This guest post was written by Tom Babinszki, the director of Even Grounds, Inc., a company which helps people make documents, web, software and hardware accessible to people with disabilities. Tom over to you;
We hear a lot about the importance of creating mailing lists, collecting addresses of people who are interested in it, and sending out messages. But the coin has another side: how about us receiving other people’s mailing lists? What’s in it for us? In this post I would like to give you some examples of how some people lost my business because they didn’t keep in touch with me.
We like to think that the information we have to share is useful, or interesting for other people. Otherwise, why bother. Just as others get our emails, we are also interested in receiving correspondence which adds to the information we need, or helps us find the best services.
It is easy to subscribe to any number of lists, but at the end of the day, we should ask ourselves if it is an additional waste of time, or a contribution to our lives.
When I meet somebody interesting, or somebody who’s service I could use one day, either because I know I will need it in the future or I want to replace the existing service provider, I tell them to keep me in the loop, and to feel free to forward information to me, or just to add me to their mailing list. I’m very selective with such statements, but there are instances when I truly want to hear from certain people. Then they say sure, will do. And most of the cases, sure they won’t, because they don’t have anything to add me to.
Just recently I worked with a service provider who recommends companies for little fixes around the house. She put me in touch with our gardener, and I’m very happy with the service. But I have never heard from her again. Just the other day, our heating system broke. I was frantically calling around to find somebody who can come out during the weekend, instead of calling this service provider to give me a recommendation. I thought about her after the heating was back on. I specifically asked her to keep me in the loop. If she was sending me an email newsletter packed with useful information at least once a month, to keep her name in front of me, I’m sure I would have called her first.
Another example. I decided to redesign my company’s logo, and couldn’t figure out who would be the best to do it for me. I met somebody last year who is pretty good at it, and since I knew that the redesign is coming soon, I asked her to keep me in the loop through email. Sure enough, she kept sending me paper newsletters. I don’t read it. Actually, if it is not from the IRS, it goes straight to the trash. You either email me, or you won’t be heard, and I always make it clear. So, finally I settled with somebody else, but we had great difficulties putting everything together. The other day, when my logo project was about to wrap up, I met this designer, who told me that she’s been sending me her newsletter on the mail. I also found out that she has an email newsletter too, which I was not receiving. If only she communicated with me electronically, she would have been the best fit for my project. Maybe next time.
Now, I’m not saying that you should start bombarding me with messages just in case I need your business, because you will soon end up in my junk folder. But if I get some information from you here and there about the topic we were discussing, which happens to be your expert area and your business makes a living on it, I will not only think of you when I need your services, but you will also convince me over the months that you are the best fit to do my projects, because you know a lot about what you are doing, you already helped me out with little bits of advice in your newsletter, and you sent me to your blog countless time to read more about what you are doing.
If at all possible, I’d rather pick a service provider I know and trust, and not one that I find first when I’m desperately flipping through the phone book or search the Yellow Pages online. Unfortunately, this is what I end up doing most of the cases.
I started my newsletter a couple of years ago. People often tell me that they like it because it is short and it doesn’t come too often. I know for a fact that I got lot’s of my business from people who read it. Most interestingly, I get the most enquires right after my newsletter goes out. If you don’t believe me, take a look at it:
http://evengrounds.com/newsletter
photo credit: roberthunt1987
What’s your experience? Do you have a newsletter? Do you convince people with it that you are the best person to go to when in need?
That is exactly it! I have been talking with a lot of businesses and a lot of them think that only newsletters or email lists are only for internet companies – but it is something that every company needs to be taking advantage of!
.-= Tom | Build That List´s last blog ..The 4 Reasons People Unsubscribe Mailing Lists =-.
Tom,
I think part of the problem is that we are very stuck to calling it a newsletter. You might as well come up with something else that fits your business to keep yourself in front of the customers. And if it is not a newsletter, it should be an RSS feed you make sure people subscribe to. If it is not an online business, it should be a holiday card you send out, or any occasional mailing.
.-= Tom Babinszki´s last blog ..A Day Through The Eyes of a Blind Woman: Part 3 =-.
