Generating new business

[SharpClause]

Hi all

This is an idea I'm thinking of trying but I'm sure there are tried and tested ways of doing it (I've only been freelancing for a few weeks).

Currently I have some clients who are planning on coming back to me with more work (which is nice) and some who already have. However, what I'd like to do is have some kind of monthly email update or mini-e-newsletter from me to the people who've used my services - I'd ask them if they'd like to be included on it of course. My thoughts are that if they have a little snippet from me every month, I'm going to be someone they might refer on to friends or business contacts, and it will be a sort of drip feed of ideas, useful sites, etc.

Does anyone do anything similar? What works and what doesn't? Does it, in fact, work? Many of my clients are dotted round the world so a snail-mailing isn't really cost effective - or is that a better way of doing it?

Whaddya think, guys'n'gals?

[wwdc]

Hi,

regular newsletters to your existing customers are a great way of reminding them of yourself. If they are satisfied with you, they are probably going to refer you to friends / partners.

But this is something you should not expect results from within 3 days , it's a long-term process.

My suggestion is to send it monthly with some info that your customers would be interested in - thus you need to know what your clients will want to hear about.

When i was doing this, i actually sent you very short newsletters with what's new and a VERY short article about everyday stuff that people don't even think about but might be useful to know someday:

1. what is "http://"
2. why "www.company.com"

and went on to other things. I knew my clients where using internet passively and were interested in such info.

Good luck.

Rad

[badlyDrawnToy]

Hi there.

I think email marketing campaign's are an essential marketing tool these days. But it has to be done properly, and it needs to be montiored like any other makreting campaign. Even though its not a hard-sell advert, a regular news update such as you are proposin is still marketing.

Just be aware that there are quite strict laws over sending emails (opt-out clause etc.) Also remember that spam is a major issue and set to double. Your recipients need to know who you are and you need to ensure your message is not blocked.

If you decide to send an HTML email -one that looks like a web page, you need to ensure it displays correctly in the various email software.

I'm actually venturing into providing email marketing services as an extension to web design. If you'd like to be included on my mail listing let me know.

Good luck

[SharpClause]

Hi all :-) Thanks very much for the helpful answers. Really useful.

I agree - it's not a quick thing, and yes, hopefully they'll forward it on to others if something in the content sparks them to do that. So yes, I think you're absolutely right about getting the content spot on. I'm going to do a bit of research I think.

Good point about spam - I've made sure they're happy to be included but will probably suggest that they allow my email address in their permissions. Plus I don't exactly have hundreds of clients yet just a few, but people I had a good time with and enjoyed working with. They're pretty media savvy though, so I'm going to have to come up with some good content!

Thanks for the point about the opt-out too - I'd overlooked that.

Many thanks again - really appreciate the feedback! and BadlyDrawn - yes please that would be fab. WWDC - good point about the format.

[nicksingh]

I have to agree with BadlyDrawnToy, Emailcenter who are specialists at this offer email marketing services

[RickBisset]

In regards to avoiding your newsletters being cut out by spam filters, as long as you send the newsletter to each recipient individually (instead of adding their names in a comma separated list in the CC field) then you should be ok. In other words send the email to one recipient at a time.

As you dont have too many, it shouldnt take you too long.

Regards

Richard Bisset

[colmodwyer]

You can use GetResponse or AWeber to take care of this; what you can also do, is charge for your newsletter, or create some back-end products to sell, or both!

Typically, if you supply good enough information then people won't mind paying for it, and/or getting pitched every now and then (especially if they're past clients).

Probably wouldn't be a bad idea to get a book or two from Amazon on the subject also.

Colm

[joshw]

I've found that email newsletters, especially html ones, are getting a bit less effective because of saturation of this method, spam filters etc.

As a different and more interactive way of staying in touch with your leads, why not set up a sikple (and free) blog website where you can regularly post your thoughts and ramblings, and then add an rss feed to the site you can sign up your contacts to. Then they'll get an email from your blog whenever you add a new post.

I find its a bit of a subtler way of staying in touch than just emailing everyone.