Simon Payn's Effective Customer Newsletters

That Word

Want a tip to make your writing more snappy?

Before you publish, read your writing through for instances of the word "that".

Chances are, you can delete the word "that" and keep the meaning of the sentence.

Try it and see what happens.

A Clever, Timely Hook for an Offer in a Newsletter

Taking something that's in the news and putting your own twist on it to make an offer to your customers is a great way to stand out from the crowd. By attaching your offer to something in the news you give the impression of immediacy, timeliness and relevance to your offer.

Here's an example I received today in a newsletter from A2 Hosting, the company that hosts some of my websites (and which, by the way, I recommend for its good service.)

Its newsletter offers the "A2 Hosting Economic Stimulus Plan".

"The U.S. government has called for economic stimulus, and we at A2 Hosting have an economic stimulus plan of our own. Use your government economic stimulus check and tax refund to pay up front for your web hosting and save some dough! By pre-paying for your hosting, your monthly hosting fees will drop significantly..."

Could you use the U.S. government's Economic Stimulus Plan as a hook for an offer in your newsletter?

Could a Customer Newsletter Actually Make You Money?

People tend to think of newsletters as a marketing expense.

(Of course, marketing shouldn't be thought of as an expense at all. It's an investment - at least it is if you do the kind of marketing that allows you to track the results.)

But it is possible to create a customer newsletter that actually makes you money - and not just from the business you get back from it.

A new client of my real estate newsletters business asked today if he could include advertising space in his newsletter.

Of course, the answer was yes.

After all, it makes sense to allow trusted providers of relevant products and services to advertise in your newsletter. It brings income for you, helps reduce your newsletter costs, and assists your readers by informing them of a useful product or service.

If you don't want to do a cash deal, you could always barter an ad in your newsletter for an ad in their newsletter. That would be a great win-win.

The Best Kind of Newsletter

I lost a newsletter client today.

Nothing new about that. The one-month free trial for my real estate newsletter encourages people to sign up and kick the tires, and some decide not to continue. Others take what they can for free and never have any intention of paying. Quite normal when you make an offer like that.

But today's cancellation was different. The reason: over the months this subscriber has been writing more and more of her own articles and so didn't need a pre-written newsletter anymore.

I applaud that. Frankly, the best kind of newsletter is one you write yourself. That's how you can build the best relationship with your clients - introducing your own personality in the way no pre-written newsletter can.

Of course, most people don't have time for this, which is why they use newsletters like mine. (And ones like mine that allow people to customize them and include their own articles allow a lot of personal input anyway.)

Although I was sad to see this subscriber leave, I applaud the effort she is putting into her newsletter.

How to Use Customer Newsletters to Nurture the People Who Really Matter

Seth wrote an interesting post today about targeted traffic to websites versus untargeted traffic: it's the focused traffic you want to capture; the rest you don't care about.

Quite right. And it's useful to show how customer newsletters can achieve the same goal: bringing targeted buyers into your business.

Let's face it, although newsletters are remarkably effective, on the face of it they don't seem
the cheapest of marketing methods. They cost a few cents to print (depending on how many you are printing) and then there's distribution. So to get the most bang for your buck, they need to be delivered to the type of people who are likely to want to engage with your business.

There are two such people:

1) Those who have bought from you before and so have demonstrated an interest (a serious interest at that - they handed over money to you) in what you have to offer. Sending a newsletter to these people should be a no-brainer - it's cheaper to keep an existing client than find a new one - but communicating with past clients is so infrequently done that there is billions of dollars in revenue left on the table by businesses across the world every day. (That's a rant for another day!)

2) Those who are good prospects for your business because they have demonstrated an interest in what you have to offer. Once they find you, they are likely to stick around, engage with what you have to offer and be amenable to building a relationship with you.

The trouble is, this group of people is more difficult to identify. How, for example, do you bring them into your neighborhood in the first place?

A favorite way is to go fishing.

It's said that in some lakes, green worms work great. They get the best fish.  So think: what kind of green worm can I use to attract the kind of prospect I want to attract? What's going to get them to raise their hands and immediately identify themselves as hungry for what I have to offer?

The best kind of bait is free information. How about these ideas?

