"I loved your article about selling via newsletters. Like you I don't tend to do that as I really started my newsletter as a bit of fun for me. However so many of the top coaches bang on about using newsletters as the first part of the marketing funnel and maybe this is why my readership hasn't grown that much. To be honest, I think it can be quite challenging to ensure your ezine or even website doesn't become dominated by either your adverts or worse still things like google ads or the like as I personally find it a huge turn off, but maybe I am in the minority! Anyway I also wanted to tell you how much I look forward to receiving your ezine." Ann Brosnan, DreamCatcher-LifeCoaching.co.uk
Ann is not the only one who started a newsletter as a "bit of fun." That's how I started,
and there are some pretty good reasons for doing it that way.
When you
start as a "bit of fun," you
have a better chance of finding your voice, of being natural and authentic.
As you develop skill, your newsletter or ezine mirrors your professional self. It reminds you that you have a professional identity as well as a private one. It reinforces your sense of competence and commitment.
Finally, when you write, you capture stories, concepts, and insights that you can use in other contexts. The more you write, the more comfortable you are likely become with speaking about what you do and for whom you do it.
Eventually, this kind of "one-way" communication stagnates. Either you put more energy in than you receive back, or you treat it as a sometime thing, investing little and getting little in return.
As long as you have a passive audience, there really isn't any other place for a newsletter to go. The root of the word audience is the Latin audire, "to hear." In contrast, the root of the word community comes from the Old French comuner, "to share." It makes a difference, eh?
So how do you turn a passive audience, however kindly disposed, into an intentional community? You build a culture that is both a growing medium for the goals of individual members and an expression of the values of the group. This culture is the context in which you must evaluate your advertising and marketing strategy, whether it is using Google AdWords, promoting affiliate products and services, or selling your own work.
To build this kind of culture, you have to make decisions that most accidental entrepreneurs avoid like the plague. First and foremost, you have to declare whom you serve. Sure, there are lots of people you can serve. But where is that which is obvious to you headline news to others? Where can even your mistakes add value?
With that question, you land smack in the middle of the marketing swamp, grappling with concepts like unique selling propositions, demographics, and calls to action.
In other words, you are caught between a rock (your own authenticity) and a hard place (the crass, self-interested success formulas of business.) At least that's how it feels.
But what happens if you climb up on that rock? What if, instead of pitting them against each other, you used your authentic values and gifts as the foundation for your business and then adapted relevant business strategies and structures to build it?
On top of the rock, you become visible. That's great for getting known, and it is terrifying if you are addicted to approval. After all, some people won't like you, and when you are visible, they may let you know it. This alone is enough to drive some folks off the rock and back into permanent paralysis.
From the top of the rock, you can differentiate method from message. When you examine business ezine marketing strategies from the top of the rock, you can apply them in an authentic way. When you aren't focused on resisting or judging them because they convey messages that don't work for you, you can see the these success formulas as methods for cultivating the culture of an intentional community.
When you stand on the rock, you can afford to make mistakes. An ecological community is forgiving because even your mistakes generate value, provided you have the creativity and humility to use them as compost instead of trash.
(God knows this has been true for me. It's been more than a decade since I had enough fingers and toes to keep track of my public mistakes, let alone my private ones. And since my life and business are the research labs for my work, nothing is wasted.)
Does that mean you can take advantage of your community's good will? Of course not.
(Well, actually, you can, but not for long. And why would you want to? Get-rich-quick marketers sell hope to a never-ending stream of seekers, extracting their money and spitting them out. No amount of money is likely to make that kind of relationship appealing to you.)
But I digress. Let's get back to Ann's letter and find out how using business success formulas to build an intentional community based in authenticity might resolve her dilemma.
Ann references what "top coaches" say. It makes sense to listen to people at the top of your industry - but, and it's a BIG BUT, you have to know what to listen for.
Successful people and brands succeed because they have distinctive personas and serve distinct communities. The success formula here is to cultivate a distinctive persona and to define your audience.
If you model your business on what your successful peers say and to whom they say it, one of two things will happen: you'll feel phony or you'll hang back, telling yourself that your business needs to be different.
That's like the owner of a vegan restaurant deciding not to give diners menus because it's not a steak house. If, instead of getting distracted by the other person's brand, you look for the success formula, you can adapt that formula to your personal style and message. Instead of agonizing over the ways you are not like "successful people," celebrate the ways in which you are different.
