Being of Service IS Marketing

You’ve probably heard the standard advice, as I read yet again on a newsletter.  Call your local doctors offices, schools, tell them about you as a referral source.

For some it works.  For most therapists, not so much.

My son’s school newsletter is a fantastic example of being in service, but in a way that misses an important beat.  Let me walk you into the land that is my life:

I come home (when I’m in full-time work mode) to papers everywhere.  Mail, my sons folder, coupons awaiting disposal at the store when we buy stuff.

The kids are running around.

The kitchen floor is an anthropological walk into what the kids ate that day…minus whatever the cats licked up.

Dishes are all over (we do dishes at night, not throughout the day usually.)

Kids are hungry.

I’m wanting some counter space, either to actually food prep, or because it gives me great anxiety.

How do I clear the counter?  I read these papers and am pretty brutal, with the recycling bin close by.

When I look at the school newsletter it’s mostly so I don’t get the Bad Mom of the Year Award, missing important dates or events, or reminders not to send my kid to the school bus because it’s a teacher workshop day.

What do I find in this newsletter?

Great parenting, child development, health and safety information.

In small font.

All the words take up almost all the white space of the paper making me gasp, estimating how many minutes (and how much patience I don’t have) it would take to read it.

It’s general or geared to a different age, or a struggle we’ve not yet faced.  I feel zero personal connection with the author.

What do you think happens?

Recycle bin.

And I’m a total geek when it comes to learning anything parenting related.  Really, I’m that kid in class who listened attentively while all the others kids spaced out.  (Irony were the times I was the only one listening to a teacher lecture about kids not paying attention or behaving well.)

What’s going on?

You have awesome information.  You get that awesome information into a school newsletter.  Maybe you even get a website link as they credit you being a local expert.

The demographic of parents today are almost all unpaper fans.  We much prefer electronic means of communication.  We are busy.  We need information when we need it, not thrown at us in the midst of the dinner hour with a sticky floor.  And most importantly, we need to know, like, and trust you.  Otherwise you are just the 2,398th “parenting expert” we read in all our magazines, on our social media links, in our lives.  We end up caring more about clearing the clutter than reading your awesomeness.

What would crazy Elizabeth do and is planning on doing if I end up wanting to do more with kids, parents, families?  (And going into a marriage and family therapy graduate program, I’m thinking this interest will just get stronger!)

These are my first steps:

Connect with the school psychologist and school social workers – see if I can bring in their favorite lunch.  Learn their school, the needs of the population of parents.  I’d have already Googled them to learn everything I can about them so I don’t look like a goon asking them basic questions, or not knowing anything about them (like this is their second week on the job and they’re totally overwhelmed.)

I’d then do the same with the school secretary to learn his or her perspective.

And one more lunch to the school PTA president, even if it means driving across town to their work place!

In those conversations I would learn a TON because I’d be asking great questions, pulling out all the stuff they’re dealing with, their struggles, what has worked, not worked, and what, if they were given a magic pill, would be solved for them.  I’d end by asking if I could reconnect with them in a few weeks with some ideas of how I could be of service.  They’d say hell yeah.

I’d then do as much research as I can.  This would include learning about as many schools, what they do, reading their websites, hopefully finding out what events they have, any newsletters they have.  I’d do some soul searching on what my professional goals are, what I feel comfortable doing or offering potentially beyond “regular therapy”, and I’d be reviewing my website really seriously.

What next?  I’d figure out, based on what I learned in those great questions, the best place to exist online.  It could very easily be a Facebook fan page that is not branded specifically to MY name and ME being a therapist, but on them.  Something like Parenting in Minnesota (or whatever I ended up really thinking of doing.  A general name like this is great because I could serve many schools with the same fan page.)

Then I’d regroup with those lunch buddies, share my ideas, see what they thought was the best.  With their support, and their self-interest at center stage, I’d progress.

See what has just happened?

You are personally known (and liked, giving away free lunches!)   You’re on the radar as a giver to overworked people who are serving your demographic (the school parents and kids.)

You’ve built allies, built a focus group for your ideas, and have figured out some REAL pressures that you can address.  These may be completely unthinkable to you when you first step into the school, day one, to give lunch to the social worker.  Maybe a favorite student has cancer.  Or died.  Or there is a new curriculum and parents are really stressed out and could really use some good communication tools to both help their kids in the transition but also to help parents better talk to the school staff about their concerns.  Maybe the local economy is just really putting a drain on the families and you can offer any number of ways to help them manage.

Can you see how not only does this sound way more interesting, but more fruitful, less “sales/marketing” the way a cold call or letter feels like?   Obviously there are many steps I’ve not mentioned in here, everything from finding friendly alliances you may already have out there, building a website or online presence that easily gets people to give you their email so you can keep up with them, crafting a lot of pointed, good questions to ask, etc.  There is a lot more work involved than sending a letter they won’t read and praying they contact you.  And this all takes patience, optimism, energy, and being truly likable.

Let’s rewind my life with dinner chaos, clutter-removal, and the newsletter with your amazing parenting help.

I see your awesome, familiar face in the newsletter and I actually know you because you “exist” inside the school system in some way.  You’re freakin’ funny, cool, interesting, approachable, or I feel like you totally get the world I’m living in.  Maybe other parents have used your creative services (that go beyond a simple therapy hour) and the word is spreading.  You may have a really cool tagline that I resonate with immediately.

I may very well stop and read your stuff because I know, like, and trust you.  And if you had a Facebook page?  Hell yeah I’m going to “like” your fan page.  Give you my email so I can get insider information, or personal email-based consults?  Heck yeah.  Loving it.  Oh, and the info you shared on this newsletter?  It exists online so I can share it with my parenting friends, or the particular friend who I know could really benefit from your wisdom.

Now we’re marketing.  And now we’re being of service.

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How have you avoided your instincts to cold call or send “cold letters” and done something cool instead?  Any wisdom you can share?