The newsletter business is a huge business in of itself. Many newsletters are distributed by a variety of organizations, from for-profits to not-for-profits such as schools or charities. For this reason, newsletters can be an easy sell since your audience is not only accustomed to receiving newsletters but many people look forward to receiving a short 4-page booklet about something they find interesting and useful.
To get started, find a niche topic that you think others in your community may find interesting and would like to hear about on a periodic basis. Your topics could range from local bird populations and species to bikes and bike trails. The topics to select can be endless, but may be a product of your local community and what the community finds interesting.
After you have decided on a topic, consider the frequency of distribution, weekly/monthly/bi-annually. The period you select may also depend on the amount of research you will have to conduct. Even though you consider yourself an expert on the topic, you may find yourself conducting research more often than your first thought in order to keep the newsletters content fresh and unique. You may even try to find a guest columnist or conduct an interview with a local who knows something about the topic. Lastly, you need time to sell a few advertisements to offset the production costs of the newsletter.
To make your newsletters interesting consider a seasonal flare, where the colors for instance of the newsletter match with the upcoming seasons, bright reds, yellows and green for spring and browns, grey and purple for autumn. Whatever you decide, make it fun.
When it comes to pricing, the simplest method is to take your production costs and add 20% to those costs. You may have to absorb much of the initial costs if you do not have many subscribers, which you should account for during the earliest stages of launching your newsletter. If you have a computer and a good laser printer, you can cut your costs dramatically.
Now that you have started up and are producing a quality product, you have to distribute the newsletter. The quickest way to get new subscribers is by word of mouth, which is when people begin telling or referring others to your newsletter. You can start by giving free copies to friends and family and ask them to pass them around to their friends. You can drop off a few copies at the local hair salon, dentist and doctor’s office.
To create a buzz, you can run a price promotion, half off for the first six months. Yet even better, you can run a combined promotion with another complimentary business. Let us say that your newsletter is about migratory birds, why not ask the local pet store if you can include a coupon in the newsletter for something free, such as a sampling of new birdseed. The store manager may have birdseed that the birdseed manufacturer’s representative dropped off. This is a real win-win situation for all parties involved as you get to provide your subscribers with something free, the pet store gets traffic into the store, and the birdseed manufacturer gets customers using their brand of birdseed compared with that of the competitors.
I hope that you will have fun starting up your new business and that it will be a wonderful chapter of your life.
Peter Engelbrecht is President of Diagonal Street Business Services which operates the website http://www.BestBusinesses4u.com The site provides stay at home moms and dads with information and ideas about businesses that can be started out of the home.