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4 STEPS TO REBOOT AND GROW AFTER THE PANDEMIC IS OVER!
INSIDE THIS ISSUE:
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What Partnerships Can Do for Your Business Work This Marketing Checklist A Review of ‘HBR’s 10 Must Reads on Managing a Downturn’ You’ll Need This Software to Survive the Chaos
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Meet Marce Avalos Learn Something New With MasterClass
APPLY FOR THE PAYCHECK PROTECTION PROGRAM (PPP). If you haven’t already done so, then you need to make sure you apply immediately for the PPP if you qualify. Over 95% of entrepreneurs will qualify on some level. This money is to be used for payroll, loan payments, office rent, etc. Without these expenses, you can invest the money you’d have normally spent on those items into implementing the marketing you need to restart and even spark growth again. The rules of this plan are adjusting
grow, during and after this crisis? I’m going to outline my game plan here. I’ve done a ton of research, and I’ve laid out my plan below based on everything I can find and my own experience of how to recover from other disasters. I strongly recommend you mimic what I’m doing. You may be in a different industry, but it doesn’t matter. What I’m doing is foundational; I’m not falling into any “get rich quick” traps or developing shiny object syndrome.
It’s crazy how fast the world can change. Only weeks ago, we were all going about our busy lives. In a flash, everything was, and still is, different. At The Newsletter Pro, my team and I saw what we thought was a major existential threat, and that gave us a small jump-start in getting ready to work from home. Like many, we had to spin up something in a few days that companies usually have months to prep for. In about two and a half days, we had a plan to figure out the tech and had about 55 people working from home. Most of the credit on the tech side goes to my vice president, Jared, but each team member played a part in making everything work and making the transition very smooth. Every business now has some kind of COVID-19 story. A few have more business than they can handle, but most of us lost revenue at a minimum. Many Americans lost their jobs, and some of us entrepreneurs lost companies. It’s scary for everyone, and it will fundamentally change this country and the world.
“HOW DO WE RECOVER, AND EVEN GROW , DURING AND AFTER THIS CRISIS?”
For every business left standing, the question needs to be this: How do we recover, and even
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... CONTINUED FROM COVER
business owner; you’re someone they want to know, like, and trust. During every presidential cycle, they run a survey asking who you’d rather have a beer with, and people answer! That’s the crazy thing: People make major life decisions based on who they’d like to have a beer with, including if they do business with you or a competitor. You’ll need to also focus on having multiple lead generation sources and a proven and monitored process for lead conversion. You must also ensure that you are always getting full contact info from both customers and prospects. Having a good customer relationship management system to organize and automate marketing is a must. We use Infusionsoft by Keap.com. You can no longer let leads slip through your fingers. You need to make sure you have a follow-up system, are nurturing campaigns, and of course, are making great offers to help with conversions. If you don’t already have a relationship-building newsletter, then you need one. Almost everyone is beating the drum of communicating and building relationships with prospects and customers right now. A newsletter is the single best way to do that. In the newsletter, you need to get personal with people. Business will be more personal than ever before after this pandemic. If you want help with any of the above strategies, then we’d be happy to help. Just visit us at NewsletterPro.com/schedule or call 208.297.5700 to schedule an appointment. GO BACK TO THE BASICS. From now on, you will have to focus on building your business with bricks, not straw. I’ve spent years watching entrepreneurs spend money like drunken sailors. They take customers and employees for granted, and they run up massive debt with nearly zero cash reserves. Most of the marketing and communication items I spoke about above are subpar at best. Business is won by being really good at the boring stuff, not by the next shiny object, and when we come out of this pandemic, making sure your foundation is solid will be the key to rebuilding bigger and better than before. Right now more than ever, you need to take what I’m showing you and implement it. Not following the advice above would be a grave mistake. Many businesses that survive the lockdown won’t be able to restart and rebuild because they’re going to act like it’s business as usual. Don’t make that mistake. –Shaun
daily (as I write this), but the bill has passed and is law. Make sure you pay close attention to how you can spend the money and the requirements to get the loan forgiven. Your CPA or lawyer will be able to advise you on all the most current updates and adjustments. COMMUNICATE. Your best bet is to be communicating with customers and prospects now, and I don’t mean the lame, impersonal emails every company is sending out about how they want to protect employees and customers from COVID-19. Normally, I’d tell you to also be sending direct mail, but right now, for the sake of speed, I understand sending emails as a temporary primary form of communication. But keep in mind that email fatigue is in overdrive right now because everyone is sending (and receiving) massive volumes of emails. This media is going to take further beatings as people restart their businesses or try to grow and think blasting out emails over and over again will help them do that. In many cases, those emails will fall on deaf ears, possibly more so than they already did prior to the pandemic. Instead of emails, send customers and prospects print newsletters, postcards, or text messages or make phone calls. Even better, do all those things.
