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Author: Patricia Iyer

Do you have an amazing business success you want to share? Pat Iyer has worked with experts helping them share their knowledge since she first began writing and editing books in 1985. Pat Iyer has written or edited over 800 chapters, books, case studies, articles or online courses. She delights in assisting people to share their expertise by writing a book. Pat serves as a developmental editor and ghostwriter.

Pat built a service business assisting attorneys with cases involving medical issues. After growing that business to a multi-million dollar one, after 25 years, she sold it in 2015 and now devotes her time to mentoring, writing and editing. Get tips for polishing your writing style and gaining business through the material you write: Listen to Writing to Get Business Podcast on the C Suite Radio platform.

Reach her through Patiyer.com|Do you have an amazing business success you want to share? Pat Iyer has worked with experts helping them share their knowledge since she first began writing and editing books in 1985. Pat Iyer has written or edited over 800 chapters, books, case studies, articles or online courses. She delights in assisting people to share their expertise by writing a book. Pat serves as a developmental editor and ghostwriter.

Pat built a service business assisting attorneys with cases involving medical issues. After growing that business to a multi-million dollar one, after 25 years, she sold it in 2015 and now devotes her time to mentoring, writing and editing. Get tips for polishing your writing style and gaining business through the material you write: Listen to Writing to Get Business Podcast on the C Suite Radio platform.

Reach her through Patiyer.com|Do you have an amazing business success you want to share? Pat Iyer has worked with experts helping them share their knowledge since she first began writing and editing books in 1985. Pat Iyer has written or edited over 800 chapters, books, case studies, articles or online courses. She delights in assisting people to share their expertise by writing a book. Pat serves as a developmental editor and ghostwriter.

Pat built a service business assisting attorneys with cases involving medical issues. After growing that business to a multi-million dollar one, after 25 years, she sold it in 2015 and now devotes her time to mentoring, writing and editing. Get tips for polishing your writing style and gaining business through the material you write: Listen to Writing to Get Business Podcast on the C Suite Radio platform.

Reach her through Patiyer.com

Categories
Best Practices Growth Personal Development

Customer Satisfaction: The Bottom Line

A business, whether large or small, has so many elements to it that sometimes one can forget the most important aspect: the customer and/or client. These people are the reason for your business, and the successful businessperson never forgets that.

There’s no such thing as 100% customer satisfaction, but you must always aim high. One area that is critical to success is how you deal with customer complaints.

Set Realistic Goals

Anyone in business knows that some people are never satisfied. They live to complain. Others are looking for ways to get things free. Some always must be right. All these characteristics can be combined in one dissatisfied customer.

Anyone dealing with customer complaints needs to sort out the habitual malcontents. That doesn’t mean that you should ignore them. Whether they contact you directly or post on Amazon, Yelp, or another online venue, send them a courteous message:

“Thank you for posting this comment. We always want to know how we’re doing and how we can improve. I want to apologize that XXX didn’t meet your expectations.”

Then, if desirable, add specific details.

Here’s how a restaurant proprietor responded to a negative review by a customer who had complained about excessive wait times and inattentive staff.  (I’ve changed some of the details.)

“Thank you for taking the time to give us honest feedback. I apologize for the substandard service you got from us last weekend. We were caught understaffed on one of the busiest holiday weekends of the year, and I am so sorry that our crisis made your dining experience so disappointing.

We’d like to make up for that by giving you lunch on the house the next time you have the opportunity. Let us show you how great our service can be.”

Another approach to a negative online review might be to invite the person to call so the issue can be discussed.

Overall, you want to demonstrate that you care about the customer’s experience with your company, whatever it is. And remember that other people will be reading what you write. Go over what you write carefully. The original response that I modified had more than one typographical error.

Check the Language of Your Returns Policy

This is crucial. It must be written carefully and reviewed with a critical eye. Avoid any language that might be questionable. For example, if you require that a product be returned in its original packaging, make that clear. If you can, have your returns policy stated on the receipt that comes with the package.

