Hey there. I hope your Friday is going well, or, if you’re in a part of the world where the weekend is already underway, I hope you’re having a good weekend. (If you’re in Australia and your Saturday is almost over, can you tell me if my son’s soccer team will win their Saturday game tomorrow?) Enjoy your classified Intelligence Briefing!
Hi there. It’s me, Forest. Long time no writey, eh? [Insert details of pandemic effects, health challenges, and remote 7th-grade schooling happening in our house.] I’ve deeply missed writing to you, and that’s not a joke. Finding great things to share with you and then writing to you about them is one of my favorite things to do. In the past, I used to share 10 things in each newsletter that could help your online business engine run better, but while I do like the number 10, the Number 4 feels left out. So, today’s issue of The Intelligence Brief is brought to you by The Number 4.
Making whit up as we go.
Free ebooks, content upgrades at the bottom of a blog post, exit intent pop-ups that offer a free 7-day email course, webinars, video-based product launch formula launches for online courses. What do all of these marketing tactics have in common? Someone made them up. Many of them can work exceptionally well, but what do you do if most of them make you feel like a sleazy online marketer?
Want to know a simple way to make a surprisingly powerful impact in the lives of your customers? Send them hand-written thank you cards via old-school paper mail. (As in, the post office. Remember that place you used to go to 25 years ago before the internet happened?) Here’s the good folks at my favorite customer support software company, Help Scout, with a sharp post on how to crank your thank you card game to 100.