One of the biggest failures in many small businesses and membership associations is losing contact with clients and members, yet this can so easily be managed and avoided.  There are three things that you need to have – a good system, something to say, and a desire to do it.  However, if you’re busy, communicating with your stakeholders is probably the last thing you have time for.  But beware - ignore them at your peril!

Expert knows first-hand how easy it is to get bogged down when there is a lot of work on the books and deadlines to meet, but if you don’t stay in touch with your clients (or members) that pipeline of work (or communication) can dry up faster than water-based paint.  You really need to make the effort, and despite the other demands that are made on you, it’s important to set aside some time to stay in touch with the lifeblood of your organisation.

To avoid having to use a third party ezine setup, such as Mail Chimp, which charges every time you send out an ezine, unless you use the free option with other organisations’ advertisements included (why would you do that?) where the $$ can quickly add up, and to keep all your communications in-house so that you can manage your brand better, the designers at Expert have created ezine templates in MoST that you can drop your messages into (perhaps with a graphic or two) and then you can send it out using your MoST subscriber database to everyone you want to reach.  Reaching out has never been easier!

With the ezine template you can prepare the content ahead of time when you’re not at your busiest, set it up in your system and have it ready to go at the designated time.

Facts about the MoST ezine template

• Two options are offered – a predesigned template at a small one-off set-up cost, or a bespoke template designed just for you at a slightly higher (but still very reasonable) one-off set-up cost
• You can send it to your existing (current) database, or set up a separate subscriber database (both using MoST)
• You get to keep your official branding and style guide – your organisation’s ‘look and feel’
• No additional recurring costs to send out your ezines once the template has been set up for you
• Keeps all your communications under one roof

And now a few tips about ezines

1. Personalise them to your organisation - use a real person who works for you to be the author fronting it
2. Send it out on a regular basis – weekly, monthly or quarterly is the norm – but don’t send it out too frequently or it will feel like spam to your subscribers
3. Send it out at the same time for each issue, for example the second Tuesday of the month.  If you want people to read it avoid sending it out first thing on a Monday morning or last thing on a Friday afternoon, for obvious reasons
4. Watch out for any ezines that are undelivered and that bounce (don’t worry about any out-of-office notices though) and keep your database updated.  It’s far easier to do this on a regular basis than waiting until your database is so out of date that it needs a total overhaul
5. Keep your content topical, relevant and engaging
6. Include some humour if you think your audience will appreciate it – but ensure it’s relevant and unlikely to cause offence.  You don’t want to be on the front page of your local newspaper for all the wrong reasons

Contact us for more information about a MoST template for your ezine.