How to Handle Clients Who Delay Getting You Materials
The project started out great, everything was going smoothly, or so you thought…
Then your client missed a phone call with you. No big deal, you thought, and rescheduled.
Then they missed the next one too.
You’re waiting for them to give you edits on a document or feedback on a website or an updated mailing list for their next newsletter.You You can’t move ahead with the project until you hear back from them, and they’re not getting back to you.
Kind of frustrating, right?
I’ve been there – on both sides. I’ve been the client who sits on projects and I’ve been the one who is waiting.
I can tell you that when clients don’t get back to you, it’s usually one of three reasons. Here are the most common reasons – and how to deal with them…
1. They don’t know what to do.
Most often, the reason is that they have to make a decision (or a whole bunch of decisions) that for whatever reason are hard to make. Maybe they don’t have time to think it through at the level that’s needed, maybe they have no framework for understanding how to make the decision, maybe there are two choices and they are stuck between them.
There are a couple good ways to move them past this:
- Can you make the decision for them? If you can do this, tell them what you think the choice should be and ask if you can move ahead.
- Can you simplify the number of choices? If they are trying to choose the right blue for a logo, instead of asking them to come up with the right shade of blue, give them two shades to pick from and ask which they prefer.
- Can you break the project apart into smaller pieces? You might be able to help them deal with only one piece now, which makes it more manageable for them to keep going.
- Can you eliminate the decision? Perhaps you can go at the project from a different angle, one that bypasses the need for them to make the decision now.
2. They don’t want to criticize your work.
A lot of people are uncomfortable telling you that they don’t like what’s been done so far. So they stall, hoping things will get better.
The best way to deal with it is to ask up-front “Are you unhappy with the look of the website?” or “Do you just totally not like where this is going?”
Give them space to tell you that it’s not what they want – make them comfortable giving you bad news. Often it’s nowhere near as bad as they (or you) thought. You can probably suggest an easy fix and keep going.
And if not, isn’t it better to know that there’s a big problem? I know for sure I like to have that out in the open so we can deal with it rather than have them unhappy.
3. You’re asking them to do too much.
Clients are busy! That’s why they are having you work for them.
See if there is a way for you to take on the next step yourself and do it instead of them.
If they are supposed to draft something and they haven’t done it, ask if you can draft it for them. See how much of the project you can take on.
If they’re not comfortable having you take the next step, that’s a hint that what you’re dealing with is actually either that they don’t know what to do or they are unhappy with the way the work has been done so far.
So the next time a client delays a project you’re involved in, try one of these techniques and see if you can’t get things moving again.
7 Essential Themes for Social Media Marketing
Wouldn’t it be great if all you had to do was send out a tweet saying “We’re selling the best widgets in the entire world, come buy some” – and that worked?
I wish it did.
But it doesn’t.
Businesses that are just getting started with social media often begin just like that. They talk all about their products and services – how wonderful they are, what’s new, what a great deal they are offering – but it doesn’t get the results they want.
Some give up at that point, deciding that social media just doesn’t work for them.
But others realize that you can’t only talk about your products – that’s missing the point of social media.
Social media is about letting people discover who you are.
Letting people see what kind of a business you run, who your customers are, who your employees and partners are, who refers business to you…
And allowing them to get comfortable enough with all of that to become a customer themselves.
We’ve been analyzing social media for some time now, and we’ve come up with 7 themes that you should address in your posts. Here are the 7:
- Demonstrate expertise
- Open a window into your business
- Care about quality and customer service
- Let people see who you are
- Prove that you’re connected
- Show a bandwagon
- Ask for help
In the next series of blog posts, we’ll talk about each of these in turn – what each means and how you can do that in different types of social media.
Stay tuned…
Can You Outsource Your Marketing Project?
The reality is that many projects are not a good fit for outsourcing.
Others can be outsourced, but only after you have a good relationship with someone who knows your business well.
Of course, some are great candidates and can be outsourced easily.
The trick is knowing which is which.
When you know which projects and what types of work fall into each category, you will find that outsourcing works a whole lot better for you. And you won’t waste your time and your money trying to outsource work that you are not going to be able to outsource successfully. Read more
Create Website Personas
When you are thinking about a website redesign – or even if you are simply tweaking your current site – personas are a very useful tool.
What is a persona?
A persona is a character who represents a group of people who use your site, who have a common purpose for being there and the same goal for the visit.
Personas (or “personae,” if you want to be grammatically correct) are fictitious people, but they stand in for real visitors to the site. For example, you might have a persona for a customer who comes to your site looking for technical support. Or a persona for each major category of prospect.
You can develop personas in a fair bit of detail. You might say that Bob is a director of a Fortune 500 company. He is a decision-maker and will be signing off on the purchase of your company’s software. His major concerns are whether your company is large enough and stable enough to sign a multi-year contract, and how quickly his department will get a return on their investment. Bob is 48 years old, he is married with two children, both of whom play soccer and he surfs the web on his smartphone while at their soccer practice or after they go to bed at night.
You can see how it is now much easier to envision what Bob cares about and how he will be using your site, and you can have discussions with your team about how you can make Bob’s visit to your site a more pleasing and successful experience.
If you decide to use personas for your website, the first place to start is identifying the groups of people who typically visit your site. Here are some questions to ask:
I. What types of people visit the website?
A. Prospects
B. Customers
C. Employees
D. Partners
E. Prospective partners
F. Press
G. Who else?
II. For each type of person who visits the site:
A. Why are they there? What do they need to accomplish?
B. What problem do they have?
C. What information are they looking for?
III. For each type of person, what characterizes them?
A. Demographics: age, gender, etc.
B. Title, occupation
C. Web behavior
- 1. Are they sophisticated web users?
- 2. How much time do they spend online?
- 3. How are they likely to use the web/website to solve their problem?
- 4. How are they likely to find the website?
- 5. What emotional state are they likely to be in when they visit the site?
D. Geography
E. Language/accessibility needs
Put that information together into profiles, then have some fun naming them. If you really want to get into it, find a photo of each person and add that to their description. Then share those profiles with the people who are planning the site. I guarantee you will have some fascinating discussions – and you’ll do a better job of designing your new site.
3 Best Questions to Ask Marketing Freelancers
If you are short on time, here are 3 questions that give you the fastest way to identify whether you are talking to someone who really knows what they are doing.
1. What process do you use when you work with clients?
In other words, what are the steps they are going to go through when they work with you?
Marketing freelancers who have a lot of experience typically have a pretty well-defined system. They are going to need certain information from you, they are going to go through specific steps, they are going to give you certain reports, etc.
The more clearly they can articulate the process, the better. Read more
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