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Top relationship building tips for super responsive newsletters.
Relationship building is a magical ability that is the sum of many factors. To be truly effective, you have to combine honesty and reliability with trustworthiness. Throw in a degree of outspokenness, a good measure of charm and the ability to demonstrate empathy with your reader. Some of these attributes are hard to learn if you don't naturally have them, but until you do, your career as a writer of ezines and newsletters may be a struggle.
However, there are important factors that you can learn to put you ahead of the crowd as far as building great relationships with your readers is concerned. This is my own take on some of them that you can start doing right away.
The absolute number one secret - and if you stop reading this article before the end the vital information you must take a way with you - is that you can't build a relationship with a list. Relationships are for people. You and me.
My newsletter, Kickstart Today, is read by thousands of people. But it is only ever written to one. Sometimes that one person is my daughter, who I know reads it at work. Sometimes it is my friend Barrie, who may have said something that sparked an idea for an article. Often it is to one of my readers who I've never met, but who emailed with a comment, question or suggestion.
There are hundreds of other people who have written to me over the years and told me what they like and dislike, what their problems are and what they need to know. So when I'm writing about a particular subject it is easy for me to imagine that I'm writing it for that one specific person.
Then, the funny thing is that I get emails from all kinds of other people saying 'how did you know that that was *exactly* what I wanted to hear?' Like astrological star signs there are only so many problems to go round. Write about one and you'll resonate with hundreds of people.
The more you can make your writing appear to be one-to-one, the more of your readers will imagine themselves as the one you are talking to. It is like a whispered aside in a real conversation - it makes the listener feel special.
Well-meaning experts, who often pontificate about online writing techniques, love to trot out a couple of 'truths':
1. People don't want to hear about you - write about them.
2. Sell something to your list every message to 'train' them to be more receptive.
In my view, both bits of advice are utter rubbish from a relationship building point of view.
Ask yourself this question: when did you last establish a relationship with a text book? The much quoted ratio of one 'I' to every five 'you's' will lead you to a style of writing that may be informative, but is not personal. As well as the good information you have to provide, your readers want to know about you and your life - witness the rise in popularity of blogs.
Many years of writing over 800 editions of my newsletters has taught me that readers expect the core information - the things that your newsletter is supposed to be about - but thoroughly enjoy the real-life stories about family, health and visits to the movies. The stuff that relates to their own lives is what brings in the most response.
A good newsletter is like a soap opera - it draws the reader into the life of the writer and makes him or her eager to know more.
Subscribers may say that they want the important content and nothing but the important content, but my experience clearly shows that it is the day-to-day life stuff you write about that really connects.
As to trying to sell them stuff every time you write ... well, that is very dangerous unless you can pull it off with a a lot of charm.
You will sometimes find a newsletter writer who has mastered the art of the constant hard sell, but most who try it just end up looking over-eager to grab your money.
When I write my own newsletters, Kickstart Today in particular, I can sometimes go several weeks without recommending anything at all. After all, if I haven't been using or reading something worth telling people about it is usually best to keep quiet! That way, when I do mention something that I genuinely recommend, the response is excellent.
Another important aspect to relationship building is how frequently you publish.
Many ezines and newsletters publish monthly - way to infrequently, in my view, for serious relationship building. Even weekly publication can be slow if you are not a strong and personal writer.
Once the writing bug gets to you and words begin to flow naturally, you may want to consider publishing at least twice a week. My own Kickstart Today started out life as a five times a week publication and the biggest complaints I ever got was when I reduced to 'just' three times a week!
So long as you hold your readers' attention, the only complaints you'll get will be when you miss an issue.
Of course, if your newsletter is full of other people's writing and doesn't have a personal style, then very frequent publication may be a bad thing for you.
On that subject, a lot of publishers still use guest articles. While that isn't necessarily a bad thing, the best writing by far that you can publish is your own. As you build your relationship with your readers they will want to hear about you, your life and what you think. If you are going to effectively give them that, you just have to get on and learn to write. Or more accurately, learn to communicate.
And when you do start learning to write, forget most of the rubbish that you learned in school or business. Write like you'd talk to a close friend, not to your teacher or business client.
The kind of writing that really builds relationships sounds natural when you read it out loud. Sentences start with and, words are contracted and the tone is informal.
Which brings us full circle. Write as you would talk to a close friend who is sitting in front of you. You don't hard sell your friends and you don't worry too much about perfect sentence construction. It is all about communicating a message - and my message to you is that relationship building is only effective when you do it one person at a time.
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