Hi. Mike Braun, here. Im the Online Marketing Manager for BizActions, the Best in Class Email Newsletter Service that touches the lives of over one million clients, customers, prospects, and referral sources each week. This is the first of ten Relationship Content ideas for your e-Newsletter.
First of all, nothing says that articles about Products and Services cant be Relationship Content. You just have to put the standard fact loaded articles in a fresh format. Since you already write about products and services or at least probably have plenty of marketing materials already available to draw from, ask yourself this question. What can you do to make that content more reader friendly and therefore relationship building?
Sure you can showcase the actual product with pictures and specs and describe in generic terms how the benefits of the service will make the cost inconsequential. But bullet points dont even look friendly. They look factual. When you talk to your friends about some common interest, do you shout bullet points at them, or do you interject the feel, the mood, the event, the personal observations youve made and opinions youve formed? When you talk about your products and services, make it personal too.
How? Well, you or someone in your company has to have a story to tell about the product or service. Did you or a customer find some unexpected bonus that was unexpected? What was unusual about the sales or installation process with one of your clients? Any emergency scenarios? Anything go wrong that was remedied to show your, or the manufacturers, level of commitment? Would that client be willing to write a paragraph about the product or service and what its meant to them?
Get your staff together or drop them an email and say, Two items: 1. XYZ product or service and 2. Any customer. What is the first thing that comes to mind? If anything remotely interesting or unusual pops up, run with it. Get the whole story. Record the conversation if possible and then use it to interject quotes or at least to keep the story straight. Your staff will feign reluctance, until they see their names in print and start getting kudos from co-workers.
Of course most articles about Products and Services should include listing features and benefits (after you tell the story) but only spouting bullet points causes people to scan, rather than read a newsletter. There is a FANTASTIC means at your disposal (at least with an electronic newsletter) to provide the reader with all the details they could ever want without cluttering up your article. With an electronic newsletter, you can insert a button or hyperlink that will take the reader to your web site or open a PDF file full of details.
You can send readers to custom landing pages that provide all the details about the product and service and even allow them to do things like see demos or enter a form requesting your sales people to contact them for a live demo.
You can quickly and easily, with very little effort, create enticing stories that draw interest in each facet of your business and then link to a relevant page on your web site. And of course getting prospects to visit your web site frequently yields even greater rewards.
First of all, nothing says that articles about Products and Services cant be Relationship Content. You just have to put the standard fact loaded articles in a fresh format. Since you already write about products and services or at least probably have plenty of marketing materials already available to draw from, ask yourself this question. What can you do to make that content more reader friendly and therefore relationship building?
Sure you can showcase the actual product with pictures and specs and describe in generic terms how the benefits of the service will make the cost inconsequential. But bullet points dont even look friendly. They look factual. When you talk to your friends about some common interest, do you shout bullet points at them, or do you interject the feel, the mood, the event, the personal observations youve made and opinions youve formed? When you talk about your products and services, make it personal too.
How? Well, you or someone in your company has to have a story to tell about the product or service. Did you or a customer find some unexpected bonus that was unexpected? What was unusual about the sales or installation process with one of your clients? Any emergency scenarios? Anything go wrong that was remedied to show your, or the manufacturers, level of commitment? Would that client be willing to write a paragraph about the product or service and what its meant to them?
Get your staff together or drop them an email and say, Two items: 1. XYZ product or service and 2. Any customer. What is the first thing that comes to mind? If anything remotely interesting or unusual pops up, run with it. Get the whole story. Record the conversation if possible and then use it to interject quotes or at least to keep the story straight. Your staff will feign reluctance, until they see their names in print and start getting kudos from co-workers.
Of course most articles about Products and Services should include listing features and benefits (after you tell the story) but only spouting bullet points causes people to scan, rather than read a newsletter. There is a FANTASTIC means at your disposal (at least with an electronic newsletter) to provide the reader with all the details they could ever want without cluttering up your article. With an electronic newsletter, you can insert a button or hyperlink that will take the reader to your web site or open a PDF file full of details.
You can send readers to custom landing pages that provide all the details about the product and service and even allow them to do things like see demos or enter a form requesting your sales people to contact them for a live demo.
You can quickly and easily, with very little effort, create enticing stories that draw interest in each facet of your business and then link to a relevant page on your web site. And of course getting prospects to visit your web site frequently yields even greater rewards.
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