For Those Who Want to Start a Newsletter

[scagnt83]

Canned content is useless and a waste of time. If you arent going to do something right then dont do it at all.

The people I know who are successful with their website or newsletter create original content. I have never known an agent who received a decent ROI using canned content.

When I am sent a newsletter that is clearly just stock prewritten canned content. I immediately unsubscribe. I dont care what other people have to say... I want to know what YOU have to say. If I use your service, the person writing the canned content will not be speaking to me, YOU will.

 

[jbalkin]

Great post, Cash. I wish I'd known half of that when I started working here....

Putting my two cents in, newsletters can be great for both bringing in new clients and bringing back old ones. Lately we've started several new calling and email marketing programs that way. In fact, it works well enough that we now offer a newsletter service for agents to send to their prospects and clients.

Which brings me to my question. A lot of you mentioned canned content, and I'm curious about what precisely you mean. Do you just mean boring boilerplate crap, or all content that's written for a large group rather than a specific prospect? I mean, on the one hand, we try to make our newsletters (the ones targeted at insurance clients) a mix of topical stuff and practical advice, insurance-specific stuff and general business stuff, we don't write the articles months in advance, and our content is original. On the other, it is a service that we offer to more than agency, and we're a marketing company. Would you call that canned?

This is the most recent issue...if anyone wants to weigh in, I'd love to get your take on it.

 

[DHK]

To me, "canned content" is:
Liberty Publishing, Inc. | Financial Planning & Insurance — Newsletters

Newsletters

In fact, we can learn a lot from e-relationship:
e-Relationship®

On that link, it states that the like-ability generators generate the highest response of 4.64%. Why?

People buy from people they like, and non-business touch points elevate you above your product or service. They help the agent out-class the competition and are viewed as more genuine and caring - elements that eventually create emotional safety and likeability. Using likeability generators creates appreciation and increases response percentages to e-storyboards and e-checklists, all leading to increased appointments and sales.

Canned newsletters deliver that .01%

Websites, newsletters and
articles are written to educate.
They are valuable for building validation but they don't create responses for appointments. Though they are not lead appointment generators, they do have their place in marketing - mostly to build and maintain a professional reputation. E-Relationship helps agents send e-articles, e-links to their websites, e-announcements and provides the ability to print labels for postal mailings.

One reason I'm considering Forefield newsletters is because I can insert my own feature article in each one. The rest of it may be canned, but I can still have a "letter" in each one. Oh, and if I want to, they'll print and send it for me... or manage my entire email distribution list.

Forefield Newsletter | Forefield /Broadridge | Forefield

But they key to newsletters is this:

The most effective and affordable client newsletters for insurance agents and financial advisors

The newsletter is designed so that your clients and prospects will believe that you wrote it. This provides you with instant credibility and makes you the expert.

Important Tip - The Most Effective Newsletters...

An effective newsletter MUST be designed to get people to TAKE ACTION and DO SOMETHING! In other words, it cannot have boring articles about how great you are or how big your company is or how you guys are 'number one.' It cannot be about your products or investment returns (or whatever)!

It cannot have slogans as centerpieces. Things like, "We never give up when it comes to your insurance needs!" or, "Don't make a move without us!" It cannot use recipes!

We have learned that expensive "image" or "name recognition" "professional-looking" newsletters - obviously not written by me - look good but yield poor results when compared to the results achieved by a warm, personal newsletter.

In fact, our tests have proven that a "home-made" looking newsletter (the more "home-made" looking, the better) full of juicy, time-saving and money-saving information (instead of boring stuff or clever cliches) is TWELVE times more effective, dollar for dollar, than a high-gloss, "professional" newsletter obviously prepared by an advertising agency.

I'm still "battling" with myself over those last parts because Forefield makes a very impressive newsletter... but after the feature article I'd write, it definitely wouldn't look like or sound like *I* wrote it.

 

[jbalkin]

Thanks, DHK! We're definitely trying to be something that Liberty is not. And we also handle email lists/sends and allow clients to add their own articles, so I guess we're on the right track. Wooo! But trying to make it look like you wrote it yourself...that is a sticky wicket. I guess it comes down to how much time you'd save having someone do the newsletter for you versus how many more clients you think you'll attract/retain by doing it yourself. Forefield looks good; looking forward to hearing your thoughts on it if you decide to go work with them.

 

[DHK]

jbalkin,

As far as reviewing your newsletter... that initial picture sure got my attention... but after that, your newsletter is pretty long for an email format.

What I liked about Kstein's newsletter is that it's short, lots of white space, discussed ONE primary topic, and then a short personal note about THEM.

For something longer, like yours, I'd "introduce" the content in the newsletter. "This month, we are covering topics 1, 2, and 3." You could put something like that in the side-bar, so we can get a quick preview of the content and skip to what interests us the most. In fact, something like that would help us "be more productive" while we read your newsletter!

Just some thoughts.

 

[Cash]

Great post, Cash. I wish I'd known half of that when I started working here....

Putting my two cents in, newsletters can be great for both bringing in new clients and bringing back old ones. Lately we've started several new calling and email marketing programs that way. In fact, it works well enough that we now offer a newsletter service for agents to send to their prospects and clients.

Which brings me to my question. A lot of you mentioned canned content, and I'm curious about what precisely you mean. Do you just mean boring boilerplate crap, or all content that's written for a large group rather than a specific prospect? I mean, on the one hand, we try to make our newsletters (the ones targeted at insurance clients) a mix of topical stuff and practical advice, insurance-specific stuff and general business stuff, we don't write the articles months in advance, and our content is original. On the other, it is a service that we offer to more than agency, and we're a marketing company. Would you call that canned?

This is the most recent issue...if anyone wants to weigh in, I'd love to get your take on it.

Yeah, that would definitely be considered "canned" content. The font is way to small. I have 20/15 vision and it was too small for me.

Also, it is way too long. Very few people are getting past the productivity article. Most are going to hit delete without reading a word once they see the font size and length of the article.

Also, the stories themselves are pretty lame. The invisible disability? Nobody wants to read that unless the disability involves having a third arm or some other freak of nature.

I would keep working at it and implement some of the things I said above. Fix a few things and it will really improve your newsletter.

 

[scagnt83]

I think that case studies are one of the most effective ways to communicate what you do. Prospects have a hard time visualizing what we do and how it relates to them. But when they see the end results for someone in their exact same position that resonates.

I have a group of 3 clients who are all friends. I gained the first on my own but the other 2 were referrals from the first. We all 4 went to play golf one day and they couldnt stop talking about some real estate investment newsletter that they all subscribed to and the recent case study. They sent it to me the next day and it was about someone in the exact same demographic as they are. What resonated is that they felt seeing a real life example was more relevant than just general info. 2 out of the 3 ended up speaking to the real estate agent and 1 ended up purchasing a property to invest in.

But the newsletter was easy to read, no longer than 4 or 5 minutes max, and was to the point.

Imo, if you are writing about things that you dont sell its a waste of your time. Provide links to other articles if you want antidotel value. MedAmerica does that and I actually enjoy it. But Im also not forced to read it as part of their weekly newsletter if I dont want to. And it lets them concentrate on writing about what they know best (LTCI)