Over the past month, have you noticed that there has been quite a bit of commentary around the humble e-newsletter making a comeback!  Personally, I don’t think it actually went anywhere.  Yes, it may have got a bad rap for a while, and might have been side-lined for the whole social media onslaught, but there will always be a market for receiving strong, practical, value-added information.

In fact, I was reading a report today by Ali Brown in which she stated “According to a 2010 study by ExactTarget, 56% of Internet users interact with brands only via marketing emails, compared to 1.3% who interact only via Twitter and 0.7% by Facebook.”  Interesting statistics don’t you think?

A well written e-newsletter really is a must have within your marketing campaign. 

Whether you are starting out, or are a seasoned email marketer, developing an e-newsletter that attracts your ideal clients and makes you sales, is what you really want to be focusing on.  Remember that you don’t want too be ‘in your face’ pushy with your clients. What you do want, is to build strong solid relationships, engage in a conversation, and increase the overall trust factor between your client and yourself.

You can do this by making sure your e-newsletters adds value, that it's practical and makes a difference.  Your clients' email addresses are valuable commodity, and they’re not going to hand them over to just anybody!   

Over the past ten years, I’ve always done some type of email newsletter.  At first it was monthly, then fortnightly, but now it’s sent out weekly to all within our community. The frequency works and we have no illusions that you read it every week, but we do know that you will read the topics that add value to you and your business, and that is really all we can ask for.

Our current format was worked out last year with my mentor MaryEllen Tribby (ME), as she had a specific strategy for successful e-newsletters. And interestingly enough, I’ve received emails this week asking me about my newsletter, after she had presented it as one to follow in a webinar she was co-hosting with Ryan Deiss.  Together they were launching their new Inbox Empire product, which focuses on the whole business of e-newsletters.  So when ME is focusing on developing a product based around e-newsletters, you know they're back on the radar.

So what are three strategies you can put in place to make sure your e-newsletter engages with your clients and makes you money?

1.  Add value with your content.

Don’t waste your clients’ time by not adding value to their day. You ideally want your content to be practical and focused on results. The best way you can do this is to be really clear about your ideal clients, because as their problem solver, you will know exactly what they will want to read.  Focus on them – your client!

Stuck on ideas? Then why not include a case study illustrating a client’s success story; interview other experts; have guest writers write for you. These are a few additional strategies you can include to add value to your content.

2.  Direct your clients to make the right buying decision.

You can be providing great content, but unless you have a sales strategy in place, you won’t make money from your newsletter.  Now that’s okay if you don’t intend it for that purpose, but if you do, then your clients are looking to you for your advice.  In fact, they will want to know what your new products and promotions are!

You’ve built a strong relationship and they know you deliver results, so don’t feel shy about sharing your latest promotion.  You don’t have to fear coming across as a used car salesman. Just keep consistent with your personality and style and they will appreciate it. 

There is a rule of thumb that for every newsletter you send, you can do two promotion emails – do you do this?

3.  Be consistent.

In your initial confirmation email, you should aim to provide your clients with the information they need to receive about your e-newsletter.  This includes the frequency of your e-newsletter, as well as what day they can expect to see ‘you’ in their inbox.  Once you’ve stated this its up to you to stay consistent. 

So, if like me, you’ve committed to a weekly format with delivery every Thursday, then you have to make it happen each week.  This is how you build the relationship with your clients and increase the trust between you and them.  If your email comes in bits and bursts or whenever you feel like it, how do you think this comes across to your clients?  

Putting together your e-newsletter will take time and commitment, but once you get going, it really is worth the effort.  There is nothing more special than when you receive comments about how your articles have impacted another person, or made a positive difference to their business. Words can’t explain how good that feels.

So what are you doing with your e-newsletter? Feel free to share with us your strategies and ideas for a successful e-newsletter.

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By Alexandra Popovic

Are you one of those business owners who is quick to pass off social media as just another online fad? It might be time for you to reconsider your thinking. Because the truth is, if you invest in learning how to leverage it properly, the opportunities on social media are endless.

So the choice you must now make is either embrace it, or risk being left behind. Rather than focusing on the hottest tools, I believe it is essential to firstly emphasis one’s approach to this new medium, and the importance of creating valuable online conversations whilst developing worthwhile communities.

This is central to your success, so here are ten do’s and don’ts to consider before entering the socialmediasphere:

1. Don’t jump on the social media bandwagon just because it’s trendy. You’ll only wind up wasting your time and money if you don’t commit properly, or believe in its value. Take the time to educate yourself first, find worthwhile bloggers to subscribe to who also use social media, and develop your strategy, or seek advice from someone who can help you. You must however, be clear on the outcomes you want to achieve through your Social Media strategy.
 
2. Many delude themselves thinking their "brand” will impress the masses, but that’s just superficial packaging. The person behind the brand is now the focus. You’ll receive credibility and respect only if, and when, it’s earned. Do this by supporting and adding value to your online community, speak with them and not to them.

3. Forget about using Social Media as just another way to broadcast your marketing "message” en masse. If you do, you’ll only wind up being ignored and popular with “me, myself, and I”. It’s about engagement of your audience, so listening and engaging in conversation is key. In fact, why not create your own community via some free tools that make it easier and more manageable? Check out: Seesmic and Tweetdeck.

4. Don’t put emphasis on being popular, obsessing over statistics and analytics of how many likes/followers/connections you have. Focus on what makes you so ‘younique’; showcase your character, values, personality, knowledge and experience. Remember it’s quality over quantity, as the number of followers bares no relation to the number of possible opportunities.

