Before we get into the questions that are no doubt burning in your mind, I’m going to make an analogy. You know how when you signed up with your cell phone provider or cable company, you probably did it online, or maybe you talked to someone.
Anyway, the sale is made, and after that, the vast majority of your subsequent interactions with this company are through tech support. The cell phone company has given the entire post-sales customer experience to tech support.
The lowest paid, lowest status, under-resourced, least-trained people in the company. Or maybe they aren’t even part of the company, maybe they’ve been outsourced.
What does this have to do with me?
I’m getting to that. What I’ve seen, is that elected officials do exactly the same thing. The election is over, the “sale” is made, and the subsequent constituent communication through the newsletter is handed over to a staffer, often an intern. The lowest paid, recent college grad, least trained person on the team. The post-sales communication in the form of the newsletter or emails has been treated exactly the way the phone company does it.
I have a social media presence. Isn’t that enough?
That’s great! Good for you and I hope it’s working. But there are plenty of people who won’t reach out to find your social media. Whereas with the newsletter, it just shows up.
So what? What’s wrong with my current newsletter?
I probably haven’t seen your newsletter, but given that most newsletters sent out by elected officials tend to follow the same template and tone, it probably doesn’t have much of a human voice, and it probably isn’t giving your constituents information in a way that engages them.
Why does this even matter?
Well, there’s two ways to think about it. One is that voters are craving authenticity, and they aren’t getting it from your newsletter. That means you’ve missed an opportunity to connect with them and engage them. Engaged constituents are more likely to give you money when you ask for it, and more likely to vote for you again.
They are also more likely to vote in general, and that’s what I want. I want more voter engagement, and you should, too. This one way to get it.
Why should we hire you to help?
That’s the question, isn’t it? I have been working at startups for years. They have a lot in common with working in a political office. Long days, teams that are too small. Constantly making trade-offs between proactive work and reactive work.
Also, I’ve run several tech support teams. My teams are not under-resourced or under-trained, and I can tell you that it makes a huge difference in how customers feel about the company.
I have a writing and editing background, and I’ve spent years writing emails to pissed off customers, turning their experiences around. I also worked for an enterprise social media company that taught its customers how to get them to evangelize and advocate for them.
AND, I am an extremely authentic communicator. Even people who don’t like me would say that. I think. I can teach you how to write that way also.
What is it like to work with you?
So fun!
Actually, it depends. Ideally I would meet for about 30 min with the person the newsletter is supposed to be from. If that can’t happen, that’s okay. I need to meet with the person writing the newsletter and I need a current newsletter. I will show you what is missing from the newsletter.
Then you show me the next newsletter in progress and we go over it to make it better. This will usually involve several rounds back and forth. Keep in mind that I’m not writing the newsletter, you are.
After that, I usually work with one more newsletter as part of my standard offering. I’m happy to keep working with you on the newsletters every month as part of an ongoing financial arrangement.
What if I am authentic and people don’t like me?
I have a good story to tell you about this if you hire me. But the short answer is that someone, somewhere isn’t going to like you no matter what you do or write, authentic or not.
Is there such a thing as being too authentic?
Yes, for sure. For example, if you’ve just taken office, saying “I’m new at this and I’m scared I don’t know what I’m doing.” Yeah. Don’t say that.