$100,000,000,000,000 worth of email newsletter advice

by Dave on February 9, 2010

Worth every penny

Zimbabwe FTW

“You’re kidding me, right? This can’t be real currency, is it?”

Yes, this is a picture of a 100 Trillion Dollar Bill. From Zimbabwe. Issued a couple years ago.

Now worth nothing, as hyperinflation meant that 100,000,000,000,000 didn’t buy what it used to.

What does this have to do with your email newsletter?

Quite a bit. Follow along, please…

Does It Communicate VALUE?

It’s highly possible that everything in your email newsletter is valuable to you. That would be great if you were talking to yourself; talking to yourself is the opposite of what your email newsletter is supposed to do.

At some point, your customer/client/prospect/scraped email address WILL MIGHT read your newsletter. Communicating value to them means giving them something they may not have thought of, some information they wouldn’t have found out without you, or news that is timely (or a new twist on someone else’s news).

Does It Grab Attention?

Admit it – a One Hundred Trillion Dollar Bill is rather attention-grabbing. However, this doesn’t mean your newsletter must be inherently clever or creative to grab attention. Attention could very well be talking about THAT THING that the client/customer/prospect/scraped email address needs to know RIGHT NOW.

AVERAGE: “The latest news from XYZ Associates.” I have little interest, unless I know you or own shares in XYZ Associates.

BETTER: “8 tips for a stunning Valentine’s Day meal.” Now you’re talking – you have my attention with something timely (5 days left, gotta get something), helpful, valuable. Odds of getting your email opened: much better.

Do I even WANT your Newsletter?

Props to @unmarketing for raising this issue today, as well as to @jakrose and to anyone else I can namedrop with.

Jason started this, actually, with a simple tweet, RT’d by Scott:

“@jakrose When I give you my business card, that does not mean I want to be added to your your crappy email newsletter. Kthx”

The quid pro quo here is mis-interpreted WAY TOO OFTEN. This is why we use systems like aWeber to confirm that someone actually wants our crappy email newsletter.

If you take the approach that the exchange of business cards equals the agreement to share emails back and forth, START with a quick note that says “hey, I’d like to keep communicating with you through our email newsletter.” PLEASE.

Do I even want your Zimbabwean currency? I mean, can I do anything with it? Is there value there? Sure, you got my attention, but…

Final thought:

Those ads on the radio for certain email newsletter systems make it sound like signing up for the free 60-day trial will end up ramping your business up to success levels attained only by mere mortals. You need a strategy for your BUSINESS first. Then a communications strategy to go with.

Then, maybe, just maybe, a newsletter will fit into your strategy. Or maybe not.

Whaddya think?

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  • http://www.sitesketch101.com Nicholas Z. Cardot

    Great thoughts here. I didn’t know that Zimbabwe has a 100 trillion dollar bill. That’s pretty cool and it’s a great example of how worthless things can become that don’t offer real value.

  • http://area224.com Dave

    Thanks, Nicholas. And I do actually own one of these notes – it’s a great conversation starter and a helluva metaphor. Cheers!

  • http://www.3hatscommunications.com/blog/ Davina K. Brewer

    Do you want to KEEP receiving my newsletter? I’ve had to remind folks about the concept of Opt-In and the Can Spam laws. It’s amazing that everyone hates spam and junk mail, unless they’re the ones sending it.

    Does this newsletter speak to ME? Anything you send out should be relevant to the reader, after grabbing my attention. Does it offer me something of value, to make me keep reading? Not as easy to do, but well worth the effort.

  • http://level343.com Gabriella

    You grabbed me by the title and kept me reading throughout! Well done. It’s not easy for people to look at their marketing strategy (newsletter) when they are blinded by self promotion. Personally, I think a lot of comapnies don’t even know why they are sending a newsletter, other than it’s what they were told to do… Sad, but true. Interesting metaphor to boot.

  • http://area224.com Dave

    Gabriella,

    Thanks for the comment. Oh and clever name for your site!

  • http://www.dgcmagazine.com/dp/ Mark Herpel

    Amazing isn’t it ! I’ve got a stack of these notes and many ‘Billion’ dollar notes I bought for just .05 cents each at a coin show. A real piece of history. Great push to the newsletter, I’m in…!

    Mark

  • http://area224.com Dave

    You and I definitely need to connect at one of those shows!

  • http://www.ToyotaEquipment.com Kyle Thill

    Thanks for the insight. We try to keep our newsletter informative, versus simply promotional. I’ve heard the thread before about how interesting it is to us, but not so much to our reader. It was good to get that reinforced. Thanks.

  • http://area224.com Dave

    Informative is a really good word. You know full well that you sell more by not selling. Thanks for the comment!

  • http://robinteractive.wordpress.com robinteractive

    Sadly, it seems some businesses put more effort into growing their e-mail list through any means possible than focusing on the content of e-mail that they send.

  • http://nickstaroba.com/ Nick Staroba

    Great, short article with some good advice. I’m going to be applying the bit about “hey, I’d like to keep communicating with you through our email newsletter.” And I wish more of us would, too.

    Thanks!

  • http://area224.com Dave

    Great to hear from you, Nick…thanks for the comments!

  • http://www.arholota.com Ryan Holota

    I think that newsletters are still one of the most misunderstood marketing methods out there. Far too many people use them to simply spam their readers, instead of using them to add value and build trust. If you are just starting a newsletter campaign, consider not promoting ANYTHING for the first couple of issues. Include all of your contact information and link back to your website of course, but beyond that, spend your time informing and entertaining your readers.

    Actually, depending on your industry, that could even be a good long-term strategy.

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