The importance of a business newsletter
First, I will come clean and tell you I could improve at sending newsletters to my clients. I’m not structured with timing and haphazardly send them something twice or three times a year. I need to take advantage of a significant opportunity to cultivate ongoing business and to make myself an expert in the eyes of my clients. Part of the reason I am creating this post is to get myself in gear and get a plan for my business newsletter! I preach this to my clients regularly. I’m talking the talk without walking the walk.
Once you’ve been in business for a while, you will have a list of ongoing clients. After 16 years, my list is extensive. One of the most significant issues I have in getting this newsletter off the ground is how much work it takes to get my segmented lists in order.
I have clients that fall into the following categories:
- WordPress clients with care plan services
- WordPress clients without care plan services
- Clients that need to convert to WordPress
- Clients that need SSLs
- Clients that host with GoDaddy
- Soon-to-be clients that I host
- Clients that I provide SEO services to
- Outreach to clients I never hear from
These are all targeted groups I’d like to email to. Instead of emails that cover them all, I’d like to laser-target them. For instance, I want to give clients who need to be in care plans info about hacking and how to back up their sites daily. I want clients not in SSLs to know they need one ASAP. I want clients that host with GoDaddy on a list I can contact quickly if there is a known hosting issue, and finally, I should be reaching out to clients I never hear from.
Another issue is that I’m not too fond of the term newsletter. I want my clients to get valuable info regularly. I want it to be outreach. I don’t want the focus to be selling, but helping. I want to come at this with the same passion I have in sharing my tips and stories on this blog. For some reason, this is a big mental block for me. I need to devise a way to frame these emails that isn’t just “newsletters.”
For now, my plan is as follows:
- I’m heading back to my library nights this week. Two hours a week at the library, working on my own business. I’m going to devote one hour of that time to training. I need to understand better segmenting my lists above and learning about automation at Mailchimp. I plan to use Lynda.com for this training.
- I am getting my client info up to date. I need to do this soon to order holiday cards with current addresses and new clients added. I may send out a form for clients to fill out.
- By 2019, I want a planned schedule for these email blasts.
This post begs for your advice. If any of you are good at getting your message out to clients via a newsletter (or email blast, or whatever you call it), please share your tips in our WebCami Cafe Facebook group.
I’m not the only member that would appreciate it.
RESOURCES: Forbes – 12 Attention-Grabbing Strategies To Improve Your Email Engagement
