I just landed a new client – an engineering firm, of all things. How do I come to be revamping traffic study reports for Rybinski Engineering?

Communication! It’s all about keeping in touch.

Back in 2013 or so, my web firm put me in touch with another of its clients, DogMomma.com. DogMomma had great ideas about taking care of dogs but needed help getting those ideas across.

So I wrote or rewrote most of DogMomma’s static content. I suggested revisions to the site structure and ways internal links could make the site super-easy to use.

In the process, I learned a lot about training dogs. I’ve recommended DogMomma to just about everyone I know who has a dog. Got a new puppy? Read Top Five Things to Do for Your New Dog. Is your dog jumping all over me? Teach him to keep four paws on the floor.

Last spring, after recommending DogMomma.com for the zillionth time, I popped off an email to the DogMomma herself, Holly Rybinski.

Holly replied that, though she was maintaining DogMomma, she was putting more energy into her “day job” – Rybinski Engineering (RE).

Just then, Holly’s growing firm happened to need my help with recruitment. I rewrote plain-vanilla project descriptions into enticing blurbs to show up-and-coming engineers what an exciting place to work RE is.

More recently, I transformed an RE traffic study to make it accessible to policymakers and the traveling public. When I delivered the finished product, I noted that the process could be smoother and the product even more effective if RE brought me into the process earlier.

Holly and her team made the (wise) choice to follow my expert advice. This year, I’ll be working with them to make sure their reports, training documents, and marketing materials meet the needs of both RE and the target audiences.

I tell this story not to brag (well, maybe a little) but to demonstrate the power of regular communication.

This e-letter is one form of keeping in touch. It’s not as personal as an email directed specifically to you, but it does remind you of our connection – which is the most basic function of most e-letters.

If you reply, then I’ll get a reminder of our connection, too – and you’ll get an email directed specifically to you, because I answer every response.

You probably don’t have a gig or anything else to offer me right now. I probably don’t have anything to offer you, either. But we can both offer goodwill and best wishes.

Those count, don’t they?

I really want to hear from you! Even if you don’t have anything special to say, drop me a line. Communication doesn’t always have to lead to a greater end – though you never know when it might. Still, sometimes the act of communicating is an end in itself.