Hot Pepper Group is a public relations and written communication firm based in Adelaide with experience and expertise in media, marketing, public relations, publishing, international relations, market research, telemarketing and event management

Managing Director Penelope Herbert writes. "I have heard it said that there are no coincidences; now I know this to be true. At exactly the same time I was struggling with creating and sending a pdf newsletter, I received an e-mail from ‘Using The Net’. Like a virtual white knight, the solution to those messy and time-consuming on-line newsletter dilemmas was just a mouse click away. In short order, I had an HTML newsletter template that looked exactly like the one my Graphic Designer had created. I easily wrote six articles, uploaded photos and sent the result to my database of nearly 400 business contacts – within seconds, I could view the statistics of who was opening my e-mail. I was very surprised that about 30 people opened it within one minute of it being sent.

I then obsessively amused myself by going in to the statistics page about 20 times on the first day to see the ‘stats’ mount up. It was great to see who was interested in what, which e-mails were wrong (and so were bounced) and how many times the newsletter was being accessed or passed on. Most people read or passed on the e-mail between 1 and 5 times. Some enthusiastic people were reading or passing it on 10 – 15 times. One receiver passed it on to 75 people – WOW – 75 new people seeing information about my business.

Within 24 hours, I was receiving follow up calls from potential new clients (my current clients saying things like “hey that’s great, we loved the newsletter” and generic good feedback. After two weeks of my newsletter being thrown around hyper-space, I have confirmed two new clients, have three who have asked for and received proposals (one who has advised their budget for the work we provide is $500,000 over 12 months), and two clients who want to discuss additional work in light of new information they received via the newsletter.

In terms of time saved, the set up costs and on-going monthly fee will be WELL WORTH IT. All I have to do now is write the articles (which I was doing anyway) and then push a button – the rest is sweetly, easily, fabulously done for me. Pass the champagne will you?

Put your sales and
marketing hat aside
and think about things
from the perspective of
your customer. What do
they want to know about?
The rest will fall into place.

Provide accurate and helpful information that meets the needs and interests of your readers. Think about the problems and issues your customer deals with every day. Through your content, become the expert that your readers will respect.

Once you have started to build a loyal readership, you can start getting personal. A personal communication is more than just filling in a name; it's about delivering the content a reader is most interested in.

For example, if you represent a financial services firm, you might send information about estate and succession planning to a family business owner, and venture financing advice to emerging companies. A newsletter that delivers targeted content will improve customer relationships and make your e-newsletter personally rewarding for your customers.

Once the first edition of your e-newsletter has been delivered, it is imperative that you keep producing it on a timely and regular basis. Customers are creatures of habit. By keeping your publication in front of your readers regularly, your newsletter becomes a part of their work life and their expectations. But don't overdo it. It's a fine line you have to follow.

Once you have developed your e-newsletter as a reliable source of information, prospects and customers will start to seek you out. Make it easy for your newsletter to be passed on and give it a presence that extends beyond just e-mail.

Keep an archive of past issues on the Web and always make the current edition easily accessible through a Web address that is easy to remember. This provides multiple ways for your readers to access your information - and more opportunities for you to track click-throughs in response to specific articles.