This week’s issue is all about writing content that stands the test of time. Why write an issue and only deploy it once with a 24-hour life span?

The mayfly only lives for 24 hours. Just like some of your e-newsletter issues. All that hard work and it’s over in a day. Ho-hum. Read on to find out how to extend the life of your mayfly issues.

To extend the life of my hard work, this week’s Masterclass contains a review of the thirteen most recent issues. Usually only viewed on my broadcast day (Wednesday) but worth reviewing. If you missed a Masterclass, catch it again below.

Re-discover hints, tips and examples you had forgotten (or missed the first time around):

Ask for help with research
Spectacular sky diving and innovation
Get noticed by making a stand
Christmas comes early
Marmite & Champagne
Writing three little words
Fight off the bean-counters
How to do a how to do
Free template for phone research
The big when question
Get out of jail free card
E-mails from top shops
Use ‘em or lose ‘em

In your own e-newsletter you should refer to previous issues if they still have currency today. Don’t fall into the trap, however, of believing that everything is still valid - it isn’t. (This is particularly true if you refer back to a sales offer that now has a broken link because your online store sold out weeks ago. Remember to check links!)

How to get maximum value from each issue:

1. Include content that stands the test of time, ie: tips or testimonials.
2. Make each issue available online as a web page, in an archive - mine is in a blog.
3. Get Google to visit your archive/blog every week/month.
4. Ping the blog directories too - the blogosphere is a big community.
5. Add a periodic review - recycle previous content.

Make your e-newsletter content available to the world, not just your subscribers and for 24 hours only. Allow new customers to discover old issues and click through.

It makes sense to maximise each issue. You put a great deal in, so why must it only live for one day like the mayfly? Talking of mayflies, Vodaphone’s ‘Make the most of now’ campaign has a great microsite, worth a visit: www.vodafonemayfly.co.uk (not convinced their data capture policy is compliant) but the creative is sheer genius.

This week I am going to talk about asking for help in the next issue of your own e-newsletter. This is all about asking your e-newsletter readers to take part in some (research) activity as they read your latest issue.

This worked really well for a national children’s charity we worked with for 11 years. As a (profitable) sideline the charity sold branded merchandise but had to choose the most popular item from a shortlist of new potential products each year. Difficult with unproven products.

The last thing they could afford to do was to gamble on a hunch. They needed to know which product would sell better than the others. Their e-newsletter readers had the answer.

The charity asked their e-newsletter readers to choose their favourite product from a shortlist, and type in why they liked it. Sometimes the answers surprised us, but the product with the most votes always went on to sell really well. (NB: The reasons given also guided future product shortlisting until product selection was down to a fine art.)

Here’s how it worked:

1. The e-newsletter was a single-focus issue - ‘we need help’.
2. It linked to a web page with (4) products on.
3. Readers chose their favourite and typed in their reason.
4. They clicked the ‘vote now’ button to send in their answer.
5. The research lasted for 6 days only.
6. Answers were stored online and analysed on day 7.

The outcome:
Readers felt good about helping the charity get it right. Readers were always right about the products - and to prove it, many then came back later and bought the chosen product. We eliminated guesswork. From start to finish we had the answers in a week. Fast, easy and reliable.

Salmon, prawns, duck, lamb & carrots, chicken & peas? Had to look at the Whiskas website and now think we have gone mad. It seems 8 out of 10 cats now eat better ingredients than our grandparents did! However, Whiskas also have a great e-newsletter sign-up - they give away a FREE Whiskas Kitten Care Pack to get you to sign up to their e-newsletter. Just purr-fect for cat owners.

Summary: Stop guessing and start asking. Your readers will help you because they want their opinion to make a real difference. Remember to finish off with feedback - in the next issue thank everyone and publish the results for all to see, ie: ‘8 out of 10 customers chose our X product because of its reliability’ - link to the product and see interest in that product soar. REMEMBER: People like what other people like, so find out why your top product/service is popular and tell everyone.

This week I am going to talk about staging a spectacular in your own e-newsletter. It’s a special, never-been-done-before event that your e-newsletter promotes and links to. It’s about being different, innovative and breaking the traditional e-newsletter mould.

Honda’s UK agency Wieden & Kennedy rose to the challenge with Honda’s ‘Difficult is worth doing’ campaign and staged Britains’ first LIVE skydiving TV advert last Thursday. It aired at 8:10pm on 29th May 2008 on Channel 4.

Nineteen skydivers formed the word “Honda” in mid-air - in three minutes and 20 seconds. Shot, mixed and aired live - awesome! Watch the advert on YouTube.

(The ASA don’t let you run live TV adverts normally because they need to regulate broadcast content - they worry that you might show your bum, so this was a big deal.)

How to relate this ‘Jump’ advert to your own e-newsletter:

Well, to start with, not too literally. You don’t need to hire skydivers over Spain, and you don’t need to persuade the ASA to let you air a live TV advert.

1. Use issues leading up to the event to announce that something big is coming. (Don’t give the game away, just tease and drop hints).

2. Create an online experience (a microsite featuring your spectacular). A microsite because it can deliver video, sound and extreme interactivity - like a Flash game maybe? A standard e-mailed newsletter just does images and words.

3. In the actual e-newsletter issue, link only to the microsite with a killer call-to-action. Nothing else - so you don’t dilute the clicks. You might say it a dozen different ways, but you will only link to your spectacular microsite.

Summary: The spectacular issue’s job is to drive microsite traffic - nothing else. In this issue, you must hold the news, product releases, customer reviews, hits & tips, etc. Be single-minded about this. 100%. Your microsite awaits, so give your entire issue over to ensuring you get traffic.

Honda’s advert re-wrote the rules: you may well know by now that I am a Honda (TV ad) fan (read my 7th January post with 3 Honda ads in) - I am constantly impressed by their creativity. You can read Honda’s blog about the making of this advert. Honda’s skydiver, Pam, (here on the right) is smiling because they pulled it off, live on TV. Could your e-newsletter re-write the rules, linking to a microsite including live content - a product demo maybe?

This week I am going to talk about gaining visibility for your e-marketing messages - in your own e-newsletter. You have subscribers, you broadcast regularly, but how visible are your marketing messages? Aren’t your e-mails just getting ignored?

Hmmm… maybe I have got ahead of myself here. OK, I assume you broadcast (or are planning to broadcast) a regular e-newsletter, and your motivation is commercial. This e-Masterclass is my weekly nudge towards your continued e-marketing success, using e-newsletters.

A really hot topic right now is standing out in a crowded in-box, being visible, increasing views, clicks, loyalty and revenue.

