Newsletter Marketing Secret #2: Newsletters Help You Get New Customers

Recently, we showed you how printed customer newsletters help you keep (retain) more of the customers you already have.

Now, let’s get you more new customers.

Good, informative articles give your newsletter what marketing pros call “pass-along value.”

Since your customers value your products or services, they like to tell other people about them.

But most of them just don’t know how – let’s fix that with:

Newsletter Marketing Secret #2: Newsletters Help You Get New Customers

Your printed customer newsletter makes it easy.

When a customer passes along one of your newsletters to a friend or colleague, two wonderful things happen.

First, you get a referral.

Referrals are great for you because people believe and trust their friends and business colleagues more than they believe any marketing message.

Second, that customer doesn’t just hand over the newsletter.

He or she usually points to a specific article or information item and says, “You should look at this. I do business with these people.”

Now your newsletter is in the hands of a prospect, and it’s more than a marketing piece.

It’s been customized by the referral to tell your prospect about a specific product or service.

No wonder a friendly pass-along is one of the best ways your newsletter can help you get new customers.

But it’s not the only one.

Because people read newsletters as a publication and not a marketing piece, a newsletter is a great way to tell potential customers about your business in all kinds of situations.

Here are some ideas:

• Mail your newsletter to all current and past customers, as well as to any prospects that have requested information about your company. Include any other marketing materials that may hook their interest.
• Your salespeople should hand out copies of your newsletter when they make sales calls. Integrate the newsletter into the sales process. Point out special articles or news items that your customer will be interested in.
• Place a stack of newsletters at businesses frequented by customers. This can turn into a simple cross-promotion. One golf coach I know places her newsletter in a chiropractor’s waiting room and hands out the chiropractor’s newsletter as part of an information packet she gives her clients.
• Put a stack on the information table at community events.
• Place copies in the information rack at the Chamber of Commerce.
• Give out your newsletters at trade shows and exhibition booths.
• Post a PDF copy of your newsletter on your company’s Web site.
• Put them in the envelopes with your checks when you pay bills.

As a final note – see how implementing just some of these suggestions turns your printed customer newsletter into a viral marketing tool!