Work Better, Not Harder

(guest post by Natasha Marchewka) Do you need help with keeping in touch with past clients without "bugging them"? When working as an isolated freelancer or small business (and where building your business is all on you) there are ways to efficiently and effectively build, strengthen, and grow relationships. Keeping in touch regularly can be a bit of a conundrum. You want to remind them you exist, but you need to find a balance of being seen and heard and not overdo it. So, you created a newsletter to email clients once a month. I think that's great - and important - and keeps you relevant, top-of-mind, and also keeps you on your toes. What else can you do to remind them you exist as they are distracted daily... and still forget you exist? Here are some ideas. And, as an added bonus you'll have relevant content to share on your social media feeds! Client Relationship Building Check-list: Visit your clients' websites and check if they added anything...

Seth Godin's post today -  We’re still clueless about lifetime value - got me thinking, as his posts usually do. (Take a minute to read it.) I love his line, "Torrents are made of drips." He's referring to the long-term impact of small, seemingly inconsequential, actions - like when I have to call Netfirms three times before I get a resolution to a domain problem. That company will never get my referrals for website hosting, even though I get asked regularly for referrals to good website hosting companies. That's not business lost - it's business they'll never get... but could have. Now think of the website hosting company that I do refer people to - SiteGround Hosting Ltd. (aff) . I have sent them 8 referrals in the last 6 months. And I bet some of those people have gone on to refer SiteGround, or will. Those people will refer more people, and so on. By treating me well in every interaction I've had with them, they've earned my loyalty...

You work hard to attract new subscribers who find value in what you're offering. Someone makes a decision to sign up to your mailing list expecting to receive that great value and... they don't hear a thing from you. I'm not talking about businesses who have sign up forms yet never send a thing - that's a different blog post (and hopefully that's not you). Delivering your precious content to your fans has always been a challenge - what with spam filters, corporate gateways, and then trying to stand out in the inbox. What you may not have realized is that Google has become society's censor, whether you use it yourself or not. Google decides what gmail users see in their inbox , and what gets (sometimes arbitrarily) moved to the promotions folder - out of sight, out of mind. Even if you want to receive newsletters from your clients, or get this week's sales at the mall, Google may decide you don't. This is interfering with: satisfying your subsc...

(guest post by Natasha Marchewka) Life is good as a freelancer or small business owner. No one to answer to, but our own clients, of course. No one breathing down our necks to make sure we’ve done THEIR job correctly. We get to “do it all” ourselves. Autonomy. It’s a freedom we’ve longed for... And now, we get to “do it all” ourselves. Sales, inbound and outbound marketing, bookkeeping, client management, admin, social media... oh, and that part about providing a product or service... We have to do what we do best and a bunch of stuff we, maybe, don’t do that well. So, we hire out when possible. (Thank you @daleyprogress!) In the process of putting the pieces together of my own business as a voice actor , I’ve managed to figure out how to do a lot of things on my own. On top of it all, I work at documenting everything because I happen to be a list maker. And as I dig deeper and deeper to give back to the world, I’ve discovered not everyone IS a list maker , and most p...

Imagine this happened to you earlier today... You chatted on the phone for two hours with one of your favourite customers . You both laughed a lot and enjoyed catching up. It had been a while since you had a relaxed conversation with her. You're smiling as you hang up the phone. Then reality strikes. A quick check of the time and your to-do list confirms you've lost control of your day. Your smile fades. You aren't feeling as cheery as you did a few minutes before. Now you'll have to hustle and compromise the rest of the day. And that's not the worst impact. Your favourite customer is in exactly the same situation. She hung up smiling, too, but quickly realized the impact on her day. (I suspect this story may ring true for some of my customers.) Here are a couple of things I try to remember to do so a friendly chat doesn't go too far off track: Jot down on paper a short list of points to cover during the call. I can use it as a reminder to brin...

It's 2pm on a Thursday afternoon. I've been out all morning and discover urgent requests from two different customers as soon as I'm back at my desk. I already have a full plate for the afternoon and immediately realize I'm not going to be able to help both customers. I have to pick one over the other. Who do I pick? The one who always says "Thanks!" It's a no-brainer. Manners and respect will never go out of style. And they absolutely give you a one-up over those lacking... in business and in life. Click to Tweet this Article

A small business owner, let's call him Bob, arrives in a small town for a meeting with a potential new client. Before his afternoon meeting, Bob decides he needs a haircut to get all spiffy. The receptionist at his hotel tells him there are only two barbers in town, both with shops along the main drag. It's a sunny warm morning so Bob sets off walking. When he arrives at the first barbershop, Bob can clearly see through the big front window that the place looks less than pristine - hair on the floor and a general air of disorganization. There's one fellow getting a cut and another waiting. Even the barber himself needs a trim! Further along Main Street, Bob comes to the second barbershop. The view in the front window looks much better. The floor is swept and gleaming, the barber is busy lining up shampoo bottles on a display shelf and his own hair has a crisp updated cut. Bob turns around and heads back to the first barbershop to get his cut. Do you know why? I r...