Three more assumptions:
1. Your subscriber list is clean (you have a decent subscribe/unsubscribe mechanism).
2. Your editorial team (hey, is that you on your own mostly?) generates content each month/week.
3. Your goal is to get your e-mails read, and then clicked (driving readers online, closer to buying from you).

How to get noticed:

Stop doing what the competition does - do everything very differently. (Saab cars want you to disregard their unconventional styling and believe that they have strapped 4 wheels to a jet fighter - it sells Saabs.)

Write your e-newsletter from a particular standpoint - disagree with the status quo (not those rock dinosaurs, I mean the usual platitudes peddled in your industry). Go take a stand against the way it has always been (caution here: Dove admits their ‘Campaign for Real Beauty‘ hasn’t pulled in the sales expected, despite being highly visible, beauty still outsells reality!).

Start smoking and swearing - be edgy, take a risk. Guaranteed to frighten the board and shorten your marketing career? Think again. How many albums sell because of the swearing? Unlike smoking warnings on cigarettes, the ‘Parental Advisory’ warning label is a badge of honour for street-smart iPodders (and yes, some even pay for their downloads!). Fifty Cent is not short of a bob or two thanks to this one. (Do I need to remind you about the pinch of salt with this one?)

Summary: why add one more apple to a row of apples and expect to be seen? Aren’t there enough boring, pointless e-mails out there without you contributing one more? Aim for visibility every time and increase your chances. Just think of the numbers - zillions of stay-safe, forgettable messages already out there! (Make sure your editorial team reads this one.)

This week I am going to talk about the Christmas 2008 issue of your own e-newsletter. (It’s no accident that this is the middle of May, with over seven months to go.) This issue is special and needs planning, and if you are going to run a Christmas promotion, start early.

I make no apologies for the Christmas kitten photo. It is absurd and it’s the wrong time of year. (But would a Year Planner photo really have got your attention?)

Your Christmas issue is obviously not ready yet, but may I suggest you make a start next week with the planning?

Your subscribers are going to expect something special at Christmas - because that’s what they are used to - decent marketers the world over end up firing off hasty and ill-conceived, last-minute bargains and offers. But not you. Not this year. This year you will create and send out something rather special.

Still think I’m being premature? Read how seven months is just not long enough - be honest, can’t you hear yourself saying the following?

May: “way too early! we’re still counting results from Easter…”
June: “figuring out whether we will run a summer promo…”
July: “planning and writing that summer blockbuster…”
August: “everyone off on holiday, no decisions possible…”
September: “back to work, back to school, ages yet, too early for Christmas…”
October: “hmm, maybe we should think about Christmas? Do it next month?”
November: “Christmas ideas anyone? Original, quick, and creative please!!!”
December: “HELP! WHAT ARE WE SENDING OUT?”

Summary: This year, your Christmas issue will get more views, clicks and sales revenues than ever before. You are planning ahead and by the end of this month, you will have given your creative team approval to develop their ground-breaking concept. Hmmm, maybe that sounded a bit didactic? “3-2-1 you’re back in the room.” Stage Hypnotist Kenny Craig (Little Britain) on YouTube here.

“Chestnuts roasting by an open fire…” Nat King Cole sings it here. To avoid getting your chestnuts well and truly roasted by your FD as you close Q4 down on revenues after a last-minute crappy Christmas promo, delight him with a request for your Christmas promotional budget early! (I resisted the urge to say: “don’t let this year’s Christmas issue be a real turkey” but I’ll leave you with the thought instead!) Merry Christmas everyone! See you next week.

This week I am going to talk about creating a Special Edition of your own e-newsletter. It’s about presenting the ordinary (your usual e-newsletter format) in a unique way to increase views and clicks.

My wife gave me a gift this morning - a golden 250g jar of Marmite with a touch of Champagne, packaged as a Limited Edition gift with the wording ‘for my lovely Marmite Lover’. You either love it or hate it - and I love it!

What a great concept! How easy to reproduce the effect in your own e-newsletter. A Special Edition e-newsletter.

OK, let’s face it: adding Champagne to Marmite is crazy. I doubt you could taste it, in fact I doubt you could taste petrol added to Marmite, but that’s not the point. The lesson to learn is that you can produce a Special Edition of your own e-newsletter to get readers to take a closer look.

Q. What could you do to create a Special Edition?

1. Could you run a collection of special offers for one week only?
2. Could you present your service/product in a unique combination?
3. Could you change the graphics in your Header for one issue only?
4. Could you create extra interest by producing a different version?

Throw this idea at your freshest web designer and see what comes back. Don’t be surprised if her response is a raw and unique take on the e-newsletter you and your readers have all become very used to. She might suggest an edition in Russian? Maybe an edition just for Project Managers? Go with the idea - produce your own Special Edition e-newsletter and drive up views and clicks with your own take on Marmite and Champagne. Rule: Different gets noticed, Same gets ignored.

Summary: Marmite have 2 websites: www.ilovemarmite.com and www.ihate marmite.com to suit both tastes. You can buy a Little Book of Marmite Tips on Amazon.co.uk or even a Solid Silver Lid for connoisseurs. Yes, Marmite’s branding thrives on controversy, so what if your brand is a little more modest? Brilliant! It will make your Special Edition stand out even more. Go for it. Brief that designer today!

This week I am going to talk about adding three little words into the next issue of your own e-newsletter to improve clicks and revenues.

Q. Are those three little words really: ‘I love you’?

A. Yes and no.

I’ll explain: It’s easy to overlook the power of words, when you are creating content for the next issue of your own e-newsletter. You have too much to do, so sometimes ANY copy, as long as you have SOME copy, will do.

Writing copy is difficult. Writing great copy seems impossible for a lot of people. So we settle for OK copy. Then we get frustrated that we only get OK results. You get back what you put in.

Think about how you feel when someone whispers ‘I love you’ to you. It triggers some deep instinctive response, maybe also curiosity (if it isn’t your partner/spouse saying it!) and your emotional state alters. Words affect you. You know it.

Those particular three little words have impact. We use them judiciously and deliberately. Now let’s look at how you choose the words you send to your own e-newsletter readers.

How to write your own ‘three little words’:

1. Stop saying what you want to say - start saying what customers want to hear. Don’t know? Easy, take your Sales Director a coffee, he will tell you why customers buy (and it isn’t money!).
2. Provide value - if you list your service or product features you will only drive readers away. If you describe the benefits they get instead you have their attention.
3. Fix their pain - what you sell must relieve a business or personal pain that your reader has. Can you increase revenues or decrease expenditure?

Your e-newsletter is at the heart of your regular marketing communications. It is there to drive revenues. You must find your own three little words. You don’t literally want just three words of course, but you do want to write and use words that have the power to affect people.

