Email newsletters are a central part of Houston Technology Group's marketing strategy. I use them to inform clients of our expertise by offering compelling and educational expert content. In return I get a lot of leads.
While I receive electronic newsletters regularly, I get almost none from Bay of Plenty
firms. Why do so few local businesses use this channel when paper after paper is published about the effectiveness of such marketing? I offer two main reasons.
Many people assume they are not qualified to write. They are fearful their writing may be scrutinised by other experts (maybe even their competitors) in their field. This is unwarranted. If you are articulating a subject on which you have built your business, then you are likely to know more about that topic than your readers. Also, you have control over whom you send your publication to.
The second barrier is simpler to understand, but much harder to combat. Most business people feel they don't have enough time to write. Writing for mass readership is a very time-consuming affair for the majority of us. You are judged not only on your expertise in the subject, but on the eloquence of your writing. You need to deliver value or the newsletter simply gets deleted or the reader asks to be unsubscribed.
I believe newsletters give businesses enormous marketing value. First, they assert the writer as an authority, a trusted adviser. Second, they allow the business to create regular touch points with its clients at very low cost. Business in New Zealand is based heavily on relationships, but they are very expensive to create and, once formed, they wane easily. Contact through meetings and phone calls is fantastic for relationships but very costly in time. Newsletters provide ideal touch points to augment the personal interactions.
