1. First, let’s talk about email newsletters…
A newsletter sent by email is still an inexpensive way to keep in touch with prospects and existing clients — and leveraging a newsletter can be a staple for driving new and repeat business to your thriving resume writing start-up.
Newsletters are a great way of communicating advice and strategies, and spark buying decisions from your readers as well.
Newsletters sent by email are generally HTML format, though can just as easily be in text format as well, if formatted nicely. I’ve seen newsletters that are very in-depth, containing several articles, while other newsletters are more basic.
Many HTML newsletter templates are available online. Google images offers many images of free newsletter templates.
Alternative to a traditional email newsletter…
One of the latest trends in content delivery is the use of services such as FeedBlitz that takes a collection of your latest blog posts (using your RSS feed) and sends that collection of content in a somewhat “newsletter style” to your readers.
This isn’t a perfect strategy, but does give you the ability to routinely communicate with your readership, presuming you are routinely writing new content in your blog.
Email newsletters do come with certain challenges however.
First, email communications provide you a narrow window of for reaching your audience, because you don’t know if your readership is listening. You talk; but you don’t know if there’s anyone really listening to your message.
Second, not all professionals are at the same stage in their job search, which can make the topics of your newsletters a hit or miss. As you dive deeper into building your business, you will learn more about the importance of prospect and client segmentation.
Third, studies have shown that we are now spending an estimated 13 hours per week reading and handling email. That’s a lot of time! So, it’s no surprise that individuals are deleting and ignoring email newsletters to help save time.
Fourth, email readership may be on the decline. You see, Generation Y and Generation Z consider email passé. This can be a challenge for you, if your businesses focuses on these age groups for drumming up revenue for your business.
Being Different
As a newsletter publisher, you will need to find a way to distinguish your newsletter from all the others out there.
This can be done by including a giveaway or game that newsletter recipients can play, encouraging those in your database to read and sift through the newsletter in order to claim the prize or complete the next step of a game.
Of course, you don’t have to focus on prizes but possibly a question-based component that educates and informs readers. An editor, for example, may dedicate an area to commonly misused grammar that intrigues readers to print and answer a series of questions.
Individuals wishing to expand their language skills would be thrilled with this type of newsletter.
Newsletter Tips
1. Maintain a newsletter that contains evergreen and new-age tips and strategies that your readers will find interesting.
2. When pinched for newsletter ideas review the pros and cons of certain industry products or services.
3. Try to stick with one theme for each issue, in order to provide adequate coverage. Major magazines such as Success oftentimes contains several articles wrapped around one main topic.
4. Be sure to include links to additional blog articles that provide more information on the topics you’re covering. This will increase your blog’s traffic as well!
Promoting Your Email Newsletter
You can promote your newsletter too.
If you’ve been operating an online business for a while, you may remember OpenDirectory, which was basically an online directory that allowed people to submit their websites and get listed within OpenDirectory’s directory.
The OD is not really in existence any long, but there still are a few newsletter directories that operate much the same way.
You submit your newsletter for listing within one of these online directories. Doing this helps promote your newsletter with the hopes of increasing readership and provides you with a backlink to your newsletter sign-up page.
Listing your newsletter in select directories can encourage readers to click over to your site to view other resources as well, or inquire about your services. Newsletter directories can expand your company’s market reach with little to no cost.
Time is virtually the only resource you’ll expend for submitting the newsletter to various directories. For each submission, you will need a newsletter description, your company name, link to newsletter sign-up page, your email address, and a contact name. It’s worth noting that some newsletter directories ask for a small fee for listing your newsletter in their directory.
Another technique for promoting your newsletter is by offering a sign-up form within the left or right column of your website and blog. This allows individuals who happen across your website to sign-up and receive newsletter communications from you.
Also, don’t overlook ways of attracting newsletter subscribers by leveraging your social media accounts, such as Facebook and Twitter.
2. Let’s talk about print newsletters…
Print communications aren’t dead, although there are some out there that would argue otherwise.
I challenge you to think about whether sending a print newsletter would make sense for your resume writing business. Because if other companies, across a myriad of industries are thinking that postal communications are dead, doesn’t that pave the way for your communications?
The biggest barriers to producing and sending a print newsletter is absolutely printing and postal costs. These costs alone are something to consider, especially if you plan to mail your newsletter to prospects.
You won’t know what your return-on-investment (ROI) will be, at least not in the beginning. So, you will essentially need to take a leap of faith to determine whether you can continue to cover the costs of production, when comparing those costs against the revenue created.
One potential option for keeping production costs low is to start by printing and handling the mailing of your newsletter in-house.
The feasibility of this option really depends upon what equipment you currently possess (or can financially afford), the number of prospects you have, and the expected energy level you intend to exert for the project every month or so.
Working with a small number of newsletter subscribers will give you the ability to finetune your newsletter content and marketing messages before you scale-up.
This way, you can optimize your communications until you generate the quantity of email or phone inquiries needed to make your newsletter “operate in the green” — before you take on new subscribers.
Checklist for Potential Topics For Your Newsletter
- Glowing Client Comments & Success Stories
- Positive Quotes From Well-Known Figures
- Industry Survey Results You Want to Pass Along
- Customer Q&As That Others Can Benefit From
- Upcoming Industry Events
- Featured Journalistic Articles
- Seminars / Workshops You’re Holding
- Clean Career Jokes / Cartoons
- Company Awards or Recognition Received
- Contest or Giveaway
- Company Information (physical address, phone/fax number, scheduled closings, hours of operation, and observance of holidays)
Additional Tips & Strategies From Around the Web
EmailMonks.com recommends using standard fonts for your newsletter and email communications, which includes Arial, Comic Sans, Georgia, Tahoma, and Verdana. Less traditional/standard fonts can be used, just ensure you use a “fallback” font as well.
“Craft an engaging introduction that tells a timely story of what is happening in your life or that shares an anecdote related to the material you want to cover,” is one of WebMarketingToday.com‘s top 4 email newsletter best practices for driving clicks and sales to your business.
Use solid colors and background images minimally, recommends SitePoint.com. Email systems such as Outlook can sometimes struggle with rendering background color and images, so it’s best to avoid either of these when possible.
EConsultancy.com offers this advice: “For email marketers, getting the right balance between overexposure and underexposure is absolutely vital to a campaign.”
Newsletter & Email Compliance
To ensure your email communications comply with The CAN-SPAM Act of 2003, check out the FTC.gov website that outlines email compliance guidelines for your resume business.
For example, your email communications MUST comply with the following:
- Tell people where you are located
- Provide individuals an easy way to opt-out of communications from you
- Avoid using deceptive and misleading subject lines and headers
Be sure to visit the FTC site to read the additional CAN-SPAM rules and regulations.
Recommended Newsletter Plug-in for Your WordPress Blog:
Simply name the “Newsletter,” a WordPress plug-in, offers several main features that promises to make adding a newsletter feature to your blog headache-free.
Some of the features available, include:
1. Unlimited subscribers and emails
2. Email tracking
3. Customizable widget and forms
4. Seamless integration of the plug-in
5. Option for single or double opt-in for subscribers
