7 Ways a Monthly Email Newsletter Will Benefit Your Painting Business & What to Include In It
Deciding where to invest your marketing resources for your painting business is a critical decision.
We all hate wasting time and money on things that don’t directly impact our sales and growth.
However, a company newsletter is one of the most cost-effective ways of reaching out and staying top of mind to past and potential customers.
So, is it worth your time and effort?
The answer is a resounding, “YES!”
But, as a painting business owner, coming up with a high-quality, relevant newsletter regularly can be daunting…
In this article, I’ll explain 7 ways a monthly email newsletter can benefit your painting business and what exactly you need to include in it:
#1: Create Awareness
Sending out a monthly newsletter is an opportunity to increase the understanding and awareness of your painting company and the services you offer.
Potential and existing customers might have a limited perspective of your services and what your company offers if they only learn about you via promotional emails and ads.
Newsletter content allows for rapport to be established and provides a chance to give valuable info by featuring a snippet of a blog post and showing some testimonials, among other entertaining things.
#2 Establish Industry Expertise
A monthly newsletter is an avenue that allows you to share valuable information with your audience and demonstrate your knowledge.
Be sure to address in detail the common questions your audience might have; this can establish you as an industry leader and build trust in your audience.
Most importantly, don’t be afraid to answer questions that are classified as “bad for business” or something that may point customers away from your services…
In fact, it does quite the opposite, because by answering all of the questions your competitors aren’t willing to answer, you’re establishing yourself as an industry leader and building trust!
[Related: 9 Ways to Convert Blog Readers Into Paying Customers]Check out Marcus Sheridan’s book, “They Ask You Answer” for a more in depth explanation on this:
#3 Connect With Customers
Customers generally receive more newsletters than person-to-person emails.
No one likes spam to build up in their inbox, but we often like to stay informed and updated with businesses that we actually like.
When you deliver relevant, and valuable content, most customers won’t mind receiving a newsletter from you monthly.
People don’t book your painting services just because you suggested that they do so, they do it because they trust you over other painting companies.
You could try sharing important maintenance tips or offer money-saving tips for painting.
Whatever the content is, it will help you connect with your customers and build a long-term relationship.
#4 Drive Sales
Email marketing is one of the most cost-effective ways to increase sales.
There is no better way of marketing via email than sharing a company newsletter because the purpose of the email is NOT to market your services.
Unlike direct email marketing, where a majority of the audience has their guard on, newsletters usually have higher open and click-through rates.
When a recipient views your newsletter, you have the opportunity to give:
- Value without cost
- Helpful info regarding painting tips or ideas
- Benefits of your referral program
- Connect with your audience
- and most importantly STAYING TOP OF MIND (:
We as human beings can be impulsive, which is why you need to also include a call to action in each of your newsletter emails.
Including an incentive like, “free touch-ups” to past customers, or a call to action such as ‘Call Us Now,’ ‘Book an Estimate’ etc. can help help those who have been meaning to book your services but haven’t had the time, to take action.
Example: 
Always include a call to action in your newsletter, as well as in your email signature.
#5 Increase Traffic to Your Website
Your website is one of the best platforms to inform and convert readers into paying customers.
This is the place where you’ve listed and explained your:
- painting services & service areas
- “about us”
- “why choose us” & testimonials
- before and after images
- how people can book your painting services
If you want more people to visit your site and see these details, your email newsletter can help immensely.
Many painting business owners often post a blog post and hope that the right people will naturally show up…
… but it’s a little harder than that.
You need to actively invite, encourage, and incentivize people to browse your website and book the estimate –a newsletter is an incredibly effective way to do just that!
#6 Build Your Brand
Your newsletter is a remarkable tool for building brand identity.
The newsletter needs to have a clean design that resonates with your logo colors.
A professional and well-polished newsletter will maintain the personality of your brand for ease of recognition.
It doesn’t have to be anything fancy!
If you want to include any sort of images that pertain to what your talking about, you can use websites that have free images:
Evaluate how your newsletter is performing over time and whether it’s serving to grow your brand and satisfy your customers.
Remember to measure interests and engagement to help you determine the type of content that best resonates with your audience.
Most email marketing tools out there, like Mailchimp, will show you the open rates, click-through rates (when a reader clicks a link in your email), dwell-time (how long they read the email for), unsubscribes, etc.
Use these stats to determine the format and type of content that best interests your audience!
#7 Boost Social Media Following
Usually, emails that contain social media sharing buttons receive a much higher click-through rate.
