Advice On Using Newsletters To Promote Your Business
posted on 10/10/2009
With today's easy-to-use desktop publishing software and the included professional looking templates, it is easy to develop classy looking marketing materials and newsletters on a shoestring budget. And because it is so simple and convenient to disseminate electronic information via e-mail, there is no excuse not to develop and distribute a newsletter to promote your small business. Even if your writing and design skills are rusty or non-existent, putting together a simple and effective newsletter is easy. And making sure your business has its own communications vehicle will put your company on par with your competitors, or maybe even set you apart from the rest.
Newsletters are a smart way to keep your clients and customers informed about products and services that relate to your business and your needs. Newsletters don't have to be very long - one or two pages are fine. The important thing to remember is when you start a newsletter, you make a commitment to distribute it on schedule, whether it is weekly, monthly, quarterly or twice a year. For those contemplating starting a newsletter, here are some tips to get you started:
Invest in easy-to-use software that is powerful enough to create and distribute a newsletter electronically. Other than time, this may be your biggest investment. Microsoft's Publisher 2007 software fits this bill, along with a professional copy of Adobe's Acrobat or comparable program that turns files into a PDF format. This is the easiest way to distribute electronic newsletters that is almost universally accessible and readable.
Decide how often you wish to put out a newsletter. If you're new at desktop publishing, try aiming for a quarterly newsletter. You can always change to more frequent distribution if it turns out that you have a lot of information to communicate. Just remember that if you're going to commit to distributing your newsletter four times a year, it is important that you follow through. Missing issues or sending out issues late does not reflect well on your professional business tactics.
Gather interesting content. The good thing about putting together a newsletter is that your industry vendors and suppliers will be happy to give you professionally written news and information to reprint in your newsletter. All you have to do is ask. You may need to shorten it to fit your spatial limitations or customize it for your particular business, but there is no shortage of content. You can promote new products, services, policies or sales; offer advice; share handy and useful tips or even run contests and promotions.
Put together a distribution list. Sending the newsletter through an e-mail distribution list is the easiest and cheapest way to get it into the hands of your customers and/or potential customers. This is when you need to start gathering e-mail addresses and getting them into a mail merge program.
Using an electronic newsletter to promote your business is an easy and affordable way to get your name out in the community and toot your own horn. It may take some hard work to get the newsletter started, but once you have two or three issues under your belt, you'll wonder why you didn't begin this a lot sooner.
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