Newsletter? Annoying or not?

I get e-newsletters from a couple of places work related. I scan for items of interest and then usually they go straight to the trash. I feel obligated to scan them for applicable information.

Non business related onces are nice at first, then get annoying if there's nothing that interests me for a couple issues. Then I unsubscribe. At various times, I've gotten them from Northworst Airlines, John Deere, and a few others.

The services you provide are something a homeowner would probably take advantage of every once in a blue moon. By the time they are looking for them again, they will probably have unsubscribed, or even changed email address and you will have lost contact with them.

We get a few paper ones too. Two of them come from car salesmen we've bought cars from. They are identical, except where they customized them by adding their names. Those go straight to the trash with the other junk mail. I get one from a software industry recruiter kind of like what you are describing, but obviously aimed at software professionals. I usually scan it then throw it away.

Frankly most of these are fluff--no real usable information. The articles are too basic to really tell you anything.

I think you should target the pros you deal with regularly. Put out something like a "current issues" newsletter to them with information they can really use. No fluff.

Matt Meiser said:

...The services you provide are something a homeowner would probably take advantage of every once in a blue moon. By the time they are looking for them again, they will probably have unsubscribed, or even changed email address and you will have lost contact with them...

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On the other hand, if they like Jeff's work, and he does something like a newsletter to keep his name fresh in the customers' mind, he has a better chance of getting the word-of-mouth advertising that so many small businesses rely on.

The first house I bought was inspected by a guy that my real estate agent recommended. I liked his work, and even called him a couple times after buying the house to get suggestions for electrical and plumbing contractors, and in both cases he steered me to good people. Seven years later, I made it a point to have him inspect our current house, because I liked his service, and I knew what I'd get for my money (he's not the least expensive inspector in town). In the meantime, I also recommended him to a half dozen or so friends who needed home inspectors.

Vaughn, that's true, but my point was that I think he'll find it difficult to keep people subscribed long-term. And in the short term people will remember him anyway so the return on investment might not be good.

One other thing I thought of is to be sure to check out this service carefully. You really don't want to be the guy who leaked their email address and/or other information to the spammers.

Again, thanks for the input. Vaughn, you are (would be) the dream client. That is what I am hoping the newsletter will do. Hopefully it will be of enough interest to to at least warrant a glance and that something will be of interest to the reader each month. Main goal is the word of mouth advertising.

If they like the job I did, the newsletter will keep me in there mind and when their buddy at work needs someone they will remember my name. Thats the whole idea behind this.

Matt, you brought up a good point about the getting the same thing from different dealers. One of the things I really like about this service is (they claim) they scan email addresses that are added and don't allow duplicates. So if my competition is using this service I won't be sending to the same thing to the same people.

I have a little more checking to do on this but looks like at 50% of the people that have answered would at least look at it before deleting that makes it worth trying to me. It's dirt cheap, it will only take one more inspection a year to break even. A second one and I am ahead. You can't get much cheaper than that. I can sign up for a month at a time too. I do want to try to find out more about these people but so far they have answered all my questions "correctly" and I haven't seen anything that bothers me.

The input has been useful. It has brought up some questions that I have emailed them and asked about. One thing I have noticed is the negative responses will almost always out weigh the positives on most any subject on any forum. But that brings up the bad points which is a good thing in this case.