Greetings,
We made it! The holidays are over, and it's back to work with a vengeance. I love this time of year. It's when my phone rings because people are ready to get to work--even house-related projects are in motion. January and September are the big "get it done" months. So get out there and get it done.
In the spirit of forward motion, the first article answers some frequently asked questions from readers. The questions are interesting in their own right, but the article also demonstrates how you can use your own customer questions as fodder for your newsletter content.
The second article is about addiction--our addiction to the Internet and the pain of sudden withdrawal. But the story has a happy ending. Read it to find out about some very innovative technology.
My first gig of the year was facilitating the January Berkshire Enterprises breakfast forum held in Pittsfield, MA. The session, entitled "Out of Sight, Out of Mind--Maintaining Continual Contact with Customers and Prospects" was a discussion of ways in which businesses can stay in touch with customers.
The group generated a list of nearly 20 items and discussed them in depth. Of course, I had a word or two to say about e-zines. These monthly sessions are open to the Berkshire business public and are facilitated by a local expert on the topic. To be added to the mailing list, contact Steve Fogel.
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FAQs
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One of the best ways to get content for your e-zine is to listen to your customers and prospects. Chances are you already do that--you're listening for their needs and concerns and focusing on how your product or service can do what they need or want. If you listen for the specific questions they ask, you'll get ideas for articles.
I decided to take a page from my own book and mention some FAQs (frequently asked questions) of my own.
Q: I'm thinking of using my photo only in the first issue of my newsletter. What do you think about that?
As you know, I put my photo in every issue of Web Words. I do change the picture every couple of months for variety and seasonality. Here's why I think the photo is a good idea.
Every month I add 10 or 20 or 30 new names to my mailing list. For the most part, these are people I've met at networking events or who attended one of my presentations. I'm very careful to get permission before adding anyone to my mailing list, and I think the photo will help them to associate receiving the newsletter with meeting me.
Also, effective e-zines are very personal, so I think seeing a photo of you helps people to hear you speaking as they read your newsletter.
What do you think? Should the questioner include a photo in every issue of his newsletter?
Q: I'm planning to put several e-mail contacts in my newsletter, such as info@mycompany.com and newsletter@mycompany.com to make people think I'm not just a one-person shop?
You are what you are. I specialize in working with solopreneurs
--consultants and other practitioners who work on their own. I'm in that category myself. I don't think you get very far giving the impression that you have employees, when a little due diligence on the reader's part will show that you don't. It's OK if they don't hire you because you're a small company, but you don't want them to avoid doing business with you because you use deceptive tactics.
Do you agree with my advice? What counsel would you offer?
Q: I'm going to include an e-zine signup link on my Web site. In order to follow-up later on, I'd like to collect as much information as I can from people who sign up, but I don't want to overdo it. What do you recommend?
Constant Contact provides the facility to link an e-mail signup on your Web site to their system. The only required field is e-mail address, but, of course, you would require the first and last name and perhaps the company name. You can also ask for phone numbers, address information and anything else you want up to 15 customized questions.
The issue is, should you? Will this turn people off?
I'd be cautious about asking for a lot of unnecessary information at this stage. Perhaps an optional phone number is a good idea. But once you have their e-mail, you can always follow-up with a personal e-mail or even a survey.
How do you feel? How many questions are you willing to answer when you sign up for an e-zine?
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Lights Out
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We didn't have a white Christmas after all. Instead, the precip came down as rain, washing away what was left of the previous week's snow.
But we had a glorious white New Years, as you can see in this photo of a nearby barn. I don't know the exact amount, but it must have been close to 15 inches. I was delighted, until I went upstairs to the office on New Year's Day and there were three blue lights missing on the satellite modem.
The ones that were lighted indicated we hadn't lost power. I already knew that. But what we had lost was our Internet connection. Those 15 inches of snow were piled on our dish--cutting us off from e-mail and the World Wide Web.
Out of Sorts
It was a holiday after all, so you wouldn't think it would make that much difference. I thought I understood the depth of my dependence on the Internet--for communications and information. But I didn't fully understand how compelling my emotional dependence was until the second and the third days passed. I missed e-mail. On more than one occasion, I put my foot on the stairs. "I'll just run upstairs and check the mail." But no--the lights were still out.
Even though it was a holiday, I was working on a deadline project for a client. But it wasn't only the business-related e-mail, it was more the sense of connection. Here in the bucolic hills of Western Massachusetts, I might have felt isolated before the Web became ubiquitous. But now I'm in constant communication with everyone. I'm no more isolated than I was in my mid-town Manhattan apartment back in my big-city days.
I found I was dependent on the Web for everything. Maybe we'll go to a movie, but how do we get the schedule? the weather? information for a client's web site? I'm all for the one laptop project, but it means the whole world will have this insatiable Web urge--like a planet full of addicts whose habit is socially condoned and fed constantly from every source.
The Solution
A decade ago, before there was global addiction to electronic communication, I wrote a book chapter entitled "Staying Human in a Machine-Dominated World." It addresses the galactic explosion of information that humans deal with today, compared with the Middle Ages. And speaking of the Middle Ages, the solution to our outage came from that era. A strong man with a ladder climbed up on the roof with a long-handled broom and dusted the snow off the dish. It's worked fine ever since.
A few days after New Years, Crispin Tresp and Adam Goodman from WiSpring showed up in a truck with a computer inside. It took them just a few minutes to hoist something that looked like a smaller version of an old-fashioned TV antenna up in the air on a long rod.
"This is a great signal," Crispin said with a wide grin. So very soon, we're getting high-speed access for real. A fixed wireless broadband system using radio signals bouncing off a repeater on a mountain 2 ½ miles from our house will give us access no matter what the weather does.
Who said American ingenuity is dead?
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| Web Tips |
 And speaking of addictions, I need your help to get me off my Google kick in Web Tips. Here's the next in the Google series, but please, please send me your favorite Web tips, so I can kick the habit. If published, you'll get credit and a link to your e-mail or Web site, as you wish.
Checkout Google Earth. It combines the power of Google Search with satellite imagery, maps, terrain and 3D buildings to put the world's geographic information at your fingertips.
- Fly to your house. Just type in an address, press Search, and you'll zoom right in.
- Search for schools, parks, restaurants, and hotels. Get driving directions.
- Tilt and rotate the view to see 3D terrain and buildings
- Save and share your searches and favorites.
In the latest version, you can even explore the universe--stars, moons and constellations. They should rename it Google Earth and Sky!
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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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To learn how to use it, join us on Feb. 5 at our Alford offices for our very first survey roundtable.
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