Canadian Small Business Women

Connection, Synergy, Community

Winning communicate skills for entrepreneurs

 

There are more than a few necessary skillsets you need for the success of your business, and the one you cannot underestimate is the art of communication. How we do this is varied, ever changing and necessary for attracting and keeping your current customers. It is so important it may be best to think of communication as your actual income strategy because it’s impact controls how much money you can and will make.

If we recognize how crucial good communication skills to the value of your business, it’s going to make prioritizing your skills development as important as any other area in your business. A key place to start this development is with a focus on the “art of the follow up.” With work in this area you can hone your communication skills to develop the most effective ways to talk to your customers. What would it mean to focus on this area? It would mean showing the people who you communicate with that they matter to you. So, how do you do that?

Most of these items you already know but here are a few thoughts:

  • Deal with and return any communications in a timely manner – do you have a plan for managing instant messaging, phone calls and email inquiries successfully? What does that structure look like?
  • Consider having a written response plan covering the eventualities that can affect your connections. Guarantee to respond within 2 hours (or less) using the same method your customer reached out to you and let them know about this guarantee in your customer info outlets.
  • As your business grows, you may find (because of your great communication skills) that responding to your customer enquiries is something you can outsource to a competent VA. You may find that setting up a “self-serve” appointment booking system would free up the back and forth activities that happen when trying to line up schedules and services. There are many cost-effective systems that can streamline this task and take some of the pressure off.
  • Use your email signature to best effect with helpful links to areas of interest for your clients.
  • Create a meaningful FAQ section that helps customers to get the information they need and free you up to provide personalized, high quality service and connection that represents the quality of your business.
  • Check if (Facebook) messenger bots can help support your business. Many people use instant messaging to get quick responses these days, which is great if not disruptive to say the least. How will you manage this type of activity and can these messenger bots help you connect, support and communicate in ways that work for you and your customer.

Using these types of processes bring several business-building results, such as: letting the people you communicate with that they matter to them, and you are acknowledging them in their moment of need, even more than just being polite about returning their call.

You will build your business reputation as you become reliably responsive to your customers. Setting expectations around your response times and methods will also help streamline your operations and provide space to provide the services you’ve worked so hard to create while providing space for business growth. All this brings opportunity knocking at your door as it grows your bottom line. This reputation growth also leads to great things like joint ventures and partnerships as it brings you closer to your financial goals. Everyone wins when we finetune communication skills and serve our customers where they live. Something we can measure and improve by putting communication with our customers first.

 

Barbara Jemmott is the founder and business strategist at Your Entrepreneurial Spirit. Her 4-point YES to Customer Acquisition Program (C.A.P.) allows her to work her passion which is helping entrepreneurial women grow their audiences and income, online. She got here through her 20+ years of experience helping businesses understand and implement systems, strategies and procedures to increase productivity as well implement change and streamline operations. With experience and responsibilities to design, develop and deliver training for small to large technology training initiatives for Fortune 100 companies, she brings “Big Business” expertise to the small business space. Learn more about Your Entrepreneurial Spirit and the YES to Customer Acquisition Program at www.yourentrepreneurialspirit.com

Don’t Do Marketing & PR… Until you can answer these 5 questions

CHuntly

Marketing & Public Relations (AKA PR) should be an important part of your outreach strategy. After all, PR is defined as interacting with your public, and you need to do that to communicate your brand message to your audience. If you’re not trying to communicate with your audience, you are relying too heavily on the “if you build it they will come” strategy. In a world of social media and other online channels as well as all of the visual and informational bombardment on a day-to-day basis face-to-face, there is too much noise in the marketplace to wait for someone to notice you. You need to initiate the connection.

It can be tempting to jump on the first opportunity you see to get your brand “out there” without thinking too much beyond that you just want people to see you. However, just because it is the latest and greatest idea doesn’t mean it is the right one for your business.

You have a lot of options available to you when it comes to marketing and PR. The challenge for you as a small business owner is to pick the right options that will give you the highest return on your investment (of time AND money!).

Here are a few things you need to get straight before you jump on that latest and greatest idea you came across:

  1. What do you do? Be able to identify in detail what product or service you are selling.
  2. Who would be interested in what you have to offer? When you can answer this question, you will have identified your target audience.
  3. Why would your target audience want what you have to offer? This is an important step often skipped by entrepreneurs who are launching a business. You need to be able to articulate – in writing and when you are speaking to people – what makes your product/service so great. Along the same lines, identify what sets you apart from your competitors.
  4. Where does your target audience congregate? Do a bit of research to find out where they get their information from, what organizations they belong to, their social media habits, and what their buying habits are.
  5. What are your goals? Once you have identified who you are and who would be interested in what you have to offer, you need to set goals so you can identify what a successful marketing & PR campaign would look like for you. Is it sign ups? Website traffic? Awareness?

Once you have answered these five questions, you can sit down and use the information to decide what kind of marketing & PR strategy you should run. Your audience and your goals will dictate what channels you use to reach out and your product/service offering and differentiators will help you determine what type of content and messaging to use on each channel.

While it means you need to invest more time in the beginning to help set yourself on the right track, it is worth it in the long-term.

Candace Huntly is the Founder and Principal at SongBird Marketing Communications, an award-winning agency working to take organizational and individual brands to the next level. With a passion for all things related to creativity and strategy, she specializes in business intelligence, marketing & branding, content strategy & development, media & influencer relations, and social media. Basically, if you need to put your brand, product, or cause in the public eye, she will find a way to do it, while making the approach unique to you.

