Your Greatest Challenge - Continuity of Publication

Before I joined with Marcos I was doing newsletters for advertising agencies. These were sent to prospect lists and were intended to be issued monthly. Obviously, ad agencies have writers in-house. So, why would they hire an outside party to write these letters?

I found that most of these agencies had tried to do their own letters and just couldn't get the job done. Client business inevitably took priority from this in-house newsletter writing activity and the monthly letters became quarterly letters -- then dwindled down to "whenever" mailings.

We have found this same problem affecting our clients at Loop. They say that they will provide the content and we will do everything else. Well, right from the start the content becomes a problem. The first letter is usually a beast. Everyone in the client shop gets involved and after the pieces are passed up the echelons for approval, the first issue deadline is missed.

It doesn't get much better in subsequent issues, so we resolve the problem by doing the content for them. And this is a good thing. We are pros at writing newsletters and do copy that gets results.

The moral: Be realistic about what you will be able to do yourself. And don't feel guilty if you send it outside. The objective is achieved - the letters go out and good things come back.

Prescott "Pete" Lustig
Senior Marketing Strategist
www.loopconsulting.com