If you’re responding to a dissatisfied customer who’s eligible to return a purchase, remind him or her of that policy.

Thank the Satisfied Customer

This is just as important. Here’s a response from the same restaurant owner (again revised).

“Dear Shawn,

I appreciate that you took the time to give us feedback. Our goal is to give every customer a peak experience when they visit us, and we work hard every day to make that happen. We hope you’ll visit us again soon.”

Know What Your Customers Are Saying

Even if you’re not the one handling customer complaints, you want to know what those complaints are. Ask for regular, itemized reports. Also, make a point of checking how the personnel handled those complaints. Make sure that someone is checking online forums.

Your company is as good as your reputation, and your customers have a lot to do with your reputation.

Pat Iyer is one of the original 100 C Suite Network Contributors. As a ghostwriter and editor, she helps her clients shine. Connect with her on patiyer.com and listen to her podcast on the C Suite Radio platform: Writing to Get Business.

Categories
Growth Personal Development

Producing Blogs with Teamwork

In a small company, all employees may share responsibility for contributing blog content. In larger companies, there may be an expectation of content contributions from various teams. In either situation, the production of blog content can be a team effort.

Do Employees Read the Blog?

This should be the first and most important responsibility regarding the blog. Each employee needs to get a feel for the content and how well it expresses the company’s mission statement.

Encourage employees to make notes on what they do and don’t like about the blog. These observations are as important as what random readers may post in response to a blog post.

Create a Blog Team

If your company is large enough, it may make sense to ask for volunteers from each team to meet regularly and form a blog team. Each member will bring the particular focus of his or her team. This also provides the blog team members with the opportunity to have a better understanding of what goes on in different areas of the company.

For a smaller company, perhaps all employees should discuss the blog as part of the company meetings.

If there is no mission statement for the blog, I would recommend going back to the drawing board and creating one. It doesn’t have to be elaborate. Brainstorming a mission statement can be an effective collaborative effort for a team.

One thing that can really bring a blog together in a cohesive way is to create an editorial calendar of topics. Do keep this benchmark in mind: the overall content of a blog should be no more than 20% sales oriented. That means you need to provide 80% interesting content. Ideally, the sales-oriented material should also be interesting and not stick out like an advertisement.

You can organize your calendar by seasons, holidays, or any series of themes that make sense. Every member of the team should be responsible for coming up with ideas.

If the blog is oriented to your industry, it should have stories that affect that industry.

Don’t neglect the personal touch. Customers want to see the people behind the company.  If an employee in your company just returned from a photo safari in Africa, that might make an interesting post. Ask yourself if a story is likely to appeal to a general audience.

In general, it’s probably best to avoid listing marriages and births. However, if an employee in your company has received a significant award for an act of courage or good citizenship, do report it. Any employee news that demonstrates the diversity or civic involvement of the company is worth reporting.

Inspiring quotations always make an interesting blog post if they’re not overdone. Have a collection available. Look at quote sites, like seachquotes.com and others.

Meet to Evaluate the Blog

This is crucial. Everyone who participates in working on the blog should be reading the comments carefully—and, of course, responding thoughtfully.

Working from internal and external sources of feedback, the people on the team can figure out if they’re on track, especially if they’re fulfilling the blog’s mission statement. If they need to correct course, they can have a brainstorming session about how to accomplish this.

The most important thing is to keep the spirit of this discussion collaborative and cooperative.

A company blog is one of the faces the business shows the world. When the work on it is well organized with a team approach, it can also help to bring the diverse elements of the organization together.

Pat Iyer is a C Suite Network Contributor, one of the original 100 contributors. She has written over a thousand blogs since 2009. As an author, editor and ghostwriter, Pat helps her clients share their brilliance without having to do all of the work. Reach her at WritingToGetBusiness.com.

