You’ve heard me mention this many times before—no matter what business you’re in, your current customers hold the best prospect for future growth, and it’s less expensive to sell to current customers than it is to attract new ones. In my opinion, newsletters are, dollar for dollar, the most effective marketing tool available in terms of keeping current customers.

To answer some of your questions, I have just published my first tips booklet, called Newsletter Secrets Revealed: How to Increase Your Profits with a Customer Newsletter.Topics in this 20-page booklet include the following:

* Why newsletters are so darn effective

* Some real-life success stories

* The 5 secrets of a great newsletter

* The Newsletter Guru’s all-important gauge of readership

* The most common, but least read, part of a company newsletter

* The 7 biggest mistakes people make in designing newsletters

* How to maximize your success with a newsletter

* The 16 critical mistakes you must avoid

As a bonus, I’ve included four color pages of some of my newsletter designs! You can download a copy of this book for only $4.77, or I will happily mail you a printed copy for only $8.77. Get your copy today at www.newslettersecretsrevealed.com.

I want to share with you one of the strategies that has helped me grow my businesses by leaps and bounds! When it comes to the most valuable marketing tool available to any business (as selected by the Newsletter Guru!), a monthly customer newsletter is the hands-down winner.  However, today I want to talk about another strategy, one that every entrepreneur and business owner should engage in – networking and spending time with other successful entrepreneurs.  

I can’t overstate how important it is to get outside of your office (and perhaps your comfort zone, too) in order to meet and mingle with other people who are also growing their businesses. Let me give you just one example of how getting out and meeting people can have multiple positive impacts. 

Last May one of my companies, Dynamic Communication, was exhibiting at a Chamber of Commerce business expo when Mike Capuzzi came up to my booth. Mike, the president of Persistent Marketing, explained that he had a client who wanted a newsletter. Mike and I briefly discussed working together on this project and then exchanged business cards.  

A few weeks later, I followed up with Mike, inviting him out to lunch to learn more about each other’s company and to discuss any opportunities to work together. We discovered that we had a great deal in common and had similar philosophies on how to market and grow a business. Mike also introduced me to Dan Kennedy, a nationally known marketing genius, and in the next 45 days I devoured five of Dan’s “NO B.S.” books. What I learned has had a profound impact on my business. 

Over the last 13 months Mike and I have worked on many projects together, benefiting both of our companies. Mike is also the Philadelphia local chapter director for Dan Kennedy’s national organization, the Insider’s Circle. Every month a group of business professionals from diverse industries comes together to share and learn from each other how each is using Dan Kennedy–style marketing techniques to grow more business. As you might guess, yes, I have met many people at these events, and some have become clients. 

It is through Mike’s Insider’s Circle chapter that I discovered and joined the Mastermind group I’ve written about so often. The idea for my third business was formed during our February Mastermind meeting, and I’m pleased to say that No Hassle Marketing, LLC, will be unveiled on July 1, 2007. 

So, the BIG lesson is, get out of your office and meet other people. And Part B of this plan is to follow up with the people you meet and explore the various ways you might be able to work together and mutually benefit from the new relationship. 

P.S. If you’re in the greater Philadelphia area and want to learn how to master the art and science of writing Kennedy-style sales letters and ad copy, sign up for Mike’s two-day Boot Camp on June 8–9. To learn more, contact Mike at mcapuzzi@persistentmarketing.com.

Marketing genius Dan Kennedy frequently talks about the need for business owners to build and maintain a fence around their herd (customers). A fence is designed to keep your customers close to you, repurchasing and recommending friends and neighbors to your business. A fence is also designed to keep the poachers away. Poachers are all the other businesses that are trying to steal either your customers or their money.

On page 174 of Dan’s book NO B.S. Direct Marketing, Dan says, “…my biggest single recommendation is the use of a monthly customer newsletter (or, for the really ambitious, more than one). Nothing, and I mean nothing, maintains your fence better.”

If you’re not in frequent and regular contact with your customers, clients, and prospects, and by that I mean monthly contact, chances are very high that they will forget about you! According to mail-order statistics, customers lose 10% of their value each month that you do not keep in contact with them.

What does that mean to you? It means that if you haven’t done anything to keep in touch with prospects and customers, they’ll forget all about you in less than a year. If that doesn’t shake you to your core, nothing will.

A Personal Experience to Help Make the Point

Let me tell you a story that further reinforces my belief that a monthly newsletter is very important to your business. About five years ago, I refinanced my home. The mortgage company and the rep gave us truly great service. I was so happy that I wanted to refer them to some friends and associates; I did so a number of times over the next few weeks.

However, a few months after settlement, when another opportunity to refer them presented itself, my memory failed me! I simply could not remember the mortgage company’s name! Essentially, having not heard from them for three months, I forgot their name! If only they had sent out a monthly newsletter, chances would have been very high that I would have remembered their name easily.

To this day, I remember the great experience but cannot recall the name of the company. This happens every day to thousands of companies. Don’t let this happen to your business. I strongly encourage you to mail a monthly newsletter to your customers, clients, and prospects. If you already have a customer newsletter, I encourage you to make it fun and enjoyable to read.

ANNOUNCEMENT: I will soon be introducing a new coaching and consulting program! I’ve been thinking about this for a long time and have decided that this is the year.  Please send me an e‑mail at jim@nohasslenewsletters.com if you would like to receive the announcement.

This has been yet another busy week filled with multiple client custom newsletter projects; Wednesday was my all-day Mastermind group meeting (always an awesome experience), and tomorrow I’m off to help move one of my twin daughters back home for the summer. The other twin has decided to stay living and working in Philadelphia – something that has also occupied a great deal of my mind, but I digress! 

I’ve been thinking about my blog all day and decided I would share something that I’ve been thinking about a lot this week. We are now more than a third of the way through 2007 and heading into the summer vacation season. The idea of dieting usually starts earlier in the year, perhaps as a New Year’s resolution, or in the spring, in anticipation of bathing suit season! However, in this posting I am going to focus on your mental diet. Like your body, your brain needs continual exercise to keep it in top condition.  

I am going to give you three ways you can keep your mind in tip-top shape. The first is reading. If you are not reading at least one book a month, you are not in the best mental shape you can be. In addition to feeding your brain, reading also will help you be a better writer of newsletters! I myself try to read a book a month – don’t forget that you can always listen to an audiobook instead of turning pages! In a previous posting (April 9, 2007), I gave you a list of some of my favorite books. Here are some other titles that I’ve read lately, in case you’re still looking to fill your summer reading list: 

• The Psychology of Achievement by Brian Tracy
• No B.S. Wealth Attraction by Dan Kennedy
• How to Become a Rainmaker by Jeffrey J. Fox
• The Irresistible Offer by Mark Joyner 

The second way you can tone up your brain is to be around other positive and smart entrepreneurs and businesspeople. Remember, you are the average of the five people who you spend the most time with.  

The third way is an “Olympic-style” exercise routine for your brain, and this one has had the most profound impact on my career and businesses: Join a Mastermind group. If you are looking to “get ripped,” then you need to be in a Mastermind group, which can best be described as one part board of directors and one part peer-advisory group (and one part Rocky-style training). It is the fastest way to mental fitness available to entrepreneurs and businesspeople. 

So there you have it. Three powerful ways to tone up your mind this summer. I would enjoy hearing from you about what you’re reading. Please send me an e-mail at jim@nohasslenewsletters.com.