by Amy Lowe

Created on: July 24, 2008

One of the best marketing strategies for any business is to utilize newsletters. In the past, newsletters could be costly the printing costs and mailing costs could be astronomical and very cost prohibitive, especially for small businesses. Fortunately in today's technological age, the cost of doing business is going down and with it, the cost of sending newsletters.

Over the last several years, the concept of the e-newsletter has really evolved into a finely tuned tool for keeping at the forefront of your clients' thoughts. There are several websites that provide customizable templates for creating HTML e-newsletters for a very low fee, considerably lower than the cost to print and mail a newsletter to all your contacts. Easy to use, these sites will provide useful management tools such as an automatic opt-out option for recipients, as well as the ability for the recipient to forward the e-newsletter to a friend, all while allowing you, the administrator, to track opt-outs, forwards, opened emails and even click-throughs.

E-newsletters can be utilized in several different ways. Here is a sampling of some of the most common uses:

-Sales & Special Events
One of the most motivating reasons for clients to sign up for e-newsletters is to get notification o f sales and discounts and special "members-only" events. By ensuring your newsletter list to gets earlier notification of sales and events than non-newsletter clients, you offer a benefit to signing up for the newsletter. It is often advantageous to require recipients to print off the email and bring it in or mention a code from the newsletter to receive a discount to monitor the total response rate and successfulness of the email.

-News & Announcements
Providing information to prospects and clients about industry awards, press coverage and other company news is an efficient way to utilize e-newsletters. Keeping your company's image, as well as news and updates, in front of your prospects and clients is a challenge and e-newsletters are a convenient way to meet this challenge.

-Information
Whether your business is one that provides an item or service, informational e-newsletters may benefit your company. By sending an informational e-newsletter, you set your company up as an expert in your field and as an entity that customers can contact for further information. Take, for example, a garden center that sends out a quarterly e-newsletter. The fall newsletter may include information on winterizing a garden and steps to take to prepare a garden for freezing temperatures. Likewise, the spring e-newsletter may include information on preparing a garden for spring planting.

E-newsletters are an economical, innovative way to stay in touch with prospects and clients and have several uses. While there are definite advantages to using e-newsletters, caution must be exercised in the frequency of contact. If e-newsletters are sent too frequently there is a risk of alienating current and potential customers, who may consider frequent contact as spam.

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