Barbara Saul and what she gets up to most days!

Musings and opinions around business and WordPress

Email newsletters

Most of us receive many email newsletters every week – but how many do we bother reading?

It seems to me that some are getting a bit beyond their original intentions – far to much “look at me” and not enough of what you want to read – less of the content that is worth us spending our valuable time reading.

Let’s face it, we are deluged with “information” and too much of the useful, readworthy information that we want is tucked away between advertising and utter nonsense. If you want to reach your reader, don’t make us hunt down the value in your newsletter – just give it to us!

Taking note of what your readers really want can even end up saving you time.  An excellent example is Mark Lee; he’s recently reviewed the format of his newsletter for and about accountants – now it looks like a personal email from him – no distractions at the top – straight into the news with no faffing about (and fewer italics!). Some weeks ago he asked his readers for feedback and has acted on it – good marketing strategy in action.

Others, sadly, are going from mediocre to worse…

  • One network’s newsletter just landed, headed by a goodly chunk of imagery that was of no value, that I could see, which turned me off before I’d got to anything to read-worthy!
  • Another today had white text on a green background which was too hard to read,
  • and yet another always includes header images made up of photographs of the writer – far too “me-me” for my liking.
  • The worst is a weekly missive so poorly formatted that it embarrasses what purports to be a professional business – and not only is there no option to unsubscribe, but they don’t seem to read emails gently suggesting a more agreeable approach!

You’re wasting your time, at the very least, if you don’t respect your readers. I know that sending out email newsletters is something most of us can do with relative ease, but if you need some expert guidance, then find it and take heed of the advice offered.  I’ll review my favourites for this soon – if you have any recommendations, please share them.

It’s a bit like creating a website with WordPress – just because we can all do it, does not mean that we can all do it well – there is still room for expertise to be sought – we need to know when that is going to be more beneficial to our businesses than all the DIY that we try to do these days – but that’s for another blog…

Be Sure of Your ReTweets

Some musings after recent having a retweet affect some people’s view of me, in a negative way.

Now we all know that retweeting adds a sheen of being in the know, a helpful person, knowing who to follow, but we do sometimes need to consider just what that tweet we’re saying is worth our followers, our network, taking notice of.

No matter how much you want to spread the word on behalf of your chum, colleague, boss – what will people think of what you are endorsing.  Does it matter to you if some people will consider the link that you are suggesting they visit is dreadful and perhaps not up to your usual professional standard?

Twice now I have retweeted a link from someone that I considered a good sort – not even a close friend in either case, but I wanted to give them a bit of “moral support” in their latest endeavour – almost on a whim and just feeling friendly.

The first time I was asked if I had in fact used that person’s services myself – I had not, but I would – I was caught a bit on the hop though, I must admit (see the blog post ReTweeting on Twitter)

And the second time I was simply helping to spread the word in support of a friend’s launch. And it was to a web page that I cringed at, personally – not at all my style nor something I would encourage anyone to create.  However this person knows their way in business and is pretty successful in their own right – so their methods may not be what I would endorse or buy into, but I am well aware that my way is considerably more conservative than many, especially in the world of Internet marketing (I’ll convince you all in the long run – I will, I will!).  So I put aside my own snobbery and respect that the person I was retweeting knows what they’re doing – and stand by my retweet as I know that the offer being made was a genuine one, however it was being marketed.

Just something to think on though – two people that I hold in high regard pointed out that the link I had retweeted was dreadful (in so many words)…  And that did bother me – two trusted business friends let me know that my retweet was not up to scratch – how many others did not share their opinion with me.

What do you think of this of retweeting something that you’re not quite happy about, and do you retweet without actually being sure of what you’re suggesting your followers give some of their attention to?

As we all get really stuck into Twitter, we need to consider these things – it’s bedding down now and can indeed be very useful.  I hate to use the term but we are well into Twitter 2.0 now (much as I dislike such labelling of what is a natural and obvious evolution of any system, but you’ll know what I mean!).

Don’t plagiarise a good Internet marketer!

What a wealth of blog post topics today – just from keeping an eye on Twitter!

S0 – what’s riled me now?  And why would anyone plagiarise a good Internet marketer?

To most of you this is not only obvious, but something you’d not consider doing anyway, but for the one or two who take the biscuit, a word of advice…

Don’t!

