Recently I was busy closing things down before I left for vacation and what I've began to notice was that I became increasingly intolerant of communications that were providing little value to me as my time was at a premium.
Let me give you a few examples:
- newsletters and ezines that were delivered into my email box telling me that the new newsletter can be found online at xyz link
- ecards wishing me a Happy Christmas that I had to click online to access
- a blog feed that "tells me" to follow the person on Twitter - but no reason why I should do this.
I try to follow the rule that if I am asking for someones attention and action to click through to a web page then there needs to be something in it for them - I need to explain what they can look forward to when they get there.
I believe that building a strong brand and reputation means also that we become business leaders that people want to do business with and that in fact we make it easy for people to do business with us.
So for example, some time ago I changed my Feedburner feed for delivery by email for Biz Growth News to be by a full feed rather than a partial feed. Yes that has slightly made an impact on the number of people who come to the blog to read the articles, but interestingly I have found that the number of subscribers to the blog has increased.
I know from my own behaviour that when I am under time pressure I do not find the time to read my feeds but if a feed is available with an emal subscription I am more likely to pay attention to it.
I am sure I get it wrong from time to time but I do always try to answer the question every client or prospect asks: "what's in it for me?" whenever I am authoring my ezine, blog articles or writing emails.
So before you decide to send an ecard or a newsletter wishing your clients and customers best wishes for the festive season, ask yourself:
- why would they want to take the action of that additional click through to your website?
Creating a compelling reason and articulating the benefits to your readers for taking that extra step will definitely mean that your message has more change of being listened to and acted upon.
Remember, as a leader of your professional services firm, your clients are looking for you to be adding value to them not wasting their time. How have you added value in your written business communications today?
BLOGGING BONUS TIP: If you decide to keep your Feedburner feed to be a summary feed, then make sure that you take time to carefully write headline and your first 2-3 sentences in your blog article.
Just as we scan newspaper headlines and the first paragraph of an article before we make a decision to read on, when we only receive a partial feed we make a decision on whether we will click through to the blog to access the rest of the article based on the "promise of what is to come" from the summary we read.
Tags: business blogging, ezine tips, social media marketing, what\'s in it for me, Facebook, Twitter
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