What’s your newsletter for?

Some people decide newsletters aren’t useful, while others think a monthly, or even weekly, newsletters are essential.  Before you jump on the newsletter bandwagon, think about what you want the newsletter to do for you.

There are many goals you can set for a newsletter:

1. To share your expertise
2. To entertain the reader
3. 3To demonstrate your knowledge
4. To update the reader about your company
5. To help your reader learn about something
6. To introduce your team to the reader
7. To promote your products or services.

There are certainly more reasons, but these tend to be the main ones - and, if you’ve read the list carefully, you’ll realise that numbers 1, 3 and 5 are virtually the same thing - just with a slightly different angle!

So when you receive someone else’s newsletter, what do you want to read?  What would make you read the next newsletter from that company or person?  What would get it deleted without opening?

I don’t know about you, but I find anything that has a boring subject line is destined for the deleted folder.  Unless I know the person concerned or have actively requested to be on someone’s newsletter list a boring subject line equals a boring newsletter in my head!

This may sound self-absorbed, but I’m not really interested in the happenings within a company (unless there’s a very good reason and/or it has some impact on me and my business).  However, I do want to learn things and am interested in anything that may help my business.  That means that I don’t want to know what your company news is - unless it’s that you’ve developed a new service that will directly help my business (and the news is presented as ‘about me’, not ‘about you’).  It also means I’m not interested in who your team are, until I actually start dealing with your business - unless you’ve recruited someone with specialist expertise that will actively help my business.

The trouble with these scenarios is that a newsletter goes to a wide range of contacts - and only a very few will tick those boxes.

I’m happy to be entertained, but not if there’s no substance to the message.  Actually, I want to be entertained, not to read dry-as-dust text that could be found in a text book.

I don’t mind getting your latest offers or promotions - as long as there’s some value in the newsletters alongside this.  In other words give something free before something for sale.

What action do you want people to take after they’ve read your newsletter?  Is it a relationship building tool, a marketing publication or a sales tool?  Do you want people to develop a respect for your business or delete it?

Getting the goal sorted out will dictate the kind of newsletter you develop - but remember you need to give, before you receive.

Are you active or passive on social media?

The social media platforms that are available are many, but the big six are:

• LinkedIn (2003) (now owned by Microsoft since December 2016)
• Facebook (2004)
• YouTube (2005) (purchased by Google in November 2006)
• Twitter (2006)
• Instagram (2010) (taken over by Facebook in 2012)
• Pinterest (2010)

There are others, of course, and if you include the messaging platforms like WhatsApp, Messenger, WeChat, Snapchat and Skype you could be forgiven at being overwhelmed by how you can possible be active on all these different social media.

The good news is that you don’t have to be active on all of them.  The secret is that you first identify where your target market hang out.  Are they busy on Facebook or more likely to be found looking at LinkedIn?  Are they big video consumers or more likely to be in discussion groups?  Are they into looking at great images or more likely to be delivering soundbites in just a few words?

When you know where your audience is, then, logically, that’s where you need to spend your time.

Engagement drives traffic

There’s a big difference between broadcast and interaction.  My recommendation is that you maintain a presence on the major platforms, but choose the platforms where your audience is to be interactive.

• Do have useful tips and advice and links to your blogs going out on all the platforms.  But don’t invest your time where your client base aren’t active.
• Do spend time posting directly onto the platforms where your audience are active - AND engage with them.  So comment on their posts, get into conversations and build relationships.
• Either set up email alerts so you know when someone has commented or messaged you or make sure you visit your chosen platforms daily to ensure you respond to these promptly.
• Don’t sell at your audience.  Share you expertise and they’ll come to you when they’re ready to buy.
• Find out what they want to know about and share as much useful content as possible.

Remember, it’s not a numbers game, it’s about relationships.  People buy (from) people they like!

9 subjects to blog about

If you know that content is important, but sitting down to write a blog results in a visit to the coffee machine, a couple of biscuits (or popping out for a bar of chocolate/doughnut/your-choice-of snack-here), a bit of filing, a non-urgent phone call, replying to a handful of emails - and other delaying tactics, read on!

Not knowing what to write about is the biggest block to writing a regular blog.

First here are my top three tips:

1. Prepare for your blog writing session 
2. Put it in your diary every month
3. Write more than one article at a time

And to get you started here are things you can write about:

1. Answer a question that your clients (or people you meet networking) often ask.
2. Feature a testimonial you’ve had from a client - as part of a case study

• What the brief was
• What the solution was
• What the outcome (measurables) were
• What the client said.

