Stop worrying about over-communicating.

Note: If you’re blasting out pointless salesy emails with no relevance to your target audience, you should be worried. You need more help than I can give you in one article.

But for those of us with even a vague understanding of marketing, we know there’s a lot of competition for our customers’ attention. Do you think your customers are worried they’ll offend you by buying from your competition?

The truth is, if you’re not getting some complaints or unsubscribes, you’re not communicating enough!

Look at it like this. If someone’s not interested in what you’re offering, they’re not buying. They’ll opt out anyway. Don’t sweat it. Get over the fear of inconveniencing the recipient and regularly deliver communications of value. This can be weekly, or even more frequently, depending on your business and how well you target your audience.

In my business, I want my potential customers to hear from me at least 25 times a year – and there’s a chool of thought that says that ain’t nowhere near enough and that I’m,leaving money on the table for my competition. However, I know that 25 times a year is at least five times more than my most ‘aggressive’ competitor – which is why my sales are a ton more than his!

Avoid sales schlock
Don’t abuse recipients with marketing fluff. Avoid vanity announcements that only interest you. And, for goodness sakes, avoid “read all about our great product/latest promotion” rubbish. People aren’t interested (sorry to burst your bubble).

I keep getting this email from God-knows-what business imploring me to download their free brochure. Really, that’s the pull. The free brochure. Get real.

What’s in it for me?

Make it matter
One of my favourite direct marketing tactics was for an IT services company. They sent out email alerts with very timely news like viruses and breaking IT issues. Smart. This branded the company and kept them top of mind. They weren’t always selling. They gave value.

Give your readers useful information. Do a series. Tell a story. Have a pull. Make it count or you’re wasting your time and money.

Use offers and discounts whenever possible
People respond to special offers, discounts and drawings. They’ll open the envelope, sign up for the drawing, or opt into the list. Heck, they may even meet with you!

Mix up the media
Your marketing strategy can’t consist only of email blasts. Not even email marketing companies do that. Instead, integrate tactics. Boost the frequency and relevance by using direct mail, special events, public relations, advertising, etc. Integrate, integrate, integrate.

Know your market
If yours is a transactional consumer business, frequency will be vital.
Important: The easier it is to buy your product, the easier it will be to purchase elsewhere. In a global recession, customer loyalty is dead.

If you’re selling business services, you can communicate a bit less frequently. But use content rich tools like white papers, case studies and webinars. Give value.

Who’s talking to your customers?
If you think reaching customers once every six months is enough, ask yourself this:

How many times are my many, many competitors communicating with my customers? Your competitors are reaching out to your customers. Trust me.

You must control the conversation. Deliver content that’s interesting, and relevant with an incentive to take action, and you’re on the right track.

Send it out frequently using various tools and you’re ready to make money.

I learned a long time ago that every time I send something out I make money.

It was a good lesson.

I’ve just run one of our regular Discovery Days for our thebestof franchise.  We had eighteen people come along to our Training Suite in Solihull to spend a few hours with myself and my Team so we can find out about them and, importantly, they can find out all about us.

I always have at least one, usually two franchisees with me at these events.  Talking to existing franchisees is the most useful thing anyone can do when they’re contemplating investing in a franchise business and, as it happened, one of the customers of the franchisee who was here today was also in the room (the customer is contemplating buying a neighbouring franchise as a direct result of his experience with our franchisee – make sense?)

I was talking about the type of people that make successful franchisees and, first, one of the most important elements is that they are genuine “people people”.  I spoke a little bit about this and gave some stories and anecdotes and then the customer raised his hand and interjected.  “Nigel, I agree with everything you’re saying” he said, “but the thing that makes Ian (i.e. the franchisee) stand out a mile is that he cares so much about his customers”.

He then spoke for a few minutes about things that Ian did that showed how much he really cared about his customers and it was clear that Ian had made a really big impact on this guy, who was in no doubt whatsoever that the reason for Ian’s success was simply that he cared more than anyone else.

When you think about it, isn’t that a really great lesson for success in business and, as a long term strategy, I reckon it’s bang on.

If you care more than anyone else then ….. you will succeed (subject, of course, to doing the right things as well).

It’s got me thinking, I can tell you.  I’m already plotting and planning different ways in which we can show that we care to our customers and to our franchisees.  Watch this space.