SVA Guide: Newsletters That Work

• How to build your mailing list – and the legalities!
• What format to use
• What should I include?
• The 'Cardinal Sins' of newsletter production
• Suggested articles

We hope you enjoy this guide – however, if you have any suggestions please don’t hesitate to contact us on [email protected]

Enjoy!
Caroline

The second area covered by the Act provides individuals with important rights, including the right to find out what personal information is held on computer and most paper records.

Should an individual or organisation feel they're being denied access to personal information they're entitled to, or feel their information has not been handled according to the eight principles, they can contact the Information Commissioner's Office for help. Complaints are usually dealt with informally, but if this isn't possible, enforcement action can be taken.

Getting people to sign up
Bearing in mind the principles above, you need to make sure that people have actively opted in to your newsletter – the easiest way of doing this is to give them something they want in it!

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Mailing List providers:
www.constantcontact.com - rave reviews from everyone for this! Great starting point to build your database and create simple, "no code" emails
www.aweber.com - for the more advanced newsletter user who manages clients lists, and uses automatic sequential autoresponders. Will need coding to create emails.
www.xtreeme.com/followupxpert - This runs from your desktop and can do sequential autoresponders, again you'll need coding experience.
www.graphicmail.co.uk
www.getresponse.com
www.emailaces.com
www.ultimatemarketingcenter.com
www.listmailpro.com
www.ezinedirector.com
www.yourmailinglistprovider.com

A lot of people are really worried they won’t have enough information to put in their newsletter. Don’t panic! Whether you plan to send it weekly, monthly, quarterly or sporadically, here are our top tips for content and some handy cheats too!

Make it Personal
The whole point of doing the newsletter is to remind your clients and potential contacts of your presence so that you are front of mind when they have a problem or are speaking to someone who says “You know, I just don’t have enough time to do my admin…” So: KEEP IT PERSONAL

Include:

• News about you and the business
• Your logo
• A picture of yourself
• Your contact details including telephone, email, mailing address and website – no harm in a reminder!

Articles of interest to your target market
Think about what your target market would be interested in. Where do they go? What do they do? Do they love gadgets? Are they technophobes?

Diary of events in your area / online
Here’s something I always include in my newsletter. I do worry it’s slightly regionalised, but you could make your diary targeted towards a niche e.g. estate agents / coaches etc. with events specific to them. Alternatively you could direct them to specific online events.

Links to websites of interest to your target market
We also have a “website round up” section in our newsletter which covers a specific area each month e.g. social networking sites / government bodies / anti-virus etc. This makes your newsletter more interactive and gives further opportunities to track what your clients are interested in. Strangely, anything to do with food seems to get great clic- thru rates from our clients!

‘How To’ guides
Here’s your chance to shine. It showcases your knowledge and gives clients useful tools they can use in their businesses. Try not to just flog your services (see Cardinal Sins below!) but to include real advice. For example, we recently included Jackie Grant’s guide to getting great audio recordings, which was useful to clients, and useful to me as then I got better quality dictation! A win:win situation for everyone!

Special offers / promotions either from you or from other suppliers
This has dual functionality – not only will you get some interesting, valuable content for your newsletter but you’ll also be able to reap the benefits by offering your client a perceived high value product at discounted prices just for being part of your mailing list.

Working with others
When setting up a deal with another supplier, think WIIFM – What’s In It for Me? Try to establish whether they will reciprocate with their own newsletter list offering your services. Alternatively, try to set up an affiliate programme whereby you get a cut of any sales they make as a result of your newsletter. Perhaps they could add your website as a link on their own site? Are their target market the same as your target market?

Also think what’s in it for your clients? Would they use this product or service? For it to benefit you, it must be seen as being a special deal just for them as subscribers to your newsletter.

Offering your own deals
When you offer a deal yourself try and think through exactly what you are offering.
E.g. If you offer a discount of 15% for any work commissioned in December, does that still apply when the project goes on for four months? What about if the project is so small that the 15% discount swallows up all your profit? Or perhaps the discount applies if people book 10 hours and then only use 3 – what happens then?

