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You don’t have to do “the best” to succeed

Posted byIan Brodie on June 12th, 2016.

If you've hung around on forums or at events for any length of time you'll no doubt hear people asking “what's the best…?”

What's the best email system? What's the best landing page design?

What's the best way to introduce yourself? What are the best questions to ask?

And it's good to be on the lookout for good ideas and to try to understand what “best practice” looks like.

But you have to remember that best practice for someone else might not be best practice for you. Or it might be only marginally better and not worth the costs of switching.

Even if something would work better for you, you just might not want to do it.

Every now and then I do webinars to promote a product and I usually have a deadline for whatever I'm offering. I'll send follow up emails after the webinar and try to make each one useful, with a reminder of the deadline. 

Now I absolutely know for a fact that I would get more sales if I sent more emails and was more aggressive in each one. Pretty much every test I've seen has shown that sending 2, 3 or even 4 or more emails on the last day of a deadline gets you more sales.

But it's just not something I want to do to my audience.

It's not even about long term vs short term. In my mind, it's about being a decent person and not trying to bludgeon out every possible sale. 

(Yeah, I know the line about how if you believe your product helps people it's your duty to get them to buy it. I think that's just a convenient rationalisation for over-aggressive salespeople).

Being successful in business isn't about maximising sales or profits. it's about maximising how good you feel. As long as you're doing well, I don't think those extra few sales are worth it.

So don't assume that you need to do the absolute “best” thing in everything you do. Make the choices that work for you.

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The ruthless economics of the internet

Posted byIan Brodie on June 5th, 2016.

Do you remember when life used to be simpler?

Like 2 or 3 weeks ago :)

Seriously though, marketing definitely used to be easier a few years ago.

Back then if you wanted potential clients to look up to you as an expert you just had to be the best at what you did amongst the people they were likely to meet.

And the people they were likely to meet were largely the folks who rocked up to the same networking meetings as them.

That's where all the advice to focus on a niche came in. If you were niche focused you'd automatically be seen as more of an expert than the generalists.

These days it's not quite so easy. Not only can people find experts on pretty much anything they want via Google, the experts are reaching out to them proactively via Facebook and Linkedin ads.

So you don't even need to go searching to find an expert in pretty much any topic.

It means the local experts are no longer the only game in town.

Sure, some people only buy from people they've met face to face. But they're a diminishing crowd. 

If you want to be seen as an expert these days, then just focusing on a niche isn't enough. People who focus on the exact same niche are everywhere.

The ruthless economics of the web mean that where you once were a premium provider locally, you're now a commodity.

Nowadays, as well as a tight niche, you also need to be saying something different to that niche. Something your competitors aren't saying. You need better and more interesting ideas. You need a reason why people should listen to you rather than all the other people they can find in your field with a quick stab at their keyboard.

What's your reason?

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Overcompleximifying!

Posted byIan Brodie on May 29th, 2016.

One of the best things I ever did with my marketing was to simplify it.

I used to try to do waaay too many different things. I suspect my natural arrogance told me I could be great at everything.

But I can't.

I'm pretty good at writing these emails. That's because I've written over a thousand of them. The ones I write today as so much better than the ones I started writing nearly 10 years ago.

The same goes with blog posts, webinars, presentation, networking, etc.

I only do a handful of marketing activities today. But because I do them often I do them pretty darned well. 

Do you try to do too much? 

If so, it's probably because you're hoping to hit on the “one thing” that will get amazing results for you. 

But the truth is there isn't one thing that will knock the ball out of the park every time. And it certainly won't the very first time you do it. 

You need to pick a small number of marketing tactics that seem a good fit for you and keep at them. The more you do them the better you'll get and the better your results will be. 

Simplify, simplify, simplify. 

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This old saying still rings 100% true

Posted byIan Brodie on May 27th, 2016.

“Keep It Simple Stupid” is a phrase apparently coined by Kelly Johnson, the lead engineer at the Lockheed Skunk Works, responsible for the Blackbird spy plane amongst others.

Sometimes we use the phrase to mean we should keep things simple so (stupid) people don't make mistakes.

But its original meaning is better I think: that the very best designs are simple ones.

I was on Skype a couple of nights ago chatting with Steve Gordon of “Unstoppable Referrals” fame. We were bouncing ideas and swapping stories of what has worked well for us in our marketing.

One common theme we found: our simplest marketing got the best results.

It's oh-so tempting to add complexity and sophistication to your marketing. To create complex “funnels” with multiple paths for different situations.

But at the end of the day, the marketing that works best is the marketing that really hits on an urgent need your ideal clients have and offers a clear solution to that need.

In the past few weeks we've talked a lot about lead generation. We've covered lead magnets, getting the attention of your audience, engaging them.

Through all this, make sure you're keeping it simple.

