Newsletter in print/email

[peetred]

Please direct me if I have missed it, but I've searched the forum for a thread/posts on doing newsletters in print and have failed to find anything. I did find a few mentions of email newsletters, but nothing much

Anyway, I was wondering if anyone currently does a newsletter in print and/or email to potential and existing clients?

If so, do you do one for residential, business or both? If you do both, do you send the same newsletter for both business and residential, or do you do two separate newsletters?

I recently read about putting out a monthly newsletter, primarily for businesses, that includes helpful hints and tips as well as your services and advertisement in each newsletter. It's seems a fairly straightforward way of getting some "free" advertisement by calling local businesses and simply asking them if they want to sign up for a free monthly publication about computers for business use.

I have toyed with the idea of doing one in print, fax, or email. Obviously there will be some minimal cost involved with sending print newsletters.

Thoughts?

 

[vdub12]

It would take an incredible amount of work to put a newsletter together every month.

However, I think it could do great for business. Even better is if you had a few partners in the newsletter so each business could create content every month. To make it work the partners would have to have a different demographic so that way local businesses would not get the exact same newsletter from multiple sources.

Your in the right forum to find people that might want to participate. Just make sure no one from your same city is included.

 

[MyCrazyMachine.com]

This is an excellent idea to keep in touch with current clients and not bother them with phone calls.

Ive been contemplating doing one myself but vdub said it is very time consuming.

Maybe we can get together a group of editors on this forum as contributing authors and share the newsletter? I can volunteer to 1 article a month.

MCM

 

[vdub12]

This is an excellent idea to keep in touch with current clients and not bother them with phone calls.

Ive been contemplating doing one myself but vdub said it is very time consuming.

Maybe we can get together a group of editors on this forum as contributing authors and share the newsletter? I can volunteer to 1 article a month.

MCM

I think that would be a great idea and I would definitely be involved. The problem is that many people in the forum may have competition that is local to them. If more then one source in using the newsletter then some businesses might get the same news letter for 2 or more difference sources.

 

[MyCrazyMachine.com]

I was thinking of sending to my clients ONLY not as a mass mailer.

Its only to provide useful information to my clients so they don't forget our company

 

[vdub12]

I was thinking of sending to my clients ONLY not as a mass mailer.

Its only to provide useful information to my clients so they don't forget our company

I was thinking about something like this to my current clients as well as random businesses that I have set my sites on. There are a few businesses that I want to get as customers.

 

[peetred]

I think sharing the work of a newsletter is an excellent idea. As mentioned, it couldn't really be used by people in the same area. I don't really think I have that to worry about but others might.

I think having different authors in each newsletter would help, as well. It would give the impression that it was a "legit" newsletter, not simply for the purpose of selling something.

Would the work of writing articles just be shared, and everyone could put together their own newsletter, or would it be better to have a set newsletter format (and newsletter name), that could be customized with an individuals info and advertisment?

I am a writer, so the work of writing articles is not as huge to me. It would still be helpful to share the work, so everyone could spend more time on other important things.

 

[vdub12]

I think sharing the work of a newsletter is an excellent idea. As mentioned, it couldn't really be used by people in the same area. I don't really think I have that to worry about but others might.

I think having different authors in each newsletter would help, as well. It would give the impression that it was a "legit" newsletter, not simply for the purpose of selling something.

Would the work of writing articles just be shared, and everyone could put together their own newsletter, or would it be better to have a set newsletter format (and newsletter name), that could be customized with an individuals info and advertisment?

I am a writer, so the work of writing articles is not as huge to me. It would still be helpful to share the work, so everyone could spend more time on other important things.

You know I just got a great idea. We could have a separate forum that could be used to post articles and then people that wanted to put a newsletter together could pick the articles they liked and wanted to include and format the newsletter themselves. This way even if a few people in the same aria where also doing it the chances of getting the same content is less likely.

 

[peetred]

This would probably have to be a private or password protected forum? We don't want people all over the net stealing our articles. I think it's a great idea though for those who agree to our "terms" of using them.

