newsletter marketing Archives | Jim's Marketing Blog

Regularly create content your marketplace will love, with these 3 ideas

April 15, 2021 by Jim Connolly

Image: Tony Hand

If you’ve ever wondered, how some people are able to regularly produce effective content marketing; (newsletters, blog posts, articles, podcasts, etc), and how you can do the same, this post is for you.

I’ve divided it into 3 core ideas. So, let’s get started!

1. Is this useful?

There’s a sign on the wall in my studio. It’s a small sign, containing just 3 words: “Is this useful”. That’s the mark I set for everything I create. Nothing gets published unless I believe you’ll find it useful. I don’t try and be clever. Just useful. And as long as I think you’ll find an idea or observation useful, I share it.

Some small business owners are put off creating content, because they try and make everything as close to perfect as possible.

The thing is, your prospective clients or customers want something useful, not perfect.

Once you stop aiming for perfection you’ll find it a lot easier. You’ll also get massively better results.

2. Don’t let crappy ideas block you

If you’re anything like me, you’ll find that most of the ideas you get are pretty average. But maybe 1 in 5 or 1 in 10 are good enough, to be turned into a valuable piece of content marketing.

The challenge is that in order to get that 1 useful idea, you need to allow yourself to have the crappy ones… without getting disheartened.

The way I overcame this, was to deliberately give myself permission to think of lots of crappy ideas, knowing that something useful would come from it.

When you view lower-value ideas as essential steps in the development of better ones, they switch from being disheartening to highly motivating.

3. Give your work the respect it deserves

We often overestimate the ideas of others and underestimate the value of our own. Here’s a great example of what I mean.

A business owner told me how she was taking some files off a computer for archiving, when she discovered an old documents folder. It contained loads of articles, which were really interesting. She looked to see who wrote them and found they were all her own work, from 6 years earlier!

She didn’t publish them at the time, because she thought they weren’t good enough. It was only when she thought they were written by someone else, that she saw them for what they really were. Your work is almost certainly way, way better than you think.

So get it out there.

In short, if you’re looking to improve your content marketing, focus on being useful. See your average ideas as necessary steps to your useful ideas. And give your work the respect you deserve.

A letter from Google

June 2, 2009 by Jim Connolly

I received a sales letter last week from Google. That’s right, one of the world’s leading email providers contacted me; not via an email, but via a letter.

Email marketing and Google

Google already has my email address, because I am a user of a number of their services – including Gmail. So, it would have been very easy for them to have sent me the same sales message in an email. However, Google know that they will get a higher response rate from a targeted letter than from a sales email.

If the owners of Gmail are writing letters with sales offers, rather than sending sales emails, there’s a BIG marketing lesson here!

People hate sales emails and spam

People have a VERY low tolerance for emails, which are just sales messages. The letter from Google was exactly that – a sales message. However, I did open the letter and read it. Had Google sent me that same sales offer via email, it would have been deleted, unopened; as soon as I read the subject line (no matter how clever it was!)

The average person hates spam with a passion and many tend to consider all sales emails (no matter how well targeted) as spam. As a result, not only is a prospective customer or client unlikely to respond to a typical sales email, they are very likely to develop strong, negative feelings about the sender too.

Is email marketing dead

No, not at all! Email marketing, when handled correctly, is still extremely powerful and getting more powerful all the time.

If you re-read the above, you will see that I use the term ‘sales emails.’ Sales emails are extremely low leverage and increasingly ineffective. These are emails that contain a sales message and are often sent to a ‘list’, which the sender has either bought, borrowed or built by harvesting email addresses from business cards / directories etc.

Unless the sender has a good relationship / rapport with the people on that list, the sales emails they send will be deleted before they are read.

Email marketing & sales emails

Email marketing could not be more different. ~~For example, I write a very popular marketing newsletter~~, which contains a unique marketing article or some valuable marketing ideas / advice. Most editions have zero advertising. Occasionally, I will include a single, one paragraph piece to promote something I am involved in. The response rates are fantastic, because my readers already know me and trust me. Some of my readers even blog about how much they value my newsletter.

In fact, many of my readers tell me that they have ‘Jim Connolly’ marketing folders on their computers, where they file my newsletters, for future reading. How many people keep spam email or sales emails on file? No one!

