This article is to show you how to create content that really speaks to your audience. In all industries there are people that really know what’s going on. They are knowledgeable, experienced and skillful, and looked-up-to by their colleagues and customers. This may come as a shock to you, but you are probably one of those people!

The truth is, most people have those skills and knowledge and don’t even realize it, just like you.

And questions are one of the best ways to pull out those specific things you think people are going to need to hear. In other words, if you go to visit a client, you can be guaranteed they are going to ask you questions about their specific industry. So, how do you translate that conversation into the written word? With a voice-activated tape recorder or digital recorder, that's how.

Ask if you can just sit down and record the session. Say it’s because you’re trying to get ideas to better serve your customer – they'll like that! And then, go back and listen to the conversation later and say, “Wow, they asked a good question and I didn’t even realize they asked it. And there’s my response. Oh, that’s good information!”  Or you might be less than pleased with your response. In any case, it gives you a chance to review the information you tell clients on regular basis to see the trends and issues in front of them. It also gives you a chance to review your marketing message and your sales approach when you’re in your client's office. And if they're interested in hearing it, then others will be as well, you can bet on it.

Of course, this is if the client lets you make a recording. If they don’t, lay those questions out on your own. Question A, question B and so on. Or to do it another way. Ask yourself what the top three questions you get when a new prospect calls you. And when they do call, list out the answers you give them. This way you basically fill in the Q & A or FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions for websites) very quickly, which you can then convert and use later. But for an e-newsletter, it’s also a very quick way to get some very common answers out there about industry standards, new legislation and all kinds of things that allow you to express your knowledge and your experience in a very casual and informative way; not with over-hyped sales copy that you’ve pulled from a PDF ebook online for $9.99. No one likes to be pitched. They want substance and information. They want their problem solved.

So once you have this information, then what do you do? Well, you need to have a good way to get it out there. Now, most people send tons of email everyday. But that’s not necessarily the best way. Here’s why: for one, you have no idea if that person actually opened the email or even received it in their inbox, unless they call you or hit the reply button and respond. The second reason is, if you included links in your email (like to a product, more information or good topical site), in a regular email message, again - you have no idea if they have clicked on those links or not. So, these are two areas that an Email Service Provider (ESP) can help you with very, very specific benefits.  What are they? The ability to see what people are interested in for every email you send. 

An ESP reseller, such as myself, can set you up to be able to track “opens” and clicks with ease by signing up with a good provider like Constant Contact, one of the premier ESP's out there today. They are coming up on 10 years in the business, and are just a phenomenal resource. So, not only do you get the ability to see who opened your email, but you can see the percentage of click-throughs: how many people clicked on a particular link you placed in the email. So, you can see how many people opened the email, and how many of those clicked on the links. Amazing information and really helpful when it comes to making decisions about subject lines and content to include. In this way you can totally tailor what you do in the future based on the responses you get back on each email that goes out by making small tweaks to each part of your email.

If you feel you have a need for this type of service and insight into your customers email behavior, then you can take it for a test drive and pricing here . Give me a call or shoot me an email at cburgess at digitaltsunami . com and we can go over the quick options and pricing together.

It's easy. Really easy. Much more than you think, and if everything looks good to you, we'll have you up and running in a couple of hours with your first email.

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