Resolved to Write a Book?
Within the last week of 2011 over four million Android devices were activated. What does this mean to the business professional who has been waiting to write a book? You’d better get with it.
Every day over 500k devices are activated that people could be using to read your message–or someone else’s. Yes, even Apple users can read what you’ve written if you publish it on the Google eBookstore (which means there is no need to wrestle with publishing to the iBookstore).
Like snowflakes to an avalanche
If you’ve made resolution to write a book this year but haven’t written so much as a blog post or newsletter, start with one of those projects. If you’ve been blogging or writing articles, white papers or newsletters for a couple of years, you’ve got a running start at a 15,000-word book. Here’s how quickly your smaller projects could add up:
- Do you read newspaper opinion columns? They average 700 words, so if you’ve written 22 pieces of that length, you could compile them into a book.
- Most blog posts average 300+ words, so 50 posts would total 15,000 words. Count the average words in your blog posts and do the math.
- How many speeches or presentations have you delivered? Those add up, too. If standard speech without long pauses runs 150 – 170 words per minute, a 20-minute speech is 3,000 to 3,400 words. If you’ve delivered five 20-minute speeches on your subject, you’re ready to roll.
If you think you’re ready to begin or want to talk about how to begin writing a book, contact me. Our first consultation is on the house.
Highly Relevant Content for Newsletters and Social Media Platforms
The folks at Sherpa produce excellent annual email marketing benchmarking reports. The latest proves three things, in Sherpa’s words (my emphasis added):
- Tactically, email appears to have unlimited potential especially when integrated with emerging marketing channels like social media.
- As a mature tactic, performance improvements are no longer measured in quantum leaps but in incremental steps.
- But when multiple improvement tactics are combined, performance is accelerated.
This is great news for people who’ve seen incremental steps instead of quantum leaps in their e-newsletter efforts and wonder if they’re “doing it right.”
It also reinforces my evangelizing to use email alongside social media platforms. Once you’ve produced highly relevant content recycle and promote it! If you do nothing more than place your newsletter articles in your blog and promote it with a tweet, you’ll reap rewards.
Takeaways for financial professionals who start with e-newsletters
Producing “highly relevant content” is a challenge for everyone, according to the report (see below). Regulated financial professionals have the added burden of compliance concerns with their relevant content, so it’s understandable, but not wise, that some opt for cookie cutter solutions.
My clients don’t work for the kinds of firms that churn out white papers and newsletters like snowflakes in Siberia — nor do they want to. But they know they need to produce quality content — from blog posts to newsletters and social media updates — on a regular basis. They often struggle to imagine how they’ll fit research and writing into their agendas, which is why they hire me.
Enter the editorial calendar
The first thing I do with a client is map out an editorial calendar. This gives us a publishing schedule and a backbone of subjects, which we supplement with news from the 24×7 media machine. I speak in more detail on this in the video below. It might help you think through ways to use a ghost writer or editor.
The importance of a ghost writer with subject matter expertise
If you want to work with a ghostwriter or editor, before you hire someone on the basis of their ability to use proper grammar and punctuation, I suggest you also ascertain how much they know about your field. Someone who knows your competitive and regulatory landscape will be easier to work with and can cross-pollinate best practices.
For example, because I write primarily for attorneys, financial advisors and accountants, I’m tuned into the news items that have the greatest bearing on their practices. I understand the implications of topics like an SEC ruling and Fed Funds Rate changes. My clients can rely on me to suggest topics to supplement the items on their editorial calendars, which eases their content production burden.
Help me help you*
One way to help your ghostwriter is to forward news digests from your professional associations and Google Alerts. One of my clients, an attorney, has certain publications on email auto-forward, which gives me plenty of material for two or three weekly blog posts and the occasional series of articles on a hot topic.
Bottom line, you can stay focused on your work AND produce quality content at a regular clip with the right team. Get with it!
*one of my favorite lines from Jerry Macguire
Argh! Piracy in the Newsletter
Today I received a newsletter from a small human resources consulting company featuring an excellent article on disengaged workers. Too bad the newsletter sender didn’t make clear what the writer’s relationship to the firm is. The newsletter only included her name — not even a proper byline.
