Using Email Newsletters to Engage with Your Client Base

Email newsletters, or eBlasts, are a great way to connect with new clients and customers or to stay connected with former ones. With the later, the goal is to entice them back to buy from you again or use your services.

Your email list is one of the highest ROI you have in your marketing toolbox and it’s something you definitely want to utilize.

If you have trouble remembering to send email newsletter campaigns, a good rule is to CALENDAR it! Literally schedule the time to brain dump ideas that you can discuss in your emails. Use seasonal prompts for content ideas.

I recently had a social media coaching call with an estate planning attorney. Here are a few of the prompts I helped her with:

• Remind clients periodically that it might be time to update documents. Have their circumstances changed? Retirement? Divorce? Death?

• Offer a free download - people LOVE free stuff! Ideas:

  • A checklist of what to do when there’s a death in the family.

  • How to prepare for a meeting with you.

  • What are the important documents & where should they be stored?

  • What does Power of Attorney mean”

• Design a survey to find out what your clients would like to see from you (you can use Survey Monkey for this).

• Always remind them of your social media channels with links to each one and suggest that they follow you for news, information & updates.

Remember to include informative, educational, and fun articles that are relevant to your industry. It doesn’t have to be dry & boring - you can also share personal news & updates. You can also highlight a team member and tell your clients/customers more about them (education, what they do for fun, how long they’ve worked with you, a surprising tidbit). This is a great way to connect personally with your clients.

People are visual: use photos & images so the emails aren’t boring.

Create a template so designing the email each month is easier. This allows you to stay on brand also using brand/company colors, fonts, and style.

It’s time to dust off that email list and start using it! I truly believe that past clients are the best clients!

The Benefits of Blogging for your Business

Did you know having a blog on your website is one of the best ways to increase your SEO? It’s basically a virtual high-five for Google and other search engines. Google reads your content and places you in the rankings for that content by way of the keywords you used.

Google also loves it when you add new content to your website on a regular basis, and it especially loves it when visitors interact with your content (i.e. leaving comments).

Blogging also helps you develop a following and keeps people coming back for more. What happens is that by blogging consistently, you build trust with your audience and this positions you as an expert in your field. If you’re blogging about your service or product, your readers are going to see that you know what you’re talking about and feel more comfortable buying from you.

Here’s a little personal story about blogging: I had another business 10 years ago that was product-based. I manufactured a line of women’s accessories and sold them online, in retail stores and at craft fairs. I also blogged on a regular basis. My blog posts covered the spectrum from what I was working on (behind the scenes), new products, in the field at fairs and any other kind of creative inspiration that I loved. My blog was the most visited page on my website, and countless magazine editors found me and my products through my blog. This led to features not only in magazines but also online on other blogs and magazine websites. My profile is still up and searchable on the Country Living Magazine website 11 years later!

That, my friends, is the power of blogging! So why wouldn’t you do it? Sure it takes time and sometimes you don’t know what to write. But like exercise, it gets easier with time and practice.