The other day, I got a flyer in the mail for a neighborhood restaurant that said, “You’re invited to dinner!”
Even though I hadn’t been thinking of getting take-out or trying outdoor eating, the friendliness of the message caught my attention. Being invited for dinner felt personal, fun, and low-pressure.
I haven’t gone to the restaurant yet, but I still have the flyer out, and it got me thinking about how sometimes people are just waiting for an invitation.
Content Isn’t Enough
In recent years, most of us have seen a big push in content of all kinds. Newsletters… blogs… social media posts… articles… videos… podcasts… and more.
The idea is that if you provide enough valuable content, people will keep coming back to you because they know you’re an authority, and when they’re ready to make a purchase or sign up for something, they’ll go to you first.
The problem is, we have so much content now. If you’re like me, you delete some newsletters that come to your inbox without even opening them or reading more than a sentence or two because it all feels like too much to wade through.
This may be especially true now when many of us are in front of screens more than ever. Since we can’t see each other in person, we go online for both work and personal events. And some people are getting burned out of the digital world.
This means that even if you provide great content, it’s not enough.
Extend an Invitation
That’s where invitations come in.
One of the great things about invitations, as opposed to offers, is that they feel enjoyable. You get invited to birthday parties, weddings, and baby showers, so the word itself has lots of good associations.
It also feels more personal than making an offer. You can see this in the definition of “invitation”: “to request the presence or participation of in a kindly, courteous, or complimentary way, especially to request to come or go to some place, gathering, entertainment, etc., or to do something.”
Right away, this feels less transactional than an offer. It gives people a sense that you’re interested in spending time with them and creating a relationship, that it’s about more than getting their business.
This works best for services, but it can also work for products. You could invite someone to:
- Attend a webinar
- Call you to schedule a free consultation
- Use one of your products or services as a free trial
- Engage with other people in your customer base
You could even invite someone to think about something in a different way. For example, if you have a solar company, you could invite them to consider how much more self-reliant they’ll be if they go to solar, and how much it will save them in the long-run.
The key is to extend the right invitation. You want to know your audience well enough to make an invitation that they’re truly interested in and will excited them. You don’t want to make an invitation simply for the sake of it.
Invitations aren’t a guarantee for getting a response from clients or prospects, but sending them periodically will help.
Invitations Can Make a Difference
With everything that’s going on these days, many of us are overwhelmed with information. We might feel disconnected and isolated from others, and it’s tempting to shut down a bit and ignore everything that comes our way.
Getting an invitation, though, can help cut through the noise. It might be just the prompt your client needs to get interested or involved in something. At the very least, it will be a reminder that you’re thinking of them and want to give them something that could help them.
And these days, we can use all the friendly connections we can get.