Marketing Tip 

Cutting Through the Noise So You Can Be "Well Heard" 

  by Diane Eble

Nobody has to tell you that you can hardly do anything or go anywhere without being bombarded with messages—mostly someone trying to sell you something. 

I did some research on just how many such messages we encounter on average. The stats are all over the map (click here to read the sources), but the figure that keeps floating to the top is around 3000.  

Most of us have become quite adept at tuning out most of those messages. 

The trouble is, if you're an author or business person, you have a message of your own you want people to hear.  

You know YOUR message is important. Your message deserves to be heard. 

But look at the competition!  

So, how can you ensure that YOUR message will be "well heard"? 

The Secret to Being "Well Heard"

One word provides the answer: Context. 

People will listen to you if you provide the right context for them to really hear your message. 

Test this for yourself. 

Which messages in your email inbox do you actually read? 

Aren't they the ones from a friend? The name provides the context for your wanting to receive the message. 

Or perhaps it's the subject line that grabs you. That is the context—you know that the topic will interest you. 

Well, you have to do the same thing for others if you want them to listen to you. You need to continually find ways to create a context, or the frame, that orients them to the rest of what you want them to hear. 

But you don't want people to just listen to you once, do you? You want them to come back to your blog, to keep reading your emails, to listen to your teleseminars. To buy your book, course, product or service. 

Creating Community

To do that, you need to create a community.

Virtual Communities are more possible now than ever before. You can have people from all over the world in your community. 

The trick is not only how to get their attention in the first place, but how to design an interesting place for them to go visit and want to stay for a while. 

Better yet, not only stay, come back again, but invite their friends to come visit, too. 

As an author, you want to be thinking about building a community. A group of followers. You as an author are leading a tribe of people who resonate with your ideas. (For more on this, see my article, "The Real Job of an Author.")

Or, you could look at it as creating a Virtual Village.  

In the state of Washington, there's a town called Levenworth that is designed to be a Bavarian village. The food, festivals, shops, mostly have a Bavarian theme, as if you were in an Alpine village. That's the context of the town, and it attracts people who want a taste of that kind of experience. 

When your Virtual Village has a clear "theme," and people know what to do when they get there, they're more likely not only to visit once, but come back—and tell their friends. 

So as you think through how YOU want to be "well heard" above the crowd, think about the different ways you can not only create a context for people to really hear you, but also what kind of community you want to build. 

Next Step: 

For more specifics on how to create both context and community, I invite you to listen to the May 28 "Design Your Village" Pre-class call with Russell Cox (Bonnie Dubrow and I also added our thoughts). You can listen to that, plus find out more about how to "design your village," at www.designyourvillage.com.