Using email newsletters to reach your clients is a valuable tool. Whether you’re communicating to internal clients or external clients, newsletters give you an opportunity to explore new initiatives, discuss important issues or reach out and engage your audience. I write newsletters for both corporate and consumer-driven clients, and today I’m going to tell you about why and how newsletters can be an important tool in your online marketing repertoire.

Using Newsletters to Communicate with Internal Customers

Six Sigma, one of the most successful business management programs out there and utilized by many Fortune 500 clients, talks about both internal and external customers. In order to run a successful business, you must evaluate the needs of all of your customers, and develop processes to manage both internal and external customers. One of the keys to successfully managing your internal customers is communication. This is where a newsletter can be vital for handling your relationships with internal customers.

Many companies utilize the corporate newsletter to communicate with employees, or between divisions. However, the news in a corporate newsletter is often out-of-date and interesting only to the people who are featured. Many corporations have a hard time connecting with employees on a one-on-one basis, and creating relevant content. This is where an experienced writer can come in and help. By creating engaging content, you can solicit reactions from employees and get feedback about new programs and initiatives. An experienced writer can also help you find the right way to present an idea to minimize fuss and maximize constructive conversation.

Using Newsletters to Communicate with External Customers

Finding new channels to reach your external customers is a major part of your marketing focus. Not only must you find exciting ways to tempt your clients, but you must also find ways to interact with them. Newsletters are one valuable feature you can use to communicate with your potential and existing clients.

The key to creating engaging, effective newspapers is to provide valuable content. Don’t just write a sales pitch to your clients. Outline a problem or challenge that your clients might face. Then, tell them how your product or service solves that problem. Alternately, you can simply provide valuable content to your clients that keeps you in the forefront of their minds and simultaneously establishes you as an expert in your field. That way, when your external client does need your product or services, you’ll be at the front of their minds.

The Effectiveness of Using Email Newsletters to Reach Your Clients

Three things make print newsletters an ineffective medium to reach your clients: it’s cost-prohibitive, it’s not timely, and people don’t read as much print media as they used to read. Email newsletters cut down on all of those factors, and make it easy for clients to browse your content.

The only cost you have with email newsletters is the time spent writing the newsletters (or the cost of hiring the writer) and a potential cost if you use a paid broadcast email tool. It drastically reduces the cost versus printing paper copies of a newsletter and the cost of postage to mail them – a cost savings which make email newsletters an even more attractive medium through which to reach your clients.

Using email newsletters to contact your clients also enables you to present more timely content. You can plan a newsletter for a specific holiday or time of year, or you can jot off a quick email newsletter if an important piece of news or industry development occurs. You won’t be sending out updates weeks or months after they happen, as is often the case with print newsletters.

Finally, sending out email newsletters makes it easier for customers to ‘get’ and review your content. Many people simply throw paper mail away these days if it’s not a bill, a check or a hand-written letter from a friend. Right off the bat, you miss out on your opportunity to reach those customers. Email, on the other hand, is something that most people check every day, and spend a few minutes reviewing every morning or evening. With an email newsletter, you’ve got a real chance of getting in front of your customers – if only for a few seconds – and that gives you an opportunity to capture their attention and convince them to read your newsletter.

Don’t let this valuable marketing tool slip through your fingers. It’s inexpensive, and highly effective – especially compared to paper media. Email newsletters give you an opportunity to stay in regular touch with your customers – both internal and external – and initiate valuable communications. This translates directly to improved relations and higher conversions, at a very affordable cost. Using email newsletters, you can effectively target your audience and deliver a high-quality message, and the affordable rate paired with the increased conversion ratio means that email newsletters provide an excellent Return on Investment, or ROI, for your marketing dollars.

One of the reasons it’s so important to target your audience is that you want to talk to your audience. If you’re writing to people with no knowledge about a product or service whatsoever, you have to start by educating them about the problem and the solution. On the other hand, if you’re talking to a knowledgeable, savvy audience, you can bore them and lose readers if you spend too much time explaining the basics. To maximize your marketing return, you need to talk to your specific audience.

Identify your target audience.

One step that many companies miss when they’re developing marketing materials is to identify their target audience. Many companies make the determination “This is what I want to convey,” without thinking about the intended recipient. This is important because you might convey your message differently to different audiences.