Of course I care what you say: as with many aspects of running your e-newsletter campaign, it often comes down to time and resource. Invest in good copy writing and you will see an instant uplift in clicks and revenues. Find a budding writer colleague with ability and nurture them or outsource it. Great copy affects people at a deep level. Just remember: ‘I love you’.

This week I am going to talk about putting the business case for your own e-newsletter. If you haven’t yet justified this marketing spend, sooner or later you may have to, so be prepared for building a good business case. This should help.

Different companies react in different ways to tough economic conditions (I hesitate to say ‘recession’). A drop in revenues, real or anticipated, certainly concentrates the mind. The bean-counters give us all two stark options - grow revenues or cut expenditure (or both).

Q. How smart is it to cut marketing expenditure and still expect revenues to grow? A. Not very.

Think of your marketing as the flowing water that continually feeds your seedlings (marketing messaging that nurtures your customers and leads towards sales, repeat or first-time).

Cut back on (e-newsletter) marketing and the water turns off. Your seedlings wither and the chances of a bountiful harvest later in the year are nil. Don’t cut marketing, increase it.

Six reasons why e-newsletters work well in tough times:

1. They keep your brand visible between sales, more visible than your competitors.
2. They keep your readers updated about new services/products and offers.
3. They are measurable and can be optimised over time.
4. They position you as a leader, authority or specialist in your field.
5. They nurture relationships with a ‘drip-feed’ approach, preferred by readers.
6. As the competition (foolishly) cuts back, you are the only one left to take the orders.

Tough times reward the steadfast and punish the weak. It always has been a jungle out there, but cutting back on business-building activity (marketing) simply dries up those prospects who are coming on nicely right now.

Present your business case with confidence: Maintaining a professional e-newsletter programme is a fixed-cost, high-value contributor to revenues. Cutbacks may become inevitable, but in marketing they really don’t help to generate revenues. An e-newsletter sent on a regular basis builds relationships, revenues and a solid business presence. All vital in troubled times.

This week I am going to talk about adding a ‘How To’ article into the next issue of your e-newsletter. (I also include my tip on how to fix your own biggest problem with your e-newsletter - how did I know?)

It’s not all about money. (But don’t tell your Financial Director I said that for fear of apoplexy!) Remember, your own e-newsletter fulfils many purposes - yes - the most important one undoubtedly is to build sales revenues, but…

… as not all readers want to, need to or are able to buy from you each issue (wouldn’t that be nice?), are you are often left wondering what to (pad out) your next issue with? Try unlocking the solution to a common problem for your readers, a ‘How To’, like this example, written by me for all readers of this e-Masterclass:

Problem: you need to create content for next month’s e-newsletter, but somehow time just seems to have slipped by. It’s now too late to do anything, so you have no option but to cancel the forthcoming issue. Bad for readers, bad for sales.

Solution: Set up a free nagging service online and remind yourself when you need to make a start on each issue, ahead of time. Set it up once only.

http://www.hassleme.co.uk will send you your own reminder e-mails at ’semi-unpredictable intervals’. You can add in your colleagues if you like, so the whole team gets nagged at once.
http://brompt.com will do the same for you if your e-newsletter runs off your latest blog post (like this e-Masterclass does here at TMB from my e-Masterclass blog). It sees if you have not posted for a while and nags you. Excellent!

Not all readers want to, need to are are able to buy from you each time, so publish a quick and easy ‘How To’ in your next e-newsletter. Be smart and address a burning issue for your readers that using your own products/service will fix, and you will be back onto sales again and can delight your FD!

Nothing left in the tank: If you are regularly out of ideas, despite reminders, you can always outsource all production to an outside agency, which takes responsibility for everything for a fee - often the easiest and quickest way because you do nothing. We do this at TMB for our clients, either as one-offs or on a contract basis. Call us on 01202 483244 for more info.

This week I am going to talk about adding customer feedback into the next issue of your own e-newsletter. Letting your readers know what your customers think about you. Gold dust! I even provide a free template to make your life easier.

Why this is a good idea: your readers like seeing what other people think about you, alongside what you think about your own products/services. Your e-newsletter is bound to be promotional, and hence your readers expect you to put your best foot forward in everything you write. Publishing what your customers say is refreshing, honest and rare.

Also, the trend towards UGC (user generated content) such as YouTube, MySpace, Ebay, etc means that this has a currency right now. We love reading what real people just like us said (thought, sang, videoed, etc).

How to get quick customer feedback for your e-newsletter:

1. List twenty customers with phone numbers, call them all and ask them what they think about your product/service.
2. Ask no more than five questions, with the customer scoring each one from one to ten (ie: ’speed of delivery’, ‘politeness on the phone’, etc).
3. Finish off with a ‘what sums us up?’ question.
4. Do it all by phone with a pen and paper.
5. Collate the answers in Excel. Publish, no names.

(This need take no longer than 1 hour to plan and 2 hours to do if you download my free Excel Feedback template. All the hard work already done for you.)

What you can expect from this exercise:

* Happy customers who like the way you care what they think.

* Answers from 50% of your twenty attempted calls within 24 hrs.

* Ten one-liners where clients say what does it for them.

* Reasons to reward internal teams, and areas to fix before you do it next year.

Don’t be reckless: Yes, publish what your customers say, warts and all, with your own comments on what you need to fix in the future. Your openness and transparency will say a lot about the sort of organisation you are. This cements your reader relationship like nothing else. (NB: Big issues that you need to fix don’t need to be aired if they will harm your organisation. Be realistic not reckless.)

This week I am going to look at the ideal frequency for sending your own e-newsletter out.

We all know it’s a balance. Yin Yang.

You want to send out enough marketing communication to be effective, but not so much as to become offensive.

The standard choices are: daily, weekly, monthly or quarterly. (Tip: anything less frequent than quarterly is a waste because readers can’t string issues together between such big gaps.)

So you need to keep momentum but not over-do things. Think about it, as marketers we all want to increase MARCOMs to increase SALES, so we always tend towards MORE rather than LESS. It’s in our nature. If we had our own way, we would prattle on endlessly about what great value our widgets are, imagining that everybody wants to listen every bit as much as we want to speak.

The ideal frequency is of course different for everyone. It depends on how dynamic your Marketing and Sales operations are. Very dynamic businesses manage daily e-mails with ease - see Seth Godin’s blog. Dynamic businesses manage weekly - see eBuyer’s customer enewsletter. Big, complicated businesses do well managing a monthly broadcast. As for quarterly, you need to think just how beneficial your messages are at just 4 per year. Not very.

The acid test: tell your Marketing Director you think you should now send out your e-newsletter more often - and listen to his response. If it’s POSITIVE (‘hey, yes we can manage that, our team can generate good content quickly, there’s plenty going on’, etc) then you will probably produce a valuable extra lift in sales. if however it’s NEGATIVE (‘no way, how can we do more right now? We can barely cope with once a (month) as it is!’) then either you really are at full capacity or you need to streamline how you produce each e-newsletter issue.

