You’ve Got Mail.

I was creating Dream Businesses long before the internet became a thing.

Before I was old enough to legally drink, I was boosting a bike shop’s revenues and profits through creative writing in the newsletter they sent to customers and prospects.

Later on, I was writing a newsletter for Target.

(True story – ask me!)

I was there when this little company called AOL came out and helped bring instant electronic mail communication to the masses.

If you were there, did you ever log out of AOL and then log in again, just to see if it would cause an e-mail to appear so you could hear those famous words “You’ve Got Mail”?

Do you remember when they made a movie about getting e-mail, by the same title?

Today, we have so much e-mail we’re hiring assistants to sort through it, installing instant-messaging and project-management systems to streamline essential communications to keep them from getting buried in E-Mail Hell, and much more.

Some people even delete e-mail without reading it if it’s been sitting there a while, figuring if it’s actually important, the person will send a follow-up or pick up the phone!

Meanwhile, What’s Sitting In Your Mailbox?

For many of us, most of the mail we get is either credit card bills or credit card offers.

We can gauge what the powers-that-be think of our financial situation by the volume, and quality, of each.

They all come in standard #10 white envelopes.

So, when you reach into your mailbox about once a week or so and grab that handful of mail, what stands out?

That Big Thing, Folded In Half, With Articles And Stories On It.

That would be a printed customer newsletter.

You are receiving it because:

• You bought something, or became a customer of one of the very few businesses that uses this powerful strategy (look at that handful of mail – I bet there’s only ONE newsletter there jutting out from the dozen envelopes from the big banks)
• You identified yourself as a prospect interested in buying something, so they are one of the very few businesses actually USING that fact, rather than letting it sit in a drawer somewhere
• That rare business made a smart investment in mailing lists, which you are on because of previous decisions you’ve made

Annoying?

Maybe.

I Bet It Doesn’t Stop You From At Least Unfolding That Newsletter To See What’s Up.

Now picture that prospect you’ve been e-mailing and getting no response from.

Or all those attempts at Messenger conversations that show the checkmark saying they “read” it, with no reply.

Or all those unanswered voicemails (remember in this day and age, not only do few people listen to their voicemail, some big companies are actually doing away with it)!

Meanwhile, you heard me mention how in that handful of mail, there’s only ONE newsletter.

Sometimes there’s no newsletter.

Do you think your prospect or customer might notice if that newsletter was yours and not your competitor’s?

Would it be worth it to look into this for yourself?