ezine

ezine

Written By Jeffrey Gitomer
@GITOMER

KING OF SALES, The author of seventeen best-selling books including The Sales Bible, The Little Red Book of Selling, and The Little Gold Book of Yes! Attitude. His live coaching program, Sales Mastery, is available at gitomer.me.

Ezine Format and Criteria

If you want an ezine, here is what you have to ask yourself:

  • What do we do?
  • What am I an expert at?
  • How can an ezine help my customers?
  • Who do we want to reach?
  • What value do I want to give my recipients?
  • What do I want them to do? (buy product, re-order, click through, remember me as a good guy when it’s time to reorder, help them think in new ways, answer their concerns and questions, inform them, help them build their business
  • How many do I have on my list right now?
  • How many do I expect to add this year?
  • Each year?
  • What is my expected frequency of my message? I recommend weekly.

Here are a few examples of what your message of help and support needs to be:

If you supply a product like a copier or a computer:

  • You want to stress productivity, profitability, image, and morale – the things that the use of your machine creates. You may also want to give tips in sales and service.

If you are a service like accounting:

  • You want to talk money, tax advantages, sales, service.

If you are an add-on like health insurance:

  • It’s all about health, prevention, diet, food, wellness and the things that breed life.

What can an ezine do for you?

  • It’s a value communicator.
  • It will be welcomed by customers, prospects, vendors, bankers – everyone your business touches – including your prospective customers.

What your ezine must contain things like:

  • Tip of the week
  • An article that has value to the reader
  • Answered questions
  • Guest article
  • Success story
  • Featured customer
  • Quote of the week
  • And a story or note from you
  • Information that others perceive as valuable
  • Information that’s helpful to them
  • Information that helps them build their business
  • Information that helps them make a profit or increase productivity

Here’s how to decide on an ezine:

The first question you ask yourself is: how much are my present customers worth and what am I willing to invest to keep them and keep my competition from stealing them.

The second question you ask yourself is: how much is a new customer worth, and how am I staying in front of them after my presentation?

The third question you ask yourself is: How am I differentiating myself from my competition – would an ezine help me? Easy answer to that one – suppose your competition started a real slick one tomorrow? How would you feel?

The fourth question you ask yourself is: How am I staying in front of my customers – the lifeblood of my business – with a value message? A message that makes me different from, and better than, my competition? How important is it for me to be in front of my customers and how am I doing that now?

The fifth question you ask yourself is: How professional do I want my ezine to look?