Pinoy Entrep

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?

Most pictures of products look less than exciting and most pictures of services look unrealistic. Unless your readers are so detail oriented that they love to be called bean counters or geeks, specs are boring. Bullet points are black, blank dots, not round smiling faces. And I dont mean to imply that you change any bullet points in your article to an Internet Messenger smiley face icon either. But I dont recommend you turn a Products or Services article into something friendly. Your friends are most often people you share a common interest with. When you talk to them do you shout headlines and bullet points at them, or do you get real and personal? Do you give your opinion with real emotion, supporting facts as well as personal opinion? Of course you do. And because you are talking one on one, that person feels the connection. Your articles need that same connection.

How can you make a Products or Services article personal? Dig up a customer or someone in your firm that has a story to tell about the product or service. I promise you someone does. Ask the sales people or the customer support staff for starters. Maybe the story is about an unexpected use or bonus. Maybe the sales or installation process had an unusual twist. Remember even an emergency scenario that turned out positively makes for a great article that people will read. After all people today cant get enough reality TV. Did anything go wrong that was fixed so that it demonstrated your, or the manufacturers, level of service or quality control? If you get the story from a client, find out if they would be willing to write a paragraph about it for you? All you have to do is ask and most clients are more than willing.

Just ask your staff or get your staff to ask your best customers. Make sure you get the whole story, including a quote or two you can use. Real quotes, like They were in and out in less than an hour and even brought donuts for the whole office, not manufactured things like It was the best product I ever tried and the company was very professional. Record the conversation if possible to keep the story straight. Dont worry about your staffs reluctance. Get one person to do it and the rest will come around when they see their co-workers name in print and they attention hell be getting from it.

Now Im not saying that listing features (even as bullet points) isnt important, Im just saying that too many details muddy the water in a newsletter, when there is a PERFECT way (at least with an electronic newsletter) to dispense that information after you engender interest in the product. With an email newsletter, you can insert a hyperlink that will take the reader to your web site or open a PDF file stored on your server.

With an email newsletter, you can send readers to custom landing pages and even allow them to see video demos or request that your sales people 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.