68. Increase Your Reach and Impact with Print Newsletters

 In today's fast-paced digital age, where attention spans are fleeting and online advertising is saturated, newsletters provide a unique avenue to help you establish a direct and personal connection with a loyal customer base.

On this episode of the High Performance Marketing podcast I'll share how you can deliver valuable and relevant content directly to to you clients mailboxes.

TRANSCRIPT

Welcome To the High-Performance Marketing podcast, a show dedicated to helping small business owners connect with their ideal customers using simple marketing and quality content. I'm your Marketing Guide, Ali Garbero.

In a world where everything is online, it's easy to overlook print marketing as outdated and irrelevant. And when you think about print marketing, it's most likely that images of card stock flyers - that you throw in your recycling bin come to mind. 

On today's episode of the podcast, I'm sharing why print is still a powerful medium to help you connect and stay top of mind with your clients and customers as a tried and true method that can help your business stand out in a digital age.

Specifically, I'll take you down the path of printed newsletter content success secrets.

Ok, look, I know what you're thinking, "Printed newsletters? In a world of emails and social media?" But trust me, there's a lot of untapped potential in this classic marketing tool. 

So let's get started!

First, let's think about how newsletters provide a tangible and engaging experience that digital media simply can't replicate. There's something about flipping through the pages of a magazine or holding a physical glossy sheet of paper that just can't be replicated on a screen. 

Newsletters have a greater sense of permanence than digital media. While a Reel or Facebook post can be easily forgotten or buried in a feed, a physical newsletter can be revisited time and again. In fact, many people even stick these to their fridges if the information is relevant, or helpful enough. 

Also, while I’m certainly a  huge proponent of email marketing, not everybody will open your emails. Which makes a printed newsletter something you can use to increase your customer reach.

Naturally you’re probably thinking about what kind of newsletter content to create and share, so I’m going to give you some key points to consider to help make your newsletters magnetic and something that your audience of readers will look forward to receiving.

First, although your newsletter is a marketing tool, we don’t want to make it look too much like marketing. Think about making it look more like a publication. Experts publish things, you may look to salesly if you’re sending out a quote unquote marketing piece. 

So for example if you’re a real estate agent, you don’t want your newsletter to be full of just listed properties or market stats. If you’re a mortgage broker, you don’t just want to share the latest from Fannie Mae and Freddy. And if you’re a bowling alley, you wouldn’t just send images of half off pizza slices. 

If you need inspiration, pay attention to the printed publications you receive - the ones you keep and read. Again, you want your newsletter to feel like a publication and less like a marketing piece.

The goal is to sneak in under the radar and publish valuable material for readers while also sprinkling in some marketing.

The benefits of a newsletter include:

Most of your competitors aren’t doing it.

It stands out and helps you build brand recognition

It bypasses email spam filters and the dreaded Gmail promotions tab

It can also be read by more people than just the recipient

You can also include other things in the envelope besides just the newsletter like tickets to your next client event, an industry report, or a magnet with a local list of your preferred vendors that’s branded with your information on it.

But let’s talk about a challenge that can sometimes be overlooked with newsletters and that’s building a distribution list or database of people for you to send it to. Well here’s a few tricks you can use to grow your list of recipients.

Send a copy of your printed newsletter with every customer order that you send out. If you sell a service like mortgages or real estate - then add people to the list every time you help them buy or sell a home, anytime you connect with a new business in the area, or a new vendor. If you run a brick and mortar style business, put a copy of your newsletter in the bag with every purchase a customer makes in your shop - and if you’re a service based business like a flower shop or dentist’s office, you could leave a copy of your newsletter on your counter, reception desk or in your waiting room. And of course make it clear that the reader can take one, free of charge. Include a QR code they can use to receive something fun and exciting if they subscribe to receive future newsletters.

Now let’s say you send your customers correspondence in the mail for other reasons, such as proportional mailings, invoices, an annual home anniversary letter - whatever it is, make sure to include a copy of your newsletter.

Another great way to increase your list of subscribers is to add a link to your email signature informing recipients where they can grab a copy of your newsletter. Make sure you use a catchy headline or tagline to increase curiosity and subscriptions. 

