Marketing Your Home-Based Business: Newsletters

The third way you can market your home-based business is by sending out a newsletter, which provides a way to communicate with your customers or clients on a frequent basis.


Think about how frequently you want to send out the newsletter. It’s wise to start out slowly and build up to more frequency as interest grows. Having a quarterly or monthly newsletter is probably a good place to start.

Decide how to send the newsletter, such as via USPS or email. How your newsletter is sent depends on somewhat on what data you have from your clients. If you can easily gather email addresses via your website or other forms, then e-newsletters might be the best way to go. If you have mailing addresses for most of your clients, you might consider snail mail.

Pick a catchy—but not too clever—title for your newsletter. Make sure your name says what the newsletter is about in a memorable way, but be careful that it doesn’t obscure your business. You want your title to draw people into to your business, not confuse them.

Develop an editorial calendar for your newsletter, which is a fancy way of saying plan out what you will put in each issue. This will help ensure you deliver valuable content to your readers in a way that will subtly promote your business. Whichever way you send it, make sure it’s designed in an attractive-yet-easy-to-read format.

Solicit content from customers and affiliate businesses. For example, I’ve profiled the jobs of a few readers in my free, monthly e-newsletter At Home News.

Have an opt-in and opt-out program. Make joining—and leaving—your mailing list easy for readers. And don’t forget to update the mailing list prior to sending out each issue.

Having a newsletter can be a fun and in expensive way to keep in touch with your customers. Consider starting one today.

Until next time,

Sarah