Managing Newsletters Clients Value

Newsletters are essential marketing and communications tools – but who has time to write one?

Whether you have a newsletter in place as part of your marketing strategy or not, it’s time to take action and organize to have one prepared for you. Newsletters are an invaluable tool to generate word-of-mouth referrals from satisfied customers, and keep your customers and prospects informed of your capabilities and experience. They can generate a steady flow of new customers as well as unlock the ‘lifetime value’ of existing customers. Caution needs to be taken however, as the dangers of poor email marketing practices are very costly.

What’s in it for you?

Newsletters are a low cost method of growing your business:

·         Relationship management with customers needs a long-term approach. A newsletter keeps the ‘passing parade’ happening effectively, with regular contact being expected. A newsletter reminds customers why they should continue to buy from you, or start to buy.

·         They can have a viral marketing effect with those interested in your information passing onto other interested parties.

·         Reach further within organisations where you have had some contact, providing further opportunities for growth.

·         The distribution of an eNewsletter (produced and delivered electronically) is very low cost as well as easy to set up with today’s simple and effective technology.

·         Your expertise and industry connections are utilized, while we provide the copy-writing skills to blend your news and updates together into a smooth marketing effort.

·         Save yourself time – you can reach hundreds or even thousands of people effectively.

·         Educate your customers, reinforcing your competitive edge.

·         eNewsletters can drive people to your website using hyperlinks.

·         Spamming may have taken the shine off many eMarketing attempts, but with careful management this remains a central and effective means of communicating with clientele.

·         Let’s not forget that poorly designed and written publications reflect badly on your company image. In addition, poor email marketing practices cost you not only lost opportunity, but can permanently damage customer relationships.

What’s in it for your customers?

Newsletters are a vital way of providing some important benefits to those you want to communicate with:

·         Customers and prospects will appreciate finding out further information about your products and services.

·         Help enquirers better know your capabilities, expanding where they may have already been dealing with you.

·         ‘Value add’ to your customers providing them with additional industry expertise so that you become recognized as a knowledge source in your field. This quality, and the above two are essential if you want your customers to continue receiving and reading your eNewsletters.

·         Address their decision making criteria so that buyers are helped through their buying decisions in a timely manner.

·         eNewsletters are conveniently delivered straight to subscribers inboxes which can either be read on the spot or printed for viewing later – no waiting for you to get around to mailing something.

·         By using html you can brand your company with plenty of vibrant colour, communicating a consistent company image.

·         Adhering to thorough principles means subscribers are confident in your handling of their privacy and permissions.

How to make (and keep) your emails effective

Emailing can either benefit or hurt your customer relationship, with research* showing some compelling results:

Percentage of respondents who agree with these statements

·         57% - Made an online purchase in the last year directly as a result of permission email.

·         53% - Can think of at least one company that does such a good job with email; emails have influenced decision to do business with it.

·         40% - More likely to spend more money with a company that sends email that I regularly read, than a comparable company that doesn’t send me email.

·         80% - Have stopped reading emails from some companies that I once signed up with because their emails are irrelevant.

·         45% - There is at least one company that I have stopped doing business with as a result of their poor email marketing practices.

The research discussed above also cites the ‘Top Reasons Email Subscribers Lose Interest’:

·         68% - Their emails come too frequently

·         51% - No longer interested in that topic

·         35% - Their emails were generally boring

·         34% - Nothing of significant value in the emails

Edensilk have actually re-vamped our eMarketing strategy to put in place best practice emailing marketing procedures as a result of these findings. We can assist clients to do the same, so that customers and prospects receive your information when they want it, and continue a positive relationship with you as a result of good practices.

The dangers of email marketing done poorly are too high to ignore. Sending just one too many emails can have a real price: an additional sale on the upside, or a customer gone forever on the downside.

Improve your communications today

Edensilk can help you put in place an email marketing strategy which focuses on the long term and measures engagement over time. Using statistics generated from your mailing service, we can analyse how many subscribers open and view your eNewsletter. These provide you with the information necessary to help make decisions involving how frequently to send, as well as sharpening the relevance of each communication.

Communicating with your customers in not an option; communicating effectively needs careful thought and planning. Let us help you develop an effective strategy to communicate via an eNewsletter as part of your marketing strategy. Don’t leave it until your customers have already gone – call today on 08 9271 7661 to find out how easy it is.

* Quris, Inc, ‘How Email Practices Can Win or Lose Long-term Business’, 2003

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