Newsletter Marketing: A Little-Known Secret to Business Success

Last year, I had a thriving ezine and a growing list of subscribers.  I was sharing branding and marketing tips to help mompreneurs grow their business and was receiving a good response.

Then life happened.

This came up and then that happened, and before I knew it, nine months had passed without a single issue of my beloved online newsletter.

I figured it was too late then.  And was a newsletter an effective marketing tool anyway?

Then I came across a book that is changing the way I view newsletters.  It’s The Magic of Newsletter Marketing by Jim Palmer.  And he makes a very compelling argument for not only using newsletters in your marketing tool box, but making them one of your (if not THE) top tools to use.

In his book, he offers seven secret ways (okay, not so secret since he’s writing about it) newsletters benefit businesses and I’m going to share them with you:

Secret #1 – Newsletters Help Keep Customers

Current customers offer the best prospect for the future growth of your business.  Selling to current customers costs less and sales tend to be greater the longer they are your customers.  Consistently sending an ezine or newsletter helps your customers to remember you.

Secret #2 – Newsletters Help Get New Customers

Include valuable, informative content in your ezine that compel readers to pass it along.  If your customers value you and what you offer, they will quickly tell others about you, and newsletters make sharing easier.

You can also place printed copies of your newsletters in your local community – those places where your target market would frequent.

Secret #3 – Newsletters Help Build Credibility

Your ezine gives you the chance to share your story about what you do and how well you do it.  You have the opportunity to illustrate the benefits of your products or share the testimonies from satisfied customers.

Secret #4 – Newsletters Help You Stand Out from Your Competition

As you decide on the content for each newsletter, you have the opportunity to show how you differ or stand out from your competition.

Secret #5 – Newsletters Are an Excellent Way to Enhance Your Reputation as an Expert in Your Industry

By providing good content that equips your readers, you are building relationships and the reputation as an expert.  This is very important to your business, because customers may not be ready to buy from you today, but when they are, they will seek out someone who is experienced.

Secret #6 – Newsletters Help You Build Your Brand

When people hear your name, you want a little bell to ring in their heads.  You want them to say, “Oh yes, she’s the person who…”  To gain this top-of-mind recognition, you need to contact your customers (and potential customers) often.  How often?  Jim Palmer’s experience with newsletters tells him at least once a month – the same time each month – is good timing.

Secret #7 – Newsletters Have a Longer Shelf Life than Other Types of Marketing

They’re easily transportable, and when they are informative, fun and easy to read, they are usually kept and referenced.  And people are quick to forward a good ezine on to their friends, which is a great benefit of creating a newsletter.

So my research has convinced me that reviving my newsletter will be worth the effort.  Stay tuned to see it come to life.  If you want a close-up view of what I’ve learned to include in an ezine, be sure to subscribe.