Turbocharge your sales: Newsletters enhance customer relationships

What can a newsletter do for your customers?

The short answer is “anything you want it to.” Whether your newsletter is delivered on paper or on the Web, it’s one of the most useful tools in getting your message out to your customers and prospects. Newsletters help generate interest in your products and services, and can reach more people, with more targeted messages, than even the greatest sales force would ever find possible. Realistically, newsletters will never replace a sales force — but by presenting information and generating interest, they make the salesperson’s job a lot easier and more productive.

How? For starters, newsletters can help:

• Explain new technology. “We provide specific information about what is happening now,” says Carolyn Tarrant, marketing and communications manager at Wheels Inc. in Des Plaines, Ill. “We consolidate industry news into easy-to-read bites.”
• Extend your reach. “A very important part of demonstrating our values is to provide good advice and information,” says Gunner Branson, senior vice president director of marketing for Heller Financial Inc. in Chicago. “A newsletter helps us reach many people at the same time.”
• Improve customer communications. “The emphasis isn’t on us,” Branson adds. “We focus on information that will help customers improve their business.”
• Showcase key executives and departments. “Our external publication provides economic commentary from our chief economist – a recognized and respected source,” says Kim Woods, vice president and manager of internal communications at ABN-AMRO North America Inc., based in Chicago. “Customers look to that commentary as a source of information and opinion.”
• Introduce new products or services. “The newsletter drives revenue for the specific products and services that we promote,” says Michele Merrell, manager of public relations and corporate communications at U.S. Cellular Corp. in Chicago. “We usually launch new products by featuring them in our customer newsletter, along with other methods, such as advertising.”
• Establish and reinforce relationships with vendors. “We use the newsletter to make our agents aware of sales tools that we’ve developed for them, as well as merchandising and promotional opportunities,” Merrell says. “This helps build interest in and usage of our marketing materials.”

For more information about how The Simons Group can help your organization with print and electronic marketing projects, contact Lee Zoldan at lzoldan@thesimonsgroup.com.

The Simons Group 303 E. Wacker Drive, Suite 1109, Chicago, IL  60601     Phone: 312/252-8900   Fax: 312/252-8909