Whether you’re sneaky about it or downright obvious – copying a real expert’s content is stupidity. Do you really think the person you’ve considered to be good enough to provide you with your content is not going to also be good enough to keep an eye on where she’s placed her content? I am talking about a specific instance from today, and the original author is highly regarded as one of the best UK Internet marketers – how foolish to copy her content, and in a particularly stupid way (if you’re going to be dishonest, at least do it intelligently – ah – OK, that’s akin to a double-negative, I suppose.).

Well I’m going to step off my soapbox now, but keep in mind that someone who is genuinely good at this particular craft is not someone you want to annoy.  Reputation management works both ways!

A more gentle approach to your Internet marketing

This is bothering me. People who set themselves up as experts, who suggest that they can tell people what to do when they don’t appear to be doing much of it themselves. How can that be? How can they possibly be credible when not joining in with the very people they are purporting to teach?

I understand all about aggressive sales and marketing methods, and that works well for many. But not me – I can’t do it and have no desire to learn. I have been tempted many times by some of the best in the land – but it’s not my way. Surely you would rather have someone gently take you through the benefits of what I can do rather than have me make you “feel your pain”. OK, so I won’t be rich, but I’m happy and enjoy running my business – and maybe one day my approach will be welcomed and customers will flock to my door…

A “for instance”: I find long long sales letters patronising, at best and my one attempt, several years ago, to do one of my own was an almighty flop – which is hardly surprising when I did not believe it would work anyway. I didn’t want it to work, preferring to believe that you’d rather be told what’s what, with no faffing about, and that actually if you needed to be told a thing half a dozen times then perhaps I’m not the best person to be working with!

One of the latest trends that can be useful for your Internet marketing is Twitter. I’m a fan; I join in many times each day and it has been good for my business. However I would certainly not suggest that I’m an expert – there are some excellent Internet marketers that have worked with Twitter and put together definitive guides, one of the best being from Nikki Pilkington – her Tweetmentor is recommended for everyone wanting to use Twitter for business. I am however someone that’s got stuck in with it, figured out and learned how to make the most of it, for me. Now this may not have resulted in more business than I know what to do with, but it has brought some excellent referrals and a valuable new network, one especially strong one being in Kent, my home county. And new friends, which I’d not expected – that’s been a great bonus.

Twitter – it is useful, it can bring you more contacts, business, attention – but you don’t need to be beaten over the head that you’re missing out if you’re not doing it – it is simply one aspect of Internet marketing that can work if you’ve the time and inclination. If you want to explore it, gently do so and follow people you want to, those that you can relate to, and like. More on this tomorrow – it’s very much in my mind just now as I’ve been asked to give a quick overview during a Twitter workshop on Wednesday in Maidstone. So a good time to gather my thoughts, sum up my experiences and to review my own research on the Twitter-scape in Kent. More on that through the week…

But back to my idea of a gentle approach – it boils down to figuring out your best Internet marketing strategy, I suppose – I usually return to that – which is not surprising, as it’s what I love doing best.

You need to know what works for you – bring together what you want to achieve, the resource you have available for that, and then see what aspects of the Internet can help you get there. Knowing the various options is good, indeed, but most small business owners are not going to need to use all of them to get what they want. So I think my point is that you shouldn’t be bullied into something that may not suit you and that may not bring you what you want. Not everyone will be good with everything – if you are, you’re not likely to be reading this, that’s for sure. So relax some and chat to people you know, like and trust before romping away with the latest newfangled Internet tool.

Keeping it current

Yet more inspiration today! I received an email from an agency whose owner I know, within which they were selling their blogging platform – of course this is of interest to me and to many that I work with, so off I popped, following their link. Only to find that while they may well be using the very platform they’re marketing, this included the dates of the most recent posts – November 2008! That’s over 6 months ago and really does not encourage me to follow up and find out more. It all looks very smart and professional, but really! Great design is there to support and lend credence to the actual content – and in the world of online marketing, something dated 2008 does not encourage trust! A case of cobblers’ shoes perhaps – I’m hardly one to suggest I’m setting an example, before anyone else might want to point that out to me!

Something for us all to remember – keep it current, especially if you’re directly inviting people to that very page!