A strange thing happened this week in communicating with my senior clients. I suppose it all started with the various issues arising from Time Warner that I mentioned in a couple of previous columns. Rather than discuss those problems with everyone on my client list and repeat myself several times, I started a little newsletter. The concept is simple and a bit retro. I wrote a two-page newsy letter featuring things of local interest to seniors who use computers and sent it to my client list via classical email. No blogging software or fancy Web site. It was just a simple letter.

Since everyone on the initial distribution knows me and has been briefed on how to access various other sources (including this series on Lockergnome), I did not expect to stir up much additional interest. Then I started to get requests to be included on the subscription list. The inaugural issue must have hit a nerve with locals because I got back more requests to be included in the distribution than what I sent out originally, and to date I have not received a single “No thank you, please unsubscribe me.”

So what is going on? I know from having talked to many of the clients that they do not read this column or regularly go to seniornet.org and related support groups. Why should they take an interest in an unsolicited posting? What made this simple letter attractive beyond what I had expected?

The information in my newsletter is limited and biased toward local issues. Although I intended it primarily for seniors, it is suitable for any computer user. The main difference between it and typical spam is that it was sent to a limited list of potential subscribers, all of whom have a previous relation with me in the real world.

That previous relation seems to be the clue. My senior clients prefer interacting with real people. Getting a newsletter from someone they know and have worked with is vastly different from logging on to a general site. The general site might have more information and be better organized, but it is not as good for their purposes for the simple reason that they don’t feel as comfortable doing it as reading an email from someone they know.

Another factor might be in play, but I don’t now how to evaluate it. Although my newsletter is laid out in a simple format, it does have a picture, title, and topic headings. It looks quasi-official. It looks like a real newsletter. Maybe getting an official newsletter from someone they know personally makes them feel like insiders and special. That is pure speculation on my part.

Since all this is quite new, I don’t have any recommendations to make for potential tutors who might want to start a local newsletter as a way of increasing business. It might work. It probably will work. Would it work for other tutors? The answer is that it depends. If you can sit down and quickly write something that others will want to read, then you have a chance. If writing is painful and takes a lot of time, then maybe you should look for other avenues.

Even under the best conditions, to make it work, I think one needs to find topics that resonate with the local clientele. I happened to start my newsletter in response to a local event that was important to my clients. That fortuitous timing gave me an unexpected jump start in growing the subscription list. The test will come as I distribute more issues. Will they stay with me or move on to other things?

In a way, I hope they will move on because that will be a sure sign that they have grown in confidence and capability. Either way, it has been interesting so far. I’ve got to go now. Two more people just asked to be put on the subscription list…

Click here to read about my new tutorial on helping seniors. The new version has grown considerably over the original. It has more topics and anecdotes, and fewer typos. While you’re at it, check out my expanded tutorial on decision theory.

[tags]sherman deforest, newsletter, local interest, senior learning, senior computing, tutor, communication[/tags]