Publishing your own company newsletter

By llenry Eason President Eason Communications

fIUSTOMIZED newsletters

\-rare fast becoming important marketing tools in the lumber and building materials field. They are perhaps the single most cost-effective and measurable method of promoting your products and services.

People respect information more than slogans and jingles. Newsletters. if written and designed in a professional manner, create a strong and regular personal bond between the reader-customer and their business.

Newsletters provide peoPle with useful, interesting information about services and products they need and enjoY.

According to Sales & Marketing Mana ge ment magazine, "Most sales and marketing executives realize that newsletters are one of the most effective ways to stimulate and maintain positive communlcation with both employees and customers."

The flexibility of a single newsletter enables you to hit dozens of marketing and management targets' What's more, you have the sPace to tell stories that demonstrate how your services and products benefit your customers and prospects.

Communications exPerts believe that better-educated consumers require detailed journalistic information instead of rhetoric to make buying decisions.

Newsletters provide comPanies with an opportunity to detail their marketing messages with case histories. technical information, motivational material and calendars of events. Specifically, newsletters:

O Generate business ProsPecting leads

O Promote your firm's unique qualities

O Showcase your top peoPle and their ideas

O Establish strong bonds with your customers

O Take your messages directlY to people

O Boost your staff's productivitY by focusing efforts

O Give your vendors guidance

O Provide the local media with stories about your firm

O Promote your special events, or those in which you are participating

C Foster a sense of communitY and team spirit at your business

Usually, the total cost of buYing and mailing newsletters to your customers and prospects is a wiser investment than advertising in the local newspaper or on radio.

Athough the quality of the publication is not as great an issue for an inhouse organ, a professional look is crucial if the newsletter is directed to customers and prospects. CheaP newsletters speak volumes about the kind of company you are - and the quality of the goods and services you are likely to provide.

If businesses are unwilling to invest in the necessary computer hardware, software and peripherals to research, write and produce a quality newsletter, they can purchase professionally produced custom newsletters.

One good rule of thumb in determining the value of your newsletter marketing investment is to multiply (a) the average response rate in your industry from a direct mailing times (b) the annual value of a customer. You might get response rate estimates from your industry association. Most firms are able to recoup their investment with just a few new customersand the rest is gravy.

Also remember another good marketing rule: The easiest way to grow your business is by selling more to existing customers. So your mailing list should begin with your "house list." You must also "prospect" to combat natural attrition among your

Story at a Glance

Should you have your own company newsletter? if so, how much to invest.

current customers - and develop new customers by mailing to available lists of prospective customers in Your community.

How many newsletters should You mail? That question can only be answered with another question: How much new business can you handle?

San Francisco, Ca.-based Eason Communications is a custom publishing and marketingfirm.