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.

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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…

A few months ago, we bought a new washing machine.  (We’d had it fixed so often we’re now on a first-name basis with the repairman who makes house calls.)  We did a little research online, to get an idea for prices and features, but to me, a washing machine is one of those things that you just have to be able to see before you buy it.

I like to slam the doors, jiggle the handles and check out the plastic soap trays to see how sturdy they are.  And I wanted to look at the drum, and make sure it didn’t have any plastic parts that we’d had so many problems with in our old machine.

At the first store, we found two models we liked, but there was a big difference in how much weight they would hold.  However, when we asked the salesman to give us an idea of why there was such a big difference and what the cost comparison of running the two machines would be… he was totally clueless.

We went somewhere else.

At the next store, we couldn’t find a salesperson in the washing machine department, and my husband went to ask at the desk if they could send someone to answer my questions.  While he was gone, an employee walked by, and I asked her if she could help me.  She smiled and said she’d try.  She not only answered my questions, but compared different features between 4 different models.  And when my husband came back, she answered his questions – and even subtly led us towards a machine that was over the amount we’d decided we wanted to spend – but it was so obviously a better quality machine, and met all our needs, I was actually grateful she’d shown us the more expensive model.

But when we said we’d take it, she motioned over a young man who’d been standing off to one side, and told us that he would help us with that, because, as it turned out, the washing machines weren’t in her department – she was in electronics.  She told us he could answer any other questions we had, and wished us a good day, and went back to her department.

As we walked up to the cash register, I asked him if she was the store manager, and he said no, that although each employee had their own department, they were trained to be able to answer customers’ questions no matter what department they worked in.  That impressed the heck out of me… And the next time I need an appliance, or we want to replace the stereo or anything else that store sells – you can bet they’re the only place I’m going to go.

They have a sales process that is shared with every employee, and every employee is trained to help answer the customers’ questions… no matter what, no matter who, no matter when.

How about your employees?

Tags:branding,Marketing,sales message

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But what about the other holidays, special occasions and recognized national or international days or events?

One of the most important tactics in your overall marketing strategy should be to find different ways of connecting with your customers. You want to have a variety of touch points along their buying spiral to  reminding them that you’re there, that you want or appreciate their business  and that you have a special, time-limited reason for them to buy from you right now.

However, don’t just decide to jump in and start adding holiday sales for every holiday you can think of.

In order for this to work, you have to strike the right balance, so what you’re doing not only makes sense to your customers, but makes them feel special. You want them to feel like you understand who they are and what they’re looking for.

Your sales promotions should also make your products or services stand out from the crowd and help to set you apart from the competition.  Another advantage of adding holidays and special sales days to your marketing mix is that if you use the right marketing message – one that matches the day and the thoughts, emotions or memories your target market associates with it, you will solidify your bran in your client’s mind.

Here’s how to do it:

1. Have a clear understanding of your target market: You need to know who they are, where they shop, what their biggest problems are (in relation to the solution your product or services offers).  Those are basics.  But it also helps if you know answers to questions like these: How old are they?  What are their career goals or aspirations? Where do they live? If you use the internet (email, online advertising, blogs, social networking sites, etc.) how sophisticated is your target market?  What sites do they visit most often?  The more information you have, the easier the next step will be.
2. Understand how your target market perceives your product.  What are you really selling? (This deceptively simple question should actually be the hinge pin of all your marketing and sales promotions, because as Sydney Barrows – the former Mayflower Madame and current marketing consultant puts it, ‘To be successful you have to be in the business your client thinks you’re in.’).
3. Choose your holiday or special event and create a theme around it. If you decide for example, to choose Mother’s Day for a promotion, brainstorm some ways you can make your promotion stand out.  How many ways can you think of to relate mothers to your product or service?  Can you save a mother time? Give her a break? Bring a little luxury into her day?
4. Decide how you’re going to promote. Again, take the knowledge you have of your target market, and place your information where they are going to find it.  You want to go as wide as possible, so your mix might include a variety of online and offline touch points. Offline you might consider postcards, other direct mail, flyers, fax blasts, radio, newspaper or magazines.  Online you’ve got email, online newsletters, your blog, social networking sites.  Make sure you give yourself enough time to do an effective job of reaching your target market.
5. Track and measure your results so you know what to keep using in next year’s marketing strategy.

And there you have it. An effective strategy for increasing your bottom line by adding holidays and special occasions to your marketing mix.

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