Does Your Business Need a Newsletter

It costs less to cultivate existing customers than get new ones. A newsletter is a good way to show existing customers you care and can meet all their needs. The key to a successful newsletter for marketing is to concentrate on your customer, not your business.

Focus on information your customers want and need to know. What questions do your customers ask? An insurance agent might be asked how much insurance a customer needs A question a florist might hear is how to keep flowers fresh. A personal trainer might be asked how to eat to lose weight. The answer to each question is a newsletter article.

Avoid the hard sell. Your newsletter is a marketing tool, but don't hard sell your products and services. The objective is to provide valuable information so your customer comes back for more and begins to remember you when the customer needs what you have to offer.

Plan a stories 12 months ahead. You want customers to look forward to the newsletter, so plan on doing it for at least 12 months. Target stories to seasons and celebrations.

Get it right. Mistakes damage your credibility. Make sure everything is accurate, including grammar, punctuation, and sentence structure. If you need help, hire a freelancer to edit your newsletter before you send it.

Remember the profile box. This is a section where you talk about your products and services. Who you are, what you offer, how to get in touch with you. Include your email and web addresses.

Paper or digital? Decide how you want to send your newsletter. Lots of companies are sending

electronic newsletters, so actually printing and mailing a paper newsletter can help you stand out in the crowd. If you go digital, you will need to research rules and laws regarding spam and privacy. The Can-SPAM Act of 2003 has rules for electronic newsletters. This law has many aspects, but generally, you:

·         Can send it only to people who have opted in or have indicated an interest in getting the

newsletter.

·         Cannot use email addresses from sources other than your own.

·         Must provide an easy option to unsubscribe and fulfill requests to unsubscribe within 10 days.

·         Must include your correct, physical address, your legitimate email address, a domain name, and an IP address.

Before You Leap into an E-Newsletter, Think!

Before you invest in an e-newsletter for your existing and potential clients,  here are some questions to consider as you think through the newsletter:

What do you want to be known for and remembered as being?
Who is your audience?
What is the gain they want?
What is the pain they want to avoid?
How can you help them gain what they want and avoid the pain?
What do you have that is different from everyone else?
What can they get from you no one else can give them?
What do you want them to do after reading the newsletter?
Do you want to instruct? Persuade? Inform? All three?
Do you want to organize the newsletter around a theme? An activity? A function?
How can you make it fun? Intriguing? Provocative? Memorable? Viral?

The more time you spend answering these questions, the more successful your newsletter will be, the easier it will be to design and write , and the more readers will want to read it!

Speaking Skills

You must have good communication skills if you want to have rewarding relationships. No one is a good communicator all the time; skill depends on the situation and personal factors such as your upbringing, education, and level of self-esteem. The good news is that you can learn skills to become a better communicator.

·         Practice what you will say before you say it.

·         Try different ways of saying things with friends you trust.

·         Ask for feedback from people who have strong communication skills.

·         Take classes, read books and listen to tapes.

·         Study people whose communication style you admire.

Article Writing in Five Easy Steps

Do you need an article for a newsletter, magazine or blog post? Here is a quick, easy formula for writing one.

1.  Start by identifying one problem your clients have mentioned. For example, an image consultant may have clients worried about how to update their wardrobes without spending a lot of money.

2.  Write a short description of the problem.

3.  Add three solutions to the problem. Devote one or two paragraphs to each solution. In our example, the image consultant could write about using accessories to update clothing, adding one or two trendy pieces, and mixing and matching existing pieces in new ways.

4.  End with five tips the reader can follow for a do-it-yourself wardrobe update.
5.  Add your contact information and a free offer.

That's it. Article writing in five easy steps.

Contact me at info@patriciahaddock.com for a tip sheet on how to do a how-to article in 10 easy steps.

Start the Week with Inspiration

Four minutes to touch your heart
http://www.youtube.com/embed/WEqdr_Awdak"

SEO for Your Blog

A good article for SEO for your blog at Blog Traffic Exchange: Principles of Good SEO for Your Blog

Write for How People Read

Skimmers decide what to read based on the first sentence. They skim documents and look for key points. When you write for skimmers, start with the main point. In an e-mail, use the subject line to convey what the e-mail is about. Use bullets or boldface to highlight key facts, dates or figures.

