|
|
|
5 top things that set off my BS Alarm
The web is overflowing with scams. Thousands and thousands of otherwise normal people are looking for ways to make big money by doing NOTHING. Still, we have faith that there are some legitimate opportunities on the web. But how do you tell...
Have You Experienced The "Jumping Frog" Disease??
Before I get started...I want to make it very clear that it is not my intention in any way to offend any individual or disparage any particular company. I'll be blunt in my personal opinion and observations. However, I would really like to see...
How To Prevent Being Lynched By Heavy Handed Spam Laws
California's new heavy handed spam law, slated to take effect on 1 January 2004, not only provides stiff fines PER SPAM EMAIL sent. It also opens the doors wide for civil litigation against a spammer, and gross amounts of cash recovery for...
Marketing - all about focus
Copyright 2005 SharewarePromotions Ltd Marketing would appear to be the great buzz word of the decade. Every self-respecting business team talks about it, yet many of us aren't even sure what it is, and even more are uncertain of how they should be...
MILK YOUR WINNERS, DROP YOUR LOSERS
Copyright 2005 Nick James In my previous article How To Be 100% Sure That Your New Product Is A Winner We have discussed dropping losers. I hope I have given you the message strongly enough. But the same principle applies to milking winners. When...
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
5 Secrets to Creating an Email Newsletter That Gets Results
Copyright 2005 Donna Gunter
At almost every meeting I attend in my city, I get really
positive feedback about my email newsletter, Work Smarter, Make
More, http://www.worksmartermakemore.com . People generally tell
me they love it, or they ask some question about something I've
written about in a previous issue. All in all, it's pretty
cool--I kinda feel like a celebrity!
In everything that I do, my goal and my focus is to get
subscribers to my newsletter. I'm not trying to sell them a
coaching program, nor am I trying to get them to buy some
product. I just want them to get my weekly email newsletter.
That's it. Just get a little dose of Donna on a weekly basis
(pun fully intended).
My rationale behind this comes from my philosophy that people
have to know, like, trust and respect you before they'll decide
to buy anything from you. I've finally acknowledged and embraced
that I'm a pretty good writer and have decided to lead with that
gift and use that as my marketing tool for my business.
Back in 2003, I decided that I made some serious changes to how
I published my email newsletter, and I'm now starting to see the
results of the writing I do each week. The results include
readers calling or emailing me for coaching, to sign up for a
program, to sit in on a teleclass, or to form a strategic
alliance with them. Just exactly what I'd hope would happen!
Here are the five secrets to newsletter publishing that I
learned through the "school of hard knocks" that have helped
successfully market my business through email newsletter
publishing:
1. Publish consistently on a weekly basis. I initially published
my newsletter on a not-so-regular basis initially because I
didn't see my newsletter as a serious marketing tool (silly
me!). I then went to a regular monthly publication about a year
later and then to a twice-a-month publication, and finally ended
up publishing weekly in 2003 Now, if I miss a week, I'll get a
couple of emails wanting to know what happened and where the
newsletter is.
2. Let your "voice" permeate your newsletter. My first
newsletters had some great resources that a busy business owner
would find helpful in the management of his/her business. The
only thing about me was a short paragraph about my business at
the end of the newsletter. What I realized was that the
newsletters to which I best responded were those in which I got
to know the writer and liked what s/he had to say. Resources
were great, but lessons through personal experiences were
incredibly more valuable and were the things that I remembered
about the newsletter. I definitely put more "me" into my weekly
newsletter now.
3. Show how you can help clients resolve problems. I could just
kick myself for letting almost 3 years slip away by doing such a
slip-shod job in
demonstrating my expertise. Again, resources
are useful, but stories of what I'm experiencing or what clients
have experienced in their businesses and decisions that have
been made to change the way we're doing business are much more
helpful to my readers. Hence, in every newsletter, there's now a
"Business Gym" article in each issue to help my readers run a
better business.
4. Set aside time to write your newsletter. Finding space in my
calendar to set aside time on a weekly basis exclusively for
this marketing activity isn't always easy. There are many times
I want to fill that time with "profit generating" activities
(i.e. work with clients) rather than holding onto this time as a
business development activity. Since I now publish weekly, it
takes me about 2 hours to write the main article for the
newsletter. I now set aside time from 9 AM - noon each Wed.
morning and knock out the newsletter copy. Some weeks the
process flows more easily than others.
5. Repackage and re-purpose your articles. One of my primary
motivations now for doing my newsletter is that I've now got a
personal article bank of roughly 50 articles that I can reuse,
tweak or re-pupose when I need to. I submit my newsletter
article each week to various online article banks through an
article distribution service, place it on my website, and have
it available to use to create a special ebook or report that I
can sell as another income stream, or re-purpose as a special
report for a give-away on my website.
What I've now discovered is that by having this client
"reservoir" in place (my email newsletter subscribers that I go
out and "tickle" on a weekly basis), my marketing has gotten so
much easier. On a regular basis one of my readers will wake up
and decide that they've had enough and can't do it this way any
longer and decide to hire me.
If you don't currently have a newsletter in place that permits
you to reach out and "touch" potential clients regularly, I
encourage you to start one. I realize that not everyone likes
nor enjoys writing. Perhaps there's someone you can team up with
who could ghostwrite for you based on some conversations you've
had or on some training or other kinds of workshops you deliver.
If you currently have an email newsletter, pay more attention to
its care and feeding so that it grows a healthy prospective
client base for you. It'll be one of the best investments you'll
make for your business.
About the author:
Online Business Coach Donna Gunter helps self-employed
professionals make more profit in less time online. To sign up
for more FREE tips like these and claim your FREE ebook,
TurboCharge Your Productivity: 50 + Tools To Help You Automate
Your Business and Make More Profit in Less Time Online!, visit
her site at http://www.OnlineBizCoachingCompany.com .
|
|
|
|
|
|
