I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again—it’s critical that your newsletter be friendly, fun, informative, and entertaining. If it’s not, you customers aren’t going to read it every month. If you are in the habit of filling your newsletter with information about your company, you are going to turn it into one long sales pitch. Your readers will catch on in a hurry. Not only will they not look forward to it, they’ll probably start getting in the habit of filing it in the trash the moment it arrives.

By making it fun and informative, your customers will start looking forward to it. “But, Jim, isn’t the point of the newsletter to market my company?” Sure it is. That’s why I recommend using a freestanding insert in your newsletter that contains your “sales” information. Keep your really sales-y stuff out of your newsletter, but include it on a separate sheet.

One of my customers, Play-a-Round Golf, does this very effectively in their newsletter, Family Times. The owner, Steve Graves, subscribes to No Hassle Newsletters and uses my “ready to go” template with a custom masthead that we created for him. Steve follows the format—the body of his newsletter is all about what’s fun, interesting, and entertaining to his customers. When it arrives in the mail, and they see it’s Family Times from Play-a-Round, they’re very, very likely to read it. Why? Because they know they’ll be entertained. When they’re entertained, they will also be looking forward to receiving the next one. Okay, great, you’re thinking. So how does Steve make any money?

Steve does the smart thing. He includes a freestanding insert. His newsletter is 11 by 17 inches, folded in half, and then folded in half again to its mailing size of 5.5 by 8.5 inches. Of course, all of the correct information is placed on the mailing panel and opposite panel, so his customers recognize and start reading his newsletter the moment it arrives in their mailboxes. The insert Steve uses is an 8.5 by 11 inch sheet that is inserted into the center before the newsletter is folded to its final size. It’s secure inside when it’s mailed, it can be removed from the newsletter, and it doesn’t really add anything extra to his postage. It rides along for free.

He uses the insert to promote the specials that happen to be going on at his club that particular month—coupons, special offers relative to timely holidays and other seasonal events, how to bring a guest, special team celebrations—everything he wants to promote for that month. His newsletter space is the entertainment, and his freestanding insert works as the sales and marketing vehicle.

I’ve often been asked, “Is it wise to send the same newsletter to different customer groups?” For instance, perhaps you own a business that has both retail and wholesale customers. My answer: more than likely it’s not a good idea, and I’ll tell you why, but have no fear. Sending two newsletters is not as difficult as you may think.

If you have two or more different customer groups (here we’ll use our example of a business that has both retail and wholesale customers), obviously you’re going to write a separate personal monthly message, because if you’re talking with wholesale customers you’re generally talking a different language. Wholesalers have a different language than retailers. You might use certain jargon or buzzwords. Any special offer, obviously, will need to be tailored two different ways.

And of course, if you’re going to do a customer profile, you’ll want to write about one of your wholesale customers in the newsletter that goes out to your wholesale customers, and you will profile a retail customer in the newsletter that goes out to your retail customers. If you do otherwise, people will be confused about what you’re doing. (Remember, know your customer and gear the newsletter toward him or her.)

Here’s how to make this fairly easy on yourself. You don’t need to customize each entire newsletter. The only place you really have to customize is the article on the front, which is usually your work stuff, and your article on the back page, which is usually your personal monthly message. Your other content as well as your contact information will probably remain the same.

If you’re ready for more profitable repeat and referral business, I invite you to check out my wildly popular “Done-for-You” newsletter marketing system, No Hassle Newsletters at www.NoHassleNewsletters.com.

Let me share 5 secrets with you about newsletter marketing that will bring you success.

#1: Newsletters help you keep customers.

As I have said repeatedly, it’s far more costly to acquire new customers than it is to retain your existing ones. A good newsletter program helps you create relationships with your customers. When you share information in your newsletter, you build trust and establish rapport. When you share valuable information, your customers will actually look forward to receiving your newsletter. Plus it helps you stay top-of-mind with them. As soon as they receive it, they’re thinking about you and your company. Issue after issue, you build stronger relationships with your customers.

