Writing E-Newsletters for B2B
Welcome back to Chicago!
Yesterday, I showed you how simple case study work could help you make major progress toward a six-figure income as a B2B writer.
Today, I'd like to share another kind of foundational B2B writing project businesses need done on a consistent basis — and they'll pay you very well to do it for them.
The expert in this space is Michael Katz, publisher of “The Likeable Expert Gazette.” He's got a special gift for helping small business owners shine using e-newsletters.
According to Michael, successful e-newsletters aren't complicated.
They start with what he calls his hippos — the major buckets of knowledge you need to build a great e-newsletter for your clients.
The first hippo is what your client knows — their company's personal area of expertise. The second hippo represents the ideal customer.
You have to flesh out both hippos before you get going to ensure a solid connection between the “expert” and the “prospect” in the newsletter. Managing your hippos right also helps keep the right balance of information for prospects and business promotion in each mailing.
Now, you could spend hours agonizing over this — but Michael made it simple. He explained the best way to build a prospect profile and help your client uncover their unique voice and expertise. This lets you help clients “be themselves” and be comfortable as they're marketing — something that makes you a hero in your client's eyes no matter what kind of writing you do.
Plus, Michael revealed his seven secrets to an effective e-newsletter and the skeleton he uses to build e-newsletters quickly. With before-and-after examples, he showed how little things can make a big difference in how your client looks to customers. If you skip steps — or forget to flesh out one of the hippos — things break down and the newsletter flops.
Use his system correctly and you get more connections, more sales, and ultimately, more clients.
And not just any clients — loyal clients who want you on retainer so their newsletter goes out on time, every time.
That's huge for a writer just starting out. You get to jump off the feast-or-famine cycle and count on a regular income each month … and the more newsletters you write, the bigger your regular income.
How much can you make? Well, just look at your inbox. Tell me how many professional newsletters you get every day. Or in a week.
Every one of them is a job for a writer. Some pay a few hundred dollars an issue … others pay well over $1,000. But Michael says writing a newsletter takes him less than a day of work … allowing him to do multiple newsletters a week.
As a result, Michael makes a very healthy living specializing in e-newsletters.
So take a second look at the e-newsletters in your inbox. How many are there? Do you think you could write one yourself, if someone showed you the system? What kind of newsletters would suit you best? Put a note in the comments and let me know.
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Definitely! Let's do this! Perfect addition to email copy niche.
Guest (Jonathan Davis) – July 23, 2013 at 9:45 am