Remember the rock and the hard place? Get on top of the rock of your authenticity and survey the success formulas the leaders in your industry use to cultivate business. Imagine using similar methods to propagate your own message, and tweak the methods so that they are consistent with who you are and what you offer.
To extend the example of the vegan restaurant, you might print menus on recycled paper or on lightweight boards that can be erased and re-used.
Ann also refers to the received wisdom of "using newsletters as the first part of the marketing funnel." Here, Ann is paying attention to the right thing (the success formula), but I'm guessing that the framing metaphor, the marketing funnel, doesn't work for her. That can make it hard for Ann to follow the formula.
Funnels are devices used to transfer things from a container with a wide opening to a container with a narrower opening with the least amount of fuss and muss. It's a mechanical, impersonal process.
Building a marketing funnel involves attracting a wide audience with something free or ultra-low-cost, then directing that audience through a sequence of interactions. At each stage, the customer makes a purchase, and each purchase is larger than the previous one.
That's not evil, but it doesn't sound very warm and friendly. If your work is "high-touch," involving a fair degree of vulnerability on one or both sides, the funnel image is even offensive.
Again, there's a big "but." If you are going to deliver outstanding results to your customers, you need to provide them with a path to and a way to navigate among your products and services.
For your customers to enjoy and benefit from a high-touch experience, they almost certainly need to take a series of actions over time, and some of these actions will involve paying for goods or services.
Your customers need your guidance to make the best buying decisions and your support to get the most value from what they purchase.
Whether you are a coach, dentist, or graphic designer, the success formula is to invite your customers into your intentional community and give them a map. Then, remind them that they are members of the community, and give them a way to engage.
If you have newsletter or ezine as part of your success formula, you get to decide whether it is part of a funnel or an invitation to join like-minded people with similar values and needs.
Ann continues, "it can be quite challenging to ensure your ezine ... doesn't become dominated by ... google ads or the like as I personally find it a huge turn off...!" I'm virtually certain that Ann is not in the minority in this community of readers. And like Ann, you may be laboring under the burden of a collapsed distinction. (That's coach-speak. Do you love it?)
Some years back, I was coaching a physical trainer. One day she came to the session complaining that she hated showing up for appointments in her crummy old sweats, but adamant in her refusal to do the "tights and thong" thing.
On the one hand, I could certainly appreciate her refusal to work in tights and a thong. On the other, there is a pretty big gap between old sweats and a thong. I asked her if it would it be possible to build a professional wardrobe somewhere else along that continuum.
Similarly, there is a significant gap between newsletters that are dominated by advertisements and those that are distinguished by the relevance of their content.
You don't have to choose between alienating your community with hype or starving your business by giving everything away. Somewhere between those extremes, your newsletter or ezine will find a natural balance, one that serves your community and brings energy into your business.
"I also wanted to tell you how much I look forward to receiving your ezine." That part made my day, but that's not why I'm quoting it. Ann looks forward to receiving my ezine, an ezine that, in the past 6-8 months, has come out of the closet when it comes to selling. So why is that not offensive to Ann?
Perhaps for the same reason that you are still reading this article, assuming you are. ;-) Ann looks forward to my ezine because it gives her something of value.
I'm happy to have Ann as a reader, because if she benefits from what I give away, the odds are quite good that she, or someone she knows and cares for, will benefit from something I sell.
This success formula is not a rigid quid pro quo. Ann does not need to buy anything or refer anyone to remain a valued member of this community. However, it is unlikely that she is going to spend her precious time reading these articles week after week unless there's some benefit to her or people she cares about.
By the same token, I no longer hesitate to invite readers to enroll in a paid program or buy a product either in my ezine or in a separate email. Why would I spend months or years putting my experience and wisdom into a product and then keep it a secret from the very people who are most likely to need it?
I know that a successful business ezine marketing and selling strategy is a lot to take in, let alone implement. Take your time. Think about what you have read. Look for the parallels in your own life, not only in how you relate to your customers, but also in the relationships you have with business you patronize. From the top of the rock, you are certain to see a new future.
Molly Gordon, MCC, is an internationally recognized business coach helping small business owners, independent professionals and artists to do business in a way that feeds their souls as well as their bank accounts. Visit her site to learn how to write a compelling artist statement in six easy steps. While on the site, don't forget to join 12,000 readers of Molly's Authentic Promotion ezine, and receive a free 31-page guide on effective self promotion.
