NewsBusiness

OK, so you’re already convinced that writing a regular newsletter or “update” (what you call it doesn’t matter) is a great way of boosting your sales – and you’re planning to send it out to your “list” – your clients, prospects and business associates.

You know it shouldn’t be a sales letter as such, as people get pretty fed up just being sent a “10% off this week” type email, and you know it should be informative and educative… and interesting.

But you just don’t know what to write. You’ve got a classic case of writer’s block.

How do you unblock? Here are a few ideas that work for me and for other people that have to write on a regular basis.

There are really two types of writer’s block. Type one is the “what should I write about?” type block and type two is the “I know what I want to write about, I just can’t think of the right words” type block.

Type one – “what should I write about”

Ways of dealing with this:

*try to imagine yourself as an outsider to your organisation and think about what they might be interested in reading (perhaps once you have briefed them a little on your business) – you are an expert in your field, so give them the benefit of your expertise!
*same as above, but find a real outsider and ask them
*ask team members what they think – especially if they are fielding sales enquiries: what sort of questions are they being asked? (that you know the answers to) – what sort of problems are customers coming up with that you are able to solve?
*is there a current topic in the news where you have a professional opinion you’d like to share?
*take yourself outside your work environment to get a fresh perspective or get some new ideas – go for a walk/run – even just going for a drive in the car can do the trick
*sleep on it

Type two – “I just can’t think of the right words”

This is the classic writer’s block – you’re sitting at your desk, pen in hand (or laptop in front of you) and the inspiration just isn’t coming. There’s only one simple answer to this: just write something! Anything!

Sometimes it comes naturally and sometimes it doesn’t – and funnily enough the end result is always the same – the article gets written, even if you completely rewrite it, or it gets some heavy editing. A great tip is to just imagine how you would talk to someone, and write that way – conversational articles are much easier to read than technical pieces, even if they might be grammatically incorrect**!

In case you’re wondering, this article was written late yesterday evening and I re-read it this morning before running it by a colleague. It’s obviously made the grade. But have you found it useful?

*with apologies to Guy Kawasaki who – literally – did write the book
**although it pains me to say – but correct spelling is still vital

B&T magazine reported yesterday that Costco – the US retailer looking to break the Coles/Woolworths duopoly in the Australian market – is planning to use mainly PR and word-of-mouth to promote its new megastore, due to open soon in Melbourne. It has appointed a PR agency, but will not be appointing an advertising agency at all. The US parent company will run a direct mail campaign and some print advertising in the Herald Sun and The Age, but that is the extent of the advertising planned. The PR campaign will include a launch event and a press conference.

MD of Costco Australia Patrick Noone was quoted as saying

“Costco’s worldwide strategy is to promote its business through word of mouth activity and below the line activities such as PR – an approach that has been remarkably successful and led the company to become the eighth largest retailer worldwide. Rather than investing in expensive advertising campaigns, Costco directs the money saved into providing great value and price savings to their customers.”

Costco have already done a great job of publicising their imminent arrival in Australia, with multiple stories in print and on TV over the past six months or so ahead of their launch next month. Woolies and Coles had better watch out!

The latest Nielsen Global Online Consumer Survey has revealed that 90% (Australia – 93%) of people trust recommendations from people they know and 70% (Australia – 64%) trust consumer opinions posted online.

Brand websites scored a 70% trust rate (Australia – 59%) and editorial content scored 69% (Australia – 67%). No advertising scored higher than newspaper advertising at 61% (Australia – 60%) and online and mobile phone advertising got very low scores for trustworthiness. To see the full picture on a global scale visit the Nielsen blog article. The Australian data was as follows (global % in brackets):

93% Recommendations from people known (90%)
67% Editorial content (69%)
64% Consumer opinions posted online (70%)
62% Emails signed up for (54%)
60% Newspaper Ads (61%)
59% Brand websites (70%)
57% Radio Ads (55%)
57% TV Ads (62%)
54% Magazine Ads (59%)
53% Cinema Ads (52%)
23% Online Video Ads (37%)
19% Online Banner Ads (33%)
12% SMS Ads (24%)

What’s just as interesting are the discrepancies between Australians and the rest of the world!

In April this year BRW magazine published the results of its Top 50 Great Places To Work survey. Google Australia came first (no surprises there then), but in at number 7 came local Manly QLD based construction and civil engineering company BMD. With 1194 employees it’s the biggest business – in terms of number of employees – in the top ten by far. The interesting thing was reading what the employees had to say about BMD and why it is such a great place to work.

The social side of things organised by the company was very much appreciated by employees – things like interstate office sports competitions, but one remark by an employee was telling. His wife had just had a baby and, out of the blue he had a call from the person who puts together the BMD newsletter, asking the baby’s name and other details for a small piece in the publication. The employee in question was taken aback – and pleasantly surprised – that the company was that interested in what was going on in his life.

Now clearly having a newsletter alone is not going to get your organisation into the Top 50 Great Places To Work – but it’s indicative of an approach that is likely to get you there.

Company newsletters may sometimes seem a bit ‘old hat’ or superficial and boring – but they don’t need to be. A good – and regular – newsletter is a great way of communicating to staff members, particularly those that do not sit at a computer all day, and particularly where an organisation is geographically very spread out. BMD fits this category, as do many retail chains and retail franchise groups. In these sorts of organisations employees can sometimes feel cut off or not involved in what the business is doing at any level beyond their branch. A newsletter can inform and enthuse those people (again) – and occasionally pleasantly surprise them by taking an interest in what they are doing!