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Posted by
Ian Brodie on June 28th, 2015.
As your business grows it can be increasingly difficult to manage all your marketing activities yourself so outsourcing becomes an important consideration.
But it's all too easy to get it horribly wrong.
I've seen business owners waste fortunes and just as importantly waste a ton of time handing over the reins of key elements of their marketing to people who promised amazing results but failed to deliver.
I've had outsourcing problems myself. I hired someone on oDesk to build a wordpress plugin for me but it cost over twice as much as estimated and never really worked properly.
The biggest problem that most people have with outsourcing is that they farm out activities that they don't really understand.
If you don't understand something and you give it to others to do instead then it can be very difficult to know who the right people are to select.
What criteria do you use? How do you know they'll do a good job?
Very difficult if you don't know what a good job looks like.
You have to rely on their own claims, or reviews they've got from others (take it from me: you can't rely on the star system on oDesk).
On the other hand, if you make sure you understand something before outsourcing it then you can ask the right questions of potential suppliers. You'll be able to tell whether they know what they're talking about and whether they'll be able to do exactly what you're looking for.
So even if long term you don't plan to do all your marketing yourself you should definitely make sure you understand how it should be done so that you can get the right people to do it.
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Posted byIan Brodie on June 23rd, 2015.
Have you noticed that these days, when people ask for recommendations for someone to help them with something, that instead of asking their face-to-face contacts, colleagues and friends, they ask on social media?
Not random requests on Twitter or their Facebook profile. But in groups on Linkedin and Facebook or other forums. Places where they're connected with people online who they believe will be able to come up with good recommendations.
In recent weeks I've seen requests for recommendations for website developers, tax experts, virtual assistants, specialist lawyers and facebook marketing consultants.
Wouldn't it be nice if you were the person whose name came up time and time again when people asked for recommendations in your field on social media?
In this 5 Minute Marketing Tip video I share 3 strategies for getting more recommendations on Linkedin and Facebook groups and Forums.
Click here to watch the video »
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Posted byIan Brodie on June 17th, 2015.
In this podcast I cover a new topic for me: growing a business beyond yourself.
My guest is Mitch Russo, someone who's built a bunch of businesses in his time: from founding Timeslips which grew to be the world's largest time tracking software company, to being the COO of Sage in the US, to being president of Business Breakthroughs International, a company he founded with long-time friend Chet Holmes and Tony Robbins.
These days he works with coaches to help them scale their coaching business. But the lessons he shares are equally applicable to any professional service business.
In the podcast we talk about the key elements of building and scaling a service business:
- How to find the right people to hire
- How to get them up to speed so you're not spending all your time supervising them
- What you must do before hiring someone into a service business
- Packaging your services for higher fees
- Building systems to allow you to focus on the strategic areas of your business
Click here to listen to the podcast »
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Posted byIan Brodie on June 15th, 2015.
This week's 5 Minute Marketing Tip is about “client onboarding”: the critical first communications and interactions with new clients, customers or email subscribers that set the tone and expectation for your relationship with them.
In the video I share 3 simple steps for every onboarding process that will get your relationship off on the right foot so that you turn more email subscribers into buyers, get more enthusiastic clients, retain them longer, and get more referrals.
This is something you can implement with just a little bit of thought, preparation and attention to detail.
Click here to watch the video »
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Posted byIan Brodie on June 3rd, 2015.
In this podcast I interview Clive Mallard, The Independent's Consultant who over the last year or so has transitioned his business from being primarily based on live consulting to one focused on his core online product which teaches advanced consulting skills to independents.
As with all my podcast interviews, this isn't one of those overnight success stories that can never be reproduced by the rest of us. It's a story of hard work over a significant period of time to build a sutainable business.
In the podcast Clive shares the details of how he came up with the idea for his product, how he researched his market further to find out more about what was wanted, how he created the different components, and the marketing approaches that are working for him right now to best promote the product.
And he shares his very practical tips about how to get started developing your own products and what to watch out for that might derail you.
Click here to listen to the podcast »
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Posted byIan Brodie on June 2nd, 2015.
This week's marketing video is the first in a series of “5 Minute Marketing Tips” where I aim to share powerful marketing tips in just 5 minutes or so.
Today's tip is on a question I get asked frequently: how to create an effective Linkedin Profile or bio for your website that will get your ideal client's attention and motivate them to contact you or visit your website.
In this video I share the “mindreading technique” – a simple but powerful approach that will tell you exactly what you need to put into your profile or bio.
Click here to watch the video »
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Posted byIan Brodie on May 24th, 2015.
My email last Sunday was about a friend of mine who's just launched an online training product, and the work he had to put in to get it going.
