Posted by Jackie Ewing on February 14, 2010
Join Our Mailing List
Do you send a newsletter to your clients and prospects? It could be an email newsletter or a print newsletter, but you SHOULD be sending one or the other, if not both.
Most businesses are unaware that their customer list is their most valuable asset. Communicating with them on a very regular basis is key to you being at the forefront of their minds when they are ready to buy whatever product or service it is that you offer. As mentioned in a previous blog called Mining for Gold,
You also need to communicate with your customers on a regular basis through email and print. If you don’t have an email newsletter, you are losing out on the potential of building really lasting, long-term relationships with your customers. Your communication to them is not a bother, if they don’t unsubscribe. They may not react immediately because they are not ready to buy. But when they are, because you communicate with them regularly, you are at the forefront of their mind when a particular need arises. Some will respond better to print so you should also use direct mail as part of your mining process. Continue to “mine” your list and communicate with them very regularly.
There are many options for you once you’ve made the decision to begin a newsletter. I’ve narrowed them down to three basic approaches:
- Create your own email newsletter for next-to-nothing using your email software.
- Use a service like Constant Contact, Vertical Response or MadMimi that has a minimal cost but gives you pre-made templates to use.
- Delegate it or outsource it.
1. Create your own:
I don’t recommend creating your own unless you have the skills, talent and time to do it. Believe me, it is not an easy task! It may not end up looking like you want it to and you will be limited by your email service as to how many you can send out at one time.
2. Use an email service:
Using one of the sources mentioned above (or choose from a myriad of others) is a great way to get started. It means you can take an existing template, customize it to your business in a few easy steps, add your interesting content (always the most time-consuming and difficult part, I say!), import your customer data and email out your newsletter. Easy to follow instructions allow you to focus on the content that will most interest your customers.
3. Delegate or Outsource:
While this may cost a little more to get going and keep going, it allows you the freedom to continue doing what you do best -working on your business so you can make more money! Pay someone else to develop the newsletter format, find the content – interesting text, photos and video – prepare the customer database and get it emailed out on a regular basis. Once the process has been started, you’ll be amazed at how smoothly it runs – you may only have to input a little article to personalize the newsletter – proof it, and give the OK to email it out on schedule.
Our recommendation for this type of service? Ewing Enterprises of course! This is one of the services that we provide to our clients. If you are ready to take the plunge and have someone do this for you – someone who LOVES to do this!! – take a look at what some of our clients have to say about our newsletters and service:
Kim Williams
With Jackie’s help & support we finally got around to sending out newsletters to our past guests. I never seemed to find the time to do it myself but it’s has been fun working with Jackie as she does all the hard work! Jackie’s encouragement to write my ‘piece’ each month has provoked a new interest! And the past guests have been delighted to receive our communication – it’s like a continuation of the holiday time they spent with us. Working with Jackie at Ewing Enterprises has made it all so easy.
Kim Williams, Clermont, Florida. VILLASFANTAZMIC
Jackie has proved to be totally reliable & trustworthy – she meets the deadlines set and is the sole of discretion.
David Leather
She has taken on the onerous task of categorizing our data base, which is at least 7 years old, and writing monthly newsletters which are both factual and easy to read.
David Leather, St. Cloud, Florida. HAYES VACATION HOMES
I learnt that Jackie Ewing does this as part of her consulting services and I asked her to explain to me how it worked. She visited my
Joanne Kjolsen
office and the only effort was in the formation of the names database which was just a matter of data entry – not difficult at all by any standards and now I have a created list in the correct format to now receive monthly newsletters.However I had no idea about what to say/what to write/format etc, and once again, Jackie has this down to a fine art. She comes up with the topical news snippets which are of interest to my client base both potential and existing and creates a newsletter for me and all I have to do is provide a couple of photos of things done during my month and a few words about one or two topics and she does the rest,.I proof read it before it goes out and voila! I know my customers are reading it as I see them mention something in it during correspondence with me, it might be something that I did or something that was mentioned in the newsletter. Either way, it’s a very simple and informative way of keeping me in touch with my clients on a monthly basis without it appearing as a direct selling piece. It totally is, but they see it as a fun thing to read about the place they love, Orlando!
Joanne Kjolsen, Kissimmee, Florida. BELLA VACATION HOMES
Posted by Jackie Ewing on February 1, 2010
I recently spent 3 days in the esteemed company of the likes of Dan Kennedy, Bill Glazer, Yanik Silver, Ron Ipach and Dean Hunt – well, me and several hundred others that is! The Outrageous Academy & Workshop led us through many, many, tried and tested examples of outrageous marketing that WORKS! I do believe that after those 3 days, the ideas have finally been accepted by my subconscious, which is now very busy convincing my conscious mind that these ideas, while wacky and wonderful, DO WORK!
Bill Glazer gave us some in-depth training on the ideas presented in his book – Outrageous Marketing That is Outrageously Successful. He has used these ideas for
Bill Glazer signed his book for me
many years and made millions of dollars within his own menswear retail businesses, and again in the Glazer-Kennedy Insider Circle (GKIC) information marketing business. The book itself is a reference tool like no other, with multiple swipe-and-deploy examples ready for the swiping and deploying! You just have to train yourself to ask “How can I use this in my business to get more clients and make more money?” – and not shake your head saying, “that won’t work in my business.”
Since that weekend, I have seen some examples of advertising that while not particularly outrageous, they certainly are different and made me notice their message. Again, wondering “How can I apply that in MY business.”
