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Ah February, the month of hearts and valentines.

The heart is the most sensitive organ, and in February it is often depicted with an arrow stuck in it. A heart with a wound: piercing penetration of the most sensitive part.

Touch.

We prepare campaigns, design strategies, launch programs, and execute initiatives, but all of that Reach evaporates into thin air unless it hits the target, the heart. If and when it merges with its mark, the energy morphs from Reach into Touch. When Touch occurs, there’s no going back.

There’s no going back because the receiver has been impressed somehow; a memory has been made and will be carried forever. The heart has become involved, along with the mind. Touch has transformed the relationship from strangers to acquaintances.

With more Touch, the relationship deepens, to become a friendship and maybe a fan or even lover.

So how can business craft Reaches that reliably become Touches?

If you’re a small business (and perhaps this applies to the biggies, too), I suggest you think about how you yourself create relationships. If you like someone, how do you show them? If you share interests with someone, how do you talk to one another? If you respect someone, how do you treat them?

Say you are attracted to the girl who sells you coffee every morning. How do you get to know her better?
- What a beautiful day!
- You make the best lattes.
- What’s your name?
- Have you worked here for long?
- How are you doing today?

You get the idea.

The same sentiments can easily become your approach to potential customers. Here are the business equivalents of the above list:
- The outlook is good!
- We appreciate (something) about you. (Your great taste; your love of ___; your demand for excellence)
- Please tell us about you
- We reward loyal customers
- How can we best help you (surveys, A/B tests, focus groups, media)

Of course, this is only the beginning; the dialog continues from here. It may start out as a series of carefully written auto-responders, but at some point the communication will become more routine and simply trustworthy and comfortable for both parties. Person-to-person interactions will be possible and satisfactory, while usual business processes will take care of most needs.

In other words, backbone supporters, the core of your buyers, the tribe that enables your continued existence in business will self-identify if the dialog is honest and open from the beginning. If the Reach is compassionate and aware, the Touch will happen.

What ways have you been able to translate Reach into Touch?

A great many people are working in home businesses these days, while many of the baby boomer generation are transitioning to consultant work, and the economy’s continued sluggishness forces renewed creativity in the individual in the mere struggle to survive.

Self employment is a healthy alternative to joblessness, and one that helps build our collective future in important ways. Bottom line? When self-responsibility is emphasized, personal resources are identified, accessed, and put to work making a profit. Me and my job are no longer separable. Continue reading »

A fellow blogger on the Inbound Marketing University site just wrote about making marketing videos and I so related to his immediate admission that  it had taken him several years of  ”… trying to come out of my shell and getting the nerve to create videos” before he actually accomplished the task.

See, I’ve been struggling mightily over the past several days to finally create a video for my business and I sit here this morning and confess to you that I have once again failed.

Oh, I have the  camera and modest editing capabilities. I have an idea about what to say (actually, I have  a few ideas). But there remain a couple of fearsome barriers. Continue reading »

Ta da! Introducing a new blog thread for a new year. Let’s examine a word a week, and see if our success and satisfaction increase by adhering to a single theme over seven days. I’ll announce the word and discuss it briefly on Monday and then report back about its effectiveness late in the week.

Of course, this calls for great deliberation in word selection. No good using a word like ‘typing,’ because focusing on typing for a week would be regressive and boring. It needs to be challenging, even outside my comfort zone. Continue reading »

How exciting the New Year is! It’s a sorry person who doesn’t feel a shot of optimism as the year renews itself, turning towards longer days and the promises of spring, summer idylls and rich fall harvests.

We are suckers for hope, and rightly so. Belief conquers the placebo. If we think it will work, we greatly increase the chances of fulfilling that prophecy. Mind, in definite ways, overcomes matter. Continue reading »

Although I write copy of many different kinds, and coach, create business plans, write code and otherwise serve the project needs of clients, I’m struck by the fact that a good portion of my work involves keeping my clients in clear communication with their customers, associates, vendors, fans, etc. This might be understood as maintaining their public relations through the use of  language.

Clear communication here means several things: Continue reading »

Sitting on the high stool at Starbuck’s, heels hooked demurely on its crossbars and elbows light on the tall stand-up cafe table, my young octogenarian friend told me, “I’ve never been motivated by money. My parents … in my family, it was education. If you didn’t have education, you were nothing. Money didn’t matter so much.”

I call this lady ‘young’ because she bridges the decades with such easy grace. What a challenge to adapt through all the changes there have been since the 1930s! I should be so lovely and wise in my old(er) age. But the point here is that, even within her lifetime, our collective bottom-line in life has shifted in many ways. Continue reading »

It’s almost last call for 2012 business planning. I’ve been distracted by family matters and am coming late to the process. As I begin mulling over my existential being-ness in busi-ness, I’m affected by two posts of recent note.

Whenever a TED talk is highly recommended, I seek the time to read or watch it. The 18-minute nuggets are some of the finest learning available today. My latest TED grab is no exception. In it, Kathryn Schultz talks about regret as a prime motivation. Decrying what she calls our “Control-Z” (i.e., instant delete) culture, Schultz advocates making an ally of regret, letting ourselves fully experience it and allowing it to teach us to be better. As we make plans for the coming year, she suggests, take some time to consider what regrets linger from this past year, and build into our plans a few strategies for improvement. Continue reading »

As a solopreneur, I am aware of the fathomless gap between me and other kinds of businesses. The time and energy I expend on my business far, far outweigh that of most ‘normal’ employees, managers, and owners. There is no limit to the clear and present challenges, and there is no one to carry the responsibilities with me. There’s one person responsible for success or failure, one source of creativity and excellence, one department, one contact, one mastermind. Continue reading »

I email a brief newsletter to my list every other month. In each issue, I make some kind of special offer for subscribers only. These have included discounts on Facebook setups, or Twitter tutorials, or some such.

In my most recent issue, I offered to formulate a basic business brand, encompassing mission, website structure, and keywords – all for a ridiculously low price. I was willing to make the sacrifice because many a small business owner has no idea where to begin articulating their enterprise and describing its benefits to the market. Continue reading »