This posting, the second in the cross promoting series, focuses on how to join efforts with complementary businesses to communicate with your customers and theirs.
Newsletters and Blogs
How do you currently communicate with your customers? Whatever methods you use to inform and remind customers about your business or persuade them to buy your products, there is at least one way to cross promote each others’ products and expertise.
With the number of garden centers who have a blog, newsletter, or other publication that they publish on regular basis it is highly likely that the person writing these pieces often has to find items to write about. Short pieces can alert readers about the complementary business or a new product they are offering. Feature articles can describe how products from both businesses could be incorporated into new gardening trends or an upcoming event that the two businesses are co-sponsoring. Do not forget to include the complementary business’s logo, URLs or hyperlinks to their website, and contact information.
Also, invite the other business to write a newsletter item or be a guest blogger. Suggest a topic so the guest writer has some direction as to what your readers might be interested in learning and that would meld well with other items you are including in the newsletter or blog.
Your Website, Facebook, and Twitter
Your website is an ideal outlet for cross promotion activities. Use space on your website to inform readers about complementary businesses you cross promote with and provide space for their advertisements. If customers sign-up for your newsletter online provide an option that would allow them to sign up for other businesses’ newsletters or add a link that will take them to the other businesses’ online form.
When it comes to Facebook, make sure that you “like” business you cross promote with, post images of events and activities both businesses implement, include links to articles, and mention each other in postings. Tweets you publish on Twitter should also mention your cross promotion partners. Include these businesses in your #followfriday (#ff) tweets (a strategy used on Fridays to suggests to your Twitter followers who they should also follow) retweet (forwarding another Twitter user’s tweets to your followers) appropriate messages, publish tweets when you add their products to your displays, and similar. Inform your customers about joint activities while reminding them about your business.
Until next time when I’ll present ideas on how to cross promote with other businesses to host events and some of the costs to consider when entering into this type of relationship.
Showing posts with label e-newsletter. Show all posts
Showing posts with label e-newsletter. Show all posts
Monday, December 12, 2011
Monday, May 11, 2009
Producing an e-newsletter (that will actually be read)
How many emails do you receive a day that you delete immediately? For me, I'd say a minimum of 50. With the loads of emails we all receive daily, how do you as an entrepreneur create an e-newsletter that doesn't go straight to the trash?
Carmine Gallo recently wrote an article for BusinessWeek about his interviews with Dave Robinson, VP of marketing for Mozy (an online computer backup service), and Janine Popick, chief executive of VerticalResponse (an email and direct marketing provider for small businesses). In his interviews, Gallo searched for advice on getting customers to read e-newsletters.
Robinson advised that you should only send an e-newsletter if you have something relevant to say. He said, "if it's not interesting to our customers, we're wasting their time." Popick also commented that entrepreneurs should share their expertise. A "how to" article or "five easy steps to (fill in the blank)" are great ways to engage customers, but remember, keep your articles short, sweet, and instructive.
When a customer signs up for an e-newsletter, they are making a request for updates about your business. Don't disappoint. Popick said, "be specific regarding the frequency of your newsletter and the value you will provide." Irrelevant information can easily become frustrating and force your customers to unsubscribe. The marketing staff at Mozy chose to limit their e-newsletters to once a month to prevent diluted content.
One of the best e-newsletter articles is to tell customer stories. Robinson said, "The last thing we want to do is tell a story with a bunch of boring copy and bullet points. The best best way to tell our story is through real people and their anecdotes....We want people to read our newsletters and look forward to them. If it's all about the company-- give us more money-- it turns people off."
Important points to remember when writing an e-newsletter
1. offer expert advice
2. stay true to customer expectations
3. use customers to tell stories
4. deliver great content and the money will follow
e-newsletter article
As an entrepreneur, do you send out e-newsletters? After reading this post, will you be modifying the content and/or frequency of your e-newsletters? What feedback (positive or negative) have you received about your e-newsletters thus far?
Carmine Gallo recently wrote an article for BusinessWeek about his interviews with Dave Robinson, VP of marketing for Mozy (an online computer backup service), and Janine Popick, chief executive of VerticalResponse (an email and direct marketing provider for small businesses). In his interviews, Gallo searched for advice on getting customers to read e-newsletters.
Robinson advised that you should only send an e-newsletter if you have something relevant to say. He said, "if it's not interesting to our customers, we're wasting their time." Popick also commented that entrepreneurs should share their expertise. A "how to" article or "five easy steps to (fill in the blank)" are great ways to engage customers, but remember, keep your articles short, sweet, and instructive.
When a customer signs up for an e-newsletter, they are making a request for updates about your business. Don't disappoint. Popick said, "be specific regarding the frequency of your newsletter and the value you will provide." Irrelevant information can easily become frustrating and force your customers to unsubscribe. The marketing staff at Mozy chose to limit their e-newsletters to once a month to prevent diluted content.
One of the best e-newsletter articles is to tell customer stories. Robinson said, "The last thing we want to do is tell a story with a bunch of boring copy and bullet points. The best best way to tell our story is through real people and their anecdotes....We want people to read our newsletters and look forward to them. If it's all about the company-- give us more money-- it turns people off."
Important points to remember when writing an e-newsletter
1. offer expert advice
2. stay true to customer expectations
3. use customers to tell stories
4. deliver great content and the money will follow
e-newsletter article
As an entrepreneur, do you send out e-newsletters? After reading this post, will you be modifying the content and/or frequency of your e-newsletters? What feedback (positive or negative) have you received about your e-newsletters thus far?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)