Skeptics tend to read a document thoroughly and want to see documentation and facts to support statements. Use lots of supporting details and evidence and provide examples, statistics, factual anecdotes to support everything.

For both, organize the body of your document as an inverted pyramid--place the most important information first and drill down to the least important. In this way, both types of readers get what they want.

Word of Wisdom from Jim Rohn

Authors Need Websites

If you have authored a book, you need a strong website. How do you make sure your website looks professional and supports—even furthers—your career? How do you know whether to gear it toward agents, editors, or readers? All these questions and more will be answered in this nuts-and-bolts session about creating a model author website. Check out this webinar from Writer's Digest.
Five Essential Components of a Strong Author Website

Speak Up

Being a competent speaker is a great way to grow your business and develop your professionalism. As your career progresses, you will have to make presentations to clients, management and staff. The more comfortable you feel speaking to small and large groups, the more successful you can be. Here are some tips for improving your speaking skills.

1. Practice. That's right. Just start speaking at every opportunity. No opportunities? Don't let that stop you. Offer to do a three-minute report about a workshop you attended at the next staff meeting.
2. Be prepared. Take some 3x5 cards and jot the points you want make. Decide what you want to say about each point and practice. Do not read from your cards or from a prepared speech. You want to sound natural and conversational.
3. Stay calm. Many people are nervous when they have to speak. Their hands shake, their voice quivers, they get a dry mouth. All this might happen to you. Just take a few deep breathes to relax. Go to the restroom and open your mouth wide to loosen up your mouth. Drink water and avoid dairy products since they produce mucus that affects your voice.
4. Get help. Join Toastmasters to gain experience and improve your skills. http://www.toastmasters.org/.

Everyday or Every Day? Use the Right Word

Everyday is a single word and is an adjective. Use it with a noun to describe something that is normal or commonplace. Example: Your complaints are becoming an everyday occurrence.

Every day is an adjective (every) plus a noun (day), and it means each day. Example: I eat lunch at the cafeteria every day.

Person vs. People--Use the Right Word

Person is singular: There is a strange person loitering in front of my house.
People is plural: There are three strange people loitering in front of my house.

Be Positive

Use positive wording Your writing will be more successful if you focus on positive wording rather than negative since words that affect your reader positively are likely to produce the response you want. A positive emphasis helps persuade the reader and creates goodwill. In contrast, negative words may generate resistance.

Avoid judgmental words such as “you claim,” “failed to, “neglected to,” and “lack of.” Avoid words with negative connotations such as no, do not, refuse, and stop and words that convey unhappy or unpleasant associations such as unfortunately, unable to, cannot, mistake, problem, error, damage, loss, and failure. In a few cases, you may want to use the negative for emphasis. There is a difference in tone between the contracted form and the two-word form--“can’t” and “cannot” or “don't” and “do not.”

Use Good Manners and Courtesy on the Internet

·         Understand the difference between email conversation and email correspondence.

     ·         Avoid text abbreviations in email correspondence.

     ·         Start with a proper greeting.

    o   Formal greeting: Dear Title Last Name

    o   Informal greeting: Dear First Name or Hi, First Name

     ·         Use a subject line that explains the purpose of the email.

     ·         Keep it short—never more than two scrolls down.

     ·         Use BCC for groups or set up a group name that conceals individual email addresses.

     ·         Avoid “Reply All” if possible.

     ·         Do not send chain email.

     ·         Ask permission before forwarding an email to another person.

     ·         Limit personal email usage at work.

     ·         Reply within 24 hours.

Write E-mails from the Top Down

The journalism model comes from newspaper journalism. Editors cut copy from the bottom up so news reporters write in an inverted pyramid style. When you use an inverted pyramid, you start with the most important information and follow with information in descending order of importance.

This is perfect for e-mails. Write them in descending order of importance. Start with the most important piece of information and end with the least important piece of information.

The most important part of an e-mail is the subject line. Create subject lines that say something!

What an Editor Does for You

An editor guarantees that a document is logical. It corrects structural and organizational problems. The length of the document may change. Items corrected in editing are:
-  wordiness and ambiguity
-  unnecessary and/or awkward sentences, paragraphs, or pages
-  inappropriate or poor word choice
-  faulty organization
-  passive voice
-  tone

 

 

Ask Questions that Get the Right Answers

Ask open questions that require more than yes and no answers. Start open questions with how? what? could? would? For example, How could we do this? What do you think? What if we did it this way? Which way would you prefer? How do you feel about this?

