Consider this – a recent study of how businesses convert leads into new customers showed that you need to approach 8 new businesses that have never heard of you to get one customer (1 in 8). If you were to approach out of touch but old customers to promote a product or service the figures are 1 in 3. When selling more to customers who have a recent connection to you, then the figures are 1 in 2. Can you find ways to approach existing customers? One way is by engaging with customers through regular newsletters.
First you move customers into the 1 in 2 categories and second it is an opportunity to promote products and services.
We like to think our company newsletter engages with our clients at Websites In Business Ltd and keeps us in the front of your mind. In this article we’ll cover how to create your own newsletter to keep in your customers’ minds too. Apart from being a great way to keep in touch with existing customers and potential customers, newsletters can also generate real business growth.
How to use a mail service
To create this newsletter we used a Mail service. It allows us to create a template for our customer’s newsletter. This then allows our customers to add news items themselves by using a simple fill in the blank web page as well as uploading pictures to pretty it up.
The service looks after managing your list of subscribers. Takes care of sending out all the emails, handling incorrect or abandoned email addresses and removes those who wish to unsubscribe so you don’t make enemies.
You can also have a form added to your website to allow visitors to add their details to your emailing list.
Why use a mail sending service?
As we mentioned above we use a mailing sending service to send our newsletter and our client’s emails. The alternative is to send all your emails through outlook or your email program.
The main problem with using your email is that the emails are more likely to be flagged as spam and not be delivered to your customers at all.
Mail sending services have departments that liaise with Internet Service Providers like hotmail, aol, btconnect etc to help your emails get through. Mail sending services require you to use genuine email addresses and provide a guaranteed unsubscribe. By doing this they are trusted much more than your office pc.
You can also have your email rated against the different spam checkers before sending the email to give you the maximum chance of getting it through.
Unfortunately there is a little cost in using this service which is normally around 1p per email address you send to.
Getting Started
Take a look at mail services like constant contact, aweber and campaign monitor. Look at their features and take one of their trials.
The biggest issue is keeping it going. We schedule time each month to get the work don’t and we do brief a sigh of relief when it is done. Then our newsletters can be a little epic.
Popularity: 20% [?]
Adding your listing to Google Local lets you appear on the maps and company listings that sometimes appear when you search on Google. Your details will also appear on the Google Maps website.
Yahoo’s local business directory – The information is used as a database to help people "find the nearest" company. It is used on a lot of website and applications. For example there are several iPhone applications using it. Add one entry here and your listing spreads all over the place.
Applegate appears a lot as one of the results in Google. It might work for you, it might not but it is worth a few minutes adding your details. You will get a sales call at some point trying to get you to upgrade your listing – listen to the pitch and decide for yourself.
Again appears frequently in Google Results. Expect a sales call on this one too.
Best of is made up of a series of websites for major towns. They are a franchise with each area run by a franchisee. Experiences vary depending on the skill and experience of the franchisee. I would expect a sales call again.
This site offers you a profile (
A free listing site with options to upgrade your listing online. Worth asking people to review your business as it raises your profile higher up in their search results.
