As a busy business-person it’s challenging to send out a regular newsletter, but it can be done. Here are my top five tips.
The benefits of sending a regular newsletter
When I first began my business I thought that sending a newsletter was a good idea. However, I never seemed to have the time to do it.
Finally I made the decision that I’d trial sending a regular newsletter for 12 months to determine if it was worthwhile for my business. While the immediate benefits were not obvious, the long-term benefits have been worth the effort.
For me, it’s been about keeping the dialogue open between my clients, my potential clients and myself.
Just recently, a person who had subscribed to my newsletter 12 months ago contacted me. She had been reading my newsletter every month and had found it beneficial for herself and her team.
I had been building a relationship with her and gaining her trust and confidence in my skills without ever having met her. The end result was that I gained a new client. I didn’t have to ‘sell’ myself. The information that I had shared had done that for me.
The key to writing a regular newsletter is to have a plan and to stick to it. Here are my five tips.
1. Decide how often and when you will be sending the newsletter. Will you be sending your newsletter weekly, fortnightly, monthly or quarterly? Decide on a frequency that is manageable for you and then plan around that.
2. Schedule a time to write it. I send my newsletter during the first week of each month, so I schedule the send date in my calendar. I then schedule a day and time to write the content. By scheduling these tasks in my calendar I’m motivated to complete them.
3. Decide on your content. I tend to post on my blog on a regular basis, which provides me with plenty of content for my newsletter. On my scheduled writing day, I review my blog posts and write snippets to connect them to the content. My newsletters often have a theme. The theme may reflect current events such as Chinese New Year or recent work with clients. If you don’t write a blog then it may be a good opportunity to source content that clients may be able to use.
4. Use a template. Whatever newsletter system you use, set up a template that you can re-use. My template enables me to quickly add content and images.
5. Test and schedule your newsletter. Send yourself a test email to check that all the links work and that the newsletter looks the way you intend it to. Once you’re happy with the newsletter, schedule it to send on a specific day and time.
It’s coming up to five years since I first started sending my monthly newsletter and it has had two-fold benefits: I’ve been able to share my knowledge while increasing my business profile.
