Improving Your Communication Approach

As a business person who is constantly working to make your brand more and more recognizable and more and more popular, the way in which you communicate is everything so you need to make sure that your communication strategy (approach) is all that it should be to ensure your success.

Choosing the correct communication approach

When it comes to promoting your brand and products and/or services, you must always put your clients’ needs ahead of your own needs. You have most likely already discovered that your marketing materials are driven directly by what your clients and prospective clients want and need for their businesses. 

It is critical to your business that you maintain a direct line with your online connections because their opinions and their needs are essential and they will drive your business in many ways. Without your online connections willingness to create a buzz about your brand and your products and/or services, you will not succeed. You may be surprised at what a large percentage of your content (or, at least, the concepts of the content) originates with your online connections. As a business person whose goal is to promote what you have (as well as new offerings that come along), you need other people to create a positive atmosphere and to spread the word as much as possible.

So, how do you get a hold of those brand ambassadors? Well, there are a few different ways in which you can accomplish that.

• Always be genuine: The last thing that anyone wants is to be given the hard sell from anyone. If you are not genuine and your agenda is clear to other people, there is no doubt that those people will sense it. On the other hand, they will also know if you are being genuine. Your ability to succeed depends largely on your ability to form and nurture meaningful relationships. In order for that to happen, you must connect with the other person on a human/emotional level. Another very important element between you and the other person is your ability to tell them your story. If the other person can relate to what you are saying, they will want to connect with you on a deeper level.

• Actually, speak with the other person: There are ways of communicating and then there are ways of communicating. You want to avoid “talking at” anyone. You want to have an interactive exchange with the other person and you want to make the other person feel that he or she has something valuable to say and that you truly welcome his or her opinion because that opinion is so important to you and to your business. You don’t want to force anything. It should flow naturally and easily. You are just two people having a stimulating, interesting exchange of words and ideas. You need to get to know them as people before you can have any hope of doing business with them. If you express the fact that you care, it will go a very long way.

• Be creative with your personas: Personas are important and effective. In this case, you should create personas for the different aspects of your target market. If you do that, you will acquire a deeper understanding of  your target audience overall. Before you create personas, you will need to do your homework. That means that you study your target market and you wrap your mind around who they are and what they want and need. That also includes where they like to go and what they like to do. In order to build accurate, effective personas, you will want to gather demographic information, which will help you to understand your target market more thoroughly.

• Show your online connections who you really are: There is no doubt that you have a shiny personality full of all sorts of wonderful qualities. Now, all you need to do is to show those qualities to them. Allow them to get to know the real you. Even if you are afraid that you will be leaving yourself vulnerable, it is probably worth taking the risk. If you create a positive impression and build a solid relationship with the other person, they will probably be more than willing to spread the word about your offerings. The more they tell other people about what you are offering, the more successful your business will be. Although you are running a business, it doesn’t mean that you can’t make it interesting, entertaining, compelling, exciting, etc, for the other person.

• Make sure that your communications are always relevant: It is a given that you are writing amazing content. However, your content not only needs to be well written and error-free but your online connections also need to be able to relate to it. If they can’t apply your concepts to anything, it won’t do them (or you) any good. The best way to ensure that you hit the mark with your content each time is to do everything you can to learn what they want and need. At that point, it will be a simple matter of  your giving them what you know they are looking for in order to solve their problems.

• Let them know that you are there to help them: Your social communities are extremely important for you and for your business. You must leverage them as much as possible. You can accomplish that by interacting on the various social media channels regularly and consistently. You want people to get to know you and to come to understand that you have what they need. You need to show them that you are the right choice. That way, the next time they need what you are selling, you will be the first person they will turn to. You will be top of mind.

• Choose quality over quantity: It is very easy for you to say that you have a large number of connections. However, you may have 1000 connections but you may only be acquainted with and interact with 100 (or fewer). In that case, the 900 connections with whom you have never had a conversation are not very valuable to you and to your business. Sadly, they are merely taking up space. It is probably a sensible idea to disconnect from those people and, going forward, choose to connect with only those people with whom you have a legitimate connection. 

• Transparency is essential: Your being genuine is very important as so is your being transparent. People will know when you are and they will know when you are not. If you are honest and open, people will react to you positively. After all, you are trying to build trust and credibility and there is no better way to do that. Let them see who you are. If you share a relationship built on trust, you will go a long way with the other person. The relationship that you are building will have a solid foundation and it will most likely stand the test of time.

• Offer interesting, valuable content to other people: When it comes to choosing the topics about which to write, you will want to make sure that you don’t write in a promotional way. Your content should be informative, educational, compelling, and relevant. It should never push the reader hard to buy what you are selling. In fact, that is the best way to get the other person to lose interest in you and in your business.

• Share content because it is interesting and attractive to your online connections: Your content doesn’t need to be like a guided missile. It doesn’t always have to drive the same point home. However, it should always be interesting, exciting, educational, and it should always hold the interest of the reader. If you write a blog that fits in with those criteria, for example, there is a good chance that your readers will look for more and more content of the same ilk from you. You have a responsibility to give it to them over and over again.

Conclusion

Your brand and your offerings are essential to your business; however, effective communication is at the heart of your success. It may be time to take a long look at your communication approach and to tweak it so that it fits your current way of thinking like a glove. It is the glue that holds your strategy and your business together. Effective communication skills are the tools that enable you to accomplish your goals successfully.

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