Create a smart newsletter
BY CHUCK GREEN On one thing, the experts agree—follow-up is the single most important and least used marketing strategy. A promotional newsletter featuring trade news, customer success stories, and information about your products or services is an excellent way to establish and grow your relationship with customers.
Include meaningful information. Supplement promotional stories with a question and answers column, trends and statistics, how-to features, and technical advice.
Build on existing design ideas. If you don’t have the time or desire to create your own design use a template or borrow from an existing layout. This newsletter uses a nameplate, section headings, and the text size and style typically found in a full-sized newspaper.
Involve your audience. Ask for letters to the editor and story ideas, include a clip & return questionnaire, offer special pricing and coupons, a calendar of events, and plenty of alternatives for making contact—your phone and fax numbers and your mailing and on-line addresses.
State your mission. Add a tag line that explains who you are and what you do. Your publication will undoubtedly be passed on to the colleagues of readers who don’t know you—a valuable source of new prospects.
A dollar saved is a dollar earned. Check into bulk mailing rates and requirements, eliminate the need for an envelope by including space for a mailing label, use one or two colors instead of four.
Use customers names and faces. Most people love to see their names, their ideas, and their pictures in print. Include stories about, and letters from, satisfied customers but be sure to get permission before you publish.
Keep it simple. Good design makes your message more easily understood. Meaningless graphics, difficult to read text, too many fonts and visual elements on a page get between the reader and your message.
Part 1: Smart Marketing for Small Business
Part 2: Create a Smart Identity
Part 3: Create a Smart Brochure
Part 4: Create a Smart Flyer
Part 5: Create a Smart Newsletter