You invest time and effort creating communications or events that will add value for your clients. It’s not easy but you know it’s an important part of creating deeper engagement. You send an article, run an event or write a blog post. Your clients like it so you tick it off your list.  It feels good, but the simple act of completing the task doesn't mean you've leveraged that communication fully.  And if that's the case you may be leaving opportunities (and money) on the table. I'd suggest that with a little planning, and a dose of creativity, those same communications can play double (or triple) duty. That means you not only generate a greater ‘return on effort’ on your client communications, but you can leverage them to support your business development efforts.[Tweet "There are ways to increase your 'return on effort' from client communications."]Let’s look at an example of one client activity (a workshop) and two scenarios with vastly different outcomes. In scenario one, you decide to run a workshop focused on how your clients can keep their personal data safe and secure. You invite an expert to speak on the topic and send out the invitations to your clients.  They come out, love the content and thank you profusely. You pat yourself on the back.  It's done; mission accomplished. But what would this same event look like if you squeezed every bit of value out of it? In scenario two, you run the same workshop focused on how your clients can keep their personal data safe and secure. You invite an expert to speak on the topic and send out the invitations to your clients. They come out, love the content and thank you profusely.  But this time it doesn't stop there.

1. You Expand the Audience

• Invite prospects. Use the workshop as an opportunity to invite key prospects so you can build the relationship and demonstrate how you support your clients in a tangible way.
• Invite centers of influence. Consider partnering with a key center of influence and inviting both client bases. You both add value and get a comfortable introduction to one another’s clients.
• Invite local media. If the topic is current and applicable to their audience, they may send someone along or quote you in a story on the topic.

2. You Extend the Value

• Ask your speaker if you can video the presentation. If they agree, you can upload the video (using YouTube, Vimeo, Sprout or similar) and send it to clients or prospects who couldn't attend. Or, pick a few key clips and share those.
• Take the video clips and share them on social media.
• Ask the speaker to record a 60-second intro to the video, which supports the importance of the topic and his/her appreciation that you're doing this work for your clients.
• Create a one-page assessment that you send to all participants after the presentation to engage them further and help them take action.
• Put the full video behind a form on your website. In return for an email address, prospective clients can access the presentation and you can build your email list.
• Identify the three big points from the speaker, put them on a PowerPoint slide, save it as an image and share that on social media. Make sure to include your URL or contact details within the image.

3. You Re-purpose the Content

• Write a blog post on the content (or an article that is posted on your site), highlighting the big lessons from the workshop. Hint: you can have the full video transcribed for about $1.00 a minute or less using online tools like Rev.com. Having that transcript makes writing an article much faster and easier.
• Shoot a two-minute video with your own take on why this topic is so important and link to an article or to the video summary.
• Create a series of social media posts based on the individual or specific lessons using popular (but relevant) hashtags such as, in this case, #cybersecurity.

The same strategies would apply to almost any client communication. Instead of starting with a workshop, it could just as easily be an article, blog post or video. Take that one communication and ask yourself the following:

1. How can I extend the reach of the communication to get the information in front of more of the right people?
2. How can I extend the value of the communication by taking pieces of it and sharing it via other formats?
3. How can I re-purpose the content to share via other formats that will engage, reinforce the message and encourage sharing?

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Thanks for stopping by,

Julie