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| That's all you need, right? |
With all the different ways to connect with your
customers and partners over social media these days, you might be tempted to
think of a newsletter as a bit old-fashioned. Email’s practically as old as the dinosaurs –
ain’t nothing worth saying these days that takes more than 144 characters.
Wrong. In fact, you’d almost certainly be surprised at
how many people will sign up for a newsletter, especially if it’s well-written,
with some solid, interesting content (rather than just a list of updates).
Here’s why I think a newsletter is worth having:
You’ll capture
more customers: not all of your customers will use social media. They might
have a profile and follow you, but if you look closer, their last tweet was
about the 2012 Olympics and there’s dust on their Facebook page. And even if
they are a keen user, your updates and links might be crowded out by everyone
else’s. Which leads me on to my next point…
It’s proper
one-on-one time: if you can come up with a title that stands out in their
inbox, and a well-designed newsletter that draws them in, then you’ve got a
good five or ten minutes with their (almost) undivided attention – the perfect
time to tell them about how wonderful you are.
You can show off: if
you’ve had a good customer testimonial, won an award or grabbed the attention
of industry experts, you need to shout about that as much as possible. This is
the kind of thing that makes perfect content for newsletters, if it’s
well-written – and once again, you’ll be making sure you communicate this to as
many people as possible by using another channel.
You can build up
your mailing list: if you can convince people to sign up for a regular
newsletter full of great content, then when you’ve got something you really
want to tell them about – a special offer, a competition or a new product –
you’ll have a great list of email addresses ready to send it to, complete with
links to help them follow through. And if they don’t, you can quickly and easily
remind them with another email.
You can build up
that relationship: we all know that building a relationship with your
customers is crucial to get them coming back for more – and recommending you to
all their friends. A newsletter that boasts exclusive bonus content is a great
way to do this – your customers feel a bit special, they absorb more about your
fabulous brand, and the relationship is strengthened once again.
Of course, you don’t want to start clogging up inboxes
with all your emails, or overloading people with dry, boring content, or
they’ll start unsubscribing – so that’s where I come in. If all this sounds
like it would take up far too much time and energy (you’ve got a flipping
business to run, after all) then I can do everything for you – get in touch at
sflg@hotmail.co.uk and we’ll talk.
For more about my content services, click here