Categories
Best Practices Growth Personal Development

Blogging: It Does Not Have to be Daunting

As with any form of writing, some people keep themselves from blogging by allowing themselves to get overwhelmed with the details. Is this you? You enjoy reading blogs, but the idea of writing one may throw you.

You want to write a blog? You need to write a blog for your company? What’s stopping you? This is not a rhetorical question. I want you to ask yourself what stands in the way.

Here are some of the answers I’ve heard.

  • “It’s a big commitment.”
  • “You have to do it every week—at least.”
  • “I don’t know what to write about. How does anyone think of all those article subjects?”
  • “No one will read it on my company site.”

They’re all objections, and if you’re convinced of their truth, you’ve proven your point. You shouldn’t start a blog.

Some of us, though, come up with those kinds of answers to talk ourselves out of projects. If you’re on the fence about this and would like to explore the idea of writing a blog, let’s look at the objections above, one by one.

“It’s a Big Commitment.”

Try removing the word, “big.” It looks smaller, doesn’t it?

It’s a commitment, but keep the following in mind:

  • It’s not like getting married or having a baby.
  • You only must come up with 300 words. Of course, some blog posts can be longer, but 300 words is the minimum.
  • No one is going to die if you don’t post for one week. You also can write a couple of blogs at a time when you are on a roll, and schedule them to appear when you want them to show.

“You have to do it every week—at least.”

It’s a good idea, if you can do it, to post every week. I’ve blogged either 1 or 2 times a week for 10 years. I’ve written thousands of blogs for legal nurse consultants, attorneys, and patients. Don’t get intimidated by that number: you start where I started – with the first blog.

Seth Godin, blogger par excellence, posts every day. I think that is not a realistic or desirable goal for most business owners. I’d rather see you marketing and generating income and reserving an hour a week for blogging.

And yes, you can do it for an hour a week if you are organized and keep track of your ideas for blogs. Focus on blogging regularly, and increase the frequency to whatever is comfortable for you. A lot of your comfort, though, will depend on whether you can change your mind about the next answer on the list.

“I don’t know what to write about. How does anyone think of all those blogging subjects?”

Alternate wording of this objection: “I never could (know what to write about).” You’re right about that if you think, “One year of blog posts every week is 52 subjects. I can’t think of 52 subjects.” Break it down into manageable pieces. Don’t think about a year; think about one month. That’s four articles. You can do four articles.

To make sure that you can (and to even put you in the running for 52), allow yourself preparation time. See what other people in your niche write about in their blog posts. Free-associate, brainstorm. And never copy their blogs. That is plagiarism and could get you in BIG trouble.

Brainstorm topics. Write down every idea you can come up with. Do not censor. Write, write, and then write some more. Use the power of your fellow company employees to brainstorm topics.

This file is your gold mine. Every time you get an idea for your blog: when you’re shopping, waiting at the dentist’s office, write it down. Use the back of a shopping list or any available piece of paper or a note on your phone. Or send an email to yourself with the idea. Make sure it’s legible, though—no “sttnhm pof, artiiop!!!”

You are surrounded by topics and team members who can contribute their ideas.

“No one will read it on my site.”

Not at first. You will need to promote and publicize your blog. Search engine optimization is crucial. Your goal now is to think about what you want to write and then use that for blogging.

Once your blog is ready, you will share it on your website, LinkedIn, your business page on Facebook, and to your list of clients and prospects. You’ll get comments, which will encourage you to keep writing.

This blog is extracted from Pat Iyer’s book, 52 writing Tips: Fast and Easy Ways to Polish Your Writing. Find it on Pat’s website, WritingToGetBusiness.com. Pat is one of the original 100 C Suite Network Contributors.

Categories
Growth Personal Development

Make Content Production a Team Effort

“The greater the number of employees that help produce content, the more success the company has.” Marcus Sheridan, marketing expert, in “10 Reasons Why Employees Should be Required to Participate in Blogging and Content Marketing”

All team leaders need to consider this statement. Some of Sheridan’s reasons are based on all—or at least many—employees contributing to written products. He argues persuasively that this amount of output creates a large volume of content and diverse approaches and viewpoints.

