The entire purpose of generating a monthly newsletter is to establish effective communication with your customers, clients, patients, and prospects.  Effective communication plays a pivotal role in acquiring positive feedback from your customers.  In order for one to convey their personality through their newsletter, establishing communication with customers is integral.

Your way of thinking and speaking should be conveyed through your writing style.  Charisma and personality are pivotal ingredients readers look for in newsletters.  If you have those two ingredients you can almost guarantee yourself a steady customer base.

Speaking in first person is the most effective way to write conversationally.  It is important to use the word “you” as much as possible, and it is also a good idea to include personal examples rather than ones that are general.  For example, “In this month’s issue we have an included an offer specifically for valued customers like you.”  This type of writing style instills a special connection with your customers.

Once I was skimming through a newsletter for Endless Vacations and found an article about cruises.  I thought, “Wow this is great!  I’ve got to tell my wife about this tonight!”

They wrote the article in Q & A interview format, which was convenient because I was able to pick out the questions and answers I was interested in.

I think it’s important that I cite a few of them because I think it will illustrate my point even further.  This article is about ocean liners.

The conversational tone and writing was very personable and kept my interest.  It was as if someone was talking to me through the article.  One of many questions that caught my attention was about sea sickness.  It said, Question: “I’ve heard that crossings are often rough.  Will I get seasick?”  For the answer the article spoke about giant efficient stabilizers on the ship that reduced rocking up to 85%.  Passengers on board would feel little more than gentle rocking with waves as big as twenty feet.

Another question that caught my attention was “Uh-oh, the waves are actually getting pretty rough out here.  And I’m feeling a little punk.  Now what?”  This type of writing style reflects the personality of the author.  The article is also very informative with over the counter remedies that prevent seasickness.

Here is the last question I will cite.  “I’ve never cruised because I’m afraid I’ll feel trapped.”  The answer was very humorous.  It said, “Excuse me, but have you seen the size of these ships?”

The Q&A style is an excellent example of establishing rapport utilizing conversational tone and knowledgeable information, and the same time entertaining the reader in a more intimate way.

Utilizing the Q&A style for your articles in your newsletter templates is an excellent idea.  You can prompt the answers you want in interviews by creating questions in this format.  You can hone this skill by doing mock interviews with people you know.’’

Readers love writing with charisma and personality.  Your customers will keep subscribing to your newsletter as long as it contains these two important ingredients.

One of the most overlooked aspects of business models is the importance of long time customers. Although most owners realize that maintaining long term relationships with customers to keep them coming back is important, no one keeps the numbers on how much that one, lifetime customer has spent there. If the owners had kept such numbers, customer relationships would be stressed more by other businesses, since recurring customers generate sheer profit. What this means is that, since they have been a customer for so long, you are not spending money to advertise to them or trying to get them to purchase your products. They are coming to the same store because they trust you and your products, so their patronage is almost pure profit. If more owners saw the profit margins from recurring customer, we can be sure that more time and money would be spent in customer acquisition and retention efforts.

One of the best ways to retain customers is through monthly newsletters. Since it is very cheap to print and mail a newsletter to your customers, there is no reason not to consider doing this to build relationships with your customers. There is no monetary risk involved with these newsletters, and it will definitely work to produce revenue for your company. Newsletters, if done properly, will work miracles for your business and will keep your customers coming back time and time again.

Newsletters are quite possibly the best dollar for dollar investment that your company can make and is an extremely effective marketing tool. Here are just a few of the benefits of having a company newsletter:

• Newsletters increase brand awareness
• Newsletters build relationships with past customers and possible new ones
• Newsletters are great for introducing new products and services
• Newsletters augment your reputation
• Newsletters stay around longer than other marketing ploys
• Newsletters are usually passed along to family and friends
• Newsletters differentiate you from other businesses that do not stress customer relations

Statistics show that it is more expensive to gain new customers than it is to keep existing

ones. Another rule to keep in mind is the 80-20 rule, which states that 80% of a company’s profits come from 20% of its customers. If this rule is true, and many people believe it is, than most companies should consider newsletters and costumer relations a vital area of their marketing efforts. Companies that invest their money in customer relationships instead of new customer acquisitions will be sure to increase their profits. In today’s troubled economy, every business should try to maintain their existing customers to ensure they stay in business. If you have not already started printing and distributing company newsletters, there is no better time than now to start.