Newsletters Keep You in front of Your Customers and Prospects
Posted by Jackie Ewing on February 14, 2010
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Do you send a newsletter to your clients and prospects? It could be an email newsletter or a print newsletter, but you SHOULD be sending one or the other, if not both.
Most businesses are unaware that their customer list is their most valuable asset. Communicating with them on a very regular basis is key to you being at the forefront of their minds when they are ready to buy whatever product or service it is that you offer. As mentioned in a previous blog called Mining for Gold,
You also need to communicate with your customers on a regular basis through email and print. If you don’t have an email newsletter, you are losing out on the potential of building really lasting, long-term relationships with your customers. Your communication to them is not a bother, if they don’t unsubscribe. They may not react immediately because they are not ready to buy. But when they are, because you communicate with them regularly, you are at the forefront of their mind when a particular need arises. Some will respond better to print so you should also use direct mail as part of your mining process. Continue to “mine” your list and communicate with them very regularly.
There are many options for you once you’ve made the decision to begin a newsletter. I’ve narrowed them down to three basic approaches:
- Create your own email newsletter for next-to-nothing using your email software.
- Use a service like Constant Contact, Vertical Response or MadMimi that has a minimal cost but gives you pre-made templates to use.
- Delegate it or outsource it.
1. Create your own:
I don’t recommend creating your own unless you have the skills, talent and time to do it. Believe me, it is not an easy task! It may not end up looking like you want it to and you will be limited by your email service as to how many you can send out at one time.
2. Use an email service:
Using one of the sources mentioned above (or choose from a myriad of others) is a great way to get started. It means you can take an existing template, customize it to your business in a few easy steps, add your interesting content (always the most time-consuming and difficult part, I say!), import your customer data and email out your newsletter. Easy to follow instructions allow you to focus on the content that will most interest your customers.
3. Delegate or Outsource:
While this may cost a little more to get going and keep going, it allows you the freedom to continue doing what you do best -working on your business so you can make more money! Pay someone else to develop the newsletter format, find the content – interesting text, photos and video – prepare the customer database and get it emailed out on a regular basis. Once the process has been started, you’ll be amazed at how smoothly it runs – you may only have to input a little article to personalize the newsletter – proof it, and give the OK to email it out on schedule.
Our recommendation for this type of service? Ewing Enterprises of course! This is one of the services that we provide to our clients. If you are ready to take the plunge and have someone do this for you – someone who LOVES to do this!! – take a look at what some of our clients have to say about our newsletters and service:
Kim Williams
With Jackie’s help & support we finally got around to sending out newsletters to our past guests. I never seemed to find the time to do it myself but it’s has been fun working with Jackie as she does all the hard work! Jackie’s encouragement to write my ‘piece’ each month has provoked a new interest! And the past guests have been delighted to receive our communication – it’s like a continuation of the holiday time they spent with us. Working with Jackie at Ewing Enterprises has made it all so easy.
Kim Williams, Clermont, Florida. VILLASFANTAZMIC
Jackie has proved to be totally reliable & trustworthy – she meets the deadlines set and is the sole of discretion.
David Leather
She has taken on the onerous task of categorizing our data base, which is at least 7 years old, and writing monthly newsletters which are both factual and easy to read.
David Leather, St. Cloud, Florida. HAYES VACATION HOMES
I learnt that Jackie Ewing does this as part of her consulting services and I asked her to explain to me how it worked. She visited my
Joanne Kjolsen
office and the only effort was in the formation of the names database which was just a matter of data entry – not difficult at all by any standards and now I have a created list in the correct format to now receive monthly newsletters.However I had no idea about what to say/what to write/format etc, and once again, Jackie has this down to a fine art. She comes up with the topical news snippets which are of interest to my client base both potential and existing and creates a newsletter for me and all I have to do is provide a couple of photos of things done during my month and a few words about one or two topics and she does the rest,.I proof read it before it goes out and voila! I know my customers are reading it as I see them mention something in it during correspondence with me, it might be something that I did or something that was mentioned in the newsletter. Either way, it’s a very simple and informative way of keeping me in touch with my clients on a monthly basis without it appearing as a direct selling piece. It totally is, but they see it as a fun thing to read about the place they love, Orlando!
Joanne Kjolsen, Kissimmee, Florida. BELLA VACATION HOMES
