(Time to read this Blog is about 3 minutes)
Before we get to the main topic, here are a few things to get you thinking or smiling:
- My Biz Quote of the week:
“Hiring someone after just one interview is like asking someone to marry you on the first date. You don’t know them well enough yet.”
…Donald Cooper.
- Quick Biz Tip:
What extraordinary benefits could you offer your employees?
I’ve just interviewed a very sharp owner of a Laundry and Dry Cleaning business as part of my research for an upcoming Conference session.
This bright and kind lady pays for two sessions each year for each employee with a Financial Planner to coach them on how to create and live within a budget to create a more prosperous future. This is a level of expertise that these people would typically not be exposed to.
What special perks or benefits could you make available to your Team?
- Food waste and greenhouse gases. 40% of food gets wasted in North America and other parts of the ‘developed’ world. Most of that food ends up in landfills where methane, a potent planet-heating gas, gets released. Food waste accounts for as much as 10% of all global greenhouse gas emissions.
- Canada has the highest tax rates for alcohol among G7 countries, and most of the price Canadians pay for alcohol goes towards taxes—50% for beer, 65% for wine and 75% for spirits.
- ‘Flexible’ work is #1. According to a recent study by ManpowerGroup, a recruitment company, ‘flexibility’ is the #1 work priority for many staff in their 20s and 30s. Industries with jobs that cannot be done from home, including construction, finance, hospitality and manufacturing, are falling out of favour
Now, to this week’s important topic:
You need a 1st rate customer Blog or E-newsletter:
Do you have a customer Blog or E-Newsletter and how effective is it? Does it deliver value and build engagement? Does it help grow your business? 90% of my Management Speaking and Biz Coaching engagements come directly from this weekly Blog.
Do you have a professionally designed template and layout?
Do you have a writing style that’s engaging and congruent with your brand? Is your style all ‘warm milk and cookies’ or do you dare to be a bit edgy and irreverent? Remember, boring sucks! Write, edit, and edit again.
Mix your content between important insight, helpful tips, reminders, fun facts, opinions, trivia and a little ‘gentle’ marketing for your product or service.
One of my Biz Coaching clients has developed just such a formula and has an extraordinary 82% open rate for his quarterly E-Newsletter. Each edition results in several new enquiries for projects ranging from $200,000 to $1 million each. Not bad.
Create a file for Blog ideas. When you create a space for ideas to live, ideas come to you. It’s magical.
How often should your Blog or E-Newsletter be sent out? Quarterly, monthly, bi-weekly or weekly…or to mark special occasions? It depends on your industry buying cycle. Don’t overdo it and become a pest. People’s time is precious. By the way, state how much time it will take to read. Folks love that!
When should it go out? After much research, our Blog goes out at 10 AM eastern time in North America. It seems to work.
That’s it for this week…
Stay safe…live brilliantly!
Donald Cooper
Donald Cooper speaks and coaches internationally on management, marketing, and profitability. He can be reached by email at donald@donaldcooper.com in Toronto, Canada.
Comment *82% opening rate. wow that is amazing! We hit an all time high of 41% this week on our weekly educational emails.
Live to learn more about how to get to 82%!
Keep Up the great work.
We tried setting up a group RRSP program with our bank. Most of the professional staff were already involved in a savings program with other banks. The support staff were initially interested and were offered an educational component. Unfortunately, Covid caused a turn of most of our support staff. Wondering if I should try it again? Bank said enrollment goes up if you give free money, but no extra money these days post Covid recovery.