5. What worked for you and your business 5 or 10 years ago is now irrelevant in this new arena. This new age form of customer service is all about people to people, so remember to invest in learning techniques on how best to present yourself to ensure you make a positive and lasting impression.

6. Don’t construct what you think is a compelling personality to attract your "target market”. Those that succeed in social media are authentic and transparent about who they really are, and understand the true value of their services/products. They know that building Social Media relationships, like any worthwhile relationship, takes time and they are willing to work at this for the long haul.

7. Strategy is definitely not “one size fits all”, so what might work for someone else, may not for you. Research other business case studies for inspiring examples, but bare in mind that the needs of your business should be assessed, and a practical, productive strategy customised exactly to these needs.

8. Don’t sit behind your Social Media accounts and rely solely on it for all your business networking. Yes, use it as a quick icebreaker, a learning tool,  and to start conversations, but meeting prospective clients and partners face-to-face can never be replaced. You can use Tweetups (Twitter meetups), and meet others in your local area. If you are traveling, tweetups are being held all over the world nowadays, so do a search for one happening in the place you are traveling to in advance and connect online with other attendees. In fact, why not take the initiative and create one of your own?!

9. Don’t use Social Media in place of your marketing strategy, it is only a piece of the marketing pie. Plan realistically what your business, marketing objectives, and goals are, and integrate your social media objective into your overall plan. Remember to measure your progress, so you can change your strategy if and when necessary.

10. First impressions really count, and you have less than 5 seconds! Put your best profiles forward, be consistent with your business branding and make sure your information is always informative and up to date.

Visit Alex at VIP Virtual Solutions to take advantage of her FREE social media evaluation – this is available to the first ten Biz Booster readers who contact her. Or check out her other services in relation to social media management and training.
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Yesterday I was skimming through the news headlines on the home page of Ninemsn, when I came across a heading that looked familiar. The heading was “Four steps to regaining self-belief”. The reason that it was familiar was because it was the title of the article I had written for Flying Solo, which has been released last Friday (2nd Sept) on the Flying Solo website.

My curiosity was piqued, and I clicked onto the heading to take a look and see what this article was about. Well, you can imagine my surprise, when I began reading the article and realised that it was in fact my article from Flying Solo. Who would have known that Ninemsn would pick up my article in Flying Solo?

Who is Ninemsn? Well, I’ve taken this directly from their site: “Ninemsn is Australia’s largest online content publisher with 10.3 million people (March ’10) visiting the site each month – reaching 69 per cent of the online population.” To reach a possible 10.3 million people, all it cost me was my time, and knowledge and I want to let you know that it is something that you can do as well.

I encourage most of my mentoring clients to write articles, as it is a great way to establish credibility with clients and prospective clients. To get started, why not use some of the following ideas.

1. Look at some of the issues and challenges your clients are facing at the moment. Write an article discussing these challenges and ways that you would solve them. Put together a tip sheet, a top ten list, or you could us this information to write an article of interest around these challenges. Aim to have the word count in your article at a minimum of 300 words and I would say no longer than 1200 words.

2. Once written, use my ‘rule of three’. By this I mean, post your article in a minimum of three places. One would be your newsletter, a second place could be your blog, and then after that you could try article directories, industry magazines (both online and hard copy), ask your joint venture partners if they would like to use it, and forums to name a few.

There are a number of free article directories out there that you can use to place your articles, a couple that I use are: Ezinearticles; Articlesbase and Selfgrowth.

Research industry magazines, and find the email address of the editor. Write to the editor, letting them know that you have attached an article for their consideration. If it's an editor that I haven’t been in contact with before, I will let them know the current word count, and if this was an article of interest, that I would be happy to increase the word count if they required. Editors that I currently have a relationship with, I will forward them my current articles, tell them that if they would like to use these articles, then I will increase the content to reach their required word count. I find that different magazines have different word count requirements.

3. Track your articles. You can do this by using google alerts to see where your articles are being place. If you place your articles on your blog, make sure that readers are able to forward your articles on as well to all the social media outlets. On my blog site, I use a service called ‘addthis’ and each week I receive an update of what articles have been forwarded, to where, and if there has been any click backs. If an article is being published in one of the magazines I currently write for, I have a specific landing page dedicated to each magazine, so that I can track how many people have gone from reading my article to checking out my website.

There are a number of added benefits of article writing; one is that it is free publicity, especially if your article is picked up for a newspaper article. Media mentions do position you as an expert in your industry and one of the things that I have learnt from my colleagues in PR, is that television/radio producers will scourer the print papers for stories. It also adds weight to your website when you include your media profile, and you could get paid for writing and this does happen – read the next paragraph!

Last year I was working with a mentoring client, who works within the health and wellness industry, her focus with clients is helping them to understand the missing link between mindset, your thoughts and weight loss. In one of our calls, I mentioned to her that I thought it was time for her to begin writing articles and submitting them to various industry magazines. This suggestion was meant with a very firm “No, this is something that I don’t feel I can do.” I explained the reasons that I thought this would benefit her business, and that all it would take was her time and knowledge. She still wasn’t interested, so I decided to let the conversation go at this time. Over the next few months, I would bring the conversation back to article writing and finally she agreed to write her first article. Well, fast forward 12 months and not only is she published in various leading print magazines here in Australia, but she is being paid to write for a health and fitness magazine in the UK. It’s something that she never imagined was possible.

Now matter what you do, it’s time for you to give writing a try, and who knows where you may end up! If you do currently write articles for your newsletters or blog, challenge yourself to make contact with industry magazines, and see what you can have published. I would love to hear what happens for you, so let me know…. Tweet