3 top tips for planning communication
As a freelance business owner, sometimes it feels like your work is never done. There’s always another task on your ‘to do’ list that will take you towards your goal and simultaneously take up more of your time. Communicating about your work and how you help your clients can seem just another one of those tasks.
But although it takes time and effort, get communication right and it is one of the most powerful things you can do to succeed.
What does effective communication mean?
Effective communication is like playing a game of catch. I throw the ball, you have to catch it and, ideally, throw it back to me. If you drop – or dodge – the ball, then I’ve just thrown something at you and missed.
In the same way, if you send an email, issue a newsletter or post a reel on Instagram, but no-one views, understands or responds to it, then you haven’t communicated anything. You’ve just lobbed something and missed!
So here are 3 tips (plus a bonus) for ensuring that your communication is worth the time and effort.
Top Tip #1 – Be clear on why you are communicating
Before you put pen to paper, fingers to keyboard or mouth to presentation, you need to think about what you are trying to achieve.
How can your communication activity support the objectives and direction of your freelance business? For example:
Do you want to increase understanding of your service or product amongst your target customer base so that you get more orders?
Or get more sign ups to your newsletter?
Or start conversations about your clients’ needs?
Whatever you’re trying to do, you need to know that from the start. Then you can think about what you need to say to get there.
Top Tip #2 – Understand your audience and their perspective
Think about who your audience for communication will be. Different groups will have different needs, so remember to list everyone you want to reach out to. Consider what motivates and engages them, as well as what they already know and/or understand about your topic.
These factors all have an influence on what you say and how you say it. Whether their previous experience of your subject has been positive, negative or indifferent, you are never starting from zero.
And, most importantly, remember that their experience may well be different from yours. Put yourself in their shoes, don’t just gaze across from your own perspective and through your own lens.
Top Tip #3 – Tell your story simply and in an engaging way
Make sure that you include the ‘so what?’ factor – give them a reason to care enough about what you are telling them to take action. Use the knowledge you have gathered whilst following tip 2 to make sure the reason is compelling to them and not just to you.
Keeping things simple can be difficult when the business is your baby and you know everything about it. Be tough and honest with yourself about the ‘need to knows’ and ‘nice to knows’. Only include the bits that will motivate your audience to do something.
Bonus tip – Listen more than you speak
Effective communication isn’t really about you, it’s about them. So make sure that you listen to your clients and potential clients. When they’re talking directly to you. When they’re talking about you. When they’re talking about something completely different that matters to them.
This will help you to recognise what they love about your service or product, what they’re not so keen on and what you could be offering to meet other needs they have.
Being a good listener is a great way to build and maintain relationships. Whether that’s listening in person to person situations or interacting and observing on social media.
And finally….
Being a freelancer, you have a wide network of fellow freelancers to learn from and offer support to. Communicating with others who experience the same highs and lows of business as you do is a joy. So remember to include engaging with freelancers on your comms to do list.
