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Writing effective newsletters

 

 

 

Page last updated October 06, 2008

 

 

 

 Writing Effective 
Newsletters

 

An expert on the subject of writing winning newsletters is Chief Penguin Michael J. Katz of Blue Penguin Development:

 

About us
Early one morning in November of 1998, I was sitting in my office putting together my department's budget for the coming year.

At the time I was working for a national cable company called MediaOne and was director of marketing for a high-speed Internet service named Road Runner.  I was responsible for growing our customer base and for increasing profitability along the way.

As I looked at the plan for the coming year, however, it suddenly dawned on me that I was making a big mistake. 

Despite the fact that we already had over a million customers for our cable TV service, and despite the fact that my product was being sold as an add-on to those very same customers, almost all of the tactics that I was using treated our customers as if they were strangers.

95 percent of my department's resources—both financial and human—were dedicated to direct mail; TV, radio, and newspaper advertising; telemarketing; online banner ads and sponsorships; and even door-to-door sales.  Not one of these tactics did anything to either strengthen or leverage the relationships and history that we already had with our own customers.


So we made some changes. We took active steps to create and benefit from strong relationships with our customers and potential customers.  In the process, we saw some incredible results:  


Our customer base quadrupled in 18 months, going from 40,000 to 160,000.

Our average acquisition costs were cut in half, dropping from $30 per new customer to less than $15.

Our existing customers were passionately engaged in promoting our service to their friends and family, eventually accounting for almost 10 percent of all new sales.

We were able to make faster, more informed decisions about how to run our business, thanks to the constant input that our customers gave us.

Selling and servicing our customers became easier and a lot more enjoyable.


In short, what we learned was that stronger relationships lead to more profits, faster.  Today, Blue Penguin Development, Inc., is focused on helping clients apply these same principles and on achieving their own equally impressive results.

Michael J. Katz, Chief Penguin, Blue Penguin Development, Inc.