A question I get a lot at workshops is: “should I have a newsletter? I just delete most of the ones I get. Are they worth the effort?” My colleague Linda Claire Puig (who’s running a ‘Best Newsletter Contest‘) shares her perspective as to why they are . . .
Measuring Newsletter ROI (Return on Investment)
The other day I ran across an online ROI calculator that purports to tell you whether your newsletter is worth the effort and cost of doing it.
Cool! I thought. Someone finally found a way to quantify everything I’ve been teaching.
But what I found missed the mark. It treated a newsletter as a purely promotional tool, something you use to generate leads that you or a sales team would follow up with and “close.”
While I always encourage you to promote a little (like about 25%), a newsletter is about FAR, FAR more than cold lead generation and closing sales.
A newsletter is the kingpin of your keep-in-touch strategy. It’s what you use to position yourself as a trusted, credible expert. It enhances your influence in your marketplace. It’s how you BUILD RELATIONSHIP with your community. And yes, it helps bring in clients.
So how do you measure the ROI of relationship, of influence, of status, of trust, of repeated exposure to you?
It’s a difficult proposition, but I have a few ideas:
Compare Overall Income
Five years ago, I didn’t walk my talk. I provided a regular newsletter service to hundreds of professionals, but I only did occasional newsletters myself. (Bad girl!) Since then, I’ve begun practicing what I preach, and my income has TRIPLED.
Examine How Your Business Has Changed with a Newsletter
It’s interesting…having a regular newsletter forces you to step up your game, and it translates to all areas of your business. You’ll find yourself looking for ways to build your list, which helps you build your business in a big way. You’ll find yourself doing new things, perhaps giving teleclasses for the first time, or creating info products.
Look to the High Earners
At an event last September, I asked a room of 20 entrepreneurs — all with six- and seven-figure businesses — how many of them send regular newsletters. How many do you think said yes? Nineteen out of 20 send a regular newsletter. Look around you…how many of the people whose work you pay attention to and whose services you buy do a newsletter?
Consider the Anecdotal Evidence
One of my favorite examples of the power of a newsletter — and its ROI — comes from my friend Michelle. She was at a conference whose host challenged participants to see who could make the most money that very weekend. She went to her hotel room that night, put together a group coaching program, created a quick sales page and sent out an email to her list.
She made $15,000 and won the conference prize.
To be clear…she sent a promotional email, not a newsletter, but she sent it to a list of people she’d been in touch with for years with great newsletters. They had come to know her through her newsletters and were ready to work with her when she made the offer.
Michelle isn’t alone. I know hundreds of stories just like this one. It can happen to you, too.
But it all starts with the newsletter.
Linda Claire Puig is a newsletter marketing expert whose company, Claire Communications, provides busy coaches and personal development professionals with high-quality, education-based content and newsletters to grow their businesses. She also teaches unique, action-oriented programs on how to create newsletters and use them to make more money. An award-winning writer since 1983, Linda’s articles have appeared in newspapers, magazines and newsletters throughout the world. She has produced newsletters for small businesses and professionals since 1990 and has trained thousands of individuals in “the way of the newsletter.” For a free copy of two special newsletter resources from Linda, “75 Best Newsletter Success Strategies” and the “Easy Ezine Content Creator,” click here http://www.nexttopnewsletter.com/freebies
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