How To Create Clients For Life By Building Better Relationships – Part 1

“Every prospect, customer, client, and patient you’ve ever worked with is losing value today… unless you’re doing something right now to increase their value,” –Dan Kennedy, Author, Marketing Consultant, and Founder of Magnetic Marketing®

There are many ways to nurture relationships with your clients and prospects. You can send emails and direct mail, communicate through social media, host webinars, and so on. But one of the most effective methods for keeping in touch with your clients and increasing your value is sending a print newsletter.

Newsletters strengthen relationships which can increase loyalty so that clients never leave you for another company. They can turn a cold lead into a hot lead that then becomes a client. They can win back lost clients, encourage referrals and so much more.

Case in point, Marketing Consultant Dan Kennedy says that anywhere between 50%-70% of his private clients can be traced back to his newsletter recipients. It’s a key strategy used by the most successful MSPs too.

Joanna Sobran, Founder of MXOTech, attributes over $10,000 in MRR by the end of the year (or $360,000 in Total Contract Value (TCV) based on a three-year contract) to her newsletter the first year she started it.

People with a list of just a few hundred, easily outperform other businesses who have lists ten to twenty times their size. Why? The business with the smaller list has a print newsletter whereas the business with the larger list doesn’t. The point being, having a newsletter translates into a better relationship with prospects and clients.

If you’re not sending out a monthly newsletter to your clients and prospects, you’re missing out on a huge opportunity to grow your business. You’re also losing money. Because if your competition is sending out a newsletter, they have a much better chance, sooner or later, of stealing away your clients.

In this two-part series on newsletters, we’ll answer some of the most commonly asked questions about sending newsletters so you can increase your value to your clients and create clients for life. 

Why would a technology company want to send a hard copy, print newsletter through snail mail?

Seven years ago, Founder of SMB Networks, LLC, and 2020 Better Your Best Finalist Peter Verlezza was asking himself the same question when a client gave him the answer.

One of the primary ways he connects and communicates with his audience, Peter sends a four-color print newsletter in the mail to his clients every month.

“When I told my client Joanne, we were thinking about going to electronic newsletters, she said, ‘No, no, no! Don’t go to an electronic newsletter!’ When I asked her why she said, ‘First, I can share it among people in the office. I could share an email, but no one will read an email. Second, I can take it home with me and read it with a cup of coffee.’”

Joanna Sobran was also thinking of giving up her print newsletter when she landed a huge contract from it. “We kept sending the newsletter, and I was at a point where I thought, ‘What is this newsletter doing for us?’” Joanna said. “And bang, there was a woman that we sent it at the right time. Her ex-employer was looking for a managed service provider, and she recommended us. It was just staying in front of her. She enjoyed our newsletter. As a matter of fact, we cut back a little bit at that time and people came back and said, ‘we are missing the newsletter. We love reading the articles.’ So it is working and I’m not going to cut it back.”

Who Should You Send Your Newsletter To?

Newsletters aren’t just for your current clients. They are a great way to nurture relationships with your prospects and dream clients. .  Plus, they encourage referrals from influential people and vendors.

Jennifer McGroary, Marketing and Administration Coordinator for ClearCom IT Solutions, Inc. is using their newsletter to grow ClearCom’s list.

“Anyone who tells me they are all set, I ask them if they are open to us staying in contact with our print newsletter,” Jennifer said.  “I use that as a way to increase our drip marketing.” 

Here are eight types of people to send your newsletter to:

  1. All existing and past clients – This list should include all your past and present clients. It’s important that ALL the decision-makers and influencers from each company are on your list.
  2. Unconverted and warm leads – Anyone who has ever entered your sales funnel should receive a newsletter. This includes trade show leads, companies that attended a webinar and companies you sent a proposal to, anyone you did an audit for, and so on.
  3. Dream 100 list – Your Dream 100 list members are clients who, even if you only landed one of them, could majorly impact the trajectory of your company and change your company’s existence. (Here’s how to make your Dream 100 list.)
  4. Business Cards – Make it a habit to collect business cards when you attend trade shows, Chamber mixers, etc. and immediately add these contacts to your newsletter list.
  5. Influential People You Meet –Whenever you meet an influential person such as media contacts, politicians, heads of associations or organizations, board members, or other key people you may want to partner with or might be a prime prospect, add them to your list.
  6. Vendors –Add vendors you do business with including your Attorney, CPA, Insurance Rep, and so on.
  7. Social Connections – Anyone in your community who does business or is a business leader should be added to your list. Businesspeople you’ve met at church, at a Chamber function, or during community work you’ve done. Leaders such as the President of the Chamber of Commerce or the leader of a networking group you belong to.
  8. LinkedIn Connections – Look on your LinkedIn profile for connections that match your ideal company and add them to your list.

When’s the best time to send my newsletter?

Contact your local post office about the best day to send out your newsletter. By asking, you’ll discover which days are more likely to have a lot of junk mail so you can avoid getting lost in a cluttered mailbox.

To be successful with newsletters, send it out consistently and give your newsletter time to work. Often it takes between four to six months to gain traction. In part two, we’ll answer the question, “What should I include in my newsletter” to make clients and prospects look forward to every issue you send them. 

If you aren’t sure where to start or don’t have the time to produce your own newsletter, check out Technology Marketing Toolkit’s Done-For-You service by clicking here.

Share:
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Verne Harnish is the Founder and CEO of Scaling Up, a global executive education and coaching company with over 200 partners on six continents. He is also the founder of the world-renowned Entrepreneurs’ Organization (EO), with over 16,000 members worldwide, and chaired for fifteen years EO’s premiere CEO program held at MIT, a program in which he still teaches today.

RELATED ARTICLES

Categories

Upcoming Events

Stay Up To Date

Thousands Of MSPs Trust
MSP Success Magazine
For The Best Industry News, Trends and Business Growth Strategies

Never Miss An Update