E-mail Newsletter, Blog and Facebook Guidelines

Successful newsletters, blogs and Facebook pages have one thing in common.  They focus on providing a service to the reader…NOT on promoting the sender’s business. I know this sounds backwards, but it’s true. People will not read your posts regularly if all you have is what’s on sale and information about you and your success.  They want to learn more about things that will help them.

If you want your newsletter, blog or Facebook page to be a massive success, you should try to make it VALUABLE to the readers with the hope that they will pass it around to all their friends. Provide informational articles, links and headlines, even videos that will help the readers with their business.  This might be anything from highlighting a new product or technology available, or new methods of doing things. Even tax information or investing, and law changes are fine.

Focus on educating the reader, not selling to them, and you will set yourself up as an expert in the field. That way , when the person is ready to do something, who do they want? The guy in the phone book or the expert who's helped them all year? The expert, of course!

This doesn't mean you can never promote your business, sure you can, but it should not be the main focus.  If you have some item on sale that you want people to know about, or a coupon or discount, by all means, add it!  Just don't make this the ONLY thing  you ever talk about.
 If your campaign is aimed at both prospects and clients, try to provide a balance of information directed at both groups.


Link back to your website frequently, including not just the home page, but the contact page, any particular services and products you offer, and your other social media sites.  These should be placed in a regular location that is easy to spot so frequent visitors always know where to go and don't have to look around for your information.

Occasionally include links to specific pages on your website, blog and social media pages in the content as well.  For example, if your Facebook post is about a free e-book you wrote, include a link to it right in the post.  And speaking of e-books, these are GREAT marketing tools.  People love free things.

Include a call to action in every newsletter, every month in a blog, and every two weeks on a Facebook page. You have to ASK for a response. Tell the reader what you want to do.
Make a schedule and keep it!  Be consistent and post frequently!  The success of Social Media marketing is direction proportional to the number and quality of your posts.  Try to post to Facebook daily or at least every other day.  Blogs should be posted to at least weekly but preferably bi-weekly.  Monthly newsletters should be sent out near the same time each month, say every first Tuesday.

Track your results! Keep a chart in excel and download Google Analytics results and page insights and gauge your success over several weeks.  Be patient. Don't give up if you don't see immediate results.  Give yourself time to build a following.