Mail shots, direct mail, marketing letters

The overuse of sales emails is creating a growing resistance to them within the marketplace. Obviously, with so many businesses mass emailing sales offers to people, the amount of traditional marketing letters being sent has dropped enormously. As a consequence, marketing professionals are seeing traditional marketing letters, (sometimes called direct mailings or mail shots,) achieve better and better results.

A well crafted marketing letter, with a hand written signature, sent to a small, targeted group, with a compelling offer and a ‘call to action,’ can be extremely effective right now.

Mail shots or email marketing?

This is a HUGE subject. Here’s a very brief overview.

I suggest you try a professionally handled mail shot IF you provide a service, which is only offered to a relatively small geographical area. Some examples might include; accountants, commercial lawyers, franchise operators, insurance brokers etc. Let me be completely clear. I am not suggesting these types of service providers cease using email to market their services. I am suggesting they STOP using sales emails, START using email marketing AND consider trying a professionally handled, direct mail campaign as an addition to their marketing mix.

Jim Connolly’s marketing

I offer a service, which is sold internationally. As a direct result, 100% of my marketing is conducted online. My marketing approach is all about giving away free marketing advice, information and tips, to as many small and medium sized business owners as possible. Then, when they want someone to look after their marketing, they give me a call.

I don’t sell my services, people hire me instead. For those of you who provide services or products across a big or unlimited geographical area, I suggest you do exactly the same. Instead of sending sales emails; emails that just ‘push’ or attempt to sell your services – use email as a way to engage potential clients and provide massive value. Also, make sure that every person you send your information to has proactively sign-up to receive it. For example, don’t send newsletters or e-bulletins to people, just because you know them, are a member of the same network or you happen to have their business card.

Use email communication (and your website / blog / FaceBook / LinkedIn / Twitter) as a way to showcase your expertise and encourage potential clients to email you, call you, comment on your blog, follow your Twitter account etc, etc.

The results can be stunning!

13 years this week since…

December 14, 2008 by Jim Connolly

It’s 13 years this week, since I got my first ever email address! At the time, even though I only knew a few people who used email, it was clear to me that email had massive potential for me and what was then, my new business.

Now that pretty-much everyone uses email, it’s interesting to me that so few businesses and entrepreneurs use email marketing effectively!

For example: Buying email lists & sending ads

When you buy an email database, it’s often just a list of people who are getting SLAMMED with junk mail and spam. Why? Because the same people, who are on the email list that YOU just bought, are on all the other lists too! As a result, they will have either changed their email address or they will only accept email from their ‘white list’ of approved contacts. In either case, your latest offer is NOT going to reach them!

By contacting a stranger with an advertisement, you miss the point totally! That’s because the ‘average’ person these days is not as stupid as some marketers seem to think – far from it.

In fact, the marketplace has never been better informed or more hacked-off at the amount of advertising they receive, than they are today! If you want to gain the trust of a prospective client or customer these days, you need to engage them first; rather than just throw more adverts at them.

If you want to REALLY succeed using email marketing, it’s my experience that the best route is to build your own list of subscribers, and contact them using an informative, valuable newsletter. In fact, I have a few tips for you here; based on my own newsletter, which is read by thousands of people from more than 100 countries. This newsletter generated over a hundred thousand pounds for my business in its very first year – starting with an initial readership of just 29 people!

By the way, the free newsletter guide I mentioned earlier is part of a series I am planning. If you have any questions regarding newsletter marketing, either contact me here or leave a comment.

Blog marketing & newsletter marketing

October 26, 2008 by Jim Connolly

If you want to lower your costs, increase your sales and boost your profits, you need to get the most from online marketing. This post focuses on 2 forms of FREE online marketing, which you can use to achieve amazing results for your business; Blogging and Newsletters!

Online marketing is changing

Not that many years ago, online marketing reached a relatively small, fairly select group of people. These were either technology enthusiasts, businesses run by technology enthusiasts or multinationals. Because only certain groups of consumers and businesses used the Internet regularly, online marketing was of limited use to the average small business.

Of course today, that’s all changed! Almost everyone in a ‘developed’ country now has Internet access at home, work or both. This means it’s now possible for you to use online marketing to generate either sales or leads, for just about any kind of product or service. It also means it has never been quicker, easier or less expensive to market your business!

