An electronic newsletter is a great way to build your business and stay in touch with your customers. Newsletters are an effective and cost efficient tool that every company needs in their marketing arsenal.

Here are six way how your company can benefit from a newsletter:

   1. A newsletter is a proactive way to connect with customers and prospects. If you don’t follow up with your customers, they might forget about you. You can use your newsletter to remind them of the services you provide or let them know about new products and specials. Studies have shown that you need exposure to new clients 5-9 times to build familiarity and trust before they will buy.

   2. Newsletters help you educate your customers and prospects by providing information that they need and want.

      As a society, we are inundated with messages 24/7, but we all still seek more information. If you know your audience, you can tailor the content of your newsletter to their needs. The content should be relevant and educational so they have a reason to open your email every time they receive it.

      A good rule of thumb is to keep the newsletter 75% content and 25% promotion.

   3. Newsletters help you spread the word about your business when your customer forwards it to other people. If you keep the content valuable, it will be forwarded.

   4. Newsletters subtly promote your business. Instead of saying outright how great you are, you can show it through your knowledge and expertise.

   5. Your newsletter can establish yourself as an expert in your field. You get to share what you know and your customer will value you for it.

   6. The biggest reason that newsletters are so effective is that they can be targeted at customers that have already shown an interest in your product.

Here are a few rules you should follow with your newsletter:

    * Don’t spam.
    * Send it our on a regular basis.
    * Allow your subscribers an option to un-subscribe.
    * Send it out in HTML format, so it can look like your web page. This is much more captivating than plain text.
    * Use an email service so you can track the success of your campaign. These services make keeping track of your subscribers a breeze, and you know how many people opened the email and if it was blocked.

If you don’t have time to write your own content, the web is full of free content.

Newsletters are a great way of keeping your company image in front of an audience on a regular basis. The number 1 reason people turn on their computer is to open their email. Why not take that advantage of that opportunity to educate and help your customers.

Colleen Happ runs an internet marketing and design company. Her portfolio can be viewed at http://www.happconsulting.com. She can be reached at 403-807-8225.

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