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Here is the June Practical Business Advice Newsletter. Hopefully you'll find the information informative and useful!
Please feel free to pass it on to colleagues and friends.
Tips on Creating an Email Newsletter
Creating an email newsletter is an effective, low cost way to reach your customers and prospects on an ongoing basis. By establishing a regular newsletter, you will build an ongoing relationship and be “top of mind” when your customers or prospects have a need for your products or services.
Here are some tips on how to put one together:
Have a Creative Newsletter Name
Use Subject Lines and Headlines that are Descriptive or Catchy
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Headlines are very important in newsletters because the quality of each headline determines whether or not the corresponding article will be read. Your newsletter may have the most interesting, well-written articles, but readers may skip over them if they have non-descriptive headlines. Bad headline: “A message from our CEO;” Better headline: "CEO expects company to double its size within three years."
Give Free Information, Tips and Ideas
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People love free information and articles that promise to give a certain number of tips. These articles are also easy to write. For example you can easily find 3 tips about any topic and turn it to an article around your industry. Here are some examples: 5 Tips on How to Deal with an Overbearing Co-worker, Top 5 Questions to Ask in an Interview or 9 Low Cost Marketing Ideas.
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The key is to provide relevant, useful information that will assist your customers and prospects as it relates to your industry. For example, if you’re an event planner and your market is busy corporate professionals who travel a lot, you could include updates on airport security and parking changes.
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Have consistent “categories” that you use each month - things like: one or two industry related articles, event listings, free industry information sources, quotes, etc. This way you will only need to source content versus deciding each month what the format will be. This will also create a consistent look and brand.
Stay Away from the Sales Hype
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Your newsletter is supposed to be informative, not full of advertisements and self promotion. If the articles in your newsletter are well-written, readers won't need to be told your products/services are better. They'll see it for themselves. However, you should include a very brief overview of your company (less than 10% of the overall content) to continue to build awareness of what your company does.
Write in a Conversational Tone
Have a Consistent Design
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Use templates - templates help keep elements/content type in the same place from one newsletter issue to the next.
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Don’t overload your newsletter with lots of fancy fonts and clip art. Use fonts and artwork only to lead the reader through your newsletter and illustrate your words. Choose fonts for their readability not their “coolness” and use no more than three different fonts.
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By limiting your use of different fonts and keeping your article text uniform, your newsletter will look consistent from one page to the next and your newsletter will establish its own identity in the minds of readers. You also want to ensure there is a consistent look and feel across your newsletter, other marketing materials and online presence (consistent logos, images and colours, etc.).
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Your newsletter should also be published regularly. It's vital to keep your commitment to your readers. If you tell them they'll receive your newsletter every month, make sure you live up to that promise or your company loses credibility with readers.
Provide some Visual Contrast
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You need to provide some “contrasts” to catch the attention of your readers. A headline set in the same font as the body text has no contrast. Make it bold, a larger size than of the body text and change the font so you have contrast. Then it looks like a headline and grabs your attention.
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You can achieve contrast through size, font, alignment, color, shape and white space, for example.
Proofread, Proofread, Proofread
As a general guideline, it usually takes a non-professional writer (like me) about eight hours to write, edit and proof read the content for each page of an 8.5-by-11-inch newsletter. If the writer is also doing the newsletter's design and layout, you can add even more hours to the estimate. However, there are many email campaign management systems available that can help minimize time spent formatting. If your company can make the time commitment, a newsletter is a relatively low cost, effective way to increase the credibility and awareness of your company by providing ongoing useful information and tips.
If you or anyone you know needs help with their newsletter, please contact me. That is something that I can assist with.
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If you have any particular topics you'd like to hear about in upcoming issues, your feedback would be appreciated.
Best Regards,
Rose![Right-click here to download pictures. To help protect your privacy, Outlook prevented automatic download of this picture from the Internet.
DSC03433[1]rk booksmall_1](http://img.eliteemail.com/emusers/42272/DSC03433[1]rk%20booksmall_1.JPG "DSC03433[1]rk booksmall_1")
Rose Kasianiuk
Strategic Business Advisor
RK Business Solutions Inc.
Calgary, AB T2T 4S1
403.802.0018
rosekasianiuk@iib.ws
www.rkbsi.com
twitter: http://twitter.com/rkbsi
Practical professional business advice
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Free Interesting Stuff
Free Social Media Breakfast - July 23 - 8:30 am to 10:30 am
Free Informative Webinars with Bizlaunch
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July 6- 5 Social Media Tools You Can Use to Market and Promote Your Business
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July 7- 9 Steps to Building a Successful Website for Small Business
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July 8- Great Presentation Skills - Perfect Your Pitch
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July 13- Simple Systems to Manage Your Time
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July 14- Low Cost No Cost Marketing Ideas
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July 15- The Art of Successful Networking Offline and Online
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July 20- Sources of Finance for Business Growth
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Free Local Classified Ads
www.kijiji.ca - Post free ads
Free One Hour Feng Shui Consultation for Your Office
· We all know about the importance of Ergonomics in today's workplace which emphasizes the fit between individuals, their technological tools and workplace organization to promote good health. Like Ergonomics, Feng Shui, an ancient Chinese Art of Placement, also promotes harmony between the person and their surroundings but the focus is on optimizing environmental energy. Renovation and structural design alterations are not necessary to produce positive outcomes. Feng Shui adjustments are often minimal and subtle but can have a profound impact on the energy of the workplace: Thinking becomes more focused, relationships among staff often improve, health issues decline, and productivity increases. To learn more about how Feng Shui can support you in creating a healthy workplace, contact Jan Thomson, CFSP - jan@lifestaging.ca, Ph: 403.286.5432, http://www.lifestaging.ca.
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Notable Quotes
"One day at a time - this is enough. Do not look back and grieve over the past, for it is gone: and do not be troubled about the future, for it has not yet come. Live in the present, and make it so beautiful that it will be worth remembering."
Ida Scott Taylor, 1820-1915, Author
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Notable Initiatives
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A remarkable story of HOPE to HOMES. www.dovescostarica.com
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About Us
Now that things have slowed down a bit have you thought about making some of those business improvements that have been floating around in your mind? Now is a good time to make those improvements and make your company more competitive.
Things like:
- Create a customer communication plan
- Conduct a customer survey
- Create or update your business plan
- Document job descriptions
- Document work flows and make process improvements
Don’t have the time to do them yourself or the internal resources to delegate them to? Well, RK Business Solutions Inc. can help – we specialize in being the part-time resource to help businesses with their special projects. We provide practical professional advice or hands on assistance to get things done. Get the resources you need when you don’t have a fulltime need!
Email Today to Set up a No cost, No Obligation Meeting
Rose Kasianiuk
Phone: 403.802.0018
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