Outrageous Marketing at Work
The first one is a rather unique effort by the elementary school to get more parents to give their email addresses to the school so they can better communicate with them… and save some paper by not having to send letters and flyers home with each kid. *Note: there was a 2nd step to this process, with a deadline! See the pic at the bottom of the post. Added Feb 4, 2010.
Pretty good idea to get the kids to get the parents to give up the elusive email addresses so they can get a free homework pass – rather ingenious, I do think!
The next one I saw was a billboard. Unfortunately, I made the mistake of thinking – “I’ll take a photo of that tomorrow”. Tomorrow came, and the billboard was gone! Another lesson taught by my esteemed pals – don’t think about it, do it NOW! Lesson now learned the hard way ; I consider myself appropriately wrist-slapped.
The billboard said “Men have rights too” and gave phone number and website for a local law firm specializing in
This firm are going the opposite direction to everyone else
divorce. It pulled on the opposite emotion to most other companies who advertise to the women. I bet it has caught a lot people’s eyes as they drive by. So, in it’s place is a new billboard – by the same law firm. Check this one out!
This time, by focusing on the kids, they are pulling on the emotions of both sides by intimating that they have the kids best interests at heart. If you don’t want a messy divorce in which your children might get hurt, try us – we’ll take good care of them for you. Pretty outrageous, don’t you think?!
So, now I have to knuckle down and put the outrageous in my own advertising. If you have any ideas you’d like to share, or just have me try it so you don’t look like an eejit (that’s Dublinese for idiot!), comment below and I’ll get back to you. Outrageous only please!
Free Homework Pass
Posted by Jackie Ewing on December 21, 2009
The Ewings Christmas Tree
As we were having breakfast this morning, my daughter asked why the Angel was not yet sitting on top of the Christmas tree. I told her that Dad said we couldn’t put the Angel on until Christmas Eve. So she asked Dad why. He said, because Mom says we cannot put the Angel up until Christmas Eve. We looked at one another while she laughed hysterically at us!
Turns out that we were both respecting the others “tradition” … for the past 18 years I might add. There’s no such tradition in my Irish family, we always put the Angel or Star at the top of the tree when everything else is on there. There’s no such tradition in his American family either – go figure! So, we have now placed the Angel on the tree so she can shine away in harmony with the lights and decorations on the tree.
This reminded me of a story I had heard a few years ago. It was similar in that a little girl asked her Mom why she always cut one end of the roast and cooked it separately from the roast. Her Mom responded that that was how her mother had taught her to do it. They looked at the old recipe card and sure enough, it said to cut one end off the roast and cook separately.
So that Christmas, the little girl asked her Grandmother why they cut off one end of the roast – did it make it taste better, or cook faster, or what? Grandma was quite surprised to be asked this question and they went into the kitchen to talk to Mom and see that she was indeed cutting off one end of the roast.
Fitting your Roast in your Roasting Dish
Grandma looked at the roasting dish and told her daughter that she didn’t need to cut off one end of the roast because her roasting dish was big enough to fit the entire roast. She further explained that she had only cut the roast so most of it would fit in the roasting dish she had inherited from her own Mother, who used to do the same thing!
The moral of both stories? Communication can remove many incorrect assumptions that surround you in your daily life!
Do you have a similar story to share? Please comment below, we’d love to hear your own stories.
Posted by Jackie Ewing on August 13, 2009
Those of us that hail from the other side of the “pond” often wonder how it is that although Americans speak
Do you speak English?
, we very often don’t understand what they are saying! I suppose the same could be said about Americans not understanding us Europeans either.
I’m from Ireland and I know my husband Jeff (who is American) has spent years deciphering what I am saying to mean entirely different things to what I am actually saying! We’ve had a lot of fun with our “misunderstandings” over the years.
In the vacation home rental industry, the one word that always causes pause is “villa”. To me, a villa is some grand structure with turrets, teeny windows and lots of airy rooms, overlooking a vineyard somewhere in France or Italy. To many others it is a Florida pool home. What does it mean to you? Or better yet, what does it mean to your clients?
When we are marketing our vacation rentals (or holiday villas as the case may be!) we have to remember that our clients may not understand our industry language and may be confused between the various terms that we use to describe our product. We need to find the language that helps us to connect with them.
Sidney Barrows in her book ‘Uncensored Sales Strategies‘ says;
“Customers need to hear or read words that resonate with them – words that make them feel you understand who they are, that you know what they need or want, and that lead them to believe you have or can do that which they are seeking.”
Author Sydney Barrows and Yours Truly, Jackie Ewing
you can connect with your customer at that level, it will be so much easier to make the sale. Knowing and using this language connection will help increase your conversions – turn phone call and email inquiries into reservations.
If we delve a little deeper into the specific words we use when dealing with our clients, we can identify some that will actually help us in that process of confirming the reservation or resolving an issue.
The following are also featured in Sidney Barrows’ book;
• Clients or people we serve, NOT customers
• Choose or take, NOT buy
• OK the paperwork, approve the (booking) form, NOT sign here
• More economical or better value, NOT cheaper
• Total amount or total investment, NOT total cost or total price
• Challenge or concern, NOT problem
Listen to what you or your staff are saying to your clients and how they are saying it; look at which words you are using in your brochures, sales letters, emails, web pages – it might be time to review and make some changes.
Think about how the words are perceived from your clients’ perspective, not yours.
Learn to speak the language that your clients’ best understand. It will result in better communication with them which builds relationships and ultimately will result in increased sales for your business.
Until next time,
Toodles, bye bye, see ya, ciao, later
Jackie
