Coaching Newsletters: Dead or Not?
What is dead: creating a generic success-is-easy newsletter for which there are too many.
What is not dead: keeping in touch with potential clients with helpful, wanted information.
What will never die: using email to keep in touch with people.
So why do people say that newsletters are dead?
Mainly for what I said at the start – there are too many generic success newsletters. General messages about success teachings might have been hot at the start of the Web when there were just a few. But, in time, as we get used to the idea of being able to reach millions, we can be very specialized and still capture a large enough audience to do business with – to coach.
A reason I would suggest skipping on doing a “newsletter-style” of staying in touch is that the concept of a newsletter can seem like an overwhelming endeavor. With an opening introduction, a featured article, side tips, special offers, and more, a new coach learning business with very limited resources can get overwhelmed with such a production.
Some tips for an effective email keep-in-touch strategy:
- Make it fun – some coaches like to speak and send videos by email
- Write short bits – some use story-like letters with insights
- Write lots of free helpful information and less blatant promotion.
- Focus on your target market – it’s easier to reach a specific group with specific needs.
- Blog – people can subscribe by email to a blog
So to summarize, the tactic of doing a generic success-coaching email newsletter may be dead, but the strategy of using email to stay in touch in a positive way is alive.
Great post, Kenn. I’ve been wondering about the effectiveness of ezines for awhile now. It was heightened when someone I follow and whose ezine I faithfully read announced that she was discontinuing the ezine. She asked her readers to sign up for her blog’s RSS feed.
However, as you point out email is an essential way to stay in touch and it’s important to find creative ways to keep our subscribers engaged in the conversation.
All the best,
Merlyn
Since e-mail has become a ‘standard’ means of communicating, we are inundated on a daily basis with far too much to read.
Accordingly, unless the newsletter is relatively short and to the point, I don’t want to bother. A good newsletter that continually adds subscribers is one that has substance – that is, not global, general material but immediately applicable and pertinent information.
Newsletters can be a great way to stay in touch IF they are used properly. I’m not overly fond of anything daily (except for a quote) and sometimes weekly seems too much. I like monthly and pertinent to either my life or my work.