 

[mmanna]

I think this is a great idea and would love to be involved. I agree that it would be a lot of work, but spread out across many people wouldn't be so bad. I would probably distribute mine to existing customers only, and probably via email rather than print. In my opinion, one "feature" article per month and 3 or 4 short (one paragraph?) tips/tricks type of things would be adequate. I'd be happy to commit to a writing a "feature" article every 3 months or so, and doing a quick tip/trick write up all other months.

I also consider myself to be a good editor/proofreader and would be happy to regularly review other people's work for grammar/spelling mistakes. (I sure hope I don't have any of those in this post or I'll really look foolish!)

I feel that it would need to be a closed group so that only those contributing can benefit from it. I know I wouldn't want any of my local competitors (whether forum members or not) to just steal/borrow content and send out their own newsletter without doing any of the work.

 

[score444]

I would be willing to help write some articles also. I think this could be a great way for us to reach our customers, as long as our local competitors aren't sending out the same newsletters. We should start by brainstorming some ideas to write about..

 

[4ycr]

I have done a couple of newsletter via email to customers and businesses I have met while networking. The first was about the old IE6 flaw and was more concentrated on that and other browsers the people can use, it also had a special offer but no one took it up.

The other was a Microsoft designed one advertising a new service I was offering.

If anyone is interested I used mailchimp as it was free and it makes sure it is compliant with the law.

 

[peetred]

I was sitting in my doctors office the other day wondering if they would let me stock some newsletters for people to read in the waiting room . I wonder how many of these places will take some more free publications for their waiting rooms.

I (and my husband) would be willing to commit to 1-2 short articles a month at the least if we make this joint project.

 

[kagman]

I like this idea. Would also like to contribute. Granted I am not an English major but it sounds like fun.. Count me in..

 

[Morrison5891]

You can count me in aswell. Creating a newsletter is actually a pretty easy task. I have actually created a few for some local apartment complexes which works out great becuase it gives me advertising and WORKS WELL! We need to organize this project to make it run smoothly.

It also needs to be hidden from the no-tech folk

 

[MyCrazyMachine.com]

I agree Morris,

1) We need a volunteer to create a "Techy" newsletter template
2) We need a volunteer to gather all monthly article submissions then mail them to everyone in the group
3) We need to agree on types of articles (how to's, software hardware reviews, tips and tricks, get things for "free", etc)
4) we need agreement on how to use the newsletter (i.e. clients only or mass distribution?) (Competition clause: Give credit to authors? or just first last names)
5) Each person will be responsible for customizing the template with their own company logo/additional information


Thats all I can think of for now, anyone else have thoughts?

 

[Morrison5891]

I agree Morris,

1) We need a volunteer to create a "Techy" newsletter template
2) We need a volunteer to gather all monthly article submissions then mail them to everyone in the group
3) We need to agree on types of articles (how to's, software hardware reviews, tips and tricks, get things for "free", etc)
4) we need agreement on how to use the newsletter (i.e. clients only or mass distribution?) (Competition clause: Give credit to authors? or just first last names)
5) Each person will be responsible for customizing the template with their own company logo/additional information


Thats all I can think of for now, anyone else have thoughts?

Templates are easy enough... i've got a pretty large collection of newsletter templates. I think the first thing we need to do is find a secure place to discuss this and any other information.

Maybe we can secure a place on here to discuss this. Untill then, anyone that wants to talk about this you can contact me on MSN or yahoo Messenger. Morrison5891@hotmail.com or morrison5891@yahoo.com

 

[MyCrazyMachine.com]

I have a forum on my website, I can create a private forum if people are interested

right now its only being used by russian spammers

 

[vdub12]

I think each business participating should be responsible for the newsletter template for there business. I think the best way to do this would be just put together an article database so each person can chose what they want to publish in there newsletter.

 

[Morrison5891]

I think each business participating should be responsible for the newsletter template for there business. I think the best way to do this would be just put together an article database so each person can chose what they want to publish in there newsletter.

Good idea, and we could also have a collection of news letter templates. Just make things easier for some rather then having to search around for them.