I received an e-mail from Rich, who is considering starting a newsletter for his business. Rich asked me if I would share some more evidence of why I say newsletters are such a great marketing tool. I appreciate the question and am happy to provide some evidence. 

1. One of my corporate clients has a large internal newsletter, a giant 12- to 16-pager. A few years ago I encouraged them to send their newsletter to prospective customers as well as to their current customers. This company has been on a growth streak, and they’ve enjoyed 100 percent customer retention for two years. While their success speaks more for them than the newsletter does, I believe that when current clients and prospective clients read about their growth and success, it reaffirms their original choice to go with them and stay with them. After all, people want to do business with successful companies. 

2. I have a client in the heating and air-conditioning business. This company wanted to branch out into whole house generators. I wrote an article and featured the new product on the back page (Golden Nugget: The first thing your readers see!), and they got thirteen calls. These units average about $5000 each — you do the math! 

3. I have a client who is a mortgage broker. He tells me that every time we mail his newsletter, he gets at least one new client by way of referral. 

4. I have another client, a commercial collection agency for whom we produced a high-quality newsletter called Collection Solutions and filled it with tips and pointers on how not to let your accounts fall into past-due status, and why companies hesitate to hire a collections agency. My client told me a few months ago that his newsletter has brought in eleven new clients in eighteen months. 

Let me close by telling you what reinforces my belief that newsletters are very important. Some years ago I refinanced my home, and my rep from the mortgage company gave us really great service. I mean over-the-top service! I was happy to refer the company a number of times over the next few weeks. However, a few months later, when another opportunity to refer them presented itself to me, I couldn’t remember their name! Hmmm, if they had only communicated with me (and their other customers) with a monthly newsletter!

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 11th, 2007 at 5:52 am and is filed under content, newsletter marketing, newsletter tips. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.