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First-Person Data: Collect and Protect

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Compliance takes a leading role in marketing strategy

The accelerating use of Generative AI that’s occurring in business entities large and small has sparked privacy concerns in data management and IT security teams, marketing C-Suites and the offices of corporate governance/compliance attorneys. Whether the leadership at your organization calls itself progressive or conservative, it’s absolutely necessary to develop data implementation and risk management protocols, and create a crisis management public relations strategy while you’re at it, when integrating artificial intelligence backed software tools into your business operations.

Protecting client relationships and brand reputation has persuaded many organizations to bake compliance regulations into their marketing strategies, in particular those supported by GenAI. International Data Corporation (IDC), a global market intelligence and data provider for the IT, telecommunications and consumer technology markets headquartered near Boston, MA, cautions that stringent data compliance protocols are no longer merely optional, but are necessary, to avoid financial and reputational harm.

We’re all personally impacted by the increasingly pervasive use of AI and you are well aware that data privacy is high-priority to your client (and you). Regular reports of cyberattacks and data breaches intensify concern. While the the expansion of AI-powered software systems result in a more efficient, responsive and personalized experience that clients value and now expect, it’s usage simultaneously makes clients wonder about the security of their data. Research by Publishers Clearing House found that 86% of Americans are more concerned about their privacy and data security than the state of the US economy. However, 62% either don’t know or are misinformed about how their data is being used.

Sigh. There is an upside, however. Advanced risk monitoring tools, automated reporting and responsible AI frameworks can act as gatekeepers and companies achieve regulatory requirements. Businesses that integrate transparency and ethical AI practices into their governance policies and procedures can reduce the possibility of data breaches and other AI-related risks and simultaneously enhance client trust and strengthen the company’s brand reputation.

There is also legislation designed to reassure consumers that protecting their personal data is serious business and is, in some municipalities, the law. Protective measures meant to safeguard the processing of personal data is demonstrated by the change of privacy features at Google, the implementation of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), whose purpose is to protect the privacy and personal data of individuals in the European Union and European Common Market and the adoption of the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA).

What is first-party data?

First-party data is information your company has collected directly from clients and prospects, site visitors, or social media followers. First-party data comes directly to you and the more touchpoints you provide, the more opportunities you will have to collect this information. It is an extremely valuable type of data for businesses. In comparison, second-party data is shared by a trusted source, while third-party data is data aggregated from other sources, which can include social media platforms and public records.

Marketers recognize that personalization is the cornerstone of a pleasing and potentially memorable customer experience and that collecting, implementing and storing client data —first-party data—is integral to personalization. Marketers enter first-party data into customer relations management (CRM) systems to enhance personalization, use CRM predictive analytics to get insight into client behaviors and preferences, recognize client segments and then target marketing campaigns accordingly. Sources of first-party data include:

  • Client demographic info
  • Client buying history
  • Leadgen campaigns
  • Client or prospect interactions with your website or app
  • Surveys and other online feedback that clients may participate in
  • Client, prospect or other visitors user-generated content or social media conversation transcripts
  • Blog, email and newsletter subscribers
  • Program registration lists, e.g. webinar, workshop, or meeting sign-ups

Why do you want first-party data?

First-party data helps you to paint a picture of your client and develop a reliable buyer persona. It is enormously useful because it delivers accurate client and prospect information—user info from all the touchpoints—that enables you to target the right buyers for your services or products. You’ll also be able to make better informed decisions when figuring out what personalization looks like to your clients.

First-party data enables marketers to build a customer experience that reflects user purchase history, if applicable, or other known preferences and behaviors that enrich and enhance the customer experience. Personalization is like the bartender who knows your drink or the waiter who shows you to your favorite table. Now you’ll have an accurate blueprint to follow when figuring out how to nurture a brand community of long-term clients who are happy to buy your products or services, make personal referrals and generate good word-of-mouth on social media.

Transcribe first-party data into your Customer Relationship Management (CRM) platform to create a database of everyone who’s visited your website and social media platforms. But before you start using your first-party data, think about what you want to achieve, to ensure that you’ll maximize its many benefits. You may want to do one or more of the following:

  • Building brand awareness 
  • Expanding leadgen activities
  • Encouraging repeat business and discouraging client churn 
  • Re-engaging lapsed clients and non-converting prospects
  • Growing your thought leadership content audience—blog, newsletter, podcast, webinars, speaking engagements

When you get enough first-person data to have confidence in the size of your sample, begin to implement your strategy—segment your audience and use your first-party data insights to maximize conversions on your website by optimizing user experience, targeted marketing messages, the buyer personas to understand your customers and create customized emails or (email) newsletters that will be relevant to the primary sectors (e.g., hospitals, schools, for-profit, not-for-profit, small business, global enterprise).

As well, Freelance consulting specialists and other B2B entities can follow the highly aligned and targeted account-based marketing format to produce relevant and personalized content to your market segments across the digital channels you occupy— posting tailored content in a various formats (e.g. blogs, videos, e-books, case studies) that resonate with those audience segments.

The ability to personalize marketing outreach activities cannot be overestimated—96% of shoppers say they’re “likely to purchase when brands send personalized messages.” Meanwhile, a 2025 consumer trends report generated by Businesswire found that “three out of four surveyed shoppers have already abandoned brands they once loved in favor of those offering more personalized experiences, while 81% say they routinely ignore marketing messages that don’t feel relevant”. When you throw in the harsh realities that client acquisition costs are increasing, client lifetime value is decreasing and the competitive landscape is intensifying, making the most of first-party client data becomes imperative. But the catch-22 is that possession of client personal data, which often includes contact info and credit card numbers, is a risky proposition.

Collect data, protect data

The widespread restrictions on third-party cookies by leading web browsers presents real challenges to the collection of first-party data, even when enabled by data collection by sites you control (e.g., your website). With Google putting the brakes on third-party cookies, plus Edge, Firefox and Safari shutting off cookies, first-party data is more valuable than ever.

How can businesses safely collect this essential marketing/ sales resource and simultaneously navigate obstacles around data security and client privacy expectations? The implementation of advanced security measures to protect against fraud and data breaches is a must-do. Ensuring compliance throughout the transition is also crucial, especially with evolving data privacy regulations.

In addition to conducting regular security audits to ensure data is secure, businesses should go beyond standard encryption practices and adopt advanced security measures such as tokenization for sensitive data fields, which minimizes the risk of exposing real data should a breach occur. It is recommended that companies should leverage automated tools for continuous security monitoring and compliance checks that can provide real-time alerts on suspicious activities that help to preempt potential security incidents. 

Maintain client trust

In Freelance consulting, trust and expertise are foundational. Clients entrust their sensitive data, strategic plans and proprietary work flow processes to you and expect their information to be kept private and secure. That is an ingredient in your recipe to win confidence, build strong, lasting relationships and establish and maintain your image as a reliable partner. You, Freelance friend, must institute all reasonable measures to protect client sensitive information, but as you know, the growing cybersecurity security threats can make that task feel like an ongoing battle. Here are effective defensive, low or no-cost, tactics you can take:

  • Read up on cybersecurity best practices that have SMBs and Freelance consultants in mind on the Small Business Association SCORE website.
  • Multi-Factor Authentication adds a layer of security by requiring users to verify their identity with both a password and a confirmation phone call or email.
  • Secure file permissions ensure that only authorized individuals can create, edit, or share sensitive documents. Encrypt sensitive documents and store them in the cloud to add another layer of security by instituting more stringently controlled access.
  • Hard-copy documents that contain sensitive information should be stored securely in a locked cabinet or safe when not in use.  
  • When possible, conduct meetings during which confidential topics will be discussed in person rather than on videoconference calls.
  • Devise an incident response/crisis communication PR strategy that provides explicit instructions, defines responsibilities and details your data recovery strategy in the event of a security incident. Your organization must respond quickly and in a calm and professional manner that demonstrates your control over matters and ability to resolve the incident and inform and reassure clients as you do.

