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Archive for September, 2009

What Shape is YOUR Fence In?

September 24th, 2009

Last night I was reading Dan Kennedy’s book, “No B.S. Direct Marketing” (again).

In case you don’t know who he is…

Dan Kennedy is the highest paid copywriter in the world. He’s the marketing brain behind the Proactiv Skin Care line – with $500 million in annual sales.  Kennedy’s ads appear in publications such as USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, Success magazine and the list goes on and on.

When he talks about marketing, you should probably listen to him.

Anyway, I ran across the part in the book where he says your ‘herd’ (clients) needs a ‘fence’ built around them.

What kind of fence? A fence built from communication and client contact… the stuff of customer relationships.

This keeps your customers ‘in’ and the poachers (your competitors) ‘out’.

He writes, “My single biggest recommendation is the use of a monthly customer newsletter. Nothing, and I mean NOTHING, maintains your fences better.”

So, what shape is your fence in? Is there a slat or even a whole section missing in it?

Fear not.

Nothing will mend your client contact and communication faster or better than Exceptional Living newsletter.

Dollar for dollar, NOTHING is more effective at adding zeros to your bank account.

Sound good?  It gets even better.

Try Exceptional Living on me. That’s right… free-ola. The first month is on me.

Hop over to WebtoPrintIQ and see how fast and easy it is to get started fixing fences and multiplying your money.

Let’s get to work.

-David Gruttadaurio
“The Print Newsletter Expert”

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Newsletter

But David… MY Business Is Different

September 18th, 2009

Really… are you sure?

Because the last time I checked, ALL businesses:

1. Have competition.
2. Must advertise or somehow get people to know about them.
3. Have to convince people to buy.
4. Must keep their customers.
5. Must attempt to avoid failure while on the path to profitability and success.

Also:  People doing the buying are just normal human beings with the same emotions and tendencies as every other person on the planet.

So how the heck is YOUR business different?

Thinking this way is a huge temptation.  But it’s also a massive roadblock to making any real progress.

Take a client newsletter.

You want (need, actually) to keep your clients from wandering off. Plus, you want your customers to buy more and to buy often.

A customer newsletter will accomplish all of that for you. And it doesn’t matter what business you are in.

I don’t care if you have a restaurant, sell insurance, pump gas or dig ditches. It doesn’t matter if you live in a big city or a small town.

All businesses either make some stuff or they do some stuff.  And then we all sell said ’stuff’.  Our mission is to sell as much of our stuff as we can.

So don’t rip yourself off by allowing this excuse to let you off the hook from actually trying a customer newsletter.

Remember, you are selling to humans, not Martians – humans have emotions, and use them to make decisions, no matter what they are buying.  So yes, Exceptional Living newsletter WILL work in your business.

In fact, our newsletter template works so well, you’ll end up with clients for life.

Let’s get to work.

-David Gruttadaurio
“The Print Newsletter Expert”

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Can New Pens Save This Business?

September 7th, 2009

“My dental practice is down 40% this year.”

This is what a dentist told one my JV partners recently.

Bill (the JV partner) figures he must have a plan in the works to solve this BIG problem and asks him, “So… what are you doing about it?”

The dentist tells him: “Well, I had a bunch of new pens made up and I’m handing them out like crazy.”

I know. This sounds like a bad joke and I just delivered the punch line… but it is an absolutely true story.

This poor guy is running around in the dark without a flashlight. The recession has him stumped and pretty soon it’s going to have him stomped.

Will a patient or client newsletter fill his chairs this week?

Probably not.

But if he’d been sending his patients monthly company newsletters even just three or four months ago, his practice wouldn’t be down at all.

My first piece of advice to him would be start sending direct response marketing postcards NOW!

The second piece of advice is for him to sign up for his free account at WebtoPrintIQ.com ASAP and get the top 20% of his patients in the customer newsletter pipeline.

Client contact that builds relationships is what Exceptional Living print newsletter is all about. Who doesn’t want Clients For Life?

Is your business down this year?

Let’s get to work.

-David Gruttadaurio

“The Print Newsletter Expert”

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7 Key Features of a Client-Retaining, Hyper-Responsive Company Newsletter

September 1st, 2009

1.   It’s NOT all about you. Never think for a minute what we do is fascinating to our clients. This is difficult for most business owners to wrap their minds around.  Accepting this fact is the first step toward sending our customers something they actually want to read.

2.   It should be a ‘must read’ for your clients. They should look forward to it every month. If the articles are mind-numbingly boring – people will stop reading. By including involvement features such as puzzles, trivia, contests, etc., you assure it gets read and (most importantly) is acted upon.

3.   Make it look professional. You pride yourself on providing professional service. Your customer newsletter must match your reputation. Watch out for typos. Write engaging articles. Have an attractive layout design. Print your newsletter on high-quality paper. The last thing you want is your company newsletter to look like it was published by your 6th grader.

4.  Get Personal. Continue the initial connection you made with your client.  A personal touch will get your newsletter remembered. Share a bit of yourself with your clients – perhaps tidbits about your family vacation, your hobbies or your pet’s latest antics.

5.  Include offers and a call to action. Give people a reason to act NOW. If they wait, they’ll probably do nothing. So make a special offer available only for your clients. And place a deadline on it, for example, for one month only.

6.   Be consistent. Don’t get cheap by sending your newsletters quarterly.  If that’s you, don’t bother sending anything – you’ll be wasting your money.  Also: If you tell your customers to expect a newsletter from you every month, you better do it. If you fail to follow though as promised – your reputation will take a hit.

7.   Print it. Yeah, yeah, yeah… print newsletters are more expensive. But think about this: How many companies are willing to do this? Your clients aren’t stupid. They understand the time and money you spend to send them a great newsletter every month – and they appreciate it and will reward you with their business and referrals.

If your client newsletter contains each of these key components – you’ll have to beat your customers off with a stick.

This is take-it-to-the-bank stuff. Why?

Because we have newsletter ideas that work.

- David Gruttadaurio
“The Print Newsletter Expert”

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