Generally, social media channels provide social proof and a chance to interact with your potential customers in a more fun way.
[Related: 7 Ways to Utilize Social Media to Get Leads (for Painting Contractors)]However, growing social media channels can be daunting…
A newsletter with social share buttons gives a chance to start a conversation and get to know you and your business more.
As earlier mentioned, it’s not always easy to come up with newsletter content.
One thing to remember is – this is NOT a time just to sell your services!
Your newsletter is purely for giving VALUE and informing.
Be sure to aggregate a list of emails of all of your past or current customers, and any potential prospects, friends, and family.
Here are some content ideas on what to include in your painting business newsletter:
I’ll start by sharing an example of the newsletter we create & personalize for many painting contractors:
As you can see, it gives a lot of value while also throwing in some humor and relevant content.
Our monthly email newsletters include:
- Events in your area
- Recipes to cook for the month
- A snippet of a relevant blog post and a link to continue reading
- A joke or comic
- A video (or written) testimonial with a small quote below it and link to the full testimonial
- Referral information
- Contact Info
- Call to Action – “Book a Free Estimate” button
- Social Media icon links
Some other things you might include are:
FAQs
It’s no doubt that customers come to you with questions every single day.
Create a blog post full of all the questions your asked on a daily basis.
These may be questions about your services, your painting niche, or general problems some people may have pertaining to painting.
A popular question may be,
“Should I stain or paint my kitchen cabinets?”
“How do I prevent mildew recurrence?”
“Which paint sheen should I use in the living room?”
The FAQ article is something that targets your future and new customers.
A Column by an Industry Expert
If you have a thought leader or simply an opinionated manager on your team, you can harvest their knowledge by giving them their own column in your monthly business newsletter.
You can also reach out to other industry experts away from your company but still in your circles for a similar role.
These could be paint experts, real estate experts, home improvement experts, and experts from any niche that closely associates but doesn’t compete with your core business.
The experts can use this column to share opinions on best practices, teach new tactics, and comment on news and upcoming trends.
Create a Survey Invitation and Share The Results
Surveys are an interesting and revealing way to learn more about your audience while positioning yourself as an industry thought leader.
Ask readers to fill out your survey or questionnaire, then compile the data into an infographic, article, etc.
Once you’re done editing, share the results in the following month’s newsletter with a thoughtful commentary alongside them.
Blog Recaps from the Month
For this step we’d assume that you already have an active painting blog where you post new blogs weekly.
If you don’t have a blog yet, we highly recommend that you begin blogging as soon as possible –you’re missing out on immense opportunities.
[Related: Why Blogging is a MUST for Your Painting Website]If you’ve been posting a steady number of blogs per month, use your newsletter to recap what readers might have missed –this will be new content to most of them.
Include a featured image and a few sentences with a link to read the full blog post:
Another alternative could be to create new articles for your newsletter each month but be sure to drop in links to your already existing blog content for further reading.
Letter from the CEO, Founder, etc.
Has your company experienced dramatic growth or change in the past year or few months?
Did you achieve a goal that once seemed impossible?
Have you shifted location or added new more locations?
Even if all you did was survive a quarter, shine a spotlight on where you’ve been and where you’re going as a business -all thanks to your customers.
This type of content will add some personality to your company and allow you to connect emotionally with your audience.
Welcome a New Client, Employee or Partnership
Maybe you just got a new client that has an exiciting project your about to start -explain the project in detail with images.
If it’s a new employee, you could highlight the unique skills and benefits that this adds to your existing painting crew.
Seasonal Tips or Advice
At the beginning of each season, you could create a seasonal article explaining the challenges that the season presents to homeowners and property owners.
For instance, at the onset of spring, you could advise your readers on how to minimize the occurrence of mildew on the exterior.
Just make it’s as season-specific as possible.
Our recommendations above are just meant to jog your imagination and creativity on what you can include in your monthly newsletter –not an exhaustive list.
The bottom line:
A monthly email newsletter is a cost-effective and robust marketing and communication tool that you can leverage to drive more sales and promote your business.
To get the best results out of your monthly newsletter, be sure to share valuable, relevant, relatable, and engaging content.
Always try to share unique content that your audience may not be able to find anywhere else.
If you find creating a monthly newsletter a daunting task, the DYB Virtual team can help!
We work with many painting businesses to configure the type of content that resonates with their audience.
We also make improvements along the way to keep your readers engaged and interested.
Click here to see more details and get started!