Right now is the best time to connect with your customers and prospects, and the second best time will be when everything is restarting. You need to make sure everyone knows you’re still standing, and if you think email is going to solve all your problems, then you may not still be standing in a few months. Don’t make this mistake. Take the extra time you have now in your day to work on your business instead of in it or worse, watching Netflix and surfing the internet. Those who start now, like me, will be positioned to recover the fastest because we’ll grab up market share that competitors have lost due to poor communication or because they’re now out of business. KEEP UP MARKETING CAMPAIGNS. Many people haven’t had to do much of this or at least haven’t been sophisticated at it. I’ve had customers tell me they don’t need relationships with their customers: “We’re so busy, so our customers love us.” I promise they’ll be regretting that decision shortly. You need to be actively investing in relationship marketing. Relationship marketing isn’t the act of sending coupons or industry highlights. Relationship marketing is the act of opening up and being personal. Let them know you’re not just another
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ONE OF THE CHEAPEST BUT MOST EFFECTIVE WAYS TO GET NEW CUSTOMERS FOR ANY BUSINESS BUSINESS HOW-TO
By working on creating a win-win relationship with partners, you can grow your business and end up with a lower overall customer acquisition cost when the partnerships are structured correctly.
doesn’t have a critical mass of customers that would be a good fit for the first partner.
In this new economy, one of the areas you should focus on is what we at The Newsletter Pro call partnerships. A partner is another business that isn’t a competitor but shares customers with your business, and you both can potentially benefit from the relationship. For example, dentists sometimes have patients who would be better served by orthodontists. Plumbers serve homeowners who would also make a good fit for HVAC companies. Some of the gurus who teach entrepreneurs how to build their businesses make good partners for The Newsletter Pro.
In these situations, you can still set up a partnership — typically a paid partnership where the second partner pays a “per lead” or “per sale” fee to the first partner for each referral or sale. The benefit to the first partner is two-fold. First, they get paid for leads they would otherwise be paying for, which lowers their overall customer acquisition cost. Second, they get to add value to their customers and leads by offering the services or products the second partner offers without spending any of their own expenses. One-sided partnerships are very valuable, as long as one person doesn’t get greedy or lazy. If one does, these partnerships typically break down. 2. TWO-SIDED PARTNERSHIPS This is where the partners can literally trade leads back and forth because both companies have an offering that benefits the customer. For example, if you sell digital marketing services to companies and I sell print newsletters, we’re not competitors, but we service the same types of customers. So we could swap leads back and forth. In theory, if we got the same number of leads, we’d effectively be doubling the number of leads we each get. Of course, if we don’t get the same number of leads, there needs to be a mechanism to equal out the lead flow, but that can be worked out in the same manner as a one-sided partnership. With partnerships, you can clearly track where leads are coming from and what your overall customer acquisition cost is. As an added benefit, leads referred via a partner program are typically some of the least expensive customers a business can get, making this program all the more beneficial. –Shaun
There are two primary types of partnerships.
