Top 5 Tips for Marketing with Your Own Newsletter

No matter what type of business you have, one of the best – and most effective – marketing solutions you have – is your own newsletter.

Your newsletter can be as simple as something you plug into your autoresponder every week – (if you do it this way, it’s a good idea to use both plain text and html) – to a pdf version that your subscribers can download – to something that’s created on your Website or Blog – to a printed version that’s actually mailed out using snail mail.

But whatever version of a newsletter you use, it’s one of the best ways out there to reach your ideal target market, and make a connection with them.

Here are 5 top tips to make marketing with your own newsletter faster, easier and more profitable:

1. Keep it consistent. Decide on a publishing schedule for sending out your newsletter. According to marketing tests, having a daily newsletter – offering one article, tip sheet or checklist can be the most effective.  But it’s also a lot of work.  To make it work, you might want to find some reprint articles, private label rights articles or look for other people who are willing to have a ‘guest column’.  Another option is to outsource article writing.  The 2nd most effective schedule is weekly, and this might be easier for you, especially if you’re a solo-preneur.  If you don’t have a lot of time, or you’re just getting started, look at a bi-monthly or monthly newsletter – as you build your subscriber list, and get better at doing it, you can always increase the number of times you publish.
2. Create an ‘editorial calendar’. Depending on your business, niche or industry, there are lots of ways you can break your topics down. Having an editorial calendar not only helps you to stay organized, but it will keep you from facing writer’s block and getting off schedule because you don’t know what to write about.  Here are some ideas: Break it down by season… ‘Hot Tips to Keep the Kids Busy While You’re Working This Summer’ could mae a great article for WAHMs, for example. Add in holiday-related articles… “How to Throw Great Stress-Free Holidays Parties”… Look for special days or events that can be tied in to your business… “How to Reconnect with old chums during National Friendship Week”…  And when you’re looking for events – are there local, state, regional or national conferences, workshops, trade shows, etc. that your clients are interested in that you can tie into? And don’t forget your own speaking engagements, teleseminars, workshops or other events that  you’re either hosting or participating in.  You can promote those in advance by writing articles, giving links to videos or podcasts, or presentations.
3. Include updates from time to time about what’s going on in your business, or when it’s relevant, your life. Everyone likes to feel special, included – a part of the ‘inner circle’.  So from time to time, ‘throw back the curtain’ and share a little information about what’s going on behind the scenes of your business, or if it’s appropriate, your personal life.  Don’t go into the big, hairy details, or give TMI (too much information), but let your subscribers feel like they’re ‘in the know’ – and you’ll be rewarded with loyal, happy subscribers who not only like and trust you more, but who will refer you to their friends, family and colleagues.
4. Don’t promote all the time. Everyone likes to buy new things, but no one likes to be ’sold’ to. So the working formula is 3 to 1. Provide three times the content for every one time you promote a product or service.
5. Be authentic. Find your own ‘voice’ and use it. Be honest, open – and totally you.  Your subscribers will know if you’re not – and you’ll lose them.  Keep it real, and have fun with your newsletter.

And there you have it – the top 5 tips for marketing with your own newsletter.

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There’s no doubt about it… sex sells.

On the street, on the big screen, in books and undoubtably on the Internet.  And of course, when it comes to celebrities all around the world, being ’sexy’ is a very important part of the whole ‘package’.

But you may be a little surprised to be reading an article about making your marketing ’sexy’.

Most people don’t think of marketing as being ’sexy’. They usually think of marketing as a ‘necessary evil’.  Or as something that’s deadly dull and boring.  Or as something that makes them uncomfortable.

If that sounds like the way you feel about your marketing, I’d like to invite you to look at it from a different angle.

First of all, why do you market?

If you said ‘To get more work’, or ‘to find new clients’ or ‘to make more money’… imagine Simon just buzzed you off the stage of American Idol.

Marketing isn’t about getting more work, it’s about getting the right kind of work.

It’s about working on the kinds of projects you want to work on, with the people you want to work with.

Marketing isn’t about following cookie cutter tactics.

It’s not about trying to get people to sign up for your e-book, your special report or your autoresponder so that you can keep promoting your products or services from then on.

Marketing shouldn’t be about playing small.

Your marketing should be about who you are, what you stand for and what makes you – uniquely YOU.

And when it is… when you’re willing to step out of the shadows, to talk about the things you’re passionate about, and about why you’re doing what you’re doing… it’s sexy.  And it attracts the kinds of people who resonate with your message, and who are drawn to working with you.

And that’s what your offer should be all about.

Your offer needs to focus on what the ultimate value to your customer or client is.  It should be all about the light at the end of the tunnel. About giving the person buying it the end result they really want. Solving a problem, ending a pain, doing something better, faster, stronger tomorrow than they can do today.

It’s not about lies, or hype or making empty promises.

It’s about how you show up at the end of the day – and how you offer what you offer to the world.

See what I mean?  Sexy.

I was watching a spoof of a spy movie with my guys the other night, and one of the good spies said to the bad spy “I could tell you, but then I’d have to kill you…” and I started thinking that for some businesses, that’s exactly what their sales process is like.  A big secret that’s on a “need to know” basis – and apparently, they don’t think all their employees “need to know”…

The problem with that approach is, something is going to get killed all right…

Your profits.

When it comes to the message you want your customers to get, it shouldn’t be a secret – especially not from your employees – any one of whom could be the “first point of contact” with a customer.

If you want to make more sales, more often… If you want happy customers who go around telling everyone they know how wonderful you are…

If you want to build a brand that endures over time, an unstable economy and in spite of what your competition does…

Then one of the most important things you can do is to make sure that every single employee understands your sales message, your products or services, and your sales process… And they need to be able to answer any question, problem or concern your customers might have along the way.

Here’s why that’s so important… Read the rest of this entry

If you’re in business selling products or services to customers in the U.S., chances are you offer some kind of sale or promotion during three three major holidays – Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter.  Maybe you also include Halloween and New Years.

But what about the other holidays, special occasions and recognized national or international days or events? Read the rest of this entry