I have only just started a newsletter, well – I don’t know if it could even be called that really!! As it is just an email I send out letting those on the list know of updates to Taming Time.
Because my site isn’t a blog, I like to let people know I still update frequently by using the “Free Updates”.
.-= Michelle´s last blog ..Feb 24, Why Do People Procrastinate? Steps to Overcoming Procrastination =-.
Michelle, this is a great start. You can call it whatever you want to, as long as you keep in touch with your potential clients, visitors, or any group of people whom you want to read your posts. And there is always room for changes, updates, etc. I just changed the format of my newsletter last week, because of the feedback I was getting on it. It is not a substantial change, so if you liked it before, you won’t be unhappy, but it responds to people’s requests. And that’s the key here, to deliver to people who you serve, not to put out what you think is the greatest.
.-= Tom Babinszki´s last blog ..A Day Through The Eyes of a Blind Woman: Part 3 =-.
Michelle, feel free to add me to your list of outgoing mailings. I so enjoy your take on things and find your site invaluable.
seriously
Lee
.-= Lees Shizzle´s last blog ..Are you Driven by Materialism and Wealth or Happiness and Success =-.
I don’t have a newsletter myself. I do understand where you’re coming from though. I know almost nothing about cars and just having got my car driving again I need to get some work done to it. I don’t really know anyone I can trust to take a look at it so instead I will go to a well known auto mechanic shop and have them check it out.
.-= Eric´s last blog ..Lets Help Each Other: Monthly Experience (January – February) =-.
Eric,
Here is a question. Why is it a well-known shop as opposed to a random one from the Yello Pages? Because they put themselves in front of people. In front of you, your friend who recommended them to you, etc. Sometimes recommendations can be just as valuable. For example, if I receive updates about your business, about the things you are doing, when a friend of mine needs a service that you provide, I won’t only say that recently I’ve seen this guy’s name, Eric, he does something like what you may need. I will rather say, look there’s Eric, who does just that, I read his blog and his newsletter, he is pretty good at A, B, C give him a call, I’m pretty sure you will like him.
So, becoming well-known is not an accident, it is constant communication with potential customers, or acquaintances of potential customers.
.-= Tom Babinszki´s last blog ..A Day Through The Eyes of a Blind Woman: Part 3 =-.
You hit the nail on the head there Eleanor.
It’s the way you’re known as well as the way you communicate it.
Doing things that way will surely put a bright light on the situation.
.-= Eric´s last blog ..Lets Help Each Other: Monthly Experience (January – February) =-.
This was a wake up call Tom. I’d never thought of how we might be missing out by not having a newsletter. And this is something I can rectify fairly easily too
We’re a charity so don’t sell anything other than ourselves and the projects we support. Can we still use one do you think?
.-= Eleanor Edwards´s last blog ..1 Minute Motivator: Pick your elephant =-.
Absolutely. I would guess it is even easier for charities, but I have never run one. And the other thing is that you don’t need to sell with a newsletter. Or, not to sell for money, even though most newsletters are set up to achieve this goal. But that’s the key: you set a goal you want to achieve with your newsletter. Maybe to get even more paying customers, maybe to get more people to fund your charity, or to send out your holiday family news to the extended family because you want to keep in touch, which according to my view is much more valuable than selling anything under the Sun.
.-= Tom Babinszki´s last blog ..A Day Through The Eyes of a Blind Woman: Part 3 =-.
Tom,
Thanks for sharing this. Your post has appeared at an opportune moment for me; it’s set off numerous new ideas in my head.
There is a fine balance between too much and too little, but I guess that’s down to knowing your readers.
Regards
Paul
.-= Paul´s last blog ..Rocky Road =-.
Paul, I’m glad it was there at the right time for you.
You are right, you need to know your readers to figure out how much is too much. For example if I’m interested in reading jokes, and you send me a newsletter packed with jokes because you get a commission on it (just making this up), I want it to be long, I want to laugh for a half hour.
