A friend of mine recently moved her business to a new state. I asked her how things were going (knowing that she wants to drum up more work in her new location). The conversation went something like this:
Me: “Have you reached out directly to the contacts you have in your new hometown yet?”
Friend: “I am going to do an email blast to my entire Mailchimp list announcing my new move:”
Me: “Uhhhhhh………”
Silence…and I am sure some eye rolling…
Me: Why blast your whole email contact list to announce something if you only want to reach a handful of people who can help you, hire you or promote you! Do one-to-one personal emails OR MAKE A SELECT LIST targeting people know who matter. Plant the seed that you can work with them live in your new location and ask them to refer you as well. Web marketing tools and technology are not going to make you money honey! Relationships will! Besides, email blasts often get bucketed into different folders (Gmail puts them into “Promotions” not in the main inbox) and you want this effort to get seen, read and responded to! Emailing your whole list like this would be “spray and pray”. If you want to succeed with your marketing efforts, you need to “point and shoot.” Save the mass emails for news that fits the whole list.
a week later…
Friend: I’ve had an over 50% positive response off the personal one-to-one emails I sent out announcing my move!
Me: Fantastic! (Waiting for a thank you for advice, which I didn’t get…sigh)
The better you get at relationships, the better you will be at business.
Don’t get me wrong, I LOOOVE all the wonderful high-tech web marketing tools (email campaign technologies, website platforms, blogs, online ad solutions and social media) but the people who are most successful are great at being high-touch. Tools have to be driven with heart to count!
Relationships are what you need to succeed! Technology is helpful to support you, but remember, it doesn’t care about you or want to help you. PEOPLE do. Web marketing tools will come and go, but relationships can grow and expand forever.
Use web marketing and social media marketing tools appropriately based on your goals. And if you ever need healthy marketing advice (or a dose of marketing tough love), reach out to me.
