As you may know, I recently sent out a survey to my VA connections to see what they were interested in learning about this year, to improve their business marketing.
I offered each respondent their choice of one of three free gifts in response for filling out my survey. I figured it was the least I could do if someone took a few moments to provide with the information I need to build great programs in my business.
The response was great – in just a few days I had over 70 responses, which gave me a lot of information that will help with me with my planning. I was very pleased with the results. (If you want to see the survey results, you can click here: www.yourvamentor.com/survey-jan12.pdf).
So on to my story. I received an email from someone who felt that their free gift was not filled with enough content for her liking. She sent me a constructive email detailing what she would have preferred to see, and although the tone was a bit more negative than I probably would have sent someone, I appreciated the feedback. I responded to her, and told her that I did appreciate her feedback, and that I was sorry that she didn’t get what she expected from the gift. I also told her that I had previously received very good feedback from that particular item, which (of course) is why I decided to provide it as an option for my free gift for the survey.
A few days later, I received another email. This was from a different person, who also selected that same free gift. Her email was completely different in tone and opinion. She started with a big WOW! and went on to say how much she appreciated the information in it. She said she also realized right away what she needs to do to amp up her business, and she wants to work with me to do it. We have a consultation scheduled to talk about her strategy.
So … what does this say? It says that when you are speaking to your ideal client … they really do hear you. It’s important to realize that not everyone will resonate with what you are saying in your marketing messages. You need to be very specific in your content, and very specific in your message … and that will come through loud and clear to the people you want to reach.
The lady who didn’t ‘get’ the message still gave her constructive criticism (which I think is a good thing to do, provided that your tone is not negative). The lady who ‘got’ the message was happy to find what she needed right there, right then.
It’s a real life example of just how this whole process works – or, as the saying (kinda) goes … one woman’s trash is another woman’s treasure! I thank both ladies for contacting me with their feedback and opinions. I hope you will be able to experience this same kind of story with your marketing efforts too! The more people you reach, the better your results will be.