Newsletter Top Ten

Here are my top ten reasons for small businesses to send a regular newsletter:

1. Customer Retention: Regular newsletters help keep your business top of mind and remind clients that you are an expert in your industry.

2. Establishing Credibility: Well-written and relevant newsletters help establish your credibility. An article on American Express discusses the benefits of becoming recognized as a thought leader in your industry and the many opportunities for secondary revenue that result.

3. Secondary Revenue Source: Once you've established credibility, a paid newsletter version with premium content and tips can become a source of revenue in itself.

4. Build Your Brand: Whether you want to take a technical approach or have a more lighthearted tone, newsletters help establish your brand. One of our clients, a production company offering a wide array of creative services, sends a "Totally Useless Newsletter" each month, establishing the company as fun and edgy.

By taking this approach, the newsletter has high click through rates and receives positive feedback from recipients who appreciate the break the newsletter provides. Along with "useless" content, the newsletter also highlights current projects and company updates.

5. Expand Your Network: Your contacts will forward relevant content to their network, increasing your reach.

6. Lead Generation: When your contacts forward your newsletter, new recipients become aware of your product and may sign up to receive your newsletter, or better, discover that they need what you offer.

7. Increased Business with Existing Clients: With a little luck, your client will receive your newsletter just when they're thinking of a need you can fill.

8. Affordability: With email distribution services like Constant Contact, newsletters are an affordable marketing tool and vehicle for information distribution.

9. Tracking: Such Email programs also provide click-through and open rates, helping you see what information your clients find most valuable so that you can tailor future communication to their needs and desires.

10. Added Value: By providing expertise and tips, your product or company becomes that much more valuable to your clients.
A warning: Keep in mind that a poorly written newsletter or one with an unappealing design is worse than no newsletter at all. Clients are quick to judge based on what they see alone so if your newsletter (or website, logo, etc.) doesn't appear credible, or if your content is filled with grammatical errors, you could do more harm than good.

Annie Cooper: Remembering the woman who put a face on police brutality in the Civil Rights Movement.

Though Ms. Annie Cooper grew up in a system that honored skin color above character, her parents worked hard to provide for her and her 10 siblings.

As a wife and mother, Ms. Cooper had already experienced a full life before she put a face on police brutality in Selma, traveling and working as a nurse.

When she heard about the nonviolent effort to gain voting rights, Ms. Cooper set her course towards justice. She attended mass meetings and stood in voter registration lines. For that, she lost her job. For that, her family’s lives were threatened. And for that, she was beaten.

On Jan 25, 1965, four Selma police, including Sheriff Jim Clark, beat 53-year-old Annie, who was unarmed, after she punched the sheriff. One blow to her head was so severe that it continued to cause health problems long after the beating. Ms. Cooper went to jail that night and was left untreated. When she finally reached the hospital, the only care she received was a bandage to cover the gash.
 

Ms. Cooper didn’t know that the photos of police brutality would be printed in the New York Times. She didn’t know that they would spark outrage and thus, support, from across the nation or that the support would lead to the passing of the Voter Registration Act of 1965.

And she didn’t know that one day she’d be living on a street that bears her name.

Ms. Cooper, a true foot soldier of the Civil Rights Movement, didn’t fight for recognition. She fought to change the world.

And she did.



Note: Annie Cooper died today. I am so grateful for her contribution to the movement and honored to have met and interviewed her.

Excepting Business Cards

Let's just start at the very beginning--commonly confused words.

Accept is to take or receive something (as in, business cards).

Except means with the exception of or excluding. So this would mean they are excluding business cards. And maybe accepting everything else?

The good thing about the English language (or maybe the credit belongs to the human brain) is that we can get the point even when grammar isn't perfect. This is an amazing example of how true that is.

Life is...

Advice from a Four-Year-Old

Four-year-old: "I gotta pee and I ain't gonna do it."

Mom: "Why not? That doesn't seem very comfortable."

Four-year-old: "When I'm here, I wanna run around and play. I don't want to miss anything!"

Here's another potty-related laugh, courtesy of Far Side.