My colleague, Diana Schneidman of StandUp8Times has great advice for leaving a voice message that is concise and gets your point across.

Diana helps freelancers and independent contractors find work opportunities but her advice is helpful and application to anyone who uses the phone to request someone’s time and attention.

Article: How to Leave an Effective Voice Mail Message
by Diana Schneidman, StandUp8Times

When you start telephoning for assignments, you will find that many (or even most) of your calls will roll over to voice mail (or answering machine).

Some “experts” recommend hanging up and trying again later. They call repeatedly until they talk to a live person and believe that not leaving voice mails makes them less of a pest.

Instead, I recommend leaving a message . . . always!

If you have something important to say–and you do, or else you wouldn’t be calling!–go ahead and say it.

Your message is an important opportunity to explain what you do and inform a potential prospect of your services.

With today’s communication overload, most business people don’t return voice mails that do not clearly identify the caller and the reason for the call.

In fact, most people don’t return clearly identified calls either. Still, they may listen to the whole message and save your name and phone number for future use even if they don’t return your call today.

I’ve been called back years after my initial phone call. I’ve even had my information passed on to other companies on the basis of only a voice mail message.

And if you don’t leave a message, they certainly won’t call back!

Leaving a message helps people who need your help

Our fundamental marketing belief must be that we offer an important service and we only contact people who may be in the market for this service at some time. Therefore, neither our voice mail message nor our emails are spam in any sense of the word.

Those people who are interested want to know as much as possible. Friends on whom we test our messages always say the shorter, the better, but that’s because they are not interested in the same way our prospects are.

We are helping people, not wasting their time. So let’s leave a long-enough message. Mine typically run at least 60 seconds. Some close in on two minutes unless the technology cuts me off. (That’s why you start with your name and phone number.)

Here is a template for your phone script

1. Give your name and phone number, slowly and clearly.
2. Tell them where you got their name if you have something relevant to say (such as being a fellow member of a professional organization).
3. Explain what you do, emphasizing clarity over cute or sizzle. (Everyone has a passion for whatever they do and contributes to the bottom line. So what?)
4. Refer them to the email you are sending right now (if you have the email address) or give your website, again, slowly and clearly so they can actually visit it.
5. Say you would welcome the opportunity to discuss their [fill in the niche] needs.
6. Conclude by repeating your name and phone number, slowly, and wrap up the message.

Here is a sample voice mail message

This sample message is from my prospecting days as a freelance writer / marketing researcher specializing in insurance and asset management.

Hi, Jim, this is Diana Schneidman at 555.555.5555 in the Chicago area. I am calling you as a fellow member of the Society of Insurance Research. I am a CLU and a CPCU, and I write marketing research reports for companies such as yours, using either your survey data or by conducting my own print, Internet and interview research. I’d welcome the opportunity to discuss if my services may benefit your organization. Meanwhile I am emailing you a brief message that explains what I do with links to my website. Again, this is Diana Schneidman at 555.555.5555. I hope we can talk soon. Have a great day.

A nifty-ola idea for helping customer fans spread the word about your work.

Authors Jack Covert and Todd Satterson inserted a couple ready to mail postcards into their book, The 100 Best Business Books of All Time,  so readers who liked the book could easily recommend it to others.

To give readers more incentive to use them, the postcards are fun and a little cheeky.

I like this idea because it’s:

• a win-win-win (for the author, the referring customer, and the person who gets the referral)
• fun (too much heaviness in business these days)
• viral in the best sense of the word

Read the Andy Sernovitz’s complete post here.

I love information products and what they can do for professional service providers. Not only do they allow you to leverage what you know into passive revenue, but they allow you to serve a far larger audience.

But so many information products out there are poorly written, hard to understand, data dumps.

How do you make sure your product one your customers will praise (versus bury).

Click here to read the the 4/08 Contagious Marketing ezine.

As a small business marketing “expert”, I make it a point to collect ideas that:

1. Are inexpensive (easily fit in a small business budget)
2. Will create positive interest
3. Are fun and unexpected

Points one and two are the definition of a good guerrilla marketing tactic. Point three is my own. I believe actions done to delight (rather than impress) gives marketing a special edge that most competitors miss.

Here’s one that showed up in my inbox today that I really liked from DeMarr Zimmerman of Sendoutcards.

“If you are getting this email, I officially give you the “Brownie Challenge”.

Here is what the challenge is

Think of a name. Yes! Right now! Whoever comes to mind, go straight to your Sendoutcards account and send them a box of brownies.

Our # 1 goal is to help you send an unexpected gift TODAY and make someone feel great!”

Sendoutcards is a service that allows subscribers to create and send personalized cards by mail as well as gift products such as the brownies DeMarr mentioned. If you’re not a Sendoutcards member, there are tons of alternatives such as:

• A book or CD from Amazon.com
• Fresh fruit from HarryandDavid.com
• Cookies, brownies, and other treats from the mrsfields.com
• A one of a kind mug or T-shirt from cafepress

One Important Point: you are not trying to sell anything. Try to sell something or get them to do something and it won’t work. The most effective sales and marketing tactics come when you’re giving without the condition that you must get something in return.

Try it!

1. Think of a name. Yes! Right now! Whoever comes to mind,
2. Go to amazon.com or harryanddavid.com or another favorite site, and
3. Send them a small gift along with a “thinking of you” card or note.

Repeat each week or every other week or once a month. Whatever your budget allows.
See what happens.

I think you’ll be amazed by the results.

Last Thursday I had coffee with Joan Schlaefer of Gift to It!. Joan refers to her business as offering “client appreciation services” and that resonates with me because I think one of the most important marketing activities we can do as business owners is to let clients know what their business means to us.

It’s also something that falls through the cracks for most business owners. It does for me.

Joan knows this and it’s the reason she started Gift to It. She told me most smart business owners understand the importance of saying “thank you” but rarely follow through. And if they do follow through, they are inconsistent.

Another issue for a lot of business owners is the expense of giving gifts. They balk at the idea of sending customers a $25 gift saying that “they can’t afford that.” Joan looks at it differently:

“Let’s say you divide your clients up into 3 groups: A, B, and C in order of importance to your business. Now, if you send your “A” clients four $25 gifts a year, that’s $100 a year. That’s less than $1 a day. If you think about repeat business from your best customers as well as referrals, isn’t it worth $100 per year to say “thank you” so that these folks feel appreciated?”

“Now some people will argue that they would get the business regardless of whether they send a gift or not and that may be true. But, when you send someone a gift that shows you truly thought about them as human beings, nothing has a more positive effect. I hear recipients say things like, ‘they didn’t have to do that,’ but the fact that they did, makes a huge positive impression.”

I often view marketing as activities you do to improve the odds of getting selected. I don’t mean this in a cold or manipulative way. But marketing consists of doing a lot of small, positive things that have a cumulative effect in the mind of your prospect. Add enough relevant value over the course of a year, and if the propect truly needs what you offer, they will buy from you.