eMarket2 Blogs

“The chains of habit are too weak to be felt until they are too strong to be broken.”

Samuel Johnson

Investing in the future

A motorist driving by a Suffolk farm hit and killed a calf that was crossing the road. The driver went to the farmer and explained what had happened and he then asked what the animal was worth.

“Oh, about £100 today,” said the farmer. “But in six years time, with good rearing, it would have been worth £900. So £900 is what you owe me.” The motorist sat down and wrote out a cheque and handed it to the farmer. “Here,” he said, “is a cheque for £900. It’s post-dated six years from now.”

Do you invest in the future?

We do, with our award-winning Down2Earth e-newsletter, which goes out to some 10,000 readers each month, and in the process generates a serious amount of new business and incoming leads. (If you haven’t already done so, you can sign-up now at eMarket2 – it’s packed with rock-solid lead generation tips.)

But did this happen overnight? No! First of all, we took time to build and patiently nurture our subscriber base (more on this coming up very soon). But once you’re up and running, it’s like a snowball hurtling downhill. In short, a well written and well-managed newsletter is one of the most effective business generation tools you’ll ever have.

How to create a profitable e-newsletter – step one: build a relationship of trust

A successful newsletter can be the cornerstone of your e-marketing operation, but rush the process and your list building efforts will have been in vain. An email database, however large, is a fragile asset, if you offend people with poor quality content, over-sell or peddle hype, people will simply unsubscribe or delete your emails en masse and your list will evaporate before your eyes.

Your readers need to be won over. Remember that, for the first few issues at least, you’re on trial. They could hit that unsubscribe button at any time. So establishing a rapport of trust in the early days of the relationship will pay rich dividends down the line.

Don’t expect too much from your readers. Place yourself in their shoes: they’re inevitably busy people; don’t ever kid yourself that your letter is high on their list of priorities, however great your content.

Most importantly, Keep your newsletter simple, brief and easy to read – between 500 and 1,000 words per issue is ideal. (If a reader wants more, they’ll always click-through to your website, which is exactly what you want them to do anyway. Your job at this stage, however, is to whet their appetites.) Break your copy into bite-sized segments; write in short, widely separated paragraphs and use clearly defined sub-heads when shifting between subjects.

Frequency

The ideal broadcast frequency for a newsletter is every four weeks. More often can result in overkill, and less often can have a marked impact on profitability.

There is, however, no hard rule governing frequency. Ultimately, it depends on your relationship with your readers. Some information marketers, for instance, contact their list as often as two to three times in one day when they’re launching a product; but on other occasions you’ll not hear from them at all for three months.

Broadcast frequency also depends on your product. If you’re offering time-sensitive advice such as investment opportunities or sporting tips, then the regularity of your emails will be dictated accordingly.

Don’t be afraid to confound expectations by being unpredictable. Experiment with frequency and monitor your click-through rate. If it becomes clear that fewer of your emails are being opened due to a change in frequency then change tack.

We’ll continue in part two.  Until then, thanks for reading.

And always to a higher response!

Norman

Drop us an email now to see how quickly we can generate sales leads for your business