FOCUS National Guild of Hypnotis t s

NATIONAL GUILD OF

HYPNOTISTS CONVENTION 2016

on

The National Guild of Hypnotists 2016 Annual Convention, Exhibition and Educational Conference will be held August 12-14, 2016, at the Royal Plaza Hotel & Trade Center in Marlborough, Massachusetts. Follow this link to: REGISTER NOW

Issue: 6

2016

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PAGE 2.

And so the adventure begins….

Page 2 Last week’s National Guild of Hypnotists Convention

newsletter (Issue 5) laid the ground work for how to

set up your email-based newsletter. If you missed

that issue or you want to revisit it now, you’ll find it

at:

www.hypnotistsconvention.com/2016NGHNewsletter5.pdf

Picking Up Where We Left Off

Keep Emails Flowing –

Building a list should not be a one-time-only or once-

a-year promotion. Try to keep relationships fresh by

communicating with the people on your list regularly.

You may feel that you can only manage a newsletter

once monthly, once every other month, or perhaps

only quarterly. That’s okay!

Delivering your newsletter on schedule, whatever

that schedule may be, often is more important than

frequency. You can always supplement between

newsletters with short, lively emails. One valuable

nugget of information and a reminder of when the next newsletter is scheduled to arrive,

typically is sufficient to sustain engagement with most of your contacts and continue to

attract new fans and followers along the way.

If you neglect your list and you email your clients only occasionally, you can expect

bounces — those undeliverable communications that result when an email address

is no longer valid. In fact, thirty percent of email users change their address as

frequently as once per year.

When you neglect your list, you will also see a higher than average percentage of

people who opt-out or unsubscribe. Business relationships are sustained by your

attention to: “what have you done for me lately!”

To help you stay on top of the commitment to send regular newsletters and email

communications, take advantage of the readily available, customizable automatic emails,

drag-and-drop template makers, and success reports that make the job easier. All of these

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Creating Email-Based Newsletters PART II

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features are standard components of most of the email newsletter platforms discussed in

lssue 5. Some programs even have landing page building tools.

Here is an example of the email building tool found in MailChimp.

Even if you aren’t tech-savvy, there are many templates that will easily make your

emails beautiful (and readable on all devices). Look for a program identified as

“RESPONSIVE,” which is the term for any template that has been purpose-built to adjust to

whatever device (phone, laptop, desktop, or tablet ) a viewer is using.

With a little practice, your email newsletter can be as simple as: select your template, add

your own photos (or stock photos), add your text, preview, and go!

Emailing in a “Non-spammy” Way

In more detail, we’ll cover what you need to do to avoid being marked as spam later in this

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Creating Email-Based Newsletters (cont.)

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article, but the first step to not being spammy is… have good emails!

If you blog or post regular updates to your social media, you have email and newsletter

content. If you hold workshops, attend events, or offer specials, you have email and news-

letter content. Also, don’t be afraid to just be “you” and write with personal style rather

than in a “business” tone, sharing your own knowledge and insights.

Bloggers have it especially easy. Many email tools have blog-to-newsletter features that

can automatically send your blog posts to your list, with a variety of delivery options.

(MailChimp, AWeber, and MailerLite have

blog-to-newsletter tools. Campayn does

not.)

The blog post to newsletter process

typically is as easy as:

1) Select a template.

2) Provide your blog address or RSS

feed.

3) Choose a schedule.

If you post once a week or less, set up

your emails to send as an email each time a post is made. If you are a frequent poster, then

a smart choice is to create a weekly digest of “bundled” emails.

Not blogging? That’s fine. At least once a month, send a letter to your list. Topics you

might share include:

Upcoming events for next month – classes, introductory events, or community

activity.

Specials – Do you have a promotion or incentive program? Remind people of it!

Seasonal content – New Year’s, summer vacation, and back-to-school are all reasons to

remind people that they want to make resolutions, improve their physical fitness or

break habits and negative patterns.

