"Anybody wanna' see my snake?!,"
shouted my five year old son Jonathan as he stepped into
the house through the back door yesterday morning.
He had been playing over by a pile of sticks in the
backyard, and since he's at the age where he does a lot
of pretending, I naturally assumed that he was using a
stick from the pile as a pretend snake.
That was a bad assumption. Instead of a stick
that looked like a snake as I had expected, Jonathan
held in his hands 10 inches of frightened, squirming,
very much alive, snake. Nothing that would kill
you certainly, but nonetheless, not the kind of thing
you want lunging out at you from behind Mr. Coffee the
next morning.
Sensing the need for immediate action, I asked the
kind of pointless rhetorical question we fathers are
famous for: "Jonathan, do you think having a snake in
the house is a good idea?!"
He just stood there grinning from ear to ear and
simply said, "You never said I couldn't."
I had to admit he had a point.
Because while it was obvious to me that in the context
of our rules regarding household behavior this was
clearly out of bounds, Jonathan was correct in his
assertion that we do not have a regulation explicitly
banning slithering reptiles in the kitchen.
And it was at that very moment that I had
this important insight about E-Newsletters (I never stop
working for you): Just as Jonathan didn't reach
what to me should have been an obvious conclusion about
snakes in the house, your readers may also be
missing an important connection between your
newsletter's content and the work you do.
Here's what I mean. . .
As you can imagine, I read lots of company
newsletters, many of which I'm happy to say, are focused
on providing useful, interesting, relevant information
to a targeted group of readers. Perfect, but that's only
part of the equation. Because while you
certainly want to attract readers, that's not enough -
the success of your business is based on
turning
those readers into clients.
It's up to you therefore, to include subtle
(I said subtle) references to the work you do, so that
in the context of learning more about whatever topic you
cover, your readers come to view you as the expert (i.e.
the person they should hire).
With that in mind, I offer four specific
recommendations for delicately (I said delicately)
shining the light on yourself:
- Use client experiences as examples.
Rather than say, "Many companies find it useful to
apply the XYZ technique," say, "In working with a
client last month, we applied the XYZ technique and
saw terrific results." This helps your readers
associate your company with a solution to a problem
that they may also have, increasing the likelihood
that you'll get the call.
- Stop referencing "the experts."
It's fine to throw in a terrific quote here and
there if you stumble upon one that really drives
home the point you're trying to make. Summarizing or
reporting on the work of somebody else in your field
however, positions you as an observer rather than as
an industry leader, and no matter how eloquently you
explain someone else's ideas, you're still
diminishing your position as expert.
- Congratulate your clients.
Everybody wins when you mention work you've done for
a client. Your client gets some free publicity and
you get to remind your readers of the work you do.
If you have a way to show the reader some aspect of
the project (e.g. a link to a web site you designed;
a free download of a white paper you wrote), all the
better, since in the process of checking out
something that could help their own business, your
readers will get a first hand look at the work you
do.
- Include an "About Us" section.
If I read your newsletter and like what you have to
say, I may want to learn more about your company. An
"About Us" section - a two or three sentence summary
of what you do, who you do it for, and what makes
you different - at the end of the newsletter will
help your readers connect the dots, and again, lead
them to visualize working with you.
Bottom Line.
I'm not suggesting for
a minute that you take your eye off the ball and stop
producing useful, interesting, targeted newsletters that
help your readers live their lives or do their jobs
better. What I am saying however, is that within that
framework, you have an opportunity to gently (I said
gently) position yourself and your company as the clear
and obvious choice for whatever kind of work you do.
Although it's perfectly clear to you what you do,
your readers may simply think of you as "law firm" or
"financial planner," when in fact your area of specialty
is much more focused.
Now if you'll excuse me, I just heard the back door
slam and Jonathan's screaming something about a bear
cub. You don't suppose. . . .?
About Us