Don’t be a spammer

When I talk to clients about email marketing the most common comment I hear is “I don’t want to be a spammer.”

This says a lot about the view of email marketing – it’s seen as unwanted junk landing in your inbox.  In other words it’s got a bad reputation – but why?

Mostly because it is unwanted junk.

Is it because none of us like being sold to?

Is it because you got on a list because you bought something from the company once and that identified you as someone who would buy again?

The answer to both those questions is usually ‘yes’.  But some email marketing is enormously successful – or nobody would still be doing it.  So what’s the difference between successful and unsuccessful email marketing?

Let’s look at some scenarios:

• A shop you have a loyalty card for sends you this week’s offers.
• A company you are a regular customer of sends you useful links to articles about ‘life-hacks’ that you can use – without trying to sell you something.
• A consultant that operates in an area you’re really interested in sends you amusing emails, often with free advice – and occasionally includes a paid-for offer.

Do you mind getting this kind of email marketing?  Mostly it’s useful, so you’ll stick with it.

What about:

• A booking agent that sends you every show that is on in every theatre they have, regardless of what you’ve bought tickets for before.
• A company that you bought one product from, sends you a barrage of emails about everything else they offer, regardless of whether it’s relevant to your original purchase.
• You downloaded a free document about social media for small companies and the supplier now sends you all kinds of ‘opportunities to buy’ relating to subjects such as HR practices for corporates, marketing in the retail environment, just-in-time ordering, and other unrelated and not useful things.  

I’m guessing these are more likely to irritate you and head for the ‘delete’ or ‘unsubscribe’ button.

Of course, any business wants to educate their customers about what other things they offer, but when someone buys something – or downloads a free document – there’s a strong possibility they’ll be interested in similar items.  It’s like them putting up their hand and saying ‘this is what I want’.  

What is my point?

Know your audience.

Know what they want and give them more of that kind of thing.  Most email marketing platforms allow you to tag or separate people in your lists so they only get the emails that are of interest to them.

Instead of becoming a spammer, you’ll be building a loyal audience of fans.

Are you missing opportunities?

When you’re running a small business one of the toughest – and most critical – tasks is attracting new customers.  This is doubly true if you’re not a natural sales person.

In reality, after a couple of decades in business, I’ve found that most of my customers come to me as a result of either a recommendation by someone else or by coming into contact with me in some way through networking online or offline.  In the first instance, someone who already knows, likes and trusts me is passing on that trust to their contact.  In the second situation, it’s usually that the customer has started to get to know me before making that decision.

However, this is a fairly random and not always consistent way to find new clients.  But what if you could start building those relationships that bring potential customers to you consistently.

Attract the right people

What are the biggest problems that your customers experience?  Could you give them the solution as a written document?

If you can give them a guide or ‘How to …’ document they’ll be willing to share their email address to get something that has significant value.

This is a lead magnet – and lots of people have them, but they’re not always focused on the right content.  If you already have a lead magnet, review it and ensure it’s exactly what your perfect customer will find impossible to resist!

Let people know about it

You don’t need to invest in Google or Facebook advertising (although you could if you want to), you just need to tell your social networks about it.  If you’ve got the right title for your document, it should be easy to attract people.

What’s the right title?  Here are some examples:

• How [your target audience e.g. printers] can compete successfully with [biggest challenge e.g. digital media] and win.
• The 7 essential keys to help [target audience, e.g. accountants] stand out from their competitors
• How [target audience] can double their business, without making a single phone call.

You’ll notice they are quite long – but that’s not a bad thing, it helps them to self-identify and is highly focused on their problem – and offers a solution.

Promote it regularly – this is not a one-hit kind of activity; you should be reminding people about this valuable resource every week.

One swallow does not make a summer

One email – providing the download link – doesn’t create a relationship either!  You need to follow up and nurture your relationship with people who have self-identified as potential customers.

My recommendation is a series of emails that follow up with additional value and remind the recipient to revisit (or get around to reading) the valuable information they’ve already downloaded.

After a few (3-5) you could then offer an upgrade – this might be a video or e-course, a book or a webinar series – be creative.  It will need to be a follow-on, but more in-depth information – and be priced at an affordable level.  Typically, this is usually under £50.

Then ‘rinse and repeat’.  Keep in touch with your list, keep sending them great value and some of them will become valuable customers.

It’s not just about the press

When you look at PR opportunities, where do you want to appear?

If you’ve been reading my blogs a while you’ll know that the national dailies are not the first target for most businesses.  If you’re aiming to build a reputation for being an expert in your field you need to be where your target audience are looking.  National dailies are too random – the demographics of their readership is so broad that it’s almost ‘anyone’!

However, while your ideal client’s industry journals are a good first choice, don’t ignore broadcast media.

OK – the ‘This Morning’ sofa might be a big step, but there are better – and easier – places to start.  

Have you tried local radio?

If you check your area there will be lots of local radio stations.  Some are online only, others broadcast over the radio waves, but they all have audiences and different audience demographics at different times of day.

A quick search of Radio stations in Essex produced a list of 10 FM broadcast stations and quite a few online digital stations.  I’m sure your area will be the same.  Radio stations are always looking for interesting stories that relate to the local area, so if you can put together a good story for the press, you can do the same for local radio.

Pick your station and the presenter or producer that handles the shows that are ideal for your audience.  For instance, if you want to reach business people, the early morning show and drive-time are probably your best bets.

