Why Your Business Still Needs a Newsletter

Have you ever heard of Coca-Cola? Assuming that you live in one of the 200+ countries where Coca-Cola is sold - not to mention the fact that it's the world's third largest brand and spent more than $3 billion on advertising last year - it's safe to say of course you have! Despite Coca-Cola’s incredible global brand awareness, you’ve probably also seen one of their advertisements recently - on television, at a sporting event, or maybe on an outdoor ad. You might wonder, what’s the point – everyone already knows about the brand and their products? Well, the point of these ads isn’t to inform you about the brand, or even to persuade you to buy it. No, these ads are simply and specifically designed to remind you about the brand. It’s that simple, remind you about Coca-Cola, the brand you’ve enjoyed and trusted forever, and get you to want to go buy a coke, now. Now you’re thinking – what does this have to do with newsletters or RSS feeds?Why Your Business Needs a Newsletter

Small businesses with small budgets are worlds away from being able to afford a one minute “America the Beautiful” Super Bowl Ad as a reminder, but you can afford to maintain a weekly or monthly newsletter. With the inbox one of the few one-to-one connection points left online (we love social media, but it's increasingly hard to be heard by individuals in a meaningful way), it's vital and valuable to establish a trusted place in your customer's email service. Newsletters are viable options for businesses of all sizes and can remind your customers of your brand, while also serving other marketing purposes. Here are some important insights to help get your newsletter going and to bring you closer to your customers: Plan Ahead: Know when you're going to send by following these pointers -

• Decide the frequency of your newsletters and make sure you consistently deliver on this timing. Reliability is important!
• Make it practical, timely and relevant to your audience. This is an opportunity to educate and help your customers out.
• Choose a distribution method that works for you. If you can do it yourself with html and a software package, way to go! If you can’t code, look into one of the many online services that can assist you in creating and sending newsletters.

Build a Subscriber List: If you already have a blog, that’s great! Place a plugin for your readers to enter their email address. You can easily reach them and since they’re providing their email address, they want to hear from you. They may be your ideal audience. And if you don’t have a blog, try placing a plugin on your website or asking new and existing clients when you work with them. Be Relevant & Interesting - Tell stories about customers and relevant news. Make your subscribers want to read what you send them and look forward to getting it. At the same time, make sure everything is relevant to your brand, product or service, and your customer. Basically, say what’s important, but don’t bore your readers. Ask For Feedback – Constructive criticism is always helpful even if it’s sometimes hard to hear. Make it easy for your readers and customers to respond to your emails and give their opinions on how you’re doing. Do this by providing your vanity phone number, giving them an email address to respond to, or including a contact form link. Importantly, don’t just hear what your readers say, if their points are valid and will improve your newsletters and information, make changes. If you want to improve, you’ll need to act on what you learn. Getting back to big brands finally, note that major brands like Coca Cola regularly take advantage of the versatility of toll free vanity numbers to get feedback from customers. 1-800-GET-COKE is an important part of how the world's third biggest brand connects with its customers, and it's a marketing tool that's available to every small business owner at affordable rates. Click around our vanity numbers in your industry to find a marketing tool that gives your company a major brand boost.