When we think about improving our marketing campaigns, we think about increasing our effectiveness a little here and a little there. Today we are going to see how to achieve results in your marketing communications through small changes.
And it’s true, gradual changes in several areas can produce a large increase in overall effectiveness.
However, there is something that almost everyone misses in this process.
This will make more sense if I present you with a scenario:
A freelancer (maybe you) does everything possible to go out to contact clients and sell their services:
Activity one: Attend networking events, chat with potential clients
Activity two: Provide an article to those who are interested
Activity Three: Collect Business Cards and Send Them a Link to the Website
Activity Four: Follow Up to Talk About the Business
Activity Five: Schedule Strategic Sessions (sales meeting)
Are Those The Correct Activities?
Table of Contents
Seen from the outside, they seem like the right activities. They are designed for making connections with potential customers, following up on contacts, setting up meetings, and conducting sales conversations.
So why do the vast majority of freelancers who carry out these activities have very little results to show for it?
It is not for lack of will or effort, they do everything they can. The problem is that by doing these activities, many are doing the exact opposite of what they are supposed to do.
And to see it you have to examine the most important component of all these activities. You should examine the quality of communication.
All marketing action is communication. But the key to success in communication is often a mystery. What do freelancers do wrong in their communication? Why aren’t they getting consistent results?
It has to do with the focus and direction of communication. Let’s take a look at these five activities and see what doesn’t work and how to make it work.
To Get Results In Your Marketing Communications
It has to do with the focus and direction of communication. Let’s take a look at these five activities and see what doesn’t work and how to make it work.
Let’s Break Down Every Marketing Activity
Activity One: Attend Networking Events And Talk With Potential Clients
Good, very good, but what are you talking about? Doesn’t it make sense to talk about everything about our services, what we do, how we help clients, the kind of results we produce, etc.? Yes, but that’s the least important part of communication.
The most important part of communication would be to do just the opposite: Inform yourself about your potential customers, ask questions about their business and how they started, and above all, be curious and interested. By doing this, you’ll learn about their goals and challenges, and you’ll have a much better idea of how you might be able to help them with your services and/or products.
Activity Two: Provide An Article To Those Who Are Interested
Offering an item after meeting someone is certainly better than just offering a business card. After all, if you’ve connected with someone and developed a bit of attention and interest, the next thing they want is more information.
But the key is the content of the article. Is it mostly “business-focused” explaining everything you do for clients and all your expertise? Wouldn’t it be more interesting and compelling if you talked about, for example, the most common mistakes customers make and how to correct these mistakes? It wouldn’t be about you, it would be about them, their concerns, and aspirations.
Activity Three: Collect The Business Cards And Send Them A Link To Your Website
This is a good idea. This provides more information that might interest them. But what is the content of your website? Like the article, most websites are completely “yo-yo.” They have to do with your business, your background, your services.
How often do you see a website that is instead “customer-centric”? That is, to talk about the problems and aspirations of your target market. Talk about clients you’ve worked with in a way the visitor can relate to (that client is just like me). Talk more about the results (what your client gets), not so much about the processes (what you do).
Activity Four: Follow Up
It’s a good thing to do some sort of follow-up. It certainly beats waiting for someone to call you. But what do you talk about on those calls? Very often, you start by talking about your services, what you do, and how you do it.
But just like the conversations at networking events, people want you to be interested in them in the first place. They want you to understand them before you “throw” them your pitch. So in that call, the goal is to ask more questions and get to know them. What are your business goals, where are they at that moment, and what are your challenges to reach them?
Activity Five: Schedule A Strategy Session
If you really want to get to know someone, they naturally want to know more about you, about your services, about how you help your clients. But you don’t want to go too deep into a follow-up call. You want to make an appointment to talk in more depth.
That’s what I call a strategy session. And guess what, about 75% of the content on that call should be about the customer, not you. You want to better understand their situation, goals, and challenges before talking about the services and solutions you offer.
Conclusion
When you change the focus of your marketing from talking about yourself to talking about them, something wonderful happens: Potential customers start to take an interest in you. They like to talk to you, read the materials you send them, and meet with you.
By making this simple, yet powerful change to all of your marketing communications, you’ll start getting results on a whole new level.
Learn More About DIGITAL MARKETING From DigitalBusinessGrow.com
