Tell your story – marketing

Keep in touch with your customers,

and generate sales via company newsletters

Here’s a handy way to keep in touch with your customers. It’s the newsletter, and it’s one of the easiest and most effective sales generators you can use.
It arrives in your customers’ mailboxes on a regular basis. If written well, it is informative and therefore appreciated. Customers begin to look forward to this regular message from their suppliers. It serves as a reminder, even an incentive, for them to buy from you.
The key is to maintain objectivity. If you are having a sale, announce it as if it were a news event. Avoid superlatives. If the newsletter looks to the reader like just another advertisement, you lose your credibility, and your customers’ attention. Do not use "we" when referring to your company. Always take the point of view of an objective reporter.
Your newsletter should appear on a consistent basis (quarterly often works best) without fail. Make it both easy and fun to read, with lots of brief (four or five paragraph) articles, photos, charts, and graphs.
Newsletter templates are available from your neighborhood computer-supply store. If you decide to design your own, following are some recommendations for a four-page newsletter you can use for your company. Once designed, be sure to maintain a consistent look with each newsletter.
A simple format works best. One piece of 11" x 17" paper (use a coated stock for best results) can be folded in half to make an attractive 8 1/2" x 11" newsletter. Allow half the back page for the mailing address and it becomes a self-mailer.
If you print up a year’s supply of just the masthead in one color, you can then print the articles each quarter in black ink and have a two-color newsletter for little more than the price of one.
Make it look like a newspaper. Divide the pages into columns. Use a newspaper type style below a masthead with a clever name. If possible, use the name of your firm in the masthead.

- Advertisement -

Front page – Each issue, feature a column from the president of your company. Use it to summarize some of the articles that appear in the newsletter, perhaps a paragraph on each.
Then, start two or three other stories on the front page with continuations on pages three or four. Use headlines for your articles, just like a newspaper. Articles can be on new product, a new employee, changes in industry regulations, the latest industry innovations, or the new display booth you will be using at the next trade show. Anything that might be of interest to your customers.
This is also an ideal spot to feature a new customer. Why did he choose your company? What problem did you solve for him? A brief story can serve to flatter your customer, create a testimonial for prospects, and position your company as hero/problem solver.

Page 2 – Page two is your fun page, the part that gets your readers to open up the newsletter quarter after quarter. Keep it light and interesting; it need not be related to your business.
Include a "Did You Know" column with fun facts or trivial information. Things like the population of Katmandu, the cost of a Big Mac in Moscow, or unusual world records. Included among the four or five factoids is one pertaining to your business. (e.g. "Did You Know ABC Company has the only fully digital gimcrack in town?")
Use a Joke Box with three or four jokes (keep them clean). Include a silly quote (e.g. "A vice president’s responsibility is summed up in one word: to be prepared." – Dan Quayle).

Page 3 – This page is for the bulk of your articles. It includes continuations from page one as well as new articles. Focus on the benefits to customers of the latest industry innovation.
Break up articles with testimonials from satisfied customers. They help to build your credibility and your customers will enjoy seeing their name in print.

- Advertisement -

Back page – Half of this page contains continuations of articles from pages one or three. The other half is for the mailing label and your logo and return address.
Focus on your customers, the benefits your business offers to them. Maintain accuracy and professionalism. Remember, the key to success in your newsletter is to make it newsy. If it reads like one long ad for your business, it’ll get tossed along with the rest of the junk mail.

Robert Grede, author of Naked Marketing – The Bare Essentials (Prentice Hall), is president of The Grede Company and a part-time faculty member at Marquette University. www.thegredecompany.com

Aug. 16. 2002 Small Business Times, Milwaukee

Sign up for the BizTimes email newsletter

Stay up-to-date on the people, companies and issues that impact business in Milwaukee and Southeast Wisconsin

What's New

BizPeople

Sponsored Content

BIZEXPO | EARLY BIRD PRICING | REGISTER BY APRIL 15TH & SAVE

Stay up-to-date with our free email newsletter

Keep up with the issues, companies and people that matter most to business in the Milwaukee metro area.

By subscribing you agree to our privacy policy.

No, thank you.
BizTimes Milwaukee