In what is easily the best Thanksgiving Day movie of all time and one of the funniest, Planes, Trains and Automobiles – Steve Martin has reached his breaking point with new travel mate John Candy. In the ensuing argument, Martin says:
“Here’s a good idea – have a point. It makes it so much more interesting for the listener!”
We are both sending – and receiving marketing messages. You might also be unsubscribing from ones that you are annoyed by or simply delete because it isn’t relevant, right?
Perhaps your readers are doing the same.
Thanks to the many distribution lists I am on, I get to see a lot of different ways that people communicate. The worst ones, by far, are the emails that contain so much content, it’s tough where to know look first.
Rather than try and figure it out, I just delete it.
Here are some traits that we use to communicate effectively to our prospects and clients:
- Limit the content. There is a lot to say, but you have only seconds to grab their attention. Focus on 1 or 2 things that need to be said, that are in the best interest of your readers.
- Calendar. Put together a calendar of days you wish to send out content and what you are going to talk about. It will help to visualize what you are talking about and when.
- Be consistent. You don’t always have to put out lots of content but you do need to stick to a predictable schedule your audience will be able to follow. Sending emails sporadically or allowing big gaps between marketing efforts will minimize any impact your marketing efforts could have had.
- Subject is strong. The subject of the email has to entice the reader – don’t go this alone. This may require the entire team to sit down and map out the calendar and the subject.
- Tell stories. Everyone loves a story – use movies (see above), or personal stories, client stories, anything to make it more enjoyable for the reader.
Communicating with your prospects and clients is easier with a plan. Knowing who your audience it, what problems they have that your business can solve, and finding ways to package this into bite-sized, valuable emails will give your marketing efforts the boost it needs to build more engagement with your audience.
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