For example, if you’re trying to sell a service, you might have two targets for your copy: people who have already had your service and understand it, and people who have never had your service and don’t know anything about it. These are two entirely different audiences, and it’s challenging to create a message targeted to both of them. You get a better ROI when you invest in a specific message for a specific audience.

Develop different messages for different audiences.

Once you determine your target audiences, work on developing different messages for each audience. In the previous example, you might want to talk to prior clients about how using your service again can benefit them. You’d probably want to create a different message for new clients, explaining what your service is and why it helps them, or how you differentiate yourselves from your competitors.

Talk to your audience.

Consider your audience’s knowledge level about your product or service when you’re creating a message. By identifying various target audiences, you can assess their knowledge individually to more accurately create a message encompassing their demographic. In the example we’re using here, the people who have already had your service are starting at a more advanced point than people who have never had your service. This means you can do less explaining your service to the repeat customers, and more targeting the benefits to their return. With new customers, you need to spend more time explaining things up front and setting up your company as a provider.

Each is effective in a different way. If you dilute your message by trying to address both audiences simultaneously, you have to provide extra information for the new clients that might simply bore or turn away existing clients, and the new clients won’t benefit from your targeting of benefits for return visits you direct at repeat clients.

Bottom line: Identify your target audience, and speak directly to your target audience. Consider their knowledge of your services and products. If you have more than one target audience, you may need to develop multiple messages. This produces a better ROI and increased conversion rates, so it’s worthwhile to spend the time and capital to create targeted, individual messages,

If you’re looking for a writer for the first time, you face challenges. What to request? How do you decide which writer is right for the job? How much should you pay? If you’re thinking of hiring a writer, here are some tips for how to place an ad, and what questions to ask to help you find the right writer.

Decide where to advertise.

The first question you face when hiring a writer is to decide where to advertise. Do you place an ad, or do you contact a writer directly? A Web search can potentially turn up writers and copywriters in your area, but without contacting them, you have no way of knowing whether or not they’re right for the work you have in mind. You can review website materials and get an idea of their experience and writing style (if it’s a comprehensive website) but you don’t have a lot to evaluate. I have had clients contact me through my website, but many clients prefer to use a freelance website to place an ad and select a provider.

If you’ve decided to use a freelance website, you have two options: job-posting boards, or full-scale freelance websites. Job posting boards enable you to post an ad and get email responses. However, these boards provide you no way of evaluating your providers – you’re just sending your ad off into the ether. This is fine if you know what you’re looking for and are satisfied to handle your project independently, but doesn’t offer any additional protection.

Full-scale freelance websites, on the other hand, such as Elance and Guru, give you an entire system to manage your freelance job from start to finish. You can place an ad, evaluate providers, agree to project terms, arrange payment and leave feedback all through these freelance systems. While these systems confine you somewhat within the terms of use, they provide a valuable tool for clients who are searching for a new writer or hiring a writer for the first time.

Map out your job before you place an ad.

One cause of contention between clients and writers is not having the same picture of what a project entails. A client may believe that the project is fairly straightforward, and have a perfect sense in his head of what a project should be. Writers aren’t mind-readers, though, so unless you give your writer a clear idea of what you expect, you’re more likely to be disappointed than not.

To avoid disappointment, or to avoid falling victim to a project that unexpectedly changes scope, map out your job before you ever place an ad. Get a picture in your mind of exactly what you want. If you’re picturing a series of 500-word articles targeted to a specific keyword, convey that in your ad. On the other hand, if you’re looking for a 10-page report to distribute to mailing list clients, make that clear to a writer up front. If you don’t know quite what you want, you might want to give it some more thought before you place an ad to hire a writer.

Be clear when you place an ad.

When you do place an ad to hire a writer, be clear about what you want. I see ads all the time where clients say things like “I need 10 articles” or “I want to produce a weekly newsletter for my mailing list clients.” This is a good place to start, but you need to flesh out the project so writers know what you need and can bid accordingly. What’s your niche? On what subject would you like articles? How long is your project? What’s your timeframe? The more information you can provide a writer, the better your chances of finding a writer who fits your needs.

