NFIB

Making the News
03/ 12/ 2004


Getting media coverage of your company is great publicity, but you can't always control what journalists will say. If you produce a customer newsletter, however, you're the editor -- you can get publicity and take full advantage of the opportunity to market your company's best side. Today, contributor Lisa Hochgraf digs deeper into this often overlooked marketing strategy.

"A regular company newsletter can improve your image, promote your products and encourage employees," says Joe Funk, project director of Plantation Business Designs, Tallahassee, Fla. At the same time, newsletters tell "potential customers what they are missing and remind present customers just how good they have it with you. No other promotion method allows you to so unabashedly blow your own horn."

But is your company newsletter really reaching the target market? To find out, Funk suggests setting goals for your newsletter up front, and then producing enough issues of the newsletter to actually measure the results.

For example, one way to measure the immediate impact of a promotional newsletter is to include a coupon that customers would actually bring in and redeem, Funk says. Still, he adds, the more subtle results of newsletters may be even more valuable.

"Newsletters may produce immediate results, but do not bank on it," Funk says. "Rather, expect them to gradually develop a strong sense of closeness between you and your audience. Building customer loyalty and reducing customer defection are important long-term goals."

Funk suggests that newsletters be published at least quarterly -- and for more than a year. This allows customers to get used to seeing it, and for the company to take a baseline reading and subsequent readings of the impact the piece has.

"A newsletter, like any other form of promotion, must be repetitive and continuous to be successful," Funk explains on his Web site (http://www.pbds.com), which includes several pages of information on successful newsletter publishing. "You don't put out a newsletter every two months for three months and then drop it. It's way too early. You've got to stay the course."

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