This is an excellent way to grow your business using your mailing list (which I trust you are constantly building). However, you have to accept that there are people who'll read your newsletter and there are those who won't.

It does, however, help to build brand recognition and keeps your name in front of your existing and potential customers. People are also more likely to read a newsletter than a sales letter because they see it as less threatening.

A newsletter lets the customer know that:

You are an expert in your field

You are prepared to give them lots of free advice, tips and ideas

You have some new products or services

You have a sale or a promotion coming up

You understand the customer's industry and their problems

You are a human organisation with lots of lovely people

You are an organisation to be trusted

You provide great customer service to other organisations

You can use your newsletter to build a relationship with your customer and you can also use it as a selling tool.

If you only use it to sell then your customers may become fed up with it and dump it quickly. However, if you give them something FREE, such as - tips, advice, ideas and information, then they're more likely to stay with you and keep reading.

Email newsletter

If your mailing list has the contacts email address then you may wish to produce an ezine. This has the advantage of being cheaper (no paper or postage) and can be used more effectively to build your mailing list . You provided the facility on your email newsletter for the recipients to forward your email to other people - and so it grows.

There also needs to be a facility on your website where potential customers can subscribe to your email newsletter.

You can simply write your newsletter as a normal email however, there are several companies who can help. They provide templates and many other features to make your email newsletters look really professional. You can insert photos, graphics and cartoons as well as text. There is also the facility for customers to order products by submitting their credit card number.

There are several organisations that provide this service; check out:

www.ampira.roving.com

There is also a Newsletter Publishers Association which you might find useful. www.newsletters.org

Discover how you can generate more business without having to cold call! Alan Fairweather is the author of "How to get More Sales without Selling" This book is packed with practical things that you can do to