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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.

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Could you do this?

Posted byIan Brodie on December 23rd, 2018.

I took up darts at the grand old age of 52.

It's not one of those sports that requires you to be at the peak of fitness.

But it is a lot of fun.

And the funny thing was, that within a month I was a better player than anyone I knew.

Two reasons really.

One is that most people don't play darts. It's easy to be better than people who don't play :)

And of those that do play, practically no one takes it seriously and practices properly.

I did.

Now obviously my marketing tip this week isn't that you take up darts Though it is a great game :)

What struck me from learning darts is how easy it is to become pretty good at some things rather quickly. Or at least to become better than the vast majority of people who either never try it, or never try to learn it seriously.

Sometimes marketing can seem quite daunting with a ton to learn.

But don't forget that marketing is a bit like darts. Or that old joke about escaping a bear. You just have to be that bit better than your competitors and often, that's not very hard.  

Take heart!

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Cancel something

Posted byIan Brodie on December 9th, 2018.

In my last email I talked about how keeping top of mind with your best potential clients through regular communication is perhaps the most important thing you can do in your marketing.

But where on earth do you find the time for all that keeping in touch?

You cancel something.

If you go to 3 networking events a month, cancel one. Take the 3 or 4 hours you would have spent speaking to people you don't know and who are unlikely to ever become clients and spend it keeping in touch with much better prospects.

If you're addicted to webinars and haven't realised yet that they're largely teases with sales pitches: skip one a week and do follow-up instead.

Or instead of working by scrolling Facebook or Linkedin, spend the time contacting specific high potential clients to keep the conversation going with them.

There's always something you can cancel to make room for keeping in touch with your very best potential clients. 

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The real value of follow-up

Posted byIan Brodie on December 2nd, 2018.

I talk a lot about nurturing relationships.

Adding value and building credibility and trust over time.

(So do a lot of people).

But the truth, I believe, is that the main value you get from nurturing relationships is much simpler.

It's being top of mind.

Most clients only buy high-value services every now and then.  And when they do, the majority of the time it's from a small number of suppliers who they already have in mind.

Sometimes that's because they've worked with them before.

But often it's simply because the supplier kept in touch. They benefit from what the marketing scientists call “mental availability”.

When the time is right, they spring to mind.

Of course, building credibility and trust makes you more likely to win vs competitors.

But the most important factor is that your potential clients actually think of you when they have a problem you can solve. If that's missing it doesn't matter how much credibility or trust you have in theory – it's never called into play.

So in many ways, the role of all your nurturing activity – be that emails, phone calls, stuff you send through the post, social media posts – is simply to get you noticed.

Of course, if your content is dull or it has no value, your clients aren't going to pay attention to it. So it won't work to get you top of mind.

But it doesn't have to be a breakthrough or work of genius every time.

Just interesting enough. Valuable enough.

Don't kill yourself trying to create a work of genius every time.

It has to be interesting. It has to be useful. But most important: you have to actually get it out there!

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Don’t take thing too far like this

Posted byIan Brodie on November 18th, 2018.

I have a sneaking suspicion that you're a bit like me.

You don't want to be a pushy salesperson type.

You'd much rather have people approach you asking to work with you than you would to approach them with an offer.

In fact, you might even feel like “pitching” is somehow unethical or an annoyance to your potential clients.

I kind of feel like that too.

But today I reflected on my experience with buying coffee.

I'm no coffee connoisseur. Kathy's the one who appreciates a proper cup.

But we do have a “bean to cup” machine that grinds and makes a rather decent brew.

And it's my job to buy the beans.

I use an online service that sends us a couple of packets of coffee beans every 2 weeks.

Always high quality. Always freshly roasted in the last couple of weeks. And from a wide variety of countries and growers.

It's a little adventure every fortnight to open the parcel to see what we've got this time.

As I said, I'm no connoisseur. But I'm enjoying learning about the different types of beans and roasts and the different flavours.

I look forward to each parcel arriving to try the new beans.

And in all honesty, I wish they sold to me a bit more.

The only emails I get from them are notices that my parcel has been dispatched. And there's never any promotional material in the parcel.

I'd quite like to be offered some kind of special new bean sometimes. Or the chance to learn more about the origins of the coffee. Or maybe some gadgets to go with my coffee machine.

I suspect the people who run the company are rather like you and me: they don't want to be pushy or salesy and risk damaging their relationship with me.

But I wish they were more salesy (in a nice way). I wish they made me more offers.

It would enhance my enjoyment of the coffee significantly.

I wonder if the same was true for you?

I wonder if you offered more things for your clients or contacts to buy whether they'd actually appreciate it rather than feel it was too pushy?

If someone loves what you do then like me with my coffee supplier, they probably want more from you and don't mind being offered more products at all (as long as it's not too much, too often).

Worth thinking about?