Thanks for reading,

Kim

Image: AI-generated image courtesy of StockCake

 

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Level Up Your Thought Leader Cred

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Being a thought leader is a vital ingredient in a Freelancer’s recipe for a B2B content marketing strategy that moves the needle. In fact, establishing yourself as a credible thought leader is foundational to building a thriving Freelance client list. Freelancers must recognize that business acumen, lived experience and data you share with content followers, some of whom are prospects and clients, is a valuable strategic asset. What you know and how you express your knowledge is the core of your Unique Selling Proposition and the engine that drives your ability to deliver solutions that produce results and convert prospects into paying clients.

Many independently employed professionals label themselves an “expert in the field and thought leader,” but few do so with a carefully considered sense of purpose that leads to an actionable outcome—like persuading a hesitant prospect to become a client. In today’s hyper-competitive marketplace that’s populated with cautious prospects who’ve lengthened B2B sales cycles and pushed your next paid invoice farther into the future, it is imperative to distinguish yourself from those whose “thought leadership” amounts to checking the box and calling it done.

Tickling a handful of marketing metrics doesn’t prove that you’re a credible thought leader, either; click bait posts and articles are only eye wash and audiences recognize it. True connaisseurs of thought leader content track business impact (vs. 63% overall) and 51% track brand authority (vs. 38% overall) to assess how audiences really feel about their content. They measure the relevance of their thought leadership with insightful metrics:

  • Audience engagement — views, downloads, shares (80%)
  • Business impact — lead generation, pipeline influence (63%)
  • Audience feedback — client/prospect feedback, sentiment analysis (40%)
  • Brand authority — speaking/media opportunities, publication citations (38%)

Furthermore, connaisseurs publish their thought leadership on marketing channels that provide an audience of B2B prospects who are serious about obtaining useful information. If you are not currently publishing on these channels, as well as getting out in front of a live audience every once in a while, add these items to your thought leadership promotional activities.

  • LinkedIn (76%)
  • Email newsletters (54%)
  • Speaking events, webinars (52%)

Those who “get” the power of thought leadership know that the information they present may be used by audience members who are either familiar with or contending with a particular challenge. The insights and info you present as a thought leader is used to support responsible decision-making, whether in the moment or in the near future. Therefore, the goal of savvy Freelancers is to produce credible, possibly innovative and reliably useful thought leadership content that followers and other readers or viewers will notice and remember. Below are thought leadership ingredients you can use to develop your recipe for success.

1. Solve a problem readers will recognize

Effective thought leadership is born of a vexing problem that is urgent—an emerging risk, a stubborn and mysterious challenge or failing, or even a misunderstood opportunity. The most perceptive and confident thought leaders will dare to step outside the usual narrative or practice and provide a perspective the audience hasn’t heard before and use it as a launchpad for potentially effective solutions. Does your thought leadership content inspire your audience make smarter, braver, decisions, or help them to avoid a potentially costly error, or problem they may not have considered?

Thought-leadership content that presents insights and information that helps decision-makers perform not as mere functionaries but as leaders who know how to keep the mission-driven goals of their organization in the forefront builds trust and separates you from competitors. To achieve that, thought-leaders must be aware of what audience members need to know now—before a competitor tells them first.

2. Present thought leadership content with an out-of-the-box idea

Defining the problem is where thought leadership starts and proposing an innovative way to perceive and address it is what gets thought leader content noticed. A true thought leader is provocative, one who reveals an “aha” moment that makes a new way of looking at things both credible and memorable. Create thought leadership content that challenges conventional wisdom or reframes a common problem in an unexpected way—and show your audience that you understand the problem and how it can be solved.

To stimulate your creative spirit, you may want to employ an Artificial Intelligence tool to rev up your brainstorming. You’ll have to experiment to find the right prompts that help you discover intriguing, but credible, possibilities for topics that answer questions for readers and reveal what they consider to be an emerging concern. AI can also help you frame your approach to the topic and provide suggestions as to which narrative threads might be included in your content. Also, use storytelling to shape your content, as it is usually the most relatable way to communicate with your audience—and they’re more likely to retain the info you deliver.

A concise overview of a case study or references to insights gleaned from user generated content that’s appeared on your company’s social media accounts are excellent sources of lived experiences that are provided by your very own followers. You can also discover topics to explore as well. Let AI help you start the brainstorming process by showing you topics that your audience are likely to find relevant and then build your case with real time source material that might reflect both your own experiences and that of your clients.

3. The best thought leadership content is in the trenches

When scouting for source material, keep in mind that residents of the C-Suite may not give you boots-on-the-ground perspectives or stories that reveal out-of-the-box perspectives or possible solutions that bring “street cred” to your thought leader content. Clients and colleagues who have a customer-facing role are better positioned to provide you with the most interesting topics, experiences and insights that bring authenticity to your narratives. You want reports from those who notice shifting customer behavior, for example, and other grass-roots experiences that bring a rawness and depth to your thought leader content and makes it relevant to a wide audience.

4. Thought leader content is considered useful

Good thought-leader content earns attention by delivering relevant information. That doesn’t mean checklists or how-tos—but it does mean clarity and ideas that make a subject that is complex feel as if it can be navigated and understood. When your followers and other readers finish your article and let the information you provided and hit the save and/or the forward button, that will verify your status as a thought leader. Useful content helps readers do things like:

  • See a risk they hadn’t considered
  • Argue for a decision internally
  • Convince the audience to take action
  • Shift the mental model audience members were using

Thanks for reading,

Kim

Image: ©nobelprize.org (L-R) Daron Acemoglu of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, MA, Simon Johnson of MIT and James Robinson of University of Chicago in Chicago, IL

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Milestones Are Your Reason for A Reset

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Certain dates on the yearly calendar are noteworthy—birthdays, holidays and anniversaries, a new year or a new season, as well. The dates have meaning; they mark special occasions and hold a certain power. You might call them milestone dates. Some milestones merely mark the passage of time, but others suggest growth and development, an inflection point and the possibility of making a positive change. Those milestones beckon you to consider new options, new experiences, or a new perspective.

A particular milestone date or occasion may motivate you to do better and give yourself an upgrade. You might feel it’s time to press the reset button on some aspect of your life. You’re primed to open the door to new options and opportunities. You recognize that you’ve reached a psychological milestone and life is telling you to reassess and redesign, reinvent, or recharge some part of your life or some part of your business enterprise or career. Think New Year’s Resolutions.

This spark of inspiration is called the “fresh start effect.” It’s a psychological phenomenon that explains why milestones—the arrival of a new year, a birthday, or the first day of a new season—make you inclined to self-reflection. You feel the urge to take on beneficial new habits and drop an old habit that’s outlived its usefulness. You’re ready to attach jumper cables to your personal or professional life, start the ignition and make things come alive.

Because the fresh start effect is universal, your clients are likewise inclined to experience a restless feeling that creates a longing for something new and different. For that reason, milestones are an excellent time to make use of the prevailing zeitgeist and shake up a client-facing sector of your business. The strategy is powerful because you’ll align your company and its solutions with your customers’ existing expectations, rituals and rhythms.

Your mission is to position your brand to align with customs or expectations that your clients and prospects will likely experience when they think of your target milestone occasion. How might your service or product be perceived as part of their fresh start? Your goal is to not only meet their needs and wants, but also portray your brand as a timely, trusted partner during noteworthy moments in their lives. Milestone dates are the right time to stir the pot and offer up—what? An activity or information that aligns with your company and its services or products and simultaneously resonates with your clients and prospects to show them why they trust, relate to and value your brand.

