Kevin C. Whelan

Marketing Strategy Advisor and Mentor

Be oddly specific

I was looking for a camera lens the other day for my Zoom calls and webinars. Something to up my video game a bit.

After all, I get paid to talk on Zoom all day—I might as well make it the highest possible quality!

So, I took my search to YouTube to investigate the best lens for this situation.

The videos were endless. But the ones I was constantly drawn to were oddly specific about the use case (Zoom calls), the hook/core topic (i.e comparison), and the technology they were highlighting.

For context, my camera is a Sony a6400. I wanted either a Sigma 30mm lens or a zoom lens, like a Sigma 24-70mm.

None of these are affiliate links, btw. 😉

The ones that drew me in had titles like, “The best Zoom setup for your home office”, “My HIGH QUALITY Live Stream Setup!!”, “Sigma 30mm 1.4 lens review”, etc.

The videos were circling around my specific area of interest. But nothing was as exact as I was looking for.

Then I found one: “How to get the absolute best telework setup – Elgato Camlink 4k + Sony A7R4 + Sigma 30mm“.

Now, I have a different camera but it’s the same brand and not too dissimilar.

I also have an Elgato Camlink 4k (lets you plug in your DSLR camera to your computer) and I have been thinking about purchasing the 30mm Sigma lens for some time.

The point is, the title was almost written for my exact question. It was oddly specific around what I was looking for.

And that’s how you want to position your services. Especially if you’re able to serve a global audience.

The world is full of options that look the same.

At the same time, the Internet has brought all of those options to the forefront, making it harder and harder to stand out.

The good news is, you get to be oddly specific, too.

The best things for sale are the ones that fit like a glove. If we can’t find it, we will settle for less-than-ideal.

But we always want the thing that feels like it was made precisely for us.

Marketing consultants are everywhere. Be oddly specific what what you do and/or who you do it for. Everything gets easier when you do.

The hardest part is taking the leap and trying it out.

What happens when you aren’t charging enough

My last accountant charged way too little.

She charged a fixed fee, but my business was growing quickly so I outgrew it within a few months.

As my workload grew, her price remained the same. But she didn’t address it by asking for more. It eventually became a problem.

After a while, it took longer and longer to get responses from her. My books were taking longer to be reconciled and the quality of her work went way down.

I could tell I became a “second class citizen” in her client world. I even offered to pay more a few times, of which she accepted once.

There’s a lesson here.

By not charging your clients enough to do the work AND make a profit, you’ll eventually run into a few scenarios—none of which are good.

  1. You’ll get better clients and make them the priority
  2. You’ll stop doing good work for your lower-priced clients
  3. You’ll start de-prioritizing their work
  4. You’ll start to resent them
  5. They’ll start to notice
  6. They’ll start to resent you
  7. They’ll replace you with someone who makes them a priority
  8. They’ll never work with you again
  9. They’ll tell people about their negative experience

I’m not looking for low-cost suppliers in my business. Most businesses aren’t.

Instead, I want professional-quality work from people who charge enough to make time for me and do good work.

It might be tempting to keep old clients around who are paying old rates because they represent “safe” and “predictable” revenue. But what ends up happening is they become after-thoughts when you get better clients.

You’ll get busy to make up for lost revenue potential, and with that, your relationship will eventually deteriorate along with the quality of your services.

Some people want the cheapest rate possible. Don’t work with people like that.

Instead, charge a rate that gets you excited and then do good work for them!

Don’t justify poor-quality service because you’re not charging enough. That’s on you to fix.

Either charge enough to get you excited to work with them, or refer them to someone who can do the job instead.

Where do you find your clients?

The secret to finding more clients is analyzing how your past clients found and came to trust you, then doing more of that.

Where did your last client come from?

And how did you attract the five clients before them?

What activities did you do which led to them finding you in the first place?

Where did they first see you?

When did they subscribe or join your ecosystem?

How long did it take for them to reach out?

What happened that led to trust being built enough for them to reach out?

Do more of that. Build on it, but don’t complicate it.

Do what works and repeat the cycle.

Your job as an advisor is never to convince

Your job as an advisor is never to convince.

You don’t convince people to buy your services. You don’t convince people to take your advice. You don’t convince them to do anything.

Your job is to understand where your clients want to end up and be the trusted guide to get them there.

Part of being that guide is to educate your clients along the way about how things work or why you’re doing them.

It’s your job to explain it in plain, non-technical, easy-to-understand terms. Use analogies and examples if you have to.

But beyond that, your job is not to convince them to do anything. If you find yourself trying to convince someone to do something, there’s an issue.

Either your clients don’t trust you enough, or you have not done a good job educating them on how what you suggest will get them to their desired end result.