Problems with this approach
A consulting company exists to solve client problems through its expertise and thought leadership. Newsletters should highlight both. This one did neither.
If the writer worked for the firm sending the newsletter it should have said so. If an employee of the firm wrote the article I might have been inclined to recommend her to the next person who complains about their workforce. That would have been a newsletter marketing success story.
After I went to the trouble of searching the sender’s website for the writer’s name and didn’t find it, I wondered if the sender simply lifted the article out of a professional publication — without attribution. That’s not only careless, but also possibly an infringement of copyright law. Piracy. This leads me to the conclusion that this company is unprofessional. Enough said.
The right approach
If you’re going to send a newsletter, you’ve got to write SOMETHING original, even if it’s just an introductory note explaining why the articles were chosen. This demonstrates your professionalism and avoids any question of copyright violation.
Nothing original to say? Fine! Refer to an article written by an outsider in a way that highlights YOUR expertise. In this case, the newsletter sender could have said something like “Clients with disengaged workers are usually making one of these common mistakes…” or ”We recently helped a transportation company avert a work stoppage by…”
Call to action
Close your newsletter with a distinct call to action. In this case, the company could have said, “Download this case study on how we helped a manufacturing firm improve absenteeism rates and productivity,” or “Join us for our quarterly roundtable discussion on getting more out of your existing workforce.” Heck, even something simple like this will do: “Call us if you see signs that your employees are disengaged…”
Your mom was right — sometimes it’s better to say nothing at all. If you can’t produce a newsletter that reflects well upon you, don’t produce a newsletter at all.
Management Secrets of the Grateful Dead
I was never a Deadhead but the MBA in me perked up at this article’s title in The Atlantic. Not one to tinker with perfection, I kept it for this blog post.
Who knew?
The Dead incorporated and pulled board members from the band, its road crew and other members of their organization. They rotated the CEO position.
The ran a profitable merchandising division and “peace and love notwithstanding did not hesitate to sue those who violated their copyrights.”
They made the strategic decision to let fans tape their shows, which on one hand gave away recording revenues, but on the other, widened their audience. They figured (rightly) that “a ban would be unenforceable, and anyone inclined to tape a show would probably spend money elsewhere, such as on merchandise or tickets.”
A management professor quoted in the story called the Dead’s approach “strategic improvisation,” and observed that people are eager to attend his lectures on the band. “People are just so tired of hearing about GE and Southwest Airlines.”
It’s one of the most profitable bands of all time.
John Perry Barlow, the group’s lyricist cum-Fellow at Harvard Law School’s Berkman Center for Internet and Society, observed
What people today are beginning to realize is what became obvious to us back then — the important correlation is the one between familiarity and value, not scarcity and value…if I give my song away to 20 people, and they give it to 20 people, pretty soon everybody knows me, and my value as a creator is dramatically enhanced.
So perhaps it’s karma, not just deliciousness, that made Wavy Gravy and Cherry Garcia bestsellers for Ben & Jerry’s?
Prompts for Professionals
- If you’ve read this far, it probably has something to do with the novel nature of the subject. Try something refreshing for your next blog post or newsletter.
- The article said that the band pioneered ideas and practices that have been embraced by corporate America, most famously the Dead’s intense focus on its most loyal fans. Ask your blog or newsletter readers what they would like you to do in addition to or instead of what you’re doing for them now. If you don’t, someone else will.
- The University of California at Santa Cruz is curating the band’s archive of commercial recordings, videos, press clippings, stage sets, business records and correspondence using a form of crowdsourcing. They’ll post as much as possible online and let Deadheads contribute what they know about the items. If you don’t have a blog, get one and start crowdsourcing best practices, war stories, whatever. If you work at it, your blog could become the go-to place for existing and prospective clients to search for answers and community. I do this with my occasional posting of WORST communications practices by financial professionals — people inevitably chime in.
Home Office Design Tips — From a Financial Advisor?
In my occasional series of crappy newsletters, here’s another, sent by a financial planner.