Free online marketing

Right now, armed with nothing more than an Internet connection and a blog, you can generate leads or sales for your business for free. Moreover, these can be highly targeted leads and highly profitable sales too.

Practising what you preach

I have not used any form of paid marketing for my business for years.

That’s right – 100% of my non-referred business comes from either my newsletter, my website or this blog!

All I have to do is make sure I give away as much valuable marketing information as possible, to as many small businesses as possible. Then, when these small businesses want someone to help them market their products or services, they give me a call. When they want their blog or website transformed into a goldmine, they already know my work and that I get results – so they get in touch!

Fast results?

Oh yes – You can see results in seconds! For example, once you build a list of newsletter subscribers or a group of regular blog readers, you can start generating either sales or leads, less than a minute after you send a message or post something to your blog!

Of course, most people with newsletters or blogs have very few readers. Just as with everything else, you need to do the right things, in the correct way, if you want to achieve the desired results. That’s why it’s important that you spend a little time doing some research, before you start!

Blog marketing

There are lots of online networking sites and ‘social media’ tools you can use, to build up a targeted network of prospective clients or valuable contacts. In fact, the number of websites offering these facilities is so vast, that it has become a problem in itself.

In my experience, the foundation of your free online marketing should be a blog.

A simple blog, if used correctly, can help you develop a massive community and allow you to showcase your talents to your prospective clients / customers. It can help you find out about the needs of your marketplace and also develop a special relationship with thousands, hundreds of thousands or millions of prospects.

Getting a blog

You can get yourself a free blog right now, from wordpress.com or blogger.com, and be blogging in minutes. Each blog platform has pro’s and con’s. I use a paid-for version of wordpress for this blog – you can see the benefits of a paid wordpress blog here.

Blog marketing is a massive subject and I can only scratch the surface in this post, but there’s going to be a LOT more information to come – So subscribe to my RSS feed, using the button on the top right of the page and make sure you don’t miss a thing!

Newsletters

By far, my biggest ‘network’ is the readership of my marketing newsletter. The newsletter has been going for almost three years and has thousands of valued readers, spanning over 100 countries around the world. Each newsletter is sent just a couple of times a month and contains an original marketing article (like this one).

I use the same principle to grow my newsletter, as I use to grow this blog.

I provide high value content, so people share it with their contacts. These contacts then subscribe and they share it with their contacts…

Which businesses can benefit from Newsletters & Blogs?

Any business, in any industry can benefit from a Newsletter and / or a blog. That’s because the same process outlined above is universal. Just make sure your blog or newsletter content is designed exclusively for YOUR target market.

In other words, if your business offers web design – write about great web design ideas, tips and tricks. If your business offers insurance, write about how people can lower their premiums or get better cover or share some funny insurance stories. If you are a coach or consultant, blog about your subject and give great tips and ideas to your readers. Most newsletters are little more than advertisements and because of this, people do not forward them on and they fail to grow.

Make sure you pump as much valuable information as possible into everything you write. This showcases your talents, positions you as an expert and shows the real value of your products or your services. It also makes choosing you as a provider almost risk-free to your readers.

Conclusion

I know people in just about every industry, who get the vast majority of their leads or sales through free online marketing. I also get emails from people every day; who are wondering how to generate the leads or sales their business needs in order to survive.

If you want to know more, take a look at the free resources mentioned above and also check out the guides and articles in this blog. You might also want to look that this, it’s all about how to build a successful newsletter.

If you have found this post useful or you have anything to add, please leave a comment and share your feedback with everyone!

Email marketing tip

October 4, 2008 by Jim Connolly

If you want your marketing emails to work, they need to actually REACH the people you send them to. After all, the best marketing message in the world won’t work if no one receives it.

This means your marketing emails need to be written, designed and sent in such a way that they are not wrongly mistaken for spam, by the various spam filters out there. Avoiding spam filters is a huge subject, but you can quickly learn many of the things to avoid – simply by doing the following……

Read the emails in your junk mail filter

Take a look at the emails that have been caught in your spam filter and you will find that they all fit into 1 of 2 categories:

1. Emails from spammers, which were correctly detected as spam.
2. Legitimate email from people, which was wrongly detected as spam.

