Newsletter by email

[Martyn]

I'm thinking about sending a newsletter out to all my clients and wonder if anyone is already doing this? I have been using PCRT and haven't been using the facility where you can book a yearly service in advance or remind them about their anti virus running out. So I think an emailed newsletter with topics that they may be interested in would be good and reconnect with some of my older clients.

Subjects can be many and varied:

End of XP support next
Advice on buying a new computer
Upgrading computers
Refurbished computers
Scams/viruses by email
Scams by phone
Backups and why to do them
Free software such as Openoffice and Libreoffice
Deals you have running
Discounted software
etc etc


It goes on. Has anyone got any input?

 

[Kitten Kong]

I have been doing the yearly notification as you know Martyn. This has proved invaluable to me since I started using PCRT.

In saying that though, I am new to the email marketing side of things. I only yesterday found a nice plugin, which allows me to send newsletters out. I sent my first to 415 clients last night.

Whilst there are a huge number of subjects we could cover, I don't want to start 'spamming' clients every day with emails. So am wondering on a email a week, or possibly 2.

One thing I cannot find with this plugin however, is a way of just sending a email to joe, tim, and ron for example. It's either all or nothing.

 

[Martyn]

I have been doing the yearly notification as you know Martyn. This has proved invaluable to me since I started using PCRT.

In saying that though, I am new to the email marketing side of things. I only yesterday found a nice plugin, which allows me to send newsletters out. I sent my first to 415 clients last night.

Whilst there are a huge number of subjects we could cover, I don't want to start 'spamming' clients every day with emails. So am wondering on a email a week, or possibly 2.

One thing I cannot find with this plugin however, is a way of just sending a email to joe, tim, and ron for example. It's either all or nothing.

Sounds good Nige. You could have a place on your website where they could subscribe to the newsletter. I was thinking of one a month so you wouldn't run out of subjects too quickly. In fact just thinking of PCRT, maybe you could have a checkbox for new clients to opt in on newletters?

 

[4ycr]

Have you thought about mailchimp of the emails? I have not seen the plug in you are referring to nige, so please correct me. I know it has to have an unsubscribe button and the ability to divide your list up into segments.

I have mailchimp send emails to clients when their online backup is due for renewal. I created a UDF put their date in it and set it up to send an email 2 weeks before it was due.

 

[SilverLeaf]

I have thought about this as well. My thoughts were to possibly do it on a monthly basis using some of the same content posted on the Blog section of my site with maybe some extra features (coupons, specials, etc..). I haven't quite put it together yet, and I have some doubts as to the effectiveness of such a program. Currently, I send out a personalized "Thank You" email to each new customer in which I also solicit feedback by pointing them to a short, convenient web-based feedback form. Rarely do I actually get a response from this (even from people who gush about how thrilled they are with the service, and commit to telling all their friends about it), and suspect that many of these emails wind up in spam folders. I'd hate to invest the effort on newsletters just to have the same thing happen as well.

 

[Kitten Kong]

Sounds good Nige. You could have a place on your website where they could subscribe to the newsletter. I was thinking of one a month so you wouldn't run out of subjects too quickly. In fact just thinking of PCRT, maybe you could have a checkbox for new clients to opt in on newletters?

I have a new plugin Martyn, which allows viewers to sign up for newsletters. Good idea on the PCRT part of it. So far, I have been asking clients, if they would like to be put on the newsletters mailing list. If they havent then I have noted it in the tech part of pcrt.

I have thought about mailchip, and will look into it in more detail. The plugin, I'm currently using is called 'newsletter' Version 3.3.9 | By Stefano Lissa |

It does have a unsubscribe feature, which I made sure of. The only segments it allows, is male / female / all. I'm still playing around with it. If I find something better, I will switch over to it.

I'm adding content to my blog, as and when I think of something to add to it, one good feature of the newsletter plugin, is it will send a 'newsletter' out using some of the blog articles. Like I say though, i'm still in the baby stage with it, and playing about.

 

[Martyn]

I have a new plugin Martyn, which allows viewers to sign up for newsletters. Good idea on the PCRT part of it. So far, I have been asking clients, if they would like to be put on the newsletters mailing list. If they havent then I have noted it in the tech part of pcrt.

I have thought about mailchip, and will look into it in more detail. The plugin, I'm currently using is called 'newsletter' Version 3.3.9 | By Stefano Lissa |

It does have a unsubscribe feature, which I made sure of. The only segments it allows, is male / female / all. I'm still playing around with it. If I find something better, I will switch over to it.

I'm adding content to my blog, as and when I think of something to add to it, one good feature of the newsletter plugin, is it will send a 'newsletter' out using some of the blog articles. Like I say though, i'm still in the baby stage with it, and playing about.

