KEEP IN TOUCH WITH YOUR CLIENTS

We have been so busy here at Nexxite lately that it is a challenge just to get this newsletter out the door. But I feel it is important to stay in touch with my clients this way. I think newsletters are well worth the effort. In fact, I strongly urge you to communicate regularly with your clients through a formal newsletter or if not that, then with less formal, but periodic eblasts.

Some of the benefits of regular email communication:

• Build your relationship and make your clients feel special by providing something useful, or at least entertaining, that is not available to the general public, at no charge
• Invite them to contact you if they need something
• Cross promote your business – Show new products and services you are offering in a “soft sell” format
• Help advertise some of your own clients, for example with case studies and link to their websites. I like to feature a special client in each issue of this newsletter.

Those are just a few of the benefits of a newsletter off the top of my head. I’m sure there are others. But if a newsletter is too much work (and I know it can feel like that), consider short eblasts. You can just offer an article you found of interest to your clients or tell them about a new service you are starting up. Remember to do something that helps or interests them. A newsletter is not a sales pitch.

There are many companies that facilitate newsletters and other eblasts. We use Mail Chimp which is reliable and free (up to 2000 subscribers). But many people use Constant Contact, iContact or Benchmark, to name a few. These services charge a fee, generally from $10-to-$30 per month, but if you have a large mailing list or have frequent announcements, it can be worthwhile to use a paid service.

All email programs take some work to set up because you need to get your mailing list entered and often you’ll want to design a standard template for your messages. But once the list is in place and your format is defined, the eblasts themselves can be sent easily. The challenge then, as I mentioned, is writing content. That can take time. As you can see from this and prior eblasts, I like to have one or two useful articles in my field, as well as something about a good client, a listing of some of the recent sites we’ve completed, and a dash of humor.

Another helpful tool offered by email programs like Mail Chimp and Constant Contact is a simple newsletter sign-up form you can have on your website. It automates the process of adding new subscribers to your mailing list. People see a short form on your website and sign up there. That’s all there is to it. They are then added to the list and automatically receive your next mailing.

So, in short, I am a great believer in newsletters and eblasts. If you are not doing them, consider adding these communication tools to your marketing mix.