Your potential milestone occasions could be the beginning of a new school year, the arrival of spring or fall, the anniversary of your business launch or getting your first paying client, or even Black Friday (U.S. readers know that’s the fourth Friday in November). This post was inspired by the arrival of the fourth quarter on October 1. 4Q is powerful because it closes on December 31, the end of the calendar year, and business owners and leaders are anxious to have a strong finish to the year.

Commemorate your milestones

The fresh start effect is a golden opportunity you don’t want to miss. Your clients and prospects can be positively influenced by milestone dates, even if the occasion is linked to your business and not a national holiday or change of seasons. It’s not a stretch to persuade your audience to take on a mindset that opens them up to change and new beginnings that happen to align with your company, products or services. In other words, don’t shy away from celebrating the anniversary of your company’s launch as your Founder’s Day and build a promotional campaign to celebrate it—and bring in revenue as you do!

Make your marketing message about a restart and transformation

Marketing messages that include a theme of renewal and transformation often resonate with audiences during fresh start milestone periods because your audience is already in a self-assessment and growth-oriented mindset. For example, presenting a new angle to your brand story to refresh client enthusiasm and promote engagement is among the milestone-themed campaigns you might choose to develop. To tap into this power, invite a client to give a testimonial—audio, video, or written—that describes how your product or service sparked meaningful change in the client’s business operations, whether it’s a small but powerful effect or a game-changer.  

You can get the ball rolling on client testimonials by creating a survey that asks questions such as, “How has our product or service made a difference in how you do business? Can you share a specific example?” These questions will focus testimonial responses on the tangible benefits and transformational power of your products rather than generic praise like, “Your product or service is awesome!” Often, you’ll even uncover surprising ways your product made a difference.

Alternatively, you (and your team, if that applies) can present a backstage story by creating a video of you on your way to give a presentation at a local business association, or to do volunteer work. Your clients may enjoy getting to witness an uncensored, up-close and person look that nevertheless illustrates your business acumen and, if philanthropy is the focus, your values and the importance of corporate social responsibility and giving back to your community.

Good stories are always about transformation. You want to position your service or product as a catalyst for your clients’ positive evolution and so that you can connect with them on a deeper, emotional level so that you will take on the role of guide in their journey. By presenting useful, or fun and always compelling information about your brand you’ll capture the attention and imagination of your audience and strengthen their bond with you.

Thanks for reading,

Kim

Image: A “Sweet 16” birthday party at The Crystal Ballroom in Daytona Beach, FL

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What Do You Spend to Get a New Customer?

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Do you know how much you spend, on average, to convert a prospect into a paying customer—attracting the prospect’s attention, educating the prospect about your brand, your services and your products, instilling confidence and building trust—and making a sale? Have you tallied up the combined cost per customer of your marketing campaigns, selling expenses, referral programs, customer onboarding and the like and calculated the average amount of the marketing spend that supports the growth of your customer list—and your revenue, as a result? What kind of a return on investment are you getting from your marketing campaigns and sales strategy?

You may not know in the moment your company’s average customer acquisition cost, but it would be a good idea to update it (or figure it out) and keep that number in mind, because your CAC is a metric that reveals an important story about how your business functions. Customer Acquisition Cost is a key performance indicator, although not necessarily in the way many business owners and leaders think. CAC shines a bright light on the performance of company operations and outcomes, including the business model, which is the essential plan for making money. The metric also reveals the effectiveness of your overall marketing strategy, which reflects your marketing acumen and, in the end, can make a credible prediction of your organization’s potential for profitability and expectations for growth and scalability.

CAC is a metric that can be benchmarked against an industry standard and it’s a smart idea to research your industry’s average CAC and use the benchmark number as a guideline. Learning the CAC benchmark for your industry will enable you to identify a reasonable dollar amount for your marketing and sales budgets and help you avoid either overspending or underinvesting on marketing activities—which you rely on to bring paying customers into the business.

Familiarity with the CAC benchmark in your industry also enables you to evaluate your performance as a marketer. For example, if your company’s CAC is significantly higher than industry average, it could indicate problems with your marketing strategies or sales strategies and practices—-you’re spending money but not bringing in enough customers, or not the right customers, to generate a healthy marketing ROI. On the other hand, if your CAC is rather low as compared to the industry benchmark, it suggests that you may be under-funding marketing. If that’s the case, then theoretically you could assume that spending more on marketing would bring in more customers that fit your definition of ideal. In other words, CAC reflects the effectiveness of your marketing practices and can help you set realistic goals, as well as identify where you need to do better.

Calculate CAC by dividing total marketing and sales expenses by the number of new customers you’ve brought to the business within a given period—annually or quarterly, for example. Because many businesses serve more than one customer segment, it will make sense to separately calculate CAC according to customer segments, which could be based on demographic factors and might also involve differences in sales cycle length or competitive landscape. Incidentally, B2B entities typically have a longer sales cycle and tend to have a higher average CAC than B2C companies.

You’ll also want to segment your spend on the marketing channels you use—e.g., email marketing, social media advertising, customer relations management software subscriptions, and/or attending trade shows—and calculate the corresponding CAC figures. But what does understanding CAC really do for you? CAC is about documenting, analyzing and tracking over time the amount you spend on various customer segments, plus your marketing channels and sales strategies, that are used to convert prospects into paying customers.

There is also the matter of a customer’s average lifetime (revenue) value. You already know that a campaign to bring in a new customer costs at least 5x more than what you must do to retain an existing customer. Nevertheless, you may want to calculate the average amount of revenue that will flow to your business over the length of time that a customer does business with your organization. The question is addressed by calculating Customer Lifetime Value, a metric that is foundational to long-term revenue growth. Additionally, CLV factors into CAC, because it determines the return on investment (ROI) of the customers you acquire.

Calculate CLV by multiplying the Average Purchase Value x Purchase Frequency x Average Customer Lifespan. For instance, if you provide subscription services or have customers on a retainer agreement, you can calculate customer lifetime value by multiplying the amount of the subscription or retainer fee by the length of the subscription or retainer contract (purchase frequency) to arrive at CLV for one customer for one year (CLV is typically calculated on a one-year time frame).

Another useful metric is the CLV: CAC ratio, which compares Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) to the Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC). The ratio documents the revenue an average customer brings to your business, as compared to what was spent to acquire that customer. A desirable CLV: CAC ratio should be at least 3:1, meaning that every dollar of marketing spend will result in three dollars of revenue generated by a customer. A ratio less than 3:1 indicates your company’s marketing efforts are producing less than stellar returns, while a ratio far in excess of 3:1 suggests that you could produce more revenue growth with an increased marketing spend.

Make a point to benchmark your CAC against industry averages and to understand what good marketing and sales performance looks like. Here’s how to get started on figuring out your company’s CAC:

  • Define customer acquisition process and goals.

Make a comprehensive assessment of you acquire customers—paid social media ads, organic social media outreach, thought leadership, e.g. public speaking, hosting a podcast, and/or publishing a newsletter, word-of-mouth and referrals? Have you developed an inbound marketing/ sales funnel to capture prospects who search online to find a B2B Freelance professional services provider in your category? Next, decide what represents a realistic customer acquisition goal for your organization—how many active customers can you reasonably expect to have on your roster in a typical year?

  • Segment your CAC by different variables

Consider how to segment your customers, keeping in mind customer demographics and accounting for the marketing channels and options you employ. Get comfortable with the fact that your CAC for certain channels might be higher than your benchmarked industry average, which means that you’re spending more to acquire customers through those channels. By segmenting your CAC, you can identify the best and weakest performers in your marketing and sales strategy and optimize your resource allocation accordingly by dropping certain options and increasing your investment in better performing channels.

