“This may seem simple, but you need to give customers what they want, not what you think they want. And, if you do this, people will keep coming back.”
John Ilhan, Crazy John’s
One of my goals this year is to get to know my Higher Performing People community better and on a much deeper level. Sure, I get comments and email on a regular basis about my newsletter and blogs, but I really wanted to get to know YOU better!
A couple of months ago, there had been some conversation on the marketing blogs about the nine-word email. Apparently it was designed by Dean Jackson and Joe Polish, the guys who run the ILoveMarketing.com blog and website. If you haven’t subscribed to their podcast, you should they have a lot of good stuff. It’s free to subscribe and it’s totally worth it. I am not affiliated with them in anyway, I just enjoy their content.
The objective of the nine word email is to ask a provocative question (in nine words) that engages your audience (customers/readers/clients) to respond to the question.
My question last week, in case you missed it was: Subject line: Hey… Body of email: Are you still looking for more clients or customers?
And boy, did it work!
I’ve had the best conversations this week with over 125 of my followers about a variety of things including: what they like about my newsletter, what they’d like to see more of (and less of!). What kinds of programs and classes they are interested in, what a good referral is for some of them. And as a lovely by-product, I’ve picked up some business.
What are you doing to engage in a conversation with your customers? Do you know what they like, don’t like? What they’d like more of or less of? Are they engaged in what you’re doing? One of my fears in doing this experiment was that no one would respond! Because as a solopreneur, it can often feel lonely sitting in your office all day and wondering to yourself, “is anyone reading this stuff?” Sure, I do quite a bit of networking and talking to clients, but that’s not the same as really actually having a conversation to better understand what your clients or customers may be looking for, what’s on their minds.
We spend such an inordinate amount of time trying to get new customers, or people to follow us or like us on social media, but then so often, we tend not to continue engaging with them.
What are the three things you can do this week to engage with your customers or clients to deepen your relationship with them?
Please be sure and let me know what the three activities are, I’m sure we can all learn from each other!
 Mandy works with talented, high energy self employed professionals and very small businesses who struggle to market their business effectively, stretch their capacity and play a bigger game. Mandy’s client’s receive proven, specific information on what they need to do to get more clients and grow their business. As a result, those who coach with Mandy increase their business, get more clients and make more money, faster and easier than they ever would have on their own. Sign up for her free Cd “7 Productivity Secrets of Successful Entrepreneurs” right down below. |