Productivity

Building relationships for consistent business growth

People are the lifeline of any business. This is why it is important to build new relationships, and continue to nurture them, to ensure consistent business expansion and profitability. I have learned the hard way to always keep expanding my network and to keep adding more people to my funnel, even when I don’t need clients. The biggest mistake we make as entrepreneurs is not seeing each client as a lifetime potential client. Keeping in touch with new, existing, and past clients is extremely paramount, and frequently overlooked. Building a relationship with each person and remaining top of mind is key to organic business growth and long-term success.

No CRM = No relationship system

At a very early point of my freelance career I realized I was using no CRM system. My follow-ups were scattered, I had leads that I never contacted, my email was a big disaster. I had too many email addresses and keeping up with everything was such a hassle. I was extremely disorganized and the consequence was that I missed out on opportunities, because I was too busy chasing my own tail. I found myself chasing my existing clients, racing to keep track of them, and that left very little time to dedicate to nurturing previous clients or meeting new possible prospects. My pipeline was drying up and I felt like there was something that I needed to change, and it needed to change fast! My lack of CRM, emails being disorganized, not building relationships effectively, and not fueling my pipeline, all lead to me consistently leaving money on the table. One day it dawned on me that a real business could not be sustained or scaled in that manner. It’s no wonder now why I couldn’t outsource anything then. I could barely handle the situation myself, how could I possibly explain it to anyone else and calmly hand any of it over?

Being a part of something bigger …

The truth is that building relationships is the only way to build a sustainable business. And this is done through providing valuable content, building value, and being a part of something bigger. Aiming for a one-time sale, then walking away to search for the next client, makes it for a difficult, exhausting, and stressful ‘business model.’ I finally sat down one day, was sick of it all and decided to create an easy system, a CRM that would enable me to automate, organize, prioritize all of my connections and business relationships. I’ve found that it’s impossible to juggle it single-handedly without tools and having a system in place. Also having everything in a single place makes it much easier to manage, and it’s definitely more efficient. It’s embarrassing to admit that for too long I ran my business haphazardly. But I learned many lessons from it, including the fact that I will always struggle to find new business, if I don’t make it my business to build, and nurture my relationships.

Insightly CRM helps me not lose my mind!

I decided to change my approach and sign up for an account with Insightly CRM. I added old, new and prospective clients. This made it much easier to track interactions and it made it possible to keep my pipeline flow without very much effort of my part. I also narrowed it down to two primary email addresses where I conducted business through and not six or seven which made it hard to know which contact was on which email account and where I needed to reply from. Insightly is easy to use and offers an iPhone app, as well as Mail Chimp integration to help me stay top of mind. It was also a simple process to set-up with my Google Apps business email accounts and import contacts easily and quickly. This is something I now know I should have started using on day one. Luckily it’s not too late and taking the time to set this up has already paid off.

Adding snail mail to my follow-up process To enhance my approach, I also created a few different postcards that I can mail out to current, previous, and future clients. This includes new thank you cards, happy new year cards, happy birthday cards, Fourth of July and a few other postcards that I have available to mail out and touch base at least every quarter. People rarely get snail mail anymore, so I thought this would be a good personal touch. My new follow-up system has helped me have a faster response time, stay top of mind. It has also allowed me to keep my pipeline full and saved me from freaking out at the end of the month, wondering where my next client will come from. This has been a great learning experience and I have truly learned the value of being committed to building relationships in order to build a sustainable long-term growth business.

3 More juicy ways to make your content more enticing and contagious : )

In part I we covered the first 3 STEPPS of creating contagious content, today we will be focused on the last 3 parts that make this a great formula that will help you create content that had contrast and weight!

4.) Public : Built to show and grow

When you are aiming to create contagious content, make sure that it is built to show and grow. Make it as easy as possible to share your content and don’t require many extra steps in order to do so. A good tip is to use social sharing buttons on your website, and accompany your content with interesting videos or graphics that make it more appealing. When people see that there’s a significant number of other people in their industry sharing your content, and being socially rewarded, they are also very likely to share it. The easier you make it, the better your results. Don’t make them think! Make it so easy that a 5 year old could do it. A good example of this in practice is Mashable, since they are a trusted source, and they have plenty of social proof, a lot of their content goes viral. It also helps that they consistently publish content from well-know authors and influential bloggers across many industries. Their platform is ever-growing, and they continuously stay top of mind by releasing fresh content daily.

