THE 15 MINUTE MARKETER: 9 Insider Secrets To Get Your Newsletter Noticed
by Nancy Gerber
Publishing a no-fee newsletter for potential and current clients is one of the easiest and most efficient ways to begin, maintain and deepen relationships with the people you most want to serve.
Here are 9 tips — for on-line as well as print newsletters — that will get you noticed and remembered.
1. Know your market.
Get clear about your specific ideal customers, niche and community. Know their language, their culture, their outlook. You’ll write differently for corporate CEO’s than you will for solo entrepreneurs or working moms.
2. Be authentic.
Be yourself. Write the way you speak. Don’t worry about perfect grammar or punctuation (but spelling does count!). Allow yourself and your distinctive
personality and viewpoint to come through. Use your own life or business to illustrate the points you’re making.
3. Share useful, original content that provides solutions and results.
Use your passion, knowledge and unique experiences that make you the expert that you are. Steer clear of the “same old same old” generic stuff that people have heard and read a million times before.
4. Keep it short.
Everyone’s time is precious. If your newsletter is too long, no one will read it. Make your sentences and paragraphs brief. The best length for your core
article — which should focus ONLY on one specific topic — is 400-600 words.
5. Be consistent.
Even if you decide to publish only once a month, make it the same day every month. Although weekly is usually optimal, even bi-weekly is good enough to create an expectation. No matter the frequency, establish a consistent schedule and stick to it.
6. Determine what kind of publication you want to be.
I currently publish two newsletters that are distinctive and have different purposes. “Thoughts For A Thursday” (www.sstones.com/newsletter.shtml) has been published weekly since February 2001. It’s written to motivate, inspire and transform. I share personal stories and perspectives. I only do a small amount of gentle marketing because readers have come to expect the more personal rather than business oriented focus. “The 15 Minute Marketer” (www.marketingmambo.com) is much more business oriented and focused on education and marketing skills development.
7. It’s all about the reader.
Unless you ‘re giving a specific example from your life our business that has direct relevance to the reader, they really don’t care much about you. As
noted above, they want solutions, results, useful information — otherwise they have no reason to keep reading. Keep in mind that you are writing for radio station “WIIFM” — What’s In It For Me?
8. Create catchy titles and headlines.
Stir up curiosity, capture attention, and make them unique and memorable. “The 15 Minute Marketer” sparks curiosity and excitement — “Wow! I can do some marketing in 15 minutes?” “Thoughts For A Thursday” has alliteration and a nice rhythm. People may forget my name, but when they see or talk to me, I’m that ”Thoughts For Thursday” gal.
9. Repurpose and recycle your articles.
No need to reinvent the wheel every time you write. Turn your newsletter articles into on-line articles, mini-e-courses, blog posts, pod casts. After you’ve been publishing for a while you can dip back into your archives and re-publish older pieces — readers won’t really notice! (I do this with Thoughts For A Thursday, since I have 7 years worth of material. But
shhh, please just keep that between us, OK?)
This week, use your 15 Marketing Mambo minutes every day to tap into your expertise. Brainstorm topics that bring results, solutions or knowledge to your market. Once you’ve brainstormed some, pick one and focus your 15 minutes on jotting down as many points as you can think of about it. Voila! With a bit of polishing, there’s a newsletter article!
Copyright 2008 by Nancy Birnbaum-Gerber
**************************************************
It’s important to talk to people in their own language. If you do it well, they’ll say, “God, he said exactly what I was thinking.” And when they begin to respect you, they’ll follow you to the death.
~ Lee Iacocca