It doesn't hurt linking from the newsletter to your blog. I also do a thank you email from PCRT giving them a link to my testimonial form on my website.

 

[Kitten Kong]

Going slightly off track here. Is your testimonial form a wp plugin?, or how does it get your clients to fill in the testimonial?

 

[Martyn]

It is a plug in Nige and there are quite a few. I've had a couple of issues with mine so i'm looking to change. Basically from the PCRT 'Thank You' email I link to my page and when they scroll down they can fill it in. There is a place to login separate from the Wordpress site where you can allow the testimonial to go to your website(or not)

 

[Kitten Kong]

Hmm, cheers Martyn. I'll ring you shortly, so I can discuss that with you, if thats ok.

 

[Martyn]

Yes fine Nige

 

[nesrinamb]

Ok so a guy in my networking group just talked about newsletter and effectiveness according to him is very high and as for emails its said that 2 per week talking about new blog posts or stuff like that is the best. After 2 per week people get annoyed.

I recently just started using a monthly newsletter as a way to keep in touch with current clients. So far everyone seems to like it. Some of the bigger clients I got I send them 2 or 3 printed copies for the office

 

[Chadi]

Our October newsletter is coming out on Monday so it's too early to share the topics here but here are the topics for September:

HIPAA Privacy Regulations
Fake Antivirus
Linkedin Tips
Note Taking Apps
Cloud Services Security
SOFTWARE OF THE MONTH
Customer Data Loss/Business Liability
New Laptop Checklist
SSD Drive Upgrades
Computer Ergonomics Tips

I hope this will give you more ideas for future topics.

 

[CyberJourn]

Sorry for the long post, but I've been using the newsletter for a while. I've been doing it for close to 4 years in Mailchimp. I try to do it every month or every other month. When I get an idea for a new post, I enter it into Evernote and then I will go in and write 3-4 posts for the newsletter and post them directly to my Wordpress website.

I have 500 newsletter subscribers that are all clients. I get anywhere from 125-175 people reading the newsletter. I've never paid Mailchimp a dime.

I mainly do the newsletter to keep my company in touch with clients that may not use me on a regular basis. The biggest headache is keeping the address book updated.

In the past few months, I've moved my Mailchimp template to the RSS style which will now automatically pull the latest articles from my Wordpress website. Now all I do it publish 3-4 new articles to my website and Mailchimp finds them and mails the newsletters out automatically at a specific date and time you schedule.

Switching to the RSS template has made things quick and it drives traffic to my website. I now only have to enter it one time instead of doubling my work. Average client is not going to read a wordy 5 paragraph article about a Windows XP deadline. We give them a few lines and then have a More option that then opens the full article on our website. This way when they receive the newsletter in their Inbox, they can see all 3-4 headlines of the articles without the need to scroll though articles they are not interested in. The actual newsletter gives just little teasers for each of the articles and then the clients can click which ones they would like to read.

As far as the content, we mix up a multitude of things. One post about some type of new technology, a sale item, a tip or tutorial, a new service we offer or even an old service we offer, etc. Last month we posted an article about the death of Windows XP and then under that article we posted a sale for upgrading to Windows 7 or 8. We sold over 15 of updates and did the installation on all of them.

Next month an article on the Cryptolocker virus and a personal story about a business client that almost lost all their files if it wasn't for a backup. Then we will have a sale on backup drives and service to set it up for the clients. The last article will be about Carbonite Cloud backup and what it does. Hope you are seeing that pattern.

The two most important marketing tools for us have been first the website, and second the newsletter. It does take some work, but as soon as that newsletter goes out our business will pick up considerably. It sometimes will just jog someones memory that they need to call us about an issue they are having. It's all about keeping your name in front of the client.

tldr - Newsletters work.

 

[Martyn]

Sorry for the long post, but I've been using the newsletter for a while. I've been doing it for close to 4 years in Mailchimp. I try to do it every month or every other month. When I get an idea for a new post, I enter it into Evernote and then I will go in and write 3-4 posts for the newsletter and post them directly to my Wordpress website.

I have 500 newsletter subscribers that are all clients. I get anywhere from 125-175 people reading the newsletter. I've never paid Mailchimp a dime.

I mainly do the newsletter to keep my company in touch with clients that may not use me on a regular basis. The biggest headache is keeping the address book updated.

In the past few months, I've moved my Mailchimp template to the RSS style which will now automatically pull the latest articles from my Wordpress website. Now all I do it publish 3-4 new articles to my website and Mailchimp finds them and mails the newsletters out automatically at a specific date and time you schedule.