  • Document your marketing and sales budget

Once you’ve chosen your CAC segments, you can look at what each of them costs—identify and quantify all costs directly related to acquiring new customers. These may include advertising, content creation, SEO, social media, email marketing, webinars, CRM software and/or buying your way into business association events that allow you to network effectively. You can use tools such as Google analytics, Facebook Pixel, or HubSpot to track and measure the performance of your different channels and campaigns.

  • Select your time period

Decide on the time period for which you will calculate your CAC—quarterly or annually should make sense for your business. You need to match your marketing and sales expenses and your new customers to the same time period for your CAC calculation.

  • Calculate your CAC

To calculate your CAC, divide the total amount of money spent to finance your marketing and sales activities by the number of customers you acquired in a given period, and apply customer segments that reflect demographic groups and the primary marketing channels you use.

  • Research your industry CAC average

To benchmark your CAC, compare your number with the industry averages for your niche, product or service and target market. Because  CAC can vary widely depending on the industry, the business model, the product, the target market, and the marketing channels used. Therefore, it is essential to benchmark your CAC against relevant and reliable sources of data, such as industry averages and competitors.

  • Compare CAC: CLV ratio

CAC alone does not necessarily indicate a revealing story about the health of your business, but the story will be more telling when you look to CLV and learn the average amount of revenue that you generate from a customer over the span of the business relationship. Be sure to follow-up with an examination of the CAC: CLV ratio, which tells you the amount of revenue generated per money spent on marketing and sales functions. A common rule of thumb is that your LTV should be at least three times your CAC. This would indicate that you have a positive ROI from your marketing and sales efforts.

Finally, keep in mind that CAC is not a static metric and remember that it can and will vary when impacted by various factors, such as certain fluctuations in your industry, organic changes in your product or service lifecycle, marketplace changes, especially changes in the competitive landscape or pricing. You will be wise to monitor and analyze your CAC regularly and adjust your marketing and sales strategies accordingly. 

Thanks for reading,

Kim

Image: © Chestnut Hill College, Philadelphia, PA

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Create Content That Delivers

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You will agree that the internet is the leading source of information and entertainment for everyone on Earth who has connectivity. The global data and business intelligence platform Statista reports that in 2025 5.56 billion, approximately 65% of the world’s population, has internet access. To nearly every business entity on the planet, that means about 5.34 billion potential customers—many of whom are too young to launch a buyer’s journey, but some of whom might influence purchases their parents make—are available to receive online marketing information.

While the vast majority of the world’s internet users will become the customers of only a select few brands, the wide acceptance of digital communications gives marketers everywhere the green light to create and post a vast amount of marketing information and the digital space is now awash in content of every type—audio, video, images and text. Audience appetite for content, whether information or entertainment, shows no signs of abating. The number of digital content websites and platforms continues to proliferate and invite contributors to produce still more content, all of which beckons viewers, listeners and readers to show some love and click here, please!

Content saturation of the internet is an inevitable phenomenon. According to the nationally known content marketing expert Neil Patel, nearly 40 % of enterprise companies plan to increase their content marketing budgets this year. Freelance solopreneurs and smaller business entities will likewise continue, or perhaps increase, their content marketing activity as well, but the dominance of content presented by the multinationals can easily cause the comparatively modest content produced by small entities to be overwhelmed as if by a riptide. Freelancers are understandably frustrated with this occurrence. How can you become more visible when your content must swim with the whales—and sharks?

It’s a vexing problem for sure but there is a commonsense strategy, one that plays to your strengths and demonstrates resourcefulness and creativity. The best response to content saturation is to activate your problem-solving ability and devise a strategy that guides you to create content that not only resonates with your audience, but also positions you to gain and maintain the attention and loyalty of your target audience. Whether your information is intended for social media posts, or focuses on developing and promoting content featured in your webinars, weekly blogs, or monthly newsletters, be reassured that content perceived as valuable will be acknowledged and followed by your target audience. It’s just about guaranteed that content featuring information that is specific, practical and actionable will result in a loyal and thriving audience who will regard you as a trusted expert. So, your mission as a content producer is to learn what is meaningful to your readers, listeners and/or viewers and let their priorities guide your content development and distribution strategies.

Educate yourself by reading articles that discuss from local and national perspectives developing trends, pending legislation, competition, opportunities and other updates in your field. Producers of relevant content must also be consumers of relevant content! If producing content figures prominently in your marketing strategies (and I know that it does), you may find one or more of the following five suggestions able to enhance the value of your marketing content and also position your content to bring in a healthy ROI—which might include establishing you as a thought leader.

Relevant, realistic and relatable information

Content that your audience considers to be relevant and practical is more likely to be valued, implemented and shared. Gaining a reputation as a reliable and respected source of content by your audience will incline them to become your followers or subscribers. Content that your viewers, listeners, or readers consider potentially actionable and known to be trustworthy can also encourage loyalty to you, your content and your organization and may persuade some to become your customers. To create content that’s considered useful and trustworthy, and resonates with your audience, you must stay ahead of emerging trends in your industry and be aware of and responsive to the evolving preferences, priorities and concerns of your customers.

Actions are easy to implement and afford

Your audience should be able to envision the usefulness of the actions or strategies your content recommends, even if only a minority of them is prepared to implement your ideas now or in the near future. Individual circumstances will dictate what audience members decide to do, but any advice put forth in your content must inspire confidence.

Furthermore, your content should not recommend actions or strategies that involve implementation costs that many would consider expensive. I’ll go so far as to say that the average B2B content viewer is looking for ideas that can, with a minimum of time and fuss, be used to grow their customer list, streamline business operations and either save or make money—practical advice that can be implemented at no cost or low cost. While business expenses are inescapable, content creators win more fans by recommending actions that demonstrate recognizable value and are accessible and affordable to the majority of the audience.

Your content is your own creation

Rather than doing a copy/paste of another’s work, content creators should value their lived experience—victories won and battles lost, resilience found, the worries of sleepless nights and sudden inspirations—and share those stories with your audience in ways that will be interesting and useful to them. Producing content is usually time-consuming, but that is the price of authenticity and it is worth it. To give yourself a starting point for your creative process, search for trending topics in your field, or comment on an aspect of the most frequent internet search questions related to your marketplace sector that were made over the past week.

Links to expert 3rd party support

In this post I’ve referenced marketing expert Neil Patel and the global business information platform Statista. Demonstrating to your readers/listeners/viewers that key points of your content are supported by recognized nationally or globally respected thought leaders gives them reasons to trust and value the recommendations and insights offered in your content.

Avoid confirmation bias

Content that is valued and popular is shaped not by the creator’s preferences, but by the readers/viewers/listeners in the audience. A common tactic used to help creators avoid confirmation bias is to simply ask audience members what they want to see and hear now, so that you can ensure the relevance of your content. Every few months, you might create a short survey that encourages content viewers to express what matters to them. In a four or five question survey, you can also slip in one or two audience demographic questions—Are you self-employed or an employee? What is your main area of expertise?—and begin to build an audience persona, which will enable you to heighten your responsiveness to your audience.

  • Social media polls Your preferred platforms provide a convenient means to create and send a survey that will help you learn more about your audience. Social media platforms make it easy for you to engage and more effectively communicate with audience members by providing fully customizable forms that help you expand your reach and even grow your base of followers. Polls are equipped with analytical tools that will give you information on your audience’s age group, location, profession and more.
  • Online and email surveys. The most important part of conducting online surveys is knowing what you want to learn from each question, and to keep questions short and easy to answer. You can also create email campaigns to survey your existing client base and gain valuable insight about them. For a very basic customer survey, ClickInsights sets up a one-question, one-click email survey; create a more extensive survey at Survey Monkey.

