In our previous post we talked about the first component of effectively communicating with our prospects and we touched on the types of messages we can send to them. Now, let’s talk about those message types.
Regardless of which media you use (i.e. telephone, mail, email, etc.) there are three main categories of messages…Promotional, Informational, and Seasonal.
Promotional
Promotional messages are those messages where you are trying to get your prospect to do some specified action. It could be to come into your store, make an appointment to see you, request additional information, announcement of a special sale…the list goes on and on.
The main problem I see with promotional messages is that they are overused. Without a proper balance between all of the message types your promotional messages will lose their effectiveness over time. With that in mind, try to keep your promotional messages to about 30-40% of your total communications.
Informational
This is where the real relationship building component to your communications comes in. The focus of these messages is to give your prospects targeted and useful information that they can use to make an informed decision.
These types of messages could include tips or tricks, white papers, comparison sheets, product or service literature, etc. The main thing to keep in mind is that this type of messaging is NOT used to try and generate any sort of specified action per se.
It is simply used as a way to give your prospect valuable information without asking for anything in return. This helps build rapport, trust, and loyalty between you and your prospects. Use this type of messaging around 50-60% of the time.
Seasonal
Seasonal messaging is also used as a way to build rapport and trust among your prospects and customers. There are several main seasonal opportunities you can use.
Main holidays such as Christmas, Thanksgiving, Easter, etc. are common ones…try using not so common ones such as Valentines, St. Patrick’s Day, July 4th, etc.
Other seasonal-type messages could include Spring Break, start of summer/winter, back-to-school, etc.
Then there are always birthdays, anniversaries, and other important dates that happen in your prospects’ daily lives. Get creative and design some of your own seasonal messages around yearly events that are important to your business. These messages should make up the remaining 10% or so of communications you send out.
Obviously, these communications may be mixed together and used congruently with one another…an example may be a “Back-to-School Sale” that combines the seasonality of school starting with the promotion of a special sale.
So, play around with your messaging and create those that will get the attention, and even more importantly the action, of your prospects and customers.
In the next post we will wrap up our discussion by defining what we mean by messages that are Relevant, Timely, and Useful.
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