The
Five Deadly Fears of E-Newsletter Publishing
By
Michael Katz
1.
Fear Of Having Nothing To Say
As
a small business owner, you know a lot
more than you may realize. And although
running out of material is the number
one reason cited by small business owners
for not launching an E-Newsletter in
the first place, I have never come across
anyone who knew enough about a particular
industry or topic to start a business
in it, who didn't also have a nearly
endless supply of content to choose
from.
Remember,
your clients and others who have an
interest in your area of specialty,
don't work in it every day the way you
do. The things that are second nature
to you, whether it's how to purchase
life insurance if you're a broker; how
to write a press release if you're a
marketing consultant; or how to troubleshoot
a light switch if you're an electrician;
are all news to those of us on the outside
of your industry.
The
people who are going to read your newsletter
have questions. You on the other hand,
have answers, opinions, experience,
and perspective. When it comes to your
industry, you understand what matters
and what doesn't, and how all the pieces
fit together. These brief, useful nuggets
are the things you write about.
2.
Fear Of Technology
An
E-Newsletter has a lot of moving parts.
There are mailing lists to manage; links
to set up; images to lay out; responses
to track; and dozens of other small
pieces to coordinate and fine tune,
all in the course of writing and publishing
a newsletter month after month. Managing
this process efficiently requires a
fair amount of technology churning away
in the background. That's the bad news.
The
good news is that email marketing has
finally evolved to the point where there
are dozens of vendors out there who,
for a very small fee, will take care
of most of this for you (go to Google
and search on “email marketing
vendors” for a look at what's
out there). So while it's true that
you will have to go down a learning
curve before you can switch your newsletter
publishing into autopilot, you no longer
need technical skill to get there.
Managing
the logistics of a monthly newsletter
can be tedious at times, no question.
But if you've ever successfully assembled
a gas grill, you're more than technically
qualified to publish an E-Newsletter.
3.
Fear Of Publishing On A Regular Basis
Although
you may be sold on the value of a regularly
published E-Newsletter, you may still
be worried that once let out of its
cage, this beast won't ever leave you
alone. The truth is, you're right to
be concerned. If I had to point to one
factor that plays the most significant
role in the failure of company E-Newsletters,
it's that the people behind them stop
publishing.
Like
starting an exercise program, we all
go great guns out of the gate: telling
everybody we know, celebrating every
issue. But (also like exercise), by
month four or five the thrill is gone,
and many people start to wonder how
to quietly put the thing out of its
misery.
I'm
happy to say that I've discovered two
solutions to this potential problem.
First,
publish monthly. Although it may seem
that dropping back to a less frequent
schedule will reduce the burden, in
practice the opposite is true. The less
often you publish, the bigger a deal
it is, and the more it seems to hang
over your head. A monthly schedule however,
means that the next issue is never more
than 30 days away, and you will find
yourself less concerned with achieving
perfection each time.
Second,
create a publishing schedule and stick
to it. First Tuesday of the month, third
Friday, whatever. The important thing
is that you bake it into your monthly
work schedule. An E-Newsletter will
never be today's top priority, and unless
you explicitly determine when it will
come out, you're more likely than not
to keep pushing it to the back burner.
4.
Fear Of Writing
I
hear it every day from the small business
owners I work with: "I can't put
out an E-Newsletter, I'm a lousy writer."
Well, you'll be happy to learn that
writing an E-Newsletter - like email
in general - is a lot more like talking
than writing.
People
don't expect to read prose on screen,
and they don't want something that reads
like an article from a local business
journal. They want a piece of you and
your expertise. As a result, the most
effective E-Newsletters are those that
sound as if the company leader is just
talking; filled with all the slang,
run on sentences and joking around that
comes out in person.
After
all, E-Newsletters are simply glorified
emails, and email is fundamentally a
two-way conversation. The more you can
write in an authentic, friendly, spoken
manner, the more it will feel to readers
like somebody (i.e. you) is really on
the other end. So don't worry about
something that your high school English
teacher would be proud of. Focus on
turning out something that breaks down
the walls between your company and your
customers. Something real.
5.
Fear That SPAM Makes It All A Waste
Of Time
There's
no doubt about it, SPAM has decreased
the effectiveness of E-Newsletters over
the last 12 months, and we are all much
more aggressive with the delete key
than ever before.
But,
let's put that into some perspective.
A good E-Newsletter sent to your house
list will still be opened by over 50%
of the people it's sent to. That's 5?,
10?, 50? times better (you pick) than
the percentage of people who read your
newspaper ads; respond to your direct
mail; or accept your unsolicited phone
calls. The fact is, for the small business
owner, an E-Newsletter represents the
first time in history that she's ever
been able to cost effectively communicate
with her entire customer and prospect
base over and over and over again. Not
only that, but thanks to the inherently
democratic nature of email (i.e. the
big boys don't get any more space in
the email inbox than the rest of us),
an E-Newsletter gives us the opportunity
to not just compete with, but outperform
our much larger competitors for the
attention of readers.
Yes,
SPAM has taken some of the shine off
of this diamond. But make no mistake,
it's still a diamond.
A
Final Comment
You
may be waiting to launch your E-Newsletter
until everything is "just right."
Until your mailing list is large enough;
until you've stockpiled enough columns
so you'll never run out; until you've
hired that new marketing person; etc.,
etc.
I've
got news for you. No matter how much
you plan and prepare, things are going
to go wrong even then. I've been midwife
at the birth of dozens of E-Newsletters,
and every time we launch one (every
time), something goes wrong. It's never
the same something, but it's always
there. So don't worry about it, just
get in the game.
Three
reasons: First, because the cost of
error online is exceedingly low. If
you make a mistake -- or simply change
your mind! -- you can fix it. Nothing
about your newsletter need be permanent,
from the name to the look to the content.
Every issue is an opportunity to start
fresh.
Second,
because time is your enemy. Relationship
marketing (of which, your E-Newsletter
is a tactic) is a long term approach.
The sooner you get started reaching
out to your circle of contacts, the
sooner you'll see the results. With
an E-Newsletter in particular, you lose
much more by waiting than you gain by
perfecting.
Third,
because experience is your friend. You
can do all the research in the world,
but until you've got a living, breathing
newsletter of your own, it's just a
theoretical exercise. There's only so
much insight to be gained intellectually;
the real "A-ha's" occur when
you get behind the wheel and drive it
yourself.
Bottom
Line: These five fears are common among
burgeoning E-Newsletter publishers,
but on closer examination, not all that
daunting. Go ahead, get started with
yours today!
Michael
J. Katz is Founder and Chief Penguin
of Blue Penguin Development, Inc., (http://www.BluePenguinDevelopment.com)
a Boston consulting firm that helps
clients increase sales by showing them
how to nurture their existing relationships,
and that specializes in the development
of electronic newsletters. He is author
of the book, E-Newsletters That Work.
