By Jessica Albon

Your newsletter can be an amazingly powerful tool. In previous issues, we’ve talked about how you can use your newsletter to qualify leads, how you can use it to boost your search engine rankings, how you can use it to make more money, along with lots of other uses.

In fact, I’d say your newsletter is the most powerful tool in your marketing tool kit.

But, if you’re not leveraging it correctly, chances are it’s not nearly as effective as it could be in saving you time, making you money, and delighting your readers.

So, today we’re going to look at three secrets to leveraging your newsletter: 1) The power of personality; 2) It’s all about hats; and, 3) Happy readers are bad readers.

The Power of Personality

Can you keep a secret? No matter what you hear from any other marketing person out there, your newsletter’s not all about your readers. Rather, your newsletter is all about you.

Philosophically speaking, it really can’t be any other way (because we’re all pretty egocentric, no matter how well intentioned our attempts to be otherwise). And, believe it or not, that’s a good thing.

See, your readers don’t subscribe to your newsletter to have you tell them things they already know. Or to have you talk just how they talk. Or even to have you talk exclusively about the subjects that are of highest priority to them.

They’ve subscribed to your newsletter to get to know you better. They have a suspicion that you provide something that will be of value to them. And now they’re trying to get a sense as to whether or not that’s true.

No one subscribes to a newsletter for more free information.

Every single one of us has more information than we know what to do with–we certainly don’t need to subscribe to another newsletter to get even more.

So, the first step to leveraging your newsletter is to make it all about you. But, what does that mean, exactly?

It means you talk about yourself–what you’re up to, what you’ve been doing, what you’ve learned lately. It means you do it all in your unique voice–you write how you talk, you use the words that make you smile, you engage readers as if you were having a private conversation.

It means you write about the subjects you know a lot about. And you talk about your experiences with clients doing the things that only you can do. It means you use your newsletter for your own purposes and you measure it accordingly.

What does this have to do with leverage?

A huge part of converting prospects to clients is getting to know them. And letting them get to know you. This is especially true if you’re part of a small business, but it’s even true if you work at a larger company. People like to pick the company that they *like*, and we only decide who we like by getting to know them.

So, by letting your readers get to know you, you’re cutting way back on the amount of traditional follow up you’d need to do. By giving readers glimpses behind the scenes and into your personality, you don’t need to spend nearly as much time following up by phone, sending newspaper clippings, networking, or doing any of the dozen other activities you do to keep up with your circle of prospects.

But, you’re wondering, isn’t this true of just any old newsletter? Couldn’t you publish anything and get the same result?

Absolutely not!

See, the typical “corporate” newsletter isn’t about anyone. It’s about a company. And no one really likes to read about a company. They’re cold, faceless, *things*. We like to read about people.

And when your newsletter’s about a person (you), your readers will feel like they’ve had a personal contact with you. And that’s the key to leveraging your newsletter–to turn it into a personal contact with each and every reader. And that’s why it’s so important to inject lots of personality into every page.

It’s All About Hats

Now, how many hats do you wear in your typical day? That of sales rep? Accountant? Chief decision maker? Trainer? I bet the list goes on and on.

But how many hats do you expect your newsletter to wear?

If you’re like most publishers, the bottom line is you expect your newsletter to wear one. Maybe two. You want it to make you sales, and, maybe, also want it to keep you in touch with prospects.

But the truth is, your newsletter is capable of so much more.

Put your newsletter to work in multiple ways and you’ll start seeing multiple rewards, every time you send an issue. For instance, your newsletter can:

• Get you better search engine rankings
• Bring people back to your website again and again
• Get you press coverage
• Convert prospects
• Support clients
• Cut down on customer support questions
• Keep you in front of referral sources
• Get conversations going with those prospects who won’t return your calls
• Make it easier to answer prospect’s questions (just point them to an issue where that question was answered)
• Make your clients famous
• Empower employees

And that’s just a small list of the possibilities. If you spend some time brainstorming, I’m sure you can come up with many, many others.

So, why aren’t you demanding all of these results from your newsletter? Why don’t you expect it to wear as many hats as you do?

Probably because you just don’t have time to figure out how to set it up so that your newsletter can accomplish more.

Here’s a secret: 90% of meeting a goal is naming the goal. So, once you’ve made a list of all the hats you want your newsletter to wear, you’re 90% of the way there.

To get the other 10% in place, just keep your list in front of you every time you write a newsletter. Ask yourself where there might be sneaky opportunities to meet one more goal in an issue.

For instance, if one of your goals is press coverage, you might include a link to your press kit in each issue. Or you might include a brief bio that encourages other publishers to reprint your content. Or you could even have a little box dedicated to members of the media.

Each of these solutions would take less than 10 minutes to add to your newsletter, and once you’ve added it to your template, you never have to think about it again. And yet, the press coverage that would result would be on-going–forever.

See how easy it is to make your newsletter wear multiple hats? Just decide what else you want to add, and, one by one, start adding new ingredients to your newsletter.

Happy Readers are Bad Readers

I bet you’re thinking I’m crazy. How can a happy reader be a bad reader? Sure, we’ve all heard that the silent customers are deadly, and that it’s not good when you never receive any complaints (because 100% customer satisfaction is pretty much a myth).

But how can a happy reader be a bad reader?

Because happy readers are content. They like the status quo. They’re happy.

They’re not motivated to buy, they’re not looking for a new solution to a problem, and, basically, they don’t need you beyond your regular newsletter issue.

You don’t want happy readers on your list.

Instead, you want hungry readers. Readers who feel like you meet their needs. Readers who know they’re important to you. Readers who want to get to know you better because you consistently impress them.

You want readers who are ready, able, and willing to step up to the plate and be served ever better. Who are actively learning about the solutions you offer and the ways you can help them.

If you publish to a group of happy readers, it’s great for the ego. These are the folks who write in with frequent happy comments about how much they love your newsletter and how happy they are to have found you.

These are the folks who’ll write you with “quick” questions or requests for free advice. But they’re not interested in any deeper relationship with you, because … they’re happy.

Tell the truth, do you have some happy readers on your list? And don’t they make you feel good? Aren’t you glad to have them? Don’t you smile when you hear from them and think to yourself, “I’m so glad they’re happy”?

Let me say it again: You don’t want happy readers on your list.

Hungry readers, on the other hand, are always looking for ways to make their experience even better. Because they’ve gotten such powerful results from applying your advice, or using your services, they have an appetite for more. And an appetite for more is something you can help them with.

Keeping your readers hungry instead of happy is perhaps the hardest lesson to learn as a publisher. It’s all about the balance between providing a great newsletter–one with outstanding, supportive, rewarding content–and leaving readers wanting more.

It’s a lesson that’s taken me years to learn (and that takes me thousands of words to explain). I’d love to help you learn it (much more quickly than I learned it on my own!). If you’re up for the challenge, join the Newsletter Spa and start learning the how-tos with me.

It’s All About You, Hats, and Hunger

You, hats, and hunger are the three secrets behind really leveraging your newsletter to great success. You’ll have more time, and you’ll get better results.

Plus, you’ll feel powerful knowing you’re producing the best newsletter possible. It really is an amazing feeling knowing you’re serving your readers in a huge way. And it’s great to be rewarded in an even bigger way.

If you’d like support in applying these three secrets to your newsletter, join me at the Newsletter Spa. Just visit http://www.newsletterspa.com to sign up today.