The Value of a Printed Newsletter Should Not Be Underestimated

With so much focus on digital marketing nowadays, it can certainly be tempting to focus solely on these efforts… often, to the detriment of other forms, like print. We wanted to take a few moments to correct this temptation and talk about how print marketing, specifically in the form of printed newsletters, still has a lot of value to offer businesses… particularly, managed service providers.

Printed Newsletters Have a Lot of Benefits

Whomever you’re trying to keep in contact with—clients and customers, prospects and leads, even employees and partners—a newsletter is a great way to do it. The benefits of a printed newsletter stand out, much like the newsletter itself does, as compared to just another email in a sea of others.

What are Some of these Benefits?

Firstly, we’ve already touched on the fact that a printed newsletter already has one key advantage over an email: it’s printed. It’s a physical document, which not only makes it feel more valuable to the reader, it also makes its messages stick with the reader more effectively. This is important because it helps keep your expertise at the forefront of the reader’s mind, helping prospects think of you more quickly and reminding clients of the value you provide to them. Think about how many marketing touches your newsletter, sitting on a prospect’s desk, can generate as they keep seeing it over and over, day in and day out.

There’s also the fact that it’s easier to get a print newsletter in the hands of a suspect or lead. Rather than having to secure consent to send it to them, as email regulations demand of business marketing communications, all you need with a print newsletter is a stamp and a valid address. This makes it simpler for you to get your name out there in the first place… and gives you the opportunity to secure permission to email, to boot, by directing them back to your website (more on that later).

Newsletters can also be used to share a variety of information as compared to many other forms of marketing. Take other direct mail marketing options… letters, brochures, or postcards all serve their purpose very well, but they are relatively limited in their messaging in terms of scale. A newsletter, however, allows you to introduce numerous ideas at once, diversifying the value that the document provides.

There’s a Lot You Can Share in a Newsletter

Now, we’ve been approaching this with a focus on the educational content that a newsletter can provide, which is undeniably valuable. However, this is only one part of what a newsletter can help you accomplish.

Your newsletter can be used to spread a ton of information about your company and community. Giving your audience some insights into what’s been going on in your business, sharing about your employees, and addressing your readers directly are all excellent opportunities to personalize your company and welcome your recipients in.

In addition to that, you can also incorporate other pieces of marketing collateral into your newsletter. Giveaways and promotions are an effective way to attract attention, and a testimonial can help reinforce your qualities as a provider. Highlighting upcoming events and sharing what happened at past ones can help you drum up excitement for them, potentially boosting the engagement that you see at these events.

Including all of this in your newsletter helps to make it more valuable than it would be otherwise, both for your readership and your own marketing efforts.

Jumping back for a moment, your newsletter can be used to draw your audience back to your website, which is where you ultimately want them to be. Let’s say an article is too long to completely fit in the newsletter. A quick QR code can send the reader to your website to finish it… and potentially keep reading your other content, and give you permission to email them in exchange for a deliverable.

#Marketing! 

eNewsletters are Valuable as Well

“But Chris Chase,” I hear you saying, “What about eNewsletters? Aren’t they valuable, too?”

Yes, they are! eNewsletters help to cover the few benefits that a printed newsletter can’t. For instance, any links shared in the eNewsletter are much easier to navigate to, and the readily-available nature of email makes it easier for both you to produce and for your audience to read. It’s also a lot easier to track your marketing efforts with your eNewsletter, too, but we still recommend utilizing both in tandem.

Trust Us to Handle Your MSP’s Use of Newsletters

Hopefully, it’s clear how useful printed newsletters are to a managed service provider’s marketing efforts. However, putting one together is a pretty considerable task… not something that will likely fit nicely into what is likely an already-packed schedule.

We can help you take full advantage of printed newsletters, creating a four-page newsletter in full color that matches your company’s branding, filled with four newsletter-exclusive articles and two of the blogs from your website. All of the articles will link back to your website, where your audience can read more or learn about your services.

We can take care of the process from start to finish, from printing, to folding, envelope stuffing, and stamping, to sending them to your contacts on your behalf. All you really have to do is sign off on the finished product and maintain an updated newsletter mailing list. On the other end of the spectrum, you can also submit content to be included in the newsletter for your own added touch of personalization.

Find out more about our newsletter and eNewsletter service, and request a sample to look over for yourself. Visit our service page, or give us a call at 607.433.2200 with any questions you have.