This week I’ll be writing an article for my Creating Connections ezine readers about How to Effectively Communicate Your Love for Your Prospects and Clients. Also this week, I’m teaching an in-depth teleclass for my Communication Success Network group coaching members on Showing the Love in Your Business.
Why the emphasis on love?
Look around you! It’s Valentine’s Day in less than a week and the world is exploding with advertisements, stories, and reds & pinks everywhere. I know right now all things “love” are top of mind for my clients because that’s what the media are telling us is currently important, our social networks are talking about (”are you taking your spouse to dinner for Valentine’s Day or preparing a special meal at home?”), and retail outlets are now selling merchandise for.
People can barely turn on the TV, radio or internet, or go into a store without seeing or hearing something related to Valentine’s Day.
And that’s important information to be aware of as a business owner. People are getting messages from EVERYWHERE. But if their focus is in one place, that’s where you want to be.
When you know what’s top of mind for your clients and prospects at any point, tapping into that shows you know what they are interested in right now. And you can communicate with them where their minds currently are.
It’s the same reason marketing experts tell us we need to know who our ideal prospects are. As a communication expert I can tell you, knowing your audience is key to you speaking to their values, desires, and interests — and that’s precisely when they will be able to best hear your message.
So tell me…. what are your plans for Valentine’s Day? How will you communicate with your prospects and clients where they are this week?
A couple of weeks ago I created a survey for meeting planning professionals who hire professional speakers. I wanted some insight for an article I’m working on into their experience including stories of the good, the bad, and the ugly when it comes to hiring & working with speakers. Only problem was, I wanted responses from planners I’m not already friends with. But how to find them?
You’d think Twitter would be a great resource. Sure, my survey did get retweeted by some kind folks in that industry — but still, I only had a tiny handful of responses. Nothing to base an entire article on. Then one of my mastermind partners suggested I directly interview a few people.
That’s when I got the idea to put a query out to the HARO family of more than 100,000 readers. And WOW — was the response amazing! I’ve received exactly the kind of stories I was looking for an have had the opportunity to interview some truly knowledgeable folks. The cost for this fabulous response and now the ability to write an article that will SURELY be picked up by an industry publication? FREE! Three cheers for Peter Shankman otherwise known as @Skydiver. Hip hip hooray, Peter!
Last weekend was a live event I wish I could have attended but being home with my kids was much more important. So using the Twitter hashtag #NAMS I was able to follow all the fun, see the content from the speakers being shared by attendees, and feel a little closer to all the action all from my home. Blogging for business expert, Denise Wakeman, spoke and gave a tip for getting traffic and comments to your blog. She recommended Cathy Stucker’s Blogger Link Up service, yet another free tool where you can post a request for guest blogger content, responses to a particular post, and more. I’ve only just subscribed today, but if Denise Wakeman recommends it, I know the service is good. Plus Cathy Stuker has been in my tweet stream for what seems like ages now, and I know she is a woman with a lot of great information to share.
So there you have it! A tale of two tools to help you generate great content to communicate with those you can best serve in your small or home-based business. Do you have expereince with either of these tools? I’d love to hear about it!
I am embarrassed.
When I started my business and learned about the concept of blogging, I used to blog every single day of the week. Of course back then, I didn’t have any clients — well I had one. A pro bono client. And that was about the size of it.
Fast forward almost 4 years and [...]
Tonight I had the chance to speak with Kevin Nations, one of the most talented business people I have ever met. What I personally learned from Kevin by taking his Big Ticket Blueprint class about a year and a half ago has allowed me to keep my coaching and consulting business completely filled. [...]
If you know me at all, you know I tend to steer FAR clear of any talk of politics. Even with friends & family (right JAM? ). I leave that kind of talk to those who are far more knowledgeable about the issues than I am.
But… one issue that I can confidently comment [...]
Wow! The response I’ve been getting to my 4th quarter challenge has been amazing! Yay for you if you’re joining me by publicly announcing that “you’re in” on my previous blog post or if you’re silently following along. Whatever you do… just take some action and git ‘er done!!
Today I’m sharing with [...]
Here in the Chicago area the sun is shining and it’s a cool brisk Monday morning. October has arrived in full gorgeous soon to be multi-colored force!
For business owners that means it’s the final quarter of 2009.
As I look at my never-ending to-do list and all the things that need my attention I found myself [...]
As I write this I am in the process of multiple projects.
Now I know, you may be thinking, “But Felicia, I heard you’re supposed to focus on 1 thing at a time to be the most successful?”
That advice is only partially correct.
You see, just because I have several major projects happening at once doesn’t mean [...]
Well first, let me say — ouch.
I have been in serious dental pain for the past 3 weeks. I’ll save you the long story, but let it suffice to say that I had work done, and as that progressed the doctors determined I needed more. Which turned out to be a root canal.
So yesterday I [...]
Yesterday on Twitter I wrote:
Wondering out loud: Can too much passion for what you know distract you from truly listening to your clients?
And wow– did I get a flood of answers! I received many, many YES answers along with a retweet of my original question (a retweet on Twitter means someone copied & pasted what [...]
