I have started working on a large long term project that will culminate in my teaching a 4 module course on Email Marketing. The idea for the course and how I would market it started two months ago. At the time I thought it would be an easy thing to map out complete with goals, strategy, costs and time table. However, I have hit some snags and the planning itself is not going as smoothly as I assumed it would.
My bumps in the road are small but time consuming. They amount to my assuming I understood a process or a technology to achieve a particular task but when push came to shove, I am missing pieces or it no longer makes sense. I am a good student and accustomed to figuring stuff out rather quickly. Right now it is obvious that I need to do more homework in a few areas before I proceed with my project. I may even need to get some outside help.
The good side of this negative experience is that three concepts have become very clear to me. First, I am still learning about myself because once I think I know it all I am really in trouble! And two, I have a better understanding of the frustrations of some of the professionals and small businesses that I help develop an internet presence.
These folks are experts in their field. Their thinking is that their clients and customers NEED to know this or SHOULD know that because the information is valuable. For example, there may be an addition to the state’s tax code that impacts a client’s business. The business owner will pass that information to her bookkeeper and ask her accountant questions about whether should she lease or buy a larger building. That is what is keeping the business owner up at night: the business needs to expand and can she afford to purchase or does it make more economic sense to lease a bigger building. Right now she couldn’t care less about the new tax code.
This change in thinking is difficult for many professionals who spent years studying their area of expertise. It’s just as difficult for business owners to walk in their customers’ shoes, so to speak, rather than touting all the benefits that their service or product provides. If there’s no change in thinking the client is likely to be off to a competing internet site and the business owners and professionals extremely frustrated.
My third discovery is that I have to figure out a better way to tell my clients how the Internet works. For example, a Website Does Not Equal A Business.
More on explaining how the Internet works in my next post.
To your success online and offline,
Ruthan Brodsky
Copywriter and Content Marketer.