The only professional I want to get office design tips from is an interior designer or furniture vendor.
With financial reform and the worldwide economic meltdown on most everyone’s mind, sending a newsletter with fluff like this makes me question whether this advisor is in the loop or out to lunch. C’mon, talk to me about something you’re a credentialed expert in!
Oh, the money saving tips? Crap I could get from Reader’s Digest like take your lunch to work instead of eating out and get DVDs free at the public library instead of renting them. You must be kidding.
This is another fine example of sending something for the sake of sending something. This advisor needs an editorial calendar. Big Time.
Oh, and the last straw? She actually PAID a vendor to give her a proverbial communications black eye.
If your boilerplate requires you to disclaim giving financial advice, at least print some material that verges on the topic!
Sheesh.
The Triumph of Snail Mail?
Although I write a lot about e-newsletters and social media communications I’m always on the lookout for merging them with old school direct mail. I was prepared to skip this WSJ article on direct mail because at first glance it pertained to retailers. Then the article told of an insurance broker using humorous postcards (including the one above) to great effect and I stopped skimming. The broker told the WSJ that when he stopped sending postcards clients complained — many of them collected the cards as “cubical art.” When he resumed his postcard campaign, he scored a $270,000 new account.
This reminds me of the days when computers replaced handwritten correspondence and press-on labels — I opened the printed envelopes first. But now the novelty of a handwritten address gets my attention. Same with email — the novelty has worn off and most of us are filtering, unsubscribing and otherwise purging senders from our busy lives.
The article offered this as best practice for snail mail:
The idea is to send something that’s more appealing than “junk” mail and potentially more noticeable than an email message, says Eric Anderson, a professor of marketing at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management. That allows business owners “to offer a personal touch the larger firms may not be able to have,” he says.
How well do you know your tribe?
I’m all for using whatever works for your audience, your tribe. I recently read Crush It! by Gary Vaynerchuk, known to many as the Wine Library TV guy. He’s crushing it on social media, especially video, and shares both his philosophy and tactics in the book. I picked up a thing or two from Gary myself (once I slim down I might even try some video!).
On the other end of the spectrum, one of my clients’ tribe is not web savvy, so she takes extra pains to label hot spots on her website (“click here”) instead of relying on them to mouse over without a prompt. She recently discontinued her printed newsletter, started a blog and sends an email with each blog post. I, on the other hand, don’t want to clog my subscribers’ inboxes with each blog update — a monthly newsletter with links to the past month’s posts works for my tribe.
Let’s start a productive conversation. I shared my content recycling strategy here – what’s yours? Here’s a little something on email’s dominance over social media – is this the case for your business? Please share your experience combining any and all forms of business communications/channels/media.
Where’s the News in Your Newsletter?
My inbox is clogged with so-called newsletters from people who must have made a resolution to “communicate more” or “do more marketing” in 2010.
Most of them are, in a word, crap.
In two words, self serving.
In three words, not worth reading.
Win a lifetime gift certificate for my services
If you can find the “news” in this “newsletter” I’ll work for you for the rest of my life for free!
(Redacted) brings proven, practical solutions to business challenges with a clear focus on the bottom line. We represent (verbal diahrrea). Our Practice Areas include:
CONSULTING and TRAINING (8 bullets)
COACHING (4 bullets)
If you’ve read this far you’re one in a million.
CAREER TRANSITION (2 bullets)
SALES PERFORMANCE AND REVENUE GROWTH (5 bullets)
(Redacted) mission is to assist organizations in developing and sustaining inclusive environments where all employees can do their best work (blah blah blah).
We work with organizations (yada yada yada).
If you’ve read this far you’re one in a billion.
An advertisement lodged into a newsletter template
This is best described as an awful ad or an internal document designed to remind the staff who they are and what they do. Releasing it to the public is a sure way to lose subscribers or gain a reputation with your service provider as a spammer.
Afraid you’ll run afoul of federal CAN-SPAM regs?
Anything I can do to help? 704-907-2811
Best advice: ask yourself, “Would I read this if it came from someone else?” The sender of this advertisement would surely have to answer “No.”
