From the category archives:

Communication

How To Write Newsletters For Your Business

January 24, 2012 · 0 comments

write newsletters for small businessMany small business owners are discovering the marketing and customer communication value of creating and sending newsletters. They are a wonderful tool that is effective yet affordable when it comes to promoting the success of your small business. Figuring out how to write a profitable newsletter is an important step, and one that is easier to accomplish than you might think.

The business advantages of using a newsletter:

Using a newsletter as a marketing and communication tool has many excellent advantages, including:

  • Direct communication with customers and potential customers
  • Opportunities to share information your customers will find of value
  • Positioning of your business as the “go to” resource for your type of products and/or services

These are just a few examples; chances are you could think of a few more that are specific to your business with just a little bit of thought. But just deciding to create a newsletter is not enough; you need to put some planning and thought into making that newsletter as effective and profitable as possible.

How to make your newsletter more profitable:

One of the most common mistakes small business owners make when first creating a newsletter for their business is thinking it needs to be all about selling, selling, and more selling. While one of the goals is certainly to increase sales for your business, the best way to go about accomplishing that goal is to make the newsletter less about sales and more about creating value for your customers and potential customers.

Here are a few guidelines for how to make your newsletter more profitable:

Make it worthwhile – The content of your newsletter should be interesting enough and valuable enough to the recipients to be worth their time and attention. In each issue, then, you should include articles, information, suggestions, and tips that are focused on helping the recipients solve common problems, learn something new, and generally gain something worthwhile from taking the time to read it.

Frequency – There’s nothing that will turn off recipients faster than sending them a newsletter too frequently so plan your newsletter schedule accordingly. Whether that’s once a week, once a month or something entirely different will depend on many factors, including your readers and the aim of your newsletter.

Foster a friendly and helpful tone – Throughout your newsletter the tone should always be friendly and helpful. Put yourself in your readers’ shoes; the last thing they want to find in their email inbox is a newsletter that’s pushy in terms of sales. The goal should be for each recipient to take away something helpful or otherwise of value from each issue.

A word about database management:

A big part of sending a profitable and effective newsletter is proper database management. This means you actively manage your mailing list of recipients, giving each person an easy method of opting out of your mailings if they so choose. Keep track also of the response rates you get from the newsletter, especially from specific categories or types of customers. This will help you better manage things such as the content of your newsletter.

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Simply Text And Forget

October 1, 2011 · 0 comments

Are you the type of person who often forgets people’s birthdays? Or perhaps you remember them and mean to phone or text them … but the day disappears before you have a chance to actually pick up your phone.

That may well be a thing of the past now there’s Text And Forget to help you remember.

Text And Forget is a free system whereby you can enter a number of messages and schedule for them to be sent out to your specific contacts. You can enter as many messages as you like and schedule them to be sent as a one-off message or on a regular basis – for example, every year on their birthday (or anniversary).

I know it may feel strange at first, but it will make it much easier to remember and schedule! And you can log in and edit your messages at any time.

Give it a try – you might just be hooked. :-)

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Tips To Make Sure You Are Articulating Your Real Value

September 23, 2010 · 1 comment

I’ve been spending a bit of time today reading some of the useful information shared by telesales trainer extraordinaire, Jenny Cartwright, author of Don’t Get Hung Up!

For anyone who would like to learn more about how to best utilise your telephone in business I highly recommend Jenny’s web site and blog.

Here’s a few quick tips from Jenny on how to make sure you’re articulating your real value to your customers:

“Questions to check on your personal value to the customer.

What message are you sending your customers about you? (Do you really look after them and sound as if you care?) Be compassionate enough to give clients more of YOU.

What problems do you solve for the customer?

What image do people get of you when you answer the phone?

People do business with those they like and trust.  Business is personal, that is why companies like Dell, Commonwealth Bank and Modern Roofing are bringing their telemarketing back from India, it just did not work over there.
The Value of your Product – What are you really selling?

711 stores sell convenience,  Federal Express sells speed,  Air Road sells guaranteed delivery

It is your job to tell the customers the value you offer, not the thing that you do.  They don’t discover it for themselves. For example I offer inspiration, motivation, confidence and skills (at least that is the feedback I get!)

What do you offer?

