by I was driving the other day just bopping along to the radio when a commercial came on that made me stand up and take notice.
It was the first time I’d ever heard a radio spot promoting Constant Contact.
Constant Contact is a newsletter platform that allows you to deliver your newsletter through email. It’s just one of many e-newsletter platforms available. It’s used by bloggers, small businesses, individuals, and even large business owners.
I listened intently as the commercial played out a gentleman coming into a golf shop to buy (what else?) golf balls. He had gotten the e-newsletter from the shop and knew that a certain brand was on sale. After some more discussion and the narrator coming through to tell you how Constant Contact can help your business grow, it moved back to the gentleman buying the golf balls who remembered that the newsletter also discussed the some latest trend that made the gentleman also want to buy some new drivers.
On the surface, this commercial sounds like a great success. It fills two basic purposes:
1. To get your message about your business out there.
2. To notify your customers about specials and promotions.
Both of these are exactly what an e-newsletter should do and Constant Contact is right; a good newsletter platform is essential to reaching more customers.
Except it leaves out a major contributing factor to the success of your newsletter campaign – A good writer.
You’re running a business; do you really have the extra time it takes to put a newsletter together? By hiring a professional writer, you free yourself up to run the business you’re trying to promote, and you get a quality product that will help your business grow.
Whether you want to inform your customers and clients about industry news and happenings, share special deals and promotions with them, or give them advice and information that they can use, a professional writer can put all of that together for you.
A well thought out newsletter may have any combination of the following:
- Product stories
- News
- Tips
- How-to articles
- Previews, reports on special events
- Case histories
- Interviews
- Financial News
- Explanatory Articles
- Community information
- Research
- Columns
- Letters to the Editor
- Excerpts (from press releases, speeches, trade journal articles, reprints)
- Polls
- Surveys
As you can see, the possibilities for creating a newsletter can be overwhelming and exhausting. It takes considerable time to write the content, edit it, and put it together in an easy to follow and flowing fashion. It’s a time commitment that many business owners simply don’t have.
Should you choose to outsource your newsletter creation to a professional writer, you have the ability to maintain control over the project by choosing how much or how little you want in it. Most newsletters will have short excerpts, tips for customers or clients, the latest promotions and sales (if applicable), and one or two major pieces of content to round it out.
All of that takes time, research, and writing. You want your business to grow and it will so long as you don’t skimp on the content creation portion of your newsletter. Hiring a professional writer to create and tie your newsletter campaign up neatly will help you reach your audience in a way that you likely couldn’t have done on your own.
As more businesses go virtual and offer email updates to their customers, it’s even more important to put a professional polish on your email campaigns, be it a newsletter or direct contact. Don’t count out that commercial I heard on the radio. Constant Contact did what it set out to do – it promoted its product to a large audience, I certainly took notice.
Am I telling you not to use Constant Contact? No, but I am saying that many people fall into the trap of using a newsletter service like Constant Contact to promote their business without considering the time it takes to put a newsletter together. If you want to give your newsletters a professional and polished look and save yourself the time it would take away from your business, consider hiring a professional writer to the job for you, that’s what we’re here for!
