There are at least TWO excellent ways to get your “news” to people using a PUSH paradigm – that is you SEND information to a customer or potential customer, as opposed to them searching and PULLING information from the internet or phone / brochure themselves.
1) Mailshot : You design an engaging email with a message and compelling imagery
2) Twitter : Usually a short message broadcasting a single item, or offer. You can add an image or video (using Twitter’s own image service Twitpic) which would be viewed separately.
As Twitter is discussed elsewhere we will concentrate on MAILSHOTSs.
You should use an EMAIL SERVICE to send your carefully STRUCTURED and REGULAR newsletter. DO NOT try to just send lots of emails from Outlook to everyone in your address book. For one thing your mail host probably wont let you, also its likely you will eventually get blacklisted for SPAMMING. Lastly, unless you are very clever, you will have no means of measuring your delivery, open rates and click rates; all essential in good marketing.
As the regularity of a newsletter is essential you may as well pay the companies below annually its cheaper. Customers will get used to receiving their newsletter on the first Monday of the month etc.
SERVICES
There are many email marketing companies on-line. Many do mixed marketing (email lists, facebook + twitter)
However These two send emails with easy to use templates and list management. Mailchimp is free as long as you keep your subscription list small.
Mailchimp : Great service – superb design features – statistics – easy to learn – can be FREE (12000 emails / 2000 subscribers / no autoresponder on freebie version) – cryptic click links possibly putting off click throughs – email support.
Aweber : Great Service – template based designs – statistics – good click through links – great support – good for affiliate marketing – 1 dollar trial period – 500 subscribers for “free” then 19 dollars per mo. for 500 subscribers.
Neither service tolerates spam or shady subject matter. Both services are great on email delivered to small screens like phones i.e. responsive design templates.
Both services offer the ability to prune contacts that dont open their email or bounce back. Its essential you keep your mailing lists fresh and accurate.
BUILDING YOUR EMAIL LIST
NOTE: YOU CANNOT BUY A LIST OF ALL UK BUSINESSES FROM THE WEB AND JUST SEND THEM EMAIL!
You must ask people you know or do business with to subscribe (ie sign up on-line) to your newsletter and then curate your lists responsibly. You can however offer something in return for Newsletter sign-up. Usually this will be a :- special offer, competition or a coupon code for money off.
The best way to entice people to sign up for your Newsletter is to put good content in it. If people read a good Newsletter they will WANT another one. The test is “Would I pay for this?”
Any one who you have BUSINESS contact with is a prospect and should go on your email list or one of your email lists. If someone stays at your accommodation you should make a note of their email address and ask them if they would like to be kept informed about SPECIAL DEALS like Autumn Breaks, Spring Weekends, Hogmanay Packages etc.