Seven Abominable Newsletter Marketing Mistakes
1. Not having a newsletter: Talk of a missed opportunity! A newsletter is an easy, cost-effective way to provide value to your contacts while you establish credibility, cement your brand and promote your services.
2. Having a boring subject line: Whether anyone reads your newsletter depends greatly on the subject line. And guess what? Most subject lines are incredibly boring. If the subject line doesn’t intrigue someone to read on, they won’t.
3. Using an amateur design: After the subject line, a reader’s first impression will come from the newsletter’s design. In our industry, most newsletters look like they were designed by novices, reflecting poorly on the companies sending them. On the other hand, if the newsletter looks sharp, the company looks sharp.
4. Screaming red: Red is great for many things, but not for fonts. Ninety-five percent of the time, text in red looks amateurish. We get that you want our attention, but use red fonts with extreme caution unless you’ve got a talented designer who can make it work.
5. Thinking it’s all about you: One of the biggest mistakes in marketing and sales is believing you are selling a product or a service. You truly are not: you are filling someone’s needs. Think of your newsletter the same way—it should be about the recipient. If you provide readers something of value by educating them or helping them, they will look forward to your next newsletter.
6. Going on and on and on: Your target audience is busy. You’re not providing them more value by stuffing an entire novel into an email. Keep things short and to the point. And don’t cram too many articles or sections into your newsletter, either. Make it easy to scan quickly.
7. Not keeping a schedule: Too many newsletters are sent out only when someone gets around to it. Newsletters that are delivered consistently and on a schedule, on the other hand, get much better results. Monthly newsletters work great. Just make sure they don’t conflict with your prospects’ schedules. In our industry, that can mean avoiding month’s end, when most loans are being closed. Also avoid the start and end of any week, as well as days that surround a holiday weekend. If you have not sent out a newsletter lately, give it a shot! If you leverage the right resources to create it, you’ll be amazed by the responses you’ll get—not to mention the impact on your top-of-mind awareness and credibility among your prospects.
Rosalie Berg is the president of Strategic Vantage, a marketing and public relations firm.