For small business owners, nurturing long term relationships is critical, so keeping in touch with past customers to encourage them to return is a worthwhile activity. Dentists have been doing it for years with their cute cartoon postcards reminding us to book our next check-up. It's time to take that process online and use our bulk email application to automate it. And we can apply it to more than patients. While this process can be handled exactingly by a workflow app, you don't need the expensive software to make it work for you. One of our long time clients, HealthWalks Shoe Store and Orthotic Clinic in New Glasgow, NS, has been sending reminders by email for a few years now. Here's how it works... Initially I created the template based on a postcard HealthWalks had been mailing to customers one year after receiving their orthotics. Now, each month I receive a list of contacts who have just passed the anniversary date of when they received their orthotic...

When promoting anything, it's always best to have a way for people to pay right away. PayPal is usually an easy way to do this but sometimes I need a PayPal button in a place where I can't embed the html code, like in an email, Word document, or social media post. You may not know there's a simple way to get a PayPal link without the button code . It's a link just like any other url and can be shared anywhere online (although it's an ugly link so you'll want to hide it behind text). Here's the caveat: you have to avoid using any of the 'customize button' options. Once you're finished creating your button, on the next screen, click the tab for 'email' and copy the link. (see image) Now you can have people 'Buy Now' using that link instead of having to embed a PayPal button. Click to Tweet this Article

Your reputation is what people are saying about you behind your back. Shouldn’t you have some control over what is being said? Reputation and trust are two words that are often intermingled. There is a big difference though. Your reputation is a backward view of what has happened, while trust is forward thinking. One affects the other. Trust is based on positive expectations of what you or your company can deliver in the future. If I decide to do business with you, I'm going to check your reputation. What are people saying about you? What did you deliver? How quickly did you resolve problems? Now with a quick search, I can find out a lot about a person's reputation in business by looking at reviews that were posted. Everything from eBay to hotel chains to pizza deliveries are judged in real time and this will affect buying decisions. Imagine you are working with a client who has paid a good sum of money to have you train their staff. So far your sales have all been fro...

Do you want more customers like the ones you already have? You can use experiences with your current customers to develop content that will attract more of the same. Customer-generated content is akin to 'social proof' - it elevates your reputation . By 'content' I mean all the 'stuff' on your website, social media accounts, blog, newsletter, brochures and so on. How do you get your customers to do this work for you? Success stories: Interview a client and write a blog post about it. Or ask them to write it themselves . Or do it live via Blab or Periscope and save the recording to post online. Prepare a few questions in advance so the advantages of using your product or service will be highlighted. Lessons learned and improvement opportunities: Write about a customer service experience and what you learned from it. This doesn't have to be negative. Case studies and examples: This works great if you do project-type work or customization. As abo...

I came across what seemed like an amazing deal on web hosting. Because I'm very familiar with the company making the offer, I paused to have a better look. Wow, I was thinking, they're really cutting prices to get business. Because I'm familiar, it also seemed a little out of character. So, I went hunting for the small print and there it was in tiny light grey at the bottom. Only 99 cents a month but it only applies to the first month . How many people are going to feel a little ripped off or a little stuck when they realize what they signed up for? Quite a way to deflate a new website experience. Now I know there are all sorts of businesses that use a prepaid subscription model. It's easy to to say all the info is there, but what if your customers don't understand it? It's a business model that relies on uneducated consumers. Wouldn't it be better to have a business model where people know exactly what they're signing up for and exactly what ...

I recently had the pleasure once again of hearing Toni Newman speak about innovation and being different. If you haven't attended an event featuring Toni, you won't hear the energy and conviction behind her message, but an important message it is. Below is my attempt to share it with you – quotes are from Toni. Each of us has a default set of expectations around just about everything we do, even things we haven’t done. My default will be different than yours, but we both have one. Toni’s example was about tipping in a restaurant and a delightful experience with a waiter named Stefan. My default might be to give a 15% tip before taxes; yours might be different. For me to tip more or less, the experience has to break my expectations, either better or worse. “The unexpected moves people beyond their default mindset.” Toni says that in order to be better, we also have to be different, because being different is what breaks those default mindsets. And ‘different’ doesn...

