Starting a Newsletter or Mailing List

One of the most important parts of marketing your business will be to get in touch with your ideal client, and then to continue to maintain regular contact with them. It is essential that you build a relationship with your 'people' so that they will want to buy from you.

Building a relationship of course begins first by finding your ideal client, but after that you want to build the know, like and trust factor (KLT) with them. Once they know, like and trust you, they will be more likely to buy from you. One of the best ways to start to build that relationship is to send out a regular newsletter like this one!

The first thing you want to determine when you are setting up a newsletter is what kind of content you will have in it on a regular basis. Determining this will be almost entirely based on what your ideal client wants to read about. Newsletters really are a dime a dozen these days and everyone's inboxes are so filled up with so many things, that you will want to be sure to provide good content for your audience, so they don't unsubscribe.

A great newsletter layout is one that is similar to this newsletter: a personal note from you at the top, a feature article (or tips), and then something you recommend. This newsletter setup is an effective way to build KLT because it has three key elements: the personal note helps people feel more connected to you on a personal level; the article shows them that you have expertise in your area; and the recommends area helps you to share things that you want to share with your people.

How often to write? It may seem overwhelming to put together a weekly newsletter but it really is important to stay in touch with your people at least once a week. Once you get going it really isn't that difficult, and the feedback you get on a regular basis is really good - you can adjust your content based on questions you receive from your audience too.

What to do when you can't write an article? You don't even have to write an article each week. You can just touch base and send out a few tips on something you came across through the week. You can send out some of your favourite resources. You can even send out a notification for someone else's event (don't forget to use your affiliate link for passive revenue!) The key is to provide that contact point weekly, and once you start, be sure to keep it up!

Once you know who you are writing to, and what you are writing about, then you need to determine a service to use. Many of them make building your newsletter so easy because they provide templates to get you started. There are all different kinds of services at different price points. You guessed it ... we'll talk about some of the most popular ones next week!