One of the things small business owners most frequently say to me when I’m working with them on their marketing is, “I don’t want to be annoying.” Usually they say this at the thought of sending out a second email or making a follow-up phone call.
When it comes to your marketing, there’s a big difference between persistence and pushiness.
Or is there?
One thing we know about this market is that it’s taking more interaction with a prospect before they become a client. It doesn’t matter what type of service we’re talking about, people are taking a little longer and investigating more thoroughly before spending their money.
We know there’s more competition for those prospects. And we know that the growing competition is making more noise. Plus your prospects have built a deflector shield to ward off messages.
So let me sum this up—your prospects are taking longer to decide, there’s more competition, and tons more messages to “buy from me.” And through that din, you’re satisfied that your prospect doesn’t want to work with you after you’ve emailed or called them once, maybe twice?
I don’t think so.
You aren’t being annoying. You’re providing valuable, decision-making information when you talk to your prospects. Marketing…and sales…is about building relationships, not about being annoying. You must be prepared to *touch* your prospect and do it again, and again.
Here are some ways to make your contacts more productive for you and your prospect:
=> Everyone has a preferred method of communications. I love email. Chris prefers phone calls. How does your target prospect want to be contacted? Find out and use that method.
=> Several *touches* in a tight time frame enables your prospect to “see” you faster. The market noise is so loud that your prospect can’t remember who you are if you go too long between contacts. Three emails in one week are usually more effective than three emails over three months. With the latter, you’re starting over each time you send something out. They don’t remember you.
=> If you’re communicating by email or flyer—something written—keep the message simple. What do you want them to do? Make it obvious so they aren’t struggling through dense copy, or worse, simply throwing it out.
=> Share WHY you do with you do. What’s your motivation, your passion? People don’t buy WHAT you do. They buy WHY you do it. There are lots of computer makers out there. People buy from Apple because they love their passion. They relate to Apple’s WHY. It’s their WHY, too. What’s your WHY? Tell them.
Marketing is about building a relationship to turn a prospect into a client, and relationships aren’t built overnight. It’s rare—and kind of spooky—to meet someone, fall in love and get married based on the first encounter. If you wouldn’t marry someone after you met them once, what makes you think a prospect will “marry” you and become your client after one encounter?
Persistent and consistent. Embrace those two words when you’re marketing. You’re not being annoying. You’re building a relationship.
Go forth and do great things,
Martha Hanlon and Chris Williams