A newsletter (electronic, of course) is a wonderful way to keep your brand front of mind. It establishes a connection and is a great vehicle to drive promotions.
So, why do many small businesses not have a newsletter? Here are my four favorite excuses.
Why do I need a newsletter? I am a painter, restaurateur, lawyer, monkey trainer, whatever. Nobody wants to read what I write. Wrong. People love knowledge and learning about new information. How else can you explain this ? Theoretically you should be at least as twice as interesting as snail ownership. Hell, I’m in marketing and I am more interesting than that.
I don’t have time. This is probably the number one concern. However, most of being a small to medium business is sales. Whether you are actively selling or passively networking, nothing happens until someone sells something. So you don’t have time not to write.
I don’t know what to write about. Well, what questions are your customers asking you? What did you not know when you weren’t such an expert ? What is new in your industry that you can comment on?
I don’t have anyone to send it to. Boom, wrong. You have plenty of people to send it to. Put a form on your facebook fan page and on your website and tweet about it. Check out 366 Marketings . It is simple and effective. Every time you talk to a prospect ask them if they would like to receive it. You should ask every customer you have if they would like to receive your newsletter.
Note: Although you may be communicating often with a customer or a prospect now, how do you know that this relationship will continue at the same level in the future? The answer is you don’t. People drift away from each other. A newsletter makes it easier to keep in touch.
So, are there any more excuses that you can think of? Want to receive my email newsletter? Sign up here for our monthly mailing list .