Archive for October, 2009
Be the Source
No one has time to read.
No one cares about your company.
No one wants your advice, or tips, or insider know-how.
So no one will read your e-newsletter.
Unless it’s the best.
If you provide the most engaging content; the funniest, shortest, most helpful and just-the-facts readable newsletter in your industry, you will be The Source that your clients and potential clients cannot do without.
That’s why you need an e-newsletter. You need to Be The Source of great information, or news, within your industry.
Because it’s the cheapest, easiest, quickest and most reliable means of communicating your value to your contact list. Stay in touch. Show each recipient that you know exactly what you’re talking about. Explain – in 100 words or less – why he or she should come to you FIRST when considering a business transaction of any kind within your industry.
How? By delivering value, value, value – in the newsletter.
Put yourself in the shoes of your ideal client. What does she need to know? What critical question is she asking herself today – that you can answer – in clear, concise and compelling language?
She doesn’t care about your brand, necessarily.
She doesn’t care about your new product, necessarily.
She couldn’t care less about your new senior-level manager, or new line of products, or your new department.
She has a demanding part-time job, a teenage son who’s on the baseball team and a hungry husband waiting at home. She has bills to pay, and a sick mother, and she hasn’t had a vacation in 13 months, and her toilet keeps backing up and her car needs a new set of brakes and there was a break-in down the street from her house last month.
So how can you make her life better right now?
In 100 words or less?
With some super-valuable suggestion that proves you know exactly what she needs?
If you’re a bank, tell her how to add another 10% to her monthly savings – easily and automatically. In fun, simple terms, not banker-talk.
If you’re a salon, tell her how she can’t really take care of her family unless she’s taking car of herself once in a while. And you can help her do that once a month for a lot less than any other salon in town. In fun, simple tems – not health-spa jargon.
If you’re an auto garage, tell her how easy it is to make sure she has reliable transportation. In fun, simple terms – not auto mechanic lingo.
Solve her problem. Save her money. Make her home safer. Help her mom heal. And give her information she didn’t have before.
Sure, it takes some thought. Some ingenuity. Some good writing and editing.
If you don’t prove that you can help her in some profound way, and do it quickly in a nicely-designed e-mail newsletter, then you’d better not send it.
But if you CAN, then you may just have earned a customer for life.
Then she will view you as a resource. As a leader in your field, a powerful source of information, and a smart business partner.
And she might even become an ambassador by forwarding your clever advice to a few friends.
And you did it all with a short, smart e-mail newsletter. One that got her attention. And got traction. And got her to think of you as a VALUABLE asset. Now she’s VERY likely to do business with you.
That’s why I send mine out. I want to remind people that I’m here to solve problems. To help develop media that gets the word out.
There are several good websites and e-marketing sopftware systems to help start the process, refine the shape or lay-out of the newsletter and keep it simple.
I use Constant Contact. Check it out.
Is it a little work on my part to develop something like this, and send it out on regular basis? Sure. But I like to Be the Source of great information and help clients solve problems.
And I can do just that with a little newsletter. Dollar for dollar, I’ll challenge anyone to come up with a more effective branding campaign.
Just remember to put value up front and solve a problem for everyone who reads your stuff. Be The Source. Have I said it enough?
