Believe it or not - I’m not perfect…
I know - shocking isn’t it?!? LOL!! But yes, it’s true - I’ve made mistakes during my journey through business-ownership. Since I’ve been talking quite a bit about newsletters for the last few weeks, I’d like to share some mistakes I’ve made with mine, what I learned, and how they impacted my practice.
1. Tried to manage my subscriber list in my e-mail program. This one was frustrating. When I first started my newsletter in 1999, I figured I would just manage it through Outlook. I highly recommend NOT doing this. After you reach about 20 subscribers (which takes about no time to do…), it gets really cumbersome.
In your e-mail program you have to create a “group” to manage all of the addresses. Then you have to manually add people to the group. Then, if you’re sending a bonus to people for signing up, you have to manually send that. Now, on the surface, all of that doesn’t look that hard. But if you have several people sign up in a day, plus you’re trying to do everything else in your business - this can add a lot to your plate. And what if you forget to add someone, or add someone accidentally… don’t ask me how many times my e-zine went to my entire address book… boy were some people confused!
Use an e-mail list management service… so much easier!
2. Have an irregular schedule. Not a good idea. Consistency is your friend when it comes to producing a newsletter. People come to rely on you - they want to hear from you and they want to hear what you have to say… after all - they know you can help them!
If you go too long between issues, people will forget who you are and why they subscribed and they will quickly unsub. I learned that the hard way - after someone accused me of spamming her because she forgot she actually did subscribe.
3. Not offering your products and services. People want to know how you are in service. Yes - providing value is a BIG key to having an effective newsletter. But - people can’t guess what you’re offering. Tell them.
For a long time, I went the route of not offering my products and services in my newsletter. People loved getting it, and they liked what I was saying - but they wanted to know more about how we could work together - they needed help in the form of products and services. Once I started offering my products and services, people began to take me up on those offers.
4. Copying someone else. Oy. I hate to even write that - I’m not proud of the fact that I put myself aside for a bit and tried on someone else. But I did. I went on this odd journey of comparing myself to another successful aromatherapist (back when I had the healing business…), and I copied her style in my newsletter. I figured she must know what to do to be really successful - so I would follow suit.
First off, I felt empty writing it. I started not enjoying it. Secondly - people noticed. It may have been subtle, but they definitely felt the “emptiness” and started unsubbing.
5. Only offering sales announcements. Now I’m not saying I NEVER send a message that isn’t strictly promotional. I do that very occasionally. However, there was a time in my healing business when I was only offering specials, promotions, and sales. Not only were people unsubscribing - they stopped even opening my newsletter. YIKES.
Through my newsletter, I’ve learned the exact right things to do to get my message of service out in the world, and I’ve learned what absolutely NOT to do! I’ve been producing a newsletter since 1999 - and not only has it helped me grow my businesses - but it’s been a fabulous way to help me get to know my subscribers, and build a community.
During the July Teleclinic, I’ll be teaching participants step-by-step how to create an effective newsletter. It’s happening July 8 at 1:00 EST. Check out all the details here.