If I’m giving you tips to improve your web design, it is easier to digest one tip at a time, which I can actually implement. If I give you advice on certain tax issues, I can’t be brief because you either get the whole thing or it is worthless. Personally, the services I’m selling I think are such that people don’t necessarily know that they need it, but they are happy when they receive it. I don’t want to scare them away, rather, I feed it bit by bit, and try to be interesting, and make sure they know where to get more info if they want it. It works so far.
.-= Tom Babinszki´s last blog ..A Day Through The Eyes of a Blind Woman: Part 3 =-.
Tom,
You’re spot on there. It’s not so much having a selling strategy but knowing your reader’s (customer’s) buying strategy.
Why do they want to buy from you? Not because you’re a cool guy or wear smart suits but because you know what they want.
Thanks for your reply.
Regards
Paul
.-= Paul´s last blog ..Rocky Road =-.
Tom,
In regards to your story about choosing a WebDesign provider, I get your point, but that really sounds like you being stubborn and doing yourself a disservice as a consumer. It could have been a simple error on her part that lead to you not being fully satisfied with your process. The Technology revolution is amazing but let’s not forget that hardcopy mail exists and still holds an important role in our lives…
Thanks,
Ryan H.
.-= Ryan Hanley´s last blog ..You Aren’t Scared of Employment Practices Liability =-.
Ryan, I’m with you about paper mail. I think it is very very important, and personally I know lot’s of people who don’t even know how to turn on the computer. All I’m saying is that you deliver to your customers. So, if the customer (me), says that I hate papermail and I never read it, and you keep sending it to me, you achieved two things. First, I’ll never read what you have to say. Second, if I find that you are still sending it to me, I understand that you don’t listen even if we talked about it. How do you want to earn my business if you can’t follow up on such an easy thing. Will you listen when I put up the big bucks to pay you? But it goes the other way around. If I meet somebody at a conference who is interested in what I have to say, but is afraid of computers, I will never send information which prompts you to get online to do something. I’d rather not send anything if I don’t have anything suitable, or try to pick promotions which he will benefit from.
.-= Tom Babinszki´s last blog ..A Day Through The Eyes of a Blind Woman: Part 3 =-.
Tom,
I couldn’t help thinking the same as Ryan – why was it her fault for sending you paper newsletters instead of electronic ones? Wasn’t the onus on you to tell her what you wanted to receive? If she knew from the beginning that you wanted electronic, then she wouldn’t have sent you the paper copies. Unless the electronic version came later? Plus, maybe there was a blurb on the paper copy that said that if you didn’t want to receive it any more, that they offered electronic versions. You never saw it because you automatically threw out the paper copy.
It’s easy to blame the other person, but communication of any kind is a two-way street. There’s the messenger and the receiver. Both are responsible for receiving the correct message and understanding it.
Good advice about keeping in touch with our customers (in the correct format, of course).
Karen
Karen,
At this point it really doesn’t matter who’s fault it is, I keep picking on this woman, but maybe I didn’t communicate my message right. What I mean here is to put more effort into how we communicate with our customers. There is always more improvement to make. And there are two things I would never do: blaming somebody else, or blaming myself. Rather than judging history, I think it is more productive to go forth, learn from the past, and do better next time.
.-= Tom Babinszki´s last blog ..A Day Through The Eyes of a Blind Woman: Part 3 =-.
Just found your site and thought I would drop a line.
I don’t have a newsletter yet as I am just beginning with my blog and figuring out my way around the internet. But I sure feel like I have come to the right place for some inspiration.
You are at the right place if you are looking for inspiration. Just based on the posts James puts out, I have changed many things on my blog, but especially my approach to it. He is definitely a testimony that you can make it happen.
.-= Tom Babinszki´s last blog ..A Day Through The Eyes of a Blind Woman: Part 3 =-.
