Simon Payn's Effective Customer Newsletters

10 Email Newsletter Design Best Practices

Mequoda Group has just published a useful, free white paper on email newsletter design best practices. You can download it free here.

The Long Tail of Newsletters

I often hear stories that clients consider amazing.

It goes something like this:

I sent my newsletter to this person six months ago. And today they called me!

Can you believe they kept the newsletter all that time and then got in touch?!

Well, yes, I can. If the newsletter is good.

Here's the thing:

A good newsletter provides valuable information that makes clients' lives better.

Because of that, clients see the newsletter not as an advertising vehicle but as an important resource.

And because of that, they keep it at home.

And because they've kept it at home, they pick it up again when they need you.

And because they don't always need you right away, that call you receive can come many months after you sent your newsletter.

That's the long tail of newsletters.

(Picture by djayo)

Why Quality beats Quantity in Newsletter Subscribers

I was listening to an interesting webinar from Vertical Response (they're the guys I've partnered with for my email newsletter service) today.

Several things came out of it worth noting - I'll blog about them all in the coming days.

One of the stand-out points was about list size.

The bottom line on list size is that it's quality that counts, not quantity.

It's better to have 250 active, interested recipients of your newsletter (whether print or email) than 1,000 who don't care.

Why? Several reasons:

1. It's response that counts, not the total size of your list. If, at the end of the day, your aim is to get customers and purchases, then the only people who really count are those who act - not necessarily buying something (not everyone is ready to buy right away) but at least opening your email and clicking on your links.
2. If you are sending a lot of newsletters to people who aren't really interested, then you're spending money unnecessarily. This is particularly the case for print newsletters, of course, which cost money to print and mail, but it's also true for email newsletters - most email service providers raise the price you pay the more emails you send or the bigger your list.
3. With email marketing, in order to build a reputation as a responsible email sender, it's good to have a significant proportion of your subscriber list opening your emails - it shows you are providing something valuable instead of spamming.

There are no doubt plenty of other reasons why quality beats quantity when it comes to list size. If there are any I've missed, please add them in the comments.

(Picture by cararr)

A Lesson in How Not to Handle Customer Criticism

Must thank Ryanair - the low-cost airline - for showing us all how NOT to handle comments from customers (and potential customers).

Having people who take the time to contact you about potential flaws in your website, product or service is a great honor. It shows they care. And if you listen to them, there's a good chance you'll improve your service. (And if you improve your service, there's a good chance you'll make more money.)

Ryanair doesn't seem to agree, as you can read in this article.

Excellent Example of a Customized Real Estate Newsletter

I love it when people make an effort with their marketing. (Because - to be honest - so few people really do all that it takes to break through in their market, particularly in the current economy.)

I love it even more when my members take the product I offer one stage further and make it their own. Doing so makes their newsletters even more powerful.

Here's what Vancouver real estate agent Conrad Litz does with the real estate newsletter I offer. (I help him with the final design touches each month.)

1) He uses most of the original newsletter. After all, it's ready to use without customization, if necessary.

2) He makes changes to match his red and black branding, and adds his own custom masthead at the top of the newsletter. All this ties his marketing together, adding strength to his brand in his local area.

3) He replaces the first article on the front page with local market commentary and advice. Here Conrad does a great job, positioning himself as an expert on the local real estate market. 

 He told me:

I spend 1/2 a day thinking about what is important to my current and future customers.  I then try to write in such a way that I continue a conversation in their mind that they are probably having.  I can crank out an article in about 60 minutes usually late at night with no distractions.  I then let it sit over night like a good pot of stew and touch it up the next day or so.  My challenge is I get a little too technical, so as you have advised I always need to get down to that common element that owners or buyers are thinking about.  Also know how your market is interlinked to the whole market in general.

4) He adds listings to the back page with a link to a website that goes directly to a listings search.

5) He includes a testimonial from a satisfied client. Testimonials are powerful because they provide independent proof.

Does this extra effort work for him? He says:

The biggest results I get is when I prospect, they know who I am.  There are no ifs, ands or buts about it.  So even if I don't get their business, there is immediate acknowledgment and respect right from the get go. This makes prospecting much easier.   I don't think I could ever cold call again.   Yes I do definitely get business from my newsletter and it is growing.

Here are Conrad's 5 tips for real estate agents who use newsletters:

1.  Get someone you can trust to do most of it.  I have other options but I choose ReadyToGoNewsletters because they are plugged into the market that I am going after.

 

2.  Add some of your own creative content to personalize your newsletter.  Absolutely critical!!

 

3.  Look for excellent quality printers at very reasonable prices.  If your newsletter is too expensive you will not stick with it.

 

4.  Keep trying different approaches as far as content is concerned to get both a good direct response as well as a delayed response.

 

5.  As part of the bigger picture, only use a proven model marketing system.  Be very careful with creativity.  Remember the pioneers are the ones with the arrows in their backs.  Find a proven approach and then master it.

Conrad makes one final, but very important point: people call him sometimes several months after they've seen the newsletter. So don't evaluate your newsletter on immediate ROI - it's a long-term project.

Good and Bad Email Newsletter Campaigns

At least twice a week I have a conversation with a client or potential client about who they can sign up to receive their email newsletter. This conversation most often occurs with people who are new Realtors, insurance agents or mortgage brokers because they don't yet have a list of past clients.

Can they sign up every person who has given them a business card? Can they buy a list of their neighbors' email addresses? What about uploading the contact list of the local board of trade into their own contact list?

I tell them no.

I tell them it's not the smart thing to do.

While contacting these people might not be spam in the strictest sense, it still carries the whiff of canned meat.

This is the thing: it's not about building the biggest list you can. And it's not about what you can get away with.

It's about building a trusted relationship with clients and prospects by sending them information that they want to receive.

It's about being the go-to guy rather than the pest at the party.

The term Permission Marketing - marketing only to those who have given you permission to keep in contact - was coined by Seth Godin several years ago in his book of the same title. Permission Marketing has become accepted practice for most organizations - because it works better than spam.

In his latest blog post, Seth clearly outlines the difference between two email newsletter campaigns - one permission-based, one not. He says:

A spam campaign feels like a smart idea, but over time, the more you use it, the less your brand is worth. A permission campaign, on the other hand, only grows in value, until it gets big enough that you can build an entire business around it.

Earning permission is a long-term, profitable, scalable strategy that pays for itself. Think about how much better off a brand would be if it took the time to make promises, keep them and be transparent about its communications.

Go read the rest of the post for the example of good and bad.