Greetings,
It's holiday time again. Seems like I just put the tree ornaments away, and here we are again. Like most consultants, my clients normally go silent on November 15 and don't surface again until the second week in January. It's going to be different this year because I have two new contracts nearly signed. But you may find this is a downtime for your business. If so, it's a great time to do those projects you've been putting off all year.
May I suggest an e-zine? The first article this month is a lighthearted look at the five top excuses people use to avoid getting their newsletters launched. Needless to say, we have an answer for all five.
Brain Strain, the second article continues my rant against the technology we all love to hate. But underneath the tongue-in-cheek is acknowledgement of a real challenge. We're all getting older. Bottom line--make friends with a pre-teen.
Last month, we successfully tested the concept and the technology for doing our free e-zine introductions online. It worked. In fact, one participant was on dial-up. Even that worked.
"It was extremely helpful and informative," said Rhonda Parker, an Albany, NY-based virtual assistant.
With the holidays upon us, we're not going to offer online sessions until next year, but please let us know if you're interested. That way we can schedule our January on-line e-zine intro session at a time that works for you.
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Just Do It!
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Five things keep people from launching their e-zine. Here they are, in the traditional reverse order (thank you David Letterman) and reduced to five because we know you're busy.
5. Not knowing what to say
Don't be silly. You have more material about your specialty than you could put into a life time's worth of e-zines. Doubt me? Start keeping a list. How about that clever thing you said on the phone to your prospect yesterday, and what about that really silly question your customer asked just this morning?
4. Collecting e-mail addresses
Granted going through the 2,546 names in your Outlook address book to cull the ones who will receive your first e-zine is a tedious process. But you'll only have to do it once, and I'll be there to cheer you all the way through to the last "z."
As for collecting new names, begin that process right now. Collect names and addresses from people who come to your store, patients as they visit for their regular dental checkup, at your booth at trade shows and at this week's Chamber meeting. Tell them you're going to start a regular electronic newsletter really soon, and ask them to sign up. Then you'll be embarrassed not to do the newsletter, since you've promised so many people!
3. No time
What? You don't have enough time to stay in front of your customers and prospects on a regular basis so they'll think of you when they are ready to buy? Once a month, my name and a reminder of the Shawenon Communications brand shows up in the mailbox of over 800 people. You opened the newsletter and have read this far. But I'll confess, lots of others haven't. Even if they hit the delete key as fast as they can, they've still been reminded of my business communication services. Remember, if they don't want your newsletter, Constant Contact offers safe unsubscribe, so they can get off the list. But they don't. Last month no one--not one person--opted out of Web Words.
2. First-issue resistance
OK, you've got me here. It's a lot of work to get the first issue out. Sadly, the process starts hard and gets easier. I wish it were otherwise, but you just have to jump into the deep end of the swimming pool first. I can help. I've coached lots of people through the inertia of starting a regular publication. I'll make it fun and rewarding, I promise. Just give it a try.
1. Fear of too much business
I understand. If you get your newsletter out on a regular basis, customers and clients will beat a path to your door. You'll be so busy doing what you love to do that you'll barely have time to get to the bank to deposit all that money.
Well, I can help here, too. I'm a great networker, and I'm certain I can find someone to help you with all that business. Just give a call.
Bottom line? Just do it!
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Brain Strain
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I hope you're not getting older. Because if you are, you're slowing down as technology is getting faster. There's more of it, it's more complex and its harder to learn. Technology begets technology. It's as if there's an army of devices in a coordinated conspiracy to take over our lives. Do you feel you'll never catch up? I do.
Let me illustrate. Our new Prius is equipped with Bluetooth technology for hands-free phone conversations. It's terrific, especially for those states where handheld is illegal. But my old cell phone wasn't Bluetooth enabled.
Time and Assistance
I have two rules about buying new technology: don't rush and don't do it alone. So I went to my cell provider to do research. They chased me away; I needed a list of phones that were Prius compatible. Armed with a Web site link, I returned some weeks later.
Good news. The best value phone was only $30 after the rebate. (We'll talk about rebates in a future issue.) But now I've got a new piece of technology to learn. "It's almost like the other one," Brian assured me after I took two photographs of my thumb. Watch out for "almost." The new phone really isn't anything like the other one. Now I need to devote an evening to checking the address book and learning the new features, like how to delete the pictures of my thumb.
Brian promised me he'd have me all set with my new phone in 10 minutes. I think he did it in less. But when it came to introducing the phone to the car, he demurred. "They won't allow us to do that," he said. He suggested I go to a Toyota dealer.
But I decided to do it myself. With phone manual in one hand and car manual in the other, I courageously attacked the task. And I was fine until I got to the part where I was supposed to enter a number in the phone. There already was a number in the phone. Panic! What if I did something irreversible? Eleven-year-olds never think this way. They just plow ahead and everything is fine. It would have been fine for me too, but I lost my nerve.
I was in the Boston suburbs at the time, so I had to find a Toyota dealer and convince someone to help me out. The salesman who jumped into the car was almost young enough to be my grandson. Delighted that I had both manuals, he declared, "This will be a snap." It was.
Struck by Lightning
Then a strike of lightning took down our satellite TV and creamed the TiVo unit. We're solidly addicted to this piece of technology. It's much cheaper than marriage counseling, which is the alternative when I want to watch skating and husband Will needs a football fix. Again, the installer said, "The remote is just like the other one." But it's not. The buttons are all in different places; they aren't even the same buttons. And the comforting sounds are gone. I had developed a Pavlovian dependence on the auditory feedback.
Bottom line, when you get older, it's exhausting climbing all those learning curves. I hope someone is working on an implant that will allow brains to get younger so we can keep up with what's coming.
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| Web Tips |
 Last month we told you about the Google calendar. But wait, there's more. Google has a similar offering for documents.
This free service (it's still in beta) allows you to access and edit documents from anywhere. Word processing, spreadsheets and presentations can all be uploaded to your Google document account. That way you can have everything with you on the road, without taking a computer.
This service is also a boon to people like me who deal with multiple versions of the same document edited by different people. It provides a good backup, too.
It will only take you a few minutes to review everything on the promo page. Be sure to watch the video. It's extremely well done and very cute at the same time. Even if you don't need it now, Google documents is a good resource to have in your back pocket.
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And Finally . . .
Shawenon Communications collaborates with small businesses, solopreneurs, professionals and not-for-profits to get their messages across in the written word.
We specialize in electronic communications, including e-zines and other forms of e-mail marketing, and Web site content. We also ghostwrite articles and other business communications. As a business partner, we resell Constant Contact's e-mail marketing service.
Thanks for reading. If you liked this issue, please click on the Forward email button below to share this newsletter with others.
You're also welcome to reprint material in this newsletter as long as it is unaltered and credited to the author. If being reproduced electronically, the following link must also be included:
www.shawenon.com
Sincerely,
Susanna Opper
Shawenon Communications
413-528-6494
Copyright © 2007 Shawenon Communications.
All rights reserved. |
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November Seminar
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These free sessions take 1 1/2 hours. If you'd like
to schedule one,
Our long-promised
on-line E-zine intro
went off without a
hitch. We'll offer
more next year.
let us know.
Sign up now for the November intro.
It will be the old-fashioned kind--
face-to-face at
our Alford offices on
November 28.
If you'd like a live session closer to you--
drop us a line
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