is for ...

Dear Alun

I think there is one single thing that stops people from starting up an email newsletter; the same single thing is also responsible for preventing people from publishing on a regular basis. It causes many writers to fall by the wayside and miss out on some great opportunities.

What is this one, terrible thing? Ideas! We all struggle to come up with ideas on what we can write about in our regular newsletters. If you're one of the many, this issue of the A-Z of Newsletters should really help you.

Best wishes,

Chantal

I is for Ideas

Writing a regular email newsletter, which gets read and gets results, is no easy task. However, if you can some up with plenty of great ideas on what to write about, you'll find the writing so much easier and much more effective.

How do you come up with ideas?

• What do you do? Try to list all the different aspects of what you do in your business. Break it down into areas of expertise and then split them into even more areas. For instance, if you're an accountant, you don't just do accountants. You might do bookkeeping, payroll, budgeting, forecasting ... Trying to write about everything in one issue makes for a very long issue, so pick one topic each time and go into detail about it.

• How do I do that? Think about the 'how' questions that your clients and prospects ask you. For example, if you're a chiropractor, you might get asked "How can I stop my back from hurting?" or "How can I prevent this from happening again?" Write up the answers and you'll find you have issues of your newsletter.

• Start a Series. Even I get stuck for ideas now and then, which I why I started writing an A-Z of Newsletters last year. When I sit down to write, I often don't have many ideas of what to write about, but the letter gives me inspiration. You don't have to write a 26 part series. You could do something seasonal (12 monthly issues) or pick one topic, split it into 3-4 topics and write about each one in depth.

The other thing you can always do to help generate ideas is ask your readers. What do you need help with? What would you like me to write about in the next few issues of the A-Z of Newsletters, for J, K, L and M? Click here to let me know.

I is also for Inspiration - want some Free Ideas?

If you've been reading the A-Z of Newsletters over the last few months, you'll know by now that I'm running a workshop on 6 December all about How Not to Do Newsletters, in Grove in Oxfordshire. We'll be looking at more ways of coming up with great ideas for your newsletter.

As I write this, the workshop is only two days away and I have a very special offer for readers of the A-Z of Newsletters. I have five free places to give away! They have already been paid for by people who now can't attend, so these places, worth £47 each, are up for grabs. If you'd like to stay on for lunch and the clinic, where you'll get some personal help (and for which I have just a few places left) the cost will be just £23.50, but the three hour workshop is still completely free.

How do you claim a place? Just click here to email me and the first five responses I get will be sent the details of the workshop. Reply to let me know you'd like to attend and your place will be secure. What are you waiting for?

Need more Inspiration?

Take a look at www.JustAddContent.co.uk/examples.php to see what members of the JAC club are writing about. This is a collection of really fantastic newsletter, full of ideas and inspiration.