Tips for Marketing With Newsletters

Posted by in Marketing Direct on January 25, 2012

By Chris Buell

Newsletters are a great tool for businesses that want to keep in regular contact with their customers and prospects, build lasting relationships, and market their products and services effectively. But there’s a certain science to effective newsletter marketing. It’s different than traditional direct mail marketing where you blast out a hard-selling advertisement to your mailing list.

To get the best results from your newsletter marketing campaign, follow these simple tips.

Know your audience

Who is going to be reading your newsletter? Current customers? Prospects that you hope will one day become customers? Your colleagues?

You need to clearly identify who your audience is, so you can create a newsletter that appeals to their interests. The more you know about your audience, the more effective your newsletters can be.

Focus on building your list

Your mailing list will play a huge role in the effectiveness of all your direct mail marketing efforts. You want to make sure the people receiving your newsletters are actually interested in reading them. Otherwise, you’re just wasting money and killing your potential return on investment.

You need to make sure your list is top quality. If you’re going to buy a list, be sure that the recipients on that list meet the criteria of your target audience. You should also put some energy into building your own house list as this will always be more targeted than a list you buy from a vendor.

Don’t always sell, sell, sell

Yes, newsletters can be a great marketing tool, but that doesn’t mean that you should approach it like you would a traditional direct mail marketing piece. You don’t want your newsletter to be one big advertisement. It should contain useful content that your audience will find interesting. Remember, newsletter marketing is about building relationships. Focus on presenting yourself as a trusted expert, and when applicable, push readers to take some specific action.

When you give your readers information they can benefit from, they’ll continue to read your newsletters and turn to you whenever they need your products or services.

Study other newsletters

Take a look at newsletters being sent out by your competitors and even companies in other industries. Learn from them. What do you like about their newsletters? What do you dislike as a reader?

By studying other newsletters from the point of view of a reader, you can do a better job of creating newsletters that will appeal to your audience.

Listen to feedback from readers

Let your readers tell you what kind of content they want. Encourage your readers to contact you with their honest feedback about your newsletter. Whenever someone new subscribes to your list, give them the opportunity to share their preferences with you. All of this ensures you create a reader-centric newsletter that people will love, share, and respond to.

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What Small Businesses Need to Know About Flyer Marketing

Posted by in Marketing Direct on January 25, 2012

By Melanie C Turner

Flyers are a great marketing resource to spread your message over a certain region. They not only allow you to effectively communicate what your business does, but also allow you to initiate word of mouth marketing among a select group of people. However, in order to get the most from your flyer marketing you must first stand out on first impression. Standing out is the best way to get instant attention allowing you to introduce your services. Below are our top tips for ensuring that you effectively communicate your message while allowing you to get instant results for all marketing campaigns.

Incentivize – Incentivize your flyers. By giving an incentive for people to interact with your brand, you motivate them, and also give them a reason to connect. This will not only allow you to reward potential customers, but will also give you a great way to introduce the caliber of your services or product.

Copy – Make sure that the copy you use is in line with your prospects’ voice. Having a tone that is relatable and friendly gives additional reason for the recipient to interact with your brand, and also motivates them to learn more information. So think of where you will be handing out your flyers, and who will be coming into contact with them. This will help in developing a writing style that is in line with your current branding, and also helps in creating a more active voice.

Shape – Consider a shape that stands out. Try and get away from the traditional rectangle, and try shapes that are customized. Having a customized shape will help in getting more attention. Also consider copy that will match up with the shape of the flyer. This will give more space to explain your business and will also allow you to show your creative side.

When you are done with your flyer, ask your family, friends and coworkers for their opinion. Asking their opinion will allow you to get feedback on your flyer, as well as feedback on future marketing initiatives. So be sure that you ask what they like about your flyer, what they don’t like, and most importantly – if they feel motivated to interact with your brand.

Melanie Turner is a Business student at Columbia University and employee at 1800 Postcards. She has also been a Researcher at Deloitte Consulting where she worked with expert marketing teams on Fortune 500 clients. As a growing expert in the field of marketing, Melanie aims to provide insights and resources to Small Businesses.

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How Focusing Your Marketing Efforts Can Help

Posted by in Marketing Direct on January 25, 2012

By Gill Pilling

So have we all returned to work after the festivities with new ideas and inspiration for attracting new business? In 2012, an Olympic year we need to be aiming high for achieving those ultimate goals. Increasing response rates and winning new customers may well be top of your agenda for 2012 so how do you go about it?

Think like an Olympic athlete and you can race past your competitors and collect gold every time. Athletes put so much training and effort in before the big race and this can be compared to direct mail campaigns because you will put a huge amount of foundation work into ensuring that you have an up to date database and as many quality contacts as possible. You follow this by choosing carefully exactly what you need to say – you may be promoting a brand new product or service so you will have all the meetings and discussions before a final draft is decided upon.

Then onto the final hurdle – you need to ensure that all your efforts are not going to be in vain and that your communication is read and not discarded before the starting pistol has fired. Some companies think that a letter or a flat pamphlet will suffice but I am of the opinion that this simply is not good enough anymore. You need to use attention-grabbing products that are not only entertaining but will definitely be opened, read and responded to.

Choose your product wisely – do you want to shock and surprise with a pop-up product or would you prefer to keep your customers entertained with fun folds? Either way you can award yourself a gold medal for keeping ahead of your competitors and ensuring that your professional and unusual approach to marketing is rewarded with higher response rates. You may be of the opinion that e-mail marketing is the way forward and whilst it does have its place I believe that it is still not as effective as direct mail that has attitude and creates an impact. How many times have you scrolled through your in-box hitting the delete button without a second thought? Your customers do exactly the same and whilst your e-shot may say something they would benefit from in a second it can be gone forever,

Direct mail items that have an element of surprise or are interactive are never ignored and are almost always shared with colleagues and co-workers too. It is easy to capture a greater audience with amusing and entertaining direct mail pieces; give them a try for your next marketing campaign and see the results for yourself. As I said earlier when compared to an Olympic athlete, it is not only about the training it is the performance on the day that counts.

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