Guest Post
How
to Increase Your Newsletter Visibility by 100% ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
By Penny Sansevieri
Newsletters are a great way to stay in front of your audience, but
I’m amazed by how many people still have no idea how to manage their own
newsletter. I see sloppy copy or newsletters that haven’t been edited (am I
really going to buy from someone who doesn’t have the time to edit their
newsletter or make it look nice?). I also see newsletters that veer off topic
so much that I instantly unsubscribe. And, my absolute favorite: how on earth
did I ever end up with this newsletter in the first place?
If used correctly, newsletters can be a great way to get your
message out there, offer helpful advice, and keep people in your marketing
funnel. We’ve had our newsletter for ten years and it’s been a solid way to
stay in front of our audience and educate them about their market and what we
do as a company. Candidly, I would consider getting rid of a lot of things, but
never our newsletter. It’s often the single biggest business driver to our
company. It’s not easy, it requires work, but the rewards are tremendous. Here
are some ideas for enhancing your newsletter and growing your audience:
- Know your audience:
While this might sound trite and a bit “duh,” it’s actually more important
than you might think and, ironically, quite overlooked. Many business
owners who put out newsletters write more for themselves than for their
audience. This is a huge mistake as you can imagine because most of the
time, your consumer won’t care about things the way you do. Speak to their
pain, their needs and their hot buttons and most important, know exactly
who they are before you start cranking out newsletter copy.
- Other newsletters:
It’s important to know what other folks are putting out there in regards
to newsletters. This will help you learn what you like, what you don’t
like, and what might work for your market. Also, you want to really
understand your space and other experts who share your arena.
- Subject lines:
This is probably the most important part of any newsletter. They need to
grab the reader’s attention, and if you know what your audience wants, the
subject lines shouldn’t be hard. But they must speak to the needs of your
reader. Of all the things going on in their lives, as it relates to
whatever you are selling, what’s their biggest need right now? Answer that
and you’ve got a perfect subject line.
- Who cares?
Whether it’s a newsletter, a blog post, or a tweet, ask yourself: “Who
cares?” If you can identify the person as your reader and the content
important enough to get them to care, then you have a good topic.
Remember, it’s not about you – in fact when it comes to creating great
content and newsletters that rock, you don’t matter at all. Keep that in
mind, and understand that this is about putting together a message that
100% benefits the people you are writing to.
- Personal notes:
What prompted this article was an email note I got this morning. The
subject line said “A personal request” which prompted me to open it. When
I did the email started out with Dear….., and a bunch of spaces after the
word “dear” because I had not entered my name into their system. Be really
careful of this. Not everyone enters their name into your email list when
they sign up; if they don’t, you want to try and avoid these types of
emails because they look a bit odd to the recipient. A subject line that
said “A personal request” along with an email that was anything but
personal caused me to unsubscribe right away.
- Length:
A lot of people say that they prefer shorter emails to longer ones. I say
it really depends on your market. Our newsletter is pretty long but it’s
packed with content and I hear from
authors all the time that they keep these issues, often printing them off.
Your market will dictate how long or short your newsletter should be and
if you are following others in your market, this will tell you a lot.
- Colors vs. text: I’m still a big fan of text-based
newsletters. I know that folks will say that color works best but I still
think that color newsletters can be harder to read on your phones and
often wind up in spam filters.
- Frequency: How often you deliver your newsletter
will generally depend on your consumer, but a good rule of thumb is once a
month at a minimum and once a week at a maximum. I would not recommend sending
your end-user too many announcements and newsletters. Also, it’s a lot of
content to create, so keep that in mind. If you build a loyal following
you can often create special blasts with more frequency and not lose
readers, but keep in mind that we’re all inundated with emails so many
times, less is more.
- Editing:
Please make sure your newsletter is edited, this is so important. Remember
that everything is your resume. I used to know a guy in publishing who put
out a newsletter that said “this is not edited.” I felt like it detracted
from his message, especially when he backed up that statement with typos.
Not good. Everything is your resume. If you don’t have time to send out an
edited newsletter, you should consider whether or not you have the time
for it at all.
- Appeal to the “skimmers:” Most
people skim email these days, so appeal to that. Use short paragraphs,
bullet points and strong headlines. That way your reader can glance
through the newsletter without having to sift through endless copy and get
to the heart of what they are looking for.
- Promote or not?
I’m not a fan of a newsletter that’s all heavy promotion. You know the
ones I mean, they scream “Look how fabulous I am” and then contain a lot
of sales copy and special offers. I unsubscribe from those pretty quickly.
Ideally you want to strike a balance. Clearly you are doing this to
promote yourself and you want your readers to know what you do, what your
message, book, or product is about and how they can get it. You can and
should talk about this in every issue but keep in mind that a healthy
balance is 95% information and 5% sales. You’ll build customer loyalty
much faster this way.
Having a solid base and a consistent way to communicate with your
audience can really help to optimize and increase your bottom line. A
newsletter might seem like a lot of work, but in the end if it’s done right it
will pay off in some pretty amazing ways.
-----
Author and marketer supreme Penny C. Sansevieri is founder and CEO of Author Marketing Experts, Inc. She is a best-selling author and internationally recognized book marketing and media relations expert. She is an Adjunct Professor teaching Self-Publishing for NYU.
Author and marketer supreme Penny C. Sansevieri is founder and CEO of Author Marketing Experts, Inc. She is a best-selling author and internationally recognized book marketing and media relations expert. She is an Adjunct Professor teaching Self-Publishing for NYU.
Her company is one of the leaders in the
publishing industry and has developed some of the most innovative Social
Media/Internet book marketing campaigns. She is the author of five books,
including Red Hot Internet Publicity, which has been called the "leading
guide to everything Internet."
To learn more about Penny’s books or her
promotional services, you can visit her web site at www.amarketingexpert.com.
Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of This Is the Place; Harkening: A Collection of Stories Remembered; Tracings, a chapbook of poetry; and how to books for writers including the award-winning second edition of, The Frugal Book Promoter: How to get nearly free publicity on your own or by partnering with your publisher; The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success; and Great Little Last Minute Editing Tips for Writers . The Great First Impression Book Proposal is her newest booklet for writers. She has three FRUGAL books for retailers including A Retailer’s Guide to Frugal In-Store Promotions: How To Increase Profits and Spit in the Eyes of Economic Downturns with Thrifty Events and Sales Techniques. Some of her other blogs are TheNewBookReview.blogspot.com, a blog where authors can recycle their favorite reviews. She also blogs at all things editing, grammar, formatting and more at The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor . If your followers at Twitter would benefit from this blog post, please use the little Green widget to let them know about this blog:
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