Hey brother welcome to the site, if you need anything just shout
I’ve been thinking I need to set up one of these, but honestly? No idea how to even start! Obviously I have my blog itself, and I have GLock installed on it (it’s a plugin meant to send out email updates when I publish a post/allow people to sign up) but I’m fairly sure it’s not even set up correctly…
Seriously need to work on it. Any advice for the complete newbie? (I’ll look up online tutorials as well, just thought I’d ask
)
Heather,
Any site that provides such functionalities have extensive tutorials. What I would recommend is look for autoresponders. An autoresponder allows you to send messages in given intervals as soon as users subscribe. So, you can start sending them tutorials, information, update, without having to do it directly after you set it up. Most autoresponders have regular mailing list capabilities as well, for the most part one comes with the other.
There are a bunch of those, Mailchimp, which is free, Aweber, or Constant Contact.
I use aweber. They take care of the list administration from the programming point of view, you just have to set up and monitor the list. It is about $19 a month, unless you have thousands of subscribers, but probably at that point price doesn’t matter that much. If you prepay the whole year, it is even cheaper. They take care of double opt-in foryou, which means that users cannot get an email without requesting it, which is an important legal consideration, if you even get into the suspicion of spamming, it might just cost your business overnight.
.-= Tom Babinszki´s last blog ..A Day Through The Eyes of a Blind Woman: Part 3 =-.
Thanks Tom, appreciate it! I’ll check that out tomorrow, and I’ll probably be back if I have any more questions.
Interesting post. I actually don’t have a newsletter yet, but will be implementing one soon. I am learning a lot about them especially the ones that just bombard the hell out of you. For business I think it is so smart doing what you do. By promoting yourself through a newsletter, people can keep up with you and in touch with you. I refuse to believe that those who send out newsletters 4 times a week think it is actually effective.
.-= Alex Monroe´s last blog ..What can foursquare do for you? =-.
Alex,
When it comes to learning, it is also a good idea to subscribe to a bunch of newsletters and see what others are doing. I would pick ones which would be similar in nature to what I would like to do, then a couple of very different ones just to see the difference. And of course, it is mandatory: read your competitors’ newsletters.
.-= Tom Babinszki´s last blog ..A Day Through The Eyes of a Blind Woman: Part 3 =-.
I think what you are really recommending (at least what I am taking away from this) is keeping your name in front of others. There are just so many ways to do this now. Email list, RSS feed, Twitter, Linked In, FaceBook, Integrated “tweets” between all of these functions, even comments on blogs. The challenge is selecting the right mix of these items that:
1) Get to where your customers are, however you define customer, as well as understanding that not all of them now consume information the same way, and
2) Doing it in a way that doesn’t overwhelm you.
A great post and a good reminder Tom.
Absolutely. That’s the final goal, any way you get there. Sometimes it sure feels like it’s lot’s of work, but it is rewarding. Actually the most work I find when it comes to newsletter is the communication with people who respond, and now matter how much it is, I always enjoy it.
.-= Tom Babinszki´s last blog ..A Day Through The Eyes of a Blind Woman: Part 3 =-.
To many companies send hundreds and thousands of dollars to get new customers. What they do not realize is it is a lot easier and less expensive to retain a existing customer then find another.
It is always worth looking at the 80/20 rule. 80 percent of your revenue is produced by 20 percent of your work/customers. Now, the question is, if you spend hundreds of thousands, how much are you producing. If millions, it is worth it. The other thing you don’t necessarily know is when you do something for free for a customer, what are they going to convert to. Maybe they will realize that you are genuinely great and they will spend big chunks of cash. It happened to me. So, it is a fine line, and you need to find out who your customers are. But also, there is a factor of social responsiveness. Sometimes you don’t make a penny on something, but you do it, because you believe in it, otherwise why running a business. So, there’s no good answer to this.
.-= Tom Babinszki´s last blog ..A Day Through The Eyes of a Blind Woman: Part 3 =-.
Tom,
Your another reason I think this is a…….well feeraaaud
I don’t have a list either cept a shiz one.
It’s nice to get a different take on the subject and see if from our side instead of hearing the whiners who need some cheez. ..
Hope you ain’t the ememy….jus sayin
.-= Lees Shizzle´s last blog ..Are you Driven by Materialism and Wealth or Happiness and Success =-.