However, any team can be composed of diverse members, each with a unique set of life experiences and perspectives. When they collaborate on a written project, they bring an enriched quality to the final result.

Brainstorm

As an example, suppose that a team has to come up with marketing approaches for a particular product. Let’s say it’s a computer program that tracks expenses and is designed for individual consumers.

A single mother with two grade-school-aged children is a member of the team. When asked to consider how such a program would help her, she thinks of the ease of recording expenses related to the many aspects of raising children. She describes how such a program would save her time and make her life easier when income tax season rolls around.

A recent male business school graduate is dealing with having full responsibility for his finances for the first time. He’s noticed that his money seems to slip away. He’s excited about the possibility that he can use this program to record his expenses in a timely way and find ways to cut back on unnecessary expenses.

Their contributions and those of others on the team give everyone a sense of marketing possibilities. At that point, one person may be assigned to write an initial draft. When it’s completed, he or she brings it back to the team for review.

 The Moderating Role of a Team Leader

At this point, sensitivity and care are necessary. People can be touchy about having their writing critiqued, and the wise leader will have guidelines in place. All members of the team need to understand that remarks must be framed in a positive context.

He or she will set the tone, beginning all suggestions with appropriate praise. “You did a great job of pulling together all the suggestions. Now let’s see how we can work together to make it even better.”

The leader must also cut off any potentially negative critiques before they get fully launched. Doing so not only protects the feelings of the writer but helps to keep the team cohesive and participating in a collaborative spirit.

 The Result: A More Effective Team

By making crucial aspects of creating a report collective, all the team members get to learn the most effective ways to write important documents in a practical, hands-on way.

Ideally, each team member should reach the point where he or she would feel confident about writing a report and, equally important, confident that his or her results will be critiqued in a respectful way by the other group members.

Pat Iyer is one of the original 100 C Suite Network Contributors. Busy entrepreneurs hire her as a ghostwriter to help them share their expertise without having to do all the work of writing. Reach her through her website, WritingtogetBusiness.com

 

 

 

 

Categories
Best Practices Growth Leadership Personal Development

How to Encourage Your Team to Develop Their Writing Skills

Writing skills are more important than ever. People do judge your company by the quality of its communication.

If you are convinced that grammatically correct writing skills are essential to your team and, ultimately to your business, you need ways to implement methods by which your team members can acquire or sharpen these skills.

Be aware that most members of your team may have acquired poor habits in these areas. A generation accustomed to the abbreviations of texting may have little patience for grammar, spelling, and punctuation. Even people who do have the skills needed report that constant exposure to misspellings, habitual breaking of punctuation rules, and other repeated errors, can override the rules they learned.

The team leader’s job is to convince his or her team members that these foundations of communication matter.

Points to Emphasize

 To summarize from the previous article, the following skills require writing ability:

  • Video,
  • Audio,
  • Social media,
  • B2C copywriting,
  • Sponsored content,
  • and B2B copywriting.

This list highlights the importance of team members being able to write with competence, but the need for clear communication goes deeper.

In a well-functioning team, each member feels invested in fulfilling the goals of the group. People operate cohesively to achieve these goals. In order to do so, they need to communicate.

Some of this communication is verbal, but a large part of it is written. It may be in the form of memos, emails, or the more substantial form of a proposal.

Make the Investment

Poorly written, spelled, and punctuated writing costs a company money. Investment in better skills for a team will pay for itself.

The foundation of competent writing is understanding the rules of spelling, grammar, and punctuation. Many courses in these areas are available online.

EdX (https://www.edx.org/learn/grammar) offers a variety of free courses.

Udemy (https://udemy.com) has a number of low-cost courses, averaging $12.99 per course.

An Internet search will bring up many other possibilities. You can choose or let your team members choose the options that work best for them.

Don’t be deterred if a course or learning site looks as if it’s aimed at junior or senior high school levels. That could be an advantage. The lessons are probably easy to understand.