Aside from your traditional newsletters and promotional messages, you can also use your bulk email application to automate some other processes. You might not think of iContact (or whatever app you use) as a productivity tool, but it can be. Here are a couple of examples. Patient/client reminders You’re familiar with those postcards we get in the mail reminding us it’s time to book our appointment with the dentist, or optometrist, or pedorthist. If that is a standard practice for your business, consider sending these reminders by email, automated to go at appropriate intervals. One of our clients claimed this is saved her money every month. Certificates If you use a mail merge to create certificates in Word for course attendees, you can do the same in iContact and send them out by email at the same time. You can use merge fields for the name, date, and any other info that you want inserted into the certificate. We recently sent Certificates of Completion to several hundred...

Your newsletter has just gone out and your inbox is filling up with out-of-office auto-responder messages. Are you deleting them unopened? They might be worth a closer look. Other than vacation notices, you might also find that some of your contacts have changed their email addresses due to new jobs or other reasons. You’ll want to search them in your list and replace their email address. (If you delete them and add them as a new contact, you’ll lose the electronic trail of your contact history.) The Phone Lady told me a nice story about reconnecting with someone as a result of following up on a change notice. The lesson is that you can use this as an opportunity to reach out and touch someone that you haven’t talked to in a while. photo by rich115 / Flickr Click to Tweet this Article

If you have a newsletter, it should have a read online link . This link takes the reader to the web version of your newsletter. This is an archive copy of your newsletter that is like a web page. How can you use this? 1) You can use it to provide event details and online payment for any event you are planning. Particularly useful if you have difficulty with website updates. Just send a newsletter event announcement with a register now PayPal link in it. The read online link url becomes your event registration page. Share it on social media, include it in follow up email, and post it on your blog. 2) Put it on your website as a resource for your clients and customers . Many of us are answering common client questions inside our newsletters. You can use the read online url on your website with your FAQ answers or in case studies. If you are answering those questions on your blog, you can use it there too! 3) Once you have a few issues under you belt, keep your archive link hand...

As a teenager, I can remember resolving not to nag my kids like I felt my mother did to me. Now, I’m pretty sure my stepson would say I’m a master at it. Funny how that happens. Recently, I was reminding a client to send me the article for her newsletter. A few minutes later, I received an article titled “Nagging, Tracking, Monitoring and Control” . Once I stopped laughing, it got me thinking about the conversations I've had with other clients. One had said that she likes that we never back off from a deadline. Others have said they appreciate the accountability that our reminder process provides. It seems that one of my professional success factors is, in fact, nagging. Our website says nothing about nagging. I never mention it when I’m talking to potential new clients; I’m quick to dazzle them with our expertise and to reassure them about our quality assurance process . It turns out that nagging is really what many of our clients want and need. Mom will be proud to find o...

photo by barriebarrie All of our new clients get a little lecture about responding to emails they receive after their newsletter goes out. Aside from triggering business transactions, responses might vary from requests to reconnect over coffee to lengthy catch-up messages. You don’t want to let these sit in your inbox – make that coffee date, take advantage of the opportunity to connect . Then there are the short messages, like “Thanks!” or “Great issue!” Don’t just pat yourself on the back and delete them. Make sure you respond to these too. At the minimum, reply and say something like “Thanks, I’m glad you enjoyed it.” You might also take advantage of this opportunity to ask what in particular the reader liked, or some other useful feedback. If the reader expressed an interest in something specific, you might provide links to more resources. Publishing a regular newsletter can definitely be a relationship-building tool but you have to work to make it that way. OK, yes, I ...

Although there is a generally accepted definition, a gift means different things to everyone. And there are many different kinds of gifts. There are gifts for the occasion, gifts of time and attention and unexpected little twist of fate gifts that fall from the sky in a moment where everything comes together for your benefit. Those are my favourite gifts, I call them Karma candy. In business, gifts typically have a marketing intent. Whether a free service or sample product, the purpose is to connect with a new customer. Gifts can be a great marketing strategy and if you have a great product, getting it into the hands of potential customers to try, is a sure recipe for success. I caution you to think about the gifts you give. Because a marketing gift gone wrong can be a source of entertainment for a wider audience than you expect. Here's a story such as that... We received a gift from our web hosting provider today. It arrived in the form of an email invoice for a new domai...

"People tell us who they are, but we ignore it because we want them to be who we want them to be.” - Donald Draper If my target market consisted of 1000 of me, my marketing efforts would be so much easier. After all, I know what I like and don’t like. I know what makes me glad, sad or mad. I know my favourite colours and the best time to get me on the phone. I know when my payday is and when I read my mail. I know when I need new shoes or my roof shingled. I’m not my ideal client but business would sure be easier if I was. My ideal clients make decisions differently than I do. They prefer different communication methods and spend their money on different things. Their personalities and styles are different than mine. They probably make more money than I do. But they don’t know how to create a newsletter campaign like I do. When things don’t go as I expect them to, it’s usually because a client didn't act, say or think the way I would have. (Darn them!) It's...