(What follows is the outline I wrote in advance of recording the video. They’re my talking points. Not a regular post or article. Just an outline.)
This question came from Tom, who has taken my course on Web Content Optimization.
“Nick, in the course you talk about engaging with your audience. At best, I imagine that means interacting with prospects and customers one on one. If you’re selling high-end products or services, I can see that making sense. But our company is in the low-cost, high-volume SAAS business. There’s no way we can justify engaging one on one. So how can we engage at all?”
I like this question, because I think it can apply to a lot of different business types.
Heck, it even applies to me. Thousands of people have purchased my courses over the years, and many have questions before, during and after taking the course.
Tom, I have three suggestions for you…
- Instead of answering each question multiple times, answer it once publicly, in the form of a blog post or video post… like this one. Do that and you can be seen to be responsive and engaging, but without having to keep answering the same questions over and over again.
- Build a private community. At its simplest, create a private Facebook group. Designate someone to take care of that community and to engage with its members. But here’s the thing… what often happens in these groups is that 90% of the questions posed are answered by fellow members.
- Engage publicly through social media channels like Facebook and Twitter. A lot of companies run these channels simply as a means of being there for their prospects and customers, and being responsive to their questions and complaints.
The bottom line is that there are definitely ways to engage with your audience, even if you don’t have the resources to handle every single inbound inquiry one at a time.
Engagement is often simply about the perception of being there for your audience. And you can achieve that without dealing with everyone individually.
I hope this helps a little!
NOTE: To learn more about optimizing a whole range of different types of web content, check out my course, Web Content Optimization.
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Great stuff. When I started out in copywriting, I was great at writing informative posts. But, learning how to engage your audience and keep them on their toes for your latest post is something that I learned over time.
Nick, solid stuff on authentic (a word that’s bandied about a bit too much, but here applies) communication with your audience without driving yourself mad in trying to individually answer questions that often overlap or touch other areas.
And I could see how putting together these kind of collective distillations of answers could refocus your own thinking on something, and give even you a deeper perspective. Thanks!
Yes to that last point… in my experience I can learn a lot about thinking through the answers to people’s questions. Like you say, it makes you focus more carefully. Thanks for the feedback!