So those of you following my tweets will know that #thingsmyMumsays is one of my favourite hashtags. Indeed, my Mum, a beautiful whimsical creature existing in the Enid Blyton countryside is not computer savvy. Neither is she social media or content marketing savvy. Ask her about birds, flowers or the local wildlife however and she will astound you with her knowledge. Unbelievably my Mum is 70 although she looks incredible so she is from a generation that wan’t raised with social media. So it got me thinking. The subject being: What my Mum taught me about client acquisition.
What can my beautiful Mum teach me about client acquisition? Actually quite a lot. Here are some of my favourite Mum quotes and what I learnt from them:
1. “I’m not joining Facebook. I don’t want people to see me in my dressing gown”
Whilst I found this comment really funny at the time, it made me realise, I found it funny because I know that Facebook isn’t a web cam. Of course we know that people can’t spy on you through Facebook (or can they?!) As marketers we need to understand that a barrier to acquisition is often fear. Fear of trying something new, fear of something that doesn’t exist or simply a lack of understanding about what you’re offering. This is where simple back to basics content marketing comes into its own. Sometimes as marketers we lose sight of our target audience and fail to answer product questions in a clear and easy way. An update to this is that Facebook is actually losing its younger audience and gaining more Mums! Check out the latest published over at Contentworks Agency.
2. “I’m not using predictive text. I like holding the keys down to find letters”
Yep. Mum has only recently transitioned to a smartphone and up until now has happily existed with a 20 year old Nokia flip phone. You know the ones where you have to hold down the keys to get the letter you want? So a smartphone lesson ensued. Predictive text has come a long way and although notably funny swaps still occur “Fancy a glass of wind?” etc, they are generally much easier. But here’s the thing. You don’t know that until you have tried it for yourself. The fear of change will prevent many client acquisitions and if you are unable to reassure potential clients then you won’t win them. This is where demos and video tutorials come into their own. Before you try to upsell to clients, think about the fears they might have. Then address them.
3. “It all sounds wonderful. I have no idea what it means.”
The above was Mum’s reaction to a recently published interview of mine which I had sent her by email. Of course the interview concerned blockchain and crypto regulations so I didn’t expect her to understand everything. However, it made me think about the information we put out through interviews, press releases and blogs and who is actually reading it. Was Mum the only person to leave my article with no clue about what it all meant? Did I miss target clients because I had not properly explained basic concepts? When do you need to do that? The interview in question was published in a high level blockchain publication so there’s a good chance that most of the readers got it. That said, perhaps there may have been other press releases and interviews I have published elsewhere that completely missed their target audience. If you’re using acronyms, abbreviations, insider terms and industry slang then you might want to think about this. Are you alienating your readers? If so, no amount of CTAs (Call to Actions) in the article will win you the business.
My Mum continues to keep me grounded and for that I’m both amused and grateful. And if you have a parent who’s the same then remember- they taught you how to use a spoon so be patient! Did you enjoy reading this article? If so tweet me @Charli_Says and let me know. This could become a series if you guys enjoy it 🙂 And Mum if you’re reading to the end… you’re doing great!