Bill Bonner, head of Agora Publishing, once joked no woman has ever said to her husband, “Honey, let’s go shopping for newsletters.” The truth is, people don’t buy newsletters, they’re sold.
People buy novels for enjoyment and reading pleasure. They use newsletters to acquire specific information and advice they can put into action.
How do you write a newsletter issue that becomes The One? The one they keep, even if they toss out every other subscription?
First, you want to increase the subscriber’s ROI - return on investment. As you add more and more benefits and bonuses, the less they will gripe about paying a high renewal rate.
For example, one publisher advises: “Deliver many times more value than price. Money made or saved, time, freedom, peace of mind, fun, energy, inspiration - give your readers one or more of these in every issue.”
Your Newsletter Has to Be Credible
Second, your newsletter has to be credible. No question about it. If subscribers don’t trust your newsletter’s editor, writer, and publisher, they won’t subscribe - period. One reader wrote: “A newsletter needs an expert - one I trust.”
Agora Publishing copywriter John Forde wrote: “Never let down the customer. When his trust is justified, he’ll stay with you forever.”
In B2B, Tom McCave, Melcrum Publishing, says your newsletter can also ally itself with a major industry association to establish itself as the ‘voice of the industry.’ Be careful, though. Partnering with a trade group may cause problems if you run afoul of their ‘censors.’
Watch out for the ’information trap’ when you’re promoting your newsletter. Too many publications ‘hype’ their information content when they write sales letters or ad copy.
The problem is that readers are already drowning in information. Too much of it. And on the Web, they can get all the info they want for free.
What they will pay for is knowledge - the interpretation of information. That means you have to add value to information with the application of intellect, analysis, insight, wisdom, and experience.
Publish case histories. David Frey, a management consultant, meets many Fortune 1000 CEOs. He says that they first ask him, “Tell me about my competitors.” A case history is a brief version of a story describing how a customer or client solved a problem with a product or service.
What’s in It for Me?
Self-interest is a powerful motivator. Individuals are interested in whatever concerns themselves, and will react to it. Every mind is tuned to the same radio station: WIIFM. What’s In It For Me?
For business readers, profits, productivity and lower costs for the company matter. But benefits to the employer or the customer are not enough. You must go on to describe the advantages and benefits to the reader or subscriber of your newsletter. Can it help me get a promotion or increase my paycheck? Protect my job?
Know what’s important to them - not just what you believe is important - and then give them what they want. They need vitamins, but they want candy.
Consider copywriter Parris Lampropolous. He says the newsletters most likely to be read and renewed are those on hobbies and personal interests.
Competitors will try to steal your newsletter subscribers if you let them. But they can’t steal them if you’re unique - if you provide subscribers with what they can’t get anywhere else.
Publisher Buddy Hayden’s advice comes down to this. Publish a newsletter no one else can duplicate … information and solutions others can’t match. If you can’t offer something exclusive, then at least give them information, products and services that are difficult to get - what is scarce, and do it clearly better than anyone else.
Investment newsletter publisher Sandy Frank wants each month’s issue to feel brand new to readers. Exciting new material. When readers subscribe to a newsletter, they want something fresh every time. Your promotional copy, too, should have this ’newness’ factor - something unique and different, so that you stand out from the clutter of everything else in the reader’s mailbox.
Ancillary Products
”But wait - there’s more!” You’ve probably heard that line from TV infomercial hosts trying to close a sale. Infomercial producers know that the more stuff they can pile on, the better the chance of making a sale. So follow their example. The more you give subscribers for their money, the better the value - the bigger the deal.
Unless you’re in a specialized vertical market, ancillary products and services are the best way to be indispensable, according to Brian Kurtz of Boardroom.
A consumer newsletter publisher advises: “Throw in free bonuses that practically pay for the newsletter.”
The most common premium is a free special report. Paper costs little, so you might give several reports on different subjects - all free.
Premiums can take many forms. Consider: information-soaked CDs; guidebooks; software; videos; audiocassettes; directories.
And with the Internet, ancillary products and services don’t always have to be printed matter.
Increasingly popular is access to a restricted website. In exchange for subscribing to a newsletter, you can give readers a login and password that will get them admittance to a ‘members only’ site. Between issues, send e-mail updates and alerts to subscribers. Notify them of new developments and they’ll appreciate you.
Finally, show that the value far outweighs the price.
Copywriter Mike Pavlish says that to close the sale, the subscriber should feel the newsletter price is only a ”fraction” of the total value.
One way is to compare your newsletter with costlier alternatives. American Speaker, a loose-leaf service that teaches executives to speak effectively, costs $297 a year. A professional speechwriter might bill $5,000 for one speech. Yet with American Speaker, you get a year’s worth of instruction for under $300.
Or restate the price as ”cents per day,” and show how it compares with other prices the reader pays. Divide the annual cost of your newsletter by the number of days per year, and you come up with a much lower daily cost. At $297, American Speaker works out to about 81 cents a day.
About Delancey Street
Delancey Street is a premier, and award winning, business debt settlement company that helps business owners nationwide. Our goal is simple: help you escape debt in a safe and legal manner. Based out of New York, we can help in 49 of 50 states. We tell you how it is; because your business and future is on the line.
