Whether a small business owner, nonprofit, or large organization, a key piece of marketing communication is making sure everyone that wants to get in touch with you can. Whether it's to further the sale, provide you with information on a new marketing piece you're working on, or simply to say ?hi,? you should always give people multiple ways to contact you and your organization.

It's YOUR job to make contacting you easy for them. Not the other way around.

A colleague recently told me her sales went up dramatically when she added her fax number to her website. I was very surprised to hear this. I didn't have my fax number listed as contact information anywhere. (I hate hearing the fax machine go off in the middle of the night and don't like to give it out!). But she assured me it was true. Which got me thinking...

A lot of the copywriting I do involves working with doctors. I do marketing consultations and my copywriting projects often involve interviewing them. They are a large part of my target market. And, while email is my preferred method of communication, it's often not theirs. Some of them (not all) don't check their emails regularly. They would rather use the phone. I've learned this through experience and have worked around it. I prefer email hands-down. But that got me thinking again, some people may be more comfortable using a fax rather than phone or email. It's concrete; the sender oftentimes gets a confirmation that the fax went through, and if a signature is required -- there it is.

So, the moral of my story is to make it easy for your clients to get in touch with you. Everyone does not work the same way you do, whether that is by phone, email, fax or some other method. It's important to give people several options.

Make it easy for people to do business with you, not for you to do business with them.

Taking action is the only way to achieve goals

One of the items we talked about in my copywriting business-building teleseminar this week was taking action. You can think about great ideas, have big, elaborate dreams, but if you don't take action -- now -- nothing in your life will change. Your dream will never become a reality. Taking action is the only way you are going to get your business off the ground. Taking action is the only way you are going to get new clients. Taking action is the only way you are going to get noticed at your company and get promoted.

Think about what you want and how you are going to get it?all of the time.

It doesn't matter if your goals are personal or professional, setting your mind to the one main goal you want to accomplish will keep you focused on the outcome. You will constantly be on the lookout for ways to achieve that goal. Because it is always on your mind, you will be constantly brainstorming. Your mind will continually be looking for ways to take action on that goal.

You become what you think about. Focus on one item, your one goal. Make it extremely positive, NOT negative.

The next important thing, after thinking about your goal all of the time, is to take action. I try to do at least one action item a day. With three kids (four if you count my husband), a house to run and a growing business, it's easy for the day-to-day duties to suck up my time. It's easy for me to let life take over and not take proactive steps towards my goal.

So I decided long ago to do at least one item on my list each day. It can be a small item to move me toward my goal. It may be searching for a new journal to run some of my marketing articles. It could be working on a new product to sell, coming up with a topic for a new seminar. Some days I do much more than one thing, other days I barely squeak the one item in. But I can assure you, if you do at least one item, if you take one action every day, you will be closer to your goal than most people you know. And because you take action towards your goal you are much more likely to reach it than those who don't.

Copyright 2006 Kelly Robbins