Congratulations to David and Ann Kaseman, who have won our Newsletter Marketer of the Year contest for 2011. They win a $500 American Express Gift Card.

Congratulations also to our runners up: Phyllis Adam, Sheri Brown and Tom Larsen. They each win $100 Amazon.com gift certificates.

It was quite hard choosing the winner as we had so many excellent entries. Thank you to everyone who took part.

We will be featuring the runners up entries later, but below is David and Ann’s entry.

They won because:

• Use of the newsletter to attain one of their goals – a strong connection to the community (because after all, most businesses are relationship businesses and it pays to have strong personal connections with your market.)
• Excellent financial results
• Multiple methods of newsletter distribution, including walking it to their neighborhood (sounds like hard work, but many of our clients have reported similar results by hand-delivering their newsletters.)
• Modification of content to include coupons, real estate listings, local information and personal, relationship-building content

Here is their entry:

Describe your business before using newsletters

Tell us about any issues you had about getting clients, making sales or developing your business.

I never felt I was making a very strong connection to the community I was focusing on. I certainly was not connecting regularly and consistently. I was not reaching new people nor did I feel this was possible via internet or email. Direct mail was a possibility and I used this but did not feel any impact.

Describe your business after using newsletters

Tell us how your business changed. Did you get more clients? If so, how many? How much extra income did you make? Did they benefit your business in any other way?

David talks about local businesses and non-profits in his newsletter.

With newsletters I know I am tending to my farm area which is 700 households. I hear all the time from my neighbors that they appreciate the letters and that they would use me as their Realtor.

I have picked up two listings in 7 months in the farm area and I have made 2 sales. I see much more business on the horizon.

I use the newsletters at open houses as an introduction to who I am.

I pick up buyers almost weekly from open houses. I know the newsletter helps.

I advertise my listings in the newsletter, so sellers can also experience how their house would be marketed.

The biggest benefit is meeting people as you walk the neighborhood distributing the newsletters. One month I left out my daughter’s joke and a man stopped me to offer his friendly “complaint”.

Describe how you used newsletters to get these benefits

Tell us how you distribute your newsletters, how often, and who to. Tell us anything else we need to know about your newsletter program.

Every month, their daughter provides a joke for the newsletter. It’s the most popular part of the newsletter – a client “complained” when one month the joke didn’t appear.

I walk the newsletters to 700 households monthly. I distribute another 100 or so by mail and hand them out at open houses and to for-sale-by-owners. I know I have made impressions on the community when one FSBO listed with me due to seeing my newsletter and me walking them. It was a $465,000 listing.

My broker appreciates what I am doing and she pays for the copies and I use staff in the office to assemble the copy.

It is a family affair. My wife walks 1/2 of the route and my daughter helps. Her joke is what many people wait for.

I have also connected to local business owners by including gift certificates and coupons in the newsletter.

Through the newsletter I am able to become a “brand” for I concentrate on what I am about other than real estate. I constantly talk about supporting local businesses and growing your own food and eating out of your garden. This theme is ever expanding. I even take fresh grown herbs to houses other rather than cookies!

• Ways to make formatting and creation easier and more efficient (as we know time is money)
• Tips on tools you may not have known existing (such as an easy way to remove formatting and anchor tags)
• Mapping your list to different fields when uploading
• How to get the most from your delivery and see your opens and clicks go up
• Best Practices on Image Editing, and storage

The webinar begins with an overview of what will be covered, followed by in-depth examples using the VerticalResponse system.

Right-click here and choose “save as” to download webinar

Today I’d like to share with you some of the ideas that Ready to Go Newsletters members have come up with for their own newsletters.

As you know, we’ve been running our Newsletter of the Year contest – and we’ve had some good entries.

I’ll be announcing the winner in the next couple of weeks, but here are some things that members have implemented.

Using the newsletter as a business card

As soon as they meet a potential new client, this entrant provides that person with a copy of their current newsletter and asks if they may put them on their newsletter mailing list. Action idea: Keep copies of your newsletter with you; and ABC: Always Be Collecting – that’s how you build your list.