Focus your efforts on getting one great lead magnet that solves one problem for your ideal client. Find one reliable source of traffic and connections, and use one method of engaging and following up.

Get that running smoothly before you add anything else. And when you do add something, do it step by step. One new thing at a time. Get that running smoothly before adding anything else.

Keep it simple.

It's not just easier, it works better.

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I’ve wasted far too much time doing this

Posted byIan Brodie on May 22nd, 2016.

Here's something I've wasted FAR too much time doing. You'd do well to avoid making my mistake :)

What I do is I spend endless hours trying to find the “best” way of doing whatever it is I want to do.

Even if that thing isn't important.

Even if the difference between the best way of doing something and the average way of doing it makes little to no practical difference to my results.

I've spent more time trying to find the best “to do list” system and software than I could ever save by using it. By orders of magnitude.

I've spent more time trying to find the best wireless headphones than I could ever notice in sound quality if I lived to be 100.

And most importantly, I've wasted a ton of time trying to find the “best” marketing methods when I should have just been implementing good ones.

I know I'm not the only one. I've worked with clients who've gone round and round in circles trying to find the “perfect” niche for them – ignoring fantastic opportunities in the process. Or who never launch their lead magnet because it's not quite as good as it could be.

Of course, we want to do our best work. But as long as we do something that's good enough we can always come back and improve it over time.

In fact, with anything that involves clients, we can never really know what is best in advance of trying it with them. So trying to reach perfection in the comfort of our own world is really an illusion.

Get something good – be that a lead magnet, target market, marketing method – and try it out. If it works, great, start improving it. If it doesn't, great, now you know and can try something else.

More Clients Memorandum

There’s only one solution to this painful problem

Posted byIan Brodie on May 15th, 2016.

Every now and then I get an email from someone that runs along the lines of…

“Ian, I love your material and your ideas, but….”

…and what comes next usually makes me cringe because it's a problem I suffer from myself….

“…I have so much on, I'm really struggling to make the time to implement what you recommend”.

Sound familiar?

It certainly is to me. I take on too many projects. Get too excited by shiny new things.

In some senses, it's fear of missing out. I've got to try that exciting new marketing tool just in case it turns out to be the best thing ever.

It never does, of course. And the time I spent learning it and trying to get it to work is time I'm not spending on the core of my business which I already know gets results.

Crazy.

But very easily done.

Are you trying to do too much and getting overwhelmed?

The only solution, really, is to scale back. Stop doing some of the things which might work a bit, but aren't huge winners for you.

Years ago I scaled back on face-to-face networking. Then I stopped answering the phone unless it was a pre-arranged call.

I've significantly cut back on some social media too.

You're only going to make big progress if you really focus on some key activities in your business. Make sure they're the right ones.

More Clients Memorandum

The paradox that stops your clients buying

Posted byIan Brodie on May 8th, 2016.

What does it take for someone to be ready to buy?

Usually, they need some kind of big problem or opportunity you can help them solve. Something big enough to justify the pain, cost and time of making the change.

But what if they're not aware of that big problem?

Frankly, that's most often the case. After all, if they were fully aware of their big problem or challenge they'd be working on it already.

So it's your job to educate them and show them the huge opportunity they're missing, right? Show them the big mistakes they're making that you can fix?

Hmmmm.

Has anyone ever shown you a big mistake you've been making?

How did you react?

Unless you're some kind of angel, then chances are that your immediate reaction to being told you were wrong or making a big mistake was probably indignation. 

Maybe followed by a determination to prove your accuser wrong. Or at least to argue your case.

It's human nature really, we hate to be wrong. Or at least, we hate to be shown to be wrong.

Psychologists call it the “backfire effect”. When your beliefs are challenged with evidence, especially deeply held beliefs, then rather than reform your beliefs you tend to reject the evidence and harden your beliefs.

So we're left with a paradox.

We need to challenge our clients and get them to see they have problems in order for them to buy. But the most likely outcome of that challenge is that they push back against us. 

How do we break that paradox?

One way is to get our potential clients to discover their problems for themselves. Give them a diagnostic they can do that will enable them to see where they're going wrong. 

Or tell them a story about how you or one of your clients discovered the problem yourselves and they'll learn by analogy. 

Or “let them off the hook”. Give them a valid reason for why they're making the mistake that doesn't make them feel stupid or challenged. Maybe these new opportunities have arisen through new technology. Or a new way of organising things. Or maybe they were too busy focusing on other areas to notice this.

However you do it, you need to avoid triggering the kind of push-back that will prevent your client from seeing the truth and from buying from you.

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Try this, it works.

Posted byIan Brodie on May 1st, 2016.

One thing I'm horrendously guilty of is overthinking thinks.

Maybe you are too.

So when I want to do a marketing campaign to promote a new program or relaunch an existing one I usually end up overcooking it in the first draft.

