Effective marketing requires doing many, many, small things well. There isn’t one silver bullet that brings in qualified leads, but an effective strategy with consistent effort creates a solid foundation on which to build. Neglecting marketing is a death spiral in the long run.

One element of doing all the little things properly is staying in front of people. Top of Mind Awareness!

If you look at advertising and marketing today, you can see that traditional methods of reaching people are changing. TV isn’t as effective as it used to be and unless you have a big advertising budget, may not even be an option. My wife and I TiVo shows to watch later and fast forward through the commercials. How about radio? I have satellite radio and avoid commercials as do many people. When I’m in my car, I want to hear music, so if a commercial comes on I flip the station. I am not saying TV or radio cannot work, but not as well as it used to. I am always looking for effective and affordable means to market and so are many remodeling businesses.

In today’s world, e-mail has become a standard practice for communicating and is now an acceptable and convenient way to stay in touch with your clients. Part of marketing effectively is being in front of people and doing so consistently—you want to be in front of people when they are ready to buy. E-mail newsletters are a very effective way to reach people, stay in front of them consistently and do so very affordably.

To create an effective e-mail newsletter, you should send them on a consistent cycle, build a good list of recipients, and provide great content. Think beyond the topic of remodeling and have fun with the publication

Send them on a consistent cycle. Consider sending out a monthly newsletter and send it every month. The best practice is to send out your newsletter at a time of the day and week of the month that you feel gives the best opportunity to be opened and read. I personally like Sunday evenings and have had a good open rate with that time.

People are usually busy on Mondays and are inundated with e-mails, catching up with communication and may present a poor opportunity to be read. Most newsletter providers, such as Constant Contact or MailChimp, include open rate analytics, and allow you to view who has opened them and who has not.

It is a good practice to have people confirm they want to receive the e-mail and provide an unsubscribe option as well. This practice ensures the people that want to receive your newsletter will. Look at your statistics, track the results, and make adjustments as needed.

Build your list. Who should you send newsletters too? Send them to everyone! The more people on your list, the more people you reach.

If a client that didn’t choose your business for one product and gets your newsletter consistently, maybe they will get to know, like, and trust you for a later remodeling project. For companies that offer a handyman service and work with a client on a small project, if that client receives newsletters, they may see the range of projects you can do and call you when they are ready for a larger kitchen project.

Provide great content. Make sure the content in your newsletter is interesting and covers a variety of topics. Ned Overton, FW&D Remodeling in the DC metro, steps outside the topic of remodeling and writes about his favorite place to eat and selects new restaurants each month.

Ned writes a review, what he ordered, talks about the service and takes pictures of the server (with their permission), the outside view with the sign and sometimes the chef. Want to make it even more fun? Let them know you have a blog and are going to review their place and put it in your newsletter. Let them know you have a good following and ask if you can offer your clients a 10% off coupon if they print it and bring it in. Have fun with it.

Maybe you will bring them new business and maybe they will bring new business to you, too. WIN/WIN!  What a great way to connect with more people. Let your employees participate in the fun too. Need more content? Review a movie. Be the first one to see it. Choose a movie which is likely to appeal to your ideal customer.

Take the kids to see “Alice in Wonderland.” Did you get the tickets online to save time? Advise your readers on when to go, how it was and what your kids thought of it. Take pictures of the theatre or your kids eating popcorn with 3D glasses on. Ask your family and employees for their help. Write about or highlight local events. Did you attend one? Did your employees attend one? Maybe make a note that you will be at a certain event and would like to catch up with clients at the event.

Think beyond the topic of remodeling and have fun with the publication. Include a link to Facebook page and encourage your clients to “Like” your company page. Grow your readership as if your newsletter were an entertainment guide. Check the analytics of the open rate for the newsletter and try to improve it.