Your email inbox is a great place to study great marketing and I’ll prove it to you with this article. Below are some screen shots of the LB Electronics enewsletter
I received:
(Click the image to enlarge!)
I cut the bottom of the last section out, but you should be able to get the general idea of this e-newsletter. I’m sharing this with you because I think it’s a great example of how to mix content and selling in a newsletter.
Looking at the image that shows up in the recipient’s mail box, you see the following components:
1. They have several articles that are timely (seasonal) and widely different enough to appeal to more than one type of person – in other words, not just techies.
2. With the comments from their Facebook page down the rightside column, they have testimonial-type marketing that gives them credibility.
3. They have an offer in the form of an ad, which is a joint venture with Netflix.
4. With the “LG’s Picks,” they have a few quick links to products you can purchase with just one click from the enewsletter.
Despite the Netflix offer and the “Picks” links on the side, the overall impression you get from the front of this newsletter is that it’s mostly content. I think they do a great job of using family oriented pictures that kind of get you thinking right away that this is content-oriented–information you want to read rather than ads you can’t wait to delete.
In my Master Marketer membership, I constantly harp on this mix of content and selling, but I can’t stress how important this is in this day and age. I have tested and tested mixes in my various businesses, and in both the real estate
and fitness businesses, the best results are with a mix of real, USEFUL content with a little bit of SUBTLE selling.
Let’s look at what comes up when you click on one of the articles from the LG newsletter. This is the page you’re taken to when you click on the first article, with the headline “How to go green for
Halloween”:
(Click the image to enlarge!)
In the above screen shot, there are two links in the article. The first one takes you to an LG sales page. The second one takes you to another site, which gives you 10 more tips to a green Halloween. It’s more pure content.
Remember, the key to content marketing is relationship-building. In relationships, there is give and take, and the good content marketers make sure they give something to their prospects – useful information that’s NOT just about making sales. I’m obviously using this strategy right now with this article.
It’s interesting that an electronics company does this to this extent. You would think that in the competitive tech world, branding is important. Electronics purchases are often either spur-of-the moment buys of something new, or purchases made out of necessity – such as when your cell phone or TV dies. In both of these case, top-of-mind awareness of a brand influences your decision.
Yet, LG doesn’t seem to simply be after top-of-mind awareness here. If they were, their emails would be like many other retailers or product-makers – they’d bombard you with pictures of new products and links to sales sites. The mix of content and sales pitches indicate that they’re more after relationship-building.
I think that in a service-oriented business like real estate, the relationship building is even more important. If I need to buy a TV, there will be brands I recognize and consider before buying. But if I need to buy or sell a home, for example, branding is less important. But if I have a relationship with someone who has given me valuable information and isn’t always simply trying to sell me something, when I DO need something, that person is going to come to mind.
Look at it this way, from the client/consumer perspective: When you buy a TV, you’re immediately thinking “Sony,” “Samsung,” “LG,” etc. But if you looking to, say, list a house, are you thinking “Keller Williams,” “Re/Max,” etc., or does the individual agent whom you have a relationship with come to mind?
I’d argue that in an industry where branding isn’t as much of a decision-influencer, relationship building is MORE crucial. And an agent who provides information, expertise, entertainment, inspiration, etc. through content is going to attract more business than one who just emails listings once a week.
Now the other articles on the front page have more links to products than the first article, but they are kind of subtle, just keywords in the articles. The recipe page, however, is just recipes. No product links. But there IS this …
(Click the image to enlarge!)
There’s an instructional video embedded with the recipes. It’s from LG’s “kitchen” YouTube page, which has all kinds of instructional videos, including how to install and operate all their appliances. More content with subtle selling.
If you have a video sales letter, webinar or course, you could do the same thing to drive people there. Or, you could simply take something in your newsletter – the feature article or a ‘critical read’ – and simply record a short video that ties it to your local market.
I’m sharing this particular email newsletter with you for a couple of reasons:
1. No matter how much I try to convince agents that a hard-copy newsletter is valuable, I know agents will continue to be more interested in email newsletters because they’re basically free.
2. I think the LG newsletter is a great mix of sales and content, and it’s a format that wouldn’t be hard to copy for our businesses.
Additional Recommended Reading:
A Cool Way to Generate FREE Leads With An Email Newsletter
Study & Copy This to Generate High Quality FREE Leads & Instant Expert Positioning
The Godfather’s Business Secrets & How You Can Use Them To Your Advantage