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If It Doesn't Spread, It's Dead

selfy photo

I recently attended a meetup at Ryerson University, in their Transmedia Zone.  It was a fantastic evening of discussion and debate about content, media, and how the platforms we are using to communicate – social media, Youtube, The Internet itself – are changing our ideas around production and consumption of content, and even ownership of media.

One idea that came up was the idea that media, or content (we were primarily discussing video but it could as easily have been a discussion of any kind of media), is no longer something that we just consume.  It is something that we produce and in fact, it is a way we communicate as much as anything else.

We express our identities, our thoughts, and our ideas in media, as media.  We speak “video”.  And for those who don’t create their own, from scratch, we share what others have produced, as a kind of shorthand for what we want to say.  When I share a captioned photo on Facebook, or content created by a brand like Coke or Red Bull, I am speaking volumes about who I am, what “tribe” I belong to.

Where does content marketing fit in?

I stared to think about what role content marketing plays in this content-sharing-as-communication ecosystem, and why it is so important for business.  To define what I mean by content marketing, have a read of this article, or download a handy infographic here.  Content Marketing is a system in which a business uses content, not advertising, to generate and nurture leads for their business, build trust with their customers, and get found online.

I encounter an objection again and again when I work with clients who are-shall we say-not digital natives, when we get around to a content marketing discussion.  The objection goes something like this: “I am a private person; I don’t want to put myself out there in social media, or by blogging…I’m sure no one wants to hear what I had for lunch.  Plus, I am not willing to give away all my secrets in a blog!  If people want to get my help, they’ll have to hire me!”

That is kind of like moving to France and refusing to speak French.   Digital Media is communication tool, and content is a language that, as a business, you can’t NOT speak.  The best way to get your brand out there is to use media – video, photography, blogging, graphics – to communicate with your customers, and in fact to use media that they will want to share.  To use what Henry Jenkins calls “spreadable media”.

Henry Jenkins: Spreadable Media

This video, titled Spreadable content makes the consumer king, is an episode from Pull: How Technology is Changing the Conversation.  IT was produced by TVO and Q Media and it is taken from  a discussion I had with Jenkins in 2013.

Spreadable media is the best reason I can think of to generate content marketing for your business.  It is how you leverage your existing customers and followers as marketers, giving them the media they need to spread your message for you.

Jenkins also speaks in this interview about the new digital divide, that he calls the participation gap.  He talks about kids in schools who may not have access to skills and opportunities, but it just as effectively applies to business people who don’t have the skills, the training or worse, the willingness to participate in this new language of identity and brands, the language of content.

As Jenkins says: if it doesn’t spread, its dead.  Creating high value, sharable content that your customers can use is the best way to close that participation gap.

Christine McGlade is a Business Analyst, Content Strategist, and Usability Consultant.  With over 25 years experience in the media business, Christine helps small business, social enterprise, and Not for Profits how to leverage the power of the Internet to grow their business.  Learn more about Christine at analyticalengine.ca

Enhancing Communication

anna

Throughout our business and personal lives we meet wonderful and unique characters and those memories remain with us.  We encounter individuals that have a personality that we may define as odd or quirky and yet we are drawn to them because of the individuality.  They add to our own enlightenment and growth in being able to communicate.

We also encounter some very quiet and simplistic characters and with these lovely individuals we admire the uniformity and calmness in their methods of communicating their thoughts and feelings. Once again they teach us new methods to communicate as well.

There are all types in between from quirky to simple and how lucky we are to be able to meet them all.  Each individual is an inspiration of communication.  Even those that do not communicate well are an inspiration on what we want to avoid and maybe what we can teach.  I get excited when I meet someone new.  I tune my ears and open myself up to the wonders of meeting a new friend or colleague along with honing my skills on how to be an effective communicator.

The most important part of communicating is LISTENING!

In this quick paced and ever-moving world we hurry through everything; including our conversations.  As a matter of fact, I can sense that the next words coming from someone are before I have even finished my thought.  Did they hear me and my ideas all the way through?  Have I answered their concerns and they weren’t even paying attention?

There are some tips when trying to effectively communicate:

  1.  LISTEN! You need to know the question before answering.  You can take a lot of information away from the conversation that will help you in future if you stop and really listen!!!
  2. Two way speaking is very important.  Focus on the person you are speaking with and train your mind to STOP trying to find the immediate answer. Take a breath before replying and if you don’t have the answer or want to take the time to think over your thoughts tell them so. The answer, “I believe I really would like to think this through”, is much more thoughtful than a half hearted, “Sure”.
  3. Know that there are different communication styles and you need to know how you communicate and what others need to hear and feel to understand you.  I am happy to help with different communications styles as I love to explore this avenue and enlighten others.

Speak with integrity. Your enthusiasm and honesty shows through to your words and sincerity is the key.  Be yourself and explore!

Anna Ottaviani is a Board Certified NLP Master Practitioner & Master Coach, Board Certified Master Hypnotherapist,Creating Your Future® , Time Line® Therapist Practitioner and Reiki Master. Her methods are unique and tailored to each individual client. She can be reached at www.sucessfullyyou.ca or by phone at 289-221-5772. You can follow her onFacebook 

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