Work Better, Not Harder

If you've been publishing a regular monthly newsletter, you already know the benefits of reaching out to your contacts. You've invested time and money to build your readership and your reputation. You've provided value consistently and people have come to look forward to your newsletters. It’s time to crank it up a notch and send more emails. You've earned it. The 5 strategies listed below weren't invented by me but some of them may be new to you. Or perhaps you've rejected them in the past and it’s time to think again.  The goal of implementing these ideas is to ‘touch’ your contacts more frequently than you are now. There are other advantages built into each one as well. 1. Create and promote a new free resource. Make it amazing. Make it better than any other resource you've ever created. Make it something people would pay for. Give it away with no strings attached. Am I suggesting you give it away without getting an email address in return? Y...

Photo:  Wim Mulder One of the most common reasons for starting a newsletter is to keep in touch with clients, past clients, prospects, colleagues, suppliers and other contacts with the purpose of staying top of mind . I have said that this shouldn't be your only reason for having a newsletter but, in fact, sometimes that’s just what it is. "I'm just writing to say hello..." Here are some questions to consider: Do you still have to give value to succeed at keeping in touch? Do you even need your readers to open your email to achieve that? If you’re not giving value , what reason do you have for emailing? How often do you need to email your contacts to stay top of mind? This might be a factor of how often your readers would need/want your product or service. Remember, if you want someone to know you're thinking about them , a card by snail mail is more appropriate. Click to Tweet this Article

"People tell us who they are, but we ignore it because we want them to be who we want them to be.” - Donald Draper If my target market consisted of 1000 of me, my marketing efforts would be so much easier. After all, I know what I like and don’t like. I know what makes me glad, sad or mad. I know my favourite colours and the best time to get me on the phone. I know when my payday is and when I read my mail. I know when I need new shoes or my roof shingled. I’m not my ideal client but business would sure be easier if I was. My ideal clients make decisions differently than I do. They prefer different communication methods and spend their money on different things. Their personalities and styles are different than mine. They probably make more money than I do. But they don’t know how to create a newsletter campaign like I do. When things don’t go as I expect them to, it’s usually because a client didn't act, say or think the way I would have. (Darn them!) It's...

photo by Andrew Pescod Unless being used for a drip campaign, I typically don't recommend the use of welcome auto-responders at all. Not even for event registrations or other uses of sign-up forms. The goal is to not send any emails that aren't necessary and aren't what subscribers signed up for. What I do recommend is using a redirect web page , also called a landing page. You can typically put more types of content on a web page, such as maps, video, files for download, and PayPal buttons. I really do think it's a much better way to deliver important follow-up information. And you don't have to be concerned with delivery issues like a full mailbox or spam filters either. The redirect page will pop right up for them as soon as they click the sign up button. To see the value in a redirect page, click here , enter your email and hit submit. (You'll also be signing up for our newsletter!) Click to Tweet this Article

I screamed (in my head) when I read this lead to an article recently: Do you have the phrase “sign up for my newsletter” anywhere on your website? Whatever you do, do not put “sign up for my newsletter” on your website. The last thing people want to do is sign up for another newsletter. The article was about building your contact list and I don't disagree with some of the tactics. I really disagree with this premise above. That last line is so NOT TRUE. I bet that you are subscribed to several newsletters that you remain subscribed to because you get some kind of value . And you'll end your subscription when you stop getting value. How do you feel when you sign up for one thing and get another? If it's a newsletter, call it a newsletter. Tell them what they will get and how often. If you try to disguise it, people may be suspicious - and perhaps imagine something worse than what you're offering. Think about it. Why would someone require my email addres...

photo by alborzshawn Marketers encourage you to use welcome emails as an opportunity to market. Those same marketers are the ones writing all the articles about how integrity and relationship-building are so important to your content strategy. If you've succeeded in getting someone to sign up for your newsletter, don’t muck it up! I’m pretty sure they didn't sign up for a welcome email. Several times now I have signed up for a newsletter and then immediately unsubscribed when I received a welcome email that: had no value whatsoever for me contained (a lot of!) advertising was long, boring and ugly made me think, “If this is an indication of what is to come...?” and then hunt for the unsubscribe link There is another, much better, way to communicate to your new subscriber – use a landing page , also called a redirect page, in your sign up process. I can think of some situations where a welcome email might be desirable but, in most cases, a landing page can accom...

Does a high open rate mean anything if nobody is reading and acting? Your open rate is an indication of brand recognition. Your click rate is one indication of whether your newsletter actually gets read. (How many newsletters do you open without reading?) Getting read is what raises your reputation and prompts interaction . Did you know that you can actually increase one at the expense of the other? That’s why, when you shoot for one goal, you have to be aware of what else you’re impacting. Being opened, being read, and being clicked – that’s being 'read deeply' . Want to know how to ensure that your newsletter gets read more deeply? Send it at an off-peak time. When there is less available to read, people are more likely to read more deeply. You might be thinking, “That’s nuts! My open rate would drop.” And you’d be exactly right. But the amount of reading in relation to your open rate would increase. Go figure. Email marketing stats show that open rates are (sli...

