ArchivesWhat's the real communications value is all this stuff? If 1000 people join a FaceBook group in the name of a dead/missing person, how many of them know that person and how many are e-ghouls, attaching themselves to anything with a profile?
And who's monitoring all this apparently anarchic stuff? There are some tweets out there right now, giving Iranians a link for sending safe 'anonymous' emails. But suppose it's not safe at all? How will they find out? Via a not-so-virtual knock on the door?
What am I doing? I'm fretting, a bit.
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( 2.9 / 287 )And before you go back to check how often I’m writing this free newsletter advice series, I know its frequency is fairly erratic. Other things are allowed to get in the way. I might have been at choir practice (another story, of which there will be more later), baking a cake, or doing client work. I might have been writing a restaurant review or preparing a teaching session.
The point is, I didn’t make a commitment about how often these blogs on my favourite aspect of marketing communications would appear. So I just tap one out when the muse calls me.
But if I had made a commitment, if I had said that new blogs would appear daily, or weekly, or when the moon is in the seventh house and Jupiter aligns with Mars, that’s exactly when it would happen. Because it’s important to keep the communications promise.
So whether yours is an internal or a customer newsletter, there’s a lot to discuss if you’re going to get the frequency right. There’s a balance to be struck between how much you have to say and how much people want to know, between what’s desirable and what’s affordable. And just because e-marketing lets you reach customers cheaply, that doesn’t mean you should be contacting them all the time. Less can be so much more if you get it right.
You know how it feels when someone you like and admire waves at you from across a crowded room? That’s the feeling you want your communication to create.
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( 2.9 / 318 )...but first, are you absolutely sure? If it’s a customer newsletter, is this really the time to be cutting back your sales communications? If it’s an employee newsletter, do you really have less to say in days like these?
Or maybe you need to start a new communication but the budget is so tight it actually hurts.
The good news is that you’ve never had so many options, so many ways to deliver information (and get it back). Or maybe you feel there are too many choices and that’s making your life difficult. Electronic newsletters can give you dramatic cost savings, but are they the right option? And is it really the communications medium where costs should be saved, or should you start with the quality of your mailing list?
Questions, questions – and at least some of the answers will save you money.
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( 3.2 / 321 )Creating a communication for someone is a bit like buying them a present.
A well chosen gift shows how deeply you understand the recipient. A perfect reflection of their tastes and aspirations casts a big warm glow on the relationship. Thank, tempt, persuade, flatter ... the thoughtful gift can have value way beyond its cost.
Then there’s the chain store voucher. “I know I’ve got to give you something,” it says, “it’s just that I haven’t a clue what you’d like. Spend this on food, or knickers, or a pot plant; it’s all the same to me. I’ve done my duty. I’m a bit pressed for time and, to be honest, I know that you wouldn’t really expect much else from me.”
Think about it. Which sort of gift do you want your newsletter to be? And how can you get to know your audience so intimately that there are gasps of delight every time they take off the wrapper? (OK, so that’s a bit over the top, but you get the drift.)
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( 3 / 352 )Any commitment to communicate should be a big deal, with a fair amount of structured thinking going into it. But one of the good things about newsletters – digital or printed –is also one of the bad things. They are just so easy to start. A masthead, a mailing list, something you want to say, a bit of dross for ballast and away you go. Let’s put “Issue 1” on the top and see who’s giving odds on there being an issue 2.
No wonder newsletters get culled wholesale when the money gets tight. Communications with no reason to live deserve to die.
But what about a newsletter purpose-built to do valid job, glowing with proven success? That could be a very sexy little number indeed, able to beat off the accountants and cost-cutters with its own slick stick.
So how do you get one of those? I'll tell you more.
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