Personal reflections are also a good source of newsletter and email content. Have you

Creating Email-Based Newsletters (cont.)

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PAGE 5.

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learned something new? Did you have a good experience that might be of interest to

others? Be sure you share it with the clients and prospective clients on your list.

The U.S. CAN-SPAM Act of 2003

Signed into effect by President George W. Bush, (December 16,

2013), the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 establishes national standards

for the sending of commercial email. You can learn more here:

www.ftc.gov/tips-advice/business-center/guidance/can-spam-act

-compliance-guide-business.

First, understand that the CAN-SPAM Act applies to bulk emails

AND to every commercial email. Commercial email is defined as:

“Any electronic mail message the primary purpose of which is

the commercial advertisement or promotion of a commercial

product or service.” Specifically, according to the Federal Trade

Commission, this includes, “email that promotes content on

commercial websites.” Furthermore, the law makes no excep-

tion for business-to-business email. In other words, ALL commercial email must comply

with the terms of these laws.

Each separate email in violation of the CAN-SPAM Act is subject to penalties

of up to $16,000.

The following is a summary of CAN-SPAM’s main requirements. View the PDF

shown here to read the full details of this law. View PDF

1) Don’t use false or misleading header information. Your “From,” “To,” “Reply-

To,” and routing information – including the originating domain name and email address

– must be accurate and identify the person or business who initiated the message.

2) Don’t use deceptive subject lines. The subject line must accurately reflect the content of

the message.

3) Identify the message as an ad. The law gives you a lot of leeway in how to do this, but

you must disclose clearly and conspicuously that your message is an advertisement.

4) Tell recipients where you’re located. Your message must include your valid physical

postal address. This can be your current street address, a post office box you’ve

registered with the U.S. Postal Service, or a private mailbox you’ve registered with a

Creating Email-Based Newsletters (cont.)

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commercial mail receiving agency established under Postal Service regulations.

5) Tell recipients how to opt-out of receiving future email from you. Your message must

include a clear and conspicuous explanation of how the recipient can opt-out of getting

email from you in the future. Craft the notice in a way that’s easy for an ordinary person

to recognize, read, and understand. Creative use of type size, color, and location can

improve clarity. Give a return email address or another easy Internet-based way to allow

people to communicate their choice to you. You may create a menu to allow a recipient

to opt-out of certain types of messages, but you must include the option to stop all com-

mercial messages from you. Make sure your spam filter doesn’t block these opt-out

requests.

6) Honor opt-out requests promptly. Any opt-out mechanism you offer must be able to

process opt-out requests for at least 30 days after you send your message. You must

honor a recipient’s opt-out request within 10 business days. You can’t charge a fee,

require the recipient to give you any personally identifying information beyond an email

address, or make the recipient take any step other than sending a reply email or visiting

a single page on an Internet website as a condition for honoring an opt-out request.

Once people have told you they don’t want to receive more messages from you, you

can’t sell or transfer their email addresses, even in the form of a mailing list. The only

exception is that you may transfer the addresses to a company you’ve hired to help you

comply with the CAN-SPAM Act.

7) Monitor what others are doing on your behalf. The law makes clear that even if you hire

another company to handle your email marketing, you can’t contract away your legal re-

sponsibility to comply with the law. Both the company whose product is promot-

ed in the message and the company that actually sends the message may be

held legally responsible.

In addition to penalties, your business can be prohibited from sending any future

emails… a step that would bring most business endeavors today to a screeching halt. Not

only do the FCC and the FTC monitor email for possible violations, email providers, such

as Google keep a close watch for potential violators. Activities that appear to be SPAM

may cause Google (or other email providers) to ban your emails, even if the federal

government has not identified you as a violator or possible violator. Among the acts

that can cause your email account to be frozen is sending bulk emails with a high number

of bounces.

Creating Email-Based Newsletters (cont.)