Personalizing it with local, relevant information

Almost all the people who entered the contest did this. Real estate agents put local market conditions, for example. Community news and information is something any business can add. Action idea: Add something relevant to your clients to encourage them to read the newsletter.

Contests with prizes

Although the newsletter already comes with a quiz, some entrants went further and added their own contests with prizes. Some got these prizes sponsored by other businesses. This increased the number of people contacting them about the newsletter – building important relationships. Action idea: Prizes are a great way to get people to engage with you – they’re a useful motivator!

Giving space away to charities

One entrant gives space away to local charities to advertise events. It’s a way to make the newsletter relevant while creating a feeling of goodwill in the community. Action idea: Community groups are glad of the free publicity – it’s a win-win.

Links worth sharing

An entrant with an email newsletter put in useful links. This encouraged people to share the newsletter with their friends. Action point: the more useful, relevant information you include, the more action people will take.

Getting the most out of the content

Entrants put the newsletters on their websites and used the articles in other advertising. You’re welcome to use the content however you like, so why not make the most of it? Action idea: Your marketing doesn’t just stop with newsletters – the more ways you can find to reach people with useful, interesting information, the better.

Multiple versions of the newsletter

I’ve said many, many times that relevance is key. One entrant makes three versions of the newsletters to various types of clients and other contacts. Action idea: How can you tweak the newsletter to make it relevant to different types of people?

Extra communication

One entrant used the email newsletter system to communicate with clients after storms hit their area. As this entrant is in the insurance business, they were able to tell clients that they were there, ready to help them. Action idea: don’t just wait until it’s newsletter time to contact your clients. If you think they need you know, contact them right away!

And in summary…

There seems to be one thing that all the entrants have in common – how much they do! The thing about newsletters is, the more you put into them, the more you get out of them. That’s why I make these newsletters 100% editable…because I know that the more of yourself you add, the better results you get.

Do you know the most important number in your business?

I bet that 9 out of 10 people reading this don’t know the answer to that question.

That’s OK, because neither did I until not so long ago.

But here’s the thing: knowing the answer is super, super-important.

Because if you don’t know the answer, you could make some big mistakes.

That number is: Lifetime Customer Value. Or, in English, how much a customer is worth to you. How much they spend in their entire lives with you.

Consider this:

Imagine you are a real estate agent. What is your average commission? (And even if you are not a real estate agent, the same logic still applies.)

Then, think about how many times a client could, in theory, come back to you in their lives.

If you agree that a person moves home every seven years or so, there’s a good chance that they will use your service maybe three or four times.

So, that average commission should be multiplied by at least three to find the Lifetime Customer
Value.

See how valuable each client is?

Or maybe you are in the insurance business. How much is the average commission you earn from a client for a typical policy?

Then consider: how many years could they keep renewing that policy?

How many other policies could you sell them?

How much does that add up to? Quite a lot, I would imagine.

This is why this number is so important.

The trouble is, most people have no idea how much a customer is worth, so they tend to assume a customer is worth just the value of the first sale.

They ignore everything else!

And that leads them to make some bad decisions.

For example, they cut your own wrists when it comes to marketing because they think they can’t afford to spend money on marketing (because they think a client isn’t worth that much).

Or they forget to follow up with clients and keep in touch with them because they don’t know that their lifetime value is many multiples of the value of the first sale.

Or they just go after new customers (instead of retaining existing clients) because they mistakenly believe that the value is that first sale rather than where it really is, which is in the follow-up sales.

So here are my questions:

What is your average Customer Lifetime Value? And if you don’t know the answer (that’s OK), how much could it be if they bought from you as much as you think they should? (Remember, if you offer a valuable product or service, people should be buying from you more.)

Nice number, isn’t it?

Makes you look at your business in a whole new way.

Something to think about

Newsletters can help you raise your Lifetime Customer Value. Why? Because they help you keep in touch with customers and sell them more stuff. Period.

A member asked us to make a mortgage rate chart that they can add to their newsletter.

So here it is!

We plan to update this every month. It will be available on this page, under the Your Newsletters menu.

Please tell us if this is useful (or not!) If we don’t hear back that people are using them, they will be discontinued.

