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Guest post by: Stacey Porto, CC Become an Author

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E-newsletters are one of the best ways to promote your business in these challenging economic times. They are cost-effective and provide consistent communication with your prospects and customers, whilebuilding loyalty. In addition, the effectiveness of e-newsletters can be tracked instantaneously unlikeother marketing initiatives.

An e-newsletter is, for those who may be unfamiliar, an electronic newsletter that is delivered via a website to a subscriber list. The subscriber list is built by prospects and customers signing up for the e-newsletter through your website. Since e-mail has now become essential in our communications and with the option for subscribers to unsubscribe at any time, e-newsletters are a highly effective marketing technique.

Here are six ways an e-newsletter can benefit and grow your business:

1. Builds customer retention. An e-newsletter helps to maintain customer relationships. According to research, the cost of acquiring a new customer is 8 to 10 times more than the cost of keeping existing ones. The more you stay in front of your customer, without being a pest, the more likely they are to continue to buy from you.
2. Helps to communicate company news. When you have a new product or special announcement such as an event you are holding, or a discount offering, an e-newsletter is an ideal way to get the word out in a cost-efficient and timely manner. You can also show customers that you care by providing information that is of value to them such as tips on how to use your products and/or services.
3. E-newsletters are inexpensive. Most e-mail marketing companies charge a monthly fee based on the amount of e-mail contacts you have. Some offer their services free for your first 500 e-mail contacts and some charge $10.00 to $20.00 a month for 500 contacts. You can even do a cost analysis for your company to determine the amount you would save in letterhead, envelope and postage costs versus e-mail marketing costs.
4. Effectiveness can be tracked instantaneously. When you sign-up with an e-mail services company, you will be provided with an analysis of your e-mail campaigns such as who and how many contacts opened your e-mail and if they clicked through to your website and who unsubscribed. These statistics are invaluable in your efforts to enhance the customer experience.
5. Feedback from your subscribers. Your prospects and customers can respond immediately once they receive your e-mail providing an efficient and fast way to correspond.
6. Your company can "Go Green". Customers like to do business with companies who practice sound environmental policies. By communicating with an e-newsletter, it's another way to show that your company cares about the environment because you are not using paper.

To create an e-newsletter for your business, first make sure that you provide valuable and interesting content and that you have enough of it to meet whatever commitment you make to the frequency of the e-newsletter, i.e. weekly or monthly. Then look into the various e-mail marketing companies such as constantcontact.com, mailchimp.com, aweber.com, and verticalresponse.com, to name some. These companies provide templates you can use to create your e-newsletter so you don't need to have technical expertise. Also, keep in mind that you can send out other types of e-mails through these companies such as postcards and surveys.

Once you launch an effective e-newsletter, you'll find that it will build customer relationships leading to your company's growth.

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