Special Offers don’t count: Yes you can send a special offer out at any time, regardless of when you sent your last e-newsletter. These are fast, high-value, short-burn goodies. Use them wisely but do use them. My rule of thumb is you can broadcast one special offer for every two regular e-newsletters with no problems at all. Some do more.

This week I am going to show you how to get out of trouble one day. This article is all about what to include in the next issue of your own e-newsletter if you run completely out of ideas. It happens.

OK, we all want killer content in every issue, not filler. (Don’t put filler in every issue - this is for emergencies only. But, this kind of filler content can be really useful when you are having the editor’s equivalent of a bad hair day.)

What to do: list your products/services in a catalogue-style layout. A list of what you do. Sounds too simple? What if you are a B2B company specialising in high-tech engineering solutions? What if you sell 3,000 lines of imported consumer goods? The answer is to break it down into a handful of service offerings or top level product categories and include three key elements per item:

1. Name (what it is called if they enquire about buying one?)
2. Picture (a product, an installation, a satisfied customer)
3. One-liner (max 10 words describing what makes this extraordinary)

See these examples taken from our www.DataHarvesting.com website, eight products each named, with a picture and a one-liner (click the thumbnails to see full size and read the one-liners):

And remember, just a handful - not the whole yellow pages! Now you’re probably thinking ‘Dom, it’s not that easy, etc…’ but the point is - it HAS to be that easy for your readers to understand it. If you can focus very simply on a name, a picture and a one-liner, you will succeed. If you load each item with detail or can’t differentiate what you do (the ‘extraordinary’ one-liner) from the competition - think again.

This ‘filler’ is easy to create. It’s quick and easy because you have everything you need at your fingertips today. Your e-newsletter readers will see what it is you do (some for the first time), as you set out your market stall. It will get you out of trouble one day. Bookmark this one!

Quick fix: remember, this is your ‘get out of jail free’ card. For emergencies only. It will however generate a surprisingly high click-through rate as your readers explore items they never knew you did. Try a list of what you do next time you are stuck for content. It really focuses your mind on what your offer actually is.

This week is all about improving your own e-newsletter to boost online and in-store sales. See how the top 67 UK retailers do it. You can increase clicks and sales by copying what the best do.

Thanks to a new dotMailer report just out, you can now see how B&Q, Currys, Mothercare, John Lewis, Waterstones, PC World, etc use e-mail to drive retail. The top 67 UK retailers were evaluated - all your high street favourites are here.

Learn why Topshop and Marks & Spencer lead the way in e-mail marketing.

Download the free 2.9MB PDF ‘Hitting the Mark’ report by dotMailer - click here: http://www.dotmailer.co.uk/321.asp

TIP: This is a ‘must read’ for all e-marketers - I only see a couple of these each year, and this is one of them for 2008 - screenshots, tips and plain talking. Recommended reading.

Reading this report will increase sales for you

1. Download it, print it out a few copies and give them to your team.
2. Pick three retailers from pages 38-39 that you want to be like.
3. Visit their websites and subscribe to their e-newsletters.
4. Using the 20 criteria, see how your own e-mails score and improve them.

Did you get your share of £46,600,000,000 in 2007?

A great big dangly carrot for all e-marketers - according to recent DMA research:

* 70% bought online (UK) after getting an e-mail.
* 86% bought in store (UK) after getting an e-mail (yes, lots do both).
* UK online sales rose by 50% in 2007.
* UK online sales now £46.6 billion - that’s 16% of UK consumer spending.
* UK online sales set to quadruple to £162 billion in the next decade.

Are you like Argos, Millets, Superdrug or Waterstones? Either be the best or be LIKE the best: it’s no accident that Marks and Spencer’s e-mail marketing works well. They have set their sights on a share of that carrot and got the basics right. Their results show that their investment in e-mail marketing has paid off. Be like M&S, or Blooming Marvellous, or Ethical Superstore etc… there are 67 to choose from.

This week’s article is all about the shelf-life of e-mail addresses - the older they get before you use them, the more they decay. A list of fresh, regularly used e-mails will outperform older e-mails (read on for the actual numbers). Your own e-newsletter therefore absolutely MUST be broadcast (on time, every time) to keep each e-mail address fresh. Regular monthly or weekly broadcasts are best.

The “Fresh vs Old” contest: If the e-mails are fresh, more get delivered (90% vs 73%), more get viewed (35% vs 31%) and more get clicked (36% vs 18%).

On a 100,000 list, you get 11,340 unique clicks (fresh) vs 4,073 unique clicks (old). That’s nearly three times as many people getting closer to your products.

The longer you leave e-mails after collecting them, the lower the delivery rate falls. As a rule of thumb I found that you lose 5% delivery of the whole list every 3 months.

Not plucked out of mid-air - I crunched the numbers:

To find out exactly how much value was lost, (a while ago) I measured the value of e-mails by looking at our clients’ business and consumer e-mail lists.

I knew the age of each e-mail, the delivery rate (D), views (V) and clickthroughs (CTR). I worked out a simple formula: VALUE = (D x V x CTR x 100). I calculated:

e-mail freshness = 0 to 3 months
Delivery rate = 90%, Views = 35%, Clickthroughs = 36%
VALUE = 11.34% (values around 12% are good)

e-mail freshness = 12 months
Delivery rate = 73%, Views = 31%, Clickthroughs = 18%
VALUE = 4.07% (values around 4% are poor)

Regardless of my journey into deep maths above - I have an important message for you: even if I didn’t have numbers to back this up, wouldn’t it just feel right to keep in touch with your own e-newsletter subscribers as often as possible? Isn’t e-mail marketing all about providing valuable content in each issue? And doing so regularly. We are creatures of habit.

In a nutshell… if you are collecting e-mails, use them quickly. Fresh e-mails (0 to 3 months old) are each worth three times as much as older emails (12 months old). If you have a list of e-mails all expecting the next issue of your e-newsletter, make sure you broadcast it on time, every time. The e-mails stay fresh, you stay visible and sales figures stay up.

This week’s issue is all about adding a review into the next issue of your own e-newsletter. Every now and then it’s fun to look back at your old articles. A review is where you reminisce - and recycle - some would say it’s environmentally friendly, very green!

Remember that little Internet start-up, Google, nearly 10 years ago? I love the way their first website said: ‘Index contains ~25 million pages (soon to be much bigger)’.

Click the Google logo to see how that original Google website looked back in Nov 1998 courtesy of the Wayback Machine - it stores websites from way back and lets you see them today exactly as they looked years ago.

