Freelancing & consulting: Double your marketing efficiency

In my last blog post and the follow-up comments, we discussed how to use emailing to build a clientele.

Experts recommend making the email as compelling as possible. Spend a few minutes researching the prospect company and its website to make the message more specific to the prospect and therefore more appealing, they recommend.

Makes sense to me. Seems like it should work as long as you persevere, just as all marketing requires.

However, if you are going to go to the effort to research, why not maximize the impact of your efforts by both phoning and emailing the prospect simultaneously?

I precede my email with a phone call. If the individual answers, I offer my services and conclude by suggesting I send an email introducing my services and linking to my website.

If I reach voicemail, I briefly introduce myself and say that I will follow up with an email.

Each message references the other. The phone message says I will send an email. The email refers to the phone conversation (or voicemail) so there is coordination and the impact is magnified.

The first benefit to using both media at the same time is that you get more bang for the buck. If you are going to take time to research the prospect, you may as well maximize your effectiveness with two coordinated messages.

Second, if your phone call is answered, you can verify that you have reached the right person and the email address works. If someone else answers, you can identify any problem with your contact information.

Third, if the prospect is interested, you can engage in helpful conversation immediately.

In all my years of targeted phoning, only one individual has ever hung up on me and she did not give me enough time to complete even one sentence. So I don’t take that personally.

What are the benefits of only emailing?

One benefit is that it is faster. However, once you have invested the time to do the research, why not spend an extra minute or two in making a call?

The second benefit is that you can send out sales emails late at night or on the weekend. Not much of a benefit for me because I am solely self-employed so I can make my contacts during the day.

Is there a third benefit? All I can think of is that limiting oneself to email only avoids the discomfort of making a phone call. However, since a little practice vanquishes phone fright, calling soon becomes a breeze.

In my opinion, it is better to work through fears and become an experienced phoner than to diminish the impact of one’s effort by only emailing.

Originally posted 11-5-12