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Newsletters
Promote Your Business With A Newsletter
"Why choose a print vehicle, like a newsletter, for your promotions?"
Good question. And what follows are some good general reasons and some very specific
recommendations and tips.
It's a relatively cost-effective way to reach both existing clientele and people
you'd like to have be your clients. It's a great way to tout your challenging projects,
your rates and services, your fantastic clients, and introduce the various personalities
that make up your staff. And importantly, it's a communications tool that can provide
you instant feedback - feedback that can make a real difference in your bottom line.
What do you write about? Basically, anything you can think of that will be of interest
to the reader. Regularly report on production, give people an idea of the scope
of the projects you work on - both small and large. Introduce your employees
and their specific areas of expertise, given news on facility updates and equipment
upgrades, and given case histories on unusual film transfer projects and the like.
Just take a look around your shop; there's probably half a dozen stories waiting
to be talked about at this very moment!
A typical newsletter consists of around four-pages, 8-1/2" x 11", folded for mailing
convenience or the equivalent in electronic form. Paper ones are normally limited
to two colors -- normally black, and a second color that either supporting a main
story, or has some sort of seasonal tie-in - green for spring, yellow for summer,
that sort of thing. They have as many pictures as possible - typically ones taken
on location, or in your facilities - and is breezy, personal and upbeat. For many
readers, the newsletter is a very real indicator of your corporate success and your
individual personalities, and so don't broadcast your flops and your foibles.
Some Rules for Successful Newsletters.
- Establish a regular publishing schedule and stick to it!
People appreciate stability and regularity - and if you do a good job with a
newsletter, you'll find your audience starts to look forward to them.
- Be a name-dropper! Oh sure, you know your competition will
read the newsletter and start calling all your clients. Well, if you've done
a good job keeping said clients happy, there's no problem. And clients are like
everyone else --they love to see their names in print. It helps build loyalty
--and loyalty is hard to buy these days.
- Include useful information! Tell readers why they should
buy and/or give them helpful hints to follow. As well as tell them when you
have specials and discounts. News they can use.
- Don't get too technical! You know the technical side of
you business, but you clients really care? What your clients are looking for
is results! In most cases, they're really not interested in what equipment or
software you use. They simply want to know if you can get their job done,
and do it right the first time.
- Use a return card or electronic equivalent! Never EVER
send out anything --a letter, a rate card, a refrigerator magnet or a newsletter
--without asking for the order, and making it easy for prospects to respond
to you. Otherwise, you're just wasting money.
- Make yourself accessible! Include a postage-paid return
card with every newsletter you mail. On it, you ask people to let you know what
they liked to hear more details about. Ask if you should call them and ,if so,
when was the best time to call? Mentioned your phone numbers in nearly every
article, and tell readers specifically who they should contact to get more info
on your various services.
- Give them away or send them to everyone you know! It does
you no good to print a few thousand newsletters to take up room in the editing
suite. Give them to your friends, your family, your clients, your clients' friends,
your kids; mail copies to every editor of every newspaper and magazine in your
area. For that matter, send a copy to every national video or communications
publication you can find. Put a copy in every order you fill, every box you
mail, and give one to every person that walks in your doors. Remember that just
one good order can pay for the newsletter many times over - and you never know
where that order is going to come from.
- Use pictures! Minimum of one per page. Black and white
reproduces best on paper, unless you're printing in four-color, of course. And
don't forget to ALWAYS put a caption under (or next to) the picture. People
read these things. Take pictures of your equipment, your staff at work (especially
on location shoots), and your clients. You can even shoot stills off the screen
of some of your best work. Wherever they come from...USE them!
After B&B Systems assembles your newsletter, we can
publish/email it for you or we can supply you with a disk to take to your publisher.
But the bottom line:
A self-promotional newsletter can be one of the most profitable sales tools
you can use.
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