If You Don't Talk to Your Customers,
Somebody Else Will
Psst! Is someone else talking to your customers? (Hint: yes, they are.)
A couple of weeks ago, Roger asked in a LinkedIn post what people who have a newsletter want to achieve with it. The post was viewed 310 times. Five fabulous people left a response. Maybe the other 305 didn't have a newsletter.
Anyway, here are the results:
☞ 20% of respondents (yes, we know, one person) said they have a newsletter as part of a pre-sales funnel.
☞ 20% said it was to encourage post-sales loyalty.
☞ 40% said it was to be seen as a thought leader.
☞ The final person answered "Other". In their accompanying comment, they said, "If you don't talk to your customers, somebody else will." What a terrific phrase. We've been using it as much as possible since.
Three Times Newsletters KO'd Social Media
Speaking of thought leadership, here's a link to a piece about why newsletters are better than social media:
Three Times Newsletters KO'd Social Media
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
1. Newsletters are great.
2. Social media sucks.
Because:
A. newsletters make you independent.
B. newsletters are a direct route to your audience.
C. newsletters are nearly always seen.
Work by Others We Adore
The clever people: Sukle Advertising & Design
The clever people: Saatchi & Saatchi
Get Hooked
Here's a tip:
Give your allies (customers, suppliers, colleagues, friends, etc.) stories about you.
Stories make it easier for them to talk about you—easier for them to get someone interested in finding out more about your business if they need your service/product.
Giving your allies stories makes them walking, talking hooks for your business.
And did you know newsletters are a magnificent way to provide them with those stories?
Of course you did.
How to Please Everybody All the Time
How do you keep everybody happy and engaged when you're selling to them in your newsletter?
One way is to take readers on a journey that brings them to the purchasing destination that fits them best. Everyone has fun along the way.
Click here to see an example:
BiteSize's April Newsletter (full of fun and chocolate)
@Bonfire
In the run up to the introduction of GDPR in 2018, most of our clients agreed to a deep cleaning of their email lists. Subscribers were asked to resubscribe before the date GDPR came into force, thereby creating a record of their consent. Thousands of subscribers didn't and were lost. But it did result in fully compliant mailing lists.
Data protection regulations mean you can't simply add people to a marketing mailing list without their explicit consent (ideally in a format you can present as proof, if you are ever asked). So all the email addresses that litter every corner of your business interactions are probably useless to you from a newsletter point of view. Your only choice is to pitch them on a bonfire and start an email list from scratch.
But don't be disheartened. The lists we pruned back hard five years ago are all much bigger and healthier now than they were then.
(By the way, if you do start a list from scratch, please let us know where we can sign up. Show & Tell will be subscriber #1.)
Asking for a Friend
[Roger here, speaking from the heart]
For many people, cancer is an enemy that has to be fought on many fronts. The major battlefield is inside their body. One of the bitterest secondary fronts is the financial one, where you may have to deal with sky-high medical expenses (and the day-to-day household bills) at a time when your capacity to earn is reduced or completely wiped out. I speak from experience when I say the financial stress of cancer can be horrendous.
My dear friend and sometime business collaborator Karl Hyden (that's him above with his wife Kay) is fighting cancer right now. He's been in this bitter battle pretty much since the day I was told mine was in remission: over 3 years ago. He's fought hard and continues to beat the odds. But being unable to work, while paying towards a treatment available on national health services elsewhere in the EU and in the UK but not in Ireland, means he's running low on financial ammo. In fact, it's depleted.
The treatment has had a huge beneficial impact on him. But he needs to keep funding it himself. So his children have set up a GoFundMe campaign to fund the treatment he needs for the rest of the year. If you're interested in helping, here's the link:
New Work: Video
Karen and Alex of BabaStudio are a creative powerhouse. They blend immense imagination with finely-honed technical skills and razor-sharp business acumen. Working with them is part assignment, part education. We recently filmed a couple of quick behind-the-scenes video updates of their latest project, which required the construction of a model baroque theatre.
An unabashed plug for S&T:
We produce videos and put them in your dispatches
Your next step...
As usual, we are super grateful to be let into your inbox. We appreciate the time you spend reading this dispatch.
If you have any feedback on this issue or any other thoughts, we're here at your service: hello@showandtell.ie.
See you again next month,
Roger, Anne & Paul