Do as I say, not as I do. How often do I say that on this blog? Last week we launched our seasonal newsletter for the first time since last January. Yes, we haven't been as current as we'd like but while we're busy kicking off great newsletters on behalf of our clients we let ours fall by the wayside a bit.
How can you launch a more successful channel newsletter?
One your Channel Partners and prospects will actually want to read? What a novel concept, a newsletter with actual news. Here are some tips for launching a newsletter your prospects or partners will actually want to read and *gasp* possibly pass on to others via "share".
- Is your News actually News? Sending out a newsletter with a bunch of announcements about awards you've won or events you have coming up is just self promotion at its worse. It's important that your readers get something out of reading your newsletter. Certainly you can mix this type of content in but it's important you are giving them a reason to keep reading, something to help them solve their own pain-points without hiring you.
- Layout Does Matter: If you came to the New York Times website and all you saw was a streaming page of copy with the occasional headline in bold would you keep reading? It's a good idea to call out the most important information, to have a section that tells readers what else they can find in the newsletter and to provide readers with a layout that is easy to navigate. Just like a web page make sure you put your most important message for content above the fold.
- Content is King (or Queen): Be sure to link from the newsletter to pages within your website or valuable content you've created. While I mention in point #1 to make sure there is actual news, obviously the point of your newsletter is to promote your business. Make sure the content actually solves prospects' pain points and that it's interesting enough where they'll keep reading.
- Give them an Out...or an In: Provide an 'unsubscribe' link for those who no longer wish to receive your newsletter and respect that. Take them out of your CRM system or mark them unsubscribed so if you change your marketing automation tool you haven't lost track of their request to unsubscribe. That said, if someone decides they want to receive your newsletter, allow people to opt-in on your website.
- Stay on Schedule: Don't over promise and under deliver BUT make sure you can stick to some kind of schedule. I know this is my do as I say, not as I do moment but try to at least stick to quarterly. Start of less frequently and make the schedule tighter as you are able. In other words, don't start a weekly newsletter if you can only keep up with quarterly. Once quarterly is no big deal, go to every 6 weeks, then monthly and so on.
- Stats tell a Great Story: Check out your stats, are your open and click-through rates going up or down? If they're going down is your list stale? Which links are people clicking on the most? Do you need to rejigger your headlines?
Newsletters are a great way to stay top of mind with your prospects and partners but make sure they are getting something out of it. Always support your newsletter or any communication with social media by posting out to LinkedIn, Twitter, Google+ and Facebook.