Switching to the RSS template has made things quick and it drives traffic to my website. I now only have to enter it one time instead of doubling my work. Average client is not going to read a wordy 5 paragraph article about a Windows XP deadline. We give them a few lines and then have a More option that then opens the full article on our website. This way when they receive the newsletter in their Inbox, they can see all 3-4 headlines of the articles without the need to scroll though articles they are not interested in. The actual newsletter gives just little teasers for each of the articles and then the clients can click which ones they would like to read.

As far as the content, we mix up a multitude of things. One post about some type of new technology, a sale item, a tip or tutorial, a new service we offer or even an old service we offer, etc. Last month we posted an article about the death of Windows XP and then under that article we posted a sale for upgrading to Windows 7 or 8. We sold over 15 of updates and did the installation on all of them.

Next month an article on the Cryptolocker virus and a personal story about a business client that almost lost all their files if it wasn't for a backup. Then we will have a sale on backup drives and service to set it up for the clients. The last article will be about Carbonite Cloud backup and what it does. Hope you are seeing that pattern.

The two most important marketing tools for us have been first the website, and second the newsletter. It does take some work, but as soon as that newsletter goes out our business will pick up considerably. It sometimes will just jog someones memory that they need to call us about an issue they are having. It's all about keeping your name in front of the client.

tldr - Newsletters work.

Great feedback, thanks. Rep given.

 

[SilverLeaf]

Sorry for the long post, but I've been using the newsletter for a while. I've been doing it for close to 4 years in Mailchimp. I try to do it every month or every other month. When I get an idea for a new post, I enter it into Evernote and then I will go in and write 3-4 posts for the newsletter and post them directly to my Wordpress website.

I have 500 newsletter subscribers that are all clients. I get anywhere from 125-175 people reading the newsletter. I've never paid Mailchimp a dime.

I mainly do the newsletter to keep my company in touch with clients that may not use me on a regular basis. The biggest headache is keeping the address book updated.

In the past few months, I've moved my Mailchimp template to the RSS style which will now automatically pull the latest articles from my Wordpress website. Now all I do it publish 3-4 new articles to my website and Mailchimp finds them and mails the newsletters out automatically at a specific date and time you schedule.

Switching to the RSS template has made things quick and it drives traffic to my website. I now only have to enter it one time instead of doubling my work. Average client is not going to read a wordy 5 paragraph article about a Windows XP deadline. We give them a few lines and then have a More option that then opens the full article on our website. This way when they receive the newsletter in their Inbox, they can see all 3-4 headlines of the articles without the need to scroll though articles they are not interested in. The actual newsletter gives just little teasers for each of the articles and then the clients can click which ones they would like to read.

As far as the content, we mix up a multitude of things. One post about some type of new technology, a sale item, a tip or tutorial, a new service we offer or even an old service we offer, etc. Last month we posted an article about the death of Windows XP and then under that article we posted a sale for upgrading to Windows 7 or 8. We sold over 15 of updates and did the installation on all of them.

Next month an article on the Cryptolocker virus and a personal story about a business client that almost lost all their files if it wasn't for a backup. Then we will have a sale on backup drives and service to set it up for the clients. The last article will be about Carbonite Cloud backup and what it does. Hope you are seeing that pattern.

The two most important marketing tools for us have been first the website, and second the newsletter. It does take some work, but as soon as that newsletter goes out our business will pick up considerably. It sometimes will just jog someones memory that they need to call us about an issue they are having. It's all about keeping your name in front of the client.

tldr - Newsletters work.

Excellent! Thanks

 

[callthatgirl]

My newsletter list keeps growing as my business stays in business. I continually add and remove people often. They work, here are my tips.

--Give value added tips more often
--Do promotions on the side bar or bottom (and I skip promotions sometimes and only do them every 2 months, keep your people in suspense) and if you do a promotion, keep it for a short amount of time to "rush" into buying. Sometimes I do a "Full month special" of tune ups for $49, those sales do well and they pick up at the end of the month.
--Give the Opt out at the top
--Be consistent, I do mine every 2 weeks if I can. I use my blogs as the information feed. Once I got a nice template going, doing a formatted newsletter takes no time anymore.

I have a good open rate of 19-30%.

For those that complain directly to you, these are the ones who you don't want as clients anyway so bye bye!

For those that keep your newsletters for years....and call at some point, that's the pay off. I have those folks that say that they've been on my list and saved them for when they needed to call me.

 

[4ycr]

GEEKYGUYS, I will need to look into that RSS feed for mailchimp as that sounds good.

I will also need to be more consistant with them, as that is my big problem

 

[callthatgirl]

Marketing rules...(these change often)

7-13 times people needs to see your stuff for them to "remember you"

Keep 'em up!

 

[InHomeComputerHelp.com]

What does PCRT stand for?

Rick