The next newsletter secret I want to cover with you is all about what to include. This is a struggle for a lot of people, even if they understand how valuable print marketing and how a newsletter is fun and valuable you may feel stuck about what to actually include in the newsletter itself. 

First, lead with brand personality. If you’re a fun brand, include a joke, a funny meme, a funny story of some kind. If funny isn’t your style and you’re a family company - talk about things you did with your family this month, a problem you solved at home (like how you saved money grocery shopping. You might choose to include a spotlight about one of your employees or a neighborhood park you love to visit. The point is do what you can to help humanize your brand as well as to add humor or fun when possible. I’ll give you a quick example. One real estate agent I wrote a newsletter for had an audience of families with young kids, and she worked with a lot of moms. So I included the following joke in one corner of the newsletter:

6 year old: Why do bad guys always try to take over?

Me: They want to be in charge and make all the rules.

6 year old: Then Why don't they become moms?

We live in a world plagued by depression and stress - be the reason people smiled today.

Next, feature other businesses who don’t compete with you directly. Highlight them as a way to introduce them to your audience as well as to open a way for collaborating and sending each other more business. You can then see if they will distribute the newsletter to their mailing list, or make it available at their place of business, on the grounds that it will be good publicity for them too

You may also decide to theme your newsletters based on the major holidays throughout the year. 

• January New Year, New Years Goals, a new start, goal planning
• February - Valentine’s day, pancake day
• March/April - Spring, Easter: signs of renewal, spring cleaning, new life in your area.  April Fool’s
• May -Mother’s Day. Look for local events or minor celebrations that  you can tie into what you do.
• June - Fathers Day
• July Half way point of the year, How are you getting on with your goals? Fourth of July
• August - Summer holidays, fun, no school, sunshine, relaxing
• September - Back to school (Educate yourself even if you’re not in school.)
• October - Halloween
• November - Bonfire Night, thanksgiving - gratitude
• December. Christmas, a period of rest and relaxation or busy excitement

You don’t have to use this themed method, it’s just one idea to help you stir up a few creative ideas.

Next, let’s review content categories that you could include in your newsletter. I get it, if you’re not naturally a creative person, it can feel like a struggle to know what other information to include.

Naturally you’ll want to include some kind of content around what your business does. The products or services you provide. This is a great way to talk about your business without sounding like you’re just talking about you. Remember the easiest way to talk about what you do is to start with how what you do helps solve your customer’s problems. 

You could also include content about the things you know your customers like. The things they’re interested in. One client I served a few months ago ran a bowling alley. The new Mario Kart movie was releasing soon and it just so happened her arcade had a Mario Kart game. Of course we took advantage to pair those two topics together by highlighting that the movie was coming out, where to get tickets, and what to do at her bowling alley after the movie.  

If you’ve got upcoming events a newsletter is a great place to include that information. And finally let’s talk about referrals. Newsletters are a great place to nudge your clients with the benefits of sending you client referrals.

You might also want to offer to send your clients a free book, a free report or some kind of free trial product or sample, or even a gift card for anyone whose mailing address or contact information they share with you. 

And of course, along with what you promised, you can also include a copy of the newsletter, and then keep those people on your mailing  list for future issues.

Don’t forget to share a link to the PDF version of your printed newsletter on your social media channels, or add a link to your LinkTree every time you publish a new issue. 

Finally, a question I’m often asked is “how often should I send out a newsletter?” Much of that will depend on your print and postage budget. Some clients send them monthly, others choose quarterly. I’d say frequency matters less than consistency. It’s more important that your subscribers know when to expect it, than how often. 

Well there you have it, newsletter print marketing may not be as flashy or trendy as its digital counterparts, but its importance and relevance continues to remain strong. It’s something that can set you apart from your competitors because believe it or not, very few businesses market this way anymore - so use this to your advantage. I’m cheering you on!

Thanks for joining me today, if you’d like help with your newsletter marketing, schedule a call with me at WriteBrandMarketing.com I’m Ali Garbero, copywriting is what I do, content marketing is what I create, more customers is what you get.