I talk to people all the time about newsletters, and how they benefit a business.

Maybe you’ve kicked around the idea of starting a newsletter. It sounds like a great idea, lots of other businesses seem to do it, and it’s a great way to stay in front of your potential clients. But it also seems a little overwhelming, and really, what would you write anyway?

The other thing I hear practitioners worry about is, they feel they may be pestering people by sending them something on a regular basis.

As long as you don’t over-do your newsletter (meaning sending something excessively), the risk of pestering people is minimal.

If you have a way for them to “opt-in,” it’s their choice whether they sign up or not. Also, if you’re up front about how often you’ll be in touch, people will know what to expect when they sign up for your newsletter.

The truth is, people want that connection from you.

A newsletter serves more purpose than just being a vehicle for your upcoming workshops and services. A newsletter is the perfect way to help you make a strong, deep connection with your potential clients. By staying in front of your audience regularly, they get to know you, and they get to have a small sampling of how you work.

The people that say they want your newsletter are telling you that they want more of you – they want to hear from you regularly, because they’re interested in how you can serve them. And, they want to deepen the connection with you.

This might be sounding like a lot of work - but I promise you, it’s really not all that bad. 

Your newsletter can be exactly what you want it to be – exactly what fits into your life, your schedule and your business.

Here are three essential things to include:

1. Include a personal touch – like the Note from Jenn above, adding something personal allows your subscribers to connect with you on a deeper level. They see things they may have in common with you aside from your business. They get to know the you outside of your office.

2. Provide something valuable – people love to have tid-bits of information that will help them in their lives. Give your readers handy tips, write articles, give recipes – whatever your potential clients think is valuable is fair game for your newsletter. Just remember to keep it simple so you don’t overwhelm them.

3. Tell us what ya got – make sure to include information about how you can serve your clients. Again, they’ve subscribed to your newsletter because they’re interested in how you can serve them. Definitely include information about your services and products.

Questions for discussion:

Do you have a newsletter? Why, or why not?

Do you have questions about newsletters? What are they? We’d love to help!

What is your biggest newsletter pet peeve?

This entry was posted on Monday, April 21st, 2008 at 12:40 pm and is filed under Marketing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.