Ian Brodie on May 12th, 2021.
Most of us – and I include myself in this – are just far too anonymous.
We can do amazing things for clients. We've got brilliant ideas. We can really help them.
But just not enough of them know who we are, what we do and how we can help.
In this episode of More Clients TV I look at why that is, the two big reasons that cause it, and what you can do about it.
Ian Brodie on May 5th, 2021.
Over the years. I've created or advised on the creation of literally hundreds of marketing plans. Right from small one-person businesses through to billion-dollar corporations.
And almost all of them – even the really big companies – have all had one missing vital component that puts their success at serious risk.
In this Episode of More Clients TV I reveal what that missing link is, how to fix it, and what I've found is the best approach to implement that fix.
Ian Brodie on April 28th, 2021.
If you want to stand out and be remembered, you need to be doing something different.
Typically when we think about differentiation we think about “big difference” – our value proposition, niche and service offers. But often that “big difference” doesn't actually make any difference to our day to day lives.
We disappear off to a retreat, brainstorm our difference, update our website, then move on and keep doing the same old things we did before.
Usually what makes the biggest impact on clients and potential clients isn't what we say about how we're different. It's what we do differently.
It's the little stuff we do every day they notice. This episode of More Clients TV explains how.
Ian Brodie on April 25th, 2021.
…c'est la meme chose of course.
I discovered this week that Ogilvy are doing online courses.
One of the world's most prestigious (and expensive) advertising agencies are doing courses on behavioural economics and social media for £90 a pop.
Will it ruin sales of marketing courses for those of us who are a tad less well-known?
Or will it bring lots of new buyers into the market and grow it for all of us?
I suspect the latter. But there's no real way of knowing for sure.
What is certain though is that things will change. And keep on changing.
And some things will always stay the same.
People will always buy things they want and need from people they know and trust who've demonstrated they can deliver.
Your real battle isn't with Ogilvy or McKinsey or that annoying leadership coach who your clients keep talking about.
Your real battle is to make sure you deeply understand what your clients are hungry for, that you're building credibility and trust with them all the time, and that you offer them something that feeds their hunger and does them good.
Competition kind of becomes irrelevant if you do that.
Ian Brodie on April 11th, 2021.
I bought a bucket hat this week in the colours of my team, Newcastle United, from back in the 1970s when Supermac was marauding up the pitch for us and smashing in the goals.
Probably my earliest football memories are of our cup run in 74. And although we didn't win, I still get a warm glow thinking of that time (and I can still sing “Howay the Lads” – our cup single by the Barrie Brothers).
I think one of the attractions of nostalgia like this is that we remember when things were simpler.
Our lives seem so complicated these days. So much pressure, so much to do. And nothing seems easy.
It's little wonder we get a warm feeling thinking back to a time when the weight of the world wasn't on our shoulders and everything seemed so straightforward.
Given the pleasure that simplicity gives us, it's strange then that in our marketing we seem to end up making things much more complicated than we need. Both for ourselves and especially for our clients.
We seem to get so tied up trying to be clever or persuasive or influential that we end up just confusing our clients.
I can't tell you the number of times I've seen people offering products and services where I can't figure out what on earth they're supposed to do or why I would be interested.
Or where I would need a PhD to figure out how I'd benefit from them.
One of my golden rules for marketing is to make things as clear and simple as possible.
All these clever tricks of persuasion people tell you about run a very poor second to simply being clear about what you're offering and what people will get from it.
Don't make people guess or jump through hoops to figure out what buying your products or services will mean for them and their business. Spell it out in simple terms.
It may not be clever. But my word, it's effective.
Ian Brodie on March 31st, 2021.
We've got a lot going on chez Brodie at the moment, so when I dragged myself reluctantly out of bed this morning and slurped down my extra strong coffee, I jumped straight to work.
A couple of hours later after recording and uploading a Course that Sells bonus video I realised I'd forgotten to write and send today's email.
Doh.
Back when I was running consulting teams pretty much the only “leadership” thing I was good at was getting buy-in from clients and involving them early so that everyone was on the same page and we didn't have to persuade them about recommendations later – they'd been intimately involved in working on them themselves.
It meant my teams got off to slower starts than my peers who rushed off to get the job done. But we finished faster and got much better results.
A decade or so ago when I started writing more, I discovered that a few minutes spent outlining what I was going to write saved me a ton of wasted time and effort later – and resulted in much better articles and emails.
And today I've been reminded that a few minutes “wasted” first thing in the morning to review your priorities makes sure you're doing the right things in the right order.