Thanks for reading,

Kim

Image: © A Tokyo soba noodle delivery in 1956. Bettmann Archive/ Getty Images

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Let’s Optimize Your Website Chatbot

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Over the past several years, you’ve most likely noticed that chatbots have become a standard feature, particularly on corporate websites. Whether the user is a prospect on a buyer’s journey, searching for basic product info, or a customer looking to resolve a (hopefully!) quick service request, maybe an exchange or return, experimenting with the generative AI powered resource known as chatbot seems reasonable to many. After all, if it appears that you’ll be able to transact your business more quickly and easily, why not give it a try?

But unfortunately, many users have been disappointed by what they expected would be a good experience with a time-saving new technology. A survey conducted in 2023 found that while 68% of business website visitors have interacted with a chatbot just 35% agree that most of the time, the chatbot helped them achieve their mission. Meanwhile, 77% of users felt their chatbot experience was frustrating.

Duly noted but nevertheless, the corporate bosses are determined to making GenAI adoption a success. They’ve decided that chatbots are the future and the future is now; they envision chatbot as the portal where customers and prospects will access product information, register complaints and obtain refunds or exchanges—all without the assistance of the company’s (paid) employees, BTW.

The bosses are fully aware that these often mundane interactions are critical to customer satisfaction and loyalty, brand image and sales but as of now, users are reporting that their chatbot interactions are lacking. The 2023 survey referenced above also showed that 88% of business website visitors would rather speak with a human customer service agent via telephone when seeking information or resolving a problem, clearly indicating that today’s chatbot is in need of refinement. The current fixes don’t always work, according to users, resulting in what could be a great resource to come up short because the solutions that users want aren’t programmed into the thing. If the corporate champions of generative AI chatbots would like to realize its full value—and I suspect that even disappointed users would agree that the potential value of generative AI chatbot is considerable—the customer experience must be prioritized when programming and implementing the technology.

Customer service and IT teams are on notice to fix chatbot problems and fortunately, they are beginning to realize that the chatbot challenge isn’t primarily technological—it’s psychological. It seems obvious that chatbot developers would be greatly assisted by researching and verifying the solutions that users want and their expectations regarding the overall chatbot experience. In a 2024 survey, 85% of customer service leaders reported that they are currently exploring more user-friendly chatbot solutions.

So, Freelancer friend—does your website have a chatbot or have you, like me, hesitated to adopt a resource that ought to be a good thing, but your own user experience with the technology hasn’t lived up to your expectations? Or maybe those of you who have installed a website or social media chatbot might like to improve the experience? If you’d like to refine the responses, visit the Frequently Asked Questions document, which is the knowledge base for the chatbot. You’ll be able to make edits there and the chatbot will integrate the new information in its responses. Below are enhancements you may want to incorporate as you work to optimize your company’s chatbot experience and facilitate user satisfaction, enhance the perception of your brand and drive sales.

Conversational tone preferred

Research has shown that up to 35%  of customers behave differently when interacting with chatbots, as compared to a human agent, because interacting with a machine feels less personal. Make your chatbot communications more personal and welcoming by programming the system to respond like a friendly and efficient human customer service agent. A conversational yet professional tone, appropriate expressions of empathy (“I’m sorry to hear that”) and giving other common responses that (“How does that sound?”) can encourage users to feel comfortable and trust their chatbot interaction, behaviors that contribute to a positive customer experience. Also, creating a human-like avatar and giving it a name makes users feel that your chatbot is more relatable and trustworthy.

Your chatbot can even “learn” to give understated compliments that can discreetly recommend purchases. In fact, many customers respond favorably to gentle endorsement of their choices (“Yes, this tie will look both fashionable and professional”) and up to 12.5% are inclined to accept chatbot purchasing recommendations. Still, be aware that attempting to make your chatbot too chummy by programming in what can be perceived as false flattery and a turn-off. Overly personal language triggers suspicion and makes customers feel manipulated. Keep the compliments fact-based, professional and aligned with the professional tone that customers expect from a chatbot.

Customers in a hurry want just the facts

Customers who are in a hurry, or those who are upset and feeling that expectations have not been met, just want to fix their problem, quickly and satisfactorily. Feelings of disappointment and frustration override the preference toward human-like chatbot responses. Research has found that dissatisfied customers were 23% less satisfied when met with conversational chatbot “empathy” when there is a problem to fix. At those times, customers prefer a straightforward, all-business chatbot interaction that is fast and efficient.

Furthermore, conversational responses can raise expectations and inadvertently heighten frustration if chatbot responses do not quickly and accurately produce problem resolution. It will be useful to program your chatbot to shift into all-business mode and respond quickly and clearly when frustration or urgency are detected. In high-stress situations, it’s better to not seem “human” at all.

Advertise accuracy

Advertising the potential benefits of using your chatbot is a good thing! Let visitors to your website or social media sites know that your chatbot is able to quickly and correctly answer questions and solve problems, save time and make accessing information easy. Broadcasting the likelihood of success generates the expectation of a positive experience, promotes trust in the chatbot and encourages customers and prospects to take a chance with your chatbot. Inviting website visitors to “try it, you’ll like it” can potentially increase chatbot engagement by up to 22%, according to a 2021 study.

This point was reinforced in another 2023 study of chatbot interactions that revealed when users engaged in identical conversations with human customer service agents and the chatbot, 8.5% reported they were less satisfied after using the chatbot. But when chatbot benefits were highlighted, for example, announcing 24/7 service availability, 37% of that same subject group reported they were more satisfied with the chatbot than with the slower, and less-available, human agents. Give your chatbot an enthusiastic endorsement and you’ll encourage its use.

Getting better all the time

The best way to improve the performance and acceptance of your chatbot is to help it get “smarter”. Research shows that users were up to 17% more likely to accept the chatbot’s suggestions when told that the chatbot is on a continuous learning curve and is not limited by a static algorithm that’s upgraded only intermittently. It seems a chatbot that’s “enrolled” in ongoing continuing education is favored over a presumably knowledgeable human customer service agent.

In other words, tell the world that your chatbot is always being improved with the ongoing addition of new information and user feedback. It’s like working with an enthusiastic young intern—users may be inclined to forgive occasional small errors and appreciate that each interaction will be better than the last. Without this explanation, some users might have limited confidence in this resource (perhaps a result of underwhelming, if not disappointing, chatbot experiences on other sites). Make the effort to optimize how your chatbot communicates by training the technology to deliver customer service that meets, or exceeds, user expectations. Finally, know that it is also important that human interaction should be available to your customers and prospects when they request it.

Thanks for reading,

Kim

Image: © Dzmitry Auramchik

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Find Your PR Sweet Spot

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Establishing the image of your business entity as a valuable and noteworthy presence in its marketplace, and also the community in which it operates, is a worthwhile goal for every business owner. Bringing attention to the distinctive qualities and contributions of your business entity confers respect and confidence and portrays your organization as deserving of your business. The actions that an organization takes to disseminate and manage strategically selected information about an organization (or individual) that is intended to achieve that goal is the function of public relations, and it is part of a company’s marketing strategy.

Marketing, along with its subspecialties, advertising and branding, are discrete methods of communicating with a company’s target customers; business owners typically create specific strategies to activate these segments. All of these processes will, ideally, work in tandem to deliver your company’s message to your target audience—define and establish the desired company image, promote company name recognition, generate and maintain the trust of current and prospective customers that distinguish your organization from its competitors—and encourage sales.

PR vs. marketing, branding, advertising

Communication is the core of marketing and all of its subspecialties. The role of marketing is to build awareness and encourage sales of the company’s products and services by using one or more promotional strategies—for example, email marketing, social media marketing, or content marketing. The role of public relations is to generate media exposure and promote name recognition for the company, with the intention of encouraging (positive) interactions with current and prospective customers and, ultimately, to amplify the renown and respect of the brand. 

