You've
Got To Read It To Believe.
A
few weeks before we published the January 2004 issue of Emi
titled: The
Can-Spam Act Of 2003, What You Need To Know. I had a meeting
with one of our clients to talk about the new legal changes that
were going to affect their corporate enewsletter as a result of
the new laws.
As I sat in his office, briefly going through new changes, it did
not occur to me that he wasn't 100% focused on the discussion at
hand and I don't blame him. His job is not enewsletter marketing
and the laws that affect us. That's our job. Nevertheless we
went on with the subject and the changes for about 10 minutes.
I communicated the changes clearly and he seemed to understand and
agree.
After the meeting finished, I went about my business, leaving
fairly satisfied with the outcome. Little did I know that my
meeting did not go as well as I thought...
Two weeks later he calls me and he says, "I just read your
eNewsletter on the new Spam laws [Emi Jan.2004] and we need to do
something about that!" Here I am thinking to myself, did
I not meet with him to talk about this? I know I'm busy and my head
is in a thousand places all at once, but I could have sworn we met
to talk about this..." I answered politely by saying "Yes,
I agree but no need to worry. Your enewsletter has been Can-Spam
compliant since before the law passed..." he was relieved.
Where am I going with this you ask?
OK, what happed to me was what I call the "The Law Of Read
It To Believe It". Apparently when I mentioned the new
changes going to affect the company's enewsletter he was not
as receptive as I thought.
But when I wrote down, published it and he read it, all of a
sudden it became a clear, credible and certifiable reality.
You see what happened to our client, as well as what happens to
you and me, is that we tend to believe what we read...that simple.
If we read it and if it makes sense we take it in as fact,
obviously considering the source. But in most cases what we read
comes from an expert.
Reading is one of our most important ways of learning and
now more than ever with the Internet.
Think about this...name people you consider experts. I'm not talking
about the friend that can open a beer bottle with just about anything;
he's not a bottle-opening expert. We have tools for that!
I'm talking about the established experts in your profession or
any field for that matter. Most of them have one thing in common--they
have published something, a book, a pamphlet, an article, etc.
Everybody I consider an expert has some type of published material,
Chef Emeril
Lagasee, Marketer's Seth
Godin or Prescott
Lustig, Golfer Tiger
Wood's, etc..
What I'm saying is that achievements and expertise at any level
reach a point of higher credibility once they are published.
How can you and I, simple people, nevertheless experts in what we
do, gain credibility and stature?
Easy, we publish! There many tools for that, trade journals, local
newspapers, websites, etc... but in my opinion not one of them work
as well as an enewsletter.
You see, your company enewsletter will allow you to publish frequently
to subscribers who want to read what you have to say. I'm not sales
pitching -- this is just how I've lived it.
My client didn't pay a whole lot of attention when I first talked
to him about the Can-Spam Act, but when he read about it in Emi,
he called me to ask what we were doing about it in his corporate
enewsletter.
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Bottom
Line:
Publishing an enewsletter will help you get established as an
expert in your market and solidify your credibility with each
issue launched. |
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That's
what I say...but more important what do you think? Let me know,
just reply with you comment.
By the way we got consent from the client to publish this story
as long as the name remained anonymous. What, you thought we hadn't
asked him? Three words we live by: permission based marketing.
See you next month!
Marcos and Group - making eNewsletters that make
experts.
P.S. Don't forget to rate this article.
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