We appreciate your patience, please continue to hold
This is a story about turning one lost customer into 10 lost customers. I’m writing this entry while on hold with Vonage, the VOIP telephone company. You see, I want to cancel my account (wasn’t using it — quality too bad) and Vonage is trying to stop me canceling. It’s like a war of wills.…
The best kind of picture
I’m actually a words man. So I don’t always go along with the “one picture tells 1,000 words” mantra. After all, words are incredibly powerful things when they speak to the needs and desires of the reader. But pictures are a great way to illustrate your newsletter because they provide visual proof of what you…
The independent bookstore — and your newsletter
Running an independent bookstore is a difficult task these days: you’re squeezed by the bookstore chains, the superstores and online retailers, all of which offer books (the bestsellers, at least) at a discount. So I was interested to read an article in The Guardian newspapaper today about an independent bookstore in London, England. Here’s a…
Don’t forget to recycle your newsletter content
If you’ve written articles for your newsletter, don’t waste them. You can use them again in a variety of formats. Then you’ll get much more mileage out of everything you write. Try using them… On your website: you’ll add several search-engine friendly pages to your website that will attract more viewers and keep them sticking…
How to get a newsletter design you actually like
I’ve just finished briefing a designer on the design for a new client’s newsletter. So I thought I’d share some of the things I do to make sure I (and my client) get a design everyone likes. Have a vision The most important thing to do is have a vision for what you want the…
How to attract skim readers
Interesting post today by Michael Stelzner — How do you capture skim readers? It got me thinking. It’s said over and over that people don’t read much anymore because they’re so overwhelmed with information. They have only a short time to look at your newsletter, so they skim it. So how do you get your…
Great ideas for newsletter content
Off-the-shelf newsletters are a great place to start if you’ve never sent out a newsletter before or you don’t have time to write or design one to a high enough standard. However, the more of your own content you can include, the better you’ll be able to build your relationship with your list. That’s because…
Say more with less
One of the great things about print publications is that there’s never enough space. On the internet, space isn’t a problem. Write more and scroll more. But in print, writers and editors are forced to squeeze everything into the space available; they can’t simply add pages at the back of the newspaper if they run…
Are you leaving your readers out of the conversation?
Brian Clark, the always excellent Copyblogger, today talks about one of my pet subjects, writing with your intended reader in mind. Although his post, Are You Leaving Your Readers Out of the Conversation?, is about blogging, it’s also relevant to newsletter content. He says: When the conversation is not one that is of interest to…
How to stand out from the crowd
One of the greatest — and most important — tasks a business faces is to differentiate itself from its competitors. Doing so gives that business an enormous marketing advantage and in many cases allows it to charge premium prices by avoiding the trap of commoditization. But how to do that? A book by Sam Horn,…
It happens to the best of us…
I share this image not to poke fun at Google but to serve as a useful reminder. After all, we’ve all done it. That’s make a big, huge spelling mistake. When I worked on a daily newspaper, a headline went to press with a mistake in it more times than I’ll admit to. Pages were…
How to Make Clients Love Your Newsletter
It’s not so difficult to have readers who love what you do — clients and potential clients who look forward to receiving your newsletter every month. Success is down to just one simple rule. Like many rules, this one is very obvious. I frequently speak with people who are thinking of launching a newsletter for…
Entrepreneur’s guide to Web 2.0
Once upon a time, if you wanted book-keeping software, a word processor or a customer relationship management database, you’d have to go out and buy some (expensive) software which you’d then have to install on your computer. One of the great things about the whole Web 2.0 thing is that hundreds of companies have sprung…
Elements of a successful newsletter: 12 – The Printing Options
This is the twelfth in a series of posts about the elements of a successful newsletter. 12. The Printing Options You can run off a few copies of your newsletter on your computer’s printer…or you can ask a professional printer to do it for you. Here are the main options. Do-it-yourself: There’s a lot to…
Elements of a successful newsletter: 11 – The Mailing Options
This is the eleventh in a series of posts about the elements of a successful newsletter. 11. The Mailing Options There are 2 decisions you need to make when considering your mailing options: Envelope or no envelope? Bulk mail or first class? Envelope or no envelope? An envelope will help protect your newsletter from getting…
Your front-line marketing staff
Just back from a week of traveling, I thought I’d relay to you a couple of experiences. They both share a theme: that your front-line staff — the people who face your customers — are among your most important marketing tools. Airline KLM was hit by the stormy weather in western Europe the other week.…
Survey on the value of newsletters
This isn’t a new survey but it’s an intersting one, and I don’t think I’ve shared it here before. Standard & Poor’s conducted a survey called The Value of Newsletters to Financial Services Companies. Here are the main results: Summary: Overall, the survey results confirmed and underscored the effectiveness of newsletters as a communications channel…
A remarkable store
One way to go upscale and charge premium prices for a premium product. In Toronto there’s a great butcher’s store called Cumbrae’s. Sometimes I visit for a little ‘meat tourism’. (Vegetarians can look away now, but you’ll miss some useful marketing lessons.) I’ve no doubt this store (actually, there are three of them) is enormously…
If you make an offer – tell your staff
This post should be in the blindingly obvious category. But if it’s so obvious, why did this happen…? I call a cable company to consider switching my telephone to them (it’s so competitive, each provider continually sends through new offers). But the person on the phone hadn’t been told of the offer and tried to…
Elements of a successful newsletter: 10 – The Contact Information
This is the tenth in a series of posts about the elements of a successful newsletter. 10. The Contact Information If the main goal of your newsletter is to generate extra business, either from new customers through referrals or from your existing client base, you will want to make it as easy as possible for…