The more people that share their content, the more credibility and reach they build over time. We live in a “monkey see monkey do society” so if it’s easy to share, people will have a natural tendency to do so. Convince them that they will look good, keep it simple, and the rest will take care of itself. Making your content publicly available, and easy to share through your platform will help you reach a wider audience and build up your readership over time. The good part is that you don’t have to be Mashable in order to be successful, there is plenty of opportunity to be the authority without necessarily being the big fish in the pond.

5.) Practical Value: Keep it relevant Your content is much more likely to be shared or liked, commented, shared, and get significant interaction when it truly delivers value to the end-user. For example using lists, or creating infographics and how-to videos that educate, entertain, or inform is a great idea. In order to do this, you need to really know your audience and what type of questions they have, as well as where they hang out and where they go to seek advice. Make your content something that end-users can easily or quickly apply, and keep it short by delivering bite-size information, then leading them to a place where they can get further help. If you create content that inspires them to take action, try it themselves, and see results quickly, it will have higher value and be shared more.

This is why it’s a good idea to offer white papers, guides, how-to videos, audio files, books, PowerPoint’s, checklists, printables, and other type of content that will somehow make life easier. Being relevant and helpful will never go out of style, and people will reward your generosity through engagement and shares. An example of this at play was when I recently shared a blot post on Facebook and said “This is the only dating advice you will ever need.” Since a lot of my friends are single, they found the information useful and relevant. They also shared it on their walls, and the piece got significant exposure because it was real-world advice that was well written, valuable, and entertaining. The post was a very interesting read, the guy shared great advice for men and women, so it was easier to spread.

6.) Stories : Create a conversation A story creates conversation, gives us something to talk about, and something to remember. Mr. Berger’s advice encourages us to stop selling and to start storytelling in order to craft our message in a unique way that makes our message memorable and easy to share. Give people a reason to share the story while looking good. Make them the hero of the story, not your company, and they are much more likely to actually share it. It’s very important to use tie-ins to make your product or service a key detail of the story without actually making it seem like everything is built around it. This may take special skill and a little bit of strategizing but overall if you can craft a story that makes them the hero through the use of your product or service and creates deep emotions, it’s much more likely that they’re going to be sharing the story with their social circle.

Yup, Proof that peanuts can be be the center of an interesting story A good example of this is a company that sells peanuts. At first peanuts may seem plain, kind of boring, and you may ask “How do I make peanuts interesting?” Well my friend I have quick story that may illustrate this for you. When Barbara and Ben were 20, they met at a new year’s party. Ben playfully gave Barbara a handful of peanuts and said “I wish these were pearls.” They dated, got to know each other, and went on to get married and have 2 kids. After they were happily married for 60 years, and Ben was on his death bed, he gave Barbara a handful of pearls and said “I wish these were peanuts.” “Me too!” she said. The End. Bam!

Did you see how peanuts instantly became much more interesting to you after reading that story? This part is where you can have fun, be creative, and find uncommon ways to tie in your offer while making it easy to remember. Whew! So those are the 6 steps to crafting contagious content. Here are some more resources in case you want to read more examples, and find out what other people are saying, and how they are leveraging this for their content and marketing efforts. Useful further Reading and Information : ) 1.) Here’s a quick video of Marie Forleo interviewing Mr.Berger, a quick watch and fast to digest about viral marketing. 2.) If you’re an avid Lynda.com user check out this course titled Viral Marketing : Crafting Shareable Content, it’s about an hour long, but totally worth it. 3.) If you are a book worm and would really like to dig in much deeper and further strengthen your content marketing skills I encourage you to buy Jonah Berger’s Book : Contagious : Why Things Catch On]]>

Build Your Network, Build Your Business – Build Relationships