Whether designed to connect with customers, deliver industry news, chum for prospects or update employees and business partners, newsletters have been in the communication tool kit for years.  Newsletters used to be solely in print. An issue could take hours to write, lay out and proof, then they were sent off to the printer for a day or three before they were ready to distribute. Depending on the size of distribution, they could be pricey to print, too.

When newsletters are done well, people read them. I remember a print newsletter that used to come from our trash disposal company. Each month it arrived with names of three customers embedded somewhere in the text.  If you found your name and contacted the company, you got a free month of trash service. I read it.

We do a lot of newsletters for customers – about 18 each month, some months more. We don’t do many print newsletters.  In fact we usually discourage them. Email is the vehicle of choice today.  Yes, most of us get a lot email, but if you design and write your newsletter well, people will read them.

We create newsletters with several objectives:

- inviting, attractive design

- concise, sharp content

- rewarding the reader

The design should reflect the client’s brand and personality.  Most email newsletter tools (Emma, Constant Contact, Mailchimp, etc.) are more limited in design capabilities than print, but if you are creative and know a trick or two, they can be eye-catching.

You can provide good quality information and can keep the length of the document manageable by linking to the full articles from the newsletter. Those links can take people to your website or to pertinent industry articles.

People want something for their time, so give it to them.  Offer relevant, fresh information, not a rehash of old news. If you have an offer or special, give it to your loyal readers. People will read your stuff if they feel it is worth their time or saves them money.

Most of the time we see open rates above the industry averages for our clients’ newsletters. I believe this is a reflection of the quality of the design and content.

Email newsletters can be done quickly and cost-effectively, unlike their print ancestors. Done well, they are a great tool for maintaining relationships, informing people and getting attention.

Mark Stevens, in Your Marketing Sucks, says if you are spending money on marketing that is not growing your business, then you have, in his words, marketing that sucks. While I have just started the book, he makes some points that I completely agree with, and points that jump out at me on the heels of the Super Bowl ad frenzy. Namely, Stevens says if the ad agency you use applies for – and uses in its marketing – industry awards such as Clios, dump them. He says it is a sign they are more focused on their business than yours.

Later in the book, Stevens has a chapter titled “Nothing happens until a sale is made,” a phrase he borrows from Tom Watson of IBM. My sentiment entirely. I haven’t read the chapter, but I get it. When I picked up the Wall Street Journal the day after the Super Bowl, I loved reading the highlights of the ad wars and not whether Wesley Welker’s dropped pass cost the Pats the game. Who won? Who lost? And who is making the judgment anyway on who won or lost one day after the game?

The WSJ article lede: “Clint Eastwood has made Chrysler’s day.” Really? Did Chrysler sell thousands of cars hours after the game, which clearly would make the $14 million ad a success?

“Powerful and one of the best Super Bowl ads EVER,” according to a managing director of a Landor New York (must know what he’s talking about since his firm’s name is followed by New York), a branding firm (ad agency is so yesterday).

Not to be outdone by the hype, a chief executive officer of Digo, a digital marketing firm, said: “Car makers are now among the pantheon of Super Bowl advertisers.”

Wow. Them’s big words for ads that have not sold one thing yet.

More: “Fantastic. This is what a Super Bowl ad should look like,” said a former chairman of Lowe New York (there’s that NAME City thing again) on an ad featuring two comedians of yesteryear, Jerry Seinfeld and Jay Leno. What bothers me is that good ads should stand out and move people to do something, not meet some idea of what an ad guy thinks a Super Bowl ad should be.

“EPIC,” says a copywriter from another New York ad firm (must be the only city with people doing creative) when describing a GM ad.

And the praise, by ad people about ads created by competitive firms, continues to be heaped on like make-up on Madonna. Although, some ads fell short, we are sad to learn. GE’s, Teleflora’s, Century 21’s and others simply flopped, more New York and Los Angeles ad “gurus” tell us.

I say avoid the selection of winners and losers hours after the Super Bowl, and check back in at intervals of 30, 60, 180 or 360 days. We will not know who won or lost until the sales data is in. As Stevens says: “When you invest marketing dollars, making the sale is the only acceptable return on investment.” Now that’s a winner, in my book.

We discussed in a previous post why it’s important to manage your online image, but let’s talk about why Yelp stands out. Companies sometimes balk at getting involved with Yelp, wondering if it’s really worth their time or if they can just ignore the one-star diatribe from Henry M. and maybe it will go away.

