Your Marketing Magnet

You may be thinking that newsletters are passé, a waste of your time to produce or that no-one reads them anymore. Nothing could be further from the truth – especially if you’re looking to nurture existing leads, strengthen relationships with current customers, increase your online presence, keep your company at the top of your prospects’ minds and don’t have a good reason to call!  Print is not dead yet! Just think of all the people you still see reading the major dailies or at Chapters and Indigo perusing magazine shelves on the weekends, as well as those that are now reading books on iReaders. Then there are the vast amount of posts, tweets and comments being published on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn every day. Taking it one step further, newsletters, bulletins and reports including Blogs continue to prove to be yet another cost-effective marketing measure to assure regular, repeat and consistent exposure for your company’s name, brand, message and information.

We all get busy and have a lot on our minds and may not see, talk or think about certain people in our lives for a long time. Sending your newsletter or Blog is therefore doing something more to keep your name in front of your clients and remind them you’re still alive, while placing your name and current activities in front of their faces, along with what you have to offer – at the same time. And since you don’t need an excuse to send your newsletter out (because your opt-in readers expect to receive it), your newsletter also allows you to stay in touch with your clients and prospective clients without having any special reason to do so.

Newsletters come in different forms – ranging from simple 2-3 paragraph emails, fast facts, helpful hints and stats, to sheets published in-house and glossy five colour spreads featuring fancy images, ads and professional journalism.  You can even add an audio or video component to your blasts for those who are less likely to read them.

However before you start creating your newsletter, there are a few things you must consider. In addition to treating it as your own promotional tabloid, writing your content wisely and being creative with your copy, you need to build your list, deliver enticing offers and calls to action. You also need to determine if your newsletter should be in email vs. print format.

If you’re in doubt and fear that sending your newsletter to your customers and prospects will somehow make you seem too pushy or desperate for business… If you’re not sure how long your newsletter should be or how often to publish it…  If you don’t know what to put into your publication and how to get your audience to read it, here’s my expert opinion:

Email vs. Print – We’re living in the digital age, so email is the clear delivery method of choice for most newsletters.  Email newsletters are cheaper than print, arrive almost instantaneously, are easily tracked and can quickly drive website traffic.  Plus you can use them to:

√     Establish your image, build your credibility and deliver a quality message to your select audience – i.e. the people who wish to receive and hear it  
√     Persuade prospects to take immediate action
√     Announce special offers
√     Share ideas
√     Gain a wider audience and more links through syndication
√     Feed search engines with new material by publishing older issues on your website

But don’t count out traditional print newsletters; because they work too. Many buyers get electronic overload and a print newsletter can be refreshing. Print also gives you a greater opportunity to create a unique and lasting impression than email.

What to Put in Your Newsletter – As for what you should put in your newsletter, here are some ideas:

√     Helpful hints & tools for improvement – in the form of articles & ‘how to’ advice
√     Weekly specials – both online and in-store
√     A review of a new newly released book in your industry
√     Discounts or coupons for your services and products to keep your customers coming back
√     Your upcoming events, media appearances, awards, workshops or public speaking engagements
√     Contests
√     Reader write-ins
√     Guest author contributions
√     Client success stories
√     Motivational quotes

How often should you publish your newsletter & should it be sold or complimentary? Once you start publishing your newsletter or Blog, you must stick with your editorial programme. Some newsletters and Blogs are published daily, weekly, monthly and quarterly. You must decide what works best for you. Some newsletters are also sold by subscription. However most are sent to customers and prospects as complimentary information – either alone or in conjunction with another offering, such as an e-book.  In my professional opinion, if sent by email, via Constant Contact, I-Contact or similar email campaign vehicle, weekly is sufficient.  As for frequency in print, bi-monthly is acceptable whereas four times a year…once every three months – is ideal.  When you publish fewer issues, people aren’t aware you’re sending them a newsletter; they think they’re getting a piece of mail from time to time.

Four times a year is enough to establish credibility and awareness. It is not necessary to publish six or more issues a year, since you may also prefer to make contact with your prospects using other methods; media, direct mail, catalogs, e-mails, copies of published articles, announcements of upcoming events, seminars, radio and television appearances, etc.  You may even want to even pick up the phone every once and awhile!

The truth is most companies don’t have enough news to fill six or more issues a year. And like so many other things in life when it comes to your newsletter it is best to focus on quality over quantity. Make sure your newsletter is not just fluff, filler, or an excuse for you to have something to mail.  Poor content will only turn your readers off and ultimately hinder rather than help you.

How long should your newsletter be? A good newsletter (not a Blog post, which should be approximately 400-800 words) should be between 4-8 pages long. Why? Because as a promotional piece more is just too much reading and two pages or less, appears insubstantial…more like a flier (which is usually perceived as junk mail) rather than as a newsletter (which is perceived as a useful publication).

Who should I send my newsletter to – Whether by e-mail or regular mail, your newsletter should be sent to anyone you have an existing relationship with or people you want to establish an ongoing relationship with, including:

√     Current customers
√     Past customers
√     Current prospects
√     Past prospects
√     Expired accounts (past subscribers, “expires”, and so on)
√     Employees
√     Vendors
√     Colleagues
√     Consultants, gurus, and other prominent members of your industry
√     Referral sources (influential contacts who refer business to you)
√     Trade publication editors, business columnists, and other members of the media who might use the contents of your newsletter in their own writings
√     And don’t forget to use feeds to link it (especially if you’re doing blog posts) with all your social media accounts and website, if your blog and website are not the same

Bestowing high visibility and positioning you as a knowledgeable, competent expert, your newsletter or Blog does more than build your image it ensures current customers remain receptive and responsive to your recommendations. It also motivates marginal customers to increase their use of your product or service, instead of having them drift away from you.

Stay tuned, next issue we’ll talk about what you can do to expand your subscribers and get more people opening and reading your newsletters and Blog posts!

To your success,

Feel free to leave me a comment and let me how my advice is working for you!

Want to reprint this article in your e-Zine, newsletter or on your website? You can as long as you do not change it, acknowledge me as the author, include its copyright date, my head shot and this paragraph:

Founding Publicist, Prime Time PR and former editor PRtalk (Canada’s only online PR magazine), Janette Burke is a marketing/PR coach, consultant, columnist, trainer, speaker, TV Personality and creator of “The Magnetic Marketing/PR Process TM” (TMMPP) – her customized, cost-effective, step-by-step, guaranteed to get-results-now marketing/PR coaching, consulting and training program.  To discuss how she can help take your business to the next level, call: (905) 882-6893; E-mail: janette@yourmarketingmagnet.com or visit: www.yourmarketingmagnet.com.