The chart is designed to fit on page 3 of the print newsletter. See this graphic that shows where it should go. Just delete the content that is already there and replace it with this chart.

There’s also a version for the email newsletter.

Simon

It came to my attention  that some of the content of the 1099 article in your May newsletter had become inaccurate.

This is because some of the facts changed between the time the article was edited and when it was made available to you.

We have now revised the article and replaced it in your newsletters.

(Note: if you had already customized your May newsletter, we have placed a duplicate copy into your account from which you can take the article. Please let us know if you need help with that.)

Once again, please accept my apologies. We try hard to avoid this kind of thing happening, but sometimes we get caught out because of our schedule.

Simon

What topics would you like to see covered in the insurance newsletters?

We want to make sure the content of your newsletters really fits your needs…and the best way to do that is to ask you what you need!

So, here’s your chance to help shape the content of the insurance newsletters..

Please click here – you can add your suggestions anonymously.

Thank you

Simon

From Simon Payn

I’m delighted to welcome Mayna DiChiara to Ready to Go Newsletters to take charge of member support.

I think you’re going to like Mayna!

She’s spent a lot of her career in training, which means she has the expertise (and the patience!) to help you get the most out of your membership.

She actually enjoys learning new software, so she will love helping you out with any issues you have with your newsletters.

You can reach Mayna by phone (877-976-6368), email and – soon – by live chat.

Meanwhile, I’ll still be available if you need extra help. Mayna can connect you with me.

UPDATE: VERTICAL RESPONSE THINK THEY HAVE FIXED THIS PROBLEM. IF YOU ARE STILL HAVING DIFFICULTIES, PLEASE EMAIL [email protected]

One or two  members are from time to time getting an error message when they try to log into their Vertical Response account.

The message says

Oops, That wasn’t found

Sorry, no posts matched your criteria.

Perhaps you can find what you’re looking for below.

This is a fault with the VR site that they are trying to fix.

If this happens to you, the way to fix it is to clear your browser cookies.

Here is a link to instructions on clearing your cookies: https://www.aboutcookies.org/Default.aspx?page=2

After you have cleared your cookies, close the browser and open it again. Then try again to log in.

We are pushing VR to fix this problem as soon as possible. In the meantime, we’re sorry for the problem.

Today I want to share two easy ways to boost response to your newsletter. They are both being employed by one of my clients, an insurance agency in Hobe Sound, Florida.

Indeed, one of the ideas was his.

The secret behind both ideas is this: Relevance.

Make your newsletter relevant to your readers and you are half-way there. After all, people want to read stuff that is for them, not about you.

1. Make it relevant to ‘now’

This idea is simple but my client reports it gives his response rate a boost. Together (this client takes advantage of Ready to Go Newsletters’ enhanced service where we work together to customize the newsletter) we give the newsletter a theme each month. December = Christmas; February = Valentine’s; March = St Patrick’s Day. You get the picture.

What we do is find a picture and add it to the top of the newsletter, and then change some of the newsletters’ colors to match.

It’s a very easy way to make the newsletter relevant to what’s going on today – relevant to what is in people’s minds.

2. Make it relevant to readers’ concerns

Ever been in a crowded room and suddenly – amid all the noise and conversation – you hear your name? What’s happening here is your subconscious is taking in all the data and words that your ears are hearing, and when it notices something that is relevant, it tells your conscious mind to listen.

The same thing happens with your client’s email inbox or postal mailbox. Both are crowded with noise, but when something relevant to you pops up, it gets noticed.

Here are a couple of articles that were used (and the headline became the subject line of the email newsletter.)

• What’s Going on With Home Insurance in Hobe Sound?  (About changes in insurance rates people are paying. Note that it has the town’s name in the title. That’s relevant.)
• Why are Florida Auto Insurance Rates so High? (Anyone in that state with a vehicle is going to want to read this. The article contains some very interesting information about some people taking advantage of Florida’s rules on insurance claims, pushing up rates. Not only is the article relevant, but it shows that the agency knows what it is doing.)

These are just some examples of how to make your newsletter more effective. This client works closely with Ready to Go Newsletters to customize his insurance newsletter each month. If you’d like our help, contact us.