I'll think about all the free content I'll send first. Then how I'll tag everyone interested in that. Then a follow-up sequence. Then more value. Then maybe a webinar. Then after some more twists and turns, maybe I'll actually ask people for the order.

What my superdupercomplex campaign forgets though is that in any audience, some people genuinely are ready to buy right now.

A small percentage of course. But if you only need a small percentage for, say, a pilot, then don't make them jump through hoops.

Just tell them what you've got to offer and ask if they're interested and want more details.

An email reply will do. No need to set up complex funnels with application forms to fill in. That all dehumanises the process anyway. Just ask your gang if they're interested. Email them more details if they are. Jump on a call if needed. then ask them if they want to buy.  

I tried it recently. It worked. 

Now, of course, next time it won't be so straight-line. Most of the folks who are ready have said yes already so I'll need to do more nurturing for everyone else.

But the first time you promote something, keep it simple. 

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Are you brave enough to fail in public

Posted byIan Brodie on April 24th, 2016.

Something I very much admire in some of the people I follow online is a willingness to fail in public.

What I mean by that is that there are a small number of people (though growing) who are on a path to becoming seen as experts not by figuring things out in private and then unleashing their newfound genius on the world. But by letting us see behind the curtain as they try, fail, try again, fail again, then eventually succeed.

One case in point is Aaron Orrendorff. He's a writer I connected with after he wrote an article on the top 10 experts on email marketing that I was named in.

Aaron sells his services to organisations as an expert writer of content. That could be blog posts, articles, landing pages, adverts.

So you'd think that he'd do his very best to only let the world see all his successes, his testimonials and the big name companies he's worked for.

Well he does that. But he also lets you see his work in progress. He has a project going on right now he calls “#letsgetrejected” where he's on a quest to write for big prestigious magazines like Forbes, Entrepreneur, Inc etc.

His end game, I believe, is to sell his services teaching others how to do the same. But instead of doing his learning in private and then emerging as a fully formed expert, he's letting us see his progress as he goes along.

On his Facebook page he's documenting the places he's trying to write for, the ones he gets accepted for, and the ones he gets rejected by.

He's not playing the “know it all” game at all. He's asking for help and ideas when he gets rejected. 

And all the time he's building a following of people cheering him on. 

It doesn't matter to them (I should say “us” really, as I'm one of them) that he's not getting a 100% acceptance rate. We feel like we're part of his journey. And it feels more realistic too. It feels like we can learn more from him and all the hard work and learning he's done than someone who seems to have been a natural. 

I've not yet been brave enough to make all the thing I do public. But when I do (like when I challenged myself to get 10,000 new email subscribers in a year but had to change tack mid-way through) it's worked out incredibly well for me. People seem to love following the journey and it raises rather than lowers your credibility to see you grow and develop.

I guess there's a reason People magazine has about 5 times the circulation of Business Week. We're interested in people and their stories.

Could you be more public about your successes and failures? Could you do a public project where you document what you're doing and let people see behind the scenes?

It's a great way to build a following and learn as you go along.

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Don’t be a bully

Posted byIan Brodie on April 17th, 2016.

As you'd probably expect from someone who's written a pretty decent-selling book on Email Marketing, I subscribe to a lot of emails. Particularly emails from people who have a reputation for being good at it.

There's a pattern I've seen over the last few years from some of these “email experts” that I find pretty distasteful and I want to call it out to help you avoid falling into the trap yourself.

One of the things I like is “edgy” emails. People who aren't afraid to express a strong opinion. To point out things they think are wrong or disagree with. To highlight hypocrisy and call out fakers. 

The thing with expressing a strong opinion is that some people will disagree. That's only natural: if no one disagreed then it would be a pretty bland opinion.

But some people with edgy opinions appear to be pretty thin-skinned.

Worse, they seem to be so insecure that they find it necessary to belittle people who disagree with them.

I see it time and time again. Guru X will send out an email with a deliberately provocative opinion in it. Then they'll get some complaints from people and their next email will be spent telling you why you shouldn't care about people disagreeing with you while simultaneously demonstrating they absolutely do care about people disagreeing with them because they spend most of the email belittling the people who disagreed.

Here's the thing: it's great to have strong opinions and to call out people in power for things you disagree with.

But to belittle email subscribers who write in to you who have no means of redress and no power themselves. That's just bullying.

You upset them. Live with it. Don't go all sulky and try to justify yourself and get some validation from your crowd by having a go at them.

Email bullies think their nastiness and rabble-rousing builds a strong following which leads to more sales.

And, of course, all bullies have their gangs of cronies who hang on their every word and cheer their nastiness.

But I don't want those sort of people as clients. I bet you don't either. 

So please. If you're subscribed to someone's emails and you see them repeatedly belittle the dissenting voices in their crowd and then tell you that you should do the same – don't listen to them.

Be the kind of person who stands up for the little guy, not the kind of person who bullies them.