Steve, director of a day camp needed a way to stay in touch with their camp families throughout the year. After comparing a few tactics, an e-newsletter seemed like the most cost-effective way to reach out to prospective and last year’s camper families alike. He chose an online site for creating an e-newsletter – and the price was very affordable. His office manager, Tracy would follow the online tutorials to set it up – all that was left was writing the content.

After 3 months, they were both feeling frustrated. The ‘how to’ videos were not so easy to follow, and it was taking them both longer than expected to get it finished. Who had time to write articles or come up with topic ideas? They needed a time-saving solution – or abandon this project altogether.

It’s a debate that’s got two sides. We know newsletters are effective. They are also a lot of work. It takes from 5 ‘touches’ on up to 20 for a marketing message to catch on. An e-newsletter acts as one of these crucial ‘touches’ that helps you stay a top priority.
Here’s what camp owners are saying about e-newsletters – the good and the ugly:

The Good:

• A cost-effective return on investment
• Helps stay in touch with your new and returning campers
• Reminds camper families about your services – so you’re ‘top of mind’ when they are ready to buy
• Showcases your camp as an industry leader

The Top 3 ‘Time Sucks:’

• Design. Many people who have never worked with a design program before are surprised to find out there’s a learning curve involved. If you don’t have extra time to spare, this can be frustrating to say the least.
• Writing. While writing is an everyday skill used by all of us, it’s this step that typically stops a project in its tracks. Thinking up a topic or writing an article can be hard work if you don’t do it all the time, or are distracted by other work responsibilities.
• Project Management. Planning ahead to ensure the newsletter goes out on time is key to having a steady newsletter your customers can grow to expect. Ultimately, if one crucial item is not ready, it can cause unexpected delays.

While many camp owners and office managers understand how cost-effective a consistent company newsletter is at staying in touch with their camp families, many tell us there are 2 reasons they don’t have one:

• They don’t have the time to focus on this in-house
• Their employees don’t possess the skill sets needed to complete this type of project

A Few Tips from the Pros:

• Choose a Topic. Put together an editorial calendar in advance – so when it’s time to write, you don’t waste precious hours struggling for a topic.
• Get Organized. The best way to make sure your newsletter goes out on time is by planning ahead. You’ll need a team meeting (or two), and some planning know-how to bring all the pieces together.
• 4 Weeks. Start at least four weeks ahead of your send-out date to ensure against deadline delays
• Database Ready Make sure your database list is already together to avoid delays. Many a leader has had the newsletter all ready to go, only to realize that their client list was scattered amongst many programs and files.

Time Well Spent A wise marketer once said that you have a choice: you can spend your money – or your time. If you have extra time to spare, then it makes sense to do it yourself and conserve your budget for things that must be outsourced.

Outsource It If your team has little time left at the end of each day, then handing your newsletter over to a marketing professional could be the smartest move. Professionally crafted newsletters come in packages to fit a variety of budgets.