Archives for July 2012

Everybody is being told to do a newsletter these days. What they don’t often understand is that there are a couple of ad ons that can dramatically increase the profitability of a newsletter in the near, to middle term.

Strategy 1: Seed The Next Sale.

You should be using some (not all) of the space as a way to build the need for the next sale. Doesn’t matter what it is, even if it is complex you should be able to spoon feed the message to your customers over time so that when you run a marketing campaign to make the next sale your customers already know a great deal about why they should buy and are already primed to do so.

Strategy 2: Use a Free Standing Insert

You can always do your selling in a Free Standing Insert (FSI) sent out inside your newsletter. (For those of you who don’t know what I mean think of all the loose advertising that falls out of a newspaper when you open it up)

Most newsletter FSI’s are 1 page, double sided placed between pages two and three of your newsletter. There is plenty of room to there to move people to do all sorts of things. They can request your latest report which is lead generation for a given product. It can promote a referral competition.

It can promote an event that you are putting on.

Or it can simply push prospects towards their regular check up or consultation or some such.

Strategy 3: Ride Along Promotions

You are already paying for the postage and envelope for your newsletter. I bet you can add some weight to it without increasing the postage – which means you can add additional promotions when you need to.

So if you have an upcoming sale, you can give your promotional materials a free ride. You may not want to do this every month but I will assure you that every once in a while it doesn’t hurt. That way your promotional materials will be reviewed when the recipient reads your newsletter.

The added good will of the newsletter is likely to increase response as well.

Now you can get a customer newsletter out the door with far better results than you could ever have imagined. I can automate the whole process for you.

You can take all the stress out of getting your newsletter out the door at the same time every month. Get yourself a free copy of The Business Owner’s Guide to Getting More Repeat Business and Referrals and The Newsletter On Newsletters at www.morebusinessandreferrals.com

When you are writing a newsletter, there are lots of things that can go wrong. In my time writing newsletters I see three very common mistakes over and over again. All three are very costly to the long term success of your newsletter.

Not writing regularly.

The best newsletters are published to a schedule. If you are doing a print newsletter the best frequency is monthly.

If you don’t make time to write then you are going to be rushing to meet your deadline or you will miss an issue. The Single Most Important factor to creating ongoing success with a newsletter is actually consistency.

Writing for most people is a task that is considered important but not urgent until the day before the deadline. This is asking for you to get writers block or to procrastinate. Make the time to write regularly. Even if it is once a week. Know that you are going to write for a couple of hours once a week.

It is the first thing I do every day for an hour before I start on anything else. I write for at least an hour.

Writing only about your Business Topic.

Newsletters are meant to be about news and information your clients will find interesting. They are not where you talk about technical dross.

You have flyers and brochures, sales letters, the telephone if you want to sell to them or tell them about your widget. Imagine trying to start a sales call without some pleasantries.

Most people over estimate how interesting their business specialty is, 4 page news letter from an insurance broker = 4 pages of stuff about insurance. Nobody is

When I was at Uni I read a lot of newspapers in lectures… Anyway the first things I looked at were the quiz, the comics and then I tried to do the crossword after that I’d read the news… Your newsletter is more likely to be read if it is entertaining and interesting and not just about what-ever business you are in.

Not Writing Clearly.

According to the 1993 National Assessment of Adult Literacy, most adults read at an 8^th Grade level. So run everything you write through a readability checker. MS Word has one. Look up ‘readability’ in its help function. And use it. And try and hit that eighth grade level.

Just because your readability score is high doesn’t mean that you can’t express complex ideas. Or that more educated people won’t read it. In fact, simple, easy to read, clear communication is just as welcomed by the super educated as it is by everyone else.

Keep your words short, your sentences short and stick to one paragraph per idea. It will make your writing far easier to read.

By the way, this article has a readability of 67.8 (higher is better) and a grade level of 7.0. How do feel about it now that I’ve told you?

Looking for a way to build your business on the back of a newsletter? Go to www.morebusinessandreferrals.com and download The Business Owner’s Guide To Getting More Repeat Business and Referrals. As a bonus you’ll receive the newsletter on newsletters – a comprehensive guide to writing and designing your own customer newsletter.