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How many websites do you visit and they ask you to ‘sign up’ for their newsletter?

There’s no indication of what the newsletter will deliver and these days most of us are smart enough to recognise it as a means of getting our email address to market to us.

There’s nothing wrong with that – but let’s be honest – do you really want another miscellaneous email in your inbox?  How many of the newsletters you’re already signed up to do you actually read?

If you’re anything like me most get deleted – because they don’t deliver anything of interest or value to me.

A newsletter should deliver value for the reader

Many don’t.  These are NOT value for your reader:

• A new member of staff
• New clients
• An award
• Moving to bigger offices
• A busy month

As Rhett Butler famously said “Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn!”

They may all be things you and your team are excited about, but why would a potential, or even an existing, client find these interesting?

Your newsletter, like your blog, is an opportunity to show off your expertise.  Give your reader something useful.  This might be:

• A ‘how to’ article
• Some tips on a subject of interest (in which you are expert)
• Some inside information on developments that are relevant to your target audience
• A case study that explains how to get specific results

Don’t write a long article – short and to the point is the secret of getting your newsletter read.  For an e-newsletter a maximum of three items – one longer information piece, some PR for your latest offer and, maybe, a paragraph on your business updates – in that order.

How to get people to sign up

Everyone gets excited about building your list – and it’s true that it’s a really effective way to market. People who have parted with their email address to get something they want have, effectively, raised their hand and said “I’m interested.”

What will get them interested enough to willingly part with their contact information?

You need an ethical bribe; in other words you give them something of value and they’ll agree to be on your list.

The four things people respond best to are:

• How to ... (something you’re often asked about)
• 10 top tips on ... (your area of expertise – it can be 7 or 17 or any other number, but typically people respond best to odd  numbers – with the exception of 10)
• Your ... Checklist
• The 3 biggest mistakes people make when ... (something you’re expert in)

These don’t need to be long ebooks, a one or two page document delivered as a pdf is enough.  If you happen to have written a good ebook with a catchy title and really good content then you could give that away, but you could also sell it for a nominal amount and just give away the first chapter.

There are different approaches for different companies – you will need to find something that works for you, but remember it’s all about delivering value in the first instance – and then continuing to do so in every communication.  After all – it’s easy to unsubscribe too!

The Chattering Classes

Blog 28-Nov-16

Auberon Waugh invented this phrase to describe the middle classes who were well-educated, had strong political views and were social concerned.  It wasn’t a compliment!  Today it might be used in a completely different way – to describe people who spend all their time on social media.

I’m a big fan of social media – but don’t want to share every detail of my life on it.  I find it really useful for all kinds of things, both business and personal, but I do think before I post.

Quite apart from the personal advantages of being able to keep in touch with family and friends scattered all round the world, I find social media is a really powerful business tool – as long as it’s used intelligently.

Social media for business

It’s a great way to connect with people you would, otherwise, never meet.

LinkedIn is a valuable tool to make connections with potential clients and build relationships, which is particularly valuable if you’re offering products or services to other businesses.

LinkedIn groups are an excellent way to get in front of a bunch of people who are, potentially, all ideal clients.  As long as you share your knowledge to help others, you’ll soon become well-known as an expert in your field.

Facebook is an excellent platform if your business offers personal products or services.  Bags, shoes, crafts, gifts, wedding stuff, personal development, fitness, nutrition and beauty all do well on Facebook.

That doesn’t mean that there are no business people looking at it – it’s just that, when people are on Facebook, they’re usually ‘off-duty’ and are operating as a husband, wife, friend, son, daughter, football fan, etc.  They’re in social headspace and aren’t looking for business services so much.  

Facebook is community oriented where like-minded people gather round the things they’re interested in.  Elly Prizeman launched her unique shirt business on Facebook and has grown a successful business as people get to see the latest designs and feel part of her community.

