Rembrandt’s Blog

Everyone seems to have a newsletter. Why?

Do they know something you don’t?

Newsletters are great marketing tools for small businesses. And if you don’t have one, you may be missing out on a valuable opportunity. After all, newsletters offer a simple and cost-effective way to provide value to both current and new customers.

Think it’s a waste of time? Here are three reasons to start a newsletter now:

1. Build a loyal following.

By sending out personalized, monthly newsletters, you can give customers important information to help them solve their problems. And if you provide tips and insights they can actually use, customers will begin to see you as a credible and valuable source of information.

Over time, they will tell their friends about you, and you’ll start to build relationships and a loyal following. Rather than just being a “cold” business selling products and services, you become a personal source of information and a valued expert with solutions to share.

And wouldn’t you rather do business with a real person who cares about your needs than a stranger who is just trying to sell you the latest gadget?

Plus, your newsletter-registration database becomes your sales list. You own it so that means you can use it to upsell current customers. And you can present special offers to turn newsletter-registrants into regular customers.

2. Increase communication “touch-points” quickly and easily.

When people sign up for your newsletter, they are giving you permission to contact them. And once they “opt-in,” you can send them a free eReport, an e-mail auto-responder-sequence, blog-entry notices, articles, surveys, and more. Just be sure to let them know what they will be receiving in advance, and keep their information private.

And the great thing about this is that you can write the materials once, and then send out the information automatically. Services like AWeber^™, www.aweber.com, Emma^™, www.myemma.com, Constant Contact^™, www.constantcontact.com, and others will take care of everything for you!

You can create your newsletter-registration form for your Web site, write personalized messages with simple templates, schedule distribution dates and times, and test various headlines, search-engine-optimization keywords and more. These systems even take care of spam and opt-out processes. All you do is write the copy and monitor results!

With today’s technology, it’s easy and affordable to create a newsletter process and communicate with customers. In fact, many services cost less than $20.00 per month to start.

3. Compete.

With a unique newsletter, you offer something different specific to your customers. You can sell your products and services directly to your opt-in list by providing value, news, expertise, feedback, and more.

With this communication process, you build a list of loyal followers and new customers who want to hear from you and how you can help them. Sharing your specific messages and discovering what your customers really want can give you a huge edge over the competition.

And just think… if your competitors currently have a newsletter, and you don’t, they are already stealing your potential sales! Ugh!

What are You Waiting For?

Newsletters offer a simple and cost-effective way to bring in new leads, market your products and services and get ahead of the competition by developing your own, opt-in list of customers.

And with today’s services, it’s easy to start the newsletter process and see results fast… so with this in mind, isn’t it time to take advantage of this valuable, marketing tool?

What’s that? You don’t have time to write your SEO copy for the newsletter and the e-mail auto-responders, articles, eReports, and more? No worries. Please write to me here or at www.rembrandtwrites.com, and I’ll help you get started!

If you are trying to save money and start the New Year off right, there may be a secret problem lurking in your business.

With the stress of trying to balance a budget, pay bills, obtain new customers, and have a life outside of the office, it can be easy to overlook one key element of your success – your team members.

With this in mind, try to review your team members before the end of the year. This includes internal employees, outsourced services, freelancers, and all of the people who contribute to sales.

Are you getting the results you want from each?

Now, most of your folks are probably doing a great job in order to keep their jobs and see your company succeed. But you may find a hidden source that is bringing down sales.

Perhaps it is a service you’ve been using for years out of necessity or convenience?

Or maybe it’s an employee who is burned out and needs some inspiration?

To discover any “negative” areas and make positive changes, ask yourself these questions:

When was the last time this source really helped your business reach goals?

• Does this source have the appropriate background and expertise now to get your business to the next level of success?
• Is there another service out there that is more affordable and effective that can do the same thing?
• What is the office culture? Do all of the team members enjoy what they are doing? If not, what can I do to motivate them in 2010?

Your answers to these questions may reveal some surprising results that you’ve overlooked. With this in mind, try to take a few minutes now to review all of your services and team members. Then, communicate and take the appropriate action to make improvements and any necessary changes.

Who knows? You may be able to find, and fix, the one “bad seed” that can lead to fast business growth and prosperity in 2010.

Do you need help with your marketing, public relations and SEO copywriting strategies for 2010? Please let me know here or at www.rembrandtwrites.com. Thanks!

Published on StartupNation.com 12/11/09

Many new clients tell me that they have a blog, but no one is reading it. Other clients ask me if they need a blog.

Well, if you have a blog, or are wondering if you need one, you may have these questions:

• What’s the point?

Before you start writing, figure out why you want to have a blog. If you are just trying to jump on the social-media bandwagon, that’s not a good reason to start a blog.

However, if you are trying to share information, build communications with your customers or build buzz, a blog may help you. If this is the case, figure out what you want to accomplish with your blog, and create an action plan, or editorial calendar of pertinent content, to fulfill that purpose. Then, monitor results and make changes as necessary.

• Why aren’t people reading my blog?

Well, there may be several reasons for this.

First, do people know about it?
If not, send out regular e-mail announcements telling people about new entries. Check out www.aweber.com, www.webmarketingmagic.com, www.myemma.com, and others for help with automating this process.

Second, does your blog contain valuable content? Do you help your target audience get answers, information or current news? If not, it may be time to revise your copy and focus on the benefits you have to offer.

 Third, are you optimizing your blog for the search engines? By including keywords your target audience is searching for online within your blog’s headline and body, you’ll attract a lot more readers. Also, list your blog with www.technorati.com and other sites that search for new blog entries.

•  Is your site user friendly?

If you are using a content service, your blog may just be a bunch of sentences running together – making it very difficult to read.

People have a lot to review during the day, and if your competitor’s blog is more user-friendly, guess who is going to get the site visits?

Try to write short sentences and paragraphs. Help readers get the information they need quickly and easily.

Now, these are just a few quick tips to help make your blog activities more worthwhile. After all, a few simple changes may be the difference between building customer relationships and wasting time and effort on content no one reads.

Do you need help with your public relations and SEO copywriting to boost sales, awareness and credibility? Please let me know here or at www.rembrandtwrites.com. I’d love to hear from you!

Thanks for reading, and have a wonderful Thanksgiving!