Ask probing questions to get more information. For example, what else did you like? What else would work for you?

Ask leading questions to help the person find clarity. Leading questions often end with Don’t you?, Won’t you? Right? For example, Last month I didn’t have to complete the report until the 30^th; that’s true this month, too, isn’t it?

Use closed questions to stop the other person from rambling. Closed questions require yes or no answers.

Avoid questions that put people on the defensive.

Asking Questions, Winning Sales: Superior Interviewing Techniques for Sales Professionals

The Success of Any Communication Is the Result You Get

You must have good communication skills if you want to have rewarding work relationships. No one is a good communicator all the time; skill depends on the situation and personal factors, such as your upbringing, education, and level of self-esteem. The good news is that you can learn skills to become a better communicator.

·         Practice what you will say before you say it.

·         Try different ways of saying things with friends you trust.

·         Ask for feedback from people who have strong communication skills.

·         Take classes, read books and listen to tapes.

·         Study people whose communication style you admire.

Talk Like a Winner: 21 Simple Rules for Achieving Everyday Communication Success

Confusing Words Clarified

Then--shows a sequence: I passed my driver's test and then bought a car.

Than--draws a comparison: I am older than my brother is.

That--refers to something at a distance: My brother lives in that purple house across the street.

That--introduces essential information: The report that John wrote yesterday had three errors.

Which--introduces nonessential information: I graduated from USF, which is in San Francisco.

This--refers to something near at hand, here and now: My brother lives in this neighborhood.

This--refers to something previously referenced: One of my brothers is a lawyer. This brother lives in L.A.

Three Characteristics All Business Documents Need

A document is clear when it flows logically, every paragraph is correctly constructed, transitions move readers through the material, and all questions are answered.

A document is concise when it contains all information necessary for understanding and no extraneous information.

A document is correct when grammar, punctuation, spelling, and all references are accurate.

A professional business writer and editor can look over documents you create to ensure they meet these criteria; a ghostwriter can do it all without your having to write a word. With a modest investment of money, you can rest assured your business documents reflect well on your business, your brand and your expertise.

Use the Right Word--Affect or Effect

When you use the wrong word, you damage  your credibility, and people question your expertise.

Affect = to influence something (verb) -- “The movie didn’t affect me at all.” Effect = result or outcome (noun) -- “Water pollution is an effect of pesticide use.” Effect = to bring about or cause (verb) -- “The doctor tried to effect a change in my diet.”

For more words commonly mis-used, go to http://www.wsu.edu:8080/~brians/errors/errors.html#errors

Do You Want to Be a Published Book Author?

Do you need a book for back-of-the-room sales or to enhance your expertise? If writing an entire book seems daunting, consider becoming a co-author in a multi-author book. One chapter in a book like this can mean more business and increased income. I'm editing Savvy Leadership--a multi-author book for women--from Thrive Publishing, and we're looking for experts who can help women build leadership skills. If you're a woman leader and are interested, send me an email. Pat

Intelligent Editing - The Top 10 Hyphenation Inconsistencies

Intelligent Editing - The Top 10 Hyphenation Inconsistencies

Work with a Ghost

You probably have heard about ghostwriters. Ghostwriters create communications that are published over the name of the client. No one knows you hired a ghost to write it for you. Ghostwriters make sense if your writing skills are weak, or you don't have the time to write and edit your own work.

Ghostbloggers write your blog posts for you. Generally, you and your ghost agree to a certain number of posts per month and decide topics. If you have content, you provide it to your ghost; if you do not have content, the ghost will research the topics for you. The ghost writes the posts, you review them and make changes, and then the posts are sent to you or your web manager for uploading.

A good ghostwriter will review your objectives, evaluate the amount of time required for the project and give you an estimate. If you plan to use a ghost regularly, consider a retainer arrangement where the ghost is paid upfront for a certain amount of his/her hours of writing and editing services.

A ghostblogger will charge a per-blog fee. A reasonable fee starts around $45 per blog and goes up depending on the technical complexity of the content and amount and type of original research the ghost must perform.