Number crunching has always been a hobby of mine. For a few months our Klout score has been stuck at 55. Being a numbers person, I’d like to see it increase. It doesn't seem to matter how often I post, how much I interact, how much my content gets shared – stuck fast at 55. To clarify, our Twitter strategy has never been about quantity but rather quality. I've worked hard to improve the quality but that darn Klout score won’t budge. It really bugs me! It seems the only way I can increase it is to up the number of followers. While our followers are constantly growing, apparently not by enough to change that Klout score. I can’t keep up with the 900 people I’m already following. I’m able to interact with only a small percentage of them. Maybe I feel that following someone is more of a commitment than it really is? I've been fighting the temptation to turn Twitter into a numbers game. While I’m a numbers person, I realize there’s an inherent danger in fixating on one...

photo by Linda Daley It might be tempting to take a vacation from your newsletter over the summer. What excuse are you telling yourself to justify this? You can take vacation without putting your email marketing on hiatus too. Tweet this Here are some suggestions: Prepare in advance and use scheduling functionality.  If you're using a bulk email service provider (ESP), you likely have the ability to schedule your newsletters. That means you have no excuse - you can prepare several issues in advance and stick to your regular schedule. (You might even find that this is better time management!) Send out a brief issue instead of your usual format. Cut back on the quantity of content, but not the value . Half a newsletter is better than no newsletter. Solicit guest articles. Ask your clients and colleagues to write articles - or scan their blogs for appropriate content that you can 'borrow'. Ensure you request permission and give proper credit. Re-purpose c...

photo by :::Derek::: Now that I have your attention, I’d better earn it, right? We've all heard it said that advertising is buying people’s attention. Content marketing is all about earning that attention by providing value to readers. There are a lot of different types of content that can mean value to readers. You have to really determine what your target market wants. And that requires gathering intelligence and strategic thinking. Not just doing it once either, but continuing to stay attuned to your readers’ preferences. Once you earn attention, you need to continue to deserve it. Past success doesn't guarantee future success. Don't let your content strategy get stale. How do you continue to deserve attention? Watch your statistics . If your readership dips, be curious and investigate. Pay attention to unsolicited feedback and also seek out feedback. If you want to do better, people are generally willing to give advice and opinions. As with any feedba...

photo by perthclotheslines It felt like doing laundry. Throw in the dusty email addresses and out come clean ones, with all the grime left behind. List cleaning involves 2 basic steps: identifying email addresses in your database that no longer exist or have been spelled wrong removing non-existent email addresses and correcting obvious typos List cleaning was a new experience for us. We had anticipated it might be needed at some point so had done some research – enough to know that there were many options available online. We figured it should be easy to do when the need arose. When the need did arise recently, I clicked my way to those apps we'd flagged as promising. I quickly discovered that it wasn't going to be as straightforward as I had imagined (and hoped). The first 2 apps I tried left me scratching my head in puzzlement. With no time to waste on a big learning curve, I did a new search and decided to try ListWiseHQ. What a pleasant surprise! It w...

It’s already started: people are asking if they should continue to send out their newsletter  over the summer. My reply is a definite YES. I want to convince you to stay the course... and not just with your newsletter. If you're considering taking a break from any of your online marketing over the summer, here are some things to consider. If everyone else thinks the same way and takes the summer off,  isn't  that your chance to stand out in your reader’s inbox and social media feeds? OK, so you might say there will also be fewer readers, what with everyone taking vacation. Yes, you might see a small reduction in readership. But with less content available, people are more likely to open your email and read your posts, and more likely to click – they read more deeply. Consistency is important to online marketing success. People may not notice that you’re missing over the summer but they’ll realize it when they see you show up in the fall. Being consistent s...

Keeping your readers engaged requires content that is interesting and useful... and fresh. This article is a follow up to our previous Content Creation (Wrap-up) , capturing our newer articles about content creation from June 2012 to May 2013. If you're stuck for content, you've found the right post to give you inspiration and ideas. You'll also find some thought provoking strategies to consider. Keeping to a consistent content creation routine has big benefits. Just because you can't think of something great to write about when facing a deadline, doesn't mean you can't Plan to Give Your Best next time. Introducing Your Very First Issue can be a little stressful. Here are some things you might want to include, as well as some examples to get you started. Take some time to search for images that are not overused on the internet. This article provides links to a few Graphic Solutions to help get you started. Finding an idea that inspires you can some...

photo by Gertrud K. You know when you land on a website and, before you've had a chance to take a breath, a box pops up over top of the text you were just reading? “Can I help you?” How does that make you feel? Startled? Annoyed? A little creeped out? I’m a fan of pop-up boxes, but only when I’m the one that can push the button to make them pop up. I've used them lots to solve all kinds of online problems fast. When they pop-up unexpectedly, it makes me feel like someone’s been watching me. And it’s always too soon... before I've even formed my first question. Recently I was searching for a list cleaning application and didn't have time for a long learning curve. After trying a couple of other sites, I went to ListWiseHQ . I was impressed to find all my options and the applicable prices laid out clearly on the home page. I was thinking, “This might be the one.” Then Gladys popped up. Gladys was in one of those pop-up boxes. Not in front of ...

I firmly believe that you manage what you measure . Numbers provide context so we know when we’re doing good or not so good. Sometimes we’re not even sure what the numbers are telling us and that requires a little more research and reflection. And sometimes we don’t know what to do as a result of the numbers. Take website stats for example – does anyone really know what to do with those? Reaching milestones - now those are numbers to celebrate! This newsletter is our 50th issue. That’s 250 articles we've shared – almost 100,000 words of wisdom for small business owners from 150 different authors. We hope that you've found some useful and interesting things over the years. Why are we celebrating? Our newsletter has brought us lots of great things. More social media contacts More subscribers = potential clients and referrers Enhanced reputation Improved technical skills Better writing skills - practice makes perfect More pageviews - blog and website More ref...