It helps, too, that many of these learning portals offer 30 days free. You and your team members will get the chance to evaluate their effectiveness.

You’ll find that some of these sites also offer courses specifically oriented to business writing. These, too, will likely be worth the investment.

The Importance of Patience and Encouragement

This is where team-building skills can shine. Encourage the team members to support each other. Some will have stronger skills than others. Encourage them to look over a memo or report and make suggestions.

Always keep in mind that people may feel insecurity and low self-esteem about their lack of skills. Encouragement and praise for improvement will help them to grow.

Have particular awareness that some team members may speak English as a second language. They may need a specially designed program.

Probably the most important thing to emphasize is that the members of a team depend on each other. As in every area of teamwork, when one of them succeeds in improving written skills, everyone succeeds.

And when your team produces noteworthy written products that make their point without the distractions of poor grammar, punctuation, and spelling, others will take notice.

Pat Iyer is a C Suite Network Contributor, one of the original 100 contributors. As an author, editor and ghostwriter, Pat helps her clients share their brilliance without having to do all of the work. Reach her at WritingToGetBusiness.com.

 

Categories
Best Practices Marketing Personal Development

Do You Need Both a Blog and Newsletter?

Does your company you need both blogs and newsletters? How are they different?

Maybe you’ve been writing a blog for a long time, or perhaps you’ve just begun. Either way, you know it takes time and a regular commitment to keep your blog from gathering dust and cobwebs.

I know you’ve seen the blogs showing the most recent blog was from 2 years ago. Crickets!

The idea of adding yet another writing responsibility to your list may worry you. Let me reassure you. Whether you write a daily, biweekly, or weekly blog, you won’t need to write a newsletter as frequently. A regular monthly newsletter represents the minimum commitment you should make.

Here is another frequency: What I do is write a blog once a week and make it part of my weekly newsletter (I call it an ezine). That way I am repurposing my blog. I start my newsletter with the first part of the blog, give readers a button to click to read more, and then add one or two additional items, such as announcements to my newsletter.

The click on the button in the ezine brings them to my website, where hopefully they see other information that encourages them to linger. I also know by their click which topics interest them, and can give them more of the same kind of content.

With attention spans decreasing, keep in mind that blogs and newsletters should be short. Sometimes you may add special, time-sensitive announcements to your mailing list. Please note that magic phrase, “mailing list.”

Opt-in offers of “sign up for our newsletter” are rarely attractive. What is the value in a newsletter? The visitor to your company website needs to see the value in asking for information. We are all inundated with information. But offer me a free report on the 3 ways I can do X, and if I have that need, I am interested.

Getting people on the company opt-in list solves a couple of pf problems: it is permission-based marketing, which avoids the CAN-SPAM laws, and it enables you to study your prospects’ behavior and continue to offer them value.

Without a list, you have no reliable method of contacting website visitors. Your only way of knowing who specifically has read a post comes when someone makes a comment.

In contrast, you ask people to subscribe to your newsletter. You may offer an incentive, like a special report or free e-book. You want to collect email addresses; they can form the nucleus of a loyal following.

Many authors offer some type of free report or course in the front or back matter of their books. I highly recommend this. Amazon and the other online booksellers won’t give you the email addresses of people who buy your books. An announcement within a book gives you the opportunity to make direct contact.

You Can Experiment with a Mailing List

Email delivery programs offer ways you can test the effectiveness of your promotional efforts. You can split your list in a variety of ways and send slightly different messages or use different email subject lines to these different sections in order to test the effectiveness of varying approaches.

You can also determine how many people have opened your newsletter and how many have clinked on links within it. You can’t do any of the above with a blog.

You Can Go In-depth with a Blog

While people debate about what’s a good length for a blog, you can often write something longer than you would in a  newsletter. You can quickly respond to news in your industry.

For example, if important news relates to your area of business, your clients or potential clients will be looking for opinions. You may need to drop everything and write about it.

