CONTACT MANAGEMENT, Lesson I
Running a successful contact management program is a lot like planning a birthday party for your child.
As the father of three children, I have plenty of experience hosting birthday parties. As a business owner, I understand the importance of contact management **** or what’s another way to say this to avoid repetition****. If you are wondering what birthday parties and contact management have in common, suspend your judgment on the analogy for a moment while I explain the sometimes humorous experience of planning such events.
Planning a birthday party is a good reason to contact friends and family. You are celebrating the passage of another year and giving your child an occasion to feel special. You are doing the all-important parental job of creating fond childhood memories.
Generally, you begin by picking a date for the event. You may ask your child for input on a theme and a list of kids to invite to the celebration. You want to invite the right poeple to the party: their playmates, aunts, uncles, cousins, godparents and grandparents. You don’t want to invite the bully who will pick on your child or the brat who’ll inevitably trash your living room.
Once you have the date, theme, and guest list, you’ll want to send invitations. Your goal is to get the invitees to RSVP — which is a French phrase that roughly translates to respond, if you please. Consider it your call to action.
Consider some of these party planning ideas when designing your means and strategy for contact management. They work well. In future sessions, I will explain specific tools and techniques you can use to inform your audience. But in this first session, I want to focus on a few key principles of success.
Make sure you have a valid reason for contacting people. Don’t play town crier, screaming “sale” each week like a furtniture store or a replacement window company. It’s important that your message be sincere and genuince. Abuse this and your audience will tune you out.
Valid reasons include the public release of a significant piece of work; completing a commission; a public event in which you are participating; or an award or honor that you have received.
This isn’t braggadocious behavior; this is a good reason to contact your audience. If you do this well and properly, you will gain a roster of clients, advocates and goodwill ambassadors for your work.
Let’s go back to planning that birthday party: Once you’ve decided whom to invite, you have to figure out how you will you contact them. Phone call? Hand-written invitation? Formal cards? You need the contact information that makes sense for your strategy. Other factors to consider: Do I invite the people who live around us because the event will be disruptive? Will certain invitees embarrass the daylights out of me? Should I ask the parent of the kid who flips out when he gets all sugared up to stay and help? It comes down to making decisions.
You have to make the same kinds of decisions about your professional contacts. What you’re doing is going to dictate who you invite. You will want to consider talking to customers and clients, suppliers, friends and supporters and those who have an interest in you, your work, and your message. Depending on what you’re doing, you may also want to avoid inviting the bullies and the brats.
A list can be a very personal thing; it also is a valuable tool. Did you know that great mailing lists could be brokered for several thousands of dollars, based on how fresh the content, the characteristics of the list and who is looking for the names? Consider that the next time you receive an unsolicited e-mail or flier about something for which you never signed up. (List security is another point we can discuss in a future session.)
Broadcast e-mail, when done correctly, is highly effective. But, it has its limitations. A simple quarterly postcard mailer can also be very effective, since less of us receive posted mail of a personal nature anymore. Using RSS feeds for more frequent communications can also deliver information to your target audiences. Social media brings with it great opportunities, but also has to be used effectively in order to reach your audience without having them tune out.
The last few birthday parties I planned began with opening the school directory and having my child select invitees names from the student roster. If you have a professional audience, use business cards to build a quick list. If your audience is of a personal or individual nature, you will have to develop a system for managing your list. You probably have a stack of business cards, a list of e-mail addresses, and old address book somewhere. Start with these tools and build from there.
Social media, such as Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter, are actually a great way to build your contact network. These resources can build your image and position in the marketplace. This is called Soft Marketing.
Issuing a newsletter announcing the release of a series of your prints or that you now are working with a certain audience, is an example of Hard Marketing. (You will find these themes detailed and used in future lessons.)
How you do this is will be as individual as the how you express yourself creatively. You can purchase a customer relationship management software or use the enhanced features of your e-mail application. You can use online solutions such as auto-responders, Constant Contact or iContact. You can make your own databases using Excel and Access or buy one at the local computer store.
The key to any tool’s success is feeling comfortable using it, seeing the value of maintaining it, and not feeling like you’ve become a database administrator. Also make sure your list is securely backed up, as you would with any important piece of technology. A good list often is the result of many hours of revision and refinement.
Remember, your messages always need to have a sincere call to action. Just floating something by someone is not productive. In the case of the birthday party, you are seeking replies. After all, you need to buy enough food and favors for the guests. In the professional world, you could be seeking attendees at an event, buyers of your work, or involvement in some pursuit. Like the RSVP at the bottom of the invitation, make sure those you contact know how and when to respond.
A birthday is a predictable event on the calendar. Unlike a birthday or anniversary, the need to communicate should be more than an annual event. Start communicating with people on a regular basis. Create a schedule and stick to it. You decide if monthly, every other month, or quarterly is the most effective system. Your audience will come to expect it.
Use the calendar as a resource for your contact management program. Tie your message to holidays, the change of season, the start of a new month, or the contact’s birthday. This is where you can be creative in your delivery.
Remember to be consistent and keep it simple. Don’t start out big and splashy then stop because it takes too much time and effort. Make this reaching out to those who support you a part of the process to which you look forward every time you do it. If you don’t enjoy it, you won’t do it.
Once the party guests have arrived and the event is under way, at some point the birthday boy or girl may come up to you with a cake-covered mouth or a Kool-Aid stained face and give you a big, sticky hug. At that moment, you know that all the hassle and effort to bring this event to fruition was worthwhile.
You may not have that Kodak moment like at a birthday party, but with a successful contact program you will have a legion of loyal supporters, advocates, and customers who’ll mention your name as the first one they think of when someone else seeks your specialty. They will talk about you. They’ll know your Web site and the best ways to reach you. They will help you to build your business into one that is growing and prospering.
When you receive that referral from a loyal contact, it’s your turn to beam with child-like delight You could even celebrate the moment with a piece of cake and a tall glass of Kool-Aid.
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