1. ONE-SIDED PARTNERSHIP This is a partnership where the first partner has a group of customers that would be good for the second partner, but the second partner
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CLIENT SUCCESS
MARKETING HOW-TO
“I met Shaun Buck at Ben Glass' Great Legal Marketing Summit in October 2016 and was so impressed I signed up for newsletter services. What a great group of people! My onboarding project manager got me started with ideas for the newsletter design and then connected me with a fine young writer who interviews me each month and drafts tremendous cover articles for my review and edits. My project manager oversees the development of each month's newsletter from start to final publication. They have been quick to respond to questions, brainstorm ideas with me, and produce a quality product that is colorful, interesting, and informative. I have a law practice and thank heaven the newsletter is informative, entertaining, and not all about legal stuff — how dry and dull would that be? The Newsletter Pro helps me enhance the relationship I have with my clients by sharing with them part of who we at Monast Law are as people, not just as their legal counsel. These folks are simply great at what they do!” -Jim Monast Monast Law
WORK TH RECOVER
I
I ’ve been
hearing many entrepreneurs and others say things
like, “I can’t wait for things to get back to normal.” Normal as we knew it will NEVER exist again. This country, and even the world, will be forever changed. I wish I knew exactly how the world would change, but no one knows. What I do know is that so much of the bull that has been
OUR BOOKSHELF
GROW STRO RECESSION W A Review of ‘HBR’s 10 Must R
“We've been using The Newsletter Pro, and we are really happy with their work. Their communication is excellent, our questions are always answered, and our newsletter is always sent on time. We've had plenty of clients telling us that they love the newsletter and new clients who book our services because they've received the newsletter. They're doing an awesome job!” -Beyond Times Square
When COVID-19 initially swept through the United States, the stock market took one of the sharpest dives in our country’s history in a matter of weeks. We plunged headfirst into a recession that no one saw coming. For many businesses and business owners, all of that might seem like a death knell, but it doesn’t have to be. Last year, the publishers at Harvard Business Review (HBR) combed through hundreds of articles featured in their publication and handpicked 10 with the best advice — and from some of the brightest minds — on how businesses can weather recessions and emerge stronger than ever. The compilation, “HBR’s 10 Must Reads on Managing in a
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HIS MARKETING CHECKLIST TO R AND GROW AFTER COVID-19!
5. What type of customer relationship
a good list of questions that will help you identify items nearly all businesses should have.
floating around in the marketplace will be gone. Many of your competitors that had no clue what they were doing before COVID-19 won’t make it. Entrepreneurs who are lazy or just want to do one part of the business will not survive. You need to be prepared to be involved in all areas of business more than ever before. Unfortunately, even some good businesses, for one reason or another, won’t make it. The picture is bleak for some, but it doesn’t have to be for you. The No. 1 thing you need to do is a top-down review of your marketing and sales systems and processes.
management system are you using? Can it do marketing automation, trigger campaigns, fulfillment lists, tags based on activities, etc.?
1. Where do you get leads from now? (If you also know how many leads you get per media source, grab that info as well.)
6. What type of data do you collect? (Think of names, addresses, phone numbers, etc.) 7. Will your lead sources still work if you collect full contact info on the front end?
2. Where have your competitors been advertising that you haven’t been?
3. What type of marketing has previously worked for lead generation that you no longer do?
8. If the lead source won’t likely work, can you two-step the data capture process?
4. What type of offers or lead magnets do you have or can you make?
Let’s start by making a list of our marketing assets, liabilities, systems, and processes. Here is
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ONGER DURING A WITH THIS COMPILATION Reads on Managing a Downturn’
Have You Heard the Good News?
Exodus 15:2 — “The Lord is my strength and my song, and he has become my salvation; this is my God, and I will praise him, my father’s God, and I will exalt him.” Ephesians 6:10 — “Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might.” Joshua 1:9 — “Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.” 2 Timothy 1:7 — “For God gave us a spirit not of fear but power and love and self-control.”
readers trying to keep their livelihoods afloat and make the best of this time.
Downturn,” is a crucial entry in the magazine’s “10 Must Reads” series.
For any business owner looking for silver linings and growth opportunities in the midst of this season of uncertainty, these articles are essential reading. If anything, they prove that this pandemic and the consequential recession don’t have to wreck your business. With this compilation, you could walk away with the secrets to helping your business rise from the ashes. “HBR’s 10 Must Reads on Managing in a Downturn” is available for purchase online as a physical book, an e-book for your kindle, or an audiobook.
The authors of these articles include Joshua D. Margolis, a professor of business administration at Harvard; Daniel Stelter, the economist who wrote “Accelerating Out of the Great Recession: How to Win in a Slow- Growth Economy” in 2010; Walter Frick, an editor at HBR for six years; and several others. Some throughlines include what to learn from previous recessions, how to minimize pain while also cutting costs and managing risk, and how to seize opportunities for innovation and reinvention within your business. These articles, and the wisdom of the experts who authored them, are easy to understand for any
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MARKETING HOW-TO CONTINUED ...
9. Do you have phone scripts for any inbound calls?
helped you stay afloat, who sacrificed with you and were there to rebuild. As soon as possible, reward them. If you jump back to business as usual or get a scarcity mindset and don’t take care of those who took care of you during the hard times, then you won’t win. Now that you have a plan and some direction, I want to ask you, are you going to get to work? Are you going to take some risks and spend some money and time so you’re ready to launch, or are you going to finish out “Tiger King,” the new season of “Ozark,” and every home improvement project you’ve been putting off? The choice is yours, but be cautious if you choose wrong. There is a strong chance you’ll have a lot more time to watch TV and take care of your to-do list even once the economy restarts.
