I was recently contacted by a potential client who told me he had been receiving and reading my monthly eletter for a few years. I didn’t know him and neither of us could think of how he might have come to be on the list, but when I took a look at my email list I found that he had joined the list on July 29, 2009–more than four years ago!
This experience highlights the long-tail sales cycle that consultants–and others–often experience. Landing clients can take time. Consequently, it pays to be patient. It also pays to ensure that your communication strategy is designed to be consistent and maintained over time. The primary channels that we use to communicate with both clients and prospects are our monthly eletter, our blog and our social media activities (primarily LinkedIn and Twitter). We’ve been engaged in these channels for a long time–consistently.
- Our eletter was launched in 2009 and has been sent out monthly ever since.
- Our blog was also launched in 2009 and, although posted to less frequently initially, has been consistently maintained with 1-2 posts/week for the past few years.
- Our social media sites are active daily.
That consistency builds awareness and credibility. It’s a relentless drumbeat of information that says a lot about who we are and what we do. Through the information we share we reveal our views on effective marketing communication, our passion for strategy and measurement and our desire to help our audience. Importantly, with online communications, it’s not about selling, it’s about telling. Sharing information generates results.
Sometimes those results are immediate. Often they’re not.
The key takeaway here: don’t give up on your communication activities if you’re not seeing immediate results. If your audience is clearly defined, you know what you’re hoping to achieve and you have a strategy for achieving your goals that includes a consistent brand message, the results you’re looking may take some time, but are sure to come!
by Linda Pophal
Tags: Business development, content management, content marketing