The answer is that Yelp isn’t going away. For companies in service industries in particular, the site is too ubiquitous to ignore. Earlier this year, Yelp passed 41 million monthly visitors who have written more than 15 million reviews. That’s a lot of people basing their opinions of your business on the number of stars in your rating.

It’s important to remember that there are two sides to Yelp – the customer who takes the time to write a review and the customer who is checking out star ratings to decide where to eat or get their hair cut. Engaging on Yelp isn’t about giving power to the angry customer – it’s about showing your other customers what your business is all about so they can draw their own conclusions.

So how can you leverage all those visits and reviews to help your business?

1. Claim

The first step is to claim your business page. Go to Yelp.com, find your business page and look for the small text link that says “Work here? Unlock the Business Page.” It can usually be found beneath the business information.

Follow the steps to claim the page, making sure to use a stable email address. You will need to have access to the business telephone, as Yelp will robo-call the phone to verify ownership.

2. Prepare

Put together a plan. Who will be the point person responsible for monitoring the account? How often will they log in to engage customers? Which types of reviews warrant private or public responses? Will your business pay to upgrade to a slideshow, run Deals or use Ads? How should you publicize your page to your customers? Your PR professional or marketing team can help you come up with the best engagement strategy for your business.

3. Engage

Execute your plan and make sure you stick with it. If you say you’re going to log in three times a week, don’t engage five times a week for the first month and then forget a month. Stay consistent. It’s natural to become personally invested in the reviews, even defensive, but remind yourself to stay with your strategy, especially regarding which reviews merit responses. It doesn’t help your image to respond in kind to a critical reviewer, even if they did “get it wrong.”

4. Keep at it

Consistency and a long-term view are crucial. You won’t raise your star rating or flood your page with reviews overnight. Getting the word out about your page and encouraging customers to visit and review will help boost your numbers. Remember to stay positive – thoughtful reviews from diligent Yelpers count for more in the Yelp community than a review from one irascible customer who signed up just to post a rant. The more you are engaged with the Yelp community and your customers, the more success you’ll start to see.

With so many social media platforms, review sites and business listings out there, controlling your online presence can feel like plugging leaks in a dam with your fingers.

Since consumers increasingly rely on the wisdom of the crowd to make decisions, businesses need to know what the crowd sees and thinks. This is especially critical for restaurants, retailers and service providers, but useful for other industries as well.

Here are four reasons why you should understand and control your online image.

1.       Put accurate information out there.

If you are not in control of your content on sites such as Yelp, Foursquare or Google Places, your customers can and will put up information about your business that they believe to be true. “We don’t manage our page,” will not mollify an angry customer who showed up an hour after closing based on faulty information on Yelp.

By claiming your Yelp Business page or managing your Foursquare Venue page, you can ensure customers have accurate information about hours, location and services provided.

2.       Track and engage.

On sites with check-in features, such as Facebook and Foursquare, managing the business page lets you see how many people are checking in at your business. Each check-in promotes your business across the site to the user’s friends.

With a review site like Yelp, claiming the business page lets you receive alerts when site users post reviews. A savvy page manager can engage with customers by sending them private or public messages about their reviews, encouraging feedback and being first on the scene to remedy misunderstandings.

3.       Online advertising platforms.

Both review sites like Yelp and social media platforms like Facebook and Foursquare offer unique opportunities for targeted ads and promotions. Knowing how to fully utilize these sites means that you can market directly to users who will actively engage with your business.

4.       It’s easy and informative.

On most sites it is easy to register and free to manage the business page. Most sites also offer tracking to help you learn more about your customer – for instance, Foursquare breaks down users who check-in by gender and age, and Yelp allows you to see what other businesses reviewers are visiting.

Maintenance of the business page can be as easy as an automated email report in your inbox daily, weekly or monthly. You only have to log in if the business information changes significantly.

Pivot is experienced at managing a variety of social media and review sites. Call or email us to learn more about the importance of controlling your online presence.

Pivot client Stephanie Klein, the President and CEO of the Boomer Group staffing firm in Denver, is making great strides by marketing herself and her company on Twitter (www.twitter.com/boomergroup).

Stephanie’s building a nice following and exchanging ideas with others in the world of staffing and HR – a field that relies heavily on networking and contacts. And she’s doing it without spending hours a week on Twitter. The plan she follows is simple.

Read more »

Email newsletters–when well-written, visually stimulating and informative–are a cost-effective way to communicate with an audience. A few simple steps can help extend the life of an e-newsletter, compounding the return for your effort to create emails that people will actually open. Read more »