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Enhance
Your Customer Relationships with Email Newsletters
by Andrea Harris
Subscribe! Sign
Up! Join Our List! These are common words on websites
today, for good reason. Email newsletters are
a powerful, inexpensive marketing tool.
Should your business have
an email newsletter? If your customers and prospects
are online, it's hard to say no. Here are a few
examples of how you can enhance your relationship
with your customers with an email newsletter.
Promote Your Business
and Reinforce Your Brand
What better way to spread the word about your
business than by writing articles that appeal
to your customer base? Unlike traditional advertising,
you're showing your expertise, not just talking
about it.
A newsletter is another opportunity
to reinforce your brand. Your value propositions,
tagline, and logo can all be woven into the newsletter
to solidify the impact of your brand. Jean Sifleet
found that her newsletter "was a way to introduce
myself as a practical, business-oriented attorney
by answering questions in clear ordinary, language.
It is my way of distinguishing myself from the
more adversarial, litigation type attorneys."
Lend Credibility to Your
Business and Establish Trust with Your Customers
When a customer sees your newsletter in her inbox
every month, she knows you're serious about maintaining
your business. Your timely and relevant articles
show that you understand the problems customers
face and know how to solve them. Feeling understood
helps instill trust in your abilities.
Customers trust editorial
copy more than advertisements. In an email newsletter
you have the space to truly speak to your customers
without any hype or pressure. As you solve their
problems or provide them with pertinent advice,
they will appreciate you all the more.
Keep Touching Your Prospects
Have you ever heard that you have to "touch"
a prospect seven times before she will contact
you about your product or service? It can get
expensive to keep trying to touch your prospects
with advertising. Email newsletters are an inexpensive
way to remind people about your business.
Stay in Touch With Your
Customers
Your existing customers are often your "low-hanging
fruit." Although you may think about them
months after the job is done, do they spend much
time thinking about you? A regular email lets
them know you still care, and encourages them
to call you when they have a need for your service.
Capture Email Addresses
of Prospective Future Customers
What about the "toe-dippers," those
prospects that might be interested in your service,
but aren't willing to pick up the phone? Don't
lose them. Signing up for a newsletter is a no-pressure,
hassle-free way for a customer to express her
tentative interest in your business. She feels
comfortable in the anonymity, and you still get
to communicate with her every month. Perhaps she'll
get a year's worth of newsletters before she's
ready to call. Or maybe she'll just forward an
issue to someone she knows who is in the market
for your service. Either way, you haven't invested
time or money on a high-risk prospect.
Inexpensive and Easy to
Publish
An email newsletter is an inexpensive way to reach
hundreds or even thousands of customers on a regular
basis. There's no printing or postage, and design
can be as minimal or extensive as you want.
The whole idea of email newsletters
is fairly new, but it's easy to find businesses
that have experienced proven results. Lisa Nirell,
an executive coach in San Diego, started her newsletter
in September 2002. " I've quadrupled my subscribers
and enrolled two new clients with potential lifetime
value exceeding $30,000. My ezine can be used
to maintain contact with prospective clients and
maintain credibility."
Your newsletter can bring
you leads and immediate business, as well as an
opportunity to connect with customers and deepen
your relationships.
Guest
author article:
Ten
Steps to Lifetime Client Value
by Lisa
Nirell, Nirell & Associates
Client value is a way for
you to predict how much your client will buy from
you during the lifetime of your relationship.
Calculating lifetime client value helps ensure
your long-term survival during recessionary times.
It shows how much you should invest in getting
a new client, how much time and effort should
go into retaining the client, and how to create
a lifetime of products/services that they will
buy.
If you want to be a
business builder, the secret is to figure out
exactly what you're willing to pay to find/acquire
a new client. Read
the complete article.
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