Part one- How to start successful email newsletter program, follows…

Marcos J. Menendez
President
LCG

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Ok, so how do we start one?

Step 1. Is an email newsletter program right for my business? Ask yourself these three questions: Do I need to communicate in a regular basis with my clients and prospects? Do I need a marketing program at this time? (Maybe you are doing phenomenally well…) Is my product or service a one-time purchase or do I have regular clients that come back for more? If you answer yes to all three continue reading.

Step 2. Define your marketing objectives. What do you want this program to do? Inform? Sell? Announce? Establish you as an expert in your field? Whichever your objectives are, they will be the guiding light in terms of measuring the program’s success and they will keep you focused for the long term. Start a list of goals you would like to achieve with this program, the more specific the better… send it to me if you like, I’ll give you my feedback free of charge. mmenendez@loopconsulting.com

Step 3. The Content. This is the golden rule (pay attention, now). The content must be relevant, timely and useful. Meaning relevant - it has to relate to your reader’s business, hobbies, curiosity, etc.
Timely - it has to be delivered at a suitable moment, when the reader can have the time to read it. Email is great at that; people usually read emails when they have time. Useful - it must provide benefits to the reader, which is what separates your newsletter from the delete button. If you can help them save money, time or make them look better or smarter, readers will continue opening it month after month. That’s the secret between the good newsletters and the ok ones. Shhh, don’t tell anyone, it’s between you and me.

What to write about?

Sit down with a piece of paper (Ok, so you’re sitting down, now get the paper, I’ll wait…) Write down the things your customers, prospective clients, colleagues, friends and family members ask you about your day to day work. The reason they ask you is because you are the expert on the matter and they want the insider’s point of view. What do they want to know?

How do I…?
Should I…?
What do you think about…?
Is it worth spending money on…?
What would you recommend for…?

The answer to those questions is valuable to many of the people you already know and will represent your content. Not too hard, huh? Go ahead; start writing anywhere between 500 to 700 words should do…

Next month, Starting an eNewsletter Program, Part two. (But Part Two, is not set on stone, you have to vote for it in our “Its Your Call” section). We’ll discuss the following steps: Developing an email list of readers. Determining the cost of a newsletter program and how to deliver and track the messages.

Ok, I hope you found Emi, relevant, useful and timely. If you have a newsletter program that’s not performing as well as you wished, let us know we’ll take a look at it. If you have any questions or comments email me, I’d love to read them.

See you next month.

Marcos.

P.S. Don’t forget to vote for next moths article, In Emi’s “Its Your Call” section.

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