A good writer bids on projects for which they’re qualified.

By providing clear information about what you need and expect, you’re automatically narrowing down the list of writers who might apply for your ad. If you say something generic like “I need 10 articles,” you might get upwards of 20 or 30 responses – or more. A good writer will ask you for more details, but many responses will simply quote you a rate without any information about expertise or how a writer handles your niche.

However, when you say “I need 10 articles on Web design, CSS and HTML5,” you automatically self-select the writers who apply for your project. While you may still get some generic responses, you’ll get more responses by writers who are familiar with your content and can provide you samples of their work on related topics. You automatically reduce the number of people who reply to your ad, while simultaneously eliciting information specific to your topics. This saves a ton of time when you’re narrowing down your short list of writers by giving you information about a writer’s qualifications specific to your project.

Determining budget.

Generally speaking, if you pay a low rate, you’ll get a low-quality writer. In theory, anyone can call themselves anything – I could sign up for a freelance website or create my own website right now saying that I’m a Web designer. However, a real Web designer with years of experience – the kind of Web designer who produces websites that make you happy to browse – has experience, references and samples, and typically comes at a premium.

The same thing holds true for writers. When you’re looking to hire a writer, you might get a host of responses from people with no real writing experience. These might be students fresh out of college, teachers trying to make money on the side or even housewives trying to supplement their income. These people might have a range of experience and skill levels from non-existent to quality work. However, the real writers – the people who have been doing it for long enough to hone their skills and learn about the industry and niche – cost more. They spend more time on their work, and therefore must charge more for it.

When you’re considering budget, think about what you want. Do you simply want content? If you’re not looking for high-quality work, you might be able to afford to go low-budget on your project. However, low-quality content produces a poor ROI, and you simply don’t get the same results. When you’re setting your budget, ask yourself what you want your content to be, and what you want it to do.

If you need content that performs, you might need to pay more for a writer up front to yield better rewards and ROI. Be clear about your budget in your ad, though, so you don’t waste your time following up with a writer who is out of your price range, or a low-budget writer who can’t deliver what you seek.

The question of quality vs. quantity is a question you face in any marketing campaign. If you keep a blog, should you strive to post daily and occasionally let drivel slip through, or post once or twice a week but limit your posts to quality information? If you’re using articles to promote your services, should you contract for ten short articles just to get your name out there, or one quality article to increase conversion and convince people to use your services?

The argument for quantity.

The argument for quantity is obvious. The more opportunities that people have to see your name, the more likely you are to reach people who wouldn’t see you otherwise. I.e. if you have 10 articles posted on 10 different websites, you’ve got a much higher chance for readers to see your articles than if you have 1 article posted on 1 website.

This is a common mistake that many people make when they’re planning a new marketing campaign. Many people would look at a limited budget, and say “Ok, I can get 10 low-quality articles out of this budget if I hire a low cost provider.” The simple mathematical outcome would drive the decision to select a low-cost provider for the sake of getting a greater quantity. Unfortunately, that approach only examines one part of the picture.

The argument for quality.

The argument for quality has more subtle benefits. If you deliver quality content, you’ll give your readers valuable content – content that they’ll have a reason to stick around and read. When readers see low-quality content, they’re likely to click away again immediately in search of someone else who provides better content. In this respect, quantity gives you more opportunities to get in front of readers, but less of an opportunity to make an impact.

For offisite article marketing, a similar principal applies. If you’re posting content offsite to try to lure readers onto your website and into using your services, you’ll need to give them a compelling reason to click that link. When you post ten articles that are full of the same drivel you can find on any other website, readers have no reason to click through to find more information and no temptation to use your services. If you post only two or three articles that contain unique information and convince your readers that your services are valuable, you’ve given those readers an excuse to click through to your website.

Quality content is your key to conversion.

Quality content also serves a very valuable purpose: it establishes you as an expert. Provide readers with informative, unique information, and they’ll see that you know your field. If you speak only in generalities or fail to give readers something they can’t find on a hundred other websites, they have no reason to choose your services over any other provider. When you’re looking for conversion, quality counts.

Quality content drives page views organically.

