About Aversion To Advice

When it comes to writing enewsletters, it seems that everyone feels qualified to say how they should be done. We must confess that it bothers us more than a little that we write letters that apply the basic rules for attracting and retaining readers, yet sometimes find our way of doing it being overruled.

We recommend writing letters that have a conversational tone. The idea is to have the reader feel that it is a personal message, not an advertisement.

We recommend keeping letters as short as possible.

We suggest the the name of the newsletters should convey the idea of what it will be about.

Yet, we sometimes find that the client wants an online brochure - not an interactive communication.

We often find that the name of the newsletter will have more to do with a company slogan than with its content.

And, with a few exceptions, we find that the content we submit for approval comes back with "suggestions" that we add lengthy items.

Of course, the newsletter is their newsletter, so we do our best to accommodate our clients. Then, we will admit, there are occasions when the client changes do perform well. But, we keep wondering, "Why hire professionals if you can't accept their advice?" We do know this, the enewsletters that do best are the ones where we were left to do it our way - the professionally enlightened way.

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