|
Why Your Company Needs a Newsletter
by Colleen Happ
An electronic newsletter is a great way to build your
business and stay in touch with your customers. Newsletters are an effective
and cost efficient tool that every company needs in their marketing arsenal.
Here are six way how your company can benefit from
a newsletter:
- A newsletter is a proactive way to connect
with customers and prospects. If you don't follow up with your
customers, they might forget about you. You can use your newsletter
to remind them of the services you provide or let them know about new
products and specials. Studies have shown that you need exposure to
new clients 5-9 times to build familiarity and trust before they will
buy.
- Newsletters help you educate your customers
and prospects by providing information that they need and want.
As a society, we are inundated with messages 24/7, but we all still
seek more information. If you know your audience, you can tailor the
content of your newsletter to their needs. The content should be relevant
and educational so they have a reason to open your email every time
they receive it.
A good rule of thumb is to keep the newsletter 75% content and 25%
promotion.
- Newsletters help you spread the word about
your business when your customer forwards it to other people.
If you keep the content valuable, it will be forwarded.
- Newsletters subtly promote your business.
Instead of saying outright how great you are, you can show it through
your knowledge and expertise.
- Your newsletter can establish yourself as
an expert in your field. You get to share what you know and your
customer will value you for it.
- The biggest reason that newsletters are so effective is that they
can be targeted at customers that have
already shown an interest in your product.
Here are a few rules you should follow with your newsletter:
- Don’t spam.
- Send it our on a regular basis.
- Allow your subscribers an option to un-subscribe.
- Send it out in HTML format, so it can look like your web page. This
is much more captivating than plain text.
- Use an email service so you can track the success of your campaign.
These services make keeping track of your subscribers a breeze, and
you know how many people opened the email and if it was blocked.
- If you don’t have time to write your own content, the web is
full of free content. One site that has many free articles is http://www.ezinearticles.com.
Newsletters are a great way of keeping
your company image in front of an audience on a regular basis. The number
1 reason people turn on their computer is to open their email. Why not
take that advantage of that opportunity to educate and help your customers.
|