Sharing Deep, Sharing Wide
One of my clients called last week to say, “I love your newsletter but I want your blog delivered to my email too.”
No need. Every blog post for the preceding month is referenced in my monthly newsletter (along with some original content). Why do I do this? My readers have lives of their own and I need to make it easy for them to access my information (duh).
The good people at ShareThis have a little application that can be inserted into blogs and websites. It enables readers to share what they’re reading via email and social media platforms in a couple of clicks/keystrokes. This gives ShareThis a unique vantage point from which to watch sharing behavior.
And what do they know? 46% of shared information reaches its new destination via email, in spite of social networking sites in the aggregate edging email out.
Tweets and Retweets
I owe a great deal of my traffic flow to Twitter, where I actively participate in financial, economic and marketing conversations and share what I’ve written as it’s appropriate. At least a third of my blog traffic is Twitter generated, so I was surprised to read ShareThis stats on this beloved service:
We found that Twitter is the least engaging share platform with users visiting an average of 1.66 pages when they click through to a site, while users coming in off e-mail were the most engaged, visiting 2.95 pages (emphasis mine), and Facebook trailing closely behind 2.76 page views. Of course this varies by vertical and site, but if you think about your own habits, it makes sense. Getting an emailed link from a friend may cause you to pay more attention than the more random discovery that you get on Twitter as you consume quick opinions. We think there is tremendous potential for Twitter to increase its engagement when and if better filters are applied – the type of filters that Facebook has built in from the start.
My best recommendation, even if you devote time to build your presence on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and other sites, re-distribute your messages with a regular e-newsletter. A belt & suspenders approach to being heard.
Six Shortcuts to a Knee Whack
We all love shortcuts, but sometimes they backfire.
I see professionals in financial services and the law taking shortcuts with their newsletters and email marketing efforts all the time. Nothing’s worse than a self-inflicted knee whack.
Be sure to scratch these six shortcuts off your list — they’ll definitely get you into trouble.
1. Add everyone from your Rolodex into your email subscriber list/ troll for email addresses online/ buy a list of email addresses
- To comply with CAN-SPAM guidelines, each person on the list must OPT IN, verbally or otherwise
- This shortcut violates the service terms of every internet service provider (ISP) think: Yahoo, Hotmail, Gmail etc
- It really irritates recipients, making them likely to report you as a spammer
- ISPs and corporate email services are aggressively scrubbing unsolicited email from recipient mailboxes. The more services that block you today, the more services are likely to block you tomorrow
What’s SPAM anyway?
The word “spam” as applied to email means “unsolicited bulk email.” The two most important words there are UNSOLICITED and BULK.
Unsolicited means that the Recipient has not granted verifiable permission for the message to be sent. Bulk means that the message is sent as part of a larger collection of messages, all having substantively identical content.
A message is only if it is both unsolicited and bulk.
Unsolicited email is normal email, for example first contact inquiries, job inquiries and sales inquiries. Bulk email is normal email, for example, subscriber newsletters, customer communications, discussion lists.
Point of clarification: The CAN-SPAM Act goes beyond the technical definition of spam; it applies to commercial email sent to recipients in the US and originated in the States.
2. Send bulk email from your own outbox
For an average-sized email list you can send a monthly newsletter for $30-50. Here’s what you get in exchange for your pittance:
- Handling subscribe and unsubscribe requests according to federal guidelines
- Automated management of bounced emails and your email list
- Dealing with spam complaints made against you
- More of your messages hit the inbox instead of the spam filter. Email services have relationships with ISPs that you don’t have and can’t afford to develop
3. Make it easier for readers to hit “spam” than to un-subscribe
If you’re emailing to the US, you must provide a mechanism for recipients to stop receiving your messages. Don’t hide or minimize the unsubscribe link in your email.
When someone hits “spam” or labels your email “junk” your reputation with the ISPs takes a hit (they’re watching). If you earn a reputation with one or more ISPs as a spammer, it’s almost impossible to get your messages delivered anywhere. While results vary by the filter policy of each ISP, the 2008 Lyris report says it’s the sender’s reputation driving 25% of messages to the SPAM folder.