In both cases, the reason these emails were detected as spam is usually because of the way they were written, designed or sent. There were things about those emails, that your spam filter thought was suspicious enough to merit them being blocked. You need to look for some of the common factors and where these blocked emails differ from those you received, which were not blocked.

Common email marketing mistakes

There are a large number of things that can lead to an email being regarded as spam, from; using terms like ‘click here’ inside the email to the over-use of exclamation marks!!!!

The use of a graphics within the email can also cause problems, as can things like having too many upper-case letters in the subject line of the email.

Sadly, you can send a perfectly crafted email to your readers and STILL have it blocked – simply because someone using the same mailhost and within your ip range is a spammer. Without you doing anything wrong, your ip address then gets blacklisted.

These are just a few of the things you need to look out for. You will find lots more when you start to examine the emails that get caught in your spam filter.

So, what kind of things have YOU noticed that cause emails to be wrongly detected as spam – let us know.

Top newsletter tips – part 1

September 30, 2008 by Jim Connolly

As you may already know, I produce a very popular newsletter; with thousands of readers spanning more than 100 countries around the world. I have developed my newsletter without any form of paid advertising; everything has been achieved through my website, blog, referrals and forwarding!

Here are a few of my suggestions, if you want to either add a newsletter to your marketing or increase the success of an existing newsletter.

Content

I believe the finest way to generate a massive, interested readership for your newsletter – is to build your subscriber base on the recommendation of your readers! Of course, the only way to get people forwarding your newsletter and growing your readership for you, is to provide them with stacks of really powerful, valuable information!

My marketing newsletter carries an original article (always written by me) and usually just one very brief news story. Most newsletters I see are just a massive sales pitch, wrapped around generic content. As a result, no one bothers to forward them!

People do not forward adverts to their contacts; they forward things they find interesting, useful or both. Focus exclusively on high value content and your newsletter will ‘go viral!’ I get around 25 new newsletter subscribers each day using this approach.

Only write for your readers

If you want your newsletter to generate new clients or customers for your business, make sure that you only write material that is 100% relevant to YOUR specific market! Many newsletters make the mistake of trying to appeal to too wide a range of readers and as a result, end up being of little relevance to anyone!

For example; if you sell insurance broking products to small businesses within your area – everything you write should be relevant to the local, small business community. If you focus on their problems, their opportunities and their interests, your messages will always be relevant to the reader. You will find it far easier to grow your readership this way, than if you write general information with no local appeal.

Ask your readers to forward your newsletter

Every edition of my newsletter finishes with a request.

“If you found this newsletter useful, please forward it to anyone you think might find it interesting!”

This causes people who have just read and enjoyed your newsletter, to focus on people they know who might also find the newsletter useful. This simple step can generate a 200% increase in the number of new subscribers you get after each edition – often more!

Offer new subscribers something to welcome them

You should ALWAYS offer people an incentive for taking the time to subscribe to your newsletter! For example, when you sign-up for my newsletter, you get a free copy of my short eBook; “10 secrets to success!” People LOVE this brief eBook and it’s a great way to welcome new readers!

Just make sure that whatever you offer is likely to be extremely attractive to your ideal profile of reader.

No more than once a week & no less than twice a month

If you send people any form of email communication more than once a week, it is likely to result in lots of unsubscribe requests! People hate being bombarded with emails; even emails that contain really useful information, like your newsletter! I get so few unsubscribe requests using this approach that I manually delete them. I get fewer unsubscribe requests a year than many people get in a week!

However, if you leave too long a gap between emails (more than 14-21 days), response rates and new subscriber numbers start to drop! For my newsletter, two emails a month seems ideal.

Let your readers know their details are safe with you

Never, ever sell, rent or share your subscriber database with anyone! Also, make sure you let people know that you will never share their details!

You only need an email address

If you want to send your newsletter to someone, you don’t need anything other than their email address. Did you know that every additional piece of information you ask for, drastically reduces the number of people who will sign-up? It’s true!

If you think that by getting your readers names you will be able to ‘personalise’ their emails – STOP! It’s not 1999 any more and EVERYONE knows what a mail merge is! You make your newsletter personalised by making the information specific to your target readership – not by opening it with Dear Bob!

Newsletter marketing is something I will be covering again in future posts. If you have any specific newsletter questions, either contact me using the contact button above or leave a comment here.

….and feel free to subscribe to my newsletter, using the button below!