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The Long and Short of Newsletter Content
It's not how much you say, it's how you're saying it
One of the biggest misconceptions people have about writing a newsletter is that it has to be long for it to have any value. That's just not true.
In fact, your newsletters can be effective if you keep them short, relevant, and to the point, giving readers just a taste of what you have to offer and not taking up too much of their time. Your messages may become so valuable that customers may even ask to hear from you more often.
The trick is to give readers actionable content - information they can use right away to solve a problem. You just need to know what your readers' problems are.
A Quick Sample
Think about the newsletters you currently send. Are you giving out so much information that your customers have no need to contact you after they've read them, or are you leaving your readers wanting more?
Consider this: if you're a professional organizer, you can send out a newsletter with one tip your readers can put into action right away. Then, after readers find results because they used your tip, they'll likely come back to you looking for more. That's your chance to offer your other services. Now you've earned another paying customer. And isn't that the whole point of the newsletter?
Finding Their "Hot Button" Issues
How do you find out what's on your readers' minds? Survey them. You can ask, "What is the one problem that's nagging you that you really want to solve?" If you ask that kind of question, then you're going to get a variety of answers, and you'll know what you should be writing about.
You may even find that your customers want to hear from you more often, so don't forget to also ask how often they'd like to about hear from you.
Should You Increase Your Frequency?
Let's say you own a marketing consulting firm and you have a store owner on your list who's worried because no one seems to be purchasing from her right now. If you write, "How to get more foot traffic in your store in a down economy," then you're solving a problem she deals with every day. Chances are good she'll want to hear from you more often.
If that's the case, then you'll have a good reason to increase the frequency of your newsletter. It's no more work for you than before; all you're really doing is just copying your monthly template and putting in different information each time.
Even better, writing a more frequent newsletter is as easy as breaking up the content you already send into separate chunks. For example, many people send a monthly email containing a list of multiple tips. One way to communicate that same information to your readers is to serialize those tips and send one tip per week.
Making the Time
Of course, you may be thinking: Will my customers really make the time to read a weekly email? Absolutely, if it's relevant and it's something that's speaking directly to a problem they're having right now. That's the key, whether your newsletter is monthly or weekly, or even daily.
