Newsletter marketing is one of the most frequently forgotten, but most effective weapons in a business’ arsenal. Whether it’s through an e newsletter or a direct mail newsletter, keeping in monthly contact with past and potential customers is one of the most successful ways to generate leads. In fact, according to 68 percent of marketers, sending an e newsletter is one of the most successful ways to reach business goals. Why is that?

5 Ways Newsletters Can Help Your Business

1. Newsletters help you retain customers. More than half of those who open newsletters have purchased at least one of their products or services already. By reminding previous customers about your company, you capitalize on the positive experience they’ve already had, sometimes earning more of their patronage.
2. Newsletter mailing services can help you get more new customers. Customers can’t work with a business if they don’t know it exists. Simply by using newsletter marketing to get your message out in front of new faces, you increase your chance of drawing more new customers. According to one survey, 78 percent of those signing up for newsletters use their personal addresses, meaning that your message is making it to the mailboxes of real, potentially interested consumers.
3. A good newsletter will get you more referrals. Keeping your business fresh in customers’ minds makes it more likely that they will remember you when a friend or colleague needs services or products you can provide. Especially if you use newsletter marketing to advertise sales and specials, referrals can come in multitudes.
4. Newsletter marketing helps with cross selling and upselling. In today’s increasingly online commercial world, it can be difficult to cross sell and upsell customers. Though you may not have a sales associate there to make suggestions, you can use your newsletter to recommend relevant products and pairings to customers.
5. Newsletters keep you at the forefront of customers’ minds. It is easy to forget about a company you haven’t heard from in a while. By sending out a monthly newsletter, you can better guarantee that customers will think of you when they need a product or service you offer.

Better Newsletter Marketing
Though all of those reasons for utilizing newsletter marketing are valid, they are only effective when newsletters are of high quality. Only 31 percent of businesses test their marketing campaigns regularly, so a good first step is to find out where you’re succeeding and what can improve. Then, try some of these changes to get better results.

1. Invest in quality newsletter printers, newsletter publishers, and newsletter designers.
2. Choose your titles carefully. Especially for email newsletters, subjects are essential. Almost 70 percent of recipients report emails as spam based only on the subject.
3. Less is more. Provide just enough information to hook your customers and then direct them to your site where they can learn more or make a purchase.