Running Out of New Things to Email Your Clients About During Quarantine?

Don't just fill up space. Go back to what you do better than anyone, and share it.

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If you’re keeping in touch with your clients by email during the quarantine, you’ve probably reached the point where you’re running out of things to say.

If you’re looking a fresh message, try this.

Prefer to watch a video of this essay? Click here.

Ask yourself what it is your organization – or, you, if it’s just you – ask what you do better than anybody else. What do you have, do, or provide that others don’t? What is the thing about you that makes you superior to the other choices?

Write down everything you can think of: what you offer, how you offer it, where you offer it, quality, quantity, attitude, anything.

Be specific. Don’t just say we’re better or we’re faster. What exactly – exactly – makes you better? Do you deliver the next day when your competitors take two days? Do you customize some aspect of your product or service when others produce the same thing for everyone? When you say you’re “better,” what do you mean? For instance, do you produce more profitable outcomes for your clients? How often? And how much? Always be specific.

Once you have a list of things that differentiate you from others, consider which of those things actually matter to your client. It’s all well and good that you have twenty years of experience and your competitor has only two, but in most cases, clients pick the one who does the best work no matter how long they’ve been at it. Imagine your clients considering your goods or services with the same careful eye you yourself apply to your own potential purchases.

Once you’ve settled on that differentiating thing that matters to your client, now think about how you might give somebody a sample of that value – a free consulting call, a discount, or some insight they can make use of right now. You may have to work with somebody else to make this possible. That’s fine – do so. Ask yourself how many ways you can come up with to give clients a sample of the experience you’ve just identified that is so valuable.

Kind thoughts are nice. They're also of little value in a commercial relationship.

Also, this: all this applies to talking about your philanthropy, too. If you’re focused on contributions to community just now, let people know what you’re doing in terms of what they themselves would like to contribute. I’m a writer. I appreciate it when groups I’m a part of help other writers who are short on work these days. That binds me tighter to the group. Think about what matters to your clients in that way and highlight how your organization is acting on the values those clients believe in.

Never say “if there’s anything we can do” without providing a menu of what those things are. Kind thoughts are nice. They’re also cheap. To matter to your clients, you have to give them tangible value – and you have to give it as if you don’t expect anything back. Generosity with strings attached isn’t generosity. It’s commerce by another name. Generosity for its own sake is the strongest way to bind your efforts to the clients you need to stay close to, so be generous, and make sure it's something good you're giving away.

I take on occasional one-on-one writing students. It's a good time for that. Let's talk. Email me.

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