What’s the point of a newsletter?
There should be one – and the best answer to the question is that it’s a great way to build relationships, but only if the content is what your list wants to read.
Let’s be honest, none of us want any more ‘stuff’ in our inboxes that’s not useful so your newsletter needs to deliver value first and foremost. This means that you can forget about telling people about:
- Your successful achievement of sales targets (they don’t care)
- New recruits (they’ll only be interested when it affects the service they get – positively)
- Expansion of your business (as long as they’re getting a good service – or can see they will do so if they’re not already clients, they aren’t interested in how big or small your organisation is)
- Moving to a new office (if they have to visit you they will need the address, but otherwise it’s irrelevant – no matter how excited you are about it!)
Yes, there are justifications for all of these pieces of information – but, first and foremost, people want something that gives THEM value, everything else is ‘fluff’.
So how do you deliver that value without slaving over a hot Word document for hours?
Don’t reinvent the wheel!
Every business has information that is of value – so leverage yours.
Do you have:
- A blog that has good articles in it?
- Case studies that show how people benefit from specific services?
- Questions – with your expert answers – that customers often ask?
- Strong views on an industry topic (your customers’ industry, not yours)?
- Articles you’ve read that you think your list of readers will find useful?
These are all potential material for your newsletter, whether it’s as a lead item or a supplementary item.
My advice is that your newsletter should have anything from one to three pieces of information.
You don’t have to write information that will only be used once in your newsletter – ideally you can use information that has already been created and simply collate it.
If you’re smart, putting a newsletter together each month won’t take you long – and your readers will look forward to something interesting popping up in their inboxes each month.
