electronic newsletter

Want to improve customer involvement with your electronic newsletter? You will get more attention for your message by simply avoiding the Number 1 common mistake made by other newsletter authors.

Their error? The newsletter writer starts writing about the company instead of focusing on the readers’ needs.

Have you read these headlines recently?

“Visit our New Website!”
“We’re featured in Modern Troll Magazine“.
“We’ve just received our state certification in Troll Tossing!”
“We’re working the weekend to be ready for Monday’s Sale”

I’ve read all of these happy notices just during the past week. We’ll maybe the names and certifications have been changed a bit, but the meanings are unaltered from what has appeared in my inbox.

Each of these messages talk about what the business has done, or is going through, to improve its service to the clients. Sounds pretty good, eh?

Actually not. All of those statements are about the business and not about the life of the client or prospect. The announcements brag about the business, but don’t make a direct tie to solving a problem that the reader has.

And most of the statements can be re-focused to convey the same information with a different focus:

“Visit our New Website!” becomes “Now schedule your appointment, check your account balance, and send a message to your doctor online on our updated website.”

“We’re featured in Modern Troll Magazine” becomes “Learn how to toilet train your trolls in 5 minutes in the article we wrote in Modern Toll Magazine“.

… you get the idea!

The world of informal, first-person blogs and individual podcasts makes it difficult to obey the marketing imperative to focusing on your clients. After all, aren’t blogs designed to share your personality and uniqueness with your clients? Well, maybe some of your readers love hearing about your personal travails, but all of them want you to help them with their problems.

More clients and prospects will read your newsletter and marketing materials when your words help them solve one of their problems. Most readers may like you, but in their selfish minds, your hard work is important only for how it will help them!

This slip of focus toward the life of the writer is difficult to avoid. Especially when you get folksy email responses to your business newsletter mailings. This slip of focus is one that I fall victim to myself – not that you, the reader cares!

The focus slip is natural, and it’s not an error that is likely to tick off your clients. Rather it’s an error that makes it less likely that your hard-written newsletter is going to have the marketing and sales impact you want.

So, remember. Sorry, it’s not about you! It’s about the reader and their problems.