
The following appeared in The Australian newspaper. (Written by Bina Brown. Photos by Kathy Ashford CoverShots.)
Getting an important message to customers can be that much harder in this era of information overload but customised newsletters delivered directly to your computer can help cut through the excess noise.
Cairns based Helen Bairstow realised the power of e-news while at Commerce Queensland Cairns by producing an email newsletter to promote training, events and communicate with its 1300 members and non-members.
Now running her own email marketing company Great Look Pty Ltd, Helen produces about 200 newsletters for various clients ranging from mortgage brokers to health professionals. "I was in small business myself and was attracted to email marketing as an economical way of reaching customers," says Bairstow.
Bairstow says the benefits of using email newsletter (also referred to as eNewsletters) are keeping in-touch, and informing current customers, relationships are strengthened plus new contacts are attracted economically.
"The old customer service sayings ring true in the world of email newsletters: Your last customer is your next customer; 65 per cent of customers don't come back because of perceived indifference and it costs 10 times more to attract a new customer than to keep an existing one," says Bairstow.
"People are looking for information, so instead of letting customers go looking for it, clients can provide them with their information - direct to their computer.
Email newsletters, when created with the target audience in mind, produce high response rates and develop relationships with customers. And we all know how easy it is to forward information via email - which creates invaluable WOM (Word Of Mouth) marketing. An added bonus is helping to rank their names in search engines as running a regular eNewsletter keeps up-to-date information available."
"When I had my first child, Elliot, I realised his business suits perfectly to the flexibility needed for working from home with a small baby," says Bairstow.