Does Your Business Need a Newsletter

It costs less to cultivate existing customers than get new ones. A newsletter is a good way to show existing customers you care and can meet all their needs. The key to a successful newsletter for marketing is to concentrate on your customer, not your business.

Focus on information your customers want and need to know. What questions do your customers ask? An insurance agent might be asked how much insurance a customer needs A question a florist might hear is how to keep flowers fresh. A personal trainer might be asked how to eat to lose weight. The answer to each question is a newsletter article.

Avoid the hard sell. Your newsletter is a marketing tool, but don't hard sell your products and services. The objective is to provide valuable information so your customer comes back for more and begins to remember you when the customer needs what you have to offer.

Plan a stories 12 months ahead. You want customers to look forward to the newsletter, so plan on doing it for at least 12 months. Target stories to seasons and celebrations.

Get it right. Mistakes damage your credibility. Make sure everything is accurate, including grammar, punctuation, and sentence structure. If you need help, hire a freelancer to edit your newsletter before you send it.

Remember the profile box. This is a section where you talk about your products and services. Who you are, what you offer, how to get in touch with you. Include your email and web addresses.

Paper or digital? Decide how you want to send your newsletter. Lots of companies are sending

electronic newsletters, so actually printing and mailing a paper newsletter can help you stand out in the crowd. If you go digital, you will need to research rules and laws regarding spam and privacy. The Can-SPAM Act of 2003 has rules for electronic newsletters. This law has many aspects, but generally, you:

·         Can send it only to people who have opted in or have indicated an interest in getting the

newsletter.

·         Cannot use email addresses from sources other than your own.

·         Must provide an easy option to unsubscribe and fulfill requests to unsubscribe within 10 days.

·         Must include your correct, physical address, your legitimate email address, a domain name, and an IP address.

Before You Leap into an E-Newsletter, Think!

Before you invest in an e-newsletter for your existing and potential clients,  here are some questions to consider as you think through the newsletter:

What do you want to be known for and remembered as being?
Who is your audience?
What is the gain they want?
What is the pain they want to avoid?
How can you help them gain what they want and avoid the pain?
What do you have that is different from everyone else?
What can they get from you no one else can give them?
What do you want them to do after reading the newsletter?
Do you want to instruct? Persuade? Inform? All three?
Do you want to organize the newsletter around a theme? An activity? A function?
How can you make it fun? Intriguing? Provocative? Memorable? Viral?

The more time you spend answering these questions, the more successful your newsletter will be, the easier it will be to design and write , and the more readers will want to read it!

Speaking Skills

You must have good communication skills if you want to have rewarding relationships. No one is a good communicator all the time; skill depends on the situation and personal factors such as your upbringing, education, and level of self-esteem. The good news is that you can learn skills to become a better communicator.

·         Practice what you will say before you say it.

·         Try different ways of saying things with friends you trust.

·         Ask for feedback from people who have strong communication skills.

·         Take classes, read books and listen to tapes.

·         Study people whose communication style you admire.

Article Writing in Five Easy Steps

Do you need an article for a newsletter, magazine or blog post? Here is a quick, easy formula for writing one.

1.  Start by identifying one problem your clients have mentioned. For example, an image consultant may have clients worried about how to update their wardrobes without spending a lot of money.

2.  Write a short description of the problem.

3.  Add three solutions to the problem. Devote one or two paragraphs to each solution. In our example, the image consultant could write about using accessories to update clothing, adding one or two trendy pieces, and mixing and matching existing pieces in new ways.

4.  End with five tips the reader can follow for a do-it-yourself wardrobe update.
5.  Add your contact information and a free offer.

That's it. Article writing in five easy steps.

Contact me at info@patriciahaddock.com for a tip sheet on how to do a how-to article in 10 easy steps.

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Write for How People Read

Skimmers decide what to read based on the first sentence. They skim documents and look for key points. When you write for skimmers, start with the main point. In an e-mail, use the subject line to convey what the e-mail is about. Use bullets or boldface to highlight key facts, dates or figures.

Skeptics tend to read a document thoroughly and want to see documentation and facts to support statements. Use lots of supporting details and evidence and provide examples, statistics, factual anecdotes to support everything.

For both, organize the body of your document as an inverted pyramid--place the most important information first and drill down to the least important. In this way, both types of readers get what they want.