No more waste. No more slope. No more taking customers for granted. No more employees who don’t pull their weight. Everyone and everything needs to be maximized. The final piece of this puzzle will be your employees. You need to make sure all employees pull their weight, as I mentioned above. With that said, the employees who show up, who do great work, and who care — those people need to be taken care of. You need to pay better for the really good ones. You need to give benefits and perks that reward their hard work and dedication. One thing I’ve personally learned from this experience is that those employees who get it and care — those employees who jump in the foxhole with me when the times are tough — are the people who I need to support even more, who I need to pay more, who I need to do more for. As you rebuild, don't forget the people who
10. Do you make outbound calls to leads?
11. Do you have lead nurture campaigns?
12. How long do nurture campaigns run after you get a lead?
13. Do you have a documented sales process and scripts?
14. Do you have a reengagement process?
15. Do you nurture customers — for example, by using newsletters?
By creating these assets now, you’ll be in a position to excel when the country opens for business again. The focus should be on how your business can get all it can from all it’s got.
–Shaun
RESOURCE OF THE MONTH YOU’LL NEED THIS SOFTWARE TO SURVIVE THE CHAOS Customer Data Is More Important Than Ever Before
provides varying platforms, including software that can automate communication between your customers and prospects. Even better, the value of a CRM system like Infusionsoft or one of Keap’s other platforms is in its organization. It’s difficult for you to create meaningful relationships with clients without a CRM, but in a time when it has never been more important for you to add value to those relationships, doing so without a CRM is impossible. Your customers need you to show up for them like you never have before, and you need to be on top of your game to do so. So ask yourself this: With sticky notes, notebooks full of lists, task sheets, and a litany of tabs open on your computer, are you actually able to keep track of all your customers, their needs, and your history with them? In this ever-changing world, our guess is probably not. Instead, rely on CRM software like Infusionsoft to help you build your business out of this pandemic and show your customers your value.
Right now, the key to coming out on top can’t be found in creative marketing or branding. Instead, you can find it with the very customers you work with every day. So if the chaos is reigning supreme and you’re mismanaging your customer relationships, then you’re going to drown. You need a proper customer relationship management (CRM) tool to take the responsibility of storing, managing, and navigating your customer relationships off your plate and start building your business forward in this pandemic. Infusionsoft by Keap is a software that automates CRM, sales, and marketing and has become a one-stop shop for storing customer data. It’s the perfect hub for your
If there’s anything we have learned throughout COVID-19, it’s that in order to manage the chaos, you must have a plan for the chaos. Managing your customer relationships is easy when it’s business as usual and there isn’t a full-fledged pandemic war being waged just outside our windows, but things are different now. Your employees may be at home, your staff might be cut, your monthly income might be slashed, and customers may not be leaping to your business unprompted.
marketing team to record data about tactics that are working in this strange world, while your sales team can use it to weed out the cool prospects from the hot ones during a vital time. Keap also
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KEEPING A LEVEL HEAD IN HIGH-ENERGY SPACES IN THE SPOTLIGHT How Marce Avalos Keeps Everything Running
Teamwork is something that comes pretty naturally to Marce, both in the office and out of it. She and her wife, Miranda, have a family of seven with three children and two dogs, which keeps them quite busy most days. Back in August, they were thrilled when their family grew with their new baby girl, Iyla. “She’s a super happy, smiley, and chill baby,” Marce says. “Ever since she was born, she wakes up once at night, eats, and goes right back to sleep until about 7:30 a.m.” The synergy needed to keep up with such a busy home consists of the same energy and level- headedness she brings to her production team and to The Newsletter Pro overall. Despite how hectic the atmosphere can be in our production department, Marce always pulls through. We are so grateful for everything she and the rest of the production department does for us and the amount of work they put in to ensure our clients receive their newsletters right on time.
data processor, Marce Avalos, who take on these consequential tasks every day.
With so much relying on getting the newsletters out on schedule, most of Marce’s time is spent wrestling with the various technologies our production department uses every day — and their weaknesses. From paper jams to a malfunctioning tabber machine, Marce has seen and pushed through it all, but her determination doesn’t stop there. Sometimes a project needs to be pushed through rather quickly, meaning our team works even harder to ensure that project gets done. “We get a lot of crazy stuff thrown at us,” Marce says. “But we have some pretty amazing, hardworking people back here. We all have a good relationship with each other, and I think that helps a lot. We have each other’s backs and help where we need to when we need to. Teamwork makes the dream work!”