Visit the Wayback Machine website for a trip down Memory Lane at: http://web.archive.org and simply type in any website to go back in time.

Did you ever meet a marketer who looked back? I haven’t. They all look forward to tomorrow’s campaign, they never look back over their shoulder at what has always been. Try it sometime, it can be fun. To help you look back over recent issues of this e-newsletter, remember the recent issues when I…

wanted x-ray specs as a boy?
insisted you get funky and odd?
made an iPhone smoothie?
wired up Sam and get cerebral?
said ‘think like an athlete’?
asked for complaints on a postcard?
scored good and bad text?
linked to free tea and perfume?
showed that awkward BBC interview?
praised a PR agency for NOT launching the iPhone?
compared your products with diamonds?
reminded you that readers come first?
warned you not to miss even one?

Each issue of this e-newsletter is an article on my eDrops Masterclass blog. Each new article I add to the blog gets automatically merged into the e-newsletter template and e-mailed to you each week. It’s our nifty hands-free service specially for bloggers (like me) who also like to broadcast what they write.

A final thought: add a review into your own e-newsletter and your readers will actually read some of your articles for the very first time. Really. Remember that only you truly remember every issue - your readers are always way too busy to have read them all or remember much of anything. (It’s the Internet generation and we’ve all got a 2-second… umm.. oh yes, a 2-second attention span.)

* Discover the power of the Johnson Box
* No more X-ray specs!
* 1.5 seconds is long enough (if you’ve got a Johnson box)

This week I am going to show you a simple method to increase response rates to your e-newsletter. It’s called the Johnson Box and it works in e-newsletters today just like it did in direct mail sixty years ago.

The Johnson Box (Wikipedia definition) sits at the top of your e-newsletter and contains text. The text summarises the contents of your e-newsletter in a few words. It always shows in the preview pane (because it is high up), and its purpose is to retain quick-draw, time-poor readers who spend 1.5 seconds assessing whether your issue deserves a read. It buys you time and attention. Remember Sam’s brain?

After all, you don’t expect every reader to scroll, or use X-ray specs to see beneath the fold do you? (As a boy I always wanted a pair of X-ray specs but never did send off my postal order to buy them. Available online today but I am having serious misgivings now I see the URL of the website selling them: http://www.fakecrap.com/products/xray_specs.html) You mean they might not work?

Remember direct mail? Imagine opening an A4 direct mail letter, folded into 3 and inserted into a DL envelope. As you pull out the folded letter you see the top third only. Besides the letterhead, you only see your name and mailing address, the salutation and the Johnson Box. All in the top third. No unfolding required to make a decision.

Here is how Navman (we work for Navman) used a Johnson Box at the top of their e-newsletter:

Compare this with your own e-newsletter. When your e-newsletter arrives all your readers see is the ‘top third’ in the preview pane. No mailing address this time. They will see the top of an article, not much more. You need to add a Johnson Box here. You need a ‘what’s in this issue’ box.

Summary: your readers are quick-draw because they are time-poor. Quick-draw means that they can get their finger clicking that ‘delete’ button before they have given your hard work a chance. You can increase your views and clicks with a Johnson Box. It’s not rocket science but it does work.

This week I am going to show you how to write better subject lines for your own e-newsletter, and increase opens and clicks as a result. More recipients open messages if you have a good subject line. It’s all about being an effective communicator, so here’s how to stop driving people way and instead, how to write a better subject line:

First, I want you to understand some basics:

1. Most e-newsletter owners concentrate on what’s inside, and forget the subject line.
2. The better the subject, the higher the opens and clicks (you are judged by your subject line).
3. There are simple DOs and DON’Ts you can follow (try these on your next subject line).

As well as a DO list and a DON’T list, I have added a TRY list. Every e-newsletter is different and the TRY list is where you can innovate.

DO…
* Include your company name
* Keep it under 50 characters long (this tip is 49)
* Keep it as a straightforward headline
* Describe what’s inside
DON’T…
* Repeat the exact same subject line each issue
* Use fizzy, hyped-up or cheesy (SPAM-magnet) sales copy
* Shout (CAPS or exclamation marks!!!)
* Bother merging in the recipient’s first or last name
TRY…
* Framing it as a question, did I do this?
* If discounting, use ‘50% off’ rather than ‘£25 off’
* Being different, taking a chance (be an oddball - people love it)

In summary: Each issue should have a fresh and interesting subject line, but when viewed alongside your other messages, should be recognisable a part of the same ‘family’. Keep your brand consistent. Be funky and odd.

You know when you get it right - your open rate improves.

You know when you get it wrong too: a) your open rate drops, b) recipients unsubscribe, c) you get reported as SPAM or ‘junk’ed (you need to be pretty bad for this but it does happen, so beware your ‘let’s play it safe’ inner voice. It is only driving you into mediocrity.)

At the last minute, I re-wrote this article name (which is merged into this e-newsletter subject):

OLD: “Can you write better subject lines?“

NEW: “Do oddballs write better subject lines?” (I predict a 20 to 30% uplift in opens, but as I am not doing an A/B test this time I will never truly know! Next time maybe.)

Think about this: in ‘bang for your buck’ terms, time spent on testing and refining your subject line strategy is time well spent. Better in fact than time spent polishing the press release that sits inside your e-newsletter at the bottom somewhere. (If I had only 10 minutes to spend on your e-newsletter I would always spend it all on the subject line. Every time.) Dominic A Yeadon F IDM, e-Marketing Consultant and blog author. Let us manage your e-newsletter for you.

This week I am going to talk about adding viral marketing video content to your own e-newsletter. If you are really talented/lucky you will send one particular issue of your own e-newsletter that will live well beyond its shelf life. Your readers will send it to their friends and so on - it goes viral.

So here’s a story of a little product with a big viral kick. It’s also a favourite of mine.

Blendtec makes the best kitchen blenders in the world. To prove it, founder Tom Dickson puts on a white lab coat and protective glasses and blends anything within reach.

Unbelievably, the 1500W Blendtec Total blender (the £200 baby of the family) has blended: an iPhone, an iPod, golf balls, glow sticks and a video camera and more. It’s only meant to make smoothies and milkshakes! Despite the tough teeth, munching motor and crackproof casing of this ‘can do’ blender, Tom insists that you don’t try this at home.

All ‘will it blend?’ videos are an instant hit on YouTube, and together have been viewed by more than 30 million people in total. This viral’s even got its own website: http://www.willitblend.com and blog: http://blog.blendtec.com

Sales up by 500 per cent

Blendtec employee George Wright came up with the viral idea: ‘because we’re a smaller company, we were able to put out something edgy and fun. In terms of the product you see on YouTube, our sales have gone up by 500 per cent.’

