Frimtech customers

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Volume 1, Number 1

“Make sure you don’t lose the customers
you’ve spent so much energy to acquire.”

Keep these things in mind for a newsletter with impact:

·
Use big headlines.

·
Make your articles short and to the point.

·
All information should be of value to the
customer.

Staying in Touch with Customers

Often businesses spend as much time and effort gathering
new customers as they do on anything else. It’s also one of the most
costly functions of doing business. So it’s important to make sure you
don’t lose the customers you’ve spent so much energy to acquire.
The alternative is to continue with the time-consuming process of finding new
customers from an ever shrinking pool of prospects. And since it costs much
less to keep existing customers instead of constantly replacing them, it just
makes good business sense to do what it takes to keep them coming back.

Regular communication with your customers lets them know
how much you value them and their business. Show them you care by offering
valuable information such as tips on how to utilize your products and
services more effectively, event announcements, information on upcoming new
products and expanded services, and special discounts on existing ones.

E-Mail Newsletters—Quick, Easy

Utilizing an e-mail newsletter can be an effective,
low-cost method for staying in touch with your customers. It helps reduce
churn and can easily generate more business from customers you’ve
already spent a great deal of effort to win. Since there are no mailing and
printing costs involved, it’s also very gentle to your bottom-line.
Another benefit is the almost instantaneous delivery e-mail affords you. You
don’t have to worry whether the post office will get the newsletter to
your customers in time for them to take advantage of a special offer.

Microsoft Office makes it simple to create and send a
powerful e-mail newsletter for maximum impact. Customers will appreciate the
regular communication and you’ll be rewarded with more business from
your existing customer base.

Create a Customized Template

Add your company
logo, change the colors to reflect the ones your business uses, put in your
business address, phone numbers, Web site address—in other words
develop a basic template reflecting your company’s look that will stay
the same for each issue.

It’s a good idea to use the Web Layout view (View\Web Layout) when creating your
newsletter. That’s the look your customers will be seeing when they
receive your e-mail.

Here’s an easy way to use text you've already formatted
as the basis for a new paragraph, character, or list style:

1.
Select the text, choose Format\ Styles and
Formatting, and click New Style. You’ll see all your new style
characteristics displayed.

2.
Name your new style, check the Add to Template
box, and click OK.

Company Name

Street Address

Address 2

City, ST  ZIP
Code

Phone:

(413) 555-0111

Fax:

(413) 665-0122

E-mail:

[email-masked]

We’re on the Web!

www.frimtech.com

Fonts

Choose the fonts you will be using for headlines and body
text. A good rule is to never use more than 2-3 fonts in your newsletter. Any
more becomes confusing, making your efforts look less professional. Be
creative with the ones you do choose. Utilize different sizes and colors,
using bold and italics to add variety without confusing the look of your
newsletter. You can add these custom styles to your template’s style
palette so they are instantly available.

Finally, delete any features you won’t be using.
Once you are done with these general changes, save the result as a Word
template.

Add Articles and Graphics

One distinct
difference between a printed newsletter and an e-mail version is the amount
of text to include. Unless you know all your readers will be interested in a
longer version, you should keep the amount of information to around 1,000
words or less. Anything more becomes tiresome to read in an online format and
you may lose their interest before they read the items you really want them
to see.

What to Include

Some items to think about including might be new employee
introductions, recent awards presented to your company, specials and
discounts on products or services, new product announcements, and information
on new ways to take advantage of your products or services. Don’t include
items that might only be of interest to a few customers, you want to capture
and hold the interest of as many readers as possible.

Add Graphics

Add graphics and/or pictures with captions to help break
up the text and create some visual interest. But make sure whatever you add
relates to the adjacent text. A picture of the company dog might be cute, but
if the story surrounding it is about a new product the picture will only
serve to confuse your readers.

Contact Information

Be sure to include contact information in more than one
place. Not only should it be part of your master template, you should include
“For more information…” contacts in every article where
it’s appropriate. Don’t make your customers hunt for the information;
chances are they won’t take the time.

Web Links

Include links to the company Web site wherever you can.
Be sure to update the site to include the information you are referring them
to. It’s easy to include hyperlinks in your newsletter that will take
customers right to your Web site or get them started with an e-mail to your
sales staff.

Proofread

When you’ve completed your newsletter, it’s
time for one of the most important steps of all—proofreading. Go back
through every article, headline, caption, and callout. Take several passes
through the material, looking for different things each time.