South African businesses will shock you.
There’s some that have run for 10+ years, amassed thousands of customers, date-stamped, tabulated and organized alphabetically –
But, these customers have yet to get their newsletter!
We get that writing newsletters and promotional emails isn’t as simple as we think. I mean, ever heard of writer’s block?
What we’re really discussing here is the action of reaching out to your customers. And the fear of doing that.
If you’re a small business, you might already be doing this with phone-calls (unless you’re a retail company with a gajillion customers on record.)
If you’re terrified of reaching out at all and this just feels like yet another hurdle to overcome in your business… Here are 3 ways to overcome the fear and write a newsletter to your customers.
1. Decide – What Message Do You Want Sent Out?
Our marketplace thrives on communication.
Regardless of whether we are or aren’t sending out constant mailers, SMS’s or making phone calls – a message is being sent.
It’s a conundrum. We know.
By reaching out, you are saying: “Mr Customer, I am interested in reaching out to you.”
By not reaching out, you are stating: “Mr Customer, I am not interested in reaching out to you.”
Either way, you’re putting a message out to your customers. You get to choose what that is…
2. Decide – What Topic Do You Want To Focus On?
And write it down…
Deciding what you want to speak about makes thinking more streamlined.
The human brain is strange. It’s tends to work on its own.
Aligning your thoughts into a direction will take you in that direction, automatically! Thoughts and ideas will rise up when you least expect it, surrounding the topic you have chosen.
3. Create – What’s Your Structure For Writing?
Once you have a topic, you reach your next step…
You need a structure to follow. One that doesn’t take “no” for an answer…
Prolific writers and artists recognize that it takes action, and outcomes to create motivation.
As opposed to waiting for inspiration… Creating a ritualized schedule to follow, that is adhered to, no matter what, guarantees an expected outcome.
How did it go? Did coffee help? How about two spoons of sugar? Data, information, results… This is what a structure allows for.
So set your clock for 6am and set a writing time, if need be. And essentially… Get to work.
As Stephen King puts it, “Don’t get it right. Get it written.”