• A plumber: How to avoid a nightmare flood by doing an "annual audit" of your pipes and drains.
• A real estate agent: 20 easy things you can do to get top dollar for your home, even in a down market.
• A hair salon: 5 mistakes 80% of people make that are damaging their hair.
• A mortgage broker: How to choose a mortgage you won't regret.

What you do next is advertise that bait, using print ads, Google Adwords, flyers, etc. People will start calling you. When they do, send them the report and offer to subscribe them to your newsletter, which will be packed with information that is relevant to them and that will make their lives better.

So what do you have?

You have a red-hot prospect (someone who has proved themselves to have an interest in what you have to offer) and you've started a build a relationship with them.

That's the kind of person who should be receiving your newsletter.

Make Your Newsletter Captions Work For You

If you use pictures in your newsletter, don't neglect their captions.

Captions are one of the most-read elements on the page, and you don't need to restrict them to just identifying people and places.

Because captions are so frequently read by people browsing your newsletter, they can also help entice readers to tackle the article itself.

So consider them as important as the headline or the first paragraph of your article.

Instead of "John Smith is shown with co-worker Alice Brown," write "John Smith, pictured with co-worker Alice Brown, says putting customers first has led to a 15% increase in sales."

Or instead of "Niagara Falls, Ontario," put "10,000 people are expected to visit the casinos at Niagara Falls, Ontario, this month."

Make your captions really work for you.

A Handyman's Newsletter Question

Interesting question about customer newsletters on the MarketingProfs Knowledge Exchange site today:

My question is twofold. I would like to start a client/customer newsletter and I'm looking for some topic ideas, 2) Would it be ok to have a 'how I did it' column say from the CEO....recounting how he did it.

Check what I had to say in answer - and the posts from other people.

Calling all Printers: Are You a Commodity?

One of the subscribers to my general customer newsletter is a commercial printer.

He says his customers love getting the newsletter he sends out.

Now, the printing industry is in danger of becoming - if it hasn't already - a commodity. People shop for printers by price, for the most part.

And as we know, one of the ways to avoid becoming a commodity is to send a regular newsletter, because that's the way you'll stand out from the crowd as a trusted expert, not just another printer.

Now...if you're a printer, you've got the ink, you've got the paper, and you've got the giant, noisy machine.

What's stopping you?

A Goldmine of Headline Inspiration

I've said many times before that headlines are one of the most important elements in your newsletter because they act as salesmen for your articles. Writing a good headline will increase the chances of your article being read.

Newspapers spend a lot of effort on headlines. They have editors who specialize in writing them.

The Newseum, the new museum  of the news in Washington, D.C., allows you to search through an archive of past newspaper front pages. It's a great way to get ideas for headlines. Try choosing a headline and then substituting words in that headline for words relevant to your article to make a new headline that really sings.

(Thanks to the 37 Signals Blog for flagging this.)

Building a Stalagmite

Something I've learned since I started this blog - and also since I started my real estate newsletters business - is that building trust takes time.

But taking the time to build that trust has enormous rewards.

As Seth says today, in his post Drip, drip, drip goes the Twit:

"Publishing your ideas... in books, or on a blog, or in little twits on Twitter... and doing it with patience, over time, is the best way I can think of to lay a foundation for whatever it is you hope to do next."

Same goes with newsletters. A regular newsletter to your hot prospects is drip, drip, dripping them with little bits of trust. That trust builds up over time, like a calcium on a stalagmite.

Once you've earned that trust, it's a lot easier to make the sale.

What Can You Learn from Newspapers?

I had the honor today of having a post published on Copyblogger. It's about how writers of blogs can learn from newspaper reporters and editors, but the information can just as easily be applied to newsletters.

Is Your Newsletter Hanging Out With the Right People?

If you've got children, you're no doubt anxious to make sure they aren't hanging out with a bad crowd.

And if you are buying a house, you want to be certain it's not in a bad neighborhood.

The same goes for your newsletter: is it hanging out with the right people?

When every newsletter costs a few cents to print, it's worth making sure you are spending your money wisely. And that means if you are using your newsletter as a prospecting tool, it's wise to do your best to ensure your newsletter is in the hands of the people most likely to buy from you.

So don't randomly leave piles of your newsletter just anywhere - leave it in places where your potential clients are likely to hang out.

And don't mail your newsletter to just anyone - mail it to people who are proven to be good prospects.

A newsletter is a powerful tool for building a trusted relationship. But that someone has to be the right someone.

How to Cut Through the Noise and Connect with Customers

If you send out a newsletter, take a good look at the content.

• What are the themes of your articles?
• Who is the focus of your articles?
• What are you trying to achieve with your articles?

• Are you providing value in your articles that will improve your subscribers' lives?

That final question is the most important. Indeed, it's the answer to having a newsletter that connects with your customers.

Think about this: how many ads do we  get in the mail every day? How many do we see on TV or pass by on the street?

How many of them really add value to our lives? Would we be any worse off if we hadn't seen them?

Probably not.

And that's what makes them less effective than communications that aim to make readers' lives better; that add value to subscribers' lives.

Why it's important to add value

• Customers are selfish; they are  interested only in what helps them. Communications that don't obviously benefit the reader are discarded.
• Customers are skeptical. They've seen too many false claims to believe most pitches. They want to know that you stand by what you claim.
• Communications with value are kept and passed around; the rest go straight into the trash.
• Communications with value build a relationship over the long term. Keep showing up and helping people and their trust in you will grow.
• Communications with value turn you into the trusted expert, not just another salesman. That ensures your product or service isn't seen as a commodity.

How to add value with your newsletter

• Remember the golden rule of newsletter publishing: think of your reader. What are they interested in? What do they want to read about? What kind of information will make their lives better? What is it about what you do that will make their lives better?
• Give away most of your knowledge...but sell the implementation. Show that you are a real expert; that you know what you are talking about.
• Inform first, then sell. Stay away from the temptation to pitch your products or services right away. Focus on building the relationship, and continually drip-feed your readers with new offers about products and services that will make their lives better.

It's good to sell. But it's better to build a relationship that adds value to your clients' lives. Because when you do that over time, you'll find the selling comes much easier.

Issuu: A Way to Put Your Print Newsletter Online

If you've visited the website belonging to a glossy magazine, you've probably seen an online facsimile of the magazine - a little widget they use to allow you to "flip" pages of the real magazine...but online.

That kind of technology was quite expensive. But now there's a website, called Issuu, that is doing the same thing...for free.

It's a great way to put your newsletter online. What you need do is create a PDF of the document, upload it to Issuu and then embed it on your site.

Here's one I made earlier. Click on it to get a bigger version. (You can also embed the larger version direct on your site, with a little HTML coding.)

Seth's Advice to Realtors

As a lot of readers of this blog are real estate agents, I thought I'd pass along the advice of marketing guru Seth Godin. (I reviewed his excellent book The Dip here, and recommend all his work.)

He gives two bits of advice. The first is kinda harsh. But the second is spot on. He says:

The opportunity during the current pause (and yes, it's a pause) is to find, one by one, the people who would benefit from hearing from you and then earn the right to talk to them. Earn the right to send them a newsletter or a regular update or a subscription to your blog. NOT to talk about what matters to you, but to give them information (real information, not just data) that matters to them.

This is exactly how newsletters should be used.

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Get a free, one month "test drive" of my real estate newsletter.

4 Ways to Tell if Your Real Estate Newsletter is Boring

I'm going to ask a blunt question: is your real estate newsletter boring?

Because if your newsletter is boring, you'll be losing thousands of dollars in business because...to put it bluntly... no one will be reading! And if no one is reading, you're not going to be able to build that essential relationship with your farm.

So here are 4 ways to tell if your newsletter is boring:

1. Is it all about real estate? Let's face it, nobody is as interested in real estate as you are (except maybe Donald Trump). For the most part, your readers have got better things on their minds. The only exception is if they are about to buy or sell a house - then real estate becomes fascinating. But as you want to keep in touch with clients when they are in between moving, it's best to limit the amount of real estate information you have in your newsletter. TOO MUCH REAL ESTATE = B.O.R.I.N.G.

2. Is your newsletter written like a school essay? Does it use long words and even longer sentences? Have you forgotten what the article is about half-way down the first paragraph? The fact is, people have a low tolerance for stuff that's hard to read. So make it easy. Make it flow. Make it lively. LONG, DENSE ESSAYS = B.O.R.I.N.G.

3. Is your newsletter irrelevant? If it contains articles about the national real estate market, is that information relevant to your local readers? Will it help them at all? If you want to put market information in your newsletter, make it local. Make it relevant. IRRELEVANCE = B.O.R.I.N.G.

4. Is your newsletter just about you? The fact is,  nobody really cares about you! All they care about is themselves. If you write articles that are all "me, me, me" and "I, I, I" your readers will stop reading.   Give them information that helps them. ME, ME, ME = B.O.R.I.N.G.

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Get a free, one month "test drive" of my real estate newsletter.

2 Easy Ways to Write Newsletter Articles (Even if You Hate Writing)

Many people are put off sending out a customer newsletter because of the amount of writing they think is involved.

After all, a blank page can be pretty daunting.

So here are 2 ways to make article writing easier. These aren't new ideas - I've heard them mentioned several times before by several people - but I think they are worth sharing.

1. Ask and Answer Questions

You're able to answer a client's questions, right? That's not a problem.

Somehow, writing seems less daunting when you are given a start in the form of a question.

Imagine you want to write an article for a real estate newsletter on, for example, How to Improve Your Home's Curb Appeal.

Start by thinking of the questions a client might ask on this topic, such as:

• Why is it important to have good curb appeal?
• Should I paint my home to make it look fresh and new?
• What colors are most attractive?
• What can I do to make my entrance more attractive?

Then just set about answering those questions, so...

It is important to have good curb appeal because the exterior of your house is the first thing people see and people often form a judgment on a property in the first few minutes...

If you can, paint your home to make it look fresh and new. It's amazing how easy and cheap it is to paint your home's exterior...

The most attractive colors are neutral, light shades that appeal to the greatest number of people and which make your home look bright and fresh...

You can make your entrance more attractive my placing container plants on either side of the doorway and by fitting a lamp....

See? It seems a lot easier when you do it this way. Just join the answers together and, before you know it, you have an article.

2. Record your Conversations

You probably give out useful information to clients every day on the phone or when you meet them face to face. After all, you know your stuff, so it's easy to talk about what you are familiar with

So if setting fingers to keyboard is daunting, consider recording a conversation about the topic you want to write about.  Ask a friend or colleague to pose as a client who wants to know about a particular topic.

You can then transcribe what you say and, with a few edits, you have an article.

Try using either or both these ideas next time you are faced with a blank page.

Get a free, one month "test drive" of my real estate newsletter.

Real Estate Newsletters: 5 Essential Tips to Make Clients Adore You

Sending a real estate newsletter to your farm isn't about getting a client or a listing right there and then. Unless you hit their mailbox at precisely the right time - just when they are looking for an agent or wanting to list their house - you're in the business of building a relationship rather than making a sale.

The best way to build that relationship is to provide a newsletter that meets the needs and interests of your farm.

Do it right, and you'll grow a farm of adoring fans.

1. Make the newsletter about them, not you. You're probably sick of me going on about this...but it's the #1 rule. People are not interested in you, they are interested in themselves. If your services are mentioned at all, do it on the basis of how you can help them, how you can meet their needs.

2. Write articles that are useful, interesting and entertaining. Create articles that make the reader think: I never knew what! Or: What good advice!

3. Keep up a regular schedule. Relationships aren't built sporadically; they take regular contact over time. That's how trust is created. So send your newsletter  at least monthly.

4. Be truthful. Good friends don't lie. So nor should you in your newsletter. A lie can wreck a relationship.

5. Be upbeat. Nobody likes a downer. Who wants to form a relationship with someone who's always bringing bad news? Think of good, upbeat, positive things to put in your newsletter. Then you'll be a welcome friend.

Follow these rules and, over time, you'll build a strong farm of people who will adore you and your newsletter.

Get a free, one month "test drive" of my real estate newsletter.

Age of Conversation - For 2008

You'll remember I and over 100 talented bloggers contributed chapters to The Age of Conversation last year. It raised thousands of dollars for charity.

Well now...it's back! But with a different theme, which you get to choose in an online vote

And, of course, there's another chance to become a published author by contributing a chapter. I know I will.

Head over to Drew McLellan's blog to find out more.