Newsletter #3: Is kindness part of your marketing?

/ Red Sail Writers/
newsletter archive pic_2.jpg

More than a decade ago, I got an ‘enhancing your relationship’ kit in the mail from my EAP (where I worked at the time).

There was a book in there called Divorce Busting by Michele Weiner-Davis. Alvaro (my husband) and I weren’t married at the time, but I read it anyway.

It was 250 pages of one basic idea, “Just be kind to the other person.” This riled me up. Me? I have to always be kind?!? Even when I’m right? What total BS!

But that message must have been scooped up by my subconscious for percolation. Because, about five years later, I had a hardly-surprising and very late epiphany: she was right.

And I’ve tried to be kind ever since. It doesn’t always work, and I’ve screwed up countless times—even in the present-day era—but it’s worth striving for. Generally, kindness goes over well and, even if it doesn’t, the exercise of keeping one’s dark side at bay is character-building.

It’s not just home that requires kindness. Work does too.

So does marketing.

Because if you care about your clients and future clients, kindness will go into every piece you produce.

And I know you’re the caring type.

But things get busy and sometimes the pressure to get something out the door overwhelms the desire to get the right thing out the door.

Even so, you can build kindness into your process by asking a few questions for each project. You gotta plan them anyway, right?

The customer-kindness checklist:

  • Are we including what our client needs right now?

  • Are we making it easy for our client to take the next step?

  • Are we being helpful and respecting our client’s intelligence?

Whether your marketing project is a brochure, case study or a series of emails, it’s easy to include kindness by running through this tiny checklist. If three questions are too many, use this one instead: Why are we doing this?

That puts us right back into a divorce-busting state of mind. Because we’re trying to build positive, long-term relationships here with the people we love—family, friends, clients.

Until next time, keep on truckin’,

Andrea


PS: What sort of kindness do you know your clients or prospects need?


**********The quote of the month**********


In life you can never be too kind or too fair; everyone you meet is carrying a heavy load. When you go through your day expressing kindness and courtesy to all you meet, you leave behind a feeling of warmth and good cheer, and you help alleviate the burdens everyone is struggling with.

-Brian Tracy


**********Marketing tips of the month**********

7 elements for an effective case study/client success story

Case studies help your prospects learn about how your product or service help businesses with similar challenges. Which gives a prospect the idea that you could help him or her too! Don’t waste this opportunity to engage your prospect by commissioning a half-baked case study. You know the type I’m talking about.

Instead, include these 7 story elements in your case studies:

  • The challenge

  • The customer

  • The journey (what steps they took before finding you)

  • The discovery (how they found out about your product or service)

  • The solution

  • The implementation (how it went while they were putting your solution into practice)

  • The results

Sources: www.redsailwriters.com/case-study-checklist, AWAI: Secrets of Writing High-Performance B2B Copy.

**********Good vibes**********
Did you know hearing aids can now help deaf people hear?

And here’s what happens when they do:

https://twitter.com/SteveStuWill/status/996175416963416064

**********My 60-second commercial**********
I'm an executive ghostwriter, specializing in benefits, leadership coaching, corporate wellness and employee assistance programs (EAPs).

I work with executives and executive coaches who have big hearts, are driven to help others and never open a conversation they're not willing to close.

My clients are straightforward, ambitious, humble, hilarious and I never have to wonder what they're thinking because they say what they mean and mean what they say.

Most of my clients come to me through referrals.

If you're a tough-love executive or executive coach who would benefit from the kind of work I do, please get in touch:

andrea@redsailwriters.com | 647-502-3187 | ca.linkedin.com/in/andreabassett

Let's talk about these thought leadership projects in 2021:

  • Newsletters | White papers + e-books | Ghostwritten articles

  • Workbooks to supplement corporate training

  • Business book ghostwriting (fall 2021, early 2022)