3. Describe a problem and how people can solve it (with a footnote that you can help).
4. Explain how to … something you help your clients with.
5. Create a checklist and explain why each item is important.
6. Highlight the 3 (or another number) biggest mistakes people make in your specialism - and how to avoid them.
7. Search online for the latest news on your core subject and discuss that, with your opinion.
8. Feature a quote from someone whose name is known and comment on why their words are important.  This can be a quotation that’s frequently used or something someone has recently been quoted as saying in the media, as long as it’s relevant to your business.
9. Put together a list of your tops tips - it can be any number from 3 to 103!

These articles can be written, recorded as a podcast or even created as video material - whichever you feel most comfortable with. 

The plus is that each of these strategies can be used again and again, each with a different focus.

Happy scribbling!

How to sharpen your arrow

When you’re in business you need customers (or clients).  Without them your business will fail.  That means that you need to put your message in front of people who need what you’re offering.

Before you rush off to write a new website or launch a PR campaign, stop.

You don’t take a bow and arrow and fire arrows off willy-nilly.  It doesn’t win you any prizes - and could hurt someone.  You aim at a target and, ideally, want to get a bullseye.  So what is the business equivalent of your target?:

Your ideal customer 

Any marketer worth their salt will ask you a long string of questions to find out exactly who it is you want to reach.  They’re aiming to create an avatar that identifies exactly who your ideal customer is - industry, job title, size of business, number of staff, turnover, personal style, age, gender (perhaps) - and what their problems are.

A detailed profile of your ideal customer will be a massive leap closer to your target.  Instead of trying to hit a metre-wide target from a kilometre away, you’re now a mere 100 metres off.

Where to find them 

When you know who you’re looking for it’s a lot easier to work out where they hang out.  Are they Facebook fans or chatting in a LinkedIn group?  Are they Instagram mad or Pinterest fanatics? 

Are they in your local Chamber of Commerce meeting, in a weekly networking group or the local branch of a professional institute or association?

When you’ve tracked your audience down you’ve got the bullseye in your sights.

Craft your message 

You know what you want to say, but do you know what they want to hear?  Getting out of your business and seeing it from the customer’s perspective is essential to create a message that will engage them.  Address their problems and outline the benefits they’ll experience - not what you do and how good you are.

Getting your message right will send your arrow flying right at the gold.

10 tips for budding authors

If you’re thinking of writing a book to underpin your expertise, here are ten top tips that will help your book be successful.

Due diligence 

1. Check out the market.  What other books similar to yours are out there?  Don’t guess or limit your research to the ones you have on your bookshelf, harness the power of the internet and do a proper search.  Ideally read as many as you can. 
2. Establish your USP.  What sets your book apart from others in the genre?  What makes you/your book different? 

Publishing 

1. Decide how your book will be published.  Will you be looking for a contract with a mainstream publisher or planning to self-publish?  Your choice will impact on your budget, control and success of your book.   
2. Ebook, paperback, hardback or a combination.  Your choice of publication method will affect sales and also how you use it as a marketing tool.  If you want real books in your hand, either as paperback or hardback, you will need to explore the difference between offset-litho printing and print-on-demand. 
3. Get your cover and any graphics done professionally.  A publishing company should provide the graphics, but don’t approve anything that doesn’t feel right to you.  If you’re self-publishing you’ll need professional help unless you’re a graphic designer - check out some of the online resources like Fiverr, elance, etc.  Always check out the designer’s previous work before agreeing to work with them. 

Writing 

1. Plan first.  Invest time in planning the content of your book out.  What will each chapter be about?  What anecdotes, case studies, quotes, models, processes will you include in each chapter? 
2. Get your book professionally edited.  If you get a publishing contract they’ll do this for you.  If you’re self-publishing you’ll need to invest cash in this - but it will be worth it when you’re getting reviews. 
3. Aim for at least 40,000 words.  This isn’t because people won’t read a shorter book, but, if you’re planning for a real book in hand, the spine will disappear into a bookshelf if it’s a skinny little book! 

Marketing 

1. Don’t wait until your book is published.  Marketing is essential and you’ll have to do this whether you self-publish or have a contract.  You should be thinking about how you will get your book in front of readers from the moment you decide to write it. 
2. Don’t stop marketing.  To keep sales going you’ll need to keep ‘restuffing the sausage machine’.  How will you keep promoting it over the months/years following publication? 

Of course, this is a very simple version of a complex process.  If you really want to explore the process of writing a book you can get the Pipedream to Proposal document here.