Sandra J. Paluzzi
The Bead Peddler®

A newsletter is a great way to keep your name in front of your customers.  You can publish an online newsletter or a print publication.  Either way, it's hard work.  Since a newsletter can be time consuming, it is important to be realistic about how often you'll publish.  Whether you decide to publish monthly, bi-monthly or quarterly, you should commit to that schedule.  Get people used to receiving your newsletter in a timely manner.  They may even start to look forward to it.

Of course, the content of your newsletter should relate to your product or service.  You could also add related articles.  For example, if you sell jewelry at home shows, you could add a column about the latest fashion forecasts.   When you are deciding what to put in your newsletter, remember that you will want continuity from one issue to the next.  Therefore, you may want to keep your column headings fairly general.  Marketing tip a very broad subject.  It is much easier to come up with a subject for this column every month  than if I had tied myself down to marketing in any one venue, such as the internet. 

The layout of your newsletter should remain the same from month to month.  You know where to look for different sections in your daily newspaper.  You probably don't read it all, but head directly to your favorite section first.  Your readers should be able to do the same with your newsletter.  The Bead Peddler puts out a monthly newsletter.  Each month, the first thing in that newsletter is the raffle winner's name.  The second thing is new additions to the website, and on and on.  A link to the website exists in both the first paragraph and also just below the signature at the end of the newsletter.   It may seem obvious, but many forget to put contact information in their newsletter.

The above tips work for both email and print mail newsletters, but there are differences in preparing for the different formats.  Pictures are great in print, they can take a lot of download time to email.  Color is free for email, expensive for printing.  You can easily see the layout in print. This is not true in email, as they can get reformatted.  Send yourself a copy of your email newsletter  to check formatting and links before sending it to the group. 

In deciding whether to send a print or email newsletter take your readers' habits into consideration.  People get a lot of spam - will they read your email?  An inviting subject can help, but not everyone reads email.  And people don't typically print it out to save.  On the other hand, sending an email newsletter is free.  You can send it to everyone who subscribes.

Sending a print newspaper will cost you around .50 a newsletter including shipping and printing.  You want to reach as large an audience as possible without wasting money.  Sending the newsletter to existing customers makes sense.  But it also makes sense to send to prospective customers.  If you have called on a store at what is a 'bad' time, sending them a newsletter is a good way to keep in touch.  If they still haven't ordered in a year, cull them from your mailing.  If you give home parties, you could send a newsletter to all hostesses or all customers.  Remember that even one party can pay for the cost of the newsletter.  Again, if you don't hear from them in a year or so, you can always remove them from your list.  If you sell at shows, collecting customers names and addresses is a good way to let them know of upcoming shows. 

There are a zillion reasons to send a newsletter - be it by email or snail mail.  Just realize that it is a long term commitment.  Make sure you are dedicated before announcing the formation of your newsletter to one and all.  If, after a time, you decide to discontinue your newsletter, send one last 'good-bye' issue.  Otherwise, people may think your whole company has gone away completely, instead of just the newsletter.

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