Think about the emails that land in your inbox. How many of them do you actually read and how many of them do you glaze over and ignore completely, or delete?
I can tell you that 99% of what I receive I glaze over completely. There is only about 1% that I pay attention to, and if it lands in my mailbox, I make a point to read.
The common thread with the few that I pay attention to is that I know the content in there will be 1. Original 2. Valuable. 3. Timely.
No one has the time to waste on meaningless content. We are all overwhelmed with large to-do lists and have information overload at our fingertips. With a quick internet search, we can find the answer to any topic out there.
Some may argue that sending an email blast with something is better than nothing because at least your name is landing in front of your network.
I disagree with that thought completely.
By sending useless information you are just being annoying and wasting people’s time.
I liken email spam to walking out to my physical mailbox.
I do not know about you, but I absolutely dread it! I will only do it about once a week when the mailbox is overflowing, and I have no choice but to retrieve it.
I dread it so much because I know that 99% of what is in there is going to be junk that I must sift through. The bottom line is that it is going to waste the time that I do not have.
People really want and are looking for information that provides value to them. Information that will help them run their business more successfully, increase their bottom line, and allow for them to streamline their internal processes saving them time.
Business owners will make time for something that has the potential to save them time or increase their efficiency.
The pushback I get from encouraging professional service providers to create original thought leadership content is that creating valuable content takes thought, and it takes TIME.
While that is true, creating value for people goes a long way. I argue that if your time is limited (and what a busy professional is not limited by time) providing less content, but more valuable content less frequently can still be effective. Even if you were to just write 2 original pieces per year, that is a much better option than spamming people with poor content regularly.
Do you see the common thread of this whole post? The professional does not have time and neither does the client.
TIME is everyone’s most valuable asset.
That is why it is SO important to only spend time where it is most valuable!
When you are a true expert in your practice area, producing valuable content does not even have to be that time-consuming. Share content that you live and breathe that you can spout off easily. Simplify the process and start by writing on a topic you are passionate about and that you know everything about, that you are the expert at.
If you do that you will find that it is easier than you think. The more you get into the habit of writing your thoughts down and sharing the valuable information you already know, the easier it will get and the less time that it will take.
I guarantee what you will find with your email campaigns is that your audience will become much more engaged.
You will see more email opens and click-through rates. Having an engaged audience will go a long way to growing your firm.
If you have been on the fence about writing, I encourage you to write an article today on an area of your expertise! It can be brief but get something on paper and provide value for your audience. Do not worry about perfection. It is the act of doing and providing some value that counts.