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SPAM, Phishing, Trojans, and Malware

It Can Happen to YOU –

We know, because it happened to us. On Monday, June 27, 2016, the NGH Florida office

sent an email that went primarily to the scheduled presenters for the 2016 NGH Conven-

tion. The email did not open correctly for most recipients. Those who were more

persistent, received a message that seemed to lock their computer. In some cases,

the message included an audible alarm. The message stated that the recipient’s

email had been compromised and that he or she should contact a given phone

number immediately. Who they were told to contact depended on their operating system

or email provider. In some cases, the email said “Contact Apple Support” and a phone

number was given. In other cases, it said “Contact Sprint.” The phone numbers given

were simply another layer in the fraud. Calling them would have captured the caller’s

phone number along with the email information the scam was already stealing.

To the best of our knowledge, only two recipients of the email were effected and they

were both staffers. In one case, it was necessary for the recipient to change some of her

account passwords, after attempting to open her Gmail based email and almost immedi-

ately being notified by Microsoft that her Microsoft account had been logged into from an

unrecognized device and location.

While it is annoying to change passwords for online accounts, it appears that for this

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incidence of hacking, there were no serious repercussions. The NGH Florida office

caught the intrusion immediately and issued a warning.

Here are a few additional guidelines to help keep your email

communications (both what you receive and what you send) safer.

Never respond to a phishing email.

Do not open junk email.

Do not open email sent to a variation of your actual email address. If your address is

JohnSmith@gmail.com, do not open email sent to John.Smith@gmail.com; to

JohnSmith1@gmail.com, or any other address that is incorrect. Such transmissions

are ALWAYS fraudulent.

Be very careful about clicking links in emails if you do not recognize the recipient or the

email seems different from what you typically receive from this person.

Images in emails can serve as “beacons” that contain harmful code and/or transmit

information about your account back to the spammer. Many email programs routinely

do not open images for this reason.

Be cautious about opening attachments.

Even when an email address is one you recognize, it may be “spoofed.” Spoofing

means to send an email under someone else’s identity.

Update your virus protection regularly and don’t scrimp on good anti-virus, anti-

malware security. Buy the programs it takes to help protect your account, your

personal information, and your business or professional practice.

Lastly, be aware that some malware does not invade your commuter but lingers

(well hidden) in your browser account. Tucked away in your Google (or other program’s)

profile may be an insidious virus. Pay attention to changes in the way your search

programs perform. Educate yourself on browser-based malware and take action

promptly if you suspect your account is compromised.

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Connect today. Only you control your future. w w w . n g h . n e t

Home to website for the National Guild of Hypnotists.

t h e h y p n o t i s t s c o n v e n t i o n . n i n g . c o m

A place for sharing plans, ideas, and excitement about each upcom-ing NGH Convention.

w w w . f a c e b o o k . c o m / n g h h q

The NGH Facebook Fan page.

w w w . f a c e b o o k . c o m / g r o u p s /

n a t i o n a l g u i l d o f h y p n o t i s t s

The National Guild of Hypnotists group on Facebook. (Site registrations is required)

w w w . h y p n o t i s t s c o n v e n t i o n . c o m

A public-facing blog for sharing NGH news (your news!) with current members, prospective members, clients, and prospective clients.

h t t p : / / w w w . l i n k e d i n . c o m / g r o u p s /

N a t i o n a l - G u i l d - H y p n o t i s t s - I n c - N G H -

4 8 2 6 9 / a b o u t

The NGH Group on LinkedIn.

h t t p : / / n g h n e t w o r k . c o m

A social network for all NGH members, created to help members in-teract with the Guild and its global membership base.

h t t p s : / / t w i t t e r . c o m / N G H H e a d q u a r t e r s

NGH Twitter @NHGHeadquarters. Use HASHTAG #ngh16 when mentioning the 2016 NGH Convention.

https://plus.google.com/u/0/

communities/108750053845759372021 NGH Google+ Group

Where should you participate and share?

All 9 sites. Each web platform serves a different function and makes it easy for you to interact, engage, and share in different ways and with different groups.

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2016 NGH Convention Newsletter!

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