Is there a blog or newsletter in your future?

If you’re thinking of launching a blog or newsletter, take time to plan carefully.  Your efforts will yield greater success.

TRUE STORY:  There was a company that sold exclusively through distribution.  Sales and marketing were frustrated, though, because distributors weren’t emphasizing the right products.

The solution, based on talking to top distributors, was a distributor blog on key products.  Not only did distributors like it, sales and marketing staff were happy to see sales of these products improve.

Wondering if a newsletter or blog is right for you? Ask yourself these questions.

1) Who do I want to talk to?

Start with a well-defined audience. Different groups have different information needs. If you have diverse audiences (like employees and customers), you may need separate vehicles.

2) What do they want to know?   What do I want to tell them?

People pay attention to what’s important to them. Find out what that is by ASKING your audience. Then try to fit what you want to tell them into what they want to know.

The best-read blogs offer useful information. Can you provide that consistently?

3) Do I have enough to say to keep it going?

The world is full of newsletters that never made it past Issue #1 and blogs that end after a few posts. Avoid this by planning content for the year. (I recommend brief posts sent often.) If you don’t have enough content for a year, maybe you need to send an email or a series of info sheets instead.