If you are an independent sales agent or consultant, or a tradesman who works for himself, a regular newsletter is one of the best ways there is to promote your business.
The better and more effective your business newsletter, the more your standing will grow as an expert in your field, the more trust you will generate and the more loyal will become your readers (and the more readers will therefore become customers).
The Competitive Advantage
Despite these benefits, most self-employed people never publish one. The question then is, why not? Since newsletters are my field, this was a mystery to me at first. There are many answers, of course, but for the majority of go-ahead self-employed people, two reasons predominate. Most quote either cost, or a lack of newsletter content ideas (in other words, what to put in it)—or both. It took me a long time to realize that these were the reasons. Our online mailing lists and websites were born from that realization.
Right now though, you can turn this antipathy to your advantage. The chances are that if you start your own newsletter you will have a major competitive advantage over your peers.
Minimizing Costs And Maximizing Benefits
Let’s look at ‘cost’ first. Virtually the first thing that salespeople learn is not to mention price before they’ve had a chance to talk about benefits. When I managed a sales team I used to advise everyone to simply ignore the question “How much?” if they were asked it by a prospect. That’s right, pretend they didn’t hear the question. That they had temporarily gone deaf! In the case of a persistent price query, they were urged to respond by saying, “I’m coming to that” and then continue talking about benefits. Why? Was I encouraging some sort of devious sales ploy? The answer is that talking price without an appreciation of benefits translates into cost alone (something that appears on the debit side of a ledger) without a balance (something that counteracts it on the credit side). In other words, cost is perceived as a loss.
The truth is that, because of modern technology, there are a lot more choices than there used to be. Nobody is restricted any longer to the rigid, third party solution of taking the job to the nearest printer. Now, there are a range of choices, including using one’s own personal desktop printer. The result is that virtually anyone can afford to produce one. It’s just a matter of choosing the production method most suitable for your budget.
Newsletter Content: The Vital Ingredient
That brings us to the other most common reason why even self-employed people who understand the potential benefits of newsletters (for promotion of themselves and their business) don’t use them; because they don’t know what to put in them.
Looking more closely at newsletter content for the self-employed let us consider some hypothetical cases as examples:
Computer Consultant. Technology is evolving at such a rapid rate that, if anything, it would probably be advisable to concentrate on a specific area. A computer consultant probably already would anyway. She might work in IT, or networking, or programming or any one of a dozen or more particular fields. For the purpose of this article, we’ll assume her specialty is application training and, to tighten the focus even further, that she only teaches Microsoft Office applications in the corporate sector. In this case her newsletter might have a similar focus though broadening on the computing angle as necessary. Those items most likely to appeal to readers would probably include any Microsoft news (but especially news of upcoming developments in MS Office) as well as a regular feature on an aspect of the suite, a ‘tips & hints’ column, a few jokes, maybe a cartoon, and even a computer-focused crossword. Some kind of ‘focus on a reader’ item is also usually very popular. This might be ‘Most Improved Student’ from her last training assignment, especially if the student was an employee of a prestigious company.
Plumber. Here the theme would necessarily be somewhat less focused but not that difficult to work out. Once again, a ‘tips & hints’ feature, this time on maintaining a plumbing system in good order and with due regard to seasonal considerations. A general household hints column would also probably prove popular. News of developments in water transport and storage and associated areas such as ‘How to install solar heating’ would also be complementary (How-to articles are always popular in the right context). Plus, of course, appropriate filler items to provide balance.
Realtor. Home improvement would be the likely choice for the overall theme of this newsletter. The possible range of appropriate articles is vast and might even include, for example, landscaping. ‘Tips from the expert’, in this case, would probably be along the lines of ‘how to add value to your home’.
Life Insurance Agent. ‘Providing for your retirement’ might be deemed a suitable title for a regular feature in this newsletter though I would advise something snappier like ‘Planning for a Great Future’ (i.e. unless the agent’s specialty is in another field such as key-man insurance). Associated topics might include anything of interest to the target market. For instance, if the target market is young families then babies, education, household budgeting etc might all be appropriate.
There are endless possibilities when it comes to providing your readers with quality newsletter content that they will appreciate. For the self-employed it is a matter of seeing beyond your field and looking at the world through the eyes of potential customers.