It’s a good idea to get to know the people who read you. But there are ways of doing it that make them feel welcomed…and ways that make them feel used.
Here’s an example of the wrong way.
My dear wife Rona Fischman received an email that said:
“Rona,
When I started ___ 3 years ago, I couldn’t have imagined how much we would achieve together. ____has grown from a small community to a global one of over 5.5 million members, in nearly every country in the world. It’s hard to believe we’ve come so far, so fast.”
“But what’s next for ___? What will the next few years look like? As we start to think about those questions as a community, it’s critical to hear from as many voices as possible. It’s important to know what we think about what our community does, how we can be better and what we should work on together.”
“Our surveys are put together by a crack team of survey expurrts [picture of cat at keyboard] and they don’t take very long to fill out. We’d love to find out what you think.”
Here’s what Rona thinks:
I don’t know who you are, and you want to trick me into doing your marketing for you??? Share on X
Here’s the right way:
If you want to know what people think, start out by listening. Continue by giving them something they’ll consider valuable. Get them to know, like, and trust you.
Only then will they be willing to answer your surveys. And only then will the information they give you be valuable to you.
