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Simon Payn
Ready to Go Newsletters
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Don't Start a Newsletter...
... until you've read this guide!
Discover...
* What to put in your newsletter to build client relationships (hint - it's not the kind of content you probably think!)
* Why many "cookie-cutter newsletters" completely fail to help you connect with your clients
* And more...
Click here to download your guide.
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What's in The February Edition of News You Can Use
Here's a preview to
some of the articles in the next edition of your Ready to Go
Newsletter. To find out more, visit one of these links: Real Estate,
Mortgage, Insurance, General.
Real Estate
Sellers: How to Make the Most of Your Home's Period Details
How to Benefit from a Home Inspection
Mortgage
Valuing Your Home: How Appraisals Work
Now's the Time to Look at Your Mortgage
Insurance
3 Essential Tips to Get the Best Deal on Insurance
How Umbrella Insurance Protects Your Assets
Plus
Ideas for Valentine's Gifts that Won't Break the Bank
10 Useful Ways to Get the Most out of Facebook
How to Save Money on Printer Ink
Not yet a member? Find out more about the Real Estate,
Mortgage, Insurance and General newsletters.
Useful Links from Around the Web
This is what I've been reading online this month:
The rest of your freakin' life
Do ads work?
Goal setting techniques
When newspapers are gone, what will you miss?
Marketers focus on content in 2009
Are you trapped in black-and-white thinking?
How to use Twitter to market your business
Get PR leads with Help a Reporter Out
Follow me on Twitter
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What's in The Newsletter this Month
This newsletter is being sent to members, friends and contacts of Simon Payn and Ready to Go Newsletters. It's designed to give you plenty of information to help you get the most out of the most powerful marketing device there is - the customer newsletter.
If you don't wish to receive it every month, please follow the unsubscribe link at the foot of this email.
Inside this month:
Welcome to 2009 - the Best Year of Your Life
Two Great Sources of Images for Your Newsletter
How to Lose Friends and Alienate People with Your Email Newsletter
What's in News You Can Use this February
Useful Links from Around the Web
Follow me on Twitter
Welcome to 2009 - the Best Year of Your Life
This
going to be a very good year for people with enough get-up-and-go to
take the bold action required to make the most of the opportunities
presented by the poor economy.
While things are undoubtedly bad for many people, those same conditions
present huge opportunities for those who will take action.
While everyone else is nesting under the covers (and being given the
chills by the squealing of CNN), those with enough get-up-and-go will
be ramping up their marketing.
As a business consultant said to me in December, there's no difference
between what happens during a recession and what happens when new
competition to your business opens. When there's extra competition,
there are more vendors looking for the same number of clients; in a
recession there is the same number of vendors looking for fewer
clients. Same difference.
And what would you do if competition opened up next door? You'd boost your marketing.
Why Relationships are Key in a Recession
And what's the best way to increase the power of your marketing in a
time when people are feeling vulnerable and afraid? It's to strengthen
your customer relationships.
After all, in times like this, people are looking for vendors they like and trust; businesses that won't take advantage of them.
(Incidentally, they're also looking for businesses that look like they
are going to survive the recession. It's interesting how many people
ask - often quite subtlety - if my customer newsletter business is
going to be around this time next year! One way to demonstrate that you
are going to survive is to continue marketing and communicating with
your clients.)
So this year, for my business, I am going to be focusing on building
trusting relationships with my prospects and clients. I urge you to do
so too.
How Newsletters Build Relationships
Newsletters, of course, play an important role here. They're one of the
best ways to build strong relationships over the long term. What they
do is provide useful, entertaining content on a regular basis. Not only
does this keep your name in front of clients' eyes, but it also
establishes you as a trusted adviser rather than just "another
salesperson".
Two Great Sources of Images for Your Newsletter
 I've mentioned before that you can find great images on Flickr and stock.xchng. Just make sure you check whether the photographer is giving you permission to use the image. Sometimes you just need to send a message asking for permission - I find that most happily give it.
(Creative Commons licenses, used frequently on Flickr, are the easiest way to make sure you have permission to use an image.)
Here's a quick way to search for images on Flickr. With Compfight, you put in a search term and the screen fills with thumbnail images to choose from. It's quite fast.
Above right is screen-shot after a search for "Toronto".
I found this raccoon hiding in the barbecue on a very rainy late December day in central Ontario, Canada.
He - or she - was with a friend, who was hanging on the balcony railings, fur soaked by rain.
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 at how to do it wrong:
1. Send your newsletter as a 10MB attachment, explaining it’s got beautiful graphics…that’s why it’s so large.
2. Send your newsletter to people who don’t even know you.
3. Send your newsletter out every six months so people don’t remember who you are.
4. Don’t put unsubscribe links in your newsletter. After all, people might actually leave if you do that!
5. Make people log in to your website (using a username they can’t remember) to unsubscribe from your newsletter.
6. Fill your newsletter with promotions instead of useful information.
7. Send your newsletter to a list of names you bought from some website somewhere.
8. Keep sending newsletters even to people who don’t want them. You’ll make them change their mind, right?
9. Send your newsletter to people who likely have no interest in knowing you at all.
10. Send your newsletter with just any old content in it. After all, it doesn’t matter what you send as long as you send something, right?
(With a nod to Toby Young’s very funny book, How to Lose Friends and Alienate People)
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