We have to know our points of difference to our competitors. For example, I am a trainer who has actually made 100  calls a day for many years so I do have the practical experience as well as the theory. I use a telesales trainer to record people’s voices on training seminars, I offer ongoing free telesales tips after the training on an ongoing basis. I know enough on the topic I have written a book!

So what are your points of difference?

The best way to make a good impression on someone is to let them give you a best impression of them.  How do you do that? You practice great questioning techniques so you can listen more.  Remember the best salespeople are good listeners, we have 2 ears and one mouth and we need to use them in that proportion. While the customer is talking and you are listening, the customer is talking themselves into what they want if you have asked the right questions.

If you have a topic on sales or telesales with which you struggle, simply send an email to me at jenny@telesalestraining.com.au”

You can find out more about Jenny Cartwright’s training and download her free guide – How To Train A Telemarketer – at Sales And Telesales Solutions.

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The Benefits of Online Business Networking

March 22, 2010 · 0 comments

Many small, micro and home-based business operators are well aware of the benefits of networking with other businesses. Along with meeting new people and perhaps learning from networking event guest speakers, other benefits include building professional relationships with potential clients, suppliers and resources, colleagues, fans and friends. Not to mention getting yourself and your business known in the community.

With all of the technological advances in communications, people are now becoming ever more connected, particularly on the Internet.

And with this advancement in Internet technology comes the ability for businesses to network online too. This could be via:

Online networking boosts the variety your network

Online networking gives entrepreneurs a chance to develop relationships with several other entrepreneurs at one time. They can meet several people and communicate in a wider way than face to face networking. In online networking, many different industries and companies are represented within the group.

Online networking saves time and effort for busy entrepreneurs

Entrepreneurs are able to reach the world from their own computer through online networking. Utilising the Internet allows professionals to attend online networking avenues much easier than if they attend physical events … all from the comfort of their own home, often at any time of the day from any location and without the need to get dressed up (unless you’re using videos and web-cams!)

Along with benefiting an entrepreneur’s professional and social growth, online networking offers flexibility. Not only does this make it easier to manage how you prioritise your time, it’s also ideal for business owners in small towns and regional or remote areas who may otherwise find business networking a challenge.

Online networking can also be a viable alternative for parents who work from home while caring for children. It’s often difficult for this group of business owners to attend face-to-face networking events without also having to arrange suitable child-care. The cost and effort involved sometimes limits the number of events that they can physically get to.

I’m not suggesting that online networking should entirely take the place of face-to-face networking events, but there are some definite advantages for most businesses to incorporate a little of both.

If you know any worthwhile online networking sites for small, micro and home-based businesses, please share them with us via a comment post  :)

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Top 4 Online Appointment Setting Programs

March 15, 2010 · 4 comments

If you’re running a small business and meeting with clients or associates frequently, you probably make appointments almost daily.

Some people, particularly in larger organisations, may be fortunate enough to have an assistant who is assigned the task of ensuring that no double-bookings occur and no appointments are missed. This method is somewhat time consuming and inefficient when it comes to canceling and rescheduling appointments, and even more so if you’re responsible for managing your own appointments along with so many other duties.

This is where an online program can be so handy.

Once you setup this software or your online account, you’ll find many appointment-setting programs also give you the options of selecting email (and possibly phone call) reminders.

Online appointment setting programs generally work in a similar way.

You can log into your online calendar and select the times when you’re available for appointments. You then send a link to those clients and associates whom you’d like to make an appointment time with. These people can then easily visit the website by clicking on your link, then click on the appointment button. A calendar appears, showing your available dates and times,  and your customer or colleague can choose one of your available appointment times that best suits them.

That’s it! Your appointment is there … booked and saved.

Online appointment-scheduling programs have certain benefits and advantages such as freeing up staff (or yourself) for more important tasks.

Just think about it … what more productive tasks could you do in the time you would generally spend scheduling (and re-scheduling) appointments?

Here are 4 of the best online appointment-setting programs I’ve found:

  1. Tungle
  2. Web-Appointments
  3. GenBook
  4. Appointment Plus

Forgetting appointments or poor scheduling techniques could put your organisation and business at a clear disadvantage. So have a look at these online appointment-setting programs to simplify the way you manage your appointments.

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