As we began last week, the holidays are coming and you need to be right up front and center with your potential clients and customers. (And for you, non-profits, your donors and supporters.) But we often focus so much on new business that we sometimes forget about “old” business. We sometimes forget that the “new” clients that we brought in last year and the “old” customers that purchased from us last year are still here this year. They really didn’t go anywhere. They are in the trenches as much as we are. The economy is hitting them just as hard as it is hitting us. It’s a challenge to keep in touch with each and every one of your customers and clients but you do what you have to do. It is MUCH easier to hold on to an existing client or sell to someone that knows you already than to try to get new customers and clients.

Since the commercialization of the Internet (and before), email has been referred to as the “killer app.” A killer app is defined as the “end-all-be-all” of all computer applications. The reason for this is that email is very personal and private and always in your face. Even before blackberries and iPhones directly sent email to cellphones, email was always going to get to you whether you checked at work or at home. Even through the spammy years, people still checked their email, they just upgraded their filtering and anti-virus software.

And that is why you finally need to stop talking about how you have collected all of those wonderful emails from every one of your customers since 1985 and start doing something with it.

But be forewarned, email can be tricky. First of all, never send out a mass email from your personal address. If someone regards you as a spammer, that can get your domain name email blacklisted. That means that your emails go into your contacts spam filter because they think you are spamming them or they think you are trying to sell them Viagra or the Shamwow. We recommend using a 3rd party service (we are Constant Contact resellers so here is a link from our affiliate program. They don’t pay us until we make a sale so buy it and support this newsletter All kidding aside, there are plenty of 3rd party email software applications. Check them out and decide for yourself. We use Constant Contact because it’s easy to use, they have good templates, the price is right and their support is great.)

Now that you have the email addresses and the software, its time to start writing. Don’t think of it as “difficult.” If you can write an email to a colleague, you can write a newsletter. You are already an expert in your field. You know everything there is to know about running your own business, the products you sell and the services you provide. Now it is time to let people know about it.

Some people think that they can’t write a newsletter or send an email blast once a week but they can. Here is my secret… Start with every month. Break down your company and products into 12. That gives you 1 newsletter a month. When you realize how easy it is, expand that to twice a month. Then 3 times and finally 4. Write about your business. Send coupons. Tell your customers about a lovely interaction with a customer you had this week. “Call it Wilmas Wonder of the Week.” Ok. Maybe not. I call mine the SalemGlobal Website Marketing Tip of the Week. Catchy… Huh! But seriously folks. The whole idea is to let your customers know that you are alive and well. You might not have time to call up the 600 people in your database every week and 99% of them might delete your email. But how do you know the 1 – 10% that do open it won’t be so happy and they tell their friends and so on and so on and so on. Now you have tripled your customer base and it was all with 1 simple email communication. Not only that, your old customers bought from you and now you have 300 more orders than last year since you gave your current customers a simple way to tell their friends about you.

Need more ideas about email or marketing to your database and customers? Call me at 212-993-5828. Write me. Email me at raphis@salemgloabl.com. (I just got a new computer after my old one died, it works great!) Or vist our site, www.SalemGlobal.com.  Next week I will write about some success we have been having with linkedin, a social networking website.