Yellow Dog Consulting

Sales & Marketing Consulting for solo-preneurs.

10 Content Ideas for Your Next Newsletter

by // Leave a Comment

Now more than ever it’s important to be sending out your newsletter. Your customers and clients need to know what’s going on and how they can support your business, even if you’ve had to close the doors for the time being.

I spoke about this last week at the Hillsboro Chamber and you can watch the full video on their YouTube channel. I shared some ideas for newsletter content and since I know a lot of us are at a loss for words right now, I wanted to share 10 content ideas for your next newsletter.

  1. An update – How is your business doing? How is your staff doing? We honestly want to know how you and your business are doing. Just because the door says closed doesn’t mean you aren’t hustling online or have a great new offer!
  2. Be Personal – This is up to your comfort level,  I spoke with one business owner who had taken time off right before shelter in place to be with their new grandchild and asked if it was OK to include a picture of the new baby, YES! Another client just got two new puppies which will be featured PROMINENTLY in their next newsletter. Be yourself, that’s why we work with you!
  3. Changes – what’s the new schedule? Can we take classes from you or meet via Zoom instead of in person?
  4. How can I work with you? – do you deliver now? Can I order online? Do you offer zoom meetings, pickup, private/personal shopping?
  5. Resources – One of my clients sent a variety of resources for a specific software platform all their clients use to help with the transition from office to home.
  6. Local Support – One of my clients is an essential service so they are buying lunch for the team every day from local businesses and sharing those local restaurants that are still open so their audience also knows about these great local restaurants they can support.
  7. Gift Certificates – for some businesses buying a gift certificate, or taking payments now for services in the future might help with your cashflow – make sure people know this!
  8. “Be the First to Know” – I understand not all businesses want to offer gift certificates or pre-payment, so make an “exclusive” list to be the first to know when you are taking clients/appointments again. Give them a 24 hour heads up to schedule before you send out a newsletter letting everyone on your list know you’re set.
  9. Ask for Reviews & Testimonials –  This is a great time to ask people to write that review online for you. A lot of people want to support small businesses but don’t have a budget to financially support you right now. That’s okay – making sure your reviews are strong and consistent is a great thing someone can do for you!
  10. Social Media Sharing – similar to reviews, you can ask people to help promote your business and offerings on social media. Encourage them to tag you when they get their purchase in the mail – or repost your latest social share.

I know there are a lot of other ideas for what could go into your newsletter right now – let me know what else you’ve seen in the comments!

3 Recent Mailchimp Updates That May Affect Your Business

by // Leave a Comment

3 Recent Mailchimp Updates That May Affect Your BusinessThere have been a few changes with Mailchimp lately that I recently shared with my clients and now that we’re all squared away I wanted to pass this along to you as well!

  1. Mailchimp has changed (again) what you get with your FREE account. ARG. Any NEW account from this point forward will not be able to schedule a newsletter – they just have to hit send when it’s ready to go. I chatted with Mailchimp about this and they said this will also happen if you are inactive for 12 months. SO – don’t go a whole year without talking to your audience on Mailchimp! Let me know if you have questions on this.
  2. Change to User Setup – With the last round of changes free accounts can no longer add users to their account. HOWEVER – as a Mailchimp Partner I am setup as an agency so I can be added and it won’t count against your user count. Here’s instructions for how to get this setup if we work together OR if you have another service provider who qualifies as an agency.
  3. Squarespace users – (This is unique ONLY if you have a Squarespace account, if you don’t I only had 2 points for you) If you have a subscribe form on your website and have received any emails saying that the account no longer can connect to Mailchimp – that’s correct. First do follow the instructions in the email and attempt to fix the issue. That’s worked for a couple of clients. However, my recommended work around for clients still having an issue is to setup a Zap in Zapier. You can talk with your web developer about this – let me know if you have any questions.

mailchimp partner

Like most software, change is the constant at Mailchimp. I still believe they are a great tool and resource for small business owners, AND they are a company who have mouths to feed and bills to pay. It’s a bummer that the free resources are increasingly limited, but hopefully you can work within the confines or upgrade to a paid account. Either way, I’m here to help if you need me!

5 Ethical Ways to Add Current Clients to Your List

by // Leave a Comment

5 ethical ways to add clients to your list Recently a client reached out asking for some help with adding their current client base into their newsletter. They wanted to ask them to subscribe instead of automatically adding them to the list, which I understand. In some industries this is the right way to handle it (thanks HIPPA!)

I checked in with Mailchimp on some logistics and confirmed that Mailchimp is OK with you automatically adding your clients to your list, which is great. BUT sometimes you still want to politely invite them to join your list – or as I often suggest, let them know that your feelings won’t be hurt if they unsubscribe because you automatically added them in.

Here’s 4 suggestions I made…

  1. Send an email to all clients from your email directly – not through Mailchimp. This means batching it into 100 emails at a time and BCCing them – unless your client management system will let you send emails through their system.
    • I’d keep the email simple – “We have a monthly newsletter we’d love to have you signup for to stay in touch and get updates and additional resources to supplement your work with us.”
  2. Create a basic landing page in Mailchimp for them to sign up with. You can even create a tag to properly tag them as clients when you build the page.
  3. In your initial forms when you have a new client, I would suggest you add in a “subscribe to our newsletter” checkbox and then you can add people in from there moving forward instead of having to send an email afterwards.
  4. Add a subscribe form to your email signatures – it could pitch an optin offer if you have one or just a “stay up to date” kind of blurb. Short and simple.

Here’s what we ended up doing…

We’re going to setup an automated email so whenever new clients are added into the account they will get a welcome email that thanks them for being a patient and letting them know they’re going to receive the monthly newsletter but they’re welcome to unsubscribe at any time if it’s not for them.

Welcoming your clients to your newsletter is a nice thing to do, especially if your newsletter is newer than your client list. Remember that Mailchimp is okay with you automatically adding in clients. Giving them a quick heads up is just good business etiquette!