It is common knowledge that it is six times harder to sell to a new prospect than to sell to an existing customer. Therefore, any efforts courting your existing customers are well-spent. You should develop ways to be helpful to your customers so they look to you as your industry’s premier expert and an indispensable resource.
An effective tool for keeping your customers loyal is a regularly delivered newsletter. Newsletters are also an effective method of making yet another contact with prospects. Finally, if the content of your newsletter is valuable enough, you can offer free subscriptions on your web site as a way to build your database.
Because newsletters these days are usually sent via email, the costs of sending them regularly is negligible. If you can send a newsletter once a month, that will go a long way toward keeping your customers warm, but at the very least, you should be sending quarterly.
Fill your newsletter with helpful, educational content. No one wants to read a newsletter that only beats the drum about your products, your company, your awards, you, you, you. Don’t create a four-page ad and call it a newsletter. Instead, think about what kind of information your customers will find extremely valuable. What can you impart that will help your customers increase their profits and grow their businesses?
Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done
Structure your newsletter.
Structuring your newsletter enables regular readers to go to their favorite sections, and it also makes it easier for you to write. Following are some section ideas. You will probably not want to use all of these. They are ideas to start with as you brainstorm what might really appeal to your own customers. 1) Section filled with statistics and useful information about your customers’ industry. Include links to resources and interesting articles if you can. 2) Question and Answer section to address common customer concerns. 3) An offer special to your customers, whether it is a link to a free white paper or a discount to an industry seminar. Make your readers feel like VIPs. 4) Calendar with important industry dates; this might include trade shows or conferences schedules. 5) Updates and first glimpses of your new products or services. Keep this focused as much on the customers as possible and the benefits to them. 6) A spotlight on a customer. Tell a success story and give tips.
I recommend: Before writing your own, check out other newsletters. Look on industry association web sites and your competitors' web sites. Ask friends in your industry what newsletters they subscribe to. Now that you know what is out there, don’t copy it; create something fresh. See
Newsletter Access for an online directory of newsletters on all topics.
Name your newsletter something short, interesting and clever.
Hold a company-wide contest with a prize good enough to create buzz for whoever comes up with the name that sticks. The contest will not only serve to name the newsletter, but to rally the company around in support. You will then find it much easier to persuade people to write articles.
I recommend: See
"Pages" for ideas and help on how to name your newsletter.
Delegate.
Don’t feel like you have to write the entire newsletter yourself. Draw on the varied expertise of people in different departments of your company. Of course, the content they produce will likely have to be edited to fit the “feel” of the newsletter and to keep it externally focused on your customers (rather than internally focused on how great your company is). Assign specific sections of the newsletter to some individuals on an ongoing basis, and have “guest” writers for other sections.
I recommend: Read this helpful article on
How to Delegate if you are concerned about the time demands of creating a newsletter.
Make it interactive if possible.
Use your newsletter as a tool to create online community in your industry with your company at the hub. One way to do this is by soliciting questions from customers that can be answered in the newsletter. Another is to have a column that is actually written by featured customers. Possibly they could relate industry tips or describe how your product or service is being successfuly used in their companies.
I recommend: To get a real feel for the power of online community, read the
Guide to Building an Online Community.
Design an easy-to-read, attractive format.
Design an easy-to-read, attractive format. Ideally, you will hire a graphics designer to give it a clean, professional look that is integrated with your current branding, but there are also online services and templates you can use to get newsletters out fast with virtually no design effort on your part.
I recommend: See the
Guide to Producing Your Own Electronic Newsletter for resources that offer turn-key solutions and templates.
Tips & Tactics
Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide
- You may want to email the newsletter itself, or just email your customer and prospect database a link that takes them to the newsletter on your web site. Since newsletters can easily be emailed, these days there are no postage costs.
- Arm your salespeople with a print version of your newsletter to give them yet another weapon in their arsenal. You should be able to print these inhouse if you are using a well-designed template.
- Write in a casual, conversational style. If your newsletter reads like a quarterly report, you will put your readers to sleep. Of course, you need to keep your image in mind, and a bank's newsletter should have a more conservative tone than a day spa's newsletter.
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