Stay Closer to Clients - 4 Tips for Better Email Newsletters
Erik Mazzone | Monday, October 26, 2009 at 2:00PM I have a love-hate thing with email newsletters.
On the one hand, I am consititutionally incapable of refraining from signing up for an email newsletter from any business I patronize. Erik see sign up list. Erik sign up. On the other, I occassionally stare at my overstuffed Gmail inbox with the intense desire to nuke the entire thing.
While I will sign up for newsletters with reckless abandon, simply making it into my inbox is no guarantee that I will actually read the thing. In fact, I delete most of the newsletters with the same gusto that I signed up for in the first place. Every once in a while, though, I'll actually read one.
I signed up a while back for an email newsletter from a restaurant near my home (Acme in Carrboro) that I go to now and again. I wouldn't say I am a regular there. I signed up for the email because my mom told me that she really liked the emails she received from Acme. (Don't you get all of your tech tips from your 70 year old mother?) So I decided to give it a shot.
I've been getting weekly emails from Acme for a couple of months now, but yesterday I got one that stood out. I not only read the entire thing, I called my wife over so I could read part of it to her. By the time I finished reading it, I was ready to call Acme for a reservation. As far as email newsletters go, this one was a big success.
All of that got me ruminating on what was so good about this newsletter and how could I (or you) put that to use in my own (theoretical) email newsletters. After reading through it a few times, I pulled out 4 things that made this particular newsletter really work.
1. Be Engaging
The do not pass Go, do not collect $200 threshold issue for a good email newsletter is that it needs to be engagingly written. If your newsletter does not hold your reader's attention, nothing else much matters.
The newsletter from Acme was engaging. It contained a funny story about a person who raised her own Thanksgiving turkey and the subsequent flight to freedom of said turkey to the top of a nearby tree. It was funny enough that I read it to my wife, who in the interest of full disclosure, sympathized with the turkey and found the story somewhat less hilarious than I.
Don't fret if you don't have the comic storytelling chops of David Sedaris. Your email does not need to be roll on the floor funny -- it just needs to be engaging enough for your readers to actually read it.
2. Offer Value
Funny, engaging stories are great, but not enough. You also need to offer some value, some content, other than your story telling ability.
The real message of the Acme newsletter was: Thanksgiving is coming up; it takes a lot of work to prepare Thanksgiving dinner; and going out for Thanksgiving dinner (at Acme, for example) might be a nice change of pace.
The good folks at Acme realized that I, like most Americans, will shortly be trying to figure out what I am going to do for Thanksgiving. They also realized that I know how much work getting ready for Thanksgiving is and that I might be interested in some alternatives. Then they offered me an alternative: skip the hardwork and take my family to dinner at Acme.
The newsletter offered value to me by solving a problem that I had not yet worked out.
3. Be Personal
One of the things I really liked about Acme's newsletter is that it was personal. It did not sound like some corporate non-speak produced by a PR flack. It sounded like a person. That alone goes a long way in my book. I'd guess your clients would feel the same.
That said, this creates a thorny problem for lawyers. We spend a lot of time in law school and legal practice learning to behave like professionals, like officers of the court. While this is an indispensable thing for lawyers to learn and perfect, it is not a skill that is particularly helpful when it comes to staying close to clients.
It's a fine line to walk: to retain professionalism but show humanity. I don't have great advice for exactly how to do it, other than to suggest you imagine yourself dealing with a loved one battling a serious illness. Imagine your conversations with the doctors. Imagine how you would like them to treat you, to talk to you.
If you are anything like me, you want them to seem professional and on top of their game, but you also want them to convey that they understand that this is a very big deal for you and your loved one. It's not an easy balance, but it is do-able, and it starts with understanding that professionalism and humanity are not incompatible virtues.
4. Include a Call to Action
If you take the time to write an email newsletter, make sure you know what you want your readers to do after they read it. Do you want them to call you? Click on your website? Refer a friend to you? Schedule an appointment?
This doesn't have to be a sleazy Sham-Wow "act fast, supplies are limited" kind of appeal. Deciding what you want the reader to do is the framework that the entire endeavor rests on. As Steven Covey wrote in his landmark Seven Habits of Highly Effective People: begin with the end in mind.
The Acme newsletter had two calls to action: one was for the reader to make reservations to have Thanksgiving dinner there. (I think I am going to do exactly that.) The second was a reminder that on Tuesday (a slow restaurant night, generally) nights they run a particular special. The newsletter comes out on Tuesdays at around 5:30pm, so it is well timed for readers to take them up on the call to action.
It doesn't matter whether your email newsletter promotes a law practice or a restaurant, the basic rule is the same: don't serve up spam.
Reader Comments (4)
Thanks for this post. I am due to write the next monthly e-newsletter I send to clients, prospective clients, & referral sources. I always struggle with how to be interesting enough and offer something of value to each of them (or their clients or friends to whom they might forward my message along). As you can't seem to help yourself, I'd love it if you'd visit my website at www.dgvelaw.com (or blog or Facebook fan page which are linked from my web site) & sign up for my monthly e-newsletter & let me know what you think when you receive the next message next Monday...
I receive a lot of email newsletters that I don't read as well. I'm surprised how many companies waste this amazing opportunity. People who like the company's services or product actually signed up to be sent regular information from the company.
I think you captured exactly what needs to go into a newsletter to make it a great sales tool. I do think that it's much more complicated for some fields than others. Lawyers have to find the right balance between being entertaining and professional. I feel that showing a little humanity helps many clients trust and connect to their lawyer more, making them more loyal and likely to follow their lawyer's advice. It will also turn some away who see it as a sign of weakness or a lack of professionalism. There's no correct answer for everyone, but the most important thing is to make sure that the personality of your newsletter matches your overall brand.
Thanks for the comment Danielle. I just signed up for your newsletter. Looking forward to it.
Thanks for stopping by, Julie. I completely agree with you about matching the tone of the newsletter to your overall brand. Thanks for the thoughtful comment.