When you think about your newsletter, do you ever think about the process it goes through to get to your mailbox? Many of our clients know the project coordinators, designers, editors, and writers who work tirelessly to piece together their newsletters every day. But it’s the production team that ensures newsletters are addressed, printed, folded, and mailed on time. Our production department is filled with reliable and hardworking individuals like our KEEP UP With Our If you’re looking for more great content — like what you’re reading in this newsletter — to drive your business forward, take a look at these articles on our blog. 3 Business Growth Strategies To Steal From Amazon Newsletterpro.com/business-growth-strategies/ How Prioritization Leads To Growth And Clarity In Your Business Newsletterpro.com/prioritization-leads-to- growth/ What Four Legendary Presidents Can Teach You About Leadership Newsletterpro.com/legendary-presidents- leadership/ How An Idaho Nonprofit Is making A World Of Difference Newsletterpro.com/idaho-nonprofit- difference/ BEST POSTS
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BUSINESS PROFILE NEVER STOP LEARNING MasterClass Brings the Professionals to You
There is no such thing as having learned it all. It doesn’t matter what your profession is or where your interest lies, there is something out there to learn. Over the past few months, the way we live and work has changed. But we don’t need to tell you that — you’re living through those changes right now. Many of us are working from home, and you may have put a temporary pause on your business in the event your state government has labeled you “nonessential.” As tough as it is, and no matter your situation, none of us has an excuse to sit on our hands. We should always be using our time consciously, even when we don’t have anything “to do.” Now more than ever, MasterClass gives us something to do and learn. You can hone a skill you already have or learn something completely new. MasterClass.com brings together highly skilled professionals from numerous industries and backgrounds. Each professional teaches a video-based class on the subject they know best. One example is Gordon Ramsay. He teaches — you guessed it — cooking! But this isn’t the Gordon Ramsay portrayed on American reality TV. This is Gordon Ramsay in his element, simply walking you through cooking methods and recipes step by step. Even if you’re a novice in the kitchen, by the end of his course, you’ll be confident to try something new and wow your family at the dining table. MasterClass offers numerous categories to choose from, including Film & TV; Music & Entertainment; Culinary Arts; Sports & Games; Design, Photography, & Fashion; and much more. Each category connects you with professionals such as Ron Howard, Martin Scorsese, Steve Martin, Penn & Teller, Wolfgang Puck, Neil Gaiman, Dan Brown, and Neil deGrasse Tyson, just to name a few. With an extensive, varied list, there is literally something
MasterClass, a paid subscription-based service, works much like Netflix or Disney+. You just sign up for an annual membership and receive unlimited access to every class on the site. New classes and new instructors are added all the time. Not sure if you want to hand over your credit card details just yet? Try a few classes for free first. MasterClass allows you to sign up to sample a selection of classes to see if it’s something you’re interested in. We can tell you this service comes highly recommended. We signed up for MasterClass at The Newsletter Pro to give our team another great resource to hone their skills or discover new ones. It goes right along with one of our core values, Multiply Native Genius. We’re big believers in expanding our horizons and improving our skills, and MasterClass helps us do just that. To learn more, visit MasterClass.com. Who knows, maybe as the pandemic comes to an end, you’ll have learned a few new skills that you can put to work as we begin to focus on recovery.
for everyone. Each instructor even provides you with an easy-to-follow syllabus! Learn from Bob Iger, former CEO of The Walt Disney Co., about business strategy and leadership. Or see what Sara Blakely, founder of Spanx, has to say as she teaches self-made entrepreneurship. Want to improve your writing skills? Check out Malcolm Gladwell’s course. There are more than 50 classes to choose from across dozens of experts and professionals. Each class contains about 20 lessons — some more, some less — and the average class session runs about 10 minutes, with the shortest classes at about 5 minutes and the longest around 25 minutes. It’s great for when you have a few minutes to kill or even if you want to binge a whole class in a day! Even better, you can take classes from virtually anywhere: TV, desktop, laptop, tablet, or smartphone. You can start a class while sitting on your couch in front of your TV and continue it while you’re waiting in a lobby for an appointment. Every class is easily accessible.
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