If they understand the mechanics of your advice or ideas but still hesitate, it’s a trust issue. And you can’t advise your clients without their trust.

Brand vs. direct response marketing: which is better?

There seems to be two general camps of marketers:

  1. Those more interested in brand marketing
  2. Those more interested in direct response marketing

Brand is all about what your company means to the market. It’s about values, commitments, differentiators.

It has a lot to do with how people feel about you and your business.

Direct response, on the other hand, is all about getting the sale. It’s about making offers and converting people to buy those offers. It’s more logical.

One is not better than the other and you need both to succeed long term.

But let’s not forget: businesses are in the business of making money.

If you’re a marketing freelancer or consultant, you can talk about how you build brands, but it better tie back to actual sales results, otherwise even the most disciplined brand-focused business leaders will tune you out.

That’s because people aren’t really buying a better brand, they’re buying more sales.

I know this sounds reductive, but that’s ultimately the point of business. Otherwise it’s a mission, hobby, or charity.

But take heed if you fall more towards the direct response category: people buy based on emotion, not logic.

Brand is the context for which your direct offer will work or not at scale. Do not neglect it.

So if you’re a marketing professional, work on improving both sides of the marketing equation. But sell your services based on delivering a response (the results), not just improving the brand (the context).

How to make any marketing piece more effective

No matter what piece of marketing you’re creating, you always want to keep two things front and centre in your mind:

  1. Who exactly am I making this for?
  2. What exactly do I want them to do?

It could be your home page, a blog post, an ad, newsletter, or anything else.

Knowing the answers to these two questions instantly improve the effectiveness of whatever you do. Clarity on these answers is key.

No vague generalities or you’ll get weak results. Be specific.

And by the way, happy New Year! May we put 2020 swiftly behind us.

The tendency to overcomplicate

When you can do a lot of things, your tendency is… to do a lot of things.

But in so many cases, doing a few things well is better than doing many things poorly.

Complexity leads to breakdown, stress, and resource depletion. Simplification leads to focus and results.

This principle applies almost anywhere else you look. But I see it most often in people’s marketing strategies.

It starts small. But eventually, there becomes too much noise and activity.

You begin to lose focus. Everyone is exhausted. Things stop working.

So what do you do if you find complexity creeping into you or your clients’ marketing program?

Evaluate it from an 80/20 perspective.

There’s always something that is bringing 80% of the results for 20% of the effort. Do more of that if it aligns with your goals.

On the flip side, there’s always something causing 80% of the headaches making up 20% of your time, energy, or resources. Stop those things immediately, even if it hurts.

When you find complexity creeping in, and it always does, look for the 80/20.

And then as Stephen King says, kill your darlings.

Should you position yourself as a fractional CMO?

I was at a BBQ last year and my extended in-laws were asking what I do.

The easiest thing that came to mind was telling them that I’m like a fractional or part-time CMO (chief marketing officer).

I told them how companies too small to justify one full-time could work with me and get the same level of expertise applied to their business for a fraction of the cost.

I explained how we work on everything together over time, building according to goals and priorities, and evolving with their needs and challenges as they arise.

The instantly got it.

Even though they were not “business folk”, it just made sense to them.

If I said “I’m a marketing consultant”, their eyes would have glazed over. It’s vague and could mean any number of things.

Comparing myself to a “part-time CMO” quickly articulated what I really do. I tend to work with clients over a long period of time. Many months and even years if things are going well.

We tend to work on everything to do with new customer acquisition and retention. It’s a holistic job, not focused on one individual area or tactic unless it’s the key priority.

I won’t write your copy or manage your individual projects, but I will facilitate change, oversee all work, help you hire, and ensure you’re getting the best possible results with the resources you have.

Should you choose to position yourself as a Fractional CMO?

The answer to this question depends on your business and how you approach your work.

Here are some questions you might ask yourself to see if it’s right for you:

  1. Do you actually do executive-level work?
  2. Do you prefer to work at the strategic level or are you more focused on individual tactics by nature?
  3. Do you want to be seen as long-term partner or someone who works on special projects?
  4. Do your ideal clients tend to have an in-house CMO already? If so, your positioning might scare those clients away.

Personally, my clients tend not to have an executive level marketing person. They have a manager who has some experience but I become their mentor while also helping the business owner at the strategic level.

This is my sweet spot. If it sounds like what you do, try describing yourself that way in sales conversations.

How I currently position myself

I currently position myself as a marketing advisor and mentor, but I regularly mention in conversation that working with me is like having a part-time CMO for a fraction of the usual big salaries they come with.

People generally get that. Many still refer to me as their fractional CMO because of those early sales conversations.

The most critical part is that everyone I speak to just “gets it” the first time they hear it.

It clarifies the type of work I do, the size of clients I work with, and the general value I bring to the table.

