The Key to Conversion: Listening! 

The other day in the gym, while I was pumping away on the elliptical machine, I was reading an article by Dr. Phil from a recent issue of O, The Oprah Magazine. The article was on the rules of talking and listening. Rule #5 was entitled “Be An Active Listener” ­and this rule especially captured my interest. In the discussion of this rule, Dr. Phil mentions psychologist Carl Rogers who developed something known as the “Reflection of Content.” Reflecting a speaker’s content, according to Dr. Phil, means that you listen to the person, then you give him or her feedback that makes it clear you’re receiving the factual message. Dr. Phil goes on to give an example of how someone can get the information but miss the message. As I read this over, I thought to myself, “Wow, this is the whole key to conversion!”

Don’t Miss the Message…

I think we’ve all seen our share of newsletters that have become a podium from which companies do nothing else but preach their corporate speak. How interesting are they for the readers? They could get that information from the corporate web site!  And these kinds of newsletters do absolutely nothing for converting a suspect into a prospect or a prospect into a customer. 

Such newsletters are prime examples of companies who have missed the message because they have not taken the time to really listen to their customers. Their newsletter strategy is one that says “we know what’s best for our customers” or one that tries to pigeonhole readers into pockets that fit the company but not the reader. This type of attitude will get the company nowhere fast!

If the readers of your newsletter are going to buy from you, they need to know that you care. They need to know that you understand their pain and the challenges that they face in their everyday life as it relates to your product or service. They want to know that you know what keeps them up at night. 

The reality is that you can learn all this from your newsletter itself. Your newsletter offers you the perfect opportunity to “get the message.” By simply using newsletter analytics and other tools such as polling and surveys to listen to your subscribers, you’ll soon begin to “hear” what they are all about. You’ll learn what they’re reading (a.k.a. what is of most interest to them), where they spent their time (what’s important to them), and what their opinions are (or, what they’re concerned about in their everyday job). And guess what? With these factual messages under your belt, you’ll be well on your way to pulling your readers one step closer to a buying decision.

Giving Feedback That Matters

Once you get the message that your readers are sending you, you can start to give them feedback that says, “We’ve received your message!” Your feedback can be in the form of hard-hitting, informative articles that have content that is personalized, targeted, segmented, and just what they’ve asked for.

Primus, a leading provider of knowledge solutions and long-time customer of iMakeNews, gets this whole concept. They had a large database of suspects and prospects that they wanted to move along the buying chain. To do this, their strategy has evolved over time to include a monthly newsletter, personalized e-campaigns, and webinars. By doing this through iMakeNews, they were able to get valuable information about their readers at every stage of the game, which according to Paula Skartland, Marketing Manager at Primus, has helped them better understand their subscribers. “We use the iMakeNews analytics to monitor how we are doing and how well our message is breaking through,” says Paula, “and based on these findings, we’ve been able to fine tune our content and layout, which has improved readership, click-throughs, and success rates.”

Primus was listening and they got the message. And the payoff for their effort was huge. Start listening to your customers and you too can start converting your readers into buyers soon than you thought! 

Nancy Langmeyer is the principal of The Write Words, a copywriting service that helps companies convert suspects into buyers through the use of strategy, research, and creativity. For more information, email her at thewritewords@attbi.com or click here.