The brand is the foundation of the company’s reputation and represents its essence. The role of the brand is to establish and maintain a compelling and memorable image for the company and its services and products; the brand reflects the attributes that differentiate your company from competitors. The brand is often supported by a story that articulates the business vision, mission and core values. The branding process typically entails the creation of a brand identity, a personality and a perception, for your company and its services and products that will define how you would like current and prospective customers to feel about the company when they encounter or interact with its name and/or logo.

The role of advertising is to promote the sale of company services and products by using images, audio, and/or text promotions that a company pays to have featured in print or (audio or visual) digital media outlets that are followed and trusted by the company’s current and prospective customers, with the intention of increasing awareness and encouraging sales.

Media exposure and name recognition

As noted above, the function of public relations is to advance company name recognition and media exposure by facilitating mentions in selected media outlets, for the purpose of cultivating and maintaining a positive image. PR is meant to amplify the brand image by providing exposure (publicity) that presents positive and compelling information about the company that is intended to encourage engagement, customer loyalty and, ultimately, sales.

PR is utilized to give the brand a flattering shout-out that is featured in media channels and outlets familiar to and respected by target customers, professional peers and the community in which the company operates. PR is about creating buzz for your business, to pique the curiosity of current and potential customers and motivate them to experience a positive reaction toward your company.

PR’s principal strategy is storytelling and it’s up to you to shape your PR topic, images, text and narrative to tell your story in a way that achieves your goal. To maximize its effectiveness, design your PR to grab attention and capture the interest of the audiences you want to know about your company (and you). Those who encounter your company’s PR might even become interested enough to visit your website or social media platforms to learn more, or get an update, about your company.

So what does PR mean in real time?

There are about a half dozen subspecialties of PR that businesses commonly use, for example public affairs and crisis communications, but Freelancers and owners of small businesses are mostly interested in media relations as a way to obtain third-party credibility for their company when target customers, along with your professional peers and also the general public, might find positive news about the company supplied by an unbiased source.

Freelancers and SMB owners might consider launching a media relations PR strategy by leveraging your professional knowledge and experience to propose yourself to media outlets as an expert source. An expert source is a knowledgeable source who is invited to provide a quote that is included in an article or segment featured in a print, visual, or audio medium. Serving as an expert source is a desirable opportunity and is usually accessed by way of a relationship with a journalist or editor.

You might be able to initiate media relationship by simply telephoning or emailing business editors or authors of business articles at your preferred outlets. Be advised that Freelancers or SMB owners will be more likely to find success by approaching smaller media outlets. Perhaps an even better tactic can be used by those who place paid advertisements in those media outlets. A savvy and proactive move would be to reach out to your contact in the advertising department and ask for a referral to the business editor or the right journalist. The gatekeepers of most media outlets are likely to look favorably on an advertiser who also has the credentials to serve as an expert source on business topics.

Now when you have a potential story, meaning an announcement or other information that the media outlet’s readers may be interested in, the standard practice is to create and send a press release to initiate contact with your targeted media outlets. Your press release has two functions—first, to clearly and succinctly detail the who, what, when, where and why of your info and second, to initiate the process of cultivating media relationships.

Before you send your press release, confirm the media outlets to approach by telephoning or emailing the business editor and asking if there may be an interest in your story. No editor or journalist is interested in a story unless they feel the story will resonate with their readers or viewers. If you get the greenlight, then quickly follow-up by sending your press release. In a day or two, reach out to confirm receipt of your press release and ask again how the editor/journalist feels about the relevance of your information or announcement.

Yet another PR strategy, albeit one that will entail an investment of several hundred to several thousand dollars, is to campaign for a local, or national, business award. Organizations typically have many categories that provide multiple pathways to winning award. As is demonstrated by the music industry Grammy Awards and the movie industry’s Academy Awards, receiving an award is nearly always considered newsworthy by media outlets. If you’ve got a great client list and/or your sales revenue is solid, you may want to consider this option.

Access your PR sweet spot

  • Earned (unpaid) media PR exposure can be obtained by giving a quote to a media outlet that covers your area of expertise. Register with Help A Reporter Out (HARO), a service that connects journalists with expert sources has resumed operations after a brief closure. Invitations to give a noteworthy quote that addresses the requested subject are selected on a first-come, first-served basis can set you onto your path to amplifying your credibility and could open the door to additional PR opportunities. Stay close to your email.
  • If your budget allows, consider paid media exposure, perhaps by campaigning for a business or industry award that can be utilized to launch a PR campaign. If you win any level of recognition, you’ll be able to include the good news on your website and social media platforms, along with sending press releases to media outlets and channels that your current and prospective customers, as well as your professional peers, follow. From your local chamber of commerce to the Stevie Awards for business, nearly every award, local or global, is a reliable pathway to good PR.

Thanks for reading,

Kim

Image: ©Carl Mydans/Life Magazine. Actress Carole Lombard (1908-1942) and her husband, the actor Clark Gable (1901-1960), attend a movie premiere in Hollywood, CA (1936).

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Email Marketing is Evergreen

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Still known for the impressive return on investment (ROI) it delivers to users, evidenced by its ability to deliver personalized content that’s tailored to customer preferences as well as the ability to drive conversions, including customer purchases, more effectively than just about any other marketing channel, including social media. The evergreen marketing tool that is email marketing is the gift that keeps on giving. The strategy is a multi-purpose marketing tool that business owners and marketing managers are known to rely on when the goal is to develop and nurture customer relationships and initiate engagement that promotes brand loyalty, repeat business and customer referrals.

Email marketing is expressed in more formats than may immediately come to mind—it can be more than the basic email letter that clutters an inbox and is often deleted. Email marketing also refers to blogs and newsletters that recipients opt-in to receive, plus a range of other communications intended to deliver all manner of business information, such as service or product updates or special offers and personalized greetings, from holidays to customer birthdays. Not only that, marketing emails are also a convenient and effective way to invite customer feedback that gives business owners and marketers insights into what they’d like to see more of, or less of, in your products, services and operational practices. So—how does your company use emailing to carry out your marketing strategies?

Email is a familiar and well-accepted method of communication—in fact, your customers compose and send emails themselves. To maximize the effect of email marketing campaigns, marketers are recommended to create emails that amplify the message and persuade recipients to open, read and in some instances, save your emails—but never delete without reading. Because most people receive many emails every day, the first order of business is to make your emails stand out in a crowded inbox.

To grab customer attention and entice recipients to open and read your email, attach a subject line that recipients will find irresistible. You can also decide to shock or amuse recipients by crafting a provocative or unexpected subject line that promises to deliver surprising information. Subject lines that contain a relevant statistic, whether predictable or shocking, also make particularly alluring email subject lines.

