When you first start your independent consulting business, and there seems to be so much to do and so little time, it’s reasonable to question if marketing-tasks like designing and publishing email-newsletters are really worth all the effort.
The great thing about newsletters though, is that they really don’t have to take a great deal of time to create, and if you get them right, your existing and potential consulting clients will take the time to read them—and perhaps respond to your calls-to-action.
Like any marketing initiative, an e-newsletter doesn’t guarantee sales, but it can serve a number of useful purposes in addition to brand-promotion. In the following paragraphs, you can learn about three ways to use a regular newsletter to engage and inform your consulting clients.
Create Awareness
You can use a digital newsletter to make your consulting clients more aware of what your business is about, and to better understand each of the services you offer.
For example, not all of your potential or past clients will visit your website. Your newsletter serves to put information right in front of people and, with catchy calls-to-action and links, can encourage them to visit the detailed service pages on your site.
Provide Updates
Any newsletter worth its salt will include news and updates about the publisher’s business. Your past clients in particular, may be interested to know about new services you may offer, successful projects you’ve worked on, and other developments that arise as your business grows.
These snippets of current information can sometimes nudge clients briefly from their preoccupations and remind them that they need some help with a particular project or problem. The next step might well be a call to your office or an email inviting a proposal.
Establish Authority
You can use a newsletter to help establish credibility with potential clients. Do this by including short, but authoritative articles in your newsletter to inform business owners or executives and help them solve problems or make business improvements.
Remember the CTAs: Whatever types of content you publish in your digital newsletters, remember to include messages inviting clients to take some form of action, even if it’s only to visit your website or blog. The whole aim of a newsletter is to create engagement and keep your name in the front of potential clients’ minds.
Consulting Clients Want Snappy News
The most effective digital newsletters are those that can be distributed to a list of email contacts and opened directly from your contacts’ inboxes, rather than as attachments. However, that also means you should not make your newsletters too long.
Ideally, your consulting clients and leads should be able to read the entire newsletter in just three or four minutes. Keep newsletters short, snappy, and to the point, with the goal of encouraging readers to take action, rather than to provide them with bedside reading.
If you get the formula right and provide regular news (one issue per month is a good rule of thumb) of a consistent quality, your efforts will keep you in the thoughts of your consulting clients—or at least jog their memories each time they open the latest issue.
Best Regards,
Rob O’Byrne
Email: robyrne@logisticsbureau.com
Phone: +61 417 417 307