I’ve been writing and designing newsletters for nearly 30 years. While most of my articles focus on what you ‘should do’ to make your newsletter more effective, in this article I want to focus on a few of the things that you should avoid as you produce a customer newsletter for your business.

Here are Four Critical Mistakes You MUST Avoid! 

1. Not providing contact information — It’s hard to believe, but I have seen this too many times! If you’re going to take the time to create a great marketing tool such as a customer newsletter, don’t forget to tell your readers how to contact you! In fact, I suggest that you have multiple ways for customers and prospects to contact you such as, phone, fax, Web site, email, and some of the social marketing forums.
   
   
2. Forgetting it’s not about you — There is always a big temptation when you start writing your newsletter to write about what is in ‘your mind’ or what’s important in ‘your world’. WRONG! If your customers are going to read and enjoy your newsletter, and therefore look forward to it and read it again and again, it must contain information and content that is important to them. Always strive to make your newsletter fun, informative, and entertaining. Remember, the kiss of death for any newsletter is being boring.
   
   
3. Not enough pictures — One of the quickest ways to get your newsletter NOT READ is to load it up with tons of text and no pictures. I often joke with my clients about what I call ‘The Newsletter Guru’s Patented Rule of Readability’. Here it is: if your customers and prospects can look at your newsletter and quickly determine that it can be read in ten minutes or less, chances are it will probably get read. Otherwise it won’t. It will likely go into the pile of things to be read in the future, but probably never will.
   
   
4. Lack of distinctive personality — As I mentioned, the worst mistake you can make with your newsletter is being boring! People get enough boring marketing messages thrown at them every day. Give your newsletter some personality. Make your readers feel a part of something fun and unique. Trust me on this; your readers will look forward to every newsletter if they learn something, are entertained, and crack a smile! If you are looking for the ultimate resource of fun, entertaining, and informative content, check out my Success Advantage 2.0 ‘Done-for-You’ newsletter program. It is incredibly quick and easy - if you can “cut and paste” you will love it!

Newsletters Help Keep Customers
Your current customers hold the best prospect for future growth. Plus, the longer they are customers, the more they are likely to spend with you. A monthly company newsletter helps you stay top-of-mind with your current customers. When your newsletter arrives, your customers start to think about you. Issue after issue, your newsletter reinforces your relationship with your customers and gives you a way to tell them about products and services they may not know about.

Newsletters Help Get New Customers
You want your newsletter to help you get new customers. Informative articles give your newsletter what marketing pros call “pass-along value.” Your newsletter makes it easy to pass on the information. Because people read newsletters as a publication and not a marketing piece, a newsletter is a great way to tell potential customers about your business. Let me quote marketing legend Dan Kennedy, who says in his book, NO B.S. Direct Marketing, “My single biggest recommendation is the use of a monthly customer newsletter. Nothing, and I mean nothing, maintains your fence better.”

Newsletters Help Build Credibility
When people read your brochure, they treat it as a piece of marketing literature. But when they read your newsletter, they read it like a publication. Your newsletter also gives you the opportunity to tell people success stories about what you do and how well your products work. You can illustrate the benefits of your product or service with statistics and customer testimonials.

Credibility is a huge benefit of a monthly printed newsletter. Listen to what Nick Nanton, The Celebrity Lawyer & Best-Selling Author of Celebrity Branding You says, “I didn’t believe it either. But adding a hard copy newsletter to my business was the best thing I ever did. It increased my credibility, visibility, and profitability virtually overnight. If you don’t have a newsletter, you’re making a huge mistake by missing the opportunity to develop a deeper relationship with your prospects and clients for maximum profitability.”

Newsletters Help You Stand Out from Your Competition
Since you decide the direction and content of each newsletter, you can differentiate yourself from others—especially the larger businesses who typically do not produce customer newsletters.

Let me close by quoting Bill Glazer, the President of Glazer-Kennedy Insider’s Circle. “Who should be sending out newsletters to their customers, clients, patients, and prospects? The answer is everybody!!! That’s right; there is not a business on the planet that couldn’t benefit BIG TIME with a monthly company newsletter. There is no better way to develop a relationship with people than sending out a properly written newsletter.”

It’s a fact that customer newsletters help businesses succeed. Here are seven of the many proven ways newsletters will help your business grow.

Secret # 1: Newsletters Help Keep Customers
Your current customers hold the best prospect for future growth. Plus, the longer they are customers, the more they are likely to spend with you. A monthly company newsletter helps you stay top-of-mind with your current customers. When your newsletter arrives, your customers start to think about you. Issue after issue, your newsletter reinforces your relationship with your customers and gives you a way to tell them about products and services they may not know about.

Secret # 2: Newsletters Help Get New Customers
You want your newsletter to help you get new customers. Informative articles give your newsletter what marketing pros call “pass-along value.” Your newsletter makes it easy to pass on the information.
Because people read newsletters as a publication and not a marketing piece, a newsletter is a great way to tell potential customers about your business.

Secret # 3: Newsletters Help Build Credibility
When people read your brochure, they treat it as a piece of marketing literature. But when they read your newsletter, they read it like a publication. Your newsletter also gives you the opportunity to tell people stories about what you do and how well your products work. You can illustrate the benefits of your product or service with statistics and customer testimonials.

Secret # 4: Newsletters Help You Stand Out from Your Competition
Since you decide the direction and content of each newsletter, you can differentiate yourself from others—especially the larger businesses who typically do not produce customer newsletters.

Secret # 5: Newsletters Enhance Your Reputation
Your customers may not be ready or need your product or service today, but when they are, they want an experienced professional. People want to do business with someone they trust, so when they are ready for what you offer, they’ll turn to you.

Secret # 6: Newsletters Help You Build Your Brand
Branding is the art of making people aware of who you are, what you do, and how you’re different from and better than the competition.
You want to have a little bell go off in people’s heads when they hear your name. You want them to say, “Oh yes, they’re the people who . . .” When your newsletter is delivered at the same time each month, it will build up a level of importance. It will help build your brand, which will help your business grow.

Secret # 7: Newsletters Have a Longer Shelf Life than Other Types of Marketing
Newsletters are portable; they go everywhere. Newsletters that are informative, fun, and easy to read are not thrown away. People pass along newsletters to friends, business associates, or even their neighbor. This is a huge benefit of producing a newsletter.