Another thing to consider – and this is a nice one! – what would happen if everyone on your list took you up on the offer? Could you cope? What’s the back up plan? You could outsource to other VAs, or limit the offer to a specific timeframe, but make sure there is a plan!

EEK! I have no content!
Okay, here’s our cheat’s guide to creating a newsletter. We know that you have the very best intentions of creating a fresh, original and valued mailing each month, but sometimes it’s just not possible.

There are hundreds of articles out there for newsletter use, most available for free as long as you credit the author, do a google search for “newsletter articles”. Plus you can use any of the articles on the SVA blog as long as you get permission from the author and credit Society Of Virtual Assistants.

The main thing you can do to make your life easier is to have a proven formula and stick to it.
Think of all those daily “magazine” shows who constantly produce fast paced content – they can’t rely on coming up with new ideas and timeslots everyday so they run to specific schedules and formulas to create an overall programme balance.

You’ll find that by knowing what you’re writing will make your job 100 times easier. You can even write articles and prepare your newsletters in advance.

Plus people like familiarity. They’ll get to recognise your formula and branding from your newsletter. Try different styles, get feedback from your clients, ask them what they’d like to read – but remember it’s your newsletter and you have the final say.

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Continually touting for business
How dull! And more dangerously, **SPAM REPORT** (more on that later). But seriously, you’re going to spend a good chunk of your time each month preparing this, don’t you want to produce something that people actually read?

In terms of the returns I get from my newsletter, it more than pays for itself bringing in both new business and repeat business from people every time I send one out. Why? Because simply reminding them of my presence is enough. And I don’t get to do that if they don’t enjoy the newsletters and remove themselves from my list.

So no touting for business unless it’s of interest and value to your prospects.

Spamming
Here is where I’m going to be a bit militant: It is NOT acceptable to send out your newsletter simply by using the BCC option on your email programme. That’s a very fast way to become labelled as spam.

Although the UK has strict laws on Data Protection, other countries don’t and therefore ISPs will protect their customers from spam by assessing the likelihood of each email which passes through their servers based on:

• How many people it’s going to (generally sending to more than 25 people will trigger a report)
• Whether the BCC option is used
• Title / Content (words like “free” for example)
• If you have been reported as spam to them

Use a mailing programme like Constant Contact, AWeber or one provided by your website host. It only costs about £20/month and protects you from being labelled a spammer if someone accidentally reports you. Not only do they stagger sending the emails, but they also give you excellent reports and design tools too.

So what’s the danger? Well, if you get reported for spam then ALL future emails you send are likely to be identified as spam by the ISP and that includes things like general correspondence, work and even your invoices!

“But all my newsletter recipients have asked to be on my list!” Yes, but what about if one accidentally presses a button, or decides they no longer want to receive your emails and simply presses the spam button? For this reason, make it clear how to unsubscribe (safely) every time you send an email. This is where those mail managers really excel – it’s all done automatically and you don’t need to worry about it.

No calls to action
Last one. Your potential client has signed up for your newsletter, received it safely, enjoyed its content and now what?

Well, what do you want them to do? Click on your website, pick up the phone, forward the newsletter onto a friend, read more about a particular subject. It’s up to you.

But in reality unless you close with “Don’t forget to CLICK HERE to access…” or “CALL US NOW for a free report on….” It’s not going to happen, your readers will be passively engaged and they are less likely to tell other people about it or recommend you.

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Whereever you get content from, please make sure you have permission to reproduce it. Always ask permission from the author before including an article - usually they will be pleased, particularly if you include a link back into their site.

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There’s a few to get you started! However, if you would like to submit any of your own articles for syndication across the SVA network feel free to email them to [email protected] and we’ll credit you & put up a weblink on the blog.

We hope you enjoyed this edition - we're always looking for new ways to improve the course - please let us know your thoughts by emailing us.

Happy writing!

The SVA Team
Society of Virtual Assistants

Please note that whilst every effort is made to provide up-to-date and accurate information, SVA is not responsible for the accuracy of the information contained in this e-course or for any consequences resulting from the accuracy of the information. Please seek professional advice where appropriate.