What more could you ask for?

What are the risks of fractional/part-time CMO positioning?

To me, there are two main risks of positioning yourself as a fractional CMO.

1. Being perceived—and therefore treated—as an employee

There’s nothing worse than setting the expectations that you are basically a contract employee.

Clients will expect you to produce deliverables and do things on their terms, their way, at their business, etc., which is not generally what a consultant does.

Or, they may not always listen to your advice, thinking you’re like another employee who they can listen to optionally if they wish to.

They may not like you disagreeing with their ideas or saying no to doing certain tasks if it’s not what you do.

Ultimately, it can become the wrong kind of relationship if you intend to be candid with your clients. Your job is to deliver the truth, not mince words if they need to hear the facts as they are.

Employees are expected to be agreeable, whereas consultants have a bit more room to stand strong, defending their ideas if they believe it will actually get results for their clients.

You need to be prepared to be fired for taking hard positions when you believe them to be the right path. Employees aren’t generally expected to take that role.

How you are perceived matters—you are not an employee.

2. Scaring potential clients away if it would undermine current marketing leadership

This is one of the main reasons I don’t position myself as a fractional CMO, except for during sales conversations or times when I say I’m “like having a …”.

The main reason is I want the current marketing manager to feel empowered and know that I will build on their work, not overhaul it or become a new boss to them.

My ideal clients have marketing managers in many cases, but none have CMOs. So it’s critical that I set the expectation that I’m not becoming a permanent member of their team, but instead someone who will mentor and advise on the process for as long as I’m needed.

Hence, my position as marketing advisor and mentor who is like having a part-time CMO on the team.

At the end of the day, you have to do what’s right for you and your business. I used to position myself as a fractional CMO, but not any more. It may change again over time, who knows.

How do you position yourself? Let me know on Twitter.

Oh by the way, if you like this topic, you’ll love Mindshare. Check it out for a free trial.

Reflecting and planning for the new year

Every year around this time, I reflect on the last twelve months to determine what worked and what didn’t.

This year is no different, but I’m also looking at it from new perspectives.

At a high level, I’m reflecting on things like:

  • where most of my revenue came from
  • where and how I spent money (and if it was spent wisely)
  • which projects I enjoyed working on vs. ones I didn’t
  • what my wins and lessons were for the year
  • what kind of work gave me energy vs. depleted it
  • what made me feel good vs. what made me feel bad

Ultimately, I’m looking for ways to make my business better.

So what does a “better business” look like?

For me, it looks like continuing to focus on higher-income activities, more leveraged products and services, more energy-producing work, and generally seeking to enjoy most of the work I choose to do.

If it were up to me, I would do mostly mentoring and teaching. And yet, those things are the least “profitable” to me right now.

Nonetheless, I’m seeing signs of life with Mindshare and I enjoy it a lot, so I plan to follow that.

But I also have to make sure I’m in a good financial position, which means analyzing the best business opportunities while balancing the more subjective targets.

My plan for the new year

My plan for the new year is to continue focusing on the few clients who bring in the most money (multi-location coworking spaces), give me the most energy (mentoring work), all while doing work that aligns with what I want for my future.

Each part is important, but the last part is probably the smartest area to focus on.

We get so caught up in the days, weeks, and months that we forget to look five to ten years down the line to make sure we’re aiming in the right direction.

I also want to spend more time tinkering. One of my early mentors was a big tinkerer and he still runs a highly profitable consulting business around his free time.

I’m a big believer that tinkering and learning is good for business—especially one dependent on your expertise.

Too many people neglect that part, I think. And that’s what makes this year’s takeaways a bit different than most.

So that’s my thought process. It’s a blend of rational and qualitative. Just like real life.

What’s your year in review looking like? Hit me up on Twitter.

The value of marketing expertise

When the pandemic first hit, I thought my business would get hit hard.

After all, the majority of my clients are in the coworking industry—an industry reliant on “shoulder to shoulder” consumption.

My first thought was that if people couldn’t use coworking spaces, the value of my services would drop significantly.

What happened, though, was that while demand for coworking stopped for a short time, it eventually started to return. Slowly at first, and then more over time.

Some markets are still hit pretty hard. But here’s the thing, while the demand for coworking is lower than it was before, it didn’t go away.

In fact, new markets are being created, and the spaces that are innovating around these changes are being set up for serious success.

The pandemic has created a decreased overall demand in the short term, but that only means it has become more important than ever to have good marketing. Companies are now competing for fewer buyers.

For me, that meant I ended up having my best year yet (by far). I never would have predicted it. But it makes sense.

Pandemic or not, marketing is the lifeblood of business. Without new clients (and retention), there is no business.

Never underestimate the value of your marketing expertise. Invest in it and it will pay you (and your clients) dividends.Â