The primary argument in favor of quantity versus quality is the argument that a higher quantity of content gets you visibility in more places. While this is technically true, it’s not the only way you can get visibility. If you provide quality content on a wide range of topics – especially if you provide content on an ongoing basis, like in blogging – you’re much more likely to capture readers organically through search engine results and word of mouth. SEO is skewed to provide greater preference to ‘quality’ content; not keyword-laden pieces that are designed to ‘trick’ search engines into providing a higher page rank; so you’re more likely to capture readers organically if you provide quality content. This gives you opportunities you wouldn’t have with poor-quality, high-quantity content.

Quality content is good for word-of-mouth.

Low-quality content may get you page views, but people won’t think of you twice and certainly won’t recommend you. High-quality content – content that provides valuable or difficult-to-find information – is content that people will remember, and recommend to friends and contacts. How do you think things grow virally? It isn’t because it’s forgettable content. The key to viral marketing is to provide memorable content that people want to share – not mediocre content that people just don’t care about.

Bottom line: ROI on quality content is better.

Bottom line: your return on investment for quality content is better than quantity. Sure, quantity can get you page views – but low-quality content won’t get you conversion. Since the key to any business website is conversion, quantity just doesn’t have the bang for the buck that quality content provides. Invest in quality content, and you’ll see a direct return on investment that correlates with the quality of your content.

One of the most common questions that writers (and all small business owners) ask is how to effectively improve marketing performance and effortlessly grow a customer base. One of the best ways to expand your customer base doesn’t seem to get the attention it warrants: creating relationships with repeat clients. Realistically, many people miss out on the untapped value of repeat clients because they either don’t value the business enough, or don’t know how to grow it.

Why you want repeat clients.

Repeat clients are extremely valuable. My own business is formed around a core of repeat clients for whom I do projects on a weekly, monthly or intermittent basis. Repeat clients require far less marketing, if any, and they provide a steady core of income and workload around which you can build the rest of your business. Some of my repeat clients have standing projects with me, while others send me requests for articles or work on a variable basis. All of this is work that I don’t have to go look for in outside channels, which is a very good thing for a self-employed professional.

How to effectively market to repeat clients.

It costs significantly less in terms of time and effort to market to repeat clients. Personally, I send holiday cards to my core clients every year, follow up every project with an invitation to contact me if they need any additional work, and check in periodically to see how they’re doing. Providing valuable blog content also helps retain repeat clients in that your clients may follow your blog, and then think of you when they have a particular project that needs attention.

Different ways in which repeat clients can benefit you.

I’ll use my personal business to illustrate the different ways in which repeat clients provide untapped value:

• I do several monthly newsletters for different businesses, that fall during different weeks of the month. I’ve been doing these newsletters for years. They are a steady, guaranteed source of business.
• I write articles on a weekly basis for one client, ranging from 10 to 40 articles, depending on the client’s needs. I’ve been working with this client for going on three years. This is an invaluable source of steady work that I don’t have to go seek elsewhere.
• I complete monthly blog projects for a few clients. I can write these entire projects at once, or I can do them on a weekly basis, depending on my workload. This gives me the flexibility to plan around other large projects while simultaneously having steady sources of income via these monthly projects.
• I have clients who contact me on an as-needed basis for additional work. These clients may go 6 months without needing a project, or they might contact me every 2-3 months for a new project. These clients come to me – I don’t need to go hunting them down or sourcing additional work to fill that workload.

Compare repeat clients to traditional marketing.

To really see the value that repeat clients add, let’s take a look at my traditional marketing for new clients and projects:

• I spend anywhere from 2 to 10 hours every week looking for new clients and projects;
• I bid on anywhere from 10 to 30 projects every month, and each of these bids takes from 10 to 40 minutes to draft, which costs me anywhere from 2 to 20 hours per month writing bids;
• I typically get anywhere from 2 to 5 ‘additional’ projects per month; roughly a 16% to 20% success rate.

This means that in a given month, I might spend 60 hours on direct marketing – looking for work and bidding on projects (not counting my other indirect marketing efforts) with only a 16% to 20% success rate. This means that maybe 9 of those hours actually result in paying work.

