Publicist Serves Clients and PR Pros with E-Zine

Have you ever felt like you were talking to the wind? Publicist Shannon Cherry aims to change that with her e-newsletter, Be Heard Solutions.

Cherry’s e-newsletter is geared to small and independent business owners who comprise approximately two-thirds of her readership. The rest of her subscribers are marketing and public relations professionals.

Be Heard Solutions began about a year ago, two years after Cherry struck out on her own with Cherry Communications.

In one year, her subscriber base has grown from 72 to over 3,000. Being a public relations professional, she publicized the bi-weekly e-zine via press releases and “traditional” PR methods. However, she credits the fast growth to article bylines in marketing magazines. These have attracted readers and added to her audience through referrals.

“I primarily marketed the e-zine online,” she says. “I started writing articles and submitting them to various publications and e-zines. Then I would retool the articles to press releases and send them out on PR Web. Finally, some other e-zine owners started listing my e-zine as a favorite, telling their readers to check it out. Then came all sorts of referrals.”

Cherry knew that the time she took to answer readers e-mail was well spent. It could potentially lead more clients to her and improve her creditability.

And that it did.

Since starting her e-zine, Cherry’s client base has increased from 40% to 50%. It doesn’t take long to convert a subscriber to a client. Most of the converts had received the e-zine for about a month. Although some take longer, all recipients tell her that her e-zine is helpful, she says.

As for editorial format, Cherry is not strictly business. Her personal touch extends to each edition through a few paragraphs that take the reader into her personal life.

“I’ve found that even research says that to make a connection with the audience and readers they want to know about you and that you’re an authentic, real person,” she says.

Cherry admits that she gets more feedback on her personal messages than on some of the editorial content. And, she adds, she has actually built friendships and relationships with her readers.

Once she wrote about doing some painting in her house and she received e-mail from readers warning her to be careful of particular primers. She says readers respond to her personal opening piece that could cover just about anything from her companion animals to her in-laws and vacations.

The next section in her e-zine is a feature article comprised of approximately 4-600 words on public relations. It covers publicity techniques and tactics, post card marketing, press releases, media relations and article writing. Occasionally she’ll promote one of her upcoming tele-classes.

Her first media relations tele-class, Media Zero to Media Hero, had 13 people on the call. They all signed up from her e-zine promotion.

Cherry also includes a media profile where she researches a media outlet for her readers and tells readers what the outlet is looking for, tips on how reporters can work with them and how to reach them. The final section of her e-zine is a question and answer area.

Consistency proved to be the biggest challenge for Cherry. “People expect the e-zine on Tuesday at 10am Eastern time every two weeks,” she says. “I have to make sure it’s ready and tested and goes thru the filters way before that. It takes time. Just putting out that time and being dedicated is the biggest challenge.”

Cherry says that her biggest setback was her initial thinking that the e-zine would market itself and referrals would come easily. “Even though referrals are part of it, it doesn’t increase your readership,” she notes. “If you’re using this as a tool to market yourself, you need a marketing plan for it. Once I figured out what that marketing plan would be, things started happening.”

Cherry’s marketing plan included taking her articles and recycling them on the internet in other places and writing articles for other online publications and traditional newsletters and magazines.

That lead readers her way.

Be Heard Solutions has an open rate of approximately 70%. But sometimes it’s 40%, depending on the season, with summer showing a drop in opens, Cherry says. The e-zine’s click through rate hovers between 20% and 30%, with readers being directed to Cherry’s Web site or information on her tele-classes.

“It costs me my time,” says Cherry who spends between three to five hours every two weeks on the newsletter. (And the cost of her service provider, eMailBrain which handles her blast, and supplies her with back-end reports.) Each time her e-zine is distributed, Cherry receives between 40 and 50 e-mails referring to both her professional and personal life. She responds to each one on Tuesday.

“The more interaction I have with people, the more likely I am to build a relationship to make the sale,” she says. “They know me, they trust me and they feel I won’t cheat them.”