A friend of mine forwarded me an article this week that appeared in another blog. The author is Troy White and Mr. White lays out an amazing case why every company needs to be producing a customer newsletter. It is longer than my usual posting but well worth your time. Enjoy!

Fellow business builder,

To me, internet-only marketing is missing the boat. Focusing all of your marketing effort online may be doing you much more harm than good. Yes – e-mail is ‘free’. Yes, websites are next to ‘free’. And yes, you can test much faster and with more detail than doing offline marketing.

But, when I personally get 420 – 550% better results using print … my radar tells me that something is amiss in cyberworld.I’m talking about the lowly piece of paper that people have to actually touch. That thing that wasn’t supposed to exist in the ‘paperless’ office – HA! I have more paper now than ever before.

Anyhow, for my clients and prospects … I opt to not only send them e-mail newsletters – but to also send them print newsletters.Why?

• They can’t delete in a nanosecond.
• They have to physically handle it (even to throw it out).
• They can pass it to others.
• There is MUCH more perceived value in paper than on the screen.
• There is less competition in the physical mailbox than in the e-mail box (I don’t know about you – but I don’t get 500 pieces of stuff in my physical mailbox to deal with every day – I do in my inbox).
• They are much less likely to get upset with you abusing their mailbox than their inbox.

And …

• The results speak for themselves!

When I run a print newsletter I use different links I can track back to the specific source of order. And the numbers speak for themselves. From a print ad I ran in one newsletter, I saw a $8.61 per click return. From the same ad in my e-zine I saw a $0.76 per click return.

Well over 1,000% better … same ad … same product … many of the same contacts. But print converted exponentially better.

I go with what works – and this works.

So, I thought I would share with you one of my newsletters and how I structure it (and how you should too).

First, hokey and silly WORK!

My experiences with cartoons for the Wild West Wealth Summit gave me more than enough proof that you should be using cartoons in your business. People ate it up and wanted more of it. Which is why I have a team of cartoonists (which you can get for next to nothing on elance.com) working on a number of projects for me. It stands out in an environment that is incredibly difficult to stand out in.I use my kids in some of my articles. Having twins puts me in the 3% bracket of families with young kids. And people are fascinated with this. I share success secrets I learn while watching them play – and people love those articles. 

But, you may not want to use kids in your newsletters
– your staff, partners, suppliers, or customers will work just as well.

Share success stories.

Share funny stories.

Share sad stories.

Share NON-WORK RELATED ARTICLES. That is one of the keys to making newsletters work.At the

1. Introductory rant: a small section devoted to what’s on your mind this month. Your personality can shine here and you can get people looking forward to your next rant.
2. Case studies and testimonials: your time to show off and strut your stuff. This is your chance to share your clients with your prospects. This is your chance to show off how good you are. This is your chance to make your clients devoted fans for life (why would they go anywhere else when they get free publicity from you?!)
3. Funny sayings, signs, bumper stickers, or strange facts: everyone loves a good laugh and a good read. Your clients are no different. Give them some good material that makes your newsletter a MUST read.
4. Usable content and articles: Start writing how-to tips and stories about your product or service, it’s history, how to use it better, advanced tips … etc. If you refuse to do this yourself, hire it out (which may not be a wise move as writing is the BEST move you’ll ever make as a business owner).
5. Calls to action and some advertisements: the real key to making your newsletter profitable. Don’t over do it – but make sure you do it! Consider it a MUST to have at least 2 offers in your newsletter. One proven one – and one new one you want to test.

Also note that you can get a 4 page newsletter printed for DIRT CHEAP. You can even have other people pay you to advertise in your newsletter – and have them finance the entire thing.

Aim for 30% content and 70% other.

It may sound strange – but the formula works. If you recall a couple months ago … I shared the story of Rita who followed this formula and made an extra $250,000 in 5 months … would that help your business at all? I bet it would.

I recommend you use e-mail AND print for maximum results … never limit yourself to just e-mail though (I used to – and will never go back until the results prove me wrong)

For the print newsletters – send them to your clients AND your prospects. This is a great way to warm them up to you – and to keep them interested in what you are doing.If you have challenges finding a mailing company to do this for you (or do it yourself if your list is small) – sign up for my newsletter at the Wild West Wealth site and I will soon be letting you know a very simple, very cool service that does ALL of this for you.As you can tell, this marketing tool is one of my favorites.

Try it out yourself and see – but please commit to at least a 6 month trial. Every month for the next 6 months send your print newsletter out to your database. See what happens – and share your results with me please.Doing a one-time mailing will not work – you may make some money with it – but the real money comes after you have been doing this for a few months.

The home study version DVDs of the Wild West Wealth Summit (where many more of these kinds of lessons are shared are now available for pre-order.They are available at a discount from the release price. See more of the testimonials and get your copy reserved now before they go up.

To your success,
Troy White
Editor, Small Business Mastery
Supplement to THE TOTAL PACKAGE™Attribution Statement: This article was first published in The Total Package. To sign-up to receive your own FREE subscription to The Total Package and claim four FREE money making e-books go to www.makepeacetotalpackage.com. 

Regular readers of my blog know that I have been working feverishly these last several months developing and preparing to launch my third business. As of today, that business is now live, and I would like to share the news with you.  

But first, I want to once again give credit where credit is due. The seed of the idea for this exciting new company was germinated in a mastermind group that I have been privileged to be part of since its inception about this time last year.  

A mastermind group can best be described as one part board of directors and one part peer-advisory group. A mastermind group is a group of like-minded individuals who come together to contribute to each others’ success in a spirit of harmony and partnership.  

The POWER of the mastermind experience is that it can lift your mind and vision to enable you to see things that you otherwise could not, most likely because you are too close to your business. Here’s the real secret — great minds don’t always think alike! That’s why the best leaders turn to mastermind groups.  

Well, earlier this year, while at my mastermind meeting, I decided to do something that I believe is rare at many mastermind meetings — I resisted the urge to talk for my 30 minutes and instead simply said to the members, “By now you all know about my business and understand what I do. For the next 28 minutes I would like to hear from you about potential areas of opportunity that I am missing to create wealth.” 

My fellow mastermind members did not let me down. I was peppered with one idea after another, and one of them was so outstanding that while on a break, I called Bobby Deraco, my friend and (at the time) future partner, and requested a meeting immediately. To make a long story short, five months later Bobby and I are proud to announce that www.printerspayday.com and www.nohasslemarketing.com are now live.  

As I mentioned in the title of this posting, there is absolute power in masterminding. You see, my business of providing customized print newsletters via an exclusive online order system is a good one. But as with most owners, my focus was on growing the business — which meant selling more newsletters! My mastermind group pointed out to me that my great asset was the technology and process I had developed and that I should license that technology to other printers!  

Wow — what a revelation. So, as of today, www.printerspayday.com is the site that informs printers of this great opportunity and www.nohasslemarketing.com is the site that brings high-quality low-cost newsletters to their customers — a real win-win situation. Take a look! 

Whether you are an employee or an entrepreneur, my strongest recommendation is to find and join a mastermind group in your area.  

Finally, I want to publicly thank the leader of the mastermind group, Mike Capuzzi, as well as the other members of the group who peppered me with great ideas and have held me to account each and every month: Sam Collins, Marty Higgins, Jay McGrath, Dan Buglio, and Carl Kruse. I also thank my friend and partner, Bobby Deraco, for his inspiration and consistently positive attitude. Last but not least, I thank Justin Reber and Chris Fasnacht, two very talented (and patient) Web developers who took our vision (and multiple revisions) and made it happen.