That kind of pressure doesn’t exist with a newsletter. You may want to review the news, but you can do so in a less rushed manner.

Speaking about avoiding rush and making reading convenient, this year I’ve created a way of sharing with you through new app, BizEdu for iPhone and Android phones.

Get our mobile app here at patiyer.com/biz-edu. Receive videos, blogs, free reports and more related to writing tips.

Pat Iyer is a C Suite contributor, one of the original 100 people to join the network 3 years ago. Business professionals hire her as a ghostwriter and editor to help them shine without having to do the work of writing. Contact her at patiyer.com.

Categories
Marketing Personal Development

5 Ways Writing a Book Will Build Your Marketing Chops

Writing a good book is step one. The next step is getting it to sell. Gone are the days when the big publishing houses scheduled your book tours, television interviews, and radio spots. Exceptions are made for big-name authors, of course, but most authors are responsible for their own marketing plans, and having a plan in advance may even assist in winning a publishing contract.

Put yourself in the spotlight

No more hiding behind the keyboard if you want to make book sales! Be proud of what you’ve produced and tell the world. Not a single soul will know about your book unless YOU tell them about it, via social media, press releases, and publicity events. And just remember: You can’t please everyone so keep your target audience in mind. Don’t listen to naysayers; pay attention to the reaction of your fans.

Perfect writing press releases and newsworthy pitches

What better way to tell the world about your new book than to write a press release. But to keep your press release from getting hidden at the bottom of the pile, learn how to write it so your book is seen as newsworthy. In media pitches, mention how you are also different from the competition and why you’re the best choice for interview guests. Yes, you want the publicity, but word your releases and pitches so it comes across as a win-win relationship.

Practice your scheduling acumen

Scheduling interviews, live readings, book signings, your book launch party, and social media promotions takes lots of planning and a calm, patient personality. Add some traveling into the mix and you may want to consider hiring an assistant and/or travel agent to handle the airline flights and hotel reservations. National interviews can be canceled or added at the drop of a hat so you may have to prioritize on the go. Always have a backup plan if a scheduled event is canceled so your time isn’t wasted.

Continue connecting with your social media followers

Consistency is the name of the game when it comes to connecting with your followers online. It’s all about building a trust relationship so your fans know without a doubt that you are credible and not trying to fleece them. Build that relationship, share parts of your life and/or business, be silly, and of course talk about your book. Just don’t hit them over the proverbial head with sales posts consistently. Show them that you’re a real person who cares about helping them more than about selling your book.

Start planning early and use a mind map to guide your marketing plan

Nothing says unprofessional quicker than a half-baked marketing plan or, even worse, no plan at all. If you want to sell books and expand your reach, planning is vitally important. Start early by brainstorming your ideas and then decide which of these ideas you can pull off based on the date of your book launch. Consider outsourcing any tasks you don’t know how to accomplish so you can move forward with your marketing methods. Save those tasks that you love or at least know how to finish for yourself.

If you’re apprehensive about this solo marketing approach, consider hiring help, either an assistant with marketing and publicity experience or a PR/marketing firm. Keep your budget in mind but also weigh the benefits of each and decide which option will provide the bigger ROI.

Pat Iyer is a C-Suite Network Contributor, one of the original 100 people to join the network 3 years ago. Business professionals hire her as a ghostwriter and editor to help them shine without having to do the work of writing. Contact her at patiyer.com.

Categories
Best Practices Marketing Personal Development

Words That Give Your Emails Life

Marketing emails need to quickly capture your reader’s attention. Keep your power words short and simple.

Three factors make certain words powerful.

Usually, they’re short. Consider words like “Buy,” “Now,” and “Sale.” Your audience can read them quickly.

Power words are commonly used and therefore easy to understand. Your sale may not resemble other people’s sales, but readers have an immediate understanding of the word “sale”.

Power words are specific. “Easy” promises that whatever the email is describing is simple to understand. The word offers reassurance.