Ideally, the email subject line functions as a “hook” that causes the recipient to linger for a few brief seconds and wonder—Is reading this email worth my time? Smart marketers have discovered that they can further enhance the perceived value of their emails by including a follow-up line of preview text that can further arouse curiosity or confirm that the topic is a priority for the recipient. Below are four components that build an outline for your emails and organizes the presentation of your content in a way that helps recipients quickly understand the purpose and relevance of your information:

  1.  The subject line is crafted to grab recipient attention. The right subject line substantially improves the success of email open rates. Research shows that recipients open emails featuring a subject line perceived as relevant. Almost half of all email opens rely on that first impression.
  2. Hold your recipient’s attention with a preview text teaser that contains approximately 10 words. Subject lines matter when you want your email recipients to notice, value and read your message. The The second line preview text will appear immediately beneath the main subject line in the email inbox. Do not ignore the importance of the preview text; it is an extra hook, especially for users checking email on mobile devices (and about 50% will do exactly that).
  3. The message content should maintain the recipient’s enthusiasm. Compose your information to communicate relevance and trust as it guides the recipient through your content’s message. Be sure to compose message content to convey your marketing strategy by aligning the themes presented in your blogs, newsletters, informational and relationship building emails.
  4. CTAs are crafted to persuade email recipients to take action on an offer by responding to your call to action. The CTA literally shows readers of your content what they should do next. In return, the reader will receive a benefit, which might be a free 30-minute consultation with you or one of your team members to clarify how your products or services can provide solutions they need, or maybe an opt-in to subscribe to your blog or newsletter, or maybe to receive a free e-book. Whatever the purpose of your CTA, make the benefit that recipients will receive one that is likely to be considered worthwhile. BTW, you will grow your mailing list when there is a response to your CTA because responding entails providing contact info, at minimum, recipient name and email.

Now—in addition to the marketing emails that you currently send, what other kinds of emails might you send to communicate marketing messages that can make your marketing campaigns more effective? Below are email strategies that might enhance your marketing goals.

A/B testing

How can you learn which subject line works best with your customers? Or do certain subsets of your target audience respond differently depending on how your subject line or other aspects of your message are phrased? You can find out who’s who by sending out two variations of an email to different segments of your audience to see which performs better. By testing elements such as subject lines, email layouts and call-to-action buttons, you can continually refine your approach to improve response and results.
Test two different subject lines to see which one yields a higher open rate and/or compare the response generated by two different email layouts in terms of click-through rates.

Automated campaigns

Marketing automation ensures that your marketing emails are actually sent at your preferred time. For certain messages, notably blogs and emails, you want recipients to look forward to hearing you at a certain time (like Tuesdays at 11:00 AM Eastern!). Further, a marketing automation system will ensure, for example, that welcome emails are sent in a timely fashion to new or returning customers. You also want to guarantee that emails sent as part of customer onboarding, special occasion or holiday greetings are likewise sent within your preferred timeframe—and you don’t necessarily want to rely on your memory to manually perform these functions yourself. Instead, setting up automated marketing campaigns to ensure that you maintain a consistent communication with subscribers, nurture leadgen and customer relationships without manual effort as you reinforce the dependability and professionalism of your brand.

Drip campaigns

Drip campaigns involve sending a series of emails automatically, based on pre-determined timelines of your choosing or they are triggered by certain user actions. Have you ever searched a certain business or category and then received an email a few minutes later from the very business you searched, or from a local business within that search category? If so, you’ve experienced a drip marketing campaign. Drip marketing campaigns are excellent for encouraging leads because they respond to your immediate need or inquiry with the siren song of instant gratification.

Interactive emails

Incorporating interactive elements such as polls, surveys, or clickable content can increase user engagement. Interactive emails are more likely to captivate subscribers, encouraging them to interact with your content and brand—for a minute or two. for example, you might a three or four question survey to learn of or confirm what your customers find most appealing about your organization, or learn what they’d like to see more, or less, of to gauge customer satisfaction and preferences.

Integrating with social media

Enhance your email marketing by integrating it with your social media strategy. Encourage your email subscribers to follow you on one or more of your social media platforms, and vice versa, to create a cohesive brand experience. This strategy can expand your reach and strengthen your online presence.
Foe example, you might include in social media posts a line or two of an upcoming blog or newsletter post, as a teaser.

Re-engagement campaigns

Aimed at lapsed subscribers, that is, previously active subsrcibers who are now inactive, these campaigns are designed to recapture their interest and where possible, to also learn the cause of the disengagement. This could involve sending special offers, updates about new services and/ or products, or simply asking for feedback on why they are no longer active customers. Their responses can offer valuable insights for future improvements. Devising a concise survey email that asks open-ended questions that give lapsed customers or subscribers the opportunity to give feedback that expresses what for them what was lacking or unsatisfactory, whether content to which they subscribed, as in a newsletter or blog, or an aspect of doing business with your organization.

User-Generated Content: reviews and testimonials

Showcasing content created by your customers, for example, reviews or testimonials, can significantly enhance the credibility of your brand. When you include UGC in certain of your promotional marketing emails, that can not only engage readers, but also provide social proof that encourages them to try your products or services and as well, enhance your brand’s authenticity.

Thanks for reading,

Kim

Image: Winged Mercury special delivery stamp issued in 1954.

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Lasting Client Relationships Help Your Business Thrive

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Freelance professionals and all business owners and leaders understand that they must periodically calibrate (and re-calibrate) their business entity so that it will be positioned to survive and thrive. While evaluating the potential success of growth strategies that appear to be capable of building a client list that enables you to achieve your revenue goals, do not overlook this basic business growth strategy—establishing good client relationships.

Good client relationships are foundational to the development of a healthy business and typically result in a potent client list, robust repeat business, consistent referrals and a low client churn rate. Implementing inbound and outbound marketing strategies in order to energize revenue is always necessary, but the process is usually time-consuming and by that metric alone, is expensive.

Recognize that you can enhance the value of your client list quantitatively, by adding more names, and simultaneously follow a qualitative approach to building the roster, when you prioritize the development of good client relationships. Establishing positive relationships with clients is a savvy marketing strategy that can play a supporting role in growing the number and quality of your active clients. Client relationships can support conditions that encourage client loyalty, repeat business and referrals, while simultaneously discouraging client churn. That the process of retaining clients and persuading them to continue doing business with your organization can be influenced by good relationships is so fundamental it is sometimes overlooked.

Beneficial client relationships are built on trust that’s born of the fulfillment of expectations (e.g., excellent project work and timely invoice payments), as well as transparency, communication and collaboration. More like partnerships than the usual transactional agreements between clients and vendors, clients with whom you’ve established a good relationship provide stability, inspire creativity and drive innovation that results in project outcomes that often exceed expectations. Below are qualities and practices that promote the development of beneficial client relationships that will pay dividends to both you and your clients.

1. Agreements, specifications and contract

It is a given that good client relationships begin with ethical and transparent business practices that are introduced during the initial project or product discussions between yourself and the client. Project specs or desired product solutions govern work agreements and performance milestones. Project contracts or sales agreements are intended to facilitate a smooth and productive collaboration and ensure that both the client’s interests and your interests are fulfilled. The quality of these discussions is integral to the establishment of creating good client relationships and transparency is key.

2. The customer experience

The quality and consistency of the customer experience your organization delivers is another building block of beneficial client relationships. The fact is, when your organization delivers an end-to-end efficient and satisfying customer experience, those with whom you do business will be happy to see more of you. When you (and your team) make it possible for clients to trust your expertise, professionalism, integrity and ability to meet or exceed expectations, you’ll be on your way to establishing mutually rewarding client relationships that can bring both tangible and intangible rewards to your organization (and the client’s).

As you shape the customer experience your company presents, be aware that “thank you” is a powerful word in every language. Saying “thank you” to your client for doing business with you shows appreciation and everyone likes someone who appreciates them. “Thank you” has the power to nurture and sustain positive relationships.

3. Communication and collaboration

You can build lasting, mutually beneficial relationships by facilitating good communication with your clients. Regular communication is integral to supporting collaboration, enabling innovation and producing outcomes that will likely meet, and may exceed, the client expectations. Honest and ongoing communication is crucial to gaining client confidence; be certain to keep your clients fully apprised of the project’s progress, challenges, or changes. Regular updates and transparent reporting demonstrate accountability, promote cooperation and enable proactive problem-solving that drives successful results.

