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My terrible confession

Posted byIan Brodie on December 29th, 2013.

A few years ago I read an awful, awful book that I shouldn't have read.

It was called “The Game” by Rolling Stone journalist Neil Strauss and it was essentially his compiled tips on how to succeed at attracting the opposite sex.

The ethos behind the book was rather distasteful. But I was recommended to look at it because of the insights it brought out into human psychology. In other words, if the tips worked for attracting and romancing a girl, could they work for attracting and romancing a client?

I was intrigued, but so embarrassed that I ended up skim reading it standing next to the bookshelf in Waterstones rather than buying it. I suspect Kathy would have killed me if I'd come home with it.

But it did indeed have some useful insights into attracting clients.

One of the strategies Strauss espoused that was completely new to me (but has great application in marketing) was “bouncing”.

The idea is that the brain forms memories of people in association with the environment it sees them in.

So if you chat to me in the pub in the same location all night, you only really form one memory of it.

But if we change location: sitting down, standing by the bar, talking in the beer garden; you form three distinct memories of talking to me in different places.

So it feels like you've known me that bit longer because you have three distinct memories of me.

So the strategy Strauss recommends for a serial dater is to “bounce” your date around various locations at the venue you're in so she'll think she's known you for longer and feel more comfortable with you.

I have no idea whether this really works for dating. But it does seem to work for marketing.

If you only ever communicate with your clients and potential clients one way, it tends to all blur together in their mind. One networking event looks much like another. A whole series of emails begin to look samey.

But if instead, they see you face to face, hear you on the phone, get an email from you, get a letter in the post, then it seems to embed distinct memories and make you more memorable.

One strategy that's worked well for me is to use video in addition to my usual blog posts and emails.

Even though people are watching a recording of me on my website rather than meeting me live, it seems to make a big difference to how close people feel to me. I've had more than one potential client say to me “I feel like I really know you already” the very first time we speak.

Now I go a bit overboard with my videos. White backgrounds, overlaid logos, theme music. But there's really no need for most of us. Our clients aren't hiring us for our professional video making capabilities – they're hiring us for our expertise and ability to work with them to get results.

So a decent webcam, camcorder or these days your smartphone is fine for short video blogging.

What matters is that you have something useful to say, and that you say it engagingly.

Try it out. You don't have to go public with your videos yet – share them with a few friends for feedback. My first few videos were awful – but you have to go through that phase to get any good.

And if you want, send me a link to a short video you've done and I'll give you feedback.

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3 shortcuts to creating valuable content

Posted byIan Brodie on December 22nd, 2013.

Most people these days I think “get” the idea that creating regular, valuable content is the key to getting visitors to your website and building credibility in your emails and other interactions.

But doing it consistently is easier said than done.

Here are three shortcuts I use to get content that people find useful created quickly.

The first method is simply to tap my own experience. I start off by thinking of a challenge, problem or aspiration I know a decent number of my readers have. Then I cast my mind back to the times when I've faced similar challenges and simply write about how I handled it.

What makes life simpler here is not feeling the need to appear perfect all the time.

If you don't feel you have to present a perfect image to the world it makes it OK to write about the times when you didn't handle things quite so well.

For me, that gives me an awful lot more things to write about ;)

Or you can write about your clients too. Best to use their success stories in that case. Cast them as the hero or heroine.

The second method is to be inspired by something you see happening around you. This could be commenting on current business or news stories. Or bouncing off something in popular culture. If you watch Game Of Thrones or Downton Abbey, can you draw an analogy between a plotline there and an insight or little tip in your field.

I've written three of my favourite blog posts based on things I learned from famous comedians. One based on a magician and one on a TV presenter.

If you think hard enough, you can almost always find a link between something interesting and a business lesson.

And my third shortcut: if you can't find anything in your experience or around you to write about, then create an experience.

I wrote quite a detailed blog post about how comedian Dave Gorman created the content for a bunch of best-selling books and TV series by doing weird stuff.

And I often report on my own marketing experiments – both successful and not so successful.

