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Do Not Write Your Own NewsletterWe Already Know You're the Experts
of good practice Some principles of good business practice are accepted as self-evident. For example, the buy low, sell high principle. It’s common sense.
In many service-oriented, relationship-based enterprises (e.g. insurance, law, accounting, investing, coaching, health care) some good practices are not widely practised. When good practices are not self-evident, people learn the hard way.
resist temptation For marketers and rainmakers in relationship-based service enterprises considering client newsletters, there is a shortcut to newsletter success - a good practice that averts having to learn the hard way: Resist the temptation to write your own newsletter. Rather, plan it in collaboration with a newsletter specialist, then have an expert write it using material you supply.
of in-house expertise and talent Not self-evident? Here’s the main objection: “Nobody else has our top people’s perspectives or industry expertise. They should write our newsletter. Nobody else is qualified.” Alternatively, “Our marketing people know all about direct mail, and the design team can make anything look great. So, our in-house talent is best for our newsletter.” In either case, professionals around the world consider the do-it-ourselves approach to be common sense.
hard lesson Often, the same professionals learn otherwise – and learn the hard way. They suffer the net costs and brand-diminishing effects of an unsuccessful newsletter. Then, after shifting as much responsibility as possible from higher-up to lower-down personnel, who then steadily produce below-potential newsletters with varying earnestness, many newsletter issuers conclude, “Newsletters just don’t work.”
not the right expertise Often, they’re right. Most newsletters do not work. One of the main causes is the belief that in-house subject-matter experts or marketing talent are the best people to create a successful newsletter.
medium as message Subject-matter experts and seasoned marketers are often good writers. However, anybody responsible for a newsletter’s success needs a good understanding of the newsletter as a medium, in the context of the newsletter-issuer to newsletter-reader relationship.
four brand effects All newsletters affect the issuer’s reputation – how your readers perceive you – even when they do not read your newsletter. Any newsletter will:
as seen in a recycle bin near you How can a newsletter shape the issuer's reputation if you see so many newsletters tossed into recycling before they’re read? What about newsletters deleted from people’s e-mail accounts?
brand implications At the moment of discarding a newsletter, the intended reader forms or confirms an impression of the issuer. Even to passers-by, a newsletter noticed in the blue box forms or confirms an impression of the issuer. These impressions matter.
as the envelope is tossed… Typical thoughts at the moment of discarding newsletters:
Nobody wants or expects to trigger this type of response. It is unspoken and becomes clear over time.
not the right expertise It should not be surprising that many newsletters are cancelled after a few issues. The unsuspected underlying cause: The wrong people plan and write the content.
distinct roles Consider a metaphor from professional horse racing. There are no racehorses bred, owned, trained, groomed, and raced by the same person. The qualities and practices that make a top breeder do not also make a race-winning jockey. Indeed, breeders, owners, trainers, grooms, and jockeys are generally different people, each focused on a distinct role. That is how horse races are won.
When a newsletter issuer whose thinking aligns with how horse racing works, they assemble a good newsletter team comprising different people, each focused on a distinct role.
get the right focus Many in relationship-based business believe that their clients deserve the perspectives of experts in a newsletter. As a newsletter specialist, I agree wholeheartedly.
However, just as there is more involved in winning horse races than holding the reins and saying “giddy up,” so there is more involved in effective newsletters than experts expressing themselves – no matter how authoritative and persuasive their writing might be. For example, it is wise to focus on real clients’ experience and perceptions of your work.
about client experience All newsletters shape perception. Unless you’re willing to be known as the people who clutter up customers’ in-boxes with unwelcome or unnecessary communications, your newsletter deserves attention from the recipient’s perspective.
“We already know you’re the experts.” It might seem contrary to common sense. Still, reaching people meaningfully through a newsletter seldom comes from expert perspectives on industry matters. It seldom comes from the very same skill sets as website or brochure writing, either.
Clients of professional-services firms expect the firm to have expertise and advanced knowledge in their field. They do not need it proven any further in a newsletter. Rather, everybody likes to have their own values confirmed, or their own experience validated.
alliance proposed Envision this: a decision maker involved in client relations or brand management or marketing works in alliance with an experienced newsletter specialist. Together they plan a newsletter’s client-focused formula for content, then agree on a collaborative process to create each issue. As with race horses, the right person plays each role in an on-going process that yields good newsletters and good business for the issuer. It could be an everybody-wins arrangement, starting with a focus on client experience, including senior people’s advanced expertise as appropriate, and continuing profitably.
X + Y = Z Here is a way around learning the hard way for marketers and rainmakers in relationship-based service enterprises: Resist the temptation to write your own newsletter. Rather, plan it with a specialist, focusing on client experience, then have a newsletter expert write it with notes you supply. In time, this becomes self-evident as common sense.
- Glenn R Harrington, Articulate Consultants Inc.
Glenn R. Harrington began working in the family hardware store at age 13. At age 20, he worked in Stock Trading on Toronto’s Bay Street. After, he graduated from the University of Western Ontario. He later founded a brand-marketing consultancy (Articulate Consultants) whose first client was an investment advisor in need of newsletter rescue. Harrington has continued as a newsletter specialist since 1996.
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