Aside: it was about two years into my first job when I realised I could no longer carry my to-do list around in my head and it made sense to write it down. Nowadays I struggle to remember where I've put it :)
So the desperately dull but much-overlooked secret to consistent and effective marketing is to think first and think consistently.
Make a quarterly plan for big projects. Plan your week. Review your priorities first thing in the morning.
It's easy to push out marketing in favour of client work (or frankly, anything you find easier).
It's rarely a good idea.
Keep putting off your marketing and you eventually won't have any client work to get in the way.
Just a few minutes spent each quarter, each week and each morning will keep you on track.
And unlike me, you won't have to apologise for failing to send out your email :)
Ian Brodie on March 24th, 2021.
Kathy and I watched the last episode in the current series of Murdoch Mysteries last night.
We don't watch a lot of TV but I realised that we've seen a full 14 series of a show about a turn of the century Canadian detective and his colleagues.
That's a lot of attention we've given it. Sustained over time.
I know there are a lot of people, when it comes to content or email marketing, who worry about whether they have enough interesting things to say to sustain the interest of their audience over time.
Or who get stuck when they're trying to write an email or make a video because they worry it just won't be valuable enough or interesting enough.
What we've found with Murdoch Mysteries and all the series we've watched over long periods, like Elementary or Fringe or the CSI shows is that variety really is the spice of life.
Some of the shows have complex plots. Sometimes there's tension as the characters are put in grave danger. Sometimes they address important issues.
It's the equivalent of your best, most in-depth content and ideas.
But I don't think we'd have kept going for 14 series had everything been deep, complex, tense and dark.
There needs to be lighter periods to relax the tension. More whimsical episodes. Simple, action oriented episodes.
You need to be able to breathe before being gripped by the tension again.
It's the same with your content.
Filling every email or blog post or video with in-depth, super insightful content is not only a huge task – it also overwhelms people.
People tend to tune you out for one of two reasons.
Either when what you send them stops being relevant, valuable or interesting.
Or when it's just too much for them. And that's not just the volume you send them – it's the mental capacity it needs for them to process it.
It's vital that you build credibility and share your best ideas.
But you should also learn from the best in entertainment and have both shadow and light. It's not just OK to have lighter, easier to consume, more casual content. It's necessary.
Be like Murdoch (or insert your obsession of choice here).
Ian Brodie on March 21st, 2021.
I've been hearing an advert a lot on the radio recently for the UK census which is due in today.
In it a mum is encouraging her student daughter to complete the census because “it will inform decision-making about your future”.
“Inform decision-making” is the kind of language bureaucrats and advertising executives use. It's not something that would emerge from the mouths of ordinary mums and student daughters in a million years.
It's incredibly easy to get trapped in your own bubble and assume everyone thinks and talks like you. But it's lethal when it comes to marketing.
I've made that mistake many times. I spend so much time reading articles and watching videos aimed at marketing experts it's easy for me to fall into the trap of thinking everyone is motivated by the same things and reacts to the same type of messages.
But it's just not like that in the real world.
Last week we launched my wife Kathy's annual summit for early years practitioners and educators. They're a very different audience and a great reminder of how you need to get inside the head of your clients and talk to them in ways that are natural for them, not you.
The first email we sent out announcing the summit was a bit “rah rah” with emojis in the subject line.
It did OK.
But the second email we sent out to people who hadn't signed up after the first did way better. The subject line?
“your invitation”
Not only did we get more people signing up (and buying the recordings), we got a whole bunch of replies from people saying how much they'd enjoyed the previous year's summit and thanking Kathy for inviting them this year.
We wrote to them in their language and they responded.
It wasn't massively different to the first email. Just a change in tone really.
But it made a big difference.
I think whenever you've spent a lot of time inside your bubble with people who think and talk like you, you need to remind yourself of what your actual clients are like before marketing to them.
Read the emails they've sent you or what they post on social media. Recall conversations you've had. Remember what it was like when you were in their situation.
Those small changes could make a big difference for you too.
Ian Brodie on March 18th, 2021.
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Ian Brodie on March 12th, 2021.
It's great to have you on board!
Check your inbox for a couple of emails from me.
One will be your receipt. The other will be a welcome email with details of how to register on the webuild.courses website for access to the workshop recordings and forum where you can ask any question about building courses and get feedback from me and the other workshop members.
Just click on the link in the email, register for the site, and you'll get immediate access to all the resources.
See you inside!