As well, keep in mind that while technology enables communication at any time or any place, it cannot replace the value of face2face communication. When scheduling client meetings, suggest in-person chats whenever possible, as a way to encourage a good relationship. The Harvard Business Review reports that 95% of business leaders believe in-person meetings are essential for building stronger, more meaningful relationships. Alternating meetings between the client’s preferred location and your own shows consideration and empathy, attributes that are also integral to relationship-building. Keep in mind that business decisions are often influenced by personal relationships.

4. Listening and empathy

Effective listening is a cornerstone of relationship-building and good relationships are the foundation of business and diplomacy. Active listening is a demonstration of empathy and respect, and it builds trust. The ability to listen effectively is a valuable leadership skill and despite appearances, listening is active, not passive, and requires the listener to be fully present. When you invite your client to share information ask questions and perhaps brainstorm ideas, you validate his/her priorities and concerns and demonstrate your commitment to the development of a positive, long-lasting relationship.

Empathy allows you to see the world through the eyes of others and listening is a crucial enabler of the process.  Empathy helps you to effectively comprehend your client’s feelings, aspirations and challenges. Clients who feel as if they are understood will also feel that they are valued, making them more likely to become and remain loyal to your organization and more likely to reward you with repeat business and referrals. 

5. Flexibility and patience

Beneficial relationships rely on flexibility and patience. For example, there may be times when your client must grapple with unexpected challenges, such as time line changes or budget constraints. In these situations, your willingness to be adaptable and propose alternative approaches to meet revised client needs will demonstrate your commitment to the project and his/her organization, promotes trust and is likely to significantly strengthen the relationship.

Thanks for reading,

Kim

Image: © Skynesher for Getty Images.

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Crisis Communications: Monitor and Defend Your Online Presence

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Managing the online presence and reputation of a brand, whether personal or company, is no longer considered mere vanity or over-reaching micromanagement. Regular tracking and review of all content that pertains to your organization and shows up in searches—its services and products, the company itself and its leaders—including AI-powered searches, is now recognized as a necessity. Vigilant and consistent monitoring of information that appears online about your company and you, as the principal of your Freelance consulting practice or fractional executive, owner/leader of a traditional business, small or large, or not-for-profit organization executive, can be viewed as an aspect of risk management strategy.

It is imperative for all business owners and leaders to carefully shape and defend their brand’s online image and ensure that all information presented is accurate and leaves viewers of your content with a positive impression, meaning, a portrayal that encourages credibility and trust.

Unflattering or outright negative content associated with your brand, as well as inaccurate info, has the potential to undermine or damage your organization’s credibility. It is therefore highly recommended that Freelancers and other business owners and leaders regularly assess all AI-generated and online mentions of their company and personal brand and verify the accuracy of the information found.

Take control of your online presence

Integral to a comprehensive marketing campaign is building a digital presence that illustrates the competence and credibility of the organization. Online reputation management is essential to defending that carefully curated image, whether you maintain a solopreneur consulting practice, operate a small company, or lead a national or multi–national conglomerate. Failing to take defensive action and waiting until negative content has become an embarrassing crisis may cause an unfortunate outcome that stains your own or your company’s reputation.

Inspection tours are the how you’ll discover inaccurate information and/or negative content. Inspecting the search engines is Step One of your mission to defend and, if necessary, correct online information pertaining to you and your organization. Learning where and how to locate, edit, or suppress content that is untrue or unflattering is the most important step of restorative crisis communications activity. Proactive monitoring and strategic content creation will be central to maintaining control of your online image. The presence of negative content, which may include customer reviews and other user-generated content, can have a direct effect on company reputation and sales revenue: Approximately 94% of customers report that a negative merchant review on a review site persuaded them to avoid doing business with that merchant.

Step Two of your brand defense is the actual defensive action, where you may simply update information to correct what appears sites like Yelp or Google. More thought and time will be necessary if you discover content that is inaccurate and perhaps also misleading; in these cases, you may decide that a substantive reset of your brand narrative is in order. Your best defensive action will be to create and publish relevant, high-quality content that is capable of enhancing your online authority and burying the harmful content by pushing it further down in search rankings.

Google search operators

Re: your search engine inspection tours in most cases, a Google or Bing search of the brand will surface a comprehensive list of brand mentions. However, a more thorough search might locate additional content that you can review and if you discover incorrect information or harmful material on less popular search engines or on online communities, you can explore how to make corrections and/or counteract negative content with a post or two that displays your authority and integrity.

To take a deeper dive and search for potentially harmful content that might otherwise go unnoticed., you’ll be pleased to find that Google’s search capabilities extend far beyond entering a name into the search bar to see what appears. Dipping into advanced search operators will broaden your scope and, if it exists, may help you to locate negative content that does not appear in a traditional search.

To find what may be hiding in the shadows, launch an exact match search by placing your name in quotation marks (e.g., “John Smith” or “The Best Company”) to specify search results to that unique name and eliminate unwanted mentions. To further refine search results, you can exclude irrelevant pages using the minus sign. for example, searching for “The Best Company” -Instagram removes Instagram results and help your mission to dig up potentially damaging content pertaining to your brand that may be posted on less visible sites.

Furthermore, a site-specific search can help when you suspect that a particular domain features negative information about your brand. Typing the site domain address, followed by a colon and your company name will produce only results from that chosen site. It is also useful to search variations of your name, for example, “J. Smith” or “Best Company;” — subtle changes could possibly bring up mentions that do not appear in the traditional searches.

Set-up Google Alerts for ongoing monitoring

It is wise to be vigilant and regularly monitor your name online, to prevent damage before it spreads. Google Alerts is a free tool that notifies you whenever new content is indexed and includes your name. To get started, visit Google Alerts and enter your full name and company name along with relevant variations (e.g. “Jane Smith” or “Jane K. Smith”). Use quotation marks to ensure your alert captures the exact phrase. Then click “show options” to select how frequently you’d like to receive alerts —the “as-it-happens” option is best for reputation management. Set alerts to receive notification of name mentions and be sure to correct inaccuracies and gratuitously negative content. Counteract what is negative with relevant and compelling content that can potentially suppress unflattering narratives.

You can also filter alerts by geographic location and type of content, such as blogs, news articles, or discussions. Finally, enter your email address to start receiving updates. These alerts act as a digital early warning system. You’ll know immediately if a new piece of content starts gaining traction — giving you time to prepare a response or counter-strategy. Staying visible online requires more than awareness — it demands consistency and strategy.

  • Monitoring social mentions and online discussions

Negative content is known to more frequently begin on nontraditional search engines. Social media platforms, forums and blog comments can amplify by way of the metaverse effect and damage to your brand image can spread quickly—even as it never appears in traditional search results.

To really scrutinize your online presence, investing in the services of a social listening site such as EmbedSocial or AgoraPulse will detect online conversations that mention your name and your company name across blogs, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, media outlets and more. Social listening platforms also provide sentiment analysis, an excellent feature that distinguishes between harmless chatter and attacks on your brand reputation. Most social listening platforms are a paid service but if a free solution will be more appropriate for you at this time, consider Talkwalker Alerts (by HootSuite). Incidentally, Talkwalker provides more extensive web and social listening coverage than Google Alerts and is easy to integrate into your workflow.

Finally, make a point to investigate online communities like Reddit and Quora. These platforms typically feature informal discussions and some have been known to quickly go viral. Get your investigation started with a targeted search— reddit.com:The Best Company to uncover mentions that might not appear on Bing or Google. Knowing what’s being said about you when you’re not in the room lets you know who your friends are and also gives you the opportunity to respond with a brand image defensive strategy.

Thanks for reading,

Kim

Image: © Behnaz Farahi. Gaze to the Stars, an installation created by Behnaz Farahi, Assistant Professor at the MIT Media Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, MA. Gaze to the Stars was displayed on the MIT Great Dome December 2024-March 2025.