[Show Transcript]
I’m Randy Charach from RandyReport.com and THIS is the show that takes you from internet zero to business hero!
In this week’s report you’ll learn how to promote your business by using a newsletter, which can help keep your customers connected and increase your profit through targeted offers and ads. You’ll learn how to create a newsletter that people will want to read, how to stay on the right side of the law when sending your newsletters, and how to manage your campaign with an auto responder.
A newsletter is an ongoing way to promote your business and its purpose is to bring in customers who might be interested in what you have to offer. If you send customers regular newsletters with useful content that appeals to your target audience, you up your odds of making additional profit from the extra exposure.
When it comes to sending newsletters, think the turtle and the hare: slow and steady wins the race. Marketing studies show it usually takes about seven newsletters before people will buy from you, so don’t expect to be filling a wheelbarrow with cash after your first mail out. A newsletter is a longer term investment of your time, but it can reap rewards if you’re patient.
You need to walk the tightrope between providing content and selling when it comes it your newsletter. Every newsletter can’t scream “Buy this” but you don’t just want to send out pages and pages of pure content without monetization. The exception to this rule is if you’re independently wealthy and you don’t really care about making money, otherwise, choose a healthy balance.
Maybe every third newsletter you include an offer, or go for a ratio of two thirds content to one third advertising in each one. Some businesses use a 50/50 ratio of ads to content, while others go for 70/30. There’s no right or wrong answer here…no newsletter cheat sheet on the perfect ratio. It’s what works for your company and your customers.
Make yourself useful…that’s what my mom used to tell me…Provide information that your customers will be interested in, so they know they mean more to you than just dollars and cents. Hashing together a short newsletter in a rush that doesn’t offer a unique proposition won’t cut the mustard with your customers. Make sure your newsletters aren’t as boring as dry toast. Be somewhat controversial…take a stand, and give people a reason to keep reading.
Your goal with your newsletter is to spread awareness and drive traffic to your website.
You can entice people to come to your site by dropping breadcrumbs…like Hansel and Gretel…to follow so you can lead them back by putting a little piece of an article in the newsletter, with a link to view the full story on your website.
Whenever you’re providing offers and content, they have to be targeted. People have trigger finger when it comes to their inbox, and are trained to quickly weed out spam and unnecessary emails with the click of a mouse. You don’t want to email an offer for high calorie chocolate almonds if your newsletter offers weight loss and diet tips. Well, on the other hand…that just might work. But that’s just mean…and it won’t speak to your health-conscious customers the way you want it to.
An important note: you have to be careful when building your business with a newsletter. The FTC…FTC stands for Federal Trade Commission…recently updated their rules so that all endorsements must be disclosed.
That means when you send any advertising message: an email review, product demo, statement in a newsletter, note by carrier pigeon…you need to disclose if you’re being compensated.
One exception is if you personally buy the product, love it to pieces and praise it on your blog. That’s just your opinion. But, if you are paid by a third party…we could be talking money, coupons, freebies, whatever…to write about a product, you need to spill the beans. Follow the FTC rules and keep informed of any changing regulations. Look. I’m not a lawyer and I don’t even play one on TV so check this stuff out for yourself, I’m just letting you know that there are rules and they vary from region to region and change all the time.
Speaking of rules, always have an-opt out link on your newsletter so if people don’t want to receive it anymore, they can easily remove themselves from your list.
Email inboxes are fickle. When spam became such a huge issue, email providers started cracking down on what was allowed in emails and what wasn’t. Don’t bog down your newsletter campaign by including huge photos, videos and logos. Most email servers have filters that will put them right in the trash, or make them harder for people to open. Don’t worry about dazzling the crowd with fancy graphics and sparkling fonts. Instead focus on the quality of your content.
Your best option is to send a multi-part newsletter – this means that it arrives in HTML format for people who are able to view it and simple old plain text for those who can’t. This will make your newsletter accessible to everyone you send it to.
Be consistent with mail outs. You need to set up a schedule for sending newsletters and stick to it. Send it on the same day each week so people will expect it. Don’t send newsletters any more than twice a week or you’re being a pest, but don’t leave a lag of three weeks between each one. Find a happy medium…say once a week, and like baby bear’s porridge, it’ll be just right.
You can buy auto responder software that you install on your computer…you’ll just have to manage things like email bounces – that’s when you send email to an incorrect or dead email address, and like a boomerang it comes back to you. Or you can use a hands-free system: a hosted auto responder service that charges a monthly fee and takes on the management of the software and hardware. I highly recommend you go with the managed system…it’s inexpensive and it frees you up to do other things.
An auto responder is a great tool to simplify the process of sending newsletters. Anytime the auto responder receives an online request…in this case to sign up for your newsletter, it automatically responds with whatever info you have set it up to send. Managing an email list manually, updating it, and handling mail outs without one, is no fun. As your customer database grows, the auto responder will also handle new signups and email changes.
Test drive your newsletter campaign by getting someone to proofread your newsletter and give you an honest opinion. There are also spam checkers that you can find online and are built into most autoresponder software programs that’ll give you a spam score so you can see how likely it is your email will end up in the trash. Send your newsletter to yourself and see how it appears when you open it.
You also want to know who received and opened your email, and who clicked through to your site. This will help you target your customers in the future, make adjustments, and learn as you go. Again, most auto responder software will take care of this tracking for you.
Our question this week comes from James C. from Ashford, Washington who wrote:
I just started using a newsletter to update my customers on my self publishing company. How can I increase my email signups and grow my database?
The easiest way to watch your customer database grow is by giving people an Incentive to sign up…a free report, or a free download for joining.
Make sure you clearly post your no spam policy, to promise that you won’t share their email addresses with anyone else or send them unsolicited offers. People will feel safer to give you their info and trust that you won’t share it with someone else.
By offering great content and sending newsletters out regularly, people will be more likely to forward it to friends and tell people about the value of your newsletter.
Also make sure it’s easy to sign up. Always have a prominent sign-up box on your website. Put it on every page, or at least on your homepage AND make it simple for customers to change their info such as their email address.
Well, that wraps up this episode of Randy Report. Since company’s websites, prices and quality of service on the Internet change rapidly, for my up-to-date recommendations on resources and for free tools and training, visit me today at RandyReport.com.
Today you learned
How to use newsletters to build your business, how to bring customers to your site with targeted content and offers, and how often to send out your newsletter. You also learned how important it is to closely follow the FTC and other governing rules to avoid legal troubles, and how to use auto responder software to manage and track your newsletter campaign.
Thanks so much for watching. Remember, if you’d like more free reports, resources and training then visit RandyReport.com and join me again next week where you’ll discover How to grow your own consulting or coaching business, where you’ll help motivate and guide others…and make money for providing your expertise. I’ll show you how to choose the right consulting or coaching business, how to attract clients and how to promote your business through online and offline marketing tactics.
[End of Show Transcript]