#2: Newsletters help you get new customers.

Good, informative articles give your newsletter what marketing pros call “pass-along” value. When a customer passes along one of your newsletters to a friend, relative, or colleague, you get a referral. Your customers don’t simply hand over your newsletter. They’ll hand it over with a statement like, “Charlie, you have got to read this. I read this article and know it will help you as well. And XYZ Company is great. I deal with them all the time.”

People read newsletters as publications, not as marketing pieces, so they’re more receptive to the information they contain…including information about your company and what you offer. When faced with blatant marketing materials like brochures and sales literature, most readers work to block the information, because we’re all too inundated with advertisements every day. But when newsletters offer articles and valuable information, they’re more likely to be read, remembered, and passed along.

#3: Newsletters help build credibility.

When people read your brochure, they read it as advertising and are naturally resistant to the message. However, when they read your newsletter, they read it like a publication, and the message gets through. You can share tips and stories about how others benefited from your product or service. Include statistics and testimonials. They help build credibility.

#4: Newsletters help you stand out from your competition.

You differentiate yourself with a monthly newsletter, because you’re staying in regular contact with your customers and providing them with valuable information. In most cases, your competitors are not doing that. Newsletters work to keep customers glued to you. They keep them fenced in and your competitors out.

#5: Newsletters are the perfect way to show that you’re an expert in your field.

By sharing useful articles with your customers about your industry, you can set yourself apart as the expert. After all, you are. While your newsletter recipients might not need your product or service when they receive the newsletter, you’re continually planting the seed that you are the perfect person to turn to when they do. People want to do business with someone they trust, and you become that person by sharing your expertise.

If you’re ready for more profitable repeat and referral business, I invite you to check out my wildly popular “Done-for-You” newsletter marketing system, No Hassle Newsletters at www.NoHassleNewsletters.com.

One of the many great benefits of social media marketing, particularly for entrepreneurs and small business owners, is that it allows them to play and compete on the same playing field as huge companies. You see, it doesn’t matter whether you’re a home based business or a multi-national corporation, everyone has access to the same 140 character Tweets on Twitter and everyone has the same ability to attract new clients with engaging blog posts! Read more of this informative article by clicking here!

Don’t Be Afraid To Be You (and Chill out on Biz Stuff!)

Whether writing on your blog, Facebook, or even Twitter, give your readers more of you! Be authentic and be real, let your personality shone through. Nobody will come back to your blog or read your posts if all you do is write about ‘company stuff’ and they especially won’t comeback if you’re perceived as always trying to sell something. Chill out, give your reader some information that is fun, useful and entertaining and they’ll likely come back for more! Read more of this informative article by clicking here!

Newsletters Help Keep Customers Longer and Spending More!

No matter what business you are in, your current customers hold the best prospect for future growth. According to research from Bain and Company, getting business from your current customers costs about a fifth of what it costs to acquire a new customer. Read more of this informative article by clicking here!

As you may have surmised, this is one content rich newsletter. If you’re not getting it in your email every Tuesday morning, you can subscribe for free at www.JimsNewsletter.com.

If you have a newsletter and are regularly mailing it to your customers, clients, patients, and prospects, congratulations! You’re among the small percentage of entrepreneurs and small business owners that ‘get it’ when it comes to the amazing power of building healthy, strong, committed, dependable, and profitable relationships with their customers.

However, there is one aspect of newsletter marketing that often gets overlooked as most people are just thrilled that their newsletter actually gets done at all! But this one shift can make a huge difference in how many people actually open and read your newsletter in the first place, which as you can imagine is paramount to having it generate more revenue!

Check out my latest episode of Newsletter Guru TV, it’s called “Dependability equals Profitability” and I shot this episode while walking my pal Toby at the lake. During the first few minutes Toby let me know that he had other plans for our walk!

Click here to watch this great episode.

