HiRoad Communications

Copywriting that speaks to your target audience

  • Home
  • About HiRoad Communications
    • Copywriting Services
    • About Joe D’Eramo
  • Copywriting Portfolio
    • Website content
    • Newsletters and e-newsletters
    • Press releases and coverage
    • Bylined articles
    • Ads
    • Autoresponder e-mails
    • Blogs
    • Brochures
    • Direct mail
    • e-Books
    • Publishing
    • Radio spots
    • Sales sheets
  • Testimonials
  • Contact Us
  • HiRoad Newsroom
    • Press releases
    • Client News Coverage
    • Constant Contact Newsletter
    • Blog
You are here: Home / Archives for admin

October 3, 2012 by admin

My controversial LinkedIn strategy

It started out as a simple response to a discussion in a LinkedIn group. The topic was “How to build your e-mail list”. The discussion originator offered 22 ways to build up your e-mail list. To this, my addition/suggestion was to send a note to your new LinkedIn connections and ask the following:

Can I add you to my e-newsletter mailing list?

This rather simple request received rave reviews from most who commented. One group member, however, accused me of social media extortion (“How dare you make being on your mailing list a condition of connecting!”).

Overall, the rest of the discussion group thought it was a great idea. But it did get it did get me thinking. How many of you who use LinkedIn actually reach out to the people you connect with?

If the answer to that is, “not at all” or “not as often as I’d like”, an e-newsletter is the perfect vehicle. How so? First, it starts a conversation with your new connection. Even if the answer is no (e.g. I can understand why you wouldn’t want to be on yet another e-mail list…).  Second, it does give you an idea of your new connection’s interest in truly networking, particularly if there is no response.

The idea of networking is to develop a relationship with another person so that you can pass leads or referrals down the road. An e-newsletter, in addition to your website, gives new connections a way to get to know you and your business. If receiving your e-newsletter is an imposition, it’s probably not likely that person is going to be terribly active in passing leads or referrals to you.

The real beauty of this strategy is that it’s a two-way street. If the new connection is okay with being on my list, I have no problem being on theirs. And that can be the springboard to vested networking and lead/referral generation.

Does this work? It really does depend on the people involved. There are serial connectors out there who seem to be far more interested in bragging about the number of connections rather than actual networking. But if you’re on LinkedIn and getting little more than a “thank you” for the connect, you may want to consider this approach as a concise way to start a conversation and talk about what’s going on with your business.

If you do not have an e-newsletter, we can help. For a free estimate on what it would take to start your own e-newsletter, please give me a call at 617-848-0848 or drop me an e-mail. Better yet, take advantage of Constant Contact’s free 60-day trial.

Filed Under: Constant Contact Newsletter Tagged With: "Constant Contact, constant contact reseller, copywriter, web copywriter

July 25, 2012 by admin

“People started showing up within an hour of getting your e-mail!”

Let’s call this reason #57 for having an e-newsletter.

The headline is a a paraphrase of a voice mail left by a client’s client for whom yours truly writes, designs and distributes a weekly e-newsletter. The client, a retail plant nursery, had announced a special “dollar sale” on summer plants with the e-mail. As you can gather from that quote and the fact that the client volunteered that information, the sale was a big success.

You’re probably saying, “Sure, you can get that type of response when you sell things for a dollar”. There’s no denying a great offer makes a difference in getting almost immediate response. Yet if this particular e-mail was the first one you received, chances are you might not have jumped in your car and went straight to the nursery as what happened with this client.

This particular e-mail was successful for several reasons. The offer is one. Another is how our client collects e-mail addresses, mostly through a sign-up sheet at their two locations. So the people on the e-mail list have already visited their establishment and have a pretty good idea about the quality of the product. Yet what really makes people get in the car to take advantage of this sale is the relationship they have with our client.

You see, besides an initial visit to their store, customers have received a weekly e-mail via  Constant Contact since March. So, even though they may not have set foot in the store since early spring, they hear from our client every week. To the customer, it’s an ongoing dialogue. It says, “we’re still here, why don’t you check out what we have on sale this week”.

The most interesting part of this particular sale stems from the number of people who opened the e-mail. At the time our client left the message, the e-newsletter had the lowest percentage open rate of any e-mail we had sent. Let me repeat that:

The lowest open rate of any e-mail we had sent!

Confused? Don’t be because there are a couple of reasons why. First, the list is larger now so a lower percentage open rate doesn’t necessarily mean fewer people received the message (More than 30 percent of the recipients opened, which is excellent). The success of the sale combined with the slightly below average open rate does indicate the strength of the relationship (AKA loyalty) with our client and his core customers. And that’s truly why a regular e-newsletter to your customers is the biggest no brainer in business, no matter what product or service you sell.

If you are interested in starting your own e-newsletter to enhance the relationship with your customers, please drop a line or give me a call at 617-848-0848.

Filed Under: Constant Contact Newsletter Tagged With: e-mail copywriter, e-mail marketing, e-mail newsletter, enewsletter

July 25, 2012 by admin

Coverage in Old Colony Memorial

Here’s an article on 25 Ways to go from Stepfather to StepDad that recently appeared in the Old Colony Memorial. Here’s a link to the entire article.

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: stepdad stepdad band being a stepdad stepdad movie the stepdad step dad quotes about stepdads stepdad ordinaire my stepdad stepdad music step parenting stepdads step dads gifts for stepdads stepdad an

  • « Previous Page
  • 1
  • …
  • 9
  • 10
  • 11
  • 12
  • 13
  • …
  • 29
  • Next Page »

Download our FREE e-book!

Want more traffic? Take the HiRoad.

Call 617-848-0848 or send an e-mail to info@hiroadcommunications.com.com

Copyright © 2025 · HiRoad Communications · 111 Kathleen Drive Plymouth, MA 02360 · 617-848-0848