How to Make Writing Your Newsletter Easier

For many people, writing a newsletter is somewhere down there with going to the dentist, washing the car and clearing out the eves troughs. A right royal pain in the butt. The thing is, you can’t see it like that if you are going to continue with your newsletter for the long term. (And the…

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Your Email List Is of Absolutely No Value to Me

One of the questions I get from potential new members of my real estate newsletter program  – the email version – is whether their list of clients will be safe if they upload them to my website. They’re afraid I – or someone else – will steal all the email addresses and sell them to…

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5 Reasons Why Your Business Needs a Newsletter

Here’s what I believe: Every Business Needs a Newsletter. No excuses. Even funeral homes. Here are 5 reasons why: 1. Monsters in the Dark (because, especially right now, people want to do business with people they know and trust) Trust is at a premium these days. After all, who can we trust? Not the banks…

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How to Use Twitter for Your Newsletter

Gotta love Twitter. It’s like a world-wide networking party – without holding a glass of orange juice in one hand. Here’s how I use it to make my newsletter. I tweet (and link to) anything I find online that I think would be interesting to my Twitter followers and my newsletter readers. After all, networking…

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The Long Tail of Newsletters

I often hear stories that clients consider amazing. It goes something like this: I sent my newsletter to this person six months ago. And today they called me! Can you believe they kept the newsletter all that time and then got in touch? Well, yes, I can. If the newsletter is good. Here’s the thing:…

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Why Quality beats Quantity in Newsletter Subscribers

I was listening to an interesting webinar from Vertical Response (they’re the guys I’ve partnered with for my email newsletter service) today. Several things came out of it worth noting – I’ll blog about them all in the coming days. One of the stand-out points was about list size. The bottom line on list size…

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Excellent Example of a Customized Real Estate Newsletter

I love it when people make an effort with their marketing. (Because – to be honest – so few people really do all that it takes to break through in their market, particularly in the current economy.) I love it even more when my members take the product I offer one stage further and make…

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Good and Bad Email Newsletter Campaigns

At least twice a week I have a conversation with a client or potential client about who they can sign up to receive their email newsletter. This conversation most often occurs with people who are new Realtors, insurance agents or mortgage brokers because they don’t yet have a list of past clients. Can they sign…

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The Best Way to Send Out Email Newsletters

A common question I receive from people interested in my real estate, mortgage and insurance customer newsletters is whether they can send them using their own email software rather than the hosted service I offer. (With a hosted service, you upload your email list to a website, which looks after the design, list management and…

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An Excellent Email Newsletter to Model

I’ve been on the mailing list of Printing for Less for some time and have always been impressed by their monthly email newsletters. January’s is perhaps one of the best, so I thought it would be interesting to talk about why it’s so good. 1. The newsletter starts with a topical comment that “enters the…

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How to Lose Friends and Alienate People with Your Email Newsletter

Email newsletters – ezines – can be a powerful way to build a relationship with your clients and prospects by communicating with them right there on their computer. But if you abuse the easy access, low cost and immediacy of email, you run the risk of losing trust in the marketplace. Here’s a tongue-in-cheek look…

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Real Estate Agents (and Others): The Newspaper Newsletter

I hate it when people have an idea similar to mine and then blog about it first, so that I don’t get the chance to claim it. Anyway, that person is Seth Godin, so I’m not mad. Real Estate agents (and anyone else with a local business) should read his post, Time to start a…

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Why 2009 is the Year of the Customer Relationship

I was tweeting with a friend (yes, I’m on Twitter now – follow me!) who had some exciting news to share. It was a wonderful way for her to start the new year. We agreed that 2009 is going to be a very good year for people with enough get-up-and-go to take the bold action…

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Find Newsletter Writing Daunting?

I had lunch the other week with a new entrepreneur. She thought a newsletter would help one of her clients in the not-for-profit sector to communicate with its donors. A good idea. But she was daunted by the prospect of having to create one – designing it, finding pictures, writing headlines, making sure everything lined…

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The #1 Secret to a Successful Newsletter

I was involved in an interesting discussion about newsletter marketing the other week. Some of the entrepreneurs I was talking with used newsletters – or at least believed in their value. Two questions were raised: What should a newsletter contain? And how often should you send it? Of course, there are no easy answers to…

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A Useful List of Newsletter Topics

Your newsletter doesn’t just have to be about what you do. If you’re an accountant, don’t just write about tax. Include info that helps people run a business. If you’re a real estate agent, don’t just write about real estate, include other consumer info that people will find interesting. If you’re a plumber, don’t just…

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How to Sign Up People for Your Newsletter on Your Website

I was asked yesterday for instructions about how to sign up people for your newsletter using your website. So I figured it would be a good idea to share them on this blog. Why You Need to Sign Up People on Your Website I’m continually surprised by how few people, even those who use my…

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Are You Nice Enough?

Niceness is much underrated, especially in business. After all, it's difficult to put a dollar value on a smile. But you know what? Niceness pays. I'm choosing between two satellite TV providers right now. One is my current supplier – and I really like their customer service. The people on the phone are friendly. They're…

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What Links Dell, Your Business, Blogs and Newsletters?

Dell has launched a content-rich website called Digital Nomads. It’s aimed at people who, thanks to technology, can work and play wherever they like – people who aren’t tied to an office location. Here’s why Dell is being so smart. Dell is creating a community based upon a common passion. It’s serving that community on…

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How Newsletters Benefit Companies in the Business-to-Business Market

I was asked by an accountant the other day about how he should create a newsletter program. Most of the newsletters I’ve created to far have been aimed at consumers – for example real estate newsletters that Realtors can use to send to their clients, mortgage newsletters for mortgage brokers’ clients, etc. But really, there’s…

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