Whenever you're launching something big and new you often have to make sacrifices in terms of time and money to make a breakthrough.
That might mean accepting a lower income as you do less client work to focus on the new thing. Or it might mean you work weekends or late into the night for a while.
There's a lovely saying I heard a few years ago that “Entrepreneurship is living a few years of your life like most people won't, so that you can spend the rest of your life like most people can't”.
There's a large grain of truth in that.
I often speak to people who want more clients, but won't give up their paid work and won't work extra hours to get them.
Or who want to have passive income but don't want the pain of creating products that goes with it.
Does. Not. Compute.
Sure, there are shortcuts. Ways of doing things efficiently.
But lets not kid ourselves. If you want significantly different results you've got to do something significantly different.
If you're not prepared to do that, that's fine. It doesn't make you a bad person. But be honest with yourself. Accept it and get on with your life rather than constantly looking for miracles.
But if you are prepared to do that hard work, now we're talking.
I believe there's more opportunity for small firms and individuals today than there's ever been.
Clients can find the right people to work with in ways that weren't possible even a few years ago – IF you put the work into being found and finding them.
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Posted byIan Brodie on May 20th, 2015.
Using a Lead Magnet: a Free Report or Checklist or Template or Video to attract potential clients and then following up with email marketing is a proven strategy that quite simply works.
Its obvious use is for “education” businesses. People who sell consulting, coaching, training or other services where your potential clients want to know how to do what you're an expert in.
So your lead magnet and emails to them can share tips and strategies in that area that help them, educate them and demonstrate your credibility.
However with other services businesses it's trickier to get a Lead Magnet right.
The clients of a lawyer don't want tips on how to practice law. Clients of accountants don't want to learn how to do double-entry bookkeeping. They want to hire someone to do that for them.
So your lead magnet and follow up emails have to be somewhat different.
In this podcast interview Adwords expert Mike Seddon shares the strategy he uses for his lead magnet and follow-up emails to bring him a steady stream of potential clients for his “done for you” adwords management service.
It's a strategy that anyone who does a service like this where your clients want to know you're an expert, but don't want to become one themselves.
Click here to listen to the podcast and find out how »
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Posted byIan Brodie on May 17th, 2015.
I met up with an old colleague a while back who'd recently launched an online training program. We'd spoken about it about 6 months earlier and I'd given him some options and ideas.
6 months later it was live.
Not that it had been easy. It has been a ton of work. He told me he almost cried when he finally launched it, and again when he got his first sale.
Later that evening we went out and met up with a whole load of other ex colleagues for a reunion event. All doing well. But in truth, all really doing the same thing they were doing 10 or 20 years ago when we worked with them.
Many were intrigued by the different business model we'd adopted. But for most it just all seemed like too much work. Why create content, do video or podcasts, write a book, when you can do OK just farming your exsiting contact network?
One guy had even been offered a multi-thousand pound advance to write a book but he turned it down because he could earn the same amount with just a few days consulting.
These were great people, don't get me wrong. But if I had to take bets about who, in 10 years time, would have a thriving business rather than still ticking over doing the same old same old, it would be my friend who launched the product.
He had the courage to do something different. And the discipline and strength to stick at it throughout all the hard work of making it happen.
I think most markets are a bit like this.
The majority of suppliers are content to just keep plugging away doing the same things that worked OK for them in the past. Unwilling to put in the effort and make the sacrifices to get a big change.
Which means that if you are prepared to put in the work to learn and do something different, you have a huge advantage.
Maybe the marketing approaches I teach in Momentum Club are your “something different” that will make a big difference to your success.
Or maybe it's something else.
Either way, it really is your choice. You can stand out and do something different. Or keep doing the same old same old and hoping for better results.
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Posted byIan Brodie on May 10th, 2015.
I like to get out of the house on Sunday. There's something about working from home that makes you go a bit stir-crazy sometimes, so getting out is nice.
And I've found recently that changing my environment can do wonders for productivity.
I spent half a day in a coffee shop and wrote four and a half thousand words on a monster article I'm working on (who knows, it might even turn into a book at some point).
I don't like to take calls when I'm out (seems rather rude to shout away into a phone when people are trying to grab a coffee).
But for thinking, planning and writing it just seems to work well to sit by yourself with a bit of a general buzz going on behind you in a coffee shop.
I even used to do it when I was running big projects as an employed consultant. I'd escape from the office every few days to get some quiet time for thinking and planning. Although I must admit, sometimes I was planning my escape from employment :)
I'd advise you to try to change your environment every now and then. Get out and do some work from a coffee shop. Or sit in a meeting room by yourself for a while.
It can make quite a big difference.
Ian Brodie on June 28th, 2015.