How have you done in evaluating newsletters as a good marketing tool for you, and planning –or revising – your own? These last five tips will give some you additional assistance.

Call-to-Action – Where (and how) in your newsletter will you incent recipients to take the action you want to fulfill the intent of your newsletter? Direct mail guru, Freeman Gosden, says your rate of response is based 40% on reaching the right audience, 40% on giving them a compelling reason to respond, and only 20% on the rest of what your give them in the piece. Include a response mechanism or call-to-action (See Wassom’s Marketing Wisdom #311 for more on a Call-to-Action).

Multiple Uses – Will your newsletter be used merely as a periodic customer communication piece, or will it also be part of a direct mail campaign, available on your website, used as a handout in community marketing visits, included in media kits, a part of your center packet, etc? The more uses you can make of your newsletter, the more efficient it becomes as a marketing tool.

Roles – Who will be responsible for what? Who will write the copy, collect photographs or drawings, oversee graphic design, handle printing, set deadlines, post and distribute your completed newsletters? Include a designation of tasks in your newsletter action plan.

Continuity – How long will you publish your newsletter? Will it look the same each time? To garner the most recognition and reader retention, your newsletter should look consistent issue to issue and be sent on a predictable schedule.

Free or fee – Will your newsletter be free to recipients or will it be available only on a paid subscription basis? If the intent of your newsletter is to become its own profit center, you will probably want recipients to pay for issues beyond the first teaser issue. If it is an image piece used to position you as knowledgeable and helpful, and to communicate with parents and other target audiences, it will probably be complimentary. Whichever it is, this consideration needs to be part of your newsletter plan.

Newsletters are one of the best ways to keep your name and image top-of-mind in your prospects, customers, and referral sources. When you do them well, your target audiences will eagerly await each issue. That, combined with your other marketing efforts, will serve you well as you work to generate inquiries and enrollments.

Best wishes and happy marketing,

Julie Wassom
“The Speaker Whose Message Means Business”
Marketing and Sales Speaker/Consultant/Author
Call me: 303-693-2306
Fax me: 303-617-6422
E-me: julie@juliewassom.com
See me: www.juliewassom.com