This just in... newsletters work.

This isn’t news to the home care industry. Our clients have used newsletters in one form or another to generate interest in their businesses for decades.

As more and more home care companies turn to direct selling, we’ve seen interest and focus waning when it comes to producing effective newsletters. Our belief has always been that newsletters are an important part of a marketing mix.

Direct selling is all about relationship building and maintenance. Sending a salesperson into an office of a potential referral source and plunking down a coffee mug featuring your logo only gets you so far. Relationship building starts with listening, then becomes enhanced through two-way communication.

While there is nothing better than “face time” with potential referral sources, there are other ways of developing two-way communication. Newsletters, be they printed or electronic, can be an efficient and effective method.

Newsletters are a significant investment of your time, energy and money. Here are a few tips to help you get the most value for your efforts.

Newsletters aren’t newspapers. First, and foremost, understand exactly what your newsletter’s mission is, and isn’t. You shouldn’t be attempting to produce breaking news. Your staff aren’t journalists, they are marketing people. Your newsletter should help your customers digest some piece of information or stimulate their thinking. If your newsletter does either of these things, it becomes valuable to your readers.

Newsletters are promotional. Your newsletter should be promoting something in every issue. That doesn’t mean you create a multi-page brochure, it means you should blend information and promotion. There is a tongue-in-cheek saying in the newspaper industry that “News is what we use to fill the space between advertisements.” I use the 75/25 ratio. Our newsletter contains roughly 75% informational copy to 25% promotional copy. It’s enough information to keep our readers reading, and enough promotion to encourage them to act.

Newsletters are periodicals. Part of the reason they work is that they help build relationships over time. Your newsletter must give a consistent quality of content, and invite reader feedback to strengthen these relationships.

Focus on your audience. Write for your audience. Find information they can use. Solve their problems. Offer them advice. Entertain your audience. The key before you begin, however, is defining your audience very clearly. Is your newsletter focused on assisted living social workers? Is it focused on clients and their families? Is it focused on bank trust officers? Find a specific audience and focus!

Call them to action. Begin with the end in mind. What, exactly, do you want your readers to do after reading your newsletter? Craft articles related to your products and services. Later, include a promotional piece with a very specific “call to action”. The more specific the action, the better your results will be, i.e. Following a detailed article about Geriatric Care Management in your Trust Institutions focused newsletter, write an article about your new GCM service and invite Trust Officers to contact your Care Coordinator.

Once you’ve created the overall feel and focus of your newsletter, it’s time to begin writing.

In the next issue of Private Duty Today I’ll offer tips to help writers and editors. We will also examine the benefits of paper newsletters versus the benefits of electronic newsletters.

Jason Tweed shared the insights from his 20-point website assessment process during the first in a three-part series of teleseminars on June 22nd. Listeners were amazed to learn the many simple ways they can make their websites more effective.

In the second session on July 27th Jason helped listeners to understand the best ways to drive customers to your website.

This is a low-cost, high-impact way to get the ideas and information you need to make your website more effective as a marketing and recruiting tool.

In the remaining session of this powerful audio learning program, you'll hear Jason describe and discuss Websites That Sell: Empowering Your Direct Sales Team.

The August teleseminar will focus on improving productivity of your direct sales team. You'll learn:

• How websites enhance Relationship Selling.
• How to target specific audiences.
• How to track web surfers using specific calls to action.
• How to develop a continuous improvement process for your marketing.
• And most importantly, how to PROVE IT'S WORKING using a scorecard.

Every participant in this session will also receive a FREE GIFT, a copy of our Web-Centric Marketing and Recruiting Scorecard.

If you want to maximize the impact of your website, increase your agency's brand awareness, and get more referrals at less cost per referral, you'll want to dial in on August 24th for Jason Tweed and "Web-Centric Marketing and Recruiting."

It's not too late to order the whole series. Register today for the series, and we'll send you the audio CD for all three, plus the phone number and pass code for the remaining live teleseminar.

Private Duty Home Care... or non-medical home care... is the fastest growing segment of health care in America. Millions of elderly and disabled individuals have one or more chronic conditions which make it difficult to function. They need regular assistance with the activities of daily living.

A small, but rapidly growing, number of these elderly Americans have accumulated significant wealth. They have called on the services of a Bank Trust Department or other trusted advisor to help them manage their money and arrange for personal services.

You can dramatically increase your income by learning to sell your services to these Bank Trust Officers and other Trusted Advisors. Up until now, that process has been a mystery to most home care leaders.

Together, Mike Sullivan and Stephen Tweed have created a tool that is guaranteed to help you learn what you need to know to penetrate the big money world of Bank Trust Officers and Other Trusted Advisors.

This manual will help you:

• Find those 24 hour – 7 day cases that bring huge cash flow into your business!
• Build long lasting relationships with the gatekeepers to America's Wealthy!
• Develop a steady flow of high-net-worth clients who can afford to buy what you are selling!

To learn more about this valuable tool, click on the link below. Order a copy of the e-manual, and you'll be able to download it to your computer immediately. AND, we'll send you a FREE CD of our audio teleseminar by the same title... a $149.00 value absolutely FREE.

Private Duty Today! is published every other Wednesday by Leading Home Care . . . a Tweed Jeffries company. We invite you to pass this newsletter along to your friends and colleagues in Private Duty Home Care by clicking on the link below.

• Publisher - Stephen Tweed, CSP
• Circulation Manager - Diane West
• Editor - Jason Tweed

Permission to Reproduce: Permission is granted to home care companies, home care associations, and home care related publications to reproduce articles from this newsletter as long as appropriate credit is given as follows: "Printed with permission from Private Duty Today! Copyright 2005 Leading Home Care ... To sign up for your FREE Subscription, log on to www.leadinghomecare.com."

You may also sign up for your FREE Subscription to Stephen Tweed's Leading Home Care Report. This bi-weekly electronic newsletter is written for home care company CEOs and senior executives who want to grow their businesses and multiply their performance.

email: jason@leadinghomecare.com

phone: 1-888-668-9333

web: http://www.privatedutytoday.com