Copyright 2005 Donna Gunter
At almost every meeting I attend in my
city, I get really positive feedback about
my email newsletter, Work Smarter, Make
More, http://www.worksmartermakemore.com
. People generally tell me they love it,
or they ask some question about something
I've written about in a previous issue.
All in all, it's pretty cool--I kinda feel
like a celebrity!
In everything that I do, my goal and my
focus is to get subscribers to my newsletter.
I'm not trying to sell them a coaching program,
nor am I trying to get them to buy some
product. I just want them to get my weekly
email newsletter. That's it. Just get a
little dose of Donna on a weekly basis (pun
fully intended).
My rationale behind this comes from my
philosophy that people have to know, like,
trust and respect you before they'll decide
to buy anything from you. I've finally acknowledged
and embraced that I'm a pretty good writer
and have decided to lead with that gift
and use that as my marketing tool for my
business.
Back in 2003, I decided that I made some
serious changes to how I published my email
newsletter, and I'm now starting to see
the results of the writing I do each week.
The results include readers calling or emailing
me for coaching, to sign up for a program,
to sit in on a teleclass, or to form a strategic
alliance with them. Just exactly what I'd
hope would happen!
Here are the five secrets to newsletter
publishing that I learned through the "school
of hard knocks" that have helped successfully
market my business through email newsletter
publishing:
1. Publish consistently on a weekly basis.
I initially published my newsletter on a
not-so-regular basis initially because I
didn't see my newsletter as a serious marketing
tool (silly me!). I then went to a regular
monthly publication about a year later and
then to a twice-a-month publication, and
finally ended up publishing weekly in 2003
Now, if I miss a week, I'll get a couple
of emails wanting to know what happened
and where the newsletter is.
2. Let your "voice" permeate
your newsletter. My first newsletters had
some great resources that a busy business
owner would find helpful in the management
of his/her business. The only thing about
me was a short paragraph about my business
at the end of the newsletter. What I realized
was that the newsletters to which I best
responded were those in which I got to know
the writer and liked what s/he had to say.
Resources were great, but lessons through
personal experiences were incredibly more
valuable and were the things that I remembered
about the newsletter. I definitely put more
"me" into my weekly newsletter
now.
3. Show how you can help clients resolve
problems. I could just kick myself for letting
almost 3 years slip away by doing such a
slip-shod job in demonstrating my expertise.
Again, resources are useful, but stories
of what I'm experiencing or what clients
have experienced in their businesses and
decisions that have been made to change
the way we're doing business are much more
helpful to my readers. Hence, in every newsletter,
there's now a "Business Gym" article
in each issue to help my readers run a better
business.
4. Set aside time to write your newsletter.
Finding space in my calendar to set aside
time on a weekly basis exclusively for this
marketing activity isn't always easy. There
are many times I want to fill that time
with "profit generating" activities
(i.e. work with clients) rather than holding
onto this time as a business development
activity. Since I now publish weekly, it
takes me about 2 hours to write the main
article for the newsletter. I now set aside
time from 9 AM - noon each Wed. morning
and knock out the newsletter copy. Some
weeks the process flows more easily than
others.
5. Repackage and re-purpose your articles.
One of my primary motivations now for doing
my newsletter is that I've now got a personal
article bank of roughly 50 articles that
I can reuse, tweak or re-pupose when I need
to. I submit my newsletter article each
week to various online article banks through
an article distribution service, place it
on my website, and have it available to
use to create a special ebook or report
that I can sell as another income stream,
or re-purpose as a special report for a
give-away on my website.
What I've now discovered is that by having
this client "reservoir" in place
(my email newsletter subscribers that I
go out and "tickle" on a weekly
basis), my marketing has gotten so much
easier. On a regular basis one of my readers
will wake up and decide that they've had
enough and can't do it this way any longer
and decide to hire me.
If you don't currently have a newsletter
in place that permits you to reach out and
"touch" potential clients regularly,
I encourage you to start one. I realize
that not everyone likes nor enjoys writing.
Perhaps there's someone you can team up
with who could ghostwrite for you based
on some conversations you've had or on some
training or other kinds of workshops you
deliver. If you currently have an email
newsletter, pay more attention to its care
and feeding so that it grows a healthy prospective
client base for you. It'll be one of the
best investments you'll make for your business.
About the Author
Online Business Coach Donna Gunter helps
self-employed professionals make more profit
in less time online. To sign up for more
FREE tips like these and claim your FREE
ebook, TurboCharge Your Productivity: 50
+ Tools To Help You Automate Your Business
and Make More Profit in Less Time Online!,
visit her site at http://www.OnlineBizCoachingCompany.com
.
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