Twitter is a much more random means of making connections.  You may be connected to someone who has 30,000 connections and, if they share something you tweet, all those connections have the potential to see it – which is why things go viral really quickly.

Some of the big organisations use Twitter to respond quickly to customer queries and complaints.  It moves much faster than LinkedIn and Facebook – and it’s unfiltered so you can see everything, unlike Facebook where only a percentage of what’s posted is presented for you to read.

The other plus with Twitter is that, using a social media management tool, like Hootsuite, you can run a permanent search for any terms you want to keep up with.

If your business is visual Instagram (owned by Facebook) is a powerful tool.  For example; Joe Wicks, owner of The Body Coach, has become a millionaire through Instagram.  He uses it really effectively to share before and after pictures, short video clips of recipes and to establish his hashtagged keywords.

The other visual platform is, of course, YouTube.  Not only does it carry a wealth of information, but many people use it as a search engine.  If you want to know how to do something, there are probable several videos on YouTube explaining how.  That means it’s a great place for you to have short videos about your services.  

To get the most from YouTube see it as a means of showing off your expertise.  If people can see how good you are there’s a much higher chance of them considering using your services.

Clearly, there are dozens of other social media platforms – but these are the ones most people look at first.  If you want to get your name and expertise in front of people you really do need a sound social media strategy.

What a show-off!

If you follow what I write about you’ll know that I talk about the RAVE acronym – Reputation, Authority, Visibility, Expertise – and today I’m focused on Expertise.

Unless someone has actually paid for your services, how do they know how good you are?  They have to take your level of expertise on trust.

OK – sometimes people can read testimonials or recommendations that have either been written or recorded on video.  But you’d be unlikely to publish anything that wasn’t complimentary, so there’s a likelihood that even third party validation is only the plus side of the equation (and could be from a selection of your friends who have been recruited to help).

So how do you get people to WANT to use YOU?

Become a big show-off!

There are a number of ways to do this:

1. Do presentations at your local networking groups
2. Offer to speak at conferences and trade shows
3. Run a webinar as a ‘taster’ freebie
4. Organise a seminar or workshop at an affordably low cost for delegates.
5. Write magazine articles
6. Write blogs

1 & 2 require you to be reasonable confident presenting to a crowd and to learn some of the skills of a professional speaker to appear professional.

3 & 4 need some training skills to ensure your audience gets their learning in a way that is easy for them to follow.  It also means you need a way to get ‘bums on seats’.

5 will require some schmoozing with the editors of the magazines that your target audience reads to find out if they accept uncommissioned articles and what kind of subject and angle they’re looking for.

6 is the only one of these that is totally down to you.  It’s your blog – you can write whatever you like.  Here is your opportunity to show off your expertise in a big way.

I’m not saying don’t use the first five – they’re all great ways to get your expertise in front of more people, but writing a regular blog is definitely the easiest of all of them.

Not all blog posts focus on a ‘how to ...’ approach, but if you use this you’ll be able to demonstrate your considerable expertise in relevant subjects. 

This is not the first time I’ve said this – and the usual response is ‘but if I give away all my secrets people won’t want to buy my services, they’ll just follow the instructions and do it for themselves.’  This is rarely the case.

If people don’t want to or can’t pay for your services they were probably never likely to become your client – so you’ve given them some help – that’s great. 

Most people like to know that there is a solution, but don’t actually want to go through the hassle of doing it themselves.  For instance, I can manage to complete a spreadsheet and upload my invoices and receipts, but I really don’t want to spend my time doing that.  It’s definitely one of those tasks that would keep getting put off – so I pay an accountant for their time.  They do it faster, better and leave me free to do what I’m good at and enjoy doing.

Using your blog to show off how good you are is a great way to create a positive image.

Footnote:  When you’ve posted your blog, don’t stop there.  Promote it on your chosen social media, add it to your LinkedIn profile as a post, use it to lead your newsletter.  There are lots of ways to ensure more people see it – and what an expert you are!