With repeat clients, I spend anywhere from 0 to 30 minutes per month on marketing efforts. Either I do nothing, or I spend a few minutes sending out emails. I spend a couple of hours during the holidays writing cards. And each and every minute I spend results in a direct response – continued work from these repeat clients. I spend absolutely 0 time on wasted marketing with repeat clients.

In a client-driven business, that return on investment for marketing efforts is HUGE.

Make an effort to retain repeat clients.

Because repeat clients form such a strong core of my business, I make an effort to build relationships with repeat clients. When I bid on projects, I spend more time bidding on projects for people who need ongoing work than on one-off projects. I make sure I provide quality work, on time, so that clients will want to use me again. And I communicate proactively with those clients to ensure that they’re satisfied, meed their needs and find out if they have other untapped needs that I can help fill.

These are all relatively simple efforts that go a long way toward building lasting relationships with repeat clients. I would do these things anyway because I’m a professional and I pride myself in delivering quality work, but the added incentive of retaining new repeat clients is huge. Any writer or small business professional can utilize these philosophies to build business and drastically increase the ROI of repeat-client-related marketing dollars.

SEO is your key to getting visitors. The better your page rank, the more visitors you’ll have – and that’s largely a function of SEO. For this reason, many small businesses (and even large businesses) are devoting precious marketing dollars to good SEO. I recently consulted with one of my Web design clients, and found that he’s thinking of hiring an SEO firm to optimize his page.

BEWARE OF HIRING SEO FIRMS TO OPTIMIZE YOUR WEBSITE!

Why you don’t need SEO firms.

I study SEO all the time as part of my business. I can’t deliver SEO content without understanding current SEO practices, and a large part of my business involves writing SEO content. Since I’m already knowledgeable about SEO as a content producer and an occasional Web designer, I had no idea that SEO firms even existed. That is, until I was consulting with a Web client a couple of weeks ago and he told me that he was considering hiring an SEO firm. An SEO firm that wanted to charge him $80,000.

I was floored when he told me how much the firm wanted to charge. I charged pennies compared to that for his website design, and I provide ongoing maintenance for even less. I advised him, in my initial design, of certain SEO practices and content he should include – but he didn’t like the context or the way it looked, so I removed it. Upon hearing he was considering paying someone $80k to ‘optimize’ his website, I asked to see the proposal to find out what exactly they were doing for $80k.

It turns out – 90% of what they were doing was stuff that I’d already told him to do, or things that we’d already implemented on his website. The proposal broke out things into line items that aren’t really separate things at all – but part of the same thing – they just write it like that to make it look like additional items. In fact, let me excerpt some areas of the proposal so you have an idea of what I mean:

• Optimized Content: $800 per page – for 4 pages of content – a total of $3,200 for 4 pages. (Many professionals – myself included – charge between $50-150 for optimized content, depending on the length of the page and the content included.)
• Design/Code. They broke this section out into 5 different line items – all of which I had already provided to this Web design client myself – for $4,000. (I charged a fraction of that price for my design, with unlimited edits – they only allow 2 rounds of edits.)
• Video. $3,000-$6,000. (The client has the capacity to produce this video himself, and many people do – video editing software is inexpensive and even included for free in some operating systems, and professional-quality video equipment is extremely affordable in this digital world.)
• Reports/Books intended to be used for a conversion tool – $400. This is the first thing remotely resembling a reasonable price on the proposal. (I’ve written reports and books for Web clients to use as conversion tools at anywhere from $75 to $500, so depending on the length and the content, $400 might be appropriate.)
• Publish – $800. This was broken out into two line items: publish to search engines and setup Google Analytics. What they don’t tell you is that it costs NOTHING to publish websites to search engines (and is automated in most cases) and Google Analytics is free, too – just requires inserting a little code into websites. (I’ve already done this for the client for free.)
• A license for the client to access his own website – $2,000. Under this proposal, the SEO firm would maintain the website, and the client had to pay a LICENSING FEE to access his own website! This client currently has unlimited access to his website at no cost.
• Web hosting – $800 per year. The client is already hosting his website with a reputable provider for less than $100 per year, and has more features, space and functionality than the proposed hosting under this SEO firm for $800 annually.
• Content Management Program – $5,000 PER MONTH. (You can hire a reputable writer or SEO expert to create content for you for a fraction of the price – I currently offer CMPs for some clients for as little as $500 for a substantial range of services – services only available on this $5k per month plan.)

