In this post, I wrote about a few ideas for marketing in a tough economy. Heck, these ideas work for marketing in ANY economy. It’s been getting a lot of traffic lately, so I want everyone to click on it. I’ll wait. (Just make sure you click back, because I’m about to give you another really good post that you’ll want to read.)
Are you back? Good.
One of the ideas that I feel really has traction is a monthly eZine. Sure, as a small business owner you probably get way too many of these. Some aren’t that useful. But there are a select few in your inbox that you don’t delete, right?
I say you should create an eZine like that, for your clients/customers. An eZine that they don’t delete, but read in full each time, and that they save in a special folder in their email program just in case they need the information again in future. That’s the eZine we want more of.
1. What is your expertise? What do you sell? No matter what you sell, whether it’s services or products, the information you’ve learned about what brand of product is best, or the skills you bring when you sell a service, THAT is your expertise. Now, don’t give away the farm. But you want to share some of that information, just the right amount, so that your client gets something and still knows to come to you for the next thing. I don’t mean be stingy. I just mean you’re not going to hand over your proprietary info to anyone who asks for it (that is just stupid), but you are going to help your clients/customers to make better decisions BECAUSE of that proprietary information. Clear as mud? Read on.
2. An eZine is a compact, quick read. You’re not writing a 3,000-word feature article. You aren’t spending hours on this. You are choosing a topic from your expertise because of your proprietary information and expanding just a bit on it. You want how-to, very secular, easy-to-follow action steps. You want bullets, numbered lists, nut graphs that speak directly to the pain your customers/clients are feeling. You’re a QuickMart with this eZine. Just the stuff they want, not much choice, higher prices, but easy to get in and out. Kapish?
3. What kind of pain does your target market feel? I am not advocating that you cause pain to find the pain either. Every client/customer has a massive need that propels them to search out a company just like you for a solution. That is their pain, whether from needing more time, needing better equipment, needing personnel solutions, needing specialized services, such as accounting or editing, etc. This is the reason most of your clients/customers buy from you. It’s the one thing that they can’t do themselves (if they could, they would and you’d be out of business).
4. The eZine promises information toward a solution. It gives sales ideas, how to increase customer retention, how to keep your books cleaned up so filing taxes is easier, how to decide if the publications they produce are grammatically correct. All these are solutions that your clients/customers look for. What do you know about any of these? Go write something.
5. The eZine points clients/customers to you. By trying to help find a solution for them, they are more likely to come to you in the future. Say if you’re on a plane and scared to death of flying, wouldn’t you want the pilot to talk to you about what’s happening in the cockpit? Wouldn’t you want to know that all the instruments look good (how does he know that?), that there is plenty of jet fuel to get to your destination (how does he know for sure?), and that there are plenty of pretzel packs on board because you are suddenly very hungry (does he know someone he can ask to find this out?). Get it?
eZines are such a great marketing tool. If you don’t have one yet, what are you waiting for exactly? Make it short (less than 500 words total) and keep it free of fancy graphics and html. Just put together a plain text email version for now. Find a catchy title, tell them who you are, get a few nut graphs of information that you think your clients/customers need to know, and then include links at the end to your web site and blog. And always, ALWAYS include unsubscribe information. Make sure your clients/customers know you highly value the ability to talk to them via email every month. Be open to questions, comments, requests for information, and above all, be nice. Be authentic.
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