Simplify Your Message For An
Effective E-Newsletter
If you're old enough to know your total cholesterol count
off the top of your head (217), you may remember a man by the name of Jim
Fixx.
Fixx gained prominence in 1977 with the publication of
his book, The Complete Book of Running, and is widely credited with single-handedly
starting the jogging craze in this country. Unfortunately, Fixx died suddenly
in 1984.
Hearing what had happened, my Aunt Esther a woman known
for sometimes not quite getting her facts straight gave me the news:
'The guy who invented running died.'
Admittedly, a bit of an oversimplification. However, with
those six simple words she had captured the essence if not the absolute
factual truth of the story. Before Fixx's book came out, running around
the neighborhood for exercise was not a common practice, and in many ways,
he had 'invented' running.
I'm here to tell you that when it comes to effective communication
with an audience, my Aunt Esther had it right essence matters more than
facts.
How many times have you been forced to endure 85 slides
worth of a speaker's Power Point presentation, getting to the point where
you start looking for a way to unobtrusively take your own life? Invariably,
the problem isn't that the data is wrong or even lacking in value, it's
that it's delivered in a way that is too detailed and too convoluted for
the average human being to digest. You arrive eager to learn something,
but the delivery itself gets in the way.
Many newsletters suffer from the same 'good information;
poor delivery' syndrome. The facts are there, but the reader is not able
to or not interested in finding them. With that in mind, I offer some
suggestions for being heard and appreciated:
-
Pick one idea. I always find it kind of funny that the biggest
worry people have about producing a newsletter is 'running out of content,'
and yet the biggest problem I see is 'too much content in each issue.'
You don't need to explain your entire field of expertise in each issue
any more than you need to review everything you know each time you eat
lunch with a client. Break it up into little pieces. You'll have more content
to choose from next time and your readers will find it easier to hear your
message.
-
Boil it down. An E-Newsletter is really just a glorified
email, and mixed in with all the jokes, appointment confirmations and pieces
of information that fly into our respective in-boxes every day, this is
not a medium that lends itself well to lots of detail. Be prepared to edit,
simplify and throw out information on your way to getting to the heart
of the matter.
-
Speak like a human being. I don't know who started the rumor
that business communication must be formal to be valuable, but it seems
to have caught on nonetheless that's an opportunity for you and me. Your
readers will find it a breath of fresh air to 'hear' the people behind
the newsletter. Nobody is interested in reading one more 'critical communication'
from a company that claims to be, 'the leading provider of cross platform
broadband solutions' (or whatever). If you can't read your newsletter out
loud to your spouse without bursting out laughing, you've got too much
marketing-speak in there.
Bottom Line: You've got 800 words of opportunity each month
to get your message across. Sure you've got to have something useful to
give your audience, but remember that these people are busy, tired and
often just plain bored. Make your publication the one they wait for and
you'll never again live in fear of the delete key.
Next Article:
Permission
Marketing With Tip Sheets
Tip sheets are easy to prepare and can be distributed
for free as electronic files. You dont need many words, and you dont
need fancy graphics to communicate a credible, competent, professional
image. Clients and prospects like tip.........
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