Newsletters

As my email subscribers to my monthly newsletter grows I have been searching around for a program that will allow me to write a good newsletter, format it and send it simultaneously to all my subscribers. I have a trial version of one program, which seems to be ok apart from the fact that there is no facility in the program for me to automatically send the newsletters to each of my subscribers while using their first names. I have to send the newsletters with a general “Hi” greeting. I like to talk to my subscribers personally by their first names so the lack of this feature is disappointing.

The program has however, drastically cut down the time I spent towards the end of every month getting my newsletter ready and sending it. I had been doing it by typing it up in word and pasting it into outlook along with the photos of the monthly offers. This was fine initially but as my list grows, it became very time consuming and I began to dread having to do it. Now that I’ve found one program, however there must be others out there. I intend to search them out until I find the right one for me.

I consider monthly newsletters an essential tool for staying close and personal with my customers. I usually always make some monthly sales through the newsletter, which is an added bonus and the main motivating factor in doing it. Things continue to be busy on EBay and I’ve been working hard producing a hard copy newsletter which I intend to test in the market in December. I’m excited by the monthly hard copy newsletter and see it as a source of extra monthly sales so getting it right is crucial. It will require a little trial and error before I hit on the magic formula but I’m prepared for that.

The monthly hard copy newsletter is going to be a small booklet with a little news and a number of offers listed. Once I get it right I intend to send it to my customers every month. The initial design is the difficult part and I have enlisted the help of my son in this, promising him some extra money for Christmas. As he is a student with no money, he jumped at the chance. Once I’m happy with the design I will store the template and producing the newsletter will not take much. Just a matter of a little writing and deciding what products to offer out for the month.

I see it as a crucial part of my planned business growth. When it’s ready I intend to test it carefully by sending it to one hundred customers to begin with and then monitor the response. Depending on the response, I may make some changes before sending it to another hundred, again waiting to see what response I get. Unlike the Email newsletter, there will be some costs involved in sending the hard copy newsletter like stamps, paper and envelopes but if I get the same response as I do from the email newsletter these costs will easily be offset by the returning sales.