I get it: I sign up for your newsletter, you’re going to sell to me. You’re going to send me all the info about you, your products, your service, and your world. Part of that world includes your pal’s launches. I know when I sign up for your little opt in, that I’m going to get a few things that I care about and a heck of a lot of things I don’t. It’s your one real option to keep me in your loop, keep my attention, and keep me informed — not to mention entice me to buy.

The thing about newsletters is that most of them are the same right now: They fluctuate between “here’s my new post” and “look at what this dude is doing”. That’s become the lazy norm of email marketing.

And it isn’t doing anyone any favours.

Why? Unless you’re putting a pretty package together around the content that speaks to those on the email list, they aren’t clicking through to see what you’re up to. They don’t know why they should read your latest blog post, listen to your most recent podcast, or anything else that you’ve asked them to do. It’s because we’re selfish. We want to know what is in it for us when we click-through. What will we learn? Where is the good stuff so we can skip right to it?

As for look what X is doing, that’s pretty boring as well. Sure, you might be an affiliate of a great product and want a few bucks for spreading the love. You might be helping a friend out by telling your list about their launch. But, there is a fine line between being thoughtful and helpful and being annoying.

Example: The most recent launch of Ryan Levesque’s Ask book and programme. I know of his methods, and I’m not all that hyped up about them. They aren’t exactly counter-intuitive. Don’t believe me? Here’s an excerpt from my review:

Levesque walks you through his marketing method. It can be summed up like this:

1.) Ask targeted questions in the form of a survey, segment out the results for the best sales message. Repeat process, asking them for their email and trying to sell to them at every step.
2.) Try to woo them with discounts that aren’t really discounts, since you price the product or service to factor in these discounts, but it makes the mark feel good about themselves.
3.) Set up a 12-part automated email series to continue to try to convince them of the awesome deal. First with stories, then with more surveys to segment them out further in case your original survey put them in the wrong “bucket”.
4.) Repeat process until you can’t figure out a way to get their money.

Yes, this seems a little harsh, but I believe in service first, not slaving away over data and segmenting out only those that I think I can make the most money out of and will buy. What I do like are the surveys and how they are structured to understand the market and audience, which can be useful for serving them more fully.

In the end, it’s a great method, but it’s the intent behind how you use it that will give you the results you are looking for. Read the book (starting with the methods) to see how you can use the Survey and Divide method for your needs. That is where the true impact of this method is going to be. It won’t answer all your questions, like giving you an exact list of questions to ask for what you goals are — that is why there is a shameless “what to do next” marketing chapter at the end that directs you to Levesque’s services. However, with a bit of intuition, a lot of patience and iterations, you can figure out how to use this method for your own ambitions. For that alone it is worth the $13+tax.

The big take-away from his entire thing? Ask what people want, segment them, then talk to them about what they want.

We do this all the time with real life!

Think about it. You will talk to your besties about everything under the sun plus your personal secrets, but an acquaintance? Never. Would you tell your aunt the same things you talk to your sister about? Nope. Your parents the same things you whisper and laugh about with your drinking buddies? Only if they are one in the same.

So, while everyone is going crazy helping Ryan launch his programme and book (again), frankly their audience would be much better served by learning about how it’s being used by their beloved coach they signed up for the list of. It’s a personalised, gift wrapped teaser of sorts that means more to the person on the newsletter list than just a smack upside the head with someone else’s method.

And all that’s assuming you decide to ride someone else’s gravy train to begin with. 

Instead of sending people anything, take the time to cultivate a relationship with them with it. You can send me to your blog post, but make your email content a shiny new package that entices me to learn more — no more “check out my new podcast” without even telling us why. No more “here’s my new blog post, you’re going to love it!” newsletters without telling the reader what was on your mind and why.

Use that package to tell a story. Connect with your audience by telling them why you wrote the post, what kind of background was with it, or even how much time you spent on it.

Same thing with helping your friends launch: Make it different. Make it useful. Make it you, not them. After all, people sign up to hear from you and your twists on things. Shine through the noise no matter what.