Thanks

Some people might think this word is overused, and they’re right. Any word loses its impact when it’s carelessly and frequently used. Don’t overlook it, though.

Sending a customer who bought a product or service from you a thank-you note evokes a positive response. People want to know that their patronage of business means something.

It’s also appropriate to thank subscribers for reading your newsletter or special report. This thanks should come towards the end of the message. However, some successful newsletter writers open each issue with a general thank you to readers for maintaining their subscription.

Personalization

This is important. The reader knows that you don’t know him or her personally, but people have an almost-instinctive positive response to seeing their names. It captures their attention.

Using the words “you” or “your” has a similar effect of giving a message a personal feel. You lose your audience when you use the third person form instead. Compare these two sentences.

“People enjoy the warmth generated by this low-wattage space heater.”

You can lose your audience. “People” is impersonal. The reader might think, “Good for them. They’re not me.”

“You will enjoy the warmth generated by this low-wattage space heater.” Only two words are different, but in addition to the element of personalization, these sentences encourage the reader to imagine a warm, cozy room.

Easy

This is an important word. Many people feel challenged and even threatened by technology, which can include considering whether to buy anything that needs assembly. The word “easy” can reassure them.

I recently published a book, 52 Writing Tips: Fast and Easy Ways to Polish Your Writing. Putting “Easy” in the title was important, as I know how many people think it’s difficult to grasp grammar, punctuation, and other elements of writing.

However, I didn’t use the word “easy” lightly. The content is easy to grasp.

Truth in Advertising

This brings me to an important point. You can use all the power words recommended by experts in email marketing, but don’t use them carelessly. You’re giving your readers a promise. Make sure that you can deliver.

If you say it’s free, don’t introduce some little twist that will cost the reader money. For example, if shipping fees apply, say, “Pay only a $X.XX shipping charge.”

If an offer is only good for the next 24 hours, make sure that you don’t have it available for the following month.

Power words may draw your readers in, but to hold them, you need to fulfill your promises.

Pat Iyer is a C-Suite contributor, one of the original 100 people to join the network 3 years ago. Business professionals hire her as a ghostwriter and editor to help them shine without having to do the work of writing. Contact her at patiyer.com.

Categories
Marketing Personal Development

Writing Effective Headers for Individual Emails

When your potential customer or client opens their email, they will scan the email headers. Make sure yours attracts their attention.

Keep your header short (35 characters or under so they can be easily read on a mobile phone). Lead with the most important point. Don’t use CAPS. Be specific.

You will typically write emails to request or offer a favor to someone you don’t know but with whom you’re interested in having a collaboration or partnership. These could also include job applications, emails to co-workers, and messages to businesses such as your accounting firm, lawyers, and those with whom you have other business relationships.

The Initial Approach: Be Specific

One of the most annoying approaches I see in email headlines is one that is vague.

A bad headline approach is “Hey, do you have a moment?” No, I don’t know you. I have 50 emails in my inbox, and if this is the best headline you can write, I only have the second it will take to delete your message.

Even worse is “Do you have a quick moment?” No, I have a slow one, but it’s already reserved.

“I have an interesting idea.” This is a good example of why “show” is much more powerful than “tell.” “Interesting” is not an interesting word.

“I would like to promote your book/business/website.” This is tricky because lots of scammers say this in their email headers. However, this approach has a somewhat better chance of getting an email opened. Make sure that your offer gets spelled out clearly in the first sentence of the body of the email.

You will get even more opens if you write something like “I read your book and I loved it.” No author can resist. You can modify this approach by writing, “I spent a lot of time on your website.” If you prove it by mentioning specific details you liked, you can have an even better result.

Make a Reference to a Mutual Acquaintance

If Martin X, who likes your work (whatever it is) says, “Why don’t you email Maureen Z? I think you two could collaborate well,” you have an opening. If possible, you will want to ask him to email or call Maureen Z with the same message. If that’s not possible, use Martin’s name in your headline.

