Question 1:  Why invest in an email newsletter for your company?

Most distributors spend between $250 and $450 per sales call, depending on their industry and how they figure costs.  A newsletter makes every call more efficient. It builds a lasting impression that your sales rep can leverage during their normal visits.  Plus, many secondary contacts who work for your customers are on a less frequent call schedule.  It’s easy for them to forget about your company, and expensive for your rep to drop by enough to keep the relationship warm. 

Let’s make this point perfectly clear – we aren’t going to fight with your sales team over who actually closes an order.  But we are confident that a good newsletter will bring you more bang for your sales bucks. 

Question 2:  Are they expensive to produce and send out?

Distributing a well-written, informative newsletter brimming with high-quality articles is surprisingly economical – often contacting all your customers for less than the cost of a single sales call.  Newsletters are easy to produce, attractive and effective--maybe the least expensive line item in your sales budget.   They enhance your credibility, create more opportunities for people to contact you, and solidify relationships with key industry leaders if you promote them or give them space to add articles. Economical? You can't afford not to send it out!

Question 3:  Can a newsletter help improve my competitive position?

Make sure you're sending the industry's best email newsletter out there. Highlight the value-added services you provide for customers, showcase new technology products, and talk about the importance of your people as well as successful applications. Many businesses use email surveys or polls to support their customer service and sales reps, too.

Question 4:  Why don’t more distributors send out quality email newsletters?

Doing it right: Without proper planning and execution, many companies churn out inferior newsletters once or twice, get little or no response, and see the special skills they need to create a compelling newsletter. They lose interest--mostly because they lack a proper plan--and after a few issues run out of steam and quit.
Many companies try to save money by turning it over to a college student or low-level marketing person. But without quality content it's probably a lost cause.

Question 5:  Is it easy to find reliable, professional newsletter help?

We recommend a seasoned professional who'll help you put together a quality newsletter without investing much time or money.

Bonus 1: The icing on this cake

• Start measuring customer interest in specific products. 
• Begin segmenting customers to drive seasonal specials
• Strengthen relationships with secondary customers.  
• Help your sales team stay on top of customers' interests by telling them who's reading what feature articles

Bonus 2: The cherry on top

Many manufacturers will provide “co-op” dollars for newsletter content, and pay you to be featured in articles!

Marketing = Branding

How strong and attractive is your brand? Do you want to be known as "the distributor that sells Acme products," or "the company that provides value and really cares about their customers – and happens to offer Acme products, too."?

. . . so what should never be in your newsletter? Blatant self-promotion, of course! Remember to always include "news you can use."