BizActions is the Best in Class Email Newsletter Service touching the lives of over one million clients, customers, prospects, and referral sources each week. As the Online Marketing Manager, Im constantly asked, Where can I get some ideas for content in my newsletter? Well here is the first of ten Relationship Content ideas. I discussed the concept of Relationship Content in my previous articl
First of all, nothing says that articles about Products and Services cant be Relationship Content. You just have to put the standard fact loaded articles in a fresh format. Since you already write about products and services or at least probably have plenty of marketing materials already available to draw from, ask yourself this question. What can you do to make that content more reader friendly and therefore relationship building?
Most pictures of products look less than exciting and most pictures of services look unrealistic. Unless your readers are so detail oriented that they love to be called bean counters or geeks, specs are boring. Bullet points are black, blank dots, not round smiling faces. And I dont mean to imply that you change any bullet points in your article to an Internet Messenger smiley face icon either. But I dont recommend you turn a Products or Services article into something friendly. Your friends are most often people you share a common interest with. When you talk to them do you shout headlines and bullet points at them, or do you get real and personal? Do you give your opinion with real emotion, supporting facts as well as personal opinion? Of course you do. And because you are talking one on one, that person feels the connection. Your articles need that same connection.
How? Well, you or someone in your company has to have a story to tell about the product or service. Did you or a customer find some unexpected bonus that was unexpected? What was unusual about the sales or installation process with one of your clients? Any emergency scenarios? Anything go wrong that was remedied to show your, or the manufacturers, level of commitment? Would that client be willing to write a paragraph about the product or service and what its meant to them?
Get your staff together or drop them an email and say, Two items: 1. XYZ product or service and 2. Any customer. What is the first thing that comes to mind? If anything remotely interesting or unusual pops up, run with it. Get the whole story. Record the conversation if possible and then use it to interject quotes or at least to keep the story straight. Your staff will feign reluctance, until they see their names in print and start getting kudos from co-workers.
Now Im not saying that listing features (even as bullet points) isnt important, Im just saying that too many details muddy the water in a newsletter, when there is a PERFECT way (at least with an electronic newsletter) to dispense that information after you engender interest in the product. With an email newsletter, you can insert a hyperlink that will take the reader to your web site or open a PDF file stored on your server.
You can send readers to custom landing pages that provide all the details about the product and service and even allow them to do things like see demos or enter a form requesting your sales people to contact them for a live demo.
You can quickly and easily, with very little effort, create enticing stories that draw interest in each facet of your business and then link to a relevant page on your web site. And of course getting prospects to visit your web site frequently yields even greater rewards.
First of all, nothing says that articles about Products and Services cant be Relationship Content. You just have to put the standard fact loaded articles in a fresh format. Since you already write about products and services or at least probably have plenty of marketing materials already available to draw from, ask yourself this question. What can you do to make that content more reader friendly and therefore relationship building?
Most pictures of products look less than exciting and most pictures of services look unrealistic. Unless your readers are so detail oriented that they love to be called bean counters or geeks, specs are boring. Bullet points are black, blank dots, not round smiling faces. And I dont mean to imply that you change any bullet points in your article to an Internet Messenger smiley face icon either. But I dont recommend you turn a Products or Services article into something friendly. Your friends are most often people you share a common interest with. When you talk to them do you shout headlines and bullet points at them, or do you get real and personal? Do you give your opinion with real emotion, supporting facts as well as personal opinion? Of course you do. And because you are talking one on one, that person feels the connection. Your articles need that same connection.
How? Well, you or someone in your company has to have a story to tell about the product or service. Did you or a customer find some unexpected bonus that was unexpected? What was unusual about the sales or installation process with one of your clients? Any emergency scenarios? Anything go wrong that was remedied to show your, or the manufacturers, level of commitment? Would that client be willing to write a paragraph about the product or service and what its meant to them?
Get your staff together or drop them an email and say, Two items: 1. XYZ product or service and 2. Any customer. What is the first thing that comes to mind? If anything remotely interesting or unusual pops up, run with it. Get the whole story. Record the conversation if possible and then use it to interject quotes or at least to keep the story straight. Your staff will feign reluctance, until they see their names in print and start getting kudos from co-workers.
Now Im not saying that listing features (even as bullet points) isnt important, Im just saying that too many details muddy the water in a newsletter, when there is a PERFECT way (at least with an electronic newsletter) to dispense that information after you engender interest in the product. With an email newsletter, you can insert a hyperlink that will take the reader to your web site or open a PDF file stored on your server.
You can send readers to custom landing pages that provide all the details about the product and service and even allow them to do things like see demos or enter a form requesting your sales people to contact them for a live demo.
You can quickly and easily, with very little effort, create enticing stories that draw interest in each facet of your business and then link to a relevant page on your web site. And of course getting prospects to visit your web site frequently yields even greater rewards.
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Email newsletter relationship content, make your products and services part of it!
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