for this week. Apologies for the slightly late email: Kathy and I have been doing a bit of “off-peak living”: we went to see the 2pm showing of Dr Strange in an empty cinema :)

See you next week

– Ian

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You want me to choose you? Prove it

Posted byIan Brodie on October 23rd, 2016.

Have you ever spent time trying to come up with a Value Proposition or Unique Selling Proposition?

It's hard work, but important.

You have to be able to succinctly state what value clients get from working with you and why they should choose you rather than anyone else.

That can be a tough mental challenge and it deservedly gets a lot of attention.

But there's one equally important area that I find gets massively overlooked: proof.

You see, no matter how beautifully constructed your Value Proposition or USP is, no matter how cleverly it tells people how great you are and how much better than your competitors; these days most clients just won't believe it.

Maybe not outright disbelief, but they'll certainly be skeptical.

It's too easy in the world of professional services to make all sorts of bold claims. But what most firms rarely do is back them up with proof.

Proof could come in the form of a guarantee that you'll get results. Or your track record, qualifications, awards or previous experience.

It could come in the form of testimonials or reviews.

Or best of all, you can demonstrate your capabilities by giving Value in Advance. Give your potential clients something free they can use which gives them real results and a sense of what they'd get by working with you.

That's real proof. 

So next time you spend a bunch of time and energy creating or revising your USP or similar statement; make sure you spend as much time thinking about how you can prove it too.