Targeted Monthly Newsletter

[Custom_Grafx]

Did a quick search and couldn't find anything (please point me to a thread if it exists).

Looking into opinions, pros, cons, experience people have had sending targeted industry newsletters.

For example, you have a group of clients who are graphic designers. Do have a different newsletter for them, as opposed to say the local schools and small businesses.

Do you have experience with email vs post. Have you found one to be better than the other and how/why? Or did you find doing both was better?

I've had feedback from various customers who have indicated that they would like a monthly or bi-monthly newsletter, as there are just so many different processes and materials available, and new ones coming out all the time.

Rather than sending out a "monthly specials" email every month, I would much prefer to send out useful information, targeted at the recipient.

Eg, for graphic designers, a newsletter talking about colour matching etc, showcase a new material/media, and have a small hints/tips section on file preparation/specs etc.

 

[Locals Find!]

Mail chimp is a great piece of software for sending out email newsletters and its free/cheap depending on the level you want to do.

Then you could easily target each audience individually with relevant information. I would tie the email back into a blog of some form. That way the email newsletter gives them quick snippets of the article and they can click over to the blog to read more.

Just my thoughts.

 

[royster13]

+1 for Mail Chimp....

 

[njshorts]

We do these monthly, using mailchimp as well.

 

[Kevin-shopVOX]

+1 for mailchimp..it is what we use

 

[Custom_Grafx]

Thanks for the input guys. I'll check out mailchimp.

Do you create different newsletters for different industries, or just do a generic one?

 

[SD&F]

how did you collect your addresses for mail chimp?

 

[Locals Find!]

how did you collect your addresses for mail chimp?

They offer two options for that. You can get a form that you can post onto a webpage or you can manually enter the address and mail chimp requests confirmation from the recipient to ensure your not spamming.

 

[Just Another Sign Guy]

Just my opinion here, but in my experience I've found it much more productive to do quarterly newsletters than monthly and I have created, contributed or collaborated on many with many businesses over the years.

Truly present valuable product information, new product info , creative uses, advertising and marketing strategy and people will look forward to reading your content..but doing it monthly in my experience it seems most people burn out pretty quickly and it loses that spark that makes people look forward to receiving your newsletter.

Make sure you have a clear offer that requires a clear and immediate response (call to action) if this is to be a sales tool..I see SO many newsletters that give great ideas, etc and then they leave it at that..if this is intended to boost sales make a clear offer.

good luck.

 

[Custom_Grafx]

Just my opinion here, but in my experience I've found it much more productive to do quarterly newsletters than monthly and I have created, contributed or collaborated on many with many businesses over the years.

Truly present valuable product information, new product info , creative uses, advertising and marketing strategy and people will look forward to reading your content..but doing it monthly in my experience it seems most people burn out pretty quickly and it loses that spark that makes people look forward to receiving your newsletter.

Make sure you have a clear offer that requires a clear and immediate response (call to action) if this is to be a sales tool..I see SO many newsletters that give great ideas, etc and then they leave it at that..if this is intended to boost sales make a clear offer.

good luck.

Good info here - thank you.

I've never done a newsletter before so it's good to hear monthly vs quarterly. A valid point - I can see how it may become too much or not so easy to maintain.

The target is for my regulars. I would say my priority is product awareness more than 'making a sale'.

I find that simply mentioning something new to a client, be it a new product/material, or simply a new idea that I have for them to help them do what they want to do, sparks enough interest most of the time to generate a sale on that item.

Would really be good to have that idea in writing in an email I thought, so if they didn't need it right away, they could refer to it. I also think it would be a good way to educate my clients on the finer details of what they are buying. I'm sure we've all experienced educated vs not so educated clients and know which one makes us more money and wastes less of our time.

Another aid I'm working on for my regulars is a neatly presented sample pack of different finishes/materials to help them order exactly what they want, minus the confusion.

 

[signswi]

You should build email collection conversion targets into all of your marketing efforts both in physical space and online. It's crucial.

 

[Custom_Grafx]

Sorry Jesse, I don't understand what that means exactly. You mean I should measure how many of those emails generate a click or... ?

 

[signswi]

No, it means that throughout your marketing efforts you need to be targeting getting people to give you their email address as one of your key campaign goals. Always be building your email list as those are pre-qualified targets, which is why email marketing has such a high ROI (still) compared to many other efforts.

Note that they need to opt-in to receiving emails, if you just start sending email to people using your outlook contacts list (or whatever) you could be in violation of the ICANN spam laws.

 

[Custom_Grafx]

Thanks for the clarification.

My plan of attack was to actually call each potential recipient and discuss whether or not they would be interested and if so, discuss what they would find beneficial from it and so on.

This is mainly for my regulars in any case, and for new clients, I will ask them if they'd like to receive them as well. As time goes by, recipients will increase.

I am only a very small business, so for me, it isn't out of the question to tailor each email message with a brief greeting and intro the the content of the newsletter and point out the relevance to their business and the such.

Through my efforts, I hope to mix a bit of technology with a personalised approach. The last thing I want to do is just become another company that keeps sending annoying emails showcasing products that I not only find unnecessary but have no use for whatsoever.

Another couple of people have told me I should just pick up the phone and chat to people or pop in and pay a visit etc... which I already do, but I really would like to start sending an email as well so they can see photos, samples, visuals, as well as have something in their possession which they can refer to at any time later on.

I would just feel like I'm doing more to make sure that they know about products which can help them which they might not have know about otherwise. I just really feel like crap when I hear a regular say something like "I didn't know you can make that!". Soooo painful!

 

[signswi]

Sounds good. And yes every sign shop hears that one, client education is huge. An email ask at point of purchase is a good idea but make sure it's really, really easy for people to also add themselves to it on your website. I'm actually a fan of a landing page just for email signup conversion that you point people to in a small byline on all of your marketing efforts. Cheers