Once you’ve appeared once, you’ll usually be on their radar and may be asked to appear on future shows that have relevant content.  Also some of the smaller stations are open to discussing a regular slot if you’ve got good content to share.

Most counties have a BBC radio station too and if your story does well on a local station it can be picked up by BBC national stations.

Become an expert

If you really want to get onto the mainstream media you could register on sites such as FindaTVExpert or Expert Sources.  These are subscription sites, but, along with other similar databases, are where producers of talk shows and news programmes go to find someone who can comment on whatever they’re discussing.

Our top tip is to ensure you are:

a. easy to contact and respond positively
b. available – or they probably won’t try a second time

c. if a producer asks you to get back to them by a certain time – don’t miss their deadline.

If you’re willing to accommodate their requirements they’ll come back to you.  If you do well they’ll pass on your details to other producers/journalists.

Generally, it’s good to have an up-to-date website that features your core subjects prominently and, ideally, has either video or audio material of you so producers can see how you come over and get an idea of what you’re expert in.  You may need to invest in SEO to ensure your website – or the particular page you want people to find – shows up on the first page or two of searches.

A blog is an excellent way to demonstrate your expertise too.  It shows you know what you’re talking about and gives a flavour of your opinions.

What IS a newsletter?

There are many opinions about what a newsletter is.  There is a faction that says the secret is in the name ‘NEWS-letter’.  However, what constitutes news for your audience?

It’s probably not what YOU consider to be news, but remember that you’re delivering content to help, support, inform, educate or entertain your reader.

In other words they don’t want to know YOUR news, they want THEIR news.

The newsletters I read frequently are:

• Entertaining
• Written as though the writer is talking to me
• Deliver something of value and/or interest TO ME
• Don’t ramble – I’m busy
• Make it clear and easy to take further action if it’s relevant. 

Do your research

If you’re still not sure what your audience want, ask them what they read, what they delete and what they mean to read, but don’t get around to.

Sign up to the lists they follow and see what kind of content they like!  

That third category ‘What they mean to read, but don’t get around to’, is worth looking at – it clearly delivers something they’re interested in, but not in a way that they find easy to consume.  In other words, getting the value takes effort.  

Could you deliver similar content – in a more engaging way?

That’s Entertainment!

Why have I put Entertaining at the top of the list?

Because that’s what attracts us to newsletters.  We want to be entertained (I spent 5 minutes this morning whacking penguins – thank you Alan Stevens!)  Entertainment doesn’t mean that the content has to be irrelevant, it just needs to entertain the reader.  That might be:

• A relevant cartoon (check copyright)
• A quiz or questionnaire with a result (e.g. what personality type are you?)
• A game
• A video link to something funny or bizarre

However, it might be simply your writing style.  One of the newsletters I get – and read, usually starts with a humorous comment or two about the writer's current situation.  

I'm celebrating 3 very important things today:

1. The weather has momentarily stopped being a heatwave - putting rest to Mrs S's insistence that we're all destined to spontaneously combust and should ready the hosepipe, post haste.
2. I was able to watch the entire first 7 minutes of my TV show before the kids came in to complain about the volume (a new record).
3. Lesson Two of your $0 to $1k From Book Sales free course is now ready (woop). 

There are plenty of ways to entertain your audience while delivering great value – and that’s the secret of a really good newsletter – deliver value.

The latest fashion

Recently I suggested that a client should update their regular social media posts as I didn’t think they were working very well.  I got thrown a challenge “But you wrote them?”

The answer was that social media has changed and the type of content people post needs to keep up with the latest ‘fashion’!

When Facebook appeared on the scene (2005), posts were chatty, personal and social, then along came Twitter and we all had to learn to write our thoughts into 140 characters!  To be honest this was a useful education for all writers as short and simple always trumps long and rambly!

Then LinkedIn upgraded their services and the business version of Facebook emerged.

But YouTube came along, followed by Pinterest and then Instagram, which means that pictures and video got centre stage.

Fashion

Twitter is less popular with business people these days, unless you want to connect with celebrities or journalists.

Facebook is – so I’m told – for ‘old people’!!!  But lots of small businesses still use it as a means of connecting with their tribes – some enormously successfully.

Instagram remains very popular, but requires an image that attracts attention.  And, of course, TikTok has given us the Twitter version of video – short and easy to consume.

LinkedIn has moved with the times and follows the trends established by other platforms, with a lot of video and image based content, with a business focus (mostly).

Frequency

Twitter encouraged people to post frequently – often several times a day.  Even if your weren’t following many people the home feed moved so fast that multiple posts vanished quickly.

However, that approach doesn’t work so well on other platforms and today, for businesses, fewer posts, but better content is the rule to follow.

You’re not just looking for views, or even likes, but engagement.  Given the millions of people on any given platform, that’s hard to achieve.  

Focus

Getting that all important engagement depends on two key factors:

1. Know your target audience intimately – what they’re interested in, what gets them involved.
2. Deliver great content.

This may be simple, but neither of these are easy, but they are the secrets of success.  

You don’t have to deliver daily inspiring posts and meaty, thought-provoking content, but you do have to deliver content your audience will love, whether that’s information on the newest galaxy to be discovered or cartwheeling cats!  It all depends on your audience.

Two great posts a week are better than mediocre daily posts!