Social media is hot but the agency newsletter is still a great promotional tool for agency new business.
According to a study by Bredin Business Information, Inc., of over 300 executives email newsletters rank highly as sources of information, beating out websites and blogs, and matching print media for importance.
As with any communications tool, consistency is the key ingredient to having success with a newsletter for new business. To be consistent keep the process simple.
Here are 6 tips that will simplify your newsletter and keep it consistent, even when your agency is at its busiest
- Have one person who is responsible for overseeing the newsletter to keep the process on time and within budget.
- Purchase a mailing list from a list company such as Dunn & Bradstreet. I would suggest a two year, multi-use. Most ad agencies are not equipped to maintain their own databases. If you don’t have someone regularly calling and updating information it is soon out of date.
- Create a list of those who will be contributing to the newsletter. It may be even better to have one person write it, gathering the necessary info from others within the agency.
- Limit the persons who are to approve the newsletter. A large number of people to sign off on the newsletter will dramatically slow the process down.
- Use a mail service. I made this suggestion to an agency and they doubled their mailing from 4,000 to 8,000. There was a great cost savings received by outsourcing the mailing, labeling, sorting, postage as well as design recommendations from the mail service. They were able to double the mailing from 4,000 to 8,000 pieces and it cost them $75 less. That doesn’t include the savings in support staff time that had been previously devoted to getting the newsletter out the door. The agency CEO said that this should be the lead story in their next newsletter.
- Set a realistic timeline and stick to it as you would with any of your agency’s clients. I would suggest a quarterly newsletter supplemented with a monthly 6×9 postcard and complimented with and a eNewsletter. The best results comes from an integrated approach.
Click on the following title to read the Brendin report, “Optimizing Email Newsletters for Small/Medium Businesses”
Does your agency still mail a printed newsletter?
photo credit: Walala Pancho via photopin cc
