Is it necessary to send newsletters and if so, what kind of information do you put in them?

I'd really recommend reading through some of the posts in this very section to get a more thorough answer to your question, but....

Ultimately, your newsletter should cater to your target market - so you'd include articles, resources, links, etc. that would be of interest to whoever you're marketing to.

And while I maybe wouldn't use the word 'necessary' to describe newsletter marketing I would say that it's a great way to keep in touch with clients and potential clients.

It's yet another facet of a comprehensive approach to marketing your virtual assistant business.

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Personally I dont. At one point I was receiving so many that I skimmed and deleted or just plain deleted. Email can be overwhelming enough and I eventually opted out of most all of them, retaining those from long established with a ton of great insight and those of a techy nature which I might be interested in.

There are just so many hours in the day and I feel that the time taken to research, prepare and send a newsletter will be time wasted if, in these days of information overload, people just delete it without even opening it.

Lynne

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The Wordpro Wizard
www.wordprowizard.com

My personal viewpoint on this is, YES you do want to have a newsletter. Yes, there is a lot of email received for everyone and that's why you make it easy to opt out if the reader wants to.

I use my newsletter as a way to communicate with my community and if someone has taken the time to sign up to receive my content, freebie etc then they are engaged with what I have to say and this makes them someone I want to market to. Members of an email newsletter are highly targeted individuals (they have decided they want to receive info from you) and often can become your biggest fans.

I offer a WordPress eBook and have two more in the works as well as a who training package for solo entrepreneurs and as a reader of my newsletter you'll get first access to all of that at a great discounted price.

If you make the content high value and useful for your readers (targeted to your market, not just everyone) having a newsletter can be an inexpensive marketing tool when integrated with the rest of your marketing program. I highly recommend it.

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Renee Shupe, Become a Techie Virtual Assistant
eMail Marketing & Aweber Training Starts May 15! - Save 50% using VAFAweber

If your newsletter is going to have thoughtful, valuable content that you think your audience would find interesting, then yes, do a newsletter. If it is just going to be self-promotional advertising, then no please don't! I think most people have grown weary of an inbox full of ads disguised as opt-in newletters.

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Virtual Bankruptcy Paralegal
www.bkprep4u.com

Originally Posted by katekindred

If your newsletter is going to have thoughtful, valuable content that you think your audience would find interesting, then yes, do a newsletter. If it is just going to be self-promotional advertising, then no please don't! I think most people have grown weary of an inbox full of ads disguised as opt-in newletters.

Absolutely agree, and also agree with what Renee said.

Newsletters don't have to be a heap of work - personally I tend to use one of my own blog posts plus lately I've asked other business owners in my network if I could use one of theirs (on the same topic) as it makes it more interesting.

I wrote this post about finding content for your blog, but it would also apply to newsletters, hope it's some help.

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Bridie's Typing Services - specialising in transcription services
The professional's choice

I do recommend sending newsletters but only if they are actually of any value to the recipients, think about your audience and what they would be interested in reading. A little self promotion is okay every now and again, so long as it isnt the main focus of your newsletter.

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Telephone Answering virtual assistant
alldaypa.com

After not getting results from another e-newsletter I created for another business, I opted not to do one for my VA business.

I'm in two minds about whether to publish a newsletter. I've added the obligatory "sign up to our newsletter" option on my website but am actually thinking of changing this to "sign up to receive an information pack". This is a PDF brochure-type document I've prepared using a desktop publishing programme.

Since I have a tendency to suffer writer's block at the best of times, I can see a monthly newsletter becoming a millstone I could do without.

I'm not convinced of the usefulness of a newsletter from a marketing perspective either. I see VAs doing things like video blogs on YouTube that don't seem to get many viewings despite being promoted on Twitter. Many of their viewers are probably other VAs rather than potential clients and yet how much time has the VA spent making it?

Think I'm going to focus the time I would spend on newsletters and video blogs on developing my website and improving my skills instead.

I am not sure yet if I will have a newsletter. I think it would be valuable but I agree that there is already so much to focus on and I may not have time to constantly update it.