Over the years, I’ve found that “inspect what you expect” thinking often falls short, especially in large corporations, as you move from the front lines of customer service toward what I call the “Ivory Tower.” The Ivory Tower is where policies and procedures are enacted by folks who rarely, if ever, spend time interacting with customers. The result—those policies are often silly, and sometimes ridiculous, when implemented on the front lines. Read the rest of this article by clicking here!

My guest article this week is called Great Newsletter Writing Is Clean and it’s by none other than Toby the copywriting dog, and my pal!

Hello again to all Jim’s newsletter readers! I always like when Jim gives me a chance to write for his newsletter. No doubt being featured in Mike Capuzzi’s CopyDoodles TV episode last week was pretty cool! Jim thinks that asking me to work takes a lot out of me. His “so-called evidence” was taking a picture (on the bottom right) of me snoozing on his couch! So what am I supposed to do all day, look at the back of his head while he stares at his computer? Read the rest of Toby’s article by clicking here!

You don’t want to miss my weekly resource which empowers small businesses with social intelligence and this week’s fun business trivia puts the spotlight on Charles A. Pillsbury!

And finally, I answer a question from a reader: “Jim, I know you recommend monthly for print newsletters, but what frequency do you recommend for ezines?”

If you’re not receiving my weekly ‘multi-media boost for your business’ in your mailbox, you can fix that immediately by going to www.JimsNewsletter.com!

Most entrepreneurs spend a lot of time, energy, and resources on customer acquisition. I am an eager and continuous student of marketing and business and if you’re like me, you’ve probably also read countless books and articles about different marketing strategies designed to help you get more new customers into your business. This was the lead article in my free weekly newsletter, More Profits and Customers for Life!

My guest expert this week is none other than the super talented Melanie Benson Strick her article is titled, Reasons Entrepreneurs Should NOT Delegate! Here’s a sneak peek!

I’m sure you’ve heard many times from different experts that delegating can help you grow your business quickly. I mean just this last week I saw at least 25 articles alone espousing the benefits of having other people implement your marketing tasks, alleviate you from tasks you put off, and speed up the process of launching your programs to the world.

You’ll also find weekly favorites such as my recommended resource, book review, music review, fun business trivia, and my Stick Like Glue moment!

You can read this jam packed issue at www.JimsNewsletter.com/current and while you’re there, be sure to sign up so I can send it directly to your in box every Tuesday morning at 10:00 am!

Newsletters are not only the most effective marketing tool ever created for significantly boosting customer relationships and customer retention, they are also a highly effective prospecting tool. If you know the secret! In this episode of Newsletter Guru TV I reveal the exact secret strategy that any business can use to develop, nurture, and grow new profitable customer relationships with cold prospects.

Would you like to know the secret? I thought you would! All you need to do is click the picture on the right or click here to view this important episode. By the way, if you already have a customer newsletter you can use the strategy and if you don’t have a newsletter yet, what are you waiting for?!

My suggestion is that after you view this episode check out the absolute best “Done-By-Us-For-You” customer newsletter program ever. It’s called No Hassle Newsletters and it rocks! Check it out at www.NoHassleNewsletters.com.

I recently received a newsletter from one of my clients and it was really good! When I checked with my client, an expert at helping attorneys market their practice with video, he told me that he’s booked solid.

So I thought I world critique his newsletter and show others some of the smart strategies being used. And, seeing as how my client, Gerry Oginski, uses video so much, I turned on my camera and recorded the critique! So welcome to my latest episode of Newsletter Guru TV.

This episode is called “Newsletter Critique – a 10 Star Newsletter” and in this episode I’ll show you an example of a 10 star newsletter and why this client is booked solid!  There’s a lot to learn so click the image and enjoy!!

 If you’d like me, The Newsletter Guru to help you get booked solid with a customer newsletter, please go to www.NoHassleNewsletters.com.

Do you often struggle with what to write about in your monthly customer newsletter?  Well you’re not alone. We all suffer from writers block or blank screen syndrome occasionally. Relax, because I’m going to reveal a sure fire cure and this tip alone will give you enough content for two years!  Click the video to watch my newsletter marketing success tip!