The ‘will it blend’ videos are now legendary. After you finish gasping at what you are watching, you sell yourself a story about how powerful they must be. If you want a new blender, it has to be a Blendtec blender. Thanks to George’s ‘will it blend’ viral idea, they have extended their reach around the world.

This one won the .net magazine’s 10th annual ‘Viral Campaign of the Year’ for 2007. See the awards here: http://www.netmag.co.uk/zine/discover-culture/net-awards-2007

Where is yours hidden? Could you video your product/service withstanding extreme testing? What would make people gasp in amazement at what you do? (Remember, you may well have gone past the gasping stage and may already be too close, like Tom Dickson. Tom had been trying to jam test his blenders with lengths of 4″x2″ for years before new employee George saw the unique video viral opportunity.) Where is yours hidden? Can you ask your newest team member?

*** BREAKING NEWS *** SSI Industrial Shredders easily adapted ‘will it blend’ to ‘watch it shred’ - watch as a hippie gets his beetle shredded. Ouch!

Final thought: Push for something different in your own e-newsletter. Be open to new content (viral?) ideas, break the pattern every now and then. Only by being different will you stand out from the crowd. Purple Cow. And, yes it is getting crowded out there in your customers’ in-boxes. Dominic A Yeadon F IDM, e-Marketing Consultant and blog author. You are too busy.

This week I am going to analyse a typical e-newsletter user experience. Discover what is going on in your subscribers’ heads as they read your e-newsletter. See how your e-newsletters crash into their consciousness and invade their space. Learn how they also end up driving up the value of your marketing stock.

Subscribers employ a structured (subconscious) mental process when processing your e-newsletter.

The four stages are:

1. Interruption - “do I want this?”
2. Examination - “yes I recognise this”
3. Decision - “might be something, I’ll explore”
4. Investment - “interesting, I’ll stay awhile”

So let’s wire up a typical subscriber’s brain and monitor him (we will call him ‘Sam’). As he receives your e-newsletter, we will listen to Sam’s inner thoughts.

Here goes, let’s follow (in detail) your e-newsletter on its way to Sam:

1. Interruption - another e-mail in:
FX: ‘ping’: Sam scans subject line text, and thinks: “Do I want this? Ah ha, it’s Company X again, with the latest issue of their monthly newsletter. I know these guys.” [Effect = your subject text is interrupting his thought processes. Sam is curious but still naturally defensive.]

2. Examination - looking for safe signs:
FX: ‘click’: He opens the e-mail and he takes in the corporate branding, publication title and issue number/date, thinks: “Yes, I recognise this as coming from Company X, it’s dated today so it’s new, so far so good. This feels familiar. OK just a quick look then.“ [Effect = your logo/brand reassures him so he examines your e-mail. Sam’s curiosity wins so his defence mechanisms stand down.]

3. Decision - give me a reason to dwell:
Eyes start to scan, now looking for a reason to dwell. Visually checking for products, faces and unusual text. “Hmmm, there might be something worthwhile here, so I will explore.” [Effect = Sam now feels positive about having just risked valuable time on your e-mail. He prepares himself to invest time and energy, his mind opens up and he becomes receptive.]

4. Investment - now the message is absorbed:
Sam has now created a window of time and a receptive state of mind to read what interests him. Your e-newsletter can now deliver its message. “It’s interesting - so I can stay awhile and get pleasure from absorbing this.” [Effect = the publisher:subscriber relationship is strengthened, sustained. A mental tick is put by your company, and your marketing ’stock value’ increases in value. Your job is done.]

Summary: These stages are your checkpoints. Each stage describes how subscribers react to what you have sent them. Remember that subscribers are looking for reasons to STOP paying attention, so double-check everything before your next issue goes out. Walk your own e-newsletter draft through all four checkpoints before you hit ’send’. Make it easy for Sam’s brain to process your next e-newsletter.

Getting every issue read is important, but don’t worry if you have one bad day:

If, despite your best efforts, you’re just not getting through to Sam today, why not give him a break? Today might be the day YOU choose to send your e-newsletter, but spare a thought for poor old Sam. Is today really the best day for him? He might have just had a row with his wife, got stuck in traffic, had someone cancel on him, got a nasty surprise on his credit card statement or is just having a bad day at the office.

Glimpse inside our gallery: see smart cars, sat navs, free flights and kite-surf holidays.

PS. Your e-newsletter’s continued and growing success is my ultimate goal. For those readers who currently produce a company e-newsletter but want to outsource all that hard work, see what we offer with our fully-managed service. Dominic A Yeadon F IDM, e-Marketing Consultant and blog author.

In this week’s issue I am going to talk about increasing clicks from the next issue of your own e-newsletter.

You invest time and money into each issue of your own e-newsletter. You should be measuring how well it performs per issue and over time.

Measure your clicks as a percentage of those who open your e-newsletter. For example: in Issue #27 we can see that 298 subscribers clicked, out of the 942 who opened it, giving us a 31.6% clickthrough rate (CTR).

Ideally you get better at creating valuable content whilst your subscribers continue to recognise value by clicking your links. Either this or you just broadcast junk, your subscribers opt out and you close it down. NB: I believe that most e-newsletters that stop, do so as a result of issues with the newsletter team’s output quality and punctuality (read my earlier post on punctuality), and not because of external factors.

There are two (activity) metrics that determine success: opens and clicks. Forget opens for now, let’s see how many people click on the links in your e-newsletter.

Knowing how to increase CTR is a skill you must acquire. Getting it right is a business process like any other. Start by measuring clicks. Then get dissatisfied with the numbers. Then drive for improvement.

Think like an athlete. Not every lap is faster than the last, but over time your performance improves until you end up winning. Become a clicks athlete.

Start here: Record metrics from the last four issues of your e-newsletter and see if each issue improved slightly. Share a morning coffee for a 15-minute brainstorm 72 hours after each broadcast. From that 15-minute session, decide to pilot one new click tactic each issue. Check that you have optimised the text and length of the links people click, the preceding call-to-action text and the number and placement of links in each issue.

Summary: Each issue of your e-newsletter should be measured. Your aim is to generate clicks. Remember these facts:

1. Subscribers click on links that interest them.
2. Subscribers click on links that look like links.
3. Subscribers like being entertained more than educated.
4. Subscribers like buying from you, not being sold to.
5. Subscribers who click, tend to buy.
6. Subscribers who click build the future value of your business.

Boosting your clicks is the fastest way to boost your revenues. It’s also the neatest way to measure your progress. (Think about your links and how you get more of them clicked in your next issue.)

PS: I can hear you saying: ‘but Dom, getting a click is surely just one half - what about where the link clicks through to? What about the landing page?’ Yes, quite right, but let’s deal with one topic at a time. I have some top tips for developing killer landing pages in a future issue, stay tuned!