What to look out for when you’re considering an SEO firm.

In light of reading the ridiculous proposal that they sent to my client, I’m tempted to say you should never, under any circumstances, contract with an SEO firm. The line items in the proposal were misleading, at best, and the prices they charged were inflated beyond all reason. The company was a reputable SEO firm with a number of large clients, and they clearly trade on their name to gain new clients. However, the services offered were in many cases already extant, or easily implemented at a fraction of the cost.

Unfortunately, many clients who are in need of SEO have no way of knowing that this firm’s proposal is completely outrageous and highly overpriced. Without knowing what the line items actually are, or how they relate to what you might already have, it’s impossible to know that SEO firms are ripping you off. Instead, consider these factors:

• Check with an individual or small business for comparable services. In many cases, individuals or small businesses can give you significantly better rates than you’ll find at large SEO firms. Simply look for quality providers with verifiable references and a portfolio you can review in order to make sure you’re working with a legitimate professional.
• Place an ad on Elance or Guru to solicit bids. Elance and Guru are two popular online marketplaces where you can hire qualified individuals and businesses to perform SEO services. You’ll find a broad range of prices and quality levels on these marketplaces, but they’re great places to source potential providers. Users can leave feedback and information about their experiences so you have a way of verifying how satisfied people were with providers.
• Request bids from multiple SEO firms. Make sure you shop around if you’re considering spending cash on SEO. SEO dollars can be money well-spent, from a ROI and marketing perspective, but not if you’re spending 3-5 times what the service is actually worth. Make sure you solicit multiple bids and avoid a company that seems drastically overpriced. Also, make sure you’re comparing apples to apples – which may include a breakdown line-item by line-item to make sure you’re comparing the same functionality in a bid.
• Check for word of mouth in your business community. Check with other businesses in your area and find out if they used a quality SEO firm they’d recommend. You might have trouble getting recommendations from your competitors, but non-competing businesses might be willing to share their providers. Beware of firms that churn out pages that look exactly alike, though, as form pages don’t provide the quality you want from an SEO provider.
• Beware of SEO firms that own your content! Upon doing further research on SEO firms, I discovered some clients complaining that SEO firms retained their content when the clients eventually discontinued using the firms. Even content that the clients had created themselves. Beware of SEO firms that own your content! Examine the fine print closely, and make sure that you retain all of your own content, your domain name and the right to access and edit your account and website at any time.

The difference between SEO firms and SEO content.

SEO firms provide a broad range of features, depending on the firm. Some firms provide SEO for your page layout and design, but don’t provide content management packages, or CMP. This means that you’ll get a one-time SEO makeover, but you won’t get support on an ongoing basis. Even if you do get ongoing SEO, you might not be getting new content – you may just be getting people evaluating your page, stats and keywords to make sure your SEO is still working.

SEO content is both an SEO tool and a stand-alone feature. Many SEO firms don’t provide SEO content at all, or the SEO content that they do provide is static content designed to provide good SEO to your website pages themselves, but not provide ongoing support. SEO firms are largely unnecessary. You can do many of the same things that SEO firms do on your site on your own, without paying someone thousands of dollars.

SEO content, on the other hand, is a necessary and vital part of improving the ROI on your website. SEO content makes sure your website comes up high in relevant search rankings, and dynamic SEO content can expand your search rankings and further improve your page rank. Generating SEO content yourself *is* something that you can do, but your time is typically better spent elsewhere. It makes sense to hire a professional to generate SEO content for your website – especially dynamic content on an ongoing basis – because the SEO content professional is well-versed in current SEO trends and ways to improve your page ranking. SEO firms may include SEO content as a part of their packages, but they typically charge far more than an individual provider would charge – and you have less control over what you’re getting.

In short, beware of SEO firms.

In summary: SEO FIRMS ARE BAD! Not all SEO firms are out to rip you off, but the proposals I’ve seen from large, reputable firms charge FAR TOO MUCH for services that shouldn’t cost that much. Hire a small business or individual SEO professional for far better rates and the individual attention that your website deserves, and save your marketing dollars for other important marketing tools and campaigns.