What with the struggling economy, businesses everywhere are looking for "more bang for their buck" in marketing efforts, and there is no better place to begin than with an e-newsletter. An e-newsletter is a great vehicle to reach out regularly to a businesses' chief source of new revenue: existing customers. While it is possible to reach out for new customers, e-mail Spam regulations place some restrictions on these efforts. With existing relationships, there are little or no barriers to entry. Businesses, trade associations, merchant groups, and any others with affinity marketing needs use e-newsletters as a way to stay in touch, tout specials or events, provide a forum for ideas, and just as a reminder of the special relationship a customer or member has with the business or group. They are usually prepared and distributed as often as every week, or monthly or quarterly, and they are excellent tools to maintain and grow relationships.

If you've been paying attention to advertising on radio, TV, and even in print, you've probably heard of several companies reaching out to sell the wonders of e-newsletter marketing and, of course, their services. Chief among these new services is Constant Contact - a big, multimedia advertiser of late - and another service which we find more easy to use called iContact. There are others, but these appear to be the leaders in the emerging field. Essentially, what they offer are boilerplate and generic templates, platforms, or formats for e-newsletters, and email address management systems that handle the distribution of the newsletters. Additionally, these services can also provide platforms for email promotions, event invitations, and e-surveys. These platforms and formats can run from very simple, to those which include such sophistications as RSS feeds and links to flash and video.

What these services lack, in the opinion of our team here at Unleaded Software, is readily available custom capabilities that allow the e-marketer the ability to better brand its marketing efforts. In other words, these boilerplate formats are limited, so many of the e-newsletter created through the services look strikingly similar. This, we believe, will only exacerbate as more small business, and even larger firms, sign up. However, Constant Contact and iContact don't require that a company use their templates. It is not only possible, but we believe prudent, to custom-design an e-newsletter, and the other complementary components, to better brand the effort and then use the services for e-mail address management.

That's where Unleaded Software comes in. We have already created many custom-designed e-newsletters on behalf of clients, and we believe they cut through the clutter of e-mail, while at the same time supporting the web home pages of these marketers. We are in the business of creating, building, and maintaining dynamic websites for scores of businesses, and we firmly believe that expanding the power of a website presence through the use of a complementary e-newsletter enhances the effectiveness of both efforts. They are synergistic.

In one example of our work in this area, we created the website for the Cherry Creek North, the highly popular shopping, dining, and service area in central Denver. Each merchant member of the group has a page on the website to tout their services and to provide the vital location and contact information- often to their own websites- and this is all within a comprehensive association website that speaks to Cherry Creek North and organizes its offerings. In support of this, we created an e-newsletter, distributed twice a month to a wide range of e-mail addresses representing customers of the various shops, services, and restaurants within the area, regularly giving shoppers and diners updates on specials, events, and opportunities. It has been overwhelmingly well-received. In another example, we have created an online trade magazine, called Corporate Apparel Magazine, which is a twice-a-month, custom-designed educational tool for more than 64,000 promotional products distributors throughout the United States. Recipients appreciate the editorial content, of course, and apparel-supplier advertisers love the reach. However, the biggest single reaction we have found is that people love the design - it stands out from the pack. There are lots of rules and regulations regarding e-newsletters - opt-in, opt-out mandates, for instance - but also many opportunities to expand the reach of a company's website and, most importantly, its brand. All through the thoughtful design, launch, and maintenance of a great e-newsletter.

Here at Unleaded Software, we offer a full range of e-newsletter services - custom design, writing, assistance with distribution, optimization strategies - to make any business a winner at e-marketing.