Based on my nearly 30 years of experience publsihing newsletters that get results, I want to share five secrets with you on how to write a great customer newsletter that will increase your profits. 

Secret # 1 - Tell them what else you do. Many customers initially engage with a business by purchasing a single product or service. Over time they may do repeat business, usually reordering the same product or service, unaware of the other products or services that the company has to offer. How many times have you heard a client I didn’t know you did that,” or, “I didn’t know you also sold that”? Or, “I didn’t know you also sold that!” These are all missed opportunities to increase your revenue. 

Secret #2 - Tell them what’s new. As business owners, we are always coming up with new products and services. A newsletter is a great way to get the word out to people who already trust you and find value in what you sell. This can often be done quite effectively by way of customer success stories or testimonials. 

Secret #3 - It’s not about you. This is very important. Your newsletter is not about you or how many industry awards you have won. Your newsletter should be about what’s important and interesting to your customers and clients. Inform, educate, and entertain them, and they will look forward to your newsletter. 

Secret #4 - Recognize the expensive real estate! The back page of your newsletter is not simply the mailing panel; it is the first thing your readers will see when the newsletter comes out of the mailbox. This is a great place to put important items that you want readers to see. 

Secret #5: - Frequency trumps everything. Frequency is more important than the size of a newsletter, whether it’s color or black and white, or even the quality of the content! Yes, you heard me right – I would actually prefer a homemade cheesy newsletter published monthly to a professionally designed newsletter done twice a year. You simply must have frequency to build trust and relationships.

If writing and publishing a newsletter seems like a daunting experience, then check out my wildly popular ‘Done-for-You’ newsletter program called Success Advantage. It is truly a No Hassle Newsletter!

To learn more secrets about writing and publishing a newsletter, get a copy of my book, The Magic of Newsletter Marketing, the Secret to More Profits and Customers for Life by clicking here.

I know, it’s been a quite a while since I’ve posted to this blog. The truth is I’ve been running a little ragged this past week. In addition to being slammed with work, my wife has been in the hospital with pneumonia. The great news is that she will be coming home tomorrow. What a blessing. Since I haven’t has much time to write lately, I wanted to feature a great article by a really talented guy named Adam Hommey. Adam is a virtual Web master and responsible for all of my Web sites, blogs, shopping carts, auto-responders, etc. If you’re like me, you probably have multiple email accounts. Even though I know a thing or two about computers, I found this article full of some great knowledge. So please enjoy this great article by Adam and I’ll be back to writing soon.

You Can Check Multiple E-Mail Accounts Easily By Adam Hommey

A misconception out there is that if you have multiple e-mail accounts, then you have to log in multiple places every day, and it’s a huge hassle. Across the board, I have seen this come up on virtual teams as well as within professional organizations, the resistance piece being that people will say something like…

“Why can’t I just use my Yahoo address? I get everything there - it’s easier for me!”

In the ideal world, “convenience” rules. In the real world, however, the branding of your virtual team or the organization you lead takes precedence over considerations of “convenience,” all day long, every day.

Guess what, though? Problem solved. You can do this. Really. It’s easy.

If you use Microsoft Outlook, it’s easy to check multiple e-mail accounts every time you hit Send/Receive.

Here are the steps. I use Outlook 2002 (still) but most Outlook versions are substantially the same (note, I am not referring to Outlook Express…if you’re still using Express, by all means, upgrade!)

Setting up Multiple Accounts

Remember how you set up your first e-mail account in Outlook? It’s Tools >>> E-mail accounts >>> Add a New Account (ALT +T then A).

Follow the instructions and enter the settings you are given by your webhost or internet service provider. Just follow the process over and again until you have all of your e-mail accounts loaded in your Outlook.

After you’ve set up your multiple accounts…

When multiple e-mail accounts are active in your Outlook, you will find, when sending e-mail (new message, replying, or forwarding) in the menu at the top of the message itself, a drop-down box called “Accounts” (ALT+N).Click this, and all the accounts you have installed will be listed. Select the e-mail account you want to send from. When your message is sent, it will go out through that account.

Sorting Your Incoming Mail

When you hit Send/Receive, new e-mail will also come in simultaneously from all of the accounts you have loaded. (See, I told you - no multiple logins!) Now, you may be thinking that will get confusing, all that e-mail from so many places getting dumped in your Inbox.

Nope. Problem solved here too! (Told you this would be easy.)All you have to do is create new e-mail folders in your list, just like you probably already have folders to sort “pending,” “ongoing,” “quarterly reports,” etc. Then, you create Rules to tell incoming e-mail where to go.

To create Rules in Outlook…

1. In the main Outlook window, go to Tools >> Rules Wizard (ALT+T then L).

2. In the dialogue box that then pops up, click the “New” button.

3. At the top of the next screen, you will see two radio buttons. Click the one that says “Start from a blank rule.” Then click “Next” at the bottom of the dialog box.

4. On the next screen, highlight “Check messages when they arrive” and click “Next.”

5. From the list of options that will appear, check the box beside “through the specified account.” When you do this, that option will appear in the lower part of the dialog box.

6. In the lower part of the dialog, click the hyperlinked word “specified” and you will see a list of all the accounts you have installed. Select the account you are creating the rule for, click “OK,” then click “Next” on the main dialog box.

7. On the next screen, check the box beside the option “move it to the specified folder.” When you do this, that option will appear in the lower part of the dialog box.

8. In the lower part of the dialog, click the hyperlinked word “specified” and you will see a list of all the mailboxes you have in your Outlook bar - including the one you created just a minute ago. Select the mailbox to send mail to, click “OK,” then click “Next” on the main dialog box.

9. The next window will ask for exceptions. Usually you won’t have any. Click “Next” again.

10. On the next screen, name the Rule whatever you want to call it, then click “Finish.”

11. On the final screen, click “OK.”

You’ll now see, next time you download e-mail, that all e-mail coming in through the account you just created the Rule for, will be sorted into the folder the Rule tells it to!I hope this quick Outlook tip will help you easily manage multiple e-mail accounts and not have to log into five or more different places each day!

Hello everyone – I hope that where ever you are reading this, your weather is as beautiful as it is here in the Philadelphia area, an amazing fall day. As you probably are aware, the second edition of Newsletter Power, my twice monthly ezine launched yesterday and I appreciate the many kind comments. A new reader sent me an e-mail and asked me if I can talk about some success stories that companies are having with newsletter marketing.  The following first appeared in this blog last spring and is worthy or repeating. Enjoy!

1. One of my Dynamic Communication 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 and uses The Home Connection, a newsletter available at No Hassle Newsletters (www.nohasslenewsletters.com) for only $0.89 each – postage included! 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!

To subscribe to me ezine, go to www.newsletterpower.com.