Bottom line: you don’t want to talk to people who don’t want to hear from you.
4. Load up your message with “spammy” words
With 15% of all reported spam last month was finance-oriented, ISPs are aggressively scrubbing emails with references or offers related to money, the stock market or other financial “opportunities” including investments, credit reports, real estate and loans. Here’s a partial list of words that typically trip the spam filters.
5. Bombard your list
In a study by Merkle this year, the main reasons subscribers choose to opt out of email programs are perceived irrelevance (75%) and sending too frequently (73%).
Promotional emails were deemed the most intrusive. Solution? Make your newsletter informative, not promotional.
Merkle reported that 20% of those receiving e-newsletters thought they were worthy of reading,which means 80% thought what they received was crap. Further, people reported receiving on average,about eight newsletters each month. That’s a heap of competition for YOUR customers’ attention.
6. Send crap for the sake of sending something
I receive a monthly newsletter from an Infiniti car dealer. I look forward to it for the same reason some people watch horror flicks.One edition was devoted to movie trends and the price of popcorn while another included a series of profiles of famous explorers from the 15th century.
Crap.
I’m not imaginative enough to tie movies and explorers to the latest model sports car; this dealer doesn’t even try!
The surest way to avoid sending crap is to devise an editorial calendar. Without one, you risk losing subscribers. Or you’ll only keep subscribers like me who want to mock you in their blogs.
For more information here’s a download of a CAN-SPAM guide and a PowerPoint with more details.
Burned by Boilerplate
As we hurtle towards 2010 some financial advisors and life insurance agents keep communicating like it’s 1999.
The boilerplate communications racket
In the past week I got two identical Thanksgiving e-cards from different reps of the same general agency. Uh oh. It started with an email inviting me to “click here and view the card on a secured site…” which launched a browser, inside of which played a little flash file of autumnal photos — an animated version of the cheesiest Hallmark card ever printed. It was “customized” with the name of its sender.
Awash in meaninglessness
This week I got this email from a rep that said: “Every few months, I try to keep my clients and friends up-to-date with current financial issues or critical concerns…” and once again I was invited to view this important update by linking to a secured site.
She set my expectations right up front by promising “up-to-date with current financial issues or critical trends.” I don’t know about you, but I thought “financial issues or critical trends” might include something like financial services reform and how this rep is going to go above and beyond the regs to assure my confidence. Or perhaps a report on how how certain classes of annuities performed… How naive of me.
I clicked the link and got a flash-powered thingy that looked like a PowerPoint deck. The lead screen made the further promise “Providing valuable information of particular interest to you.” Wow, to me!
I then learned that (gasp) “Most people are frustrated by the amount of income tax they’re paying.” Really?
Next came a little lesson on the miracle of compounding interest. Be still my beating heart.
At the end I learned that there was a difference between tax-deferred and taxable income. A targeted message if ever there was one.
And what was the conclusion? “There could be ways to reduce your tax liability and optimize growth!“ You’re kidding! Somebody thought of that?
Then there was the lame call to action “Please provide information.” Clicking through I faced a comment box and the warning that I should allow 48 hours for a representative to get back to me. 48 hours? No one in 2009 is going to be that patient. If they want a product they could already buy it online in 48 hours.
You need to stop this. Right now!
I know you work under compliance regs and some companies and agencies are tougher than others.
I also know that these boilerplate services cut deals with the companies and agencies.
Still, there’s no excuse for sending out crap, absolute crap. If your compliance department won’t allow anything besides this boilerplate pablum, abstain altogether.
If your company has an approval process for customized communications, get on the stick! If not, pick the phone off its cradle and call your clients to wish them a happy new year. THAT will get their attention.
Authenticity can’t be bought, but is priceless
If you’re doing a mass customization communications campaign, do the job properly. For clues of where this boilerplate went into the ditch, look for my snarky comments above in blue.
If this all sounds like work, you’re right. Tell you what, give me a copy of your compliance requirements and I’ll devise a compliant communications strategy.