You can do this too. Set yourself a task that you think your subscribers would be interested in. Something they might want to do themselves. Then do it and share your experiences and what you learned.

The key thing to bear in mind is that what you write (or video or audio record) don't have to be earth-shatteringly new every time.

If you look at someone like Seth Godin and his blog. Then although he's probably responsible for more new ideas in marketing than anyone else in the last decade, 99% of what Seth writes on his blog isn't new.

It's good sense. It's insightful. It's provocative. It's entertaining. But it's rarely completely new.

And that's exactly what your audience needs.

Take something that's useful for them to know, either for the first time or as a reminder. Then find an interesting way to tell the story. An anecdote from your past. An entertaining link to popular culture. A chance to watch as you play out that lesson live.

Turn this process into a regular habit and you've got your very own valuable content production line.

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Get better results from your website (without needing any more traffic)

Posted byIan Brodie on December 1st, 2013.

A preoccupation of many business owners is getting more visitors to their website. Often they spend a small fortune in money and time to do so.

But sometimes you can get better results simply by tweaking your site so that your existing visitors do the things you'd like them to do more often.

Like buying something or signing up for your newsletter.

For many of us, one of the key steps we'd like them to take is to contact us. Either give us a call, an email, or fill in a contact form.

That's often the first step to speaking and eventually to doing business together.

But the truth is that very many professionals make it rather difficult for potential clients to contact them.

Different people prefer different communication methods. So it's usually a good idea to have your phone number and email address prominently shown on your site (for example in the header).

And your “Contact Me” form should be simple and easy to find (ie it should be one of the main menu items).

In fact, I advise having a contact form at the bottom of each page where you describe your services so that if someone does want to speak to you about that particular service they can just flow straight into completing the form rather than hunting around for a button to get to it.

And your form needs to be clear and easy to use. Check out your website stats. How many people visit your “contact me” page, but don't complete the form?

Usually a very high proportion.

Sometimes it's because the form is too complex or it requires too much intrusive information. Asking for a phone number, business name and job title often worries people into thinking they're going to get a call from a salesperson.

And often the person isn't sure they're in the right place. They have a question to ask you so they go to the Contact Me page. But there's no guidance on the page as to what sort of questions you're expecting them to use that page for.

Is it for technical questions? Questions about your blog posts? Questions only about working with you?

If you don't spell it out, many people will assume they're in the wrong place and click away.

And you also need to spell out what will happen after someone completes the form. Who'll get back to them? When? What will the next steps be?

Telling people what will happen when they click “submit” will ease their anxiety about sending the form in. If they know what to expect they won't find the process so daunting.

Making these simple changes can easily increase the number of contact form submissions you get by 50%. It's an awful lot easier that trying to get 50% more visitors to your site.

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Are you a creator or a consumer?

Posted byIan Brodie on November 24th, 2013.

One of the things that made me really successful as a consultant early in my career was that I was a brilliant “consumer” of information.

Whenever I found a topic interesting I'd stay up late in our company library poring over every book and research paper on the subject.

Pretty soon I'd know more than anyone other than seasoned veterans about that topic. That made me pretty useful as a consultant.

I've often heard it said that learning is the only sustainable competitive advantage. But I think there's something more important.

Consuming information and new ideas, learning from them, is great. It gets you up to par with your competitors. But if you want to take the lead, you need to not just consume ideas, you need to create.

Think about anyone you look up to as a leader in your field. They don't just acquire knowledge, they add to it. In fact most recognised authorities are prolific creators.

Historically, that's meant writing a book or getting published in a prestigious journal. Today it could be your own blog, podcast or youtube channel.

Think about how much time you spend creating vs consuming.

I'm not saying you should stop learning, far from it. But on balance, if you want to become known as a leader in your field then you've got to be spending more time creating than consuming.

If you're not, you may need to do some housekeeping. Unsubscribe from a few newsletters. Restrict your time on Facebook or random surfing. Set yourself some goals for creating useful content and prioritise them.

The more you push the balance in favour of creation, the more what you create is published, then the more you'll be seen as a leading expert in your field.

Which is not at all a bad place to be.