Are You Communicating Online Properly?

I often volunteer in my daughter’s school, and love helping out when I can. As the school year came to an end, I received a stack of thank you notes from the kids. For the first time in my life, I was told:

“You da bomb!”

Huh?

Of course after my daughter translated for me, I figured out being “da bomb” was a good thing.

People communicate in different ways. They think differently. They talk differently. And they search differently.

It can be a difference in ages. Or a difference in communities. Or a difference in cultures.

When you’re communicating one on one with a person, you can compensate for the difference in words and phrases.

For instance, I was on a business trip in Boston a few years ago, and asked a woman if there was a pop machine near by. She had no idea what I was talking about until I finally corrected myself and said “soda machine”. I could see her confusion, and changed my wording until we came up with familiar phrases.

Online, you can’t see your prospects confusion. You can’t tell what they want, or what would make them understand what you have to say. You have to know your business well enough to understand what they want ahead of time, and share that information online.

1. Just because you understand what you sell, doesn’t mean your prospects will. Take a look at your site through your clients’ eyes. Better yet, talk to people that aren’t connected with your business, and find out what they think of your site. Is there any confusion?

2. Give people what they want. Some people love statistics. Some people love long stories. Some people want just the facts. Some people are visual and want lots of graphics. Provide different pages with different things, and give people the choice to move around for more information. People read what they want and need to make a decision.

3. Make your copy speak to your target audience. Don’t use technical lingo, or industry related material that your prospects won’t understand. Don’t use slang or phrasing that might not make sense in different cultures. Be as plain and matter-of-fact as you can be.

4. Get started. Your site doesn’t have to be perfect at the beginning. The important thing is to get it out. Build from there. Everybody has to start somewhere, and having a five-page site is a great starting point. You can always add the detail as you go along.

5. Don’t skimp on the information. You don’t have to put up a five-page brochure site and leave it unchanged for years to come. Instead, get your site online, and build supporting pages as you go along. Your first “services” page might describe all of your products. Over time, create detailed pages on each product, and describe it thoroughly.

6. Never assume your prospects will understand. You understand your business. You live it every day. But your prospect may be brand new to the industry, and know nothing about the details. Websites have the potential to describe and define as they go along by using description boxes, and linking to other pages for further explanation. FAQ pages are also good starting points for people that need further information.

7. Ask questions. Find out what made your prospects turn into customers. Use this information to add and change your online strategies.

Above all, be flexible. Marketing isn’t something you do once. You work at it month after month for as long as you’re in business. What works today may not work tomorrow. But if you’ve developed a large variety of tools, you’re more apt to capture the attention of a new visitor. And turn them into a customer.

Then YOU will be “da bomb” too!

Design Email Campaigns To Bring In More Business

In the pre-Internet days, communicating with your customers took a whole lot more effort. You had to plan a promotion, create the marketing piece, print out address labels and attach them to the marketing piece, head to your post office and buy a bulk mailer or buy individual first class stamps and stamp each piece individually. Then drop everything into the mail. The whole process could take anywhere from several days to several weeks, depending on your use of graphic designers and printers.

But then the Internet rolled around, and everyone jumped on the bandwagon of email. Email is a quick form of communication that allows you to send anyone anything at little or no cost. Of course the problem with email is because of its low cost, everyone does it. It’s not uncommon for someone to get several hundred email a day.

With that kind of incoming messaging, your communications have little to no chance of making it through – and creating the sale – unless you provide your customers strong value and they anticipate and even wait for your arrival.

As a part of your marketing strategy, consider the following when building a campaign.

1. Don’t just send email because of its value to you. Give your customer the value. What do they want to know? What do they care about? They don’t care about the details of your business. They care about how your business affects their lives.

2. Send email on a regular, anticipated time interval. Tell your customers when to expect email from you, and what to expect in the email. “Sign up for my weekly ezine in which I provide you with simple 5 minute tips on organizing your home office.” This gets straight to the point, tells people when they will receive your information, and how they can use your information. People can decide before they sign up if this type of correspondence is for them.

3. Don’t overwhelm your customers. Different industries have different email patterns. If you are emailing to a consumer, they may only open up personal email once or twice per week. If you send one or two email per day, you’ll quickly overwhelm your customer, causing her to opt out of your email. If you email business owners, they may appreciate daily correspondence, and like quick tips to start out their day. Find out what your customer prefers, test your responses often, and give them what they want.

4. Don’t forget about the mail. Just because email is a great system that’s inexpensive to use, don’t forget that snail mail can be equally effective. Try working the two together. Email your customers to watch for a new promotion you’re about to put into the mail. Send out your postcard. Then email a week or so later asking if they received the postcard, and giving them further incentive to make contact with you.

5. Instead of emailing people with all of your information, offer them choices. Autoresponders are a great way of emailing people only the information they are truly interested in. If you have a new product coming out, give them a chance to sign up on another list that will provide more information. They will receive a variety of emails based on this new product, and their desire for your information.

Above all, keep trying. If something doesn’t work, look at the possible reasons why. Is it your timing – maybe it’s a holiday. Is it the message – refine the way you say it. The important thing is to be consistent, and be willing to change to reach your fullest potential.