This week’s article shows you how to market your product successfully in the next issue of your own e-newsletter.

Your e-newsletter can be the perfect way to put product in front of prospect. Do it carefully however. Getting product marketing wrong is the fastest turn off there is for an e-newsletter. To help you get it right, welcome to my Marketing Products In Your e-Newsletter Checklist:

1. No bullshit - if it’s a stock clearance prior to a new model release, just say so - no jargon or disguising. You are in this relationship for the long haul, not just a quick buck. Only integrity stands the test of time.

Try Leslie Lee’s fun bullshit generator to see examples:
http://dack.com/web/bullshit.html

2. No bullets - the kiss of death. Don’t list all 20 bullet points just because your product has 20. This is an e-newsletter, not a tech spec.

3. No babble. Don’t waste time trying to invent your own ‘Everything we do, we do it for you-ooo’ (Ford) moment. Time is limited.

4. Helluva Headline - make a bold headline claim that you can substantiate if required. Don’t be timid, your competitors aren’t. Everything does something - what do you claim your product can do? (Take a break - create absolutely pointless slogans here: http://thesurrealist.co.uk/slogan.cgi)

5. Push the Pictures - display product photography. Nothing gets the eyes, left brain:right brain action going quite like an image on screen. This is the ace in your hand every time.

6. Bring on the Benefits - instead of (big yawn) features. Nobody buys features, just the benefits that features brings them. Present your product as a ‘how to’, ie: how to conquer, reduce, save, increase, accelerate, improve, eliminate, etc.

7. Clickthrough is King. Your e-newsletter’s job is to stimulate interest, your call to action gets a click to the landing page where interest is converted into sales. Understand this topography. (I will cover this vital topic in a future article).

Summary: this is my own checklist, based upon years of broadcasting e-mails for clients. Use my checklist to ensure that your next e-newsletter issue markets your product for maximum return:

1. No bullshit
2. No bullets
3. No babble
4. Helluva Headline
5. Push the Pictures
6. Bring on the Benefits
7. Clickthrough is King

NB: For those of a sensitive disposition, I really did think twice about cussin’. Even thought of typing ‘BS’, but that seemed a bit mealy-mouthed. Complaints on a postcard please.

Yes, if I can sneak in a favourite YouTube movie you know I will. So, talking about product marketing, I still love Honda’s ‘Impossible Dream’ advert:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x13DH6IoIcQ&NR=1

See how my favourite advert was made here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uel3ZE0_bEk&NR=1

Or is yours the (really worth a visit) Honda Cog advert?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FGngcQb_0qg&feature=related

PS. This article scored: 8 years’ education and 64.62 reading ease. What’s this?

This week (and while I think about it, Happy New Year!) I am going to explain how the next issue of your e-newsletter can contain copy that is easy to read and understand. Read on for a cool online tool to make your life easier…

When you write copy, please assume that your readers have an average education. They have no time to waste working out what you meant to say. You must convey your message in simple speak, so more people get it (unless you are editing the Rocket Scientist Weekly!). Don’t write long, technical, waffly, boring copy. Just don’t. Write copy that scores highly and your e-newsletter benefits. It will get read, understood and clicked. All good things.

It’s just a chart, take a look…

This chart scores three of my recent articles, with the best at the top (’Try before you buy’). Readers required fewer than 7 years’ education, and it scored a very respectable 71.85 for reading ease.

Compare this with ‘Interviewing an expert’ What went wrong? Readers required nearly 13 years’ education, and it scored a miserable 47.79 reading ease.

I must have swallowed a dictionary that day. The longest blue bar and the shortest red bar - ouch!

OK, stay with me now, I know you want the best for your own e-newsletter, so here is the last bit of technical detail before I show you the shortcut. Compare those two articles - the best and the worst. The best one is measurably better, in three distinct ways:

1. Sentences had fewer words in (13.22 words rather than 19.67).
2. Each sentence had shorter words (4.24 letters rather than 4.64).
3. The words themselves were more simple (1.44 syllables rather than 1.64 per word).

No more maths, so here’s that shortcut:

How can you do this too? Simple. It took me under 10 seconds to cut and paste my text into a really cool online tool that did it all for me:
http://www.online-utility.org/english/readability_test_and_improve.jsp Over the years I have used (and loved) several similar tools, but this one, written by Mladen Adamovic, is simple and does the job. Check it out.

Now you can check your copy before you publish. Your next e-newsletter issue will get read, understood and clicked. “Clicks mean sales - what do clicks mean?” (how do I type that in a Bruce Forsyth way?) - all together now… “sales!”. You can’t beat a bit of Brucie can you - and, after all, didn’t he do well? (CBE).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQgF0uNMiqQ

Yup, starting 2008 with a catchphrase - it can only get better.

PS: if you are wondering how this article scored - readers require 7 years’ education and it scores a nice high 71.20 for reading ease. NB: I only test the first 120 words from all my articles.

This week I am discussing how to use a sample request in the next issue of your e-newsletter.

Sampling is the oldest form of ‘try before you buy’ and it works. Risk-free for both parties, yet representative of what they would get if they bought from you. Your readers type in a few personal details for a free sample. Easy. Leads for your team.

‘But Dom, we don’t sell widgets - so we can’t send out a sample’ I hear some of you cry. Yes you do, even if you don’t. And here’s how: if you provide a service you must commoditise it before you can sample it. Make it into a thing, a widget, an experience, something your readers can sample.

If you sell inexpensive widgets by the pallet, give some loose as free samples. If you sell high-ticket widgets (luxury yachts) give away the experience of owning one. If you sell a bespoke service, give away an experience. of using your service. Think about it - how can your customers try before they buy, without breaking your bank?

Free tea sample from Yorkshire Tea (£1.26)
www.bestteainbritain.co.uk/try.php

Free perfume sample from Mariah Carey (£40.50)
www.mariahcareybeauty.co.uk/freesample/index.php

Free Disneyland holiday sample on DVD (£5,000+)
www.disney.co.uk/usa-resorts/waltdisneyworld/index1.htm

Free Aston Martin sample test drive (£90,000+)
www.hwm.co.uk/testdrive.asp

Remember, if you think about what you sell in terms of how you could give away a free sample in the next issue of your e-newsletter - it becomes easier to sell and easier to buy. Adding a sample request can rocket your e-newsletter’s ROI overnight.

This week is all about interviewing an expert for the next issue of your e-newsletter.

Change your mindset. An interview is no longer simply a matter of you being creative on your own - you need to work with someone else (your expert) and that dynamic is powerful and can make for compelling content. Here’s how to do it, plus some examples below.

