Marketing

If you are just starting a company or have an existing company here is a great tip for you, start a newsletter.  Send your newsletter to employees and to customers.  The newsletter you create will keep you in contact with your customers and will remind them that you are there.  What to write in your new newsletter:

• Open with material that is interesting
• Talk about accomplishments (awards, achievements) that your company is experiencing (key: balance promotion w/ news)
• Add in news about the industry that you are in from an experts point of view or just plain old news
• Write about any events that you are holding or promotional sales, include a coupon or a contest or drawing card
• Share how you are making an impact with your company
• And lastly share any media information that pertains to your business
• Always add pictures!

Microsoft 2007 publisher is a great resource when creating a newsletter, it even has templates so that you don’t have to create the newsletter from scratch unless you want to.

A great resource to use is the book Marketing with Newsletters by Elaine Floyd.  Here are some helpful hints from her book:

• Tell readers your name
• List the name of your product, service or cause
• Give readers specific information on how a product works
• Interview people helped by the product or service
• Tell prospects how to receive more information, give you their support, or make a purchase
• Explain your products and services with visuals (when possible)

Since it would be nice to place a kind comment from your customers in your newsletter, be sure to keep an ongoing list of: customer quotes, letters, emails, customer reviews, answers to surveys and any other material that would be useful to pull up and place on your newsletter.

Writing a newsletter is a simple yet effective way to promote your company.

Creating a list of people to send your newsletter to is simple.  Follow these easy steps from Marketing with Newsletters and your newsletter is sure to be a success:

• Customers, ask customers to fill out a survey in which they give you their email in return send them an online coupon
• Prospective customers and local target market area
• Suppliers
• Employees, send it to them first, just in case they are asked questions about the newsletter
• Press, keeping your local media up to date on your company this could present some good marketing opportunities
• Community, distribute your newsletter to local community centers
• Companies
• Free list, the MMAC has a list of local business leaders and a directory
• Newspaper or journal insert, why not insert your newsletter into your local newspaper it is great publicity
• Links, other websites accept links, do your research and find out what sites you would like your newsletter linked to
• Lastly, find targeted mailing lists through magazines, non-profits, and online resources

Success is just around the corner when creating a newsletter and mailing list.