Your monthly newsletter adds value to existing clients and nurtures prospects. There’s also a simple and easy way it can be used to deepen relationships with professional connections.
So, what’s the idea?
Newsletter sponsorship.
It could be a one-way street, with them sponsoring your newsletter. Equally, if they produce a newsletter, it could be a two-way street with reciprocal sponsorship.
No money will change hands; you’re not charging each other for the sponsorship. It’s simply an opportunity to reach each other’s audience, deepen the relationship, and build up a sense of reciprocity if it’s a one-way street.
Typically, sponsorship could include:
- Adding a “sponsored by” message and the firm’s name or logo to the newsletter header
- Explaining the services they offer in the newsletter introduction and links to their website
- A guest article or blog, if they can provide you with one.
So, if the arrangement is one way, you do that for them.
If it’s two-way, they do it for you too.
We all know that only a small proportion of people (generally accepted to be around 3% in the B2C space and 5% in B2B) are “in market” for a service at any given time. So brands need to provide regular touchpoints. Therefore, if your professional connections are keen, you could create a rota, allowing them to sponsor your newsletter every six months or so.
What’s in it for you both?
If it’s a two-way relationship, you’ll raise your profile with each other’s audiences.
However, if it’s one-way (and let’s face it, most solicitors and accountants don’t produce regular newsletters), offering the sponsorship will bring you closer to the professional connection and create that all-important sense of reciprocity.
Who should you ask?
We recommend asking professional connections whom you want to:
- Reward for previous referrals and introductions
- Get closer to and create a sense of reciprocity
- Start a relationship with.
And remember, professional connections can cover a wider range of people than solicitors and accountants. For example, fractional finance directors, HR consultants and employee benefits consultants could introduce you to business owners. At the same time, a care home could introduce you to the families of their residents and mediators, people going through divorce or separation.
How do you make this happen?
If you want to implement this idea, you can do so in five simple steps:
- Approach your professional connections with the idea and gauge interest
- If they’re keen, decide whether it’ll be a one-way or two-way
- Agree on what you’ll include in the sponsorship
- Get the assets (logo, links, blogs) from them
- Make the changes to your next newsletter.
It’s that simple.
And if you are signed up for Yardstick Membership (our done-for-you newsletter service), we’ll do much of the hard work for you. Simply get your professional connections to agree, contact them, and we’ll do the rest.