(Actually first, here’s how NOT to do it: Remember when BBC News interviewed the wrong guy about Apple? Here is that embarrassing clip showing how BBC job applicant Guy Goma - not expected IT expert Guy Kewney - is plunged into the spotlight and interviewed as an online media expert. He deserves a medal for keeping his cool. See what Have I got News for You did with this story.)

The moral of this story? Research your expert before you go ahead.

If you want the practical HOW TO of conducting an interview for your e-newsletter try blogger Darren Rowse’s great post on his blog: ‘How to Get and Conduct Interviews for Your Blog‘. Blog, e-newsletter? Same thing.

Choose your format:

The easiest format is going to be e-mail (but it can consume space in your e-newsletter unless you link off to the full interview). Next is phone for an on-screen write-up (after the call you type it up, but again it can be big). Audio recording is your third option (VOIP or speakerphone recorded to your PC and into a neat little space-saving MP3, RAM or whatever). Finally (for the ultimate experience) go for video. Here are some examples:

1. e-mail: Marketing guru Seth Godin takes part in an e-mail interview.
2. phone: Tamara Adlin interviews by phone for great on-screen write-ups.
3. audio: Radio Alta interviews Internet marketing experts using traditional audio interviews. Another Seth Godin audio interview here on his ‘All Marketers are Liars’ book.
4. video: David Brent from The Office is interviewed by training consultants and gets it about as wrong as you can - see David Brent’s funny interview here. (If this is your first-time video venture, think camera phone and YouTube rather than Spielberg - keep it easy to shoot and fun to watch on the web.)

An interview is special content. As such it is powerful content. Shortlist three potential interviewees (how about your boss? a hero from your customer service dept? an outspoken customer? think outside of the box!), and this time next month your e-newsletter could have compelling content driving clicks like never before. And remember, where there are clicks there are sales.

Do you want to add a hot news story into the next issue of your own e-newsletter, but don’t have any hot news of your own? No problem at all.

All you do it take the hot news story of the moment and present your own take on it. Let me show you an example:

See how Boston PR agency Schneider Associates cleverly rides in on the launch of Apple’s iPhone. They have no direct iPhone news of their own (ie: they do product launches but didn’t do this one for Apple), but they showcase the iPhone product launch to do the job for them.

I do admire this guerilla marketing approach. It’s clever. It’s affordable. Schneider Associates start by finding the biggest product launch news story and then adopt it as their own. They come across as being almost involved somehow with the iPhone launch, and they engage readers. I guess you might then want to call these guys and see what they can do for your own PR. (I am not associated in any way with them but I do get the feeling that you would get a lot of bang for your buck.)

So is a hot news story still out of reach for the next issue of your own e-newsletter? Do you have an opinion on any current issue? Can you pass or invite comment?

Can you position your company as strategically as Schneider Associates did? They specialise in new product launches. They took the most memorable new product launch for 2007 and delivered a good news story about it. And yes, just for the record I did queue to buy an iPhone from O2 and am therefore 100% biased - I put my Sony Ericsson in a drawer that night and have long since forgotten all about it!

This week I’m going to get you to think about what it is you do. And then you’re going to remind your readers.

Remind them because they don’t know - either you never told them, or you did once but now they’ve forgotten. Understand that you can’t expect your readers to know anything about you unless you keep telling them. They certainly won’t go exploring your web site (like they have the time!).

The truth is that they would be hard-pushed to recall anything about you, other than the one service/product they bought from you. I guess you thought they might have bought something else from you by now didn’t you? After all don’t you sell (x) number of (widgets) besides the one they bought?

You’re missing out on extra sales by not reminding your readers exactly what it is you do. All the new stuff. The stuff they have never heard about.

• Picture this: Think of a diamond. It only sparkles when you turn it around. More facets catch the light as it sparkles, it catches your eye and looks more appealing and valuable. See what I mean? You need to turn your diamond around so that it sparkles. Your next e-newsletter provides you with the perfect opportunity.

Why does this work? It works because your readers are waiting to be spoon-fed. It is too much hassle for them to remember, explore, figure it out, put 2 and 2 together, etc. Remember - the stronger your story, the more it reinforces their original decision to buy from you in the first place, and it makes them feel good about buying from you again. Tell your readers about all the new stuff you now do. Catch their eye. Take a new order.

Only two people matter with an e-newsletter - the reader and the writer. In that order.

Two people, two perspectives, two agendas - do you agree?

I really hope not, for your sake. Only one person matters, and that is the READER. The writer is there to serve the reader’s needs, not the other way around.

In fact if your readers’ interests aren’t the highest priority in your communications agenda you are falling into the same trap as many big companies today.

You are using your e-newsletter as a vehicle to push company propaganda, company news, stock clearance deals, press releases, etc. The top-down drive is ‘push what we want out there’, ‘we have a communications agenda and this is a cheap channel’, ‘we can get our message in front of half a million people this afternoon, so what should we send?’.

Your subscribers think this approach is a load of cobblers (to quote Royal Mail’s CEO Adam Crozier as he fought the CWU recently - welcome back plain English!). Your subscribers are right. Boring cobblers.

I maintain that most e-newsletters lose focus fairly quickly after launch. They go stale. Both parties lose interest in the content and it becomes a numbers game.

Ask yourself if you have gone stale. Do you need to win more and more subscribers as fast as possible to counteract the unsubscribes from each issue. Two steps forward and one step back? Serve your readers, vary your content, entertain, amuse, inspire, provoke, educate. Vary your content, but serve your readers.

Everybody does it, so what’s so bad about missing one issue of your e-newsletter?

Does it matter?

“After all it’s just one issue… and er, we have been really busy.”

Does that excuse sound familar? It probably does, but not sending out one issue of your e-newsletter is a big deal. Here’s why:

1. Your subscribers completely forget all about you that month, it’s human nature. They are way too busy to remember and wait for you.
2. You give your competitors two clear months to get in and make a better impression. They will get in because winning new customers is what they are good at.
3. Once your subscribers miss an issue you are history - albeit fairly recent history. This is the Instant Internet age - they wonder: did you go out of business or just lose focus?
4. You lose the momentum you have worked so hard to build up. Keeping the rock rolling is easier than stopping and starting.
5. It’s disrespectful to your subscribers. Thought: Would you be comfortable broadcasting the minutes of that “it doesn’t matter” meeting that you had the month you missed an issue?

Remember, subscribers like routine. They value your regular e-newsletter and like the way it is always there - just like you and your company, always there. Always there to take the next order when they call you. Don’t let them down.

Do whatever it takes to get each new issue out on time. Shift heaven and earth, call in favours, burn the midnight oil, pull out all the stops, and then a few more. You get the idea. Never miss another issue.