“Martin X suggested that I email you.” Spell out why in the first sentence of the body of the message.

The Cold Email

This is analogous to the cold call to get business. Make it clear that this isn’t a mass emailing by specifying the name of the company and, if you have a referring name, use it. Also, use a contact name from the company you’re calling if you have one.

“I can help ABL have an expanded reach in the small business community.”

“Jim V of DataReach suggested that I contact you.”

Occasionally, a headline like this may exceed the recommended 35-character length. In that event, get your most important information in at the beginning.

 The Follow-up Email

If the email is a follow-up to a face-to-face or phone conversation you had, refer to this briefly in the headline.

“Regarding our meeting July 15”

“Information you requested about my business expenses”

“Operation Make a Date follow-up”

For All Individualized Emails

If the subject matter is time-sensitive, say so in the headline.

“Please reply by Friday, March 3.”

This doesn’t mean that they will, especially if they don’t know you, but if they do, you have a far better chance of jumping the email queue.

Don’t write an incomplete headline, like “Can You Answer This Question . . .” and continue in the body of the email with “about best email practices?” Don’t force people to open your email. They won’t like that for good reasons. You’re not showing respect for their time, and if you blow it with an email, they imagine what you must be like in real life.

If you have a question for the email recipient, put it in the last line of the email so the reader won’t overlook It.

Would A Phone Call Serve You Better?

Always consider this possibility. We grow addicted to the ease and speed of email, but sometimes you have a better result if you pick up the phone and speak directly to the individual. This may not be appropriate with someone you don’t know, but if you do, you may find that the personal contact may serve you well.

Pat Iyer is a C-Suite Network Contributor, one of the original 100 people to join the network 3 years ago. Business professionals hire her as a ghostwriter and editor to help them shine without having to do the work of writing. Contact her at patiyer.com.

 

 

 

 

 

Categories
Best Practices Growth Personal Development

How to Give Your Book Focus

Are you a C Suite executive with a desire to write a book? Do you have a legacy to share? Do you have a rags to riches story to share?

Before you write a book, you need to find a focus for it. This means you need to narrow down your subject.

Say you are a person who started a company against all odds. You took risks, you made enemies, you overcame challenges. You revolutionized an industry. That’s a huge subject. You could write a broad overview, but such a book may not have the impact you want. This raises the first question to ask yourself.

What Impact Do I Want This Book to Have?

 Do you want to provide useful information for people in your field? You may have learned or developed specific techniques that help people with the kinds of challenges you overcame. Your experience may be that these techniques work for a range of startups. Whether the reader has little or lots of business experience, he or she can benefit from the use of these methods. That’s your focus, reinforced with stories.

Do you want to write a call to action? Do you want to run a mastermind or offer to coach other executives? You want this information to inspire them to action. To facilitate this, you may include examples of how you achieved success in your business.

Who Is Your Audience?

 In a book where you share what you’ve learned about business, you have a potential audience of those who could benefit from using it. Describe your ideal reader.

She is an entrepreneur seeking solutions to common challenges of running a business. Open to learning, she wants to take a successful path. She cares deeply about her clients and is always on the lookout for new techniques.

Place a picture of a person who represents your ideal reader next to your computer, and glance at this picture when you are creating your content. The photo will help you stay focused on your reader. (I heard this technique from John Maxwell, a successful entrepreneur who spoke to the 2019 National Speakers Association annual meeting.  Staying focused on his reader helped him write over 60 books.)

This focusing technique is used by writers of both fiction and non-fiction. Stephen King is exceptionally focused. He writes for his wife. You don’t need that kind of laser focus, but if you write for a specific—though imaginary— individual, you will find your writing becomes equally focused.

Once you complete your book, seek a professional editor to polish your work, find the holes in your manuscript and help you present your expertise in the best light.

Pat Iyer is a professional editor and ghostwriter and one of the original 100 C Suite Network Advisors. Connect with her at patiyer.com.