In an age when social media updates and LinkedIn alerts are continually humming in the background, and everyone’s e-mail inbox is full, is the old-fashioned customer newsletter still relevant?

I think it is, and here’s why. Like no other mechanism, a newsletter not only focuses your customers’ attention on what you’ve achieved, but it also focuses your attention on demonstrating your sector expertise. Let’s take these points one by one:

1. E-mail newsletters let your customers know what you’ve accomplished

This hyper connected age gives us an illusion of being in touch, especially with our customers. If months go by and you haven’t told your customers what your company is doing, you may have achieved important milestones that your customers know nothing about. Additionally, are you quite confident your customers are aware of all the services you offer, or would they benefit from a reminder about your full portfolio?

2. E-mail newsletters can help knock the low hanging fruit off the tree

Your e-mail newsletter may well prompt your customer to pick up the phone to you about new business they’d been meaning to ask you about. It’s well-established that incremental revenue from existing customers is the easiest kind to earn: the so-called low hanging fruit. Your regular customer newsletter can help knock that fruit into your basket.

3. Everyone is a publisher

Before we developed ENNclick as a content services and social media training company, we published the IT newswire ElectricNews.net for more than a decade. Now, our customer newsletter ENNclick News publishes insights about how to use social media and content marketing, and I believe that’s as relevant today as news about Microsoft or predictions about mobile were a decade ago. As we gain knowledge about content marketing and social media, we’re sharing it with our customers (look out for our how-to videos on topics like Pinterest, LinkedIn and Facebook).

To an extent, every company now is a publisher: even if you haven’t worked in publishing before, you are now expected to create and curate excellent content that educates your customers. Whatever your area of expertise, a periodic newsletter with a handful of articles demonstrates to customers that you know your stuff.

My focus here is on the customer newsletter, but of course the e-mail newsletter you create can also go to prospective customers, people who you have a business relationship with, or individuals you meet at conferences. Do send out the newsletter from a named person in your organisation, such as your sales director or managing director, as open rates are likely to be higher, and don’t forget to include a link to your latest issue in the signature file of everyone on your team (think how many messages you all send out weekly… these are hundreds of opportunities to help customers realise your latest issue is out.)

And remember – every newsletter must have an easy, one-click option to leave your distribution list, as recipients who’d rather not hear from you need to satisfy their unsubscribe urge immediately.

Once your newsletter is published, don’t forget to promote any individual articles via LinkedIn or Twitter (did you know that you can keyword search Twitter for the most influential people talking about your area of expertise, and reach out to them to let you know you’ve just written an article about that?)

Q. What e-mail newsletters do you look forward to receiving?

Sheila
@sheilaenn

Written by Sheila Averbuch

ENNclick has a team of expert copywriters based in Ireland and the UK. You can sign up for blog updates via RSS or eMail. Check out our Copywriting FAQ

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