Many of you may have received emails from companies that appear as mini-websites, what we call HTML newsletters, or e-newsletters.

E-newsletters are by far the cheapest, easiest method to promote repeat business with your existing customer base or even future customers. Whether it be specials, promotions, new products and services or existing products and services, e-newsletters are a great way of keeping your business fresh in the minds of customers. Consider this:

My brother occasionally calls on me to help him with the purchasing of PC Computers for his business. The last time I helped him with this, about a year ago, I used a Victorian company whose website was very easy to use and had the customer service to back it up. Every month since then, I have received an e-newsletter from them outlining their latest specials that I might have browsed through quickly and then deleted. Then last month, my brother calls again with a need for more PC’s. Who do you think was the first port of call? In the cut-throat, low-margin area of computer sales, this is a pretty handy-advantage for this PC company to have.

What was the cost to that PC company? Virtually zero. Were they the best deal on offer? Maybe. But the relationship I have with this company that could have very easily been the length of the first transaction (i.e. a couple of days) now stretches over a number of years. So my opinion of them is likely to remain pretty high.

E-newsletters can be a weekly, monthly, bi-monthly or even annual proposition to your business and consistently return customers to your website or your front door again and again.