Archive for October, 2009

Jim Palmer’s 80/20 Rule of Smart Marketing

Friday, October 30th, 2009

Remember the ol’ 80/20 Rule that says 80% of a company’s profits come from 20% of its customers? Well since this is true for most companies, I find it odd that many entrepreneurs focus on and spend the majority of their marketing time and resources always trying to acquire new customers, much of the time to the neglect of their current customers (the ones generating the profit!).

 

That makes no sense. It’s much easier and quicker to sell more to your current customers than it is to acquire and sell to new ones. Look, you already have established relationships with your current customers because they’ve already purchased from you! This is a huge marketing advantage.

 

Communicating with your current customers with a monthly newsletter helps you stay top-of-mind. Your newsletter arrives and instantly your customers are thinking about you and after receiving your newsletter on a consistent basis, your customers actually begin to look forward to receiving it—it’s a welcomed friend—and they are curious to see what tips you are sharing with them this issue. Issue after issue, your newsletter reinforces your relationship with your customers. It makes your fence stronger. It also gives you a way to tell current customers about products and services you provide that they may not know about.

 

Learn more about newsletter design in my book, The Magic of Newsletter Marketing – The Secret to More Profits and Customers for Life available at Amazon and my Web site.

If you’d like to discover the best ‘Done-for-You’ newsletter program ever, check out my No Hassle Newsletter program. With No Hassle Newsletters you can complete your monthly newsletter in about 23 minutes or less! Go to www.nohasslenewsletters.com.

Newsletter Publishing: What’s in a Name?

Friday, October 16th, 2009

Publishing a customer newsletter is one of the smartest ways to grow a business. Yet, few give real thought as to the importance of newsletter design. Newsletter writing is critically important yet without proper design, your newsletter may not get read! In this article I’m going to discuss the largest and perhaps most important part of design.

 

The masthead is the major graphic element at the top of the front page of the newsletter and includes the newsletter title. The masthead should identify your company. It may say that you (your company name) “presents” the newsletter title. It may include your logo or a symbol that represents your kind of business. A spine is a good symbol for a chiropractor. A professional speaker might be represented by a microphone.

In most cases, the newsletter title you develop should not be the name of the company. It should, however, be a name that sticks in the mind, that rolls pleasantly from the tongue, and, along with your graphic of choice, easily conveys what the newsletter is about.

 

The tagline is at the bottom of the masthead. You can think of it as a subtitle. The newsletter title and the tagline should work together. They should tell anyone who picks up your newsletter what it’s about. It should give them a clue about the benefits of reading your newsletter. One last point. Remember the old expression, “too cute by a half.” What you think is cute and ‘clever’ may leave your readers utterly confused. Learn more about newsletter design in my book, The Magic of Newsletter Marketing – The Secret to More Profits and Customers for Life available at Amazon and my Web site.

 

If you’d like to discover the best ‘Done-for-You’ newsletter program ever, check out my No Hassle Newsletter program. With No Hassle Newsletters you can complete your monthly newsletter in about 23 minutes or less! Go to www.nohasslenewsletters.com.