Simon Payn's Effective Customer Newsletters

The Best Way to Send Out Email Newsletters

A common question I receive from people interested in my real estate, mortgage and insurance customer newsletters is whether they can send them using their own email software rather than the hosted service I offer.

(With a hosted service, you upload your email list to a website, which looks after the design, list management and sending of your email newsletters.)

I strongly believe that anyone serious about sending email newsletters needs to use a professional email service.

Here's what I told someone who asked this very question yesterday:

Thank you for your message.

To answer your question, we only offer a "hosted" email service, which means you need to upload your list to the site.

Let me explain why this is the best way to do it.

The main reason is that you will comply with anti-spam regulations and protect your own email address from being added to spam blacklists.

But there are also several advantages to using a hosted service.

Avoiding spam problems: The U.S. CAN-SPAM regulations state that you need an easy way for people to unsubscribe from your list. A hosted service will provide links on each mail for people to use to unsubscribe - without this you will have to do it yourself. A hosted service will also help to protect you against false accusations of spam; hosted services have a good relationship with ISPs and between them they work to distinguish between erroneous spam allegations and true instances of spam. This will help protect your messages, helping more of them get delivered. And, because you are using a hosted domain to send messages from, your own email address will be protected from ending up on a spam blacklist (and you'll also avoid complaints from your own ISP for sending out bulk emails using your account).

Easier to design: Sending HTML emails using your own email software isn't as easy as just pasting in an HTML file. One reason is that you will need to host images if you are sending the email yourself - the images will need to be saved to your website, then your email will need to link to these images so that the recipients of your email can see them. A hosted service handles all this for you, and will allow you to add, subtract and move images without having to fuss with HTML code or having to contact your webmaster. A hosted service will also help ensure that your email design appears as it should on everyone's computer. (The thing about sending HTML in email is that, unless you design it very carefully, it doesn't always show up as you expect it to.)

Easier to manage your contacts: Hosted email services provide many tools for managing your contacts. These include flagging bad emails, duplicate emails and bounced emails to ensure your email list is kept clean and to make sure you don't send more than one email to your recipients. Hosted services can also tell you which of your recipients has opened the email and which links within that email they have clicked. This will help improve the content of messages in the future.

Easy way for people to join your list: Hosted services provide sign-up boxes you can place on your website so that people can join your list to receive your newsletter. An important success factor in online marketing is capturing the email addresses of people who visit your website so that you can star building a relationship with them. Hosted services make it easy to do that. (See the home page of my site for an example.)

More emails delivered: It's a fact of life that email newsletters are harder to deliver than they were in the past, mainly due to the quantity of spam and the sensitivity of filters designed to combat that spam. The result is that many genuine emails - particularly if they are designed in HTML - get blocked. Hosted services have a good track record of getting emails delivered because that's their main job - they work very hard at working with every party in the process to distinguish their emails from spam.

Anyway, these are the main reasons why a hosted service is preferable. I have personally been using a hosted service for many years and would never return to sending these kind of emails from my own email account.

I believe that anyone who is serious about email marketing should follow this route.

Please let me know if you have any other questions.

All the best,
Simon

So here's a question for anyone involved with email newsletters: do you agree with my analysis? Is there anything missing? Are there any errors? Please leave a comment below.

An Excellent Email Newsletter to Model

I've been on the mailing list of Printing for Less for some time and have always been impressed by their monthly email newsletters. January's is perhaps one of the best, so I thought it would be interesting to talk about why it's so good. You can see a copy of it here.

1. The newsletter starts with a topical comment that "enters the conversation going on in the customer's head." Yes, it's about the economy - and it gives a quick tip on how a business can survive during the recession. This makes the newsletter immediately relevant and useful.

2. The company has been running an "Economic Stimulus Contest" (top marks for being topical - riding on the back of one of the biggest themes in the news.). The January issue clicks through to the results, highlighting companies that have invested in printed marketing to bring more business during tough times. Of course, each company has used Printing for Less to produce its marketing material - a subtle promotion for the company's services.

3. A neat table of contents, making it easy for readers to find an article they might enjoy.

4. Product of the Month offer. Printing for Less has slipped some promotion in here - that's fine. But it's not just promoting the existence of the product, it's making an offer too - free business cards with the order.

5. Feature article - Internet Marketing Tips for 2009. Good choice of topic for a January newsletter - one sure to interest a lot of readers. The link clicks through to a third-party site, which is fine - Printing for Less has shown it is a provider of useful, interesting information that is targeted to the needs of its readers.

6. Another feature article - on Photoshop. Links to Printing for Less's sister site, CreativePro.com, which is a content-rich site which helps designers do their jobs better. This site not only provides lots of inbound links (because of its rich content) but it strengthens the relationship between the company and one of its main sources of business - designers.

7. Surveys. The results of last month's poll - a great engagement device which turns passive readers into active participants, further strengthening their ties with the company.

8. Another engagement device, which asks readers to vote and comment on an economic proposal by the company's CEO. The link goes to a page on Forbes.com - a great way to link Printing for Less with one of the biggest brands in business.

9. Some company news. This is sensibly hidden fairly low down the newsletter - Printing for Less recognizes that most readers aren't really interested in developments at the company unless they directly affect them. The news they've chosen to share is about a green initiative, which gets the company points anyway.

10. A customer testimonial. Comments from clients are a powerful marketing technique, providing proof that the company provides a good service.

11. The newsletter has all the usual widgets you would expect, including an unsubscribe link, a forward to a friend feature and a view online feature.

This is probably one of the best newsletters that has entered my inbox (or mailbox). It's worth emulating.

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)

(Image courtesy duchesssa)

Real Estate Agents (and Others): The Newspaper Newsletter

I hate it when people have an idea similar to mine and then blog about it first, so that I don't get the chance to claim it.

Anyway, that person is Seth Godin, so I'm not mad.

Real Estate agents (and anyone else with a local business) should read his post, Time to start a newspaper.

Of course, this is what your newsletter can become. Indeed, I have several members who have gone some of the way towards implementing what Seth is suggesting, with what's on guides and ads from other local businesses.

By making your newsletter into a real community resources in (let's face it) a time when many local newspapers are withering and leaving a gap in the market, you will become *the* trusted local expert, the go-to person - and you will own a strong relationship with a section of your community.

Now's the Time to Add Value

Check out this post by John Jantsch at Duct Tape Marketing.

I particularly agree with this point:

Add value before discounts - One of the first places businesses cave is on pricing. Customers are getting a little tighter with the cash, so the inclination is to cut the prices to make the phone ring. It rarely helps and, long term, it hurts profit. I suggest lumping in more value, more you time, more service, more bonuses from partners to overwhelm your customer with something that is clearly more valuable then the offering that is 2 bucks cheaper.

Is this the Year of the Customer?

On the same theme as my post yesterday, check out Drew's Marketing Minute Blog and in particular the links from this post to his other articles.

He's right. This will be the year of the customer. It's time to stop throwing money away by ignoring them.

Why 2009 is the Year of the Customer Relationship – and What You Can Do About It

I was tweeting with a friend (yes, I’m on Twitter now – follow me!) who had some exciting news to share. It was a wonderful way for her to start the new year.

We agreed that 2009 is 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 (I work with real estate agents and mortgage brokers in the United States, so I have first-hand experience of what some people are facing), 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".

New Year Relationship Resolutions

With all that in mind, here are my New Year’s Marketing Resolutions – all based on building a stronger relationship with my clients and prospects. Maybe they will give you some ideas for your business.

1. I will re-invigorate my own customer newsletter, sending it to existing clients and prospects. I will provide useful information, links to useful resources as well as well-crafted offers.
2. I will integrate my newsletter content with my blog, my Twitter feed and my Facebook page, increasing the value I obtain from my content and making the most of the network effect of these multiple media.
3. I will use my newsletter and blog content to write a book that will serve as an important platform, lead generation device and “business card”.
4. I will become an evangelist for customer newsletters. I know that every business can benefit from a newsletter – and it’s my role to prove that to the world.
5. I will continue to build a close relationship with my clients and prospects by surveying clients on a regular basis and encouraging conversations between myself, my assistant and my clients and prospects.
6. I will continue to ask my assistant to provide follow-up calls to new members of Ready to Go Newsletters and I will pro-actively offer extra assistance to members who might need it.
7. I will tweak my business and, most importantly, my product offers according to the feedback I receive from clients and prospects.
8. I will continue to enjoy communicating with my clients and helping them achieve their goals.

What are your relationship-building resolutions for 2009?