What you say versus how you say it.

Conflict may occur between statements you make and way you look or sound when you make them. People often give greater credence to your demeanor or tone of your voice than specific words you use. Its subtleties such as these that make difference in how customers rate their satisfaction with service they receive. If you answer phone sounding bored or fatigued, or revealing stress you may be experiencing, callers can hear how you feel - even if your words suggest otherwise. Conversely, if you answer enthusiastically, you communicate to caller that you're pleased to hear from them. Especially in case of customer support, to a person with a problem, nothing is as reassuring as someone who sounds eager to help.

Keep in mind that everything you do or say has potential to influence perceptions and create expectations. Continually ask yourself what expectation you may be creating and explore ways to eliminate any causes for conflict.

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Whichever you choose, to best take advantage of a newsletter’s major strength (permission-based follow-up), you’ll want to keep format consistent. Many publishers rearrange their newsletters each month, taking out and putting in new sections, re-ordering articles, etc. No matter what your main newsletter goal, consistency is a powerful ally. By getting your readers accustomed to always finding a tip after editor’s letter, they’ll become accustomed to your company.

6. Measurement: Without measurement, you can’t be sure how your newsletter’s doing. Certainly, some things can’t be measured easily (like brand recognition), but by keeping an eye on statistics and running surveys, you can get a pretty good idea what’s going on with your readers.

One stat to measure if you’re publishing in HTML is your open rate. While it’s not foolproof (or even especially interesting), keeping an eye on your open rate will alert you to potential problems. By watching for declines or surges in your open rate, you can learn which subject lines are most popular; you can also learn which newsletters trigger more filters than usual, and which newsletters might have bugs in HTML code.

Another stat to keep an eye on is sales made as a result of your newsletter. An easy way to do this is to offer special discounts to readers of your newsletter. Using trackable links also helps, but it doesn’t alert you if your newsletter readers prefer to use phone to order.

Keep an eye on your rate of subscription and unsubscription. Do readers unsubscribe more after you’ve covered certain topics? Do you see surges in subscribers when you offer bonuses for referrals? Watching what happens to your list from week to week can be very revealing.

A final stat all newsletter publishers should keep an eye on is bounces. Depending on how you maintain your list, you may lose 30% or more of your subscribers each year to full and abandoned email boxes. Keeping an eye on this stat each month helps you gauge which newsletter promotion plans are working and which are bringing lots of temporary subscribers.

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