1. Fear Of Having Nothing To Say

As a small business owner, you know a lot more than you may

realize. And although running out of material is the number one

reason cited by small business owners for not launching an

E-Newsletter in the first place, I have never come across anyone

who knew enough about a particular industry or topic to start a

business in it, who didn't also have a nearly endless supply of

content to choose from.

Remember, your clients and others who have an interest in your

area of specialty, don't work in it every day the way you do.

The things that are second nature to you, whether it's how to

purchase life insurance if you're a broker; how to write a press

release if you're a marketing consultant; or how to troubleshoot

a light switch if you're an electrician; are all news to those

of us on the outside of your industry.

The people who are going to read your newsletter have questions.

You on the other hand, have answers, opinions, experience, and

perspective. When it comes to your industry, you understand what

matters and what doesn't, and how all the pieces fit together.

These brief, useful nuggets are the things you write about.

2. Fear Of Technology

An E-Newsletter has a lot of moving parts. There are mailing

lists to manage; links to set up; images to lay out; responses

to track; and dozens of other small pieces to coordinate and

fine tune, all in the course of writing and publishing a

newsletter month after month. Managing this process efficiently

requires a fair amount of technology churning away in the

background. That's the bad news.

The good news is that email marketing has finally evolved to the

point where there are dozens of vendors out there who, for a

very small fee, will take care of most of this for you (go to

Google and search on “email marketing vendors” for a look at

what's out there). So while it's true that you will have to go

down a learning curve before you can switch your newsletter

publishing into autopilot, you no longer need technical skill to

get there.

Managing the logistics of a monthly newsletter can be tedious at

times, no question. But if you've ever successfully assembled a

gas grill, you're more than technically qualified to publish an

E-Newsletter.

3. Fear Of Publishing On A Regular Basis

Although you may be sold on the value of a regularly published

E-Newsletter, you may still be worried that once let out of its

cage, this beast won't ever leave you alone. The truth is,

you're right to be concerned. If I had to point to one factor

that plays the most significant role in the failure of company

E-Newsletters, it's that the people behind them stop publishing.

Like starting an exercise program, we all go great guns out of

the gate: telling everybody we know, celebrating every issue.

But (also like exercise), by month four or five the thrill is

gone, and many people start to wonder how to quietly put the

thing out of its misery.

I'm happy to say that I've discovered two solutions to this

potential problem.

First, publish monthly. Although it may seem that dropping back

to a less frequent schedule will reduce the burden, in practice

the opposite is true. The less often you publish, the bigger a

deal it is, and the more it seems to hang over your head. A

monthly schedule however, means that the next issue is never

more than 30 days away, and you will find yourself less

concerned with achieving perfection each time.

Second, create a publishing schedule and stick to it. First

Tuesday of the month, third Friday, whatever. The important

thing is that you bake it into your monthly work schedule. An

E-Newsletter will never be today's top priority, and unless you

explicitly determine when it will come out, you're more likely

than not to keep pushing it to the back burner.

4. Fear Of Writing

I hear it every day from the small business owners I work with:

"I can't put out an E-Newsletter, I'm a lousy writer." Well,

you'll be happy to learn that writing an E-Newsletter - like

email in general - is a lot more like talking than writing.

People don't expect to read prose on screen, and they don't want

something that reads like an article from a local business

journal. They want a piece of you and your expertise. As a

result, the most effective E-Newsletters are those that sound as

if the company leader is just talking; filled with all the

slang, run on sentences and joking around that comes out in

person.

After all, E-Newsletters are simply glorified emails, and email

is fundamentally a two-way conversation. The more you can write

in an authentic, friendly, spoken manner, the more it will feel

to readers like somebody (i.e. you) is really on the other end.

So don't worry about something that your high school English

teacher would be proud of. Focus on turning out something that

breaks down the walls between your company and your customers.

Something real.

5. Fear That SPAM Makes It All A Waste Of Time

There's no doubt about it, SPAM has decreased the effectiveness

of E-Newsletters over the last 12 months, and we are all much

more aggressive with the delete key than ever before.

But, let's put that into some perspective. A good E-Newsletter

sent to your house list will still be opened by over 50% of the

people it's sent to. That's 5?, 10?, 50? times better (you pick)

than the percentage of people who read your newspaper ads;

respond to your direct mail; or accept your unsolicited phone

calls. The fact is, for the small business owner, an

E-Newsletter represents the first time in history that she's

ever been able to cost effectively communicate with her entire

customer and prospect base over and over and over again. Not

only that, but thanks to the inherently democratic nature of

email (i.e. the big boys don't get any more space in the email

inbox than the rest of us), an E-Newsletter gives us the

opportunity to not just compete with, but outperform our much

larger competitors for the attention of readers.

Yes, SPAM has taken some of the shine off of this diamond. But

make no mistake, it's still a diamond.

A Final Comment

You may be waiting to launch your E-Newsletter until everything

is "just right." Until your mailing list is large enough; until

you've stockpiled enough columns so you'll never run out; until

you've hired that new marketing person; etc., etc.

I've got news for you. No matter how much you plan and prepare,

things are going to go wrong even then. I've been midwife at the

birth of dozens of E-Newsletters, and every time we launch one

(every time), something goes wrong. It's never the same

something, but it's always there. So don't worry about it, just

get in the game.

Three reasons: First, because the cost of error online is

exceedingly low. If you make a mistake -- or simply change your

mind! -- you can fix it. Nothing about your newsletter need be

permanent, from the name to the look to the content. Every issue

is an opportunity to start fresh.

Second, because time is your enemy. Relationship marketing (of

which, your E-Newsletter is a tactic) is a long term approach.

The sooner you get started reaching out to your circle of

contacts, the sooner you'll see the results. With an

E-Newsletter in particular, you lose much more by waiting than

you gain by perfecting.

Third, because experience is your friend. You can do all the

research in the world, but until you've got a living, breathing

newsletter of your own, it's just a theoretical exercise.

There's only so much insight to be gained intellectually; the

real "A-ha's" occur when you get behind the wheel and drive it

yourself.

Bottom Line: These five fears are common among burgeoning

E-Newsletter publishers, but on closer examination, not all that

daunting. Go ahead, get started with yours today!

About the Author

Michael J. Katz is Founder and Chief Penguin of Blue Penguin

Development, Inc., (www.BluePenguinDevelopment.com) a Boston

consulting firm that helps clients increase sales by showing

them how to nurture their existing relationships, and that

specializes in the development of electronic newsletters. He is

author of the book, E-Newsletters That Work.