The Concept

Be Easy

Don’t make people jump through hoops to contact you….be easy.  The key to good communication is being easily contactable.  Don’t hide your email address.  Instead setup special inboxes with efficient strategies to manage them (read on to find out more).

A good example of “being easy” – My phone number is pretty easy to find (I put it on my blog and make sure Pro Task.fm members can contact me on it any time).   This has lead to sales for Task.fm and greatly benefited my business.   I know lots of other entrepreneurs who use the same strategy with great success.

Show Genuine Interest

Talking about your product is easy and will only take your comminucations effort part of the way.  Be a true rockstar by showing genuine interest in your niche.  For example:

Gary Vaynerchuk is passionate about wine, therefore…
Gary promotes wine and…
Gary promotes people who talk about wine

This simple action of promoting the people who promote your niche will lead to people talking about you…confused?  The principle is simple -  Give and and you will receive.

Don’t make rules on how people should contact you.

Take the Time

This is the most important tip – take the time!  Set aside a block of time that you will solely dedicate to communicating.   Don’t be fooled into thinking you have no communication left, if your inbox is empty.  Go out and comment, promote your niche, respond to general questions in your niche. With Twitter, Facebook and Blogs – there is not shortage on work you could be doing.

The Tools

Use Skype, Google Voice

I’ve setup different numbers for different things.  Personal, Work, Support etc.  This way, I can be selective in what times I pick up certain calls and other times to let it ring through to voicemail.  Taking phone calls all day isn’t productive so develop blocks of time to dedicate to being available to pick up the phone.

Virtual numbers are cheap to purchase on Skype.  For a solution geared more towards businesses try RingCentral

Use a service to transcribe voicemails and then email, when possible, the contact.

Use Seesmic, Tweetdeck etc.

Use Seesmic/Tweetdeck (or any of the many similar options) to track mentions of your name, business, products etc. on Twitter.  Repsond right away (this lets your community know you actively listen).

Make Use of otherwise “wasted” Time

What do you do while flying?  Read the in flight mag?  Why not sync your email account for offline access (Think Google Gears), and then respond to all those emails you would normally just leave.

Outsource It

Take a lead from Tim Ferriss and outsource some of the mundane email sorting.  Hiring a Virtual Personal Assistant is now really cheap and very cost effective.   Get your email assistant to sift through your inbox to remove or summarise newsletters, ezines, etc.  Get them to forward any important emails and setup templates for common inquires.

You can still keep things personal by getting your assistant to only sort not reply to emails, if your worried about losing the personal touch.

Find an assistant on GetAFreelancer, eLance or Guru

Use Reminders for Important Communication

How many times have you forgotten to make that call!  A big plug for my own tool Task.fm – use it to setup call reminders.  “Call so and so” are the most common type of reminder in my Task.fm account.   Use Task.fm from your email account (send to reminder@task.fm) for easily managing follow up emails.

Photo by – GeekyGirly

Why not try outsourcing your next design project to the crowd.  Here are a couple of affordable options to get some quality design work done at a fraction of the cost.

99Designs

Run by the people behind Australian company Sitepoint, 99Designs foceses on design contents.  Clients post a design contest, where designers can create and upload their entries.

As designs are submitted, you offer feedback and rate the entries – which gives guidance to future entrants.  After 7 days you choose a winner and they take home the prize (which you set).

99Designs has minimum prizes which start from around $200 depending on the type of project.  Note that sites like RightBanners charge under $50 to outsource a banner design.  However, you won’t get the benefit of lots of designers working for you.

You will also need to pay a $39 + 10% of prize, listing fee.

CrowdSpring

CrowdSpring is my personal favorite.  They are much the same as 99Designs, however I find the quality of work to be much higher.

Crowdspring charges just 15% of the award to list a project and awards can be as little as $200.  You can also choose to list the project as “pro” which